Together: Today is World Vape Day

Today, May 30th, is World Vape Day. It’s a day to celebrate the invention that has helped millions of people quit smoking, and a day to celebrate the people who fought to make this lifesaving product accessible to smokers.

Today is also a day to help raise awareness about the safety of vaping, as well as convince smokers to try vaping to gradually reduce the harmful effects of cigarettes.

World Vape Day takes place a day before the WHO’s World No Tobacco Day. The event, which is held on May 31 every year and aims to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco, has now turned into a day to criticize less harmful nicotine products that are threatening the position of tobacco such as vaping.

Nicotine users around the world should have access to safe nicotine alternatives to cigarettes. But dozens of countries are denying them that right through bans and heavy regulation. This week, The Union, one of the world’s most powerful tobacco control nonprofits, announced it supports banning the sale of e-cigarettes in low- and middle-income countries, which are home to more than 80 percent of the world’s smokers.

WHO, The Union, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and other government and private organizations all argue that nicotine bans and tighter regulation are the best way to eliminate tobacco’s problems. But they, too, depend on tobacco and Big Tobacco for their survival. They represent tax-hungry governments and are backed by leading health and pharmaceutical corporations.

The struggle to move towards safer nicotine products by large organisations backed by politicians and traditional media is something nicotine users face every day. The World Vape Day event and website are run by members of the INNCO (International Nicotine Users Network) group and several other user groups.

More than 40 consumer organisations from around the world are joining vapers with calls in multiple languages. But you can still join in even if you don’t belong to any of them. Today is the day you can speak up for your right to choose to use reduced-harm products.

There will be no protests or gatherings for World Vape Day due to the Corona pandemic. Instead, we will have press conferences and live streams on YouTube and Facebook. The real action will be on Twitter where vapers and supporters reside.

Twitter is a popular platform for political and advocacy work, and is the main focus of today’s activity. But if you prefer Instagram, Facebook or other social media, you can spread your knowledge too. The important thing is that vapers in every country in the world can hear and participate.

Our goal is to get the hashtag #WorldVapeDay trending worldwide on Twitter. To that end, the World Vape Day website has prepared a detailed guide on how to get active on Twitter for vapers, including sample tweets, tips on tweeting (and retweeting) for optimal effectiveness, and a list of support groups to follow.

If you don’t already follow or join a local consumer group, this is the perfect opportunity to start. World Vape Day is a great opportunity for independent vapers to meet and network with organizations that are willing to represent them. If you know vapers who are not yet exposed to the community, encourage them to join.

We hope that this Saturday, we will be the center of the world. So let’s be civil and respectful. Only then can we convince the skeptics to join and learn more about the vaper community. Let them understand that we are not people who are trying to follow trends, but people who are fighting for a healthy and good life.

This is the moment for vapers to be noticed, to spread their ideas, to raise their voices and to find allies and friends. World Vape Day has an important goal, to make vapers not feel discouraged by difficulties, to lead smokers to a safe nicotine product. And to make the world understand why we choose to vape, and they should support us.