Triumph and Tragedy
Thinking 'bout THR Newsletter Special Edition: 2025 WVD vs WNTD
World Vape Day (WVD) and World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2025
I started working on this before World Vape Day and intended to publish it that day (May 30). It turns out, a dark cloud was hanging over World Vape Day, and I suddenly changed my plans. That is why this special edition of the newsletter was postponed. It appears that commentary on those two awareness days has subsided, so I’ll finally get this published.
Many of us who used to smoke look forward to WVD. It is our day to celebrate our smoke-free lives. I, like many others, was sharing our stories and information about vaping on X (formerly Twitter) when I came across a tweet by Oduor Kevin (archived here). His tweet said:
“Check out my latest article: The World Vape Day Hoax: An Industry Distraction from World No Tobacco Day. Exposing the industry's tactics, discrediting the legitimacy of “World Vape Day.”
He included a link to the post he published on LinkedIn. (Archived here. It can also be found on this website.)
A hoax??? Wow, I was instantly outraged, insulted, and felt demeaned. As I read his LinkedIn post, I could see that our special day was dismissed as just another ploy by an evil industry and tossed in the trash. While Kevin made several accusations, he didn’t include any links to provide proof for his claims.
Kevin’s claims included:
WVD is an industry-invented public relations creation designed to distract, confuse, and dilute the impact of WNTD by hijacking the narrative. It is a strategic move by the industry to rebrand harmful nicotine products as tools of harm reduction while expanding their market.
Shift media attention away from tobacco control efforts.
The timing of WVD on May 30 is no coincidence—it is a deliberate tactic.
Confuse the public by promoting vapes and nicotine pouches as “safer” alternatives.
This is not harm reduction—it’s harm redirection.
Made an ad hominem attack on Ziauddin Islam. (This is the second time that I’m aware of that Kevin has personally attacked Islam’s efforts to support all possible means of helping people stop smoking.)
The usual anti-vape talking points: “Nicotine itself is harmful to developing brains. Vaping is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular risks. Most users of vapes are not adult smokers trying to quit—but rather youths who never smoked before.”
He hones in on a press release by BAT as proof of an industry conspiracy to undermine WNTD.
Real cessation is not switching, it is quitting all nicotine use.
What is the story behind World Vape Day? Why did it end up being held the day before World No Tobacco Day? Is this another evil industry plot to undermine the efforts of the WHO and other organizations, or is it a grassroots celebration observed by people who vape? Is the WHO the entity that people who smoke should trust to lead them to a healthier lifestyle?
Let’s unpack some of Kevin’s claims about WVD and then move on to some of the coverage of WVD and WNTD. Most of my readers are already familiar with the anti-vape talking points and the controversy surrounding the meanings of “quitting” and “switching,” so I will focus on Kevin’s concerns about the origin of WVD and its purpose, which, in his view, is an industry ploy to market products and undermine WNTD efforts. (Hint, he’s not 100% wrong on the undermine part! Somebody has to counter the misinformation shared about THR on WNTD.)
While we’re pondering all the thoughts shared during WVD and WNTD, could we please give some thought as to why some groups are calling “for the complete removal of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and other emerging tobacco products from the Kenyan market; they are not harmless alternatives — they’re the tobacco industry’s rebranded trap!”
Isn’t it a bit odd that they don’t include a call for the removal of combustible products? (This claim is also made for other parts of the world, but I’m going to resist the urge to make a list due to the length of this edition of the newsletter.)
I hope you’re seated somewhere comfortable, this newsletter is going to be a long one! You might want to grab a snack and a beverage.
Odour Kevin’s piece about World Vape Day being a hoax complained that World Vape Day is not recognized as a health event by the UN, WHO, or other major health organizations. As far as I know, that claim is true, but it is presented in a way to support his mistaken argument that World Vape Day is a hoax.
Even for widely recognized awareness events, the WHO does not run a campaign for all of them or participate in them. For example, June is PTSD Awareness Month. A search of the WHO website provides information on PTSD, but does not mention that every June is PTSD Awareness Month.
