Ex-WHO Officials On The Attack
Professor Robert Beaglehole and Professor Ruth Bonita have taken The Lancet and the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to task
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by Dave Cross
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The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was attacked in a report last year by the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping. It was a move welcomed by John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association, who said: “It’s about time that the vaping industry stood up against the World Health Organisation.”
He said it needed challenging in order to change its approach to harm reduction, adding: “It is crucial that the vaping sector, and former smokers turned vapers, speak with one voice to put pressure on the World Health Organisation to change its ways. As the body which is meant to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable, the World Health Organisation has a moral responsibility to do the right thing.”
It's a call now echoed by Professor Robert Beaglehole and Professor Ruth Bonita as they attacked both The Lancet’s position on tobacco harm reduction and the World Health Organisation’s approach to vaping.
The pair point out that the impact of smoking falls hardest on the world’s poorest, causing the majority of the eight million annual deaths. Moreover, with the total number of smokers remaining barely unchanged since the introduction of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, they believe the World Health Organisation needs an urgent reappraisal of its approach.
Consequently, Beaglehole and Bonita have written to The Lancet criticising it for stressing “the need for greater compliance with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is no longer fit for purpose, especially for low-income countries. Neither WHO nor the FCTC are grounded in the latest evidence on the role of innovative nicotine delivery devices in assisting the transition from cigarettes to much less harmful products.”
They continue by condemning the focus on teenagers experimenting with vape products. The impact of this is that it “detracts from the crucial public health goal of reducing cigarette-caused deaths in adults.”
They add: “The missing strategy in WHO and FCTC policies is harm reduction. Most people smoke because they are dependent on nicotine. Tobacco harm reduction reduces the harm caused by burnt tobacco by replacing cigarettes with much less harmful ways of delivering nicotine; these alternatives have great potential to disrupt the cigarette industry.”
Shamefully, the World Health Organisation rejects outright tobacco harm reduction through vaping.
“This opposition is not grounded in 21st century technological advances and is unduly influenced by vested interests who promote nicotine abstinence. This opposition privileges the most harmful products—cigarettes.
“We urge The Lancet to actively endorse harm reduction as a crucial strategy for reducing the health burden caused by tobacco. The Lancet should also add its voice to calls for an independent review of WHO's tobacco control policies; millions of lives are at stake.”
Photo Credit:
Photo by Johannes Plenio 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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