Europeans COP Another Letter
ETHRA and its partner organisations have written to the delegations of the European Parties to next month’s COP9
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by Dave Cross
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ETHRA’s letter rapidly follows one sent by one hundred policy and research experts (1).
Its letter states: “We write in anticipation of the FCTC 9th Conference of the Parties to urge you to take into consideration the views of the millions of ex-smokers who have vastly improved their health by switching to smoke-free low-risk alternatives to cigarettes.
We ask that tobacco harm reduction measures be incorporated into current tobacco control measures, as per Article 1(d) of the FCTC, which includes tobacco harm reduction in the definition of tobacco control.
“WHO has consistently downplayed or denied the health opportunities of tobacco harm reduction, overstated the risks and selectively chosen and misinterpreted science to make its case. WHO promotes prohibitions and excessive regulation of these smoke-free products but ignores the likely harmful unintended consequences of such measures, which would be more smoking, ill-health and unregulated black markets. Parties should expect and demand better science and policy analysis and be open to insights about the use of tobacco harm reduction to reduce the burden of disease from experts, consumers, and businesses with specialised knowledge.
“The concept of ‘nothing about us, without us’ is persistently ignored by the parties. As Consumers, we are most affected by disproportionate and reckless regulations, but we are locked out of any discussions. We are not listened to, we are not consulted, we are ignored.”
ETHRA is a group of 23 grassroots consumer associations in 16 European countries, supported by experts in the field of tobacco control and nicotine research.
“We are the voice of 27 million European users of low-risk alternatives to smoking and far more potential users. We support tobacco harm reduction: helping and encouraging smokers to switch from high-risk to low-risk nicotine products as a practical public health strategy that will work quickly and at scale, not just in the EU but globally. We are a voluntary operation, we have no industry funding, or conflicts of interest.
“As ex-smokers we understand better than anyone how difficult quitting smoking can be. Most of us made many unsuccessful quit attempts using traditional cessation methods, and it wasn’t until we found safer nicotine products that we were finally able to quit smoking and remain smoke free. Vapes, snus, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products are proving to be hugely popular and successful methods of quitting smoking in the EU.”
ETHRA included the letter from 100 independent experts to lend weight to its argument and urged the recipients to take its members views into account.
“The recommendation on tobacco harm reduction from this expert group will save millions of lives. However, the unintended consequences of regulating safer nicotine products out of existence would be catastrophic.”
References:
- One Hundred Voices - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/vaping-news/2021-10-20_100-expert-voices.html
Photo Credit:
Photo by ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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