less harmful that combustible cigarettes, saying: “This depends on a
range of factors, including the amount of nicotine and other toxicants
in the heated liquids, but we know that e-cigarettes pose clear health
risks and are by no means safe.”
The WHO’s reluctance to embrace vaping’s harm reduction potential
has been repeatedly challenged over the years. However, it refuses to
engage with the ‘tobacco’, i.e. ‘vaping’ industry as a matter of policy.
A number of harm reduction proponents were either thrown out of,
or refused entry to, last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP) event.
Dr. Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, Head of the Convention Secretariat,
said: “Vaping is a treacherous and flavoured camouflage of a health
disaster yet to happen if no action is taken now.”
influenced by vested interests, such as the pharmaceutical industry
and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The AVCA wrote: “The WHO is lying to you to protect their own
financial interests and keep their private donors happy.
“They are not objective. They are not focused on their own mandate
under the FCTC to promote the health of the people and their right to
have information to make informed choices regarding their health.”
The New Zealand government is unlikely to be the only one urged to
speak out against the WHO’s vaping policy at the COP9 event. And
as current events and President Trump’s war of words stoke further
criticism of the organisation’s influence and funding, it’s influence on
the global vaping stage may be under threat like never before.
Fed up with the WHO’s refusal to engage, a New Zealand advocacy
group is urging its government to fight back in the name of public
health.
The Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) has written to
associate health minister Jenny Salesa, calling on her to embrace
global scientific evidence supporting vaping instead of the WHO’s
position. The Ministry of Health will present at the COP9 event in The
Hague in November.
AVCA director Nancy Loucas said that consumers had been excluded
by the FCTC, which meant that it’s up to the government to represent
the public. The organisation argued that the WHO’s policy was
“There was a failure by the
World Health Organization to
obtain the information that the
world needed, and that failure
cost many lives.”
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