Globally, there are numerous awareness days, weeks, and months that serve as niche celebrations or efforts to raise awareness. There is no universal rule stating that certain entities must endorse them before they are valid to the people observing those days.
Several websites list awareness days. Some of those days relate to health, while others involve activities such as Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, showing kindness, and taking your dog for a walk. Two examples of them that include World Vape Day are International Days and EventGuide.
World Vape Day is a celebration and awareness day, not a health day. People who vaped to quit smoking share their stories and their knowledge about how the products can help others. The first World Vaping Day (now known as World Vape Day) was observed in 2012. A Consumer group in the US coordinated the event. At least 15 countries participated. It would be celebrated on different dates from 2012 through 2014.
In 2015, consumer advocates and small business owners in Spain collaborated. They picked May 30 as their National Electronic Cigarette Day. Other countries used that date for World Vape Day that year. “With this date, they want to remind everyone that tobacco and e-cigarettes are completely different products and highlight the e-cigarette as a less harmful alternative to tobacco, aimed exclusively at adult smokers."
WVD has been held on May 30 since 2015. INNCO was the WVD collaborator in the early 2020s, and over the last few years, it has been coordinated by an international group of advocates instead of an advocacy organization.
You can find more information about the history of WVD in this piece I wrote last year that was published by Filter: Why We Need World Vape Day More Than Ever. I compiled that history as best I could, based on searching for information, interviewing consumers, and utilizing their oral histories.
Even if Oduor Kevin does not want to trust the word of people who use nicotine about the origins of WVD, it doesn’t take long to research WVD because there aren’t many papers that discuss WVD. It took me less than a minute to find this brief history of the origins of the day in a journal: “On March 22, 2012, ENDS advocacy organizations, including Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association (CASAA), initiated the first “World Vaping Day” (as it was originally called before being renamed “World Vape Day”). While many national and regional ENDS advocacy campaigns exist, WVD has become a significant global advocacy platform for ENDS proponents, who have used it to try to influence the World Health Organization (WHO).”
Taking into consideration the WHO’s stance against THR products, if I held my breath until they endorsed WVD, I would be dead. Dead just like the millions of people who smoke die every year, because the WHO (and many others) are not endorsing change, innovation, and technology.
Those organizations are not making it a priority to improve the health of those who smoke and save them from early death. They are unwilling to take a risk and try something new, to #RethinkNicotine, or to focus on anything outside of youth initiation and squashing an industry that is going to be next to impossible to get rid of. It is hard to fathom why they oppose tobacco harm reduction when they support harm reduction in other areas of public health.
This is why WVD continues to be observed on May 30th, to counter the massive amounts of misinformation about THR that is spread on WNTD. While that may feel like hijacking to Kevin, it feels like the right thing to do to smoking harm reduction advocates. Advocates are all too familiar with the WHO spreading half-truths and misinformation and have compiled a list of some of the Community Notes the WHO has received.
It is a triumph to witness the millions of people who have successfully quit smoking. It is a tragedy that the WHO and other organizations continue to ignore and vilify one of the greatest public health successes of this century.
While people like Kevin attempt to dismiss and silence our voices, we will continue to celebrate our special day and use our voices to educate others on the importance of tobacco harm reduction.
Part of Oduor Kevin’s “evidence” that WVD is a hoax is that he has seen online posts by BAT Kenya promoting WVD. I did not find the exact headline that he mentioned, but I did find some from BAT Kenya talking about WVD and WNTD. (Here, here, and here, for example. For good measure, I went to BAT’s main website to see if they also mention WVD and/or WNTD and found this commitment to preventing youth use.)
You know I’m always full of questions, and the next one that pops into my mind is, does mentioning an awareness day by a commercial entity make it a hoax? How about if they sell something that day?
Like the business that wants to know “why not” ice cream for breakfast? Is Walk Your Dog Day a hoax, and no longer about doing what is healthy for you and your dog, if the news shows you cute pups and products for pets and their owners? Would dog walking events promoted by a product make Walk Your Dog Day a hoax?
