French vaping group SOVAPE announces dissolution

  * Smoking is harmful to health, minors are prohibited from using e-cigarettes, non-smokers are not recommended to use e-cigarettes*

SOVAPE, a French vape consumer group, announced it would disband this week. Founded in 2016, the group is best known for organising three e-cigarette summits in France and co-founding the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA).

Then, the news media recently accused SOVAPE and other consumer groups of having links to the tobacco industry and attacked scientists and health professionals who supported SOVAPE.

In an article released by SOVAPE on October 6, the group explained that SOVAPE is no longer able to continue to fulfill its mission due to the current atmosphere of “censorship, threats, lies, defamation and vilification, combined with the dissemination of fake news and denial of scientific data.”

“It is impossible to have a conversation in this context,” SOVAPE wrote. “Apparently at the moment France does not even allow the appearance of any information about reducing the risk of smoking, such as a general consumer survey.”

SOVAPE will donate its remaining funds equally to the Pasteur Institute and other vaping organizations aiduce and la Vape du Cœur.

“We regret that we are no longer able to have a conversation to reduce the risk of preventable disease and premature death from cigarettes, but we do not regret having tried,” SOVAPE said in its post.