Following the many questions we received from our readers, we thought it would be good to explain to everyone the key role that AFNOR currently plays for free vaping in France.
First and foremost, it is necessary to remember that we lost the battle of TPD.
This European directive was voted and it's applicable in our beautiful country, anytime between today and January 1, 2016 at the latest.
In what way does this famous TPD mean the end of the free vape if it is applied in France?
- The TPD or “Tobacco Product Directive” or “Tobacco Product Directive” in our beautiful language is the legal framework proposed by the European Commission ENVI to regulate tobacco products and its derivatives in Europe. As crazy as it sounds, electronic cigarettes (because e-liquids contain nicotine and vaping mimics the act of a smoker) has been included in this directive. There is nothing more we can do about this ...
- The TPD, if it is applied to the letter (as with our Dutch neighbors), means that we can only use calibrated atomizers containing 2 ml of e-liquid… pre-filled atomizers…
This obligation alone means the end of any purchase of e-liquids and any atomizer as we know them ... I will spare you the other possible horrors through this directive (there are dozens of other constraints)… Which obviously benefit… Big Tobacco. Why ? Quite simply because it could thus reproduce its economic model in the vaping ecosystem (can you imagine yourself tomorrow buying a pack of 10 disposable e-cigarettes, each containing 2ml of e-liquid imposed ???) .
In order to prevent the French legislator, by nature uninformed in the field of vaping, from applying the TPD as in the Netherlands, for lack of other opinions and recommendations, a brilliant idea has germinated in the mind of Fivape and Aiduce:
- Ask Afnor to set up an “Electronic Cigarettes and E-Liquids” commission whose members, all experts in the field, could build a set of normative recommendations on what an atomizer, a mod, and what it is. allowed to put in an e-liquid, on the bottle of the latter ... etc ...
What interest will you say to me?
- All the purpose of these standards is not to “spoil” our daily life, on the contrary, they are opposed by their definitions and their specifications to the European directive! Clearly, as soon as these recommendations will be published, the French legislator will be able to realize that an e-Cigarette is above all not only a battery and a hermetically sealed atomizer, all disposable ... but an 18650 accumulator in a mod Mecha with a Kayfun mounted in micro-coil, all filled with Boba's Bounty is an electronic cigarette ... Because all the elements that compose it comply with the standards proposed by Afnor!
Today, AFNOR is the last bulwark against the TPD, because if the commission does not produce its recommendations quickly enough, it will be the end of the e-cigarette as we all know it and adore it!
The AFNOR commission is to date composed of vaping manufacturers, tobacco lobbyists (who have won the right to be present ...), associations such as FIVAPE, AIDUCE, and many other members , including the Vapelier (since February 19, 2015). All have signed a confidentiality clause which prevents members from discussing the content of the standards until they have been published.
Supporting AFNOR is supporting free vaping!
Looking forward to reading you.
The Vapelier.
