Fighting for vaping closer to home

[Cruzz_33]

I have recently read the forum posts about the new regulations on smoking and VAPING to take place in the future. ( sorry it doesn't let me paste a link)
I'm sure most of you reading this have been following the US and European regulations and doing everything you can to help them out but now it is starting in South Africa and I believe we need to prepare for this and do everything we can.
With this post I'd like to find out what we as a community are going to do and what we may currently be doing.
As far as I know there is no type of NPO or legal body in south Africa for vaping.
I don't have expertise or experience in this field so hoping some of you guys can give myself and other forum members insight.

 

[Stosta]

I have recently read the forum posts about the new regulations on smoking and VAPING to take place in the future. ( sorry it doesn't let me paste a link)
I'm sure most of you reading this have been following the US and European regulations and doing everything you can to help them out but now it is starting in South Africa and I believe we need to prepare for this and do everything we can.
With this post I'd like to find out what we as a community are going to do and what we may currently be doing.
As far as I know there is no type of NPO or legal body in south Africa for vaping.
I don't have expertise or experience in this field so hoping some of you guys can give myself and other forum members insight.

BURN ALL THE NAY-SAYERS!!!!

That's the extent of my knowledge, but I will also gladly sign petitions!

 

[Cruzz_33]

@Stosta I think we are on par here so lemme know when you gonna burn some NAY-SAYERS and I'm in

 

[RichJB]

I think the vaping industry in every country needs a national body. A single vaping company in the US tried to stop the new FDA regs. That is not going to work, that company lacks resources and doesn't even have a mandate to represent the industry. However, as the various petitions have shown, many vapers are apathetic and don't want to be proactive. That is understandable because I don't think vaping is threatened, governments aren't talking about banning it. It is projected to become a major market, in the order of $50bn or so. So there will always be investors, even if the industry structure is shaken up by sidelining of the "mom and pop" small companies that currently comprise it. But I think that will happen to a degree anyway, regardless of regulation.

The issue of civil society apathy impacts several areas. My work tangentially involves national standards, which are supposed to be developed by government, industry and civil society jointly. The standard affects all so everybody should have input. Government puts in the hours to develop the standard because they are paid to do it, and industry puts in the hours because the standard can make or break their business. When a civil society organisation volunteer is required to travel to another city and spend hours (sometimes days) in committee meetings, interest can wane rapidly. I'm not sure how the vaping community would get around that.