VAPING.COM co-founder and CEO of the seminal E-Cigarette Forum Oliver Kershaw has scooped the prestigious INNCO Honorary Advocate award for his outstanding service to vaping.
Kershaw, who also co-founded the E-Cigarette Summit, was recognised by The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisation, which presented him with the new award, which honours an individual who has been 'outstanding in promoting the cause of alternative risk reduced nicotine products through education, campaigning or collaboration'.
The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) is the collective voice for the most influential nicotine consumer organisations in 25 countries across five continents, who each recognise there are alternative ways to enjoy nicotine consumption than tobacco smoking.
As well as co-founding Vaping.com, Kershaw set up the world's largest vape and e-cig website E-Cigarette Forum (ECF) in 2007, a website which has flourished from a small community of tech-savvy enthusiasts into the go-to place to find out everything you need to know about e-cigarettes.
He also launched the prestigious E-Cigarette Summit, a now bi-annual date in the vaping calendar, which sees notable international speakers, scientists and experts come together to promote open and scientific debates about electronic cigarettes and related technologies.
After accepting the award, he said: "It's a real honour to receive this award from INNCO. ECF has been tremendously influential over the last decade - our membership arguably innovated much of what vaping is today: from the technology to advocacy and the independent industry."
ECF is the prototype. I was obviously a part in that story, but in some respects this is really an award for the thousands of people that gave up their time and energy to set the stage for one of the most important technologies of our time."
Meanwhile, renowned tobacco control researcher Dr. Marewa Glover received the INNCO Professional Advocate of the Year Award for her support of tobacco harm reduction at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland.
Dr. Glover said: "Vaping and social media have changed everything. There is a huge global network of vapers online and they are reaching more smokers than tobacco control ever could."
The future of helping people stop smoking is in the hands of the consumers now. They are the best ones to help their peers understand which of the innovative harm reduced nicotine products to try, whether it's e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products, snus or whatever they invent next.
"My role now is to help bring tobacco control and the consumers together. Raising awareness of the harmful effects of some of our policies, like excessive tobacco tax and preventing access to harm reduced products hopefully will help health professionals and academics stuck on smoker-bashing to rethink what they're doing" Dr. Glover said.
Leave a comment
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.