World Vapers ’ Alliance director Michael Landl wanted to know why e-cigarettes – which are orders of magnitude safer than smoking – were being attacked and not celebrated .
He was speaking to Dr Bernhard Mayer , a professor of pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Graz in Austria .
Dr Mayer told him : “ I have been asking myself the very same question for 15 years .
“ I never expected there would be such an opposition against this very safe alternative to smoking .
“ One reason for the opposition to vaping is money .
The professor said many vaping opponents had no real argument to support an outright ban so attacked the easier target of flavours instead .
He added : “ They claim that teenagers are attracted to flavours like strawberry and mango while adult smokers like to vape tobacco flavours .
“ This is wrong because so many studies show that adult vapers like fruit or candy and that tobacco is used by a minority of vapers .”
He said many failed to understand that ‘ tobacco ’ e-liquids were also flavoured products .
Dr Mayer said : “ Tobaccos are the most complex flavours and contain 60 to 70 single compounds while a strawberry flavour may contain only ten .
“ E-cigarettes endanger the pharmaceutical industry which makes a lot of money with nicotine replacement products and anti-cancer drugs .
“ In the USA , tobacco flavour e-cigarettes are often referred to as ‘ unflavoured ’ products but this is simply wrong .”
“ Governments also make a lot of money from tobacco tax and smokers tend to live shorter lives so there are financial reasons to keep smoking rates up .”
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