Is World No Tobacco Day a hoax because a cryptocurrency project named “NoSmokeToken” was launched on WNTD?
Does industry support and marketing on WNTD make it a hoax? Like this ad for NRTs in India, this infographic from Pfizer, or this press release announcing a partnership between Alex Therapeutics and Pfizer in Sweden.
If the answer to the above questions is no, then none of those examples make the day a hoax to those who observe them. Then why would a customer appreciation sale at a vape shop or a press release by a company that manufactures nicotine products make World Vape Day a hoax? (Unless you believe in double standards!)
I think it’s important when encountering people with whom we disagree to be curious about their perspective and strive to understand their underlying beliefs. I don’t know Oduor Kevin, so I don’t know if he came to his conclusions independently, if his opinions stem from his tobacco control tribe, or if insights from the scientific literature contributed to his views. If he looked for papers on the topic, would he have found balanced perspectives, or only ones that support his views?
It appears to me that those analyzing World Vape Day might have overlooked the significance of who is behind this event (people who use nicotine) and the purpose of the event (a community celebrating their smoke-free lives). Are they asking the right questions when they research this event?
A paper that was published in 2017 analyzed WVD tweets from 2014. Here are some snippets from the paper:
“ENDS use, commonly called “vaping,” is growing in popularity and presents health risks related to inhalation of toxic chemicals as well as serving as a gateway to cigarette use among non-smokers…Youth…This represents a missed opportunity for public health advocates to enter into dialogue about known ENDS risks. It may be beneficial for public health education campaigns to allocate resources for disseminating pertinent information through the Twitter platform. However, it is also important to consider how messages of this nature might be received by current and potential ENDS users. In our data, we observed mistrust toward public health advocates who were understood to be misaligned with the harm-reduction benefits surrounding ENDS use. Thus, it may be valuable for public health advocates to provide information about known risks while clearly empathizing with the perceived harm-reduction benefits of ENDS in smoking cessation.”
Colditz, J. B., Welling, J., Smith, N. A., James, A. E., & Primack, B. A. (2017). World Vaping Day: Contextualizing Vaping Culture in Online Social Media Using a Mixed Methods Approach. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 13(2), 196-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689817702753
Tweets from 2020 were analyzed, and the results were published in a 2022 paper. Here are some highlights of my quick scan of that paper: “Advocates of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) increasingly use Twitter to promote liberal ENDS policies. “World Vape Day” (WVD) is an annual campaign organized by pro-ENDS advocacy groups, some of which have links to the nicotine industry (eg, via funding from the “Foundation for a Smoke-Free World”)…Arguments related to four themes: harm reduction, smoking cessation, rights and justice, and opposition to ENDS restrictions…The most prevalent messages criticized those perceived as opposing liberal ENDS regulation, such as the WHO and other public health agencies, and represented them as immorally spreading disinformation about ENDS to maintain (rather than reduce) smoking prevalence…” (Note: while this paper expresses concerns over conflict of interest behind legacy tobacco companies’ funding or assumed funding of consumer groups, they do not consider themselves to be biased, even though one of the authors acknowledges the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products project funding.)
Lee E, Hoek J, Fenton E, Joshi A, Evans-Reeves K, Robertson L. An Analysis of Arguments Advanced via Twitter in an Advocacy Campaign to Promote Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems. Nicotine Tob Res. 2023 Feb 9;25(3):533-540. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntac237. PMID: 36269978; PMCID: PMC9910155.
The press release about the above study states, “…the campaign was targeted—at least in part—at WHO officials and followers of the WHO World No Tobacco Day campaign...” If it were analyzed with an open mind, they’d see the day was created to celebrate smoke-free lives and educate others about tobacco harm reduction. Perhaps they’d see that consumers feel the need to target the WHO and others because those groups are sharing misinformation, refusing to engage with consumers, and are trying to ban the products that are helping consumers stop smoking and remain smoke-free.
