“Thankfully, the inconvenient truth about vaping has now landed on the laptops of Australians smashing all the alarmist anti-vaping propaganda health agencies and officials are peddling,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Co-ordinator of CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates).
Ms Loucas’ comments follow Australian THR expert Dr Colin Mendelsohn launching a series of eight short evidence-based videos on vaping to combat the misinformation videos by Dr Karl Krsuzelnicki for Queensland Health.
“Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia are throwing a lot of public money at untruthful anti-vaping campaigns. Subsequently, adult smokers in Australia are being actively discouraged from switching to less harmful nicotine alternatives. Dr Col’s Vape Truths are well worth a watch and completely expose Australia’s indefensible anti-vaping position,” she says.
Dr Mendelsohn’s eight-part video series reveals that vapour is far less toxic than cigarette smoke; vaping significantly reduces the risk of cancer relative to smoking; there has never been a single death caused by vaping nicotine; when smokers switch to vaping, their breathing improves substantially; and most of the chemicals in vapour are present at very low doses and most cause little or no harm.
Dr Col’s Vape Truths can be viewed at https://colinmendelsohn.com.au/dr-cols-vape-truths/
“Australia’s overall smoking rate has barely budged in recent years, while New Zealand’s has halved in the past decade. New Zealand is promoting vaping as an effective smoking cessation tool while Australia’s ‘quit or die’ approach to tobacco control is failing its 2.3 million smokers badly,” says Ms Loucas.
CAPHRA says Australia is falling further behind the Asia Pacific region, with the Philippines the latest country to regulate the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, and use of vaping.
The Philippines’ Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act became law on 25 July, with local health experts convinced it will help reduce serious diseases and deaths caused by smoking.
CAPHRA says it’s outrageous that Australia is the only Western democracy that requires a nicotine prescription to vape.
“About 70 countries worldwide have regulated safer nicotine products, yet Australia’s health leaders continue to ban retail access for adults. Medicalisation makes it harder for smokers to switch to vaping and makes Australia’s 10% smoking target near impossible to achieve. In comparison, New Zealand is on target to reach smokefree – where just five percent or fewer Kiwis smoke,” she says.
CAPHRA believes Dr Mendelsohn’s latest counter-campaign confirms that the ongoing scaremongering and hysteria about vaping in Australia is completely baseless.
“These inconvenient truths also expose the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ongoing refusal to acknowledge growing international science that confirms vaping is considerably less harmful than smoking,” she says.
Every year about 20,000 Australian smokers die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses. If Australia is serious about reducing its horrific annual death toll, CAPHRA believes politicians and health officials need to listen less to WHO and more to Dr Mendelsohn, science, and the international community.
“Vaping bans inevitably fail, with the Philippines the latest to lift theirs with Malaysia and Thailand now set to follow. Dr Col’s Vape Truths’ video series shines some timely light on Australia’s increasingly isolated and untenable position on vaping. For any doubters, it’s a must watch,” says Nancy Loucas.
Boosting nearly 15,000 testimonials, CAPHRA is calling on those who’ve quit cigarettes through smoke-free nicotine alternatives to tell their story on www.righttovape.org
For a free digital media repository on tobacco harm reduction in Asia Pacific – including media releases, images and graphics – please visit https://apthrmedia.org
About CAPHRA
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates (CAPHRA) is a regional alliance of consumer tobacco harm reduction advocacy organizations. Its mission is to educate, advocate and represent the right of adult alternative nicotine consumers to access and use of products that reduce harm from tobacco use.
