European Free Vaping Initiative: the petition to end them all

thbb

This is not another petition, but a real opportunity to legislate the e-cigarette outside both Big Tobacco and Big Pharma across Europe.

Tomorrow, the European Union intends to regulate the Ecig in its directive on Tobacco Products, applying absurd restrictions that shall end the Ecig as we know it.

Only inefficient models, mainly sold by the tobacco industry, will remain allowed.

We are to expect:

• sealed cartridges of no more than 2ml
• no more variable-voltage batteries
• drastically reduced choice of aromas
• e-liquid bottles limited to 10ml

This will end the best alternative to tobacco that was ever created.

Against these absurd and unfair rules, there is a last resort: the European Citizen Initiative (ECI), organized by the European Free Vaping Initiative (EFVI). We are to gather at least 1000000 digital signatures before November 25th, 2014. Tonight Ireland lags somewhat with only 89 voters, I'm sorry to say (tallying is done by the European Commission directly).

This official process will let us make a specific legislative proposal and have it voted by the European Parliament.

1. To sign, go to www.efvi.eu
2. Complete the form. You will need to provide proper identification to
   ensure you are entitled to vote.
3. Rejoice for having accomplished your civic duty
4. Optional: spread the word, print the flyers, talk about it around you, and join the fight.

Support the EVFI - We rely on you!
More information at www.efvi.eu

masonchat

Done

yellowlabrador

done

Tickityboo

Done

Tickityboo

Done

macker33

done

Fratton Fred

Done

ron jambo

Done

genuine leather

Done

jousting with chairs

Done

Deank

Done

JH_raheny

done, **** the c...s

bd2012

Done

thbb

Thanks a lot all of you. Thanks to just the votes in these threads, Ireland has moved past the 1% threshold!

In light of today's vote, yet, it is clear that what is needed to make our voice heard is an initiative at the European level.

The European Free Vaping Initiative may look like one among many others, like those cited in the other threads. It is also led by a disparate and informal (but large!) team, which is still struggling to get organized. Yet, there are 2 key aspects that make me believe it could be the best way to remedy the current e-cig situation:

• it is ambitious, and success will bring definitive reward: through some nice irony, we'll have this very EU legislative body just undo what it has done today, thanks to our collective effort. The outcome is *real legislation*, not just lobbying. It is a chance to get our destiny in our own hands, without the political intermediaries who deform our will.
• it is catching some serious steam across Europe: Germany is at 15% of its threshold, Finland at 26%, and 8 other countries are above 5%. At EVFI-France, we are preparing a major initiative coming in the next weeks to reach to *all* vape shops, who are primarily concerned with this vote, and propose them a package of flyers and booklets to inform their customers.

As soon as possible, we will have this advocacy package translated in English (it is already available in Spanish) and post it on the facebook page of the initiative.

So, signing is great, but we need more, and we lack relays in Ireland. If any of you can spare a little bit of their free time to talk to local vape shops, spread the word at pubs, have your family and non-vaping friends members sign it, even if they don't vape, we have a real chance to turnover today's EU vote.

Sincerely, and have a happy vape.

allen175

Done

parttime

Done

Calibos

Done

cotton

Done

Pique

Done

Orion

Done

masonchat

ONLY 35.5k in total votes so far : - ( why so low ? hard to see 965,000 more votes are going to come from if the initial flurry is that low

masonchat

edit

tommy2bad

masonchat wrote: »

ONLY 35.5k in total votes so far : - ( why so low ? hard to see 965,000 more votes are going to come from if the initial flurry is that low

'Cos only actual vapers are signing. We need to get family, friends and random strangers to sign as well.
We all know at least 20 people and they know 20 more. Spam em, pay em, lie to em, (it's OK it's how they screwed us, right!) anything to raise the numbers.

O'Prez

Done

thbb

tommy2bad wrote: »

'Cos only actual vapers are signing. We need to get family, friends and random strangers to sign as well.
We all know at least 20 people and they know 20 more. Spam em, pay em, lie to em, (it's OK it's how they screwed us, right!) anything to raise the numbers.