I couldn’t find any papers that talked to consumers, the people behind WVD, to gather their perspectives. I saw only the two above, which felt like they were seeking reasons to be sceptical of the motives behind the day, and looked for ways to counter its messaging.
I don’t believe this is correct. This is one of many things that were published or posted on social media on WVD and WNTD that I think are misleading. Between the WHO and public health groups, there are too many to list. I will dedicate this section to just one example. Published by the American Medical Association on World Vape Day.
Commentary on the AMA piece:
To the American Medical Association: What Smokers Wish Doctors Knew About E-Cigarettes. Dr. Rodu
American Medical Association Article Claims that Quitting Smoking by Switching to Vapes is Not Quitting. Dr. Siegel
Antifreeze Chemical In Vapes? American Medical Association Launches A Scare Campaign. Cameron English
When It Comes to Tobacco Harm Reduction, the AMA Can’t See the Forest for the Trees. Jeffrey Smith
The AMA’s misleading narrative on vaping harms public health. Jacob James Rich
This one was tweeted on WVD. Sara Berg, MS, AMA Lead Communications Specialist. “Also known as vapes, e-cigarettes may seem safe to use, but they are not. Bilal Bangash, MD, of BayhealthDE, shares more about vaping…” (There are two CNs. You might have to click on the CN banner under the tweet to see both of them.)
WVD
WNTD
WHO's Science in 5 - Exposing big tobacco: smoke and spin - 29 May 2025. (This one should have gone in the misinformation section!!!)
Puffs, Pods, Pouches: Which Nicotine Trend Worries Experts? “On World No Tobacco Day, CHC Mont Legia hosted the clinical nurse tobacco specialist Adrien Meunier to discuss the role of next-generation nicotine products in smoking cessation. The central question is: Do these alternatives genuinely help smokers quit, or are they simply a new gateway to combustible tobacco use?”
WVD
World Vape Day Follows Tumultuous Year in Tobacco Harm Reduction. “The urgency of raising awareness on World Vape Day—May 30—has increased since I wrote about it in 2024. The time when it was simply a day of celebration for people who had quit smoking is long gone. The past year has heightened the need to combat rampant misinformation and the spread of policies that favor deadly cigarettes over safer alternatives.”
World Vape Day: Science, Cinema, and Citizenship in Defense of Harm Reduction. “Every May 30th, World Vape Day emerges as an act of health insubordination—an uncomfortable proposal for some, but an urgent one. In the face of policies that demand all or nothing, this global day affirms alternatives—those that save, support, and listen. Backed by science, art, and organized citizens, the harm reduction movement challenges institutional silence and defends an often-denied core principle: the right to choose how to care for oneself.”
World Vape Day 2025: 20 Years of Facts and Life-Changing Innovation. “As the evidence mounts, it’s impossible to ignore the transformation that harm reduction has brought to public health,” said Joseph Magero, Campaign for Safer Alternatives’ Chair, “In Sweden, the widespread use of safer nicotine products has nearly eliminated smoking, and New Zealand is on the path to a smoke-free future. The data is clear: when adults have access to regulated vaping products, smoking rates fall faster, more lives are saved, and health inequalities are reduced.”
CAPHRA Condemns WHO’s Anti-Science Agenda On World Vape Day. “The WHO’s ‘Health For All’ mantra rings hollow when it dismisses vaping’s life-saving potential,” said Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA’s Executive Coordinator. “Their 2025 theme masks a dangerous agenda: protecting cigarette markets by vilifying harm reduction.”
WVD Interview with Clive Bates: What does the science REALLY say about vaping? We ask an expert. “A former director of the charity Action on Smoking and Health UK and long-time advocate for evidence-based public health policy, Bates has spent decades analysing the science and policy around tobacco and nicotine.”
