NEWS
Incomplete , inaccurate and outdated
Two medical doctors and a professor of psychology hit back at ‘ Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada ’ who claim vaping is NOT an effective smoking cessation tool .
Words : Patrick Griffin
An influential group of Canadian physicians has been criticised for urging health regulators to warn young people : “ Smoking kills and vaping almost certainly kills too .”
Physicians for A Smoke Free Canada made the call in their recently published report “ Science has marched on : it ’ s time to update the advice to Canadians .”
They added : “ Using e-cigarettes will likely decrease the chances of success and will increase health risks in comparison with approved smoking cessation aids .”
PSFC say they are ‘ working to reduce the toll of nicotine addiction ’ and have a stated goal to end commercial nicotine and tobacco use .
However , two medical doctors and a professor of psychology have published a rebuttal , saying that it is ‘ incomplete , inaccurate and contains outdated information ’.
Tobacco control activist Dr John Oyston , public health expert Dr Mark Tyndall and professor of psychology Dr Chris Lalonde hit back at the misinformation .
They wrote : “ PSFC has a bias against any form of nicotine use .
“ We strongly believe that this is the wrong message and is not supported by the science .
“ If left unchallenged , it will prevent smokers from switching to less harmful sources of nicotine , resulting in literally thousands of deaths and greater profits for the tobacco industry .
“ It will also encourage all levels of government to make vaping less attractive to both smokers and non-smokers and therefore less effective as a way to quit smoking , by imposing artificially low nicotine levels , flavour bans , high taxes , and restricted access .”
Directly addressing the points made in the report , the trio comment on a number of key issues including :
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