Specialist retailer says: "E-cigarettes enable stress-free and successful smoking cessation"

Two months and a few crushes. I haven't smoked for that long. I don't miss it one bit and have never had the urge to light up a cigarette again. I have the e-cigarette to thank for that, which has been my faithful companion ever since.

I met Mario Puppo a few years ago at another employer. He has been Managing Director of Vape.ch since 2017 and runs several stores in the canton of Zurich. Since the end of 2019, he has also been President of the Swiss Vape Trade Association (SVTA), the association for Swiss retailers and manufacturers of e-cigarettes. I wasn't really interested in vaping when we first met, but today the topic is burning under my nails. High time for another conversation.

Mario, why are you actually selling e-cigarettes?
Mario Puppo: Because I wanted to stop smoking, even though I enjoyed smoking for years (laughs). But smoking is extremely harmful, that's well known. Then came the birth of my first daughter. Unfortunately, quitting wasn't as easy for me as I had hoped. That's why I looked around for less harmful alternatives and ordered all sorts of things from all over the world. This aroused my curiosity, but the quality of the goods didn't excite me at all. So I continued smoking for the time being. That must have been around 2008.

And what happened next?
A few years later, I finally found the first e-cigarettes whose quality convinced me. I promptly stopped smoking without ever falling off the wagon. And: my environment no longer had to suffer from the stench of smoke. That was important to me. Of course, strictly speaking I didn't quit completely, but simply replaced a harmful addiction with a less harmful one.

Was that the birth of your shops?
Exactly! I wanted to make this stress-free and, above all, successful experience possible for other smokers. So I founded "Vape Heaven" and the associated online shop. My wife always actively supported me. As a non-smoker, she never quite understood what smoking was supposed to be good for anyway - apart from the fact that it harms and stinks.

More and more people are now vaping instead of smoking. Are you happy about this development?Basically yes: despite our high level of education, there are still far too many smokers in our country. In 2022, almost a quarter of the Swiss population smoked, and around 26 people die every day as a result of tobacco consumption. The harm reduction from switching to vaping is enormous, as various studies from around the world now confirm. A recent study led by the University of Bern also shows that e-cigarettes help quit smoking much better than other aids such as nicotine patches and chewing gum.

And what about all the studies that contradict the "trivialisation" of e-cigarettes?
Anyone who claims that e-cigarettes are healthy is misinformed. I am by no means trivialising it. What is correct, however, according to current knowledge, is that vaping is massively less harmful than the consumption of tobacco products. And that's exactly the point, to minimise harm. Here I would also like to see a little more tolerance from tobacco opponents. They still regard people who have given up tobacco through e-cigarettes as smokers. This is not helpful for those affected who have no other way of quitting tobacco.

Now, however, e-cigarettes are also causing many minors and non-smokers to vape.
That bothers me too. From day one, we have only sold to people of legal age voluntarily and without any legal requirements. In addition, the association for Swiss retailers and manufacturers of e-cigarettes defined an industry code of conduct in 2018 in collaboration with the Federal Office of Public Health. One of the main points of the code: no sale to minors. If an adult non-smoker comes into the shop, I strongly advise against vaping. Why start something you don't need? For me, e-cigarettes are generally for people who have not managed to quit smoking completely using the usual methods.

I'm one of those people myself. After around 30 years as a smoker, I've recently started vaping. I've given up tobacco, but I'm still addicted to nicotine. Have I jumped from the frying pan into the fire?Congratulations on this success, it's a step in the right direction. Firstly, in one fell swoop you have eliminated all the toxins that are produced when burning tobacco. Secondly, you can determine your desired nicotine strength yourself when vaping. If you reduce this gradually, sooner or later you will simply forget your e-cigarette at home and not miss it at all.

What role does the flavour of the e-cigarette play here?
A big one! With tobacco cigarettes, switching to weaker products always has the disadvantage that the flavour changes because the tobacco blend also changes. This reduces the chances of success in quitting smoking completely. With e-cigarettes, on the other hand, the flavour always remains the same, even if you reduce the nicotine strength. We have been able to win tens of thousands of customers over the past almost ten years and have successfully "lost" many of them as non-smokers and non-vapers.