Or because we are only beginning to get serious steam going. Just so you know, we, at EFVI-France are starting an action to reach all vape-shops in France with volunteers.

To the vape shop, it is an easy sell, as they can figure their interest in promoting the initiative to their customers. If each vape shop gets 20 signatures per month until November, we will have reached four times the target in France.

We have prepared flyers, posters, explanatory texts on the topic and are printing and handing them out to shops, in bars, pubs...

To help with our fellow EU citizens who may have more difficulty in getting organized, we have translated part of our package in english.

Here is a flyer, a poster.

In attachment, you'll find some more posters.

We would greatly appreciate if we could get local contact points, get these flyers distributed at vape shops, vape fests and vape-friendly pubs.

Thanks to you all and have a happy Vape!

masonchat

BUMP BUMP

Dermo73

Done

DubTony

thbb wrote: »

Here is a flyer, a poster.

In attachment, you'll find some more posters.

We would greatly appreciate if we could get local contact points, get these flyers distributed at vape shops, vape fests and vape-friendly pubs.

Thanks to you all and have a happy Vape!

Online vendors could do a lot to help here by printing the flyer and including one in every order.

Engine No.9

DubTony wrote: »

Online vendors could do a lot to help here by printing the flyer and including one in every order.

Absolutely Tony.

I'm going to be quite blunt here. Any vendor here who doesn't do so or doesn't sign the initiative should be ashamed of themselves as they will be out of business before too long and only have themselves to blame. The statment of support here in Ireland is VERY poor, with under 5%. It's not as bad as eastern Europe though where, for the most part, it's only about 3% +/-.

This is a genuine opportunity for the vapers of Europe to put their stamp on the direction of vaping for generations.

Samba

DubTony wrote: »

Online vendors could do a lot to help here by printing the flyer and including one in every order.

I'd much rather see this in my vapemail than a piece of paper informing me what I ordered less than 24 hours ago, heh. They could simply reverse the sheet and run it through the printer again. It strikes me that there's a lot of needless waste with vapemail, if there's a mistake I can always check my order history online. I recycle what I can but I'm sure a lot of those order details end up in the bin.

I've been flying the flag on my site since I heard about it, I'm going to send a friendly nudge of encouragement to the vendors I have listed to do the same.

jambofc

Done

Engine No.9

I'm gonna bump this again. Think it probably deserves to be a sticky.

thbb

Thanks for bumping. FYI, our British friends are organizing collection boxes for vape shops, we are trying to get organized to have some sent to shops over here in Ireland, to help gathering more signatures.
We'd need volunteers to:
- list the shops and
- obtain their agreement to inform their customers, then we should be able to send poll boxes to the volunteers
so they gather the signatures (on paper ballots), and either send them for entry in the EU system, or enter them themselves.

Please PM if there are volunteers.

8mm

Done #425

I'm 50 days smoke free! You can be too!

Email friends now!

Didihno

Done. And good luck to us all.
I'm a year vaping now, had maybe 20 in the few few months (damn you beer!) and last had a ciggy of any description just before Christmas, it was disgusting and went in the bin after 2 puffs.

Selik

Done.

I've saved over 4,500 since I started vaping instead of smoking in January of last year and am alot healthier too. This whole thing about banning vaping would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious not to mention the ill effect it could potentially have on hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of vapers (in most cases ex-smokers).

ardle1

Done :-)

thbb

The EU EFVI Coordination is looking for facts and stats about ecig usage in all EU countries. If someone would be so kind to propose the IE perspective, we would be most grateful. Ireland seems to be hard to reach and lacking in volunteers to defend vaping...


