WHO’s Secret Anti-vaping Conference Underway

We’re half way through the WHO’s secret anti-vaping conference and as yet there’s been nothing earth shattering, it ends on Friday so there’s still time…

Prior to the behind closed doors COP9 World Health Organization meeting the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Maggie Throup MP, sent a pro-vaping video statement to the delegates.

As you can see, it’s a powerful message, as to if the blinkered ‘health’ officials of the WHO will listen, one doubts it…

And to coincide with the WHO’s secret anti-vaping conference, a new dossier outlining Bloomberg’s influence on the vape ban plan has been released, whilst vape advocate Clive Bates has slammed the WHO for its hostility towards tobacco harm reduction.

WHO’s Secret