In Switzerland, the legal situation regarding e-cigarettes and their sale is still unclear. What do you think about this?
The legal situation is indeed unsatisfactory. What I miss most urgently is a national regulation for the age of sale from 18 years. Disposable products, which can be sold without specialist knowledge, have given rise to many sales outlets that simply sell everything to everyone as long as the money is right. At least some cantons are not waiting for the national youth protection regulations and have already taken measures.

The new Tobacco Products Act is said to be on the home straight. What will this change with regard to e-cigarettes?One of the most important points for consumers and retailers is that only people of legal age will be allowed to buy these products, including online, where there will be an age check. I very much welcome that. There will also be a tax on nicotine-containing liquids. As an association, we have fought to ensure that at least nicotine-free liquids remain untaxed. We seem to have succeeded in this.

And then there are the advertising restrictions, which equate e-cigarettes with tobacco.
Unfortunately, I have to say. Because this step makes it almost impossible to show smoking adults a less harmful alternative. In future, smokers will have to rely on friends or their GP, for example, to point out and recommend e-cigarettes as a serious cessation aid with a high potential for success.

Do you think the new law goes far enough at all?
As is always the case when regulating something new, the existing draft has a few rough edges. For example, I miss the active favouring of vaping over tobacco in the law. Only taxation is set slightly lower than for tobacco. A good example of this is England, which allows active advertising for vaping and even promotes it itself in order to minimise harm. This would also suit Switzerland well, given the almost four billion francs a year that tobacco consumption causes in medical costs in this country.

Throwaway vapes are very popular but they are also heavily criticised. More and more countries are banning their sale or introducing corresponding laws. What do you think of disposable vapes?I have long refused to include disposable products in my range, as I only see their usefulness for a very limited use. From the customer's point of view, things look a little different.

For example?
Disposable vapes are good for smokers who simply want to test out how vaping works, or for people with motor impairments in their hands who are looking for a device that is very easy to use. Otherwise, disposable vapes are not worthwhile for economic reasons alone. Our customers still have an ear for this argument. A starter kit, for example, usually costs much less than a carton of cigarettes and lasts much longer. However, customers are much less interested in the fact that disposable vapes are also not very environmentally friendly. But I can't stop anyone from buying them anyway.

From this I deduce that you have given up your resistance to disposable vapes in your shops ...
Correct. Ultimately, it's the customers who determine what's successful, not us retailers. However, we discussed the inclusion of disposable vapes in our range with the whole team and decided together. This way, we as specialist retailers don't lose any returning disposable vape customers and can still actively try to get them interested in more sustainable products. If disposable vapes were only available at kiosks or petrol stations, they would certainly not be motivated to switch to a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative.

Are stricter laws needed in relation to disposable vapes at best?
The essentials are already regulated by the new Tobacco Products Act. In other words, disposable products with and without nicotine will be taxed five times more than refill containers for reusable products. This is an important step in the right direction and should make the product less attractive. I would also think it would make sense if all points of sale of disposable vapes had to join the eRecycling von Sens programme. This is a programme that retailers currently join voluntarily and pay an article for recycling for each disposable product sold. We are already involved, of course. Anyone who puts disposable products into circulation should also co-finance their disposal and recycling.

Finally, this: What do you recommend to people who want to get away from tobacco products?
Firstly, I would like to make one thing clear: It is of course best to be a non-smoker and non-vaper! Nevertheless, every smoker realises for themselves when it really is time to quit. And when the time comes, I recommend visiting one of the specialist shops run by SVTA members. They can be found all over Switzerland and run vape shops, 99 per cent of which are run by former smokers who have quit vaping themselves. They will give you good advice with a lot of experience. After all, these people have founded a company out of conviction to stop using tobacco. It doesn't get any more honest than that, does it?