VAPOR TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION RELEASES NEW TELEVISION
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURING VOTERS WHO WOULD DIRECTLY FEEL THE IMPACT OF
A NATIONAL BAN ON FLAVORED VAPOR PRODUCTS

With “I Vote,” VTA Continues Aggressive Multimedia Campaign to Raise Awareness of Significant Public Health and Economic Consequences of a Flavor Ban

Washington, D.C., October 25, 2019 — The Vapor Technology Association (VTA), as part of an aggressive multimedia campaign to raise awareness of the significant adverse public health and economic consequences of a national ban on flavored vapor products, launched a new television advertisement in which voters who vape appeal directly to President Trump to preserve their access to flavored vapor products.

“I Vote” airs primarily on Fox News in Washington D.C. this week and features two registered voters, Sarah Rutland and Jeff Kathman, who are also small business owners in the state of Ohio and would be affected by a ban on flavors.

Registered voter Sarah Rutland said, “We know firsthand that vapor products are a lifesaving technology because both my husband and I successfully quit smoking by vaping. I had been a smoker for 20 years until I tried a strawberry peach flavored vapor product eight years ago. Since that day, I haven’t smoked a single cigarette. I’m very proud of that and very proud that our small business has helped nearly 11,000 adults stop smoking entirely with a wide variety of non-menthol and non-tobacco flavors. A flavor ban at our adult-only shop will eliminate 97% of our products which are non-tobacco and non-menthol.”

Registered voter Jeff Kathman said, “My mom died of lung cancer after smoking for more than 40 years. She didn’t have the opportunity to quit with vapor.  My passion is to try to convert smokers to vapor products so we can prevent the 480,000 smoking-related deaths that occur each year. Flavors are critical to me – I quit smoking with strawberry kiwi – and our business. Only 10% of our customers buy tobacco and menthol flavors so, without flavors, we can’t stay open, nor can any other mom and pop. This issue means so much to me and my family.”

VTA encourages adults like Sarah Rutland and Jeff Kathman who rely on non-tobacco and non-menthol flavored vapor products to urge our federal government to preserve their access to this critical tool on vapersdovote.com.

“I Vote” follows “Promises,” the first advertisement of VTA’s multimedia campaign, which aired primarily on Fox News in Washington D.C. earlier this month and demonstrated the significant public health consequences of a ban on flavored vapor products.

Ten to thirteen million American adults rely on e-cigarettes to quit or reduce smoking. A flavor ban would drive these men and women to either revert to combustible cigarettes, which take the lives of nearly 1,300 Americans every day, or turn to a new and larger black market. Additionally, the licensed, FDA-registered, and FDA-regulated American vapor product distribution chain that is reliant on selling a wide variety of non-tobacco and non-menthol flavors would collapse, resulting in the closure of close to 14,000 small businesses and the loss of upwards of 166,000 jobs. Notably, more than 31,000 of the jobs at risk are in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Fortunately, there exist many alternatives to a flavor ban that would much more effectively limit youth access and appeal without threatening public health and the economy. VTA last month announced “21 & DONE!” a comprehensive plan to address underage use, including: raising the minimum age to purchase nicotine products to 21; implementing 21 serious marketing restrictions, including bans on all television advertising and bans on product names with references likely to appeal to minors such as candy, cartoons, and video games; a strong “three strikes and you’re out” enforcement regime; and increased taxes to fund education and enforcement, among other key policies.

Tony Abboud, Executive Director of the Vapor Technology Association said, “History has demonstrated that bans don’t work. As we have said from the start, VTA stands ready to work with the Administration, regulators, and lawmakers on the many real solutions that should be implemented to achieve the twin goals of restricting youth vaping, which is already illegal, and preserving flavored alternatives for adults desperately trying to quit smoking.”

This video was brought to my attention today and I was impressed.   Impressed enough to contact the video’s creator to get his permission to publish it here. Thank you Tom for working with me on this.

Recently I published an article called “TELEVISION, BIG TOBACCO & LET’S STEP IT UP!”

In the article I wrote:

More people now know about vaping then ever before.  It’s all over the news.  Sure, for the most part it’s negative, but more and more positive information is and will be coming out.  People are going to be hearing both sides of the story.  Maybe smart people will begin to ask questions.  Maybe smart people will begin to wonder why over in the EU vaping is embraced, supported, recommended, and you can even find vape shops in hospitals.  Maybe smart people will begin to piece together what’s REALLY going on in the United States and it ain’t about health.  Maybe smart people will realize, that if they smoke, they can potentially save their lives with nicotine vaping.

This video speaks to those “smart people” and asks some of the questions they should be asking.  It points out fact vs. fear mongering.  It shows the bias and misdirection of mainstream media.

