The pressure group Nofumadores.org has demanded that the Ministry of Health take decisive action and completely ban vaping in Spain, following the example of Mexico, which this week approved a total ban on the production, distribution and sale of electronic cigarettes, whether single-use or rechargeable. “Mexico has just shown that public health can be put above the nicotine lobby. Spain must do exactly the same. We will not accept a country where vaping multinationals, which are the same as tobacco companies, operate with absolute freedom while our minors become addicted in schools, parks and social networks. The government cannot continue to hide behind lukewarm regulations. It is time to ban,” said Raquel Fernández, president of Nofumadores.org.
For Nofumadores.org, the vaping industry has built its business on a ‘deliberate lie’, presenting itself as a tool to quit smoking or, according to the industry itself, to reduce the risks, ‘when in reality it is a substitution mechanism that perpetuates nicotine addiction and creates new addicts. We are seeing how vaping is sweeping among minors at bus stops and school playgrounds and has become the essential accessory among children and young adults who have fallen prey to an industry that simply should not have been allowed to enter the market,’ said Fernández, president of Nofumadores.org.
The organisation points out that there is no solid evidence to support the use of vaping as a cessation tool, and that available studies warn of lung and cardiovascular damage and an increased risk of COPD, even in people who have never smoked. ‘The industry has constructed a toxic narrative, financed and amplified to normalise a product that causes illness. There can be no neutrality in the face of a business that thrives on addiction,’ she denounced.
Nofumadores.org also warns that the commercial strategy of vaping has a clear target: young people. It claims that sweet flavours, bright colours, technological aesthetics and synergies with “influencers” and “TikTok” have turned vaping into an early gateway to nicotine. “Spain is allowing the mother of all addictive epidemics to re-establish itself in adolescence. If this continues, we will be creating a new generation of addicts with our permission. This is unacceptable,” said its president.
For all these reasons, Nofumadores.org is calling on the Spanish government to follow the path opened up by Mexico and ban the manufacture, import and sale of all vaping devices, as well as establishing a plan for their immediate withdrawal from the market, without exceptions, and launch a national campaign to ‘debunk the harm reduction propaganda promoted by the nicotine industry, which is based solely on scientific studies of highly dubious credibility due to serious conflicts of interest on the part of their authors. We must be clear that the only people who defend vaping are those who have some kind of commercial interest in keeping it on the market,’ concludes Fernández.