Rendez-vous #28 with Sébastien Béziau
Sébastien Béziau is Editor of the Vap'you Magazine distributed twice a year in 422 French Vape Shops (scroll down to see the Google map); he also manages the weekly e-newsletter Vapnews, and a blog .
Sébastien Béziau : I started smoking when I was 12. I only tried to quit once, when I was 36, cold turkey, without any help and I failed after 3 weeks. I was worried about my smoking but I still never had the « courage » to try again to quit. I was drinking very little alcohol, I had quit smoking marijuana ten years ago (daily consumption), I was not under any medication, and I was "comforting" myself with intense long distance running (marathons). Then when I was 42, I discovered vaping by chance, while watching a TV show. The day after, I immediately visited a vape shop to give it a try. A few hours later I completely quit smoking. It was in 2013. From the start I started investigating to figure out if vaping was not more dangerous than smoking tobacco: I was very quickly reassured by all the positive information that was already available on line. I started blogging at the end of 2014 with the aim to help people access relevant information. I progressively became an advocate because I was shocked by the opposition that I cannot understand against this "solution" that for me is a quasi "miracle" for smokers.
Q1. The argument that moves me the most is the personal testimony given by so many vapers (including your own) when they explain how/when they switched and how important this change was for their life. And what shocks me the most is how much those testimonies are dismissed ("anecdotal evidence") or completely ignored by the anti-THR groups/persons and the established public health authorities (with the exception of the UK). One typical example is the 1000 messages for vaping campaign (1000 messages pour la vape) you launched on November 24, 2015. Can you tell us about it and the answers you received (or not)?
Sébastien Béziau: Vaping has a big problem. It has not been invented by official authorities nor pundits. It is an experience that was born and grew from the community of smokers. The users were responsible to develop the best practices and the many improvements in the equipments. The liquid manufacturers and the business owners are for most of them ex-smokers who switched to vaping. The whole traditional tobacco ecosystem that includes the tobacco industry, the industry dealing with the diseases, the health authorities, the help to quit apparatus, are only on a reactive mode since vaping appeared. The tobacco control advocates are the most pathetic: vaping stole their 'raison d'être', smokers quit without their help and instead of destroying the tobacco industry to fight against smoking, vapers just quit smoking. The whole system is collapsing but not as they planned and at a very fast pace they did not foresee. It's destabilizing for the tobacco based economy, including the taxes and the management of tobacco related diseases. Tobacco control advocates became anti-vaping because vaping is destroying their business model. How do you get funding for a fight that is disappearing as less people smoke. The book 1000 messages pour la vape was not picked up by the media but it was disruptive. I am proud of this project. I know that this book that includes more than 1200 testimonials, I took care to deposit copies with the National Library of France, will one day be studied by public health historians. I am forever grateful to all the people who shared their story and crowdfunded the project, the printing and delivery costs to all the members of the French Parliament.
Q2. During the 3rd somment de la vape (the French e-cig summit) that took place in Paris on October 2019 (you were one of the organizer), there was a Member of Parliament, who is also an MD, Dr. Olivier Véran, who spoke in favor of vaping. How did you get him to participate? I ask because it seems quite rare that elected officials dare stick their neck and speak up publicly in favor of vaping.
Sébastien Béziau : Congressman Olivier Véran has spoken publicly several times about vaping. He is also involved in the debate about the therapeutic use of cannabis. He is open to harm reduction strategies. He is an MD but very pragmatic on those issues. For his coming to attend the Sommet de la Vape, he was informed by different channels. You'l have to ask him why he decided to come and talk publicly. His presence was certainly much appreciated. Especially since, as you noticed, there is a complete omerta about vaping in the health ministry. The Health Minister, Agnès BUZYN has never accepted to meet with the French pro-vaping organizations (while in the US Trump has organized a meeting at the White House) but she regularly consults with the tobacconists. The new Director of Health she picked up, Pr Jérome Salomon, did not attend the 2019 Sommet de la vape. The previous Director of Health, Pr Benoit Vallet did attend all summits when he was in charge in 2016 and 2017 and in 2019, after his nomination at the Cour des Comptes (Court of Auditors), he attended again and gave a memorable presentation (video available in English on YouTube).