The video was created by Tom, the operations manager at Vape Club, an online retailer of nicotine vaping products in the UK…

I’m the operations manager at vape club and have been here about 4 and a half years. I quit smoking about 2 years ago after dual using for about 2 years and I’ve not looked back since. I and everyone at VC are passionate about what we do and we’ve created this video because we’re majorly pissed at what were seeing in the US and no happier about the impact it’s having over here.

I can understand your frustration Tom.

Now you may say this video is biased because it was created by someone in the vaping industry.  Biased it is not… factual it is.  And can you really blame Tom for creating the video?  Due to misinformation and poor reporting by mainstream media lives are at stake.  Businesses are at stake.  We need to continue to spread the truth such as Tom did here.

Well done Tom and thank you!

You can read the entire report HERE, but I looked at a few numbers and tried to better understand them.  Specifically the following numbers:

83 Total Patients
53 Total Patients Interviewed
49 Vaped & Used THC
17 Vaped & Used ONLY THC
35 Vaped & Used Nicotine
3 Vaped & Used ONLY Nicotine
32 Vaped & Used THC & Nicotine

Here is what I concluded:

1. The issue is with THC (I think we all know this by now). Specifically the illicit, illegal, tainted, drug dealer kind. You know, the kind that NO ban is going to be able to fix. Yeah, those.
2. Only 53 of the 83 patients were interviewed pointing to a very incompetent CDC.
3. 53 were “interviewed” not tested. Pointing to, again,  a very incompetent CDC. God forbid there is ever a REAL public health emergency. I guess we can’t test to find out the REAL problem.
4. 3 patients were afraid to get scolded by Mommy and Daddy and did not tell the truth which was made possible by the very incompetent CDC.
5. Of the 53 patients “interviewed” 4 didn’t vape anything so we clearly need to ban EVERYTHING until we find out the cause of THAT problem.

My apologies if this post leads to the banning of everything.

If you are an adult smoker and want a substantially safer way to get your nicotine than that of a traditional tobacco cigarette.  Have a look at vaping.

If you are a current nicotine vaper and are concerned by what you’re hearing in the news, DO NO go back to smoking!!  The issue is not with nicotine vaping.

If you don’t smoke and don’t vape continue to do neither!!   Even though you may be VERY concerned by those mysterious 4 people in #5 above.  😉

What prompted me to write this article is the rash of nicotine vaping related television commercials I’ve been seeing at night all from our friends at Big Tobacco.

This may lead people to believe that Big Tobacco cares about our health.  They care about tobacco harm reduction much like those who CREATED the vaping industry.  They don’t.  Not even a little bit.  If they did, they’d stop selling cigarettes, period.

If they did, as Dimitris said on the panel in France, they would fight along side us.  They would fight against 21+, they would fight for flavors, they would fight for an adult’s right to make a choice, to save their life.

Speaking of flavors, let’s be honest folks… Big Tobacco DOES NOT WANT FLAVORS!!  They cannot compete with flavors.  They cannot flavor their cigarettes.

So why is Big tobacco in the vapor space now?

Because vaping works, and they know that.  Because they need to compete.  Because they need to protect their revenue stream.

If the industry WE created did not work, was not satisfying, was not more successful than all the cessation products on the market today… they would not be in the game.  They would continue to sell cigarettes, they would continue to kill people, and tobacco harm reduction wouldn’t even be a thought in their pretty little heads.

Oh, and let me stress that… WE created this industry.  This industry was born on the net.  It was propelled by forums, and Facebook groups, and YouTube channels.  It was all of us together that created the vaping industry.  Although the industry, to its detriment, may have lost it’s way for a while and forgot about the smoker, the industry was created to save lives.  Can’t say the same for those who sell cigarettes and are NOW getting into the vaping game.

They may claim to care.  They may hide behind the shield of tobacco harm reduction, but I would hope most people can see through that as they continue to sell a product responsible for 480,000 deaths in the United States per year.

So with all the negativity towards vaping right now, why do they continue to spend advertising dollars on big ticket items such as TV commercials.?  Well, they can afford it for one, but I also think it’s something we can learn from.

More people now know about vaping then ever before.  It’s all over the news.  Sure, for the most part it’s negative, but more and more positive information is and will be coming out.  People are going to be hearing both sides of the story.  Maybe smart people will begin to ask questions.  Maybe smart people will begin to wonder why over in the EU vaping is embraced, supported, recommended, and you can even find vape shops in hospitals.  Maybe smart people will begin to piece together what’s REALLY going on in the United States and it ain’t about health.  Maybe smart people will realize, that if they smoke, they can potentially save their lives with nicotine vaping.

With this in mind, maybe we as an industry need to target those smart people.  The adult smoker who is interested in tobacco harm reduction.  The adult smoker who never even heard of vaping until now and is asking questions about it.  We need to step it up, not slow it down.    We need to step it up by going back to the basics, by creating a responsible and approachable industry, by focusing on tobacco harm reduction and the adult smoker, and by coming together and putting out positive PR on vaping.

