VAPERS on Thursday called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to allow the world’s 1 billion smokers to have equal access to safer alternatives to cigarettes.
“On behalf of millions of us who now vape instead of smoke, and in support of the 1 billion smokers who deserve access to safer alternatives to cigarettes, we adopt today The Delhi Declaration, calling on the WHO and our countries’ representatives at Conference of the Parties 7 (COP7) to allow us to have equal access to safer alternatives to cigarettes,” said Tom Pinlac, president of The Vapers Philippines.
Officials in closed-door meetings between the WHO and government health ministries in India this week are considering banning electronic cigarettes, despite acknowledging that they are significantly safer than cigarettes.
They banned vapers and consumer groups from their supposedly public meetings on Monday.
Consumers fought back and held a conference nearby.
E-cigarettes have been endorsed by the British government as 95 percent safer than cigarettes. They are widely available in the UK, the US and the EU, leading millions of smokers to quit cigarettes for good, according to a study published this month in the scientific journal Addiction. They have recently become the most popular way to quit smoking in Switzerland.
However, it is Swiss-based WHO officials who are leading the call to clamp down on vape products. A report by an unnamed author at the WHO Secretariat in Geneva is the basis for this week’s negotiations. Despite acknowledging that e-cigarettes are “very likely…less toxic than cigarette smoke” and that smokers switching to e-cigarettes “would represent a significant contemporary public health achievement,” the report recommends banning or severely restricting electronic cigarettes, citing concerns about youth experimentation and the lack of clinical studies on long-term safety.
“If we had waited for clinical studies and scientific certainty, we wouldn’t have seat belts, motorcycle helmets, cleaner fuel, or healthier foods,” Pinlac said. “There is no doubt e-cigarettes are much safer than cigarettes. Banning them shows disdain for our health and we are the ones who pay the price. Concerns about youth are very important, but that should be addressed through appropriate, balanced regulation, not bans.”
2 comments
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I think vaping is safer than vaping 🙂 Well I really love vaping, the flavors used in vape couldn’t harm that much as smoking does, I support vaping as compare to smoking