Q3. As the European Union is going to start reviewing the Tobacco Products Directive (a lengthy process) that could have positive or very negative consequences, SOVAPE has joined forces with other European pro-vape groups to create in September 2019, ETHRA, European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates. Can you tell us what you hope ETHRA can achieve, with what type of resources since many (most?) of the groups operate without any paid staff and very small budgets, contrary to anti-THR organizations like the Association of European Cancer Leagues, the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention or the Smokefree Partnership, that are funded by the EU and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Sébastien Béziau : ETHRA is a coalition of non profit organizations. It is a group where to share and exchange information. It's only a group of citizens without any financial means. How effective can it be? Not by buying meals or influencing politicians with highly paid lobbyists. We are back to the problem I mentioned earlier: vaping is not part of the system, even if independent entrepreneurs are growing they remain very small compared to Big Tobacco and the states that derive significant taxes from tobacco. ETHRA will rely on sincerity and honesty and above all persistence. We care for the public good, not money. We still hope we'll find not corrupted politicians who decide to get involved. Then things can change. That said, we are very concerned about the new policies that could be adopted by the EU under the influence of the organizations you mentioned, that are allied with Big Tobacco and Big Pharma against vaping. They are all part of the established system that vaping is disrupting.
Q4. Can you tell us about the book you have published, "Welcome to Vaping" ('Bienvenue dans la vape")? How is it going? What type of feedback are you getting?
Sébastien Béziau : I have been vaping for more than 6 years and I have talked with business owners, manufacturers, health professionals and thousands of people who vape. I have many contacts with experts in addiction and I am part of support groups for vapers. Since 2015 I edit my magazine VAPYOU where we try to help people who start vaping. That represents now a lot of valuable content, with many good advices and good practices. The vape shop owners who buy the magazine to give it to their customers often asked for past issues or wanted reprints.
I wrote « Bienvenue dans la vape» to bring together this content. I spoke from my own experience as a vaper and with all the information, scientific, medical, technical, I have collected along the years. I proposed the book to the vape shops where they could sell it to their customers. We had a first printing of 5.000 copies and a second one, one month later, for 10.000 copies. The feedback has been very positive but there has been very little media coverage because I self-published the book and there has been no promotion within the usual network of bookstores. Like vaping, this book is out of the system. I know the book is useful because it is up to date with the most recent information and provides advices about how best to start vaping to quit smoking. I am confident the book will progress on its own. After all, you contacted me from the US to get a copy!
Q5. How do you assess today the balance of power in France between the pro and anti-vape groups/champions? Has your position strengthened? What's next?
Sébastien Béziau : The situation in France paradoxal. France is one of the countries where vaping developed the most and probably the one with the highest density of specialized vape shops along with very serious manufacturers. But the situation is very different when looking at the health authorities that don't know how to take this fantastic public health opportunity into account. Anti-tobacco groups have a very negative influence: they think that vaping "renormalize" the gesture of smoking and they fear about youth taking up vaping while all the data (including in the US) show vaping reduces smoking prevalence among youth. Again there is plain conflict of interest: without tobacco smoking, those groups lose their reason to exist and to get funding. There is also a big problem in France with the level of tobacco taxes: if tobacco consumption was dropping, the fall in public income would be so great that it has to be avoided at all cost. There are 75.000 deaths per year in France due to tobacco, our prevalence is number 2 in the EU, right after Bulgaria, but the government managed to collect € 500 million more each year by raising cigarettes taxes and prices. We are weak because we are a danger for the whole system. But we remain active, we monitor and we inform. We know that even marginalized, they keep observing us until the day things will have to change because we'll not quit fighting. We know we are right in this fight.
Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Sébastien Béziau : SOVAPE just published an investigation and a position paper about the World Health Organization's activities against vaping within their tobacco control strategy (PDF in French). Feel free to translate this very valuable document. Thank you for this interview.
Thank you Sébastien for having taken the time for this rendez-vous
Comments