You know what the beauty is of positive PR on vaping?  It’s not lying.  It’s telling the truth.  It’s getting the truth to the public who have a bad taste in their mouth right now about vaping due to the misinformation they’ve been force fed by our news outlets and our government.

Let continue to remain positive, continue to tell the truth about vaping, and continue to spread the message of tobacco harm reduction.  Maybe, just maybe, this can all be used to our advantage.

Vape Happy My Friends!!

Has anyone noticed how HARD they’re trying to find something wrong with vaping. I mean, really REALLY hard. And when they do find something wrong, no matter how minuscule it is compared to the harms of smoking, the make a big deal about it and say vaping is not safe, NEVER comparing what they found to that of a cigarette, NEVER taking about harm reduction.

• They talk about the deaths, when we know it’s from illicit tainted cannabis cartridges.
• They say “we don’t even know what’s in there” referring to nicotine e-liquids when nicotine vaping products have been on the market for more than 10 years and most companies have their liquids, including the ingredients, registered with the FDA. “We don’t know what’s in there” is an admission of gross incompetence at this point.
• They talk about popcorn lung when the amount of ‘Popcorn Lung’ causing chemicals is upwards of 750 times greater in a tobacco cigarette over that of nicotine e-liquid!  Not to mention there hasn’t been a SINGLE CASE of “Popcorn Lung” since vaping has been vaping.

Will they ever get it through their heads that vaping is harm reduction not harm elimination and people are more than willing to take the at least 95% safer number we get from the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England?

If you look for something hard enough, you’re going to find it… or at least something.  When you endlessly try to demonize something, demons will eventually pop up.

You know what I wonder? Let me tell you what I wonder. I wonder what would happen if you were to take everything in my refrigerator, my pantry, and my cleaning closet right now and tried to find something wrong with the items. Tried every bit as hard to find something wrong with them as the “scientists” who are trying to find something wrong with vaping.

My guess is nothing good would come of it. We’d find that many of the things we use on a daily basis, including the very air we breath all have some harm associated with them. Yet we will continue to use them, as we will continue to vape.

I’m not saying research should stop. I am saying the witch hunt should stop. Big difference.

Vape Happy Everyone.

Here’s the latest from Brent Stafford at Regulator Watch:

As hysteria over the so-called “vaping-related lung illness” proceeds unabated, the attack on science that supports vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking is renewed in earnest.
Key findings of harm reduction science: vaping is 95% safer than smoking; nicotine is not carcinogenetic; vaping is not a gateway to teen smoking; and much more is systematically being undermined by a deliberate campaign to destroy vaping.

In this edition of RegWatch hear world-leading scientist Dr. Lion Shahab from the Institute of Epidemiology & Health, University College London address the what he calls the “misleading” hysteria over vaping-related lung disease and how a decade of use, by over 40 million vapers worldwide, shows vaping to be safe.

Only on RegWatch by RegulatorWatch.com

Released: October 21, 2019
Produced by: Brent Stafford

It was so cool and such an honor presenting the Zenith Pro to the French vapers for the first time on stage at Vapexpo Paris 2019!

Never thought this little gadget would get me back on the right track! I started smoking again a year ago and quit vaping altogether, but I firmly believe this one will keep me from smoking. Thank you for this, I feel really optimistic for the first time in over a year.

Innokin is proud to support #Stoptober2019 with a U.K. Bus Campaign running from October 21st to November 3rd!

The Innokin London bus campaign with the slogan “How much do you know about vaping?” features top vaping advocacy groups from around the world including UKVIA, VTA, CVA, VdeH and ECCC.

By working closely with vaping associations around the world to sponsor advocacy and education we hope that more smokers will learn about the alternatives and find support to help them stop smoking.” Stated George Xia, the VP of Innokin Technology.

Smoking kills millions around the world every year, there are alternatives and support available; it is imperative that smokers understand that vaping is not smoking and they learn about the dangers caused by cigarette smoke.

The goal of this London bus campaign is to help raise vaping awareness and give back to the community with great International giveaways!
Please stay tuned for the big giveaways to come soon later today!

This October please remember to share ‘Stoptober’ with a smoker you love and support them in kicking a fatal habit.

You can click the image below to find out more!

#vapingmatters
#teaminnokin
#innokincares
#vapingsaveslives

A PBusardo Video – VAPEXPO Paris 2019

A few interviews and a look at VAPEXPO Paris 2019. We hope you enjoy it!

Thank you to Patrick and all involved for inviting us back year after year!

The links:
Vapexpo

Thank you to and please support the Premiere Taste Your Juice Sponsor…

The Video:

*NOTE: Any use of these videos in part or in their entirety without Phil Busardo’s expressed written consent is strictly prohibited.