“Adults smoke because they like to smoke. I understand the case of certain aromatic flavours [from e-cigarettes] that respond to youth. But let’s be honest. Adults also like the flavours. They want to quit smoking. If you ban their flavours and aromas, you will turn these people back and closer to smoking.”, internationally renowned cardiologist Konstantinos Farsalinos told the Canadian network Regulator Watch about the proposed ban on e-cigarette fragrances that failed to apply in Canada as it did in the U.S. by Donald Trump during his presidency, where refill fluids for e-cigarettes circulate with their distinction between light and non-light and menthol.
The proposed ban on aromatic flavours of smoking alternatives by Health Canada was lifted last June 2021 as more and more Canadians relied on them to quit smoking.
Konstantinos Farsalinos is a cardiologist and holds a PhD from the University of Patras and is a professor in the University of Athens in Greece. Konstantinos Farsalinos stated that flavours without a sweet texture such as fruits which mimic the taste of tobacco, are less effective and attract less preference among smokers and that he does not recommend limiting those.
Mr. Farsalinos opposed the ban on e-cigarette fragrances, citing the following arguments, and stated that he opposes punishing those who have stopped and replaced smoking with alternatives by restricting their forms and fragrances.
According to the famous cardiologist, doctors very often only pay attention to the headlines in order to influence their point of view and advice. So they often misinform patients about quitting smoking by saying that alternatives are as harmful as smoking.
In order to replace smoking with another product you need to create satisfaction similar to that of smoking. If you want e-cigarettes to have a positive effect on public health you need to respond to smokers. According to Konstantinos Farsalinos, the alternatives to smoking need to meet the consumer’s tendencies for the role they play, and ex-smokers should also not be punished as vapers for their effort and choice.
We also need to understand the unintended consequences of restrictions said Mr. Farsalinos who believes that it does not make sense to treat e-cigarettes on an equal footing with conventional ones and that we see experimentation among young people rather than mania and an epidemic of e-cigarettes. That is why the vast majority of young people in America do not smoke. Young people experimenting with evaporation do not have a serious history of smoking and very few users of alternatives make use of it without having smoked. The fight against epidemic phenomena of young people by steaming is fought through the enforcement of the law that prohibits the purchase of these products by those underaged.
Konstantinos Farsalinos stressed that the cost of production of electronic cigarettes is much higher than conventional ones, being a technological product and not just a consumer product. Cigarettes can only be more expensive because of taxes. According to Mr. Farsalinos, the bans on flavours and aromas are leading to an anarchic black market, and the authorities of many countries should take Britain as a shining example of a health policy where wider use of alternatives to cigarettes is achieved.
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