Spain’s Shame
Spain’s Ministry of Health has published a disgraceful report that lies, denies evidence, and uses ridiculous imagery to promote it
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by Dave Cross
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The Spanish Ministry of Health’s report warns the public of “the risks of smoking electronic cigarettes”. Losing all sense of evidence, it camps in an alternate reality where scientific evidence is apparently growing daily about the “short-term risks” of vaping. It takes a ridiculous stance in stating vaping is acting as a gateway into tobacco use for youth and that “there is no solid evidence that they are useful as tools to quit smoking”.
Shamefully, the Ministry also says: “Scientific evidence from recent years discredits the idea based on a 2014 article that suggested that e-cigarettes have an 80% lower risk than traditional tobacco.”
Then, in an act that ought to be criminal, they advertised the report’s release on social media with an image showing a man vaping with a stick of dynamite.
In the document seen by Planet of the Vapes, the Ministry relies on a selection of negative cherry-picked mouse studies, petri dish experiments, work produced by Stanton Glantz, and refers to the universally discredited SCHEER report.
The final two conclusions state: “The notion of risk reduction compared to traditional tobacco is a response to commercial strategies. The consumption of a harmful product is not plausible from a health point of view, regardless of its comparison with other products. The use of electronic cigarettes as a replacement therapy should be approached with caution, especially in light of new scientific evidence. If necessary, the use of these devices as a replacement therapy should be performed and prescribed by a physician.”
Consumer group ANESVAP responded that the report “ignores huge volume of studies which show that vaping helps smokers to quit”, and “attempts to show that restrictive regulations are needed to avoid youth uptake, when there is no evidence of the so-called ‘gateway effect’ in Europe”.
Anesvap’s Ángeles Muntadas-Prim Lafita said: “The Spanish Ministry of Health, facing the scandal of having its smoking rates escalating to reach those of 2005, diverts its responsibility with a biased and unscientific report that requires the immediate resignation of its General Director of Public Health, Pilar Aparicio.
“A position statement in which PHE is slandered, where a Machiavellian use of the Estudes data is made and almost completely based on the SCHEER draft which has not even reached its final conclusion by the EU, is simply a report that lacks a scientific basis and denies the real experiences of hundreds of thousands of people who have managed to give up smoking thanks to these products
“It is from the successful experiences of the consumers that we know of the effectiveness of vaping as a mechanism for smoking cessation, just as it is from a scientific point of view that we know of its merits as a harm reduction tool to fight smoking. The Ministry of Health will find us users in the front line, armed with the scientific evidence and our successful experiences.”
Related:
- ANESVAP – [link]
- European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates – [link]
- Informe Sobre Los Cigarrillos Electrónicos, Ministerio de Sanidad – [link]
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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