Here are the questions:

COUNTRY IRELAND

NB OF VAPERS

SALES

MARKET

eLIQUIDS

GENERAL SITUATION

VAPING IN PUBLIC AREA

OTHER RESTRICTIONS

EFVI

Source : (your username)

---

Here is what we're looking for in each space:


COUNTRY
# OF VAPERS
Try if you can distinguish between everbody who may use e-cigs occasionally And those who use these only .Try also to mention your countries smoking rates
SALES
An estimate of how many dedicated Vaping shops or other outlets that may sell any variety of e-cig (Gen1-2-3)
MARKET
Try to estimate number of Gen 1 compared to Gen2+3 in proportion to each other
eLIQUIDS
Flavourings allowed? nicotine content restrictions?,import restrictions? ..anything of relevance! childproof containers
GENERAL SITUATION
Give a general description of what is currently happening in your country ..if you want a rough guideline see DK, France, UK entries
VAPING IN PUBLIC AREA
Current and proposed regulations imposed locally,Nationally or private institutions
OTHER RESTRICTIONS
Age, Advertising ??
EFVI
Describe what your country is doing + how effective you think it is doing regarding signature collection .Have you got web,Fb +Twitter support

Source :

---

And here is an example of the France form:

COUNTRY
FRANCE
NB OF VAPERS
1,5 million of regular vapers (8 millions tried ecigs, 14 millions smokers, 64 millions inhabitants)
SALES
Mostly in Shops, around 2500 shops in the country
Some tobacconists sale ecigs (egos + liquids, very few cigalike)
Supermarket : few sales, ego packages

MARKET
no cigalike, people begin vaping with ego + stardust. Shops start to sell MODS now
eLIQUIDS
No flavour restrictions, nicotine limited to 20mg/ml (above will be probably sold by pharmacy, under prescription ?) Most of the people use 11mg/ml, some begin with 18mg/ml.
French brands sell liquids child proof and mostly in 10ml bottles
No bad perception of the 20mg/ml limit of the TPD. Perceived as normal, difficult to mobilize people on that subject, requires lots of explanation.
GENERAL SITUATION


Quite positive.

Clear support of Tobacco Control for ecigs (for smokers).

Do not fear anymore the renormalization toward young people, since a study showed that while general ecig use increase, tobacco use amongst young peaple decreased and young people do not vape. Confirming the exit gateway.

Monthly figures produces by TC show clearly that tobacco sales are decreasing rapidly (-10%) in a year

Health authority still very precautious, still recommands patchs, gums and medicines “solutions” at first trial

Jacques Le Houezec (consultant, scientist, nicotine specialist) Antoine Flahault (epidemiologist, prof of medecine), Philippe Presles (physician, organizer of the call of the 100) are fighting with us against TPD.
Supporting ecigs and TPD : B. Dautzenberg (head of TC agency)
VAPING IN PUBLIC AREA
allowed at the moment (not forbidden by law is more exact), and left to discretion of local councils and owners of establishments,
will be probably banned by law (i.e. everywhere as tobacco) very soon, project of law should be presented 17th of june.
OTHER RESTRICTIONS
Sales forbidden to people under 18
EFVI
Dedicated Internet Web Site, FB page and twitter account
BullBox + Dedicated Forum to organize the operation
National consumer asso (AIDUCE) supports and participate
Main french forums : support limited to a banner
8 people coordinate EFVI op’s in France
250 vaping volunteers participate to the op BullBox (not enough to cover the whole country)
No possibility of public funding. Professional associations (FIVAPE + SYNAPCE) have funded the bullBoxes and the postal costs, around 2500€. We have a proposal for funding by another major retailer. But no specific project at the moment. We have projects to send Boxes to Belgium and Luxembourg (french speaking countries)
Source : ElvaPote

tommy2bad

COUNTRY Ireland.
# OF VAPERS No actual figures but we tend to follow UK figures, so population adjusted would give us around 140 000 vapers. At this stage lmost all 85 to 90% of smokers have tried an ecig. Dual use? hard to say probably less than half current vapers.
Smoking prevalence is thought o be 21.5% from the HSE site. http://www.hse.ie/eng/about/Who/TobaccoControl/Research/
SALES
An estimate of how many dedicated Vaping shops or other outlets that may sell any variety of e-cig (Gen1-2-3)
Most newsagents stock a selection of products, choice of two or more cigalikes, disposables and reuseables, also some stock ego clearo combos and juices. Usually only one brand.

