The bus aims to tour Europe with the aim of educating about tobacco harm reduction, as part of the group’s “Back Vaping. Beat Smoking” campaign. Travelling across Europe through the months of August and September, the electric pink bus will be spreading the message that up to 19 million lives can be saved in Europe alone, if policymakers had to embrace the use of e-cigarettes for the purpose of tobacco harm reduction, such as in the UK. Launched in Barcelona last month, the bus will be proceeding to the rest of Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, the UK and Switzerland.
Speaking about the European bus tour, WVA director Michael Landl, said that it is vital that vapers’ voices are heard. “We started our journey in Barcelona today because smoking is still the leading cause of preventable diseases in Spain. If Spanish and EU politicians embrace vaping then 2.4 million lives can be saved in Spain, and 19 million in Europe. We want to make 2021, the year that the world embraces one of the greatest public health inventions of the century – vaping. To achieve this, it is vital that the voices of vapers are heard.”
The Tobacco Products Directive’s Review
Over the next year, EU policymakers will be reviewing the EU’s main legislation on tobacco, the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). ECigIntelligence, the renowned independent data analysis resource for the tobacco-alternatives industry, has recently said that the EU Commission has carried out different assessments with industry members, commissioned research to in-house scientists and third parties, and put in place a validation workshop to check the consistency and accuracy of all the findings, since 2019.
These findings are expected be used by officials as important sources in the document, which will be forwarded to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions, with the aim of informing the revised tobacco legislation. To this effect the WVA team on tour will also be gathering stories and testimonies from vapers and sharing them with politicians.
The Vape Bus will be stopping in iconic locations in Europe
In order to engage vapers, the Vape Bus will stop in iconic locations, and organize activities which include prizes and giveaways, whilst encouraging vapers to raise their voices and defend their rights as consumers.The WVA is calling on vapers and tobacco harm reduction advocates to support the campaign and help the initiative by purchasing campaign merchandise or making a donation.
“We will take our message across Europe and hope that those taking decisions on the future of vaping will understand that 19 million of lives are put at risk if they do not take action. The best way we can beat smoking is to promote vaping as part of public health policies,” concluded Landl.
WVA Urges Policymakers to Differentiate Between Vaping and Smoking