Mr. Han Li Welcome Address: GFN

Mr. Han Li Welcome Address: Global Forum on Nicotine, Warsaw th 14:30, Friday 5 June 2015

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m delighted to welcome you here today at The Global Forum on Nicotine, an event that has become one of the highlights of the year for the people and organisations who are shaping the present and future of nicotine products.

It’s wonderful, and still astonishing, to see so many faces at this event – especially when I think back to how the industry used to be. I may be revealing my age here, but when I first started working with nicotine products, I was a lone voice struggling to be heard.

It is common knowledge that my personal experience, and some painful memories, sparked off my journey towards creating the electronic technology, which I was eventually able to patent as the electronic cigarette.

But obviously an idea itself is only the beginning. For me the experience I had planted a seed in my mind of how I might go about developing a tobacco-free nicotine product that still managed to recreate some of the sensory elements of smoking – by replacing smoking with vapour.

While it was clear to me what I could do, it was not at all clear to others. They couldn’t conceive of how a product that delivered nicotine by heating liquid and emitting flavoured vapour could ever work – or if it did work, why people would want to use it and keep on using it. And I have to admit that there were times when I agreed with them wholeheartedly during the often frustrating years I spent developing the design for what would go on to become the e- cigarette.

Anyone who has ever tried to create anything can identify with the painstaking process of going down one path, making tiny modifications, then changing their mind and starting all over again. But I was determined – because I was convinced that the product would make a real difference to people’s lives and bring tremendous social benefits.

What kept me going throughout those long years was the dream of creating a tobacco-free nicotine product that would appeal to people like me and my father, who at that point could see no alternative to a lifetime of smoking. That was what inspired me to keep trying despite all the obstacles in my way – and is why I was so pleased when the product spread first across China, and then even further afield.

It is so satisfying that vapour technology has had such an impact. That so many people are here today demonstrates that e-cigarettes have become a truly consumer-driven revolution all over the world. Thanks to millions of dedicated people like you, something that began as a niche product has grown and is influencing lives everywhere.

But we have to be careful and watchful now. There is still much suspicion of the growth of this technology, which was neither ordered by a government nor propelled by a big corporation. As vaping becomes more widespread, so investigation increases. The value of this product as part of tobacco harm reduction is being questioned. We who are so passionate about e-cigarettes will have to be ready to pursue our cause and ambition. Tradition and customs need to develop so as to create the progress which will finally push our societies forward.

So over the course of the next two days, I look forward to hearing your stories, to learning about exciting new technologies which are taking this product forward. And – above all else – to seeing what the future holds for a product has benefitted so much from your imagination, innovation and dedication.