IAt the end of July, a speech therapist and university professor in Campina Grande, Brazil, about to catch a domestic flight to Salvador. To his shock, He was stopped by airport security and asked to give up his nicotine vaporizer.
“I felt financially affected because I had bought the device for the trip and it was new,” said RNB, who asked that his full name not be used. told filter“There was also moral embarrassment at being exposed in front of other people, and anger and sadness at the persecution of e-cigarette users.”
A global, coordinated network for tobacco control has led to measures being copied. Perhaps the best known example is New Zealand’s controversial generational ban on the purchase of cigarettes, which despite revoke There about various Issuehas found its way onto the agenda the United Kingdom and other Western nations.
But The cross-fertilization of tobacco control measures is most prevalent in the Global South, where Shortage of solid local research to guide policy-making helps international prohibitionists Groups have greater influence. This is especially true for novel nicotine products. India, Mexico, Taiwan and Brazil are among the countries that have passed similarly worded laws, along with measures that restrict citizens’ freedoms.
What may sound like a minor inconvenience is far more than that for a traveler who has switched from cigarettes, as they arrive in a location where e-cigarettes may not be readily available. Cigarettes are always available.
Forbidden Passengers from carrying E-cigarettes on flights, although personal use is not prohibited from the country in question is a stark example. What may sound like a minor inconvenience is far more than that for a traveler who has switched from cigarettes and will arrive in a place where e-cigarettes may not be readily available. Cigarettes are always available.
Brazil recently tried this policy, but authorities quickly reversed it after loud and persistent complaints from nicotine users and tobacco harm reduction advocates.
The template was created five years ago in India. The text of the 2019 Vape ban The bill did not mention that personal use and possession of e-cigarettes is not a crime – by the government’s own admission, such a ban would not stand up in court – despite external assurances that use would not be prosecuted. A month later, however, the Indian Aviation Authority blocked Vapes on flights, citing the new law. The issue has been in court ever since.
Brazil has banned the sale and import of vapes since 2009. At the end of 2023, after two years of consultations, the National Ministry of Health Regulatory authority ANVISA, announced Public consultations would be held on changes to the ban, particularly on updating the wording, while the Senate was already discussing a bill to regulate e-cigarettes.
People in Brazil who smoke e-cigarettes were angry.
“ANVISA ignored the scientific evidence and the wishes of Brazilians and stuck to the ban on e-cigarettes while more than 80 countries are working to reduce tobacco harm and allow the controlled sale of vaping devices,” said Alexandro Lucian, a Brazilian consumer activist and researcher. filter“This harms millions of e-cigarette users and prevents over 20 million smokers in Brazil from having access to safer nicotine products..”
Like in India, only one month later and despite the Assurances, the Brazilian aviation authority ANAC imposed a complete ban on e-cigarettes on flights.
Lucian is president of Direta, a non-profit organization representing Brazilian vapers. The group has been protesting Anvisa’s anti-vaping stance since 2022, when it launched an online campaign. petition signed by 10,000 people. It also held Protests in front of the ANVISA office during the public consultations in December and February and called the new regulatory text “flawed and prone to misinterpretation”. The protests won Essential media Attention.
Lucian with other protesters in front of the ANVISA offices
Faced with growing pressure, ANVISA director Daniel Pereira stated during a public consultation: “It is important to clarify that the proposed regulation does not aim to criminalize the use of these products, but to maintain the ban on economic activities.” ANVISA later outlined These alleged consumer protection measures were published on the Commission’s website before it adopted the new text in April.
But like in India, only one month later and despite the Assurances, the Brazilian aviation authority ANAC imposed a complete ban on e-cigarettes on flights, citing the new ANVISA text.
The ANAC was previously affiliated to the international Norm to allow vaping devices in hand luggage. It noticed The change was announced on the airline’s website on 8 May, but communication with airports and airlines was inadequate, resulting in haphazard implementation and harassment of unsuspecting vape users.
RNB, whose e-cigarettes were confiscated by airport security in Campina Grande, said he had no idea about the new regulation. He tried to argue with officials, but to no avail. Other e-cigarette users told filter to have similar experiences Seizures at certain airports.
While some vented their anger on social media, Lucian used Brazil’s formal information channels to seek clarification from the ANAC.
The aviation authority responded at the beginning of July with the statement: “Under the new regulations, battery-operated electronic smoking devices are not permitted to be transported in checked baggage or hand baggage on board aircraft.”
Lucian and his colleagues ANAC under further pressure to use more social media Posts and another request – this time pointing out the discrepancy with ANVISA’s assurance that the private use of e-cigarettes is not prohibited.
On 16 July, three months after the ban was imposed, ANAC responded by announcing that the decision had been reversed: “We clarify that the delay in addressing this issue is mainly due to a process of harmonisation of understanding with ANVISA, which led to a change of opinion. The devices are now allowed to be transported as hand luggage.”
The U-turn was a response to “numerous complaints from passengers that were widely shared on social media,” ANAC said.
ANAC later updated his website, and confirmed his turnaround in response to an email query from filter“The National Civil Aviation Authority has approved the transport of electronic cigarettes on all domestic flights in Brazil and allows them to be carried as hand luggage,” it said.
The decision was a response to “numerous complaints widely shared on social media from passengers who were denied access to aircraft with their devices at airports such as Rio de Janeiro and Campo Grande.”
When asked whether ANVISA’s decision to publish a poorly written text despite warnings, It could have been misapplied, intentional or due to incompetence, Lucian said. “I can only speculate, but it seems that they chose the wording carefully and tried to indirectly ban the use and possession of e-cigarettes, waiting to see if consumers and society react. ANAC’s decision to correct its mistake is a victory, but many people have lost products that had helped them quit smoking and some may have been forced to return to cigarettes.”
Lucian also pointed to the role of international non-profit organizations such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and its partner, the Alliance for Tobacco Control (ACT). He Estimates that ACT has received up to $3.75 million in funding for anti-vaping efforts in the country. Brazil is among the key countries in Bloomberg’s latest funding call, which includes up to $400,000 in funding to “support the maintenance of Brazil’s ban on e-cigarettes.”
Successes like this for consumers can inspire efforts elsewhere.
This underlines the immense Financing gap between anti-vaping advocacy Groups and Voluntary consumer organisations like DIRETA. Consumer organizations are regularly slandered as According to Lucian, DIRETA has decided not to accept money from the tobacco industry.
But consumer successes like this one can also give new momentum to other efforts.
“The lifting of the flight ban in Brazil is welcome and can help convince the Indian judiciary of the illegality of harassing e-cigarette users at airports when their use is not prohibited,” said lead lawyer Dr. Farrukh Khan. told filter. Khan has filed petitions on behalf of two steamers in the Delhi High Court seeking the annulment India’s flight ban.
However, the Brazilian supporters still have a long way to go. “In a context where regulation often turns into authoritarianism, the ANAC decision seems to be a response to popular discontent,” says Claudio Teixeira, editor of the Brazilian online magazine Vaping todaytold filterHowever, he questioned “whether this represents a real victory or merely a superficial concession that fails to address the deep divide between health policy and the real needs of consumers.”
The country, he said, is experiencing “a growing wave of science denial, fueled by a moral-religious capitalist bureaucracy that infiltrates various areas of public administration.”
The ultimate goal of Brazilian consumers is to lift the ban on the sale of e-cigarettes. They are now rallying behind the Senate The invoice which proposes to regulate these harm reduction options.
Top photo by Victor via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0. Inset photo courtesy of Alexandro Lucian.