MARKET
Try to estimate number of Gen 1 compared to Gen2+3 in proportion to each other
Gen 1 is now stagnant in the market, shops have moved to gen 2 as this is what's in demand. BnM vape shops tend to be franchises, one stocks exclusively ego carto and their own in house brand juice. Other stock a selection of both gen 2 and 3 devices with a varity of juice. Theirs about 120 BnM shops dedicated to vaping, theirs at least one in every town, large towns with two or more. Online is also doing well.
eLIQUIDS
Flavourings allowed? nicotine content restrictions?,import restrictions? ..anything of relevance! childproof containers
Most vendors are compliant with CHIP standards. No restriction on what's sold yet, TPD will cover that. Gov are currently looking at the ecig regulation and have stated that an over 18 restriction will come in to force soon.
GENERAL SITUATION
Give a general description of what is currently happening in your country ..if you want a rough guideline see DK, France, UK entries.
Vaping is now mainstream, everyone knows what it is and are well clued in on the forces against them.
Your more likly to see a vaper on the street than a smoker at this stage. And using a gen 2 device.
Media has been negative, no sign of change in that so far.
VAPING IN PUBLIC AREA
Current and proposed regulations imposed locally,Nationally or private institutions
Some semi states have started banning them from their property, stating dificulty enforcing smoking ban as their reason. HSE has banned them from all property as of Jan 6 this year, stating they dont know whats in them and the old smoking ban confusion for staff.
OTHER RESTRICTIONS
Age, Advertising ??
Age restriction coming soon, so far no tv advertising and no national radio, some local radio adds I think.
EFVI
Describe what your country is doing + how effective you think it is doing regarding signature collection .Have you got web,Fb +Twitter support
Fully covered on the vaping forum facebook and twitter. Considering the number of users the response is low. BnM shops not getting behind the petition.

Source : Me apart from the hse link.
This is my impression so for what it's worth;
Most people would accept public use bans, taxes and other restrictions. They have come to expect this an inevitable and are stoic about it. As long as they can get what they want they will put up and settle for whining. The establishment is anti vaping, far more than in other countries and far more united in their opposition, ASH Ireland have not moved like ash UK or Wales. We have not had one doctor speak in favour of harm reduction and the conscientious is tight, nicotine absence is the end game.
We don't have any representative organisation, Forest do the talking for ecigs in the media and a few contrairians.
Pretty grim considering it's one of the few growth areas in the economy.

StickyIcky

Done

jousting with chairs

Bump

cosbawn

Done, liked and shared on Face Book requesting sign up, sharing and support. A friend of mine is sooooooooo anti smoking, but she thinks ecigs and vaping is a fantastic alternative. She has even gone as far as buying start-up kits for 2 family members !

I might try and get a bit of support at work for it too, so many of us have changed to vaping.

MrBobbyZ

Done.

10 months smoke free thanks to the Boards Community and Vaping!

cosbawn

Have been chatting to the original poster by PM and have permission to copy and paste this petition into the Emergency Service (EM) Forum ( credit to original poster of course ) as more and more of my colleagues in the EM have changed to vaping. Hopefully it will drum up a bit of support. I hope Moderators that I am allowed do this and won't end up in trouble !!

Can anyone help me with a catchy title for the post ? Or will I just put
European Free Vaping Initiative: the petition to end them all

What ye think fellow vapers ?

Edit: Wasn't allowed to post in EM forum, but got permission to post in Surveys and non-media research, thank you Shields. And used the "save lives" logo, thanks jousting, still laughing at that

jousting with chairs

SAVE LIVES

European Free Vaping Initiative: the petition to end them all

After all it is the Emergency Service forum

cosbawn

Absolutely Brilliant :D:D lol

Thanks

jousting with chairs

Lol , no prob

cosbawn

Bump

aoshea83

Done, though a bit disheartening with less than 6% here

ChalyIE

Done

jousting with chairs

Bump