WORLD VAPE DAY 2025: LET'S CELEBRATE OUR PROGRESS AND KEEP WORKING TOWARDS A SMOKE FREE CANADA. “2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the first vapour products in North America. Rights4Vapers wishes to celebrate the lives saved thanks to these safer nicotine products as well as acknowledge that there is still much work to do to ensure that they remain available to adults who are looking for an alternative to deadly cigarettes.”
Vaping Saves Lives – World Vape Day 2025. “The annual celebration of World Vape Day takes place on Friday, May 30, 2025. The theme this year is, “20 Years of Facts-Vaping Works!” This is very fitting as governments and organizations around the world, including, shamefully, the World Health Organization (WHO), have gone to great lengths to spread false narratives about vaping in an attempt to discredit any of the benefits, of which there are many.”
Vaping News World Vape Day: An Opportunity. “Ahead of World Vape Day on 30 May, Professor Heino Stöver writes an op-ed for Planet of the Vapes on the case for vaping as a harm reduction tool being stronger than ever. Backed by real-world data and rigorous reviews such as Cochrane and Public Health England, he believes the evidence shows that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and more effective than many traditional quit methods - yet excessive regulation threatens to undermine this progress.”
World Vaping Day: Regulation Of Vaping Products Necessary To Reduce Tobacco-related Harm – Expert. “THR isn’t about promoting nicotine,” said Akinyele. “It’s about giving people real-world tools to reduce harm. Every Nigerian deserves that choice.”
World Vape Day 2025 Marks 20 Years of Tobacco Harm Reduction Progress. “World Vape Day is celebrated one day before World No Tobacco Day, emphasising the importance of evidence-based harm reduction tools in the fight against smoking-related disease.”
The Triad of Trouble. “Rights4Vapers was in Ottawa last week to welcome our new MPs and celebrate World Vape Day and World No Tobacco Day… Economics professor Ian Irvine clapped back with a sharp rebuttal to the briefing written by Ms. Collard from Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada… All told, this set of slides is confused and confusing… A question we need to ask is this: is our government funding the spread of misinformation?”
WNTD
World No Tobacco Day 2025: Former WHO Executive Director Dr. Derek Yach Calls for Embracing Harm Reduction. “To mark World No Tobacco Day 2025, 2Firsts invited Dr. Derek Yach, former Executive Director at the World Health Organization, to share his reflections. In this article, Dr. Yach revisits the origins of WNTD during apartheid-era South Africa, its global rise, and its unfinished mission. He calls on the public health community to more fully embrace tobacco harm reduction and urges the WHO to take stronger leadership in supporting reduced-risk products.”
Is it time to rename World No Tobacco Day to World No Cigarette Day? “Does the fact that certain smokeless tobacco and nicotine products offer substantial harm reduction¹ opportunities, not make the name and essence of this well-intentioned initiative outdated?”
Up in smoke: On World No Tobacco Day, exploring India’s vaping paradox. “Each year on World No Tobacco Day (May 31), attention turns to the 13.5 lakh lives that tobacco claims annually in India. With one of the world’s largest populations of tobacco users, India faces a public health crisis. Globally, countries are adopting harm-reduction options like vaping to help smokers quit. But in India, the sale and import of e-cigarettes have been banned since 2019 — a move that has had unintended consequences.”
Panel of Global Experts Criticizes WHO for Undermining Its Own “World No Tobacco Day” Goals. “Participants from Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom issued a stark warning that the WHO’s rigid, prohibitionist approach is not only failing to reduce smoking, it may be contributing to unnecessary deaths and the growth of dangerous black markets.”
World No Tobacco Day 2025: A Global Campaign Against Tobacco Harm Reduction, Not Tobacco. “This year’s World No Tobacco Day, led again by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), had precious little to say about tobacco. This substance kills over 8 million people each year. Instead, the campaign focused obsessively on attacking vaping and other nicotine alternatives, conflating them with combustible tobacco in one of the most egregious misrepresentations of public health priorities we’ve seen to date.”
Public health advocates decry WHO’s ‘prohibitionist’ nicotine stance. “The WHO dismisses adult smokers and vapers, even though adults bear the vast majority of tobacco-related harm. It’s odd to see the organization celebrate bans on products that aren’t even made from tobacco,” said Martin Cullip, a fellow at the Taxpayer’s Protection Alliance (TPA) and a prominent harm reduction advocate, during an international webinar titled “How the WHO undermines World No Tobacco Day.” He added that the WHO is “ignoring the populations most at risk.”
WHO under fire for blocking proven tools to reduce smoking deaths. “During an international webinar titled “How the WHO undermines World No Tobacco Day,” the Taxpayer’s Protection Alliance (TPA) criticized the WHO’s rejection of harm reduction tools, despite what they described as growing evidence of their effectiveness in helping smokers quit. Participants from Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom alleged that the WHO’s prohibitionist stance is counterproductive, exacerbating smoking-related deaths and fueling black markets.”
WHO’s Anti-Vaping Threat. Landl concluded: “The WHO should be leading the fight against smoking, not fighting against the very tools and technologies that are making the biggest difference. It’s time for the WHO to listen to science and the real-life experiences of millions who have quit smoking thanks to vaping.”
World No Tobacco Day 2025: Experts say ‘vaping more dangerous than cigarettes,’ blame ‘influencers for glamourising. “On World Tobacco Day, experts have underlined the rampant use of e-cigarettes and vapes, highlighting how sellers are promoting their use as a "luxury" and employing clever tactics to compel teenagers to buy these products. During a seminar organised by ‘Mothers Against Vaping’ - a united front of concerned mothers combating the escalating vaping crisis among the youth - experts noted that despite the ban on these products under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act (PECA), 2019, producers have found ways to circumvent the law and promote e-cigarettes and vapes.”
Blast from the past: 2019 - Managing Nicotine Without Smoke to Save Lives Now: Evidence for Harm Minimization. “For this harm minimization framework to eliminate smoking, a laser focus on ‘smoking control’ (not general tobacco control) is needed. By adopting these economically viable NNPs [noncombustible nicotine products] as part of the solution, NNPs can be smoking control’s valued ally. Synthesis of the science indicates that policy and regulation can sufficiently protect youth while speeding the switch away from smoking. Despite some risks of nicotine dependence that can be mitigated but not eliminated, no credible evidence counters the assertion that NNPs will save lives if they displace smoking. But scientific evidence and advocacy has selectively exaggerated NNP harms over benefits.”
Due to length, the section on the WHO’s mission creep from ending death and disease from lethal forms of tobacco to abstinence from nicotine has been posted as a separate entry on my blog. It traces the history of WNTD, including a list of the themes from the first year in 1988 to this year’s theme.
Until next time…
P.S.: Consumers have already begun planning #WorldVapeDay 2026. 2026 will be similar to the past few years, where a group of advocates from various locations will collaborate to coordinate the day, rather than a specific advocacy group. There will be no funding for this effort. We utilize our skills to design the graphics, select the theme, and promote the event on social media. Some advocacy groups may choose to participate as an organization. We have no control over any commercial entities that may choose to highlight this special day. #CantStopWontStop #OneTeamOneGoal #VapingSavesLives
Notes:
I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups with which I volunteer. I receive no financial compensation for my efforts to create these newsletters.
My blog, Skip's Corner, has an X/Twitter account. My personal accounts are on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).
Fantastic, Skip!! Thank you for this thoughtful, well-researched, and timely piece. Your analysis provides a necessary counterbalance to the reductive narratives that often dominate the conversation surrounding World Vape Day.
By weaving in both historical context and contemporary reactions, you show that World Vape Day isn’t some industry hoax—it’s a community response born of necessity. A celebration, yes, but also an act of resistance against the institutional inertia and ideological dogma that continue to cost lives.
Love it.
Skip, this is an outstanding post! The way you break down Oduor Kevin’s claims and provide context for World Vape Day’s origins is both compelling and informative. Your dedication to advocating for smoke-free lives is inspiring, and I’m already looking forward to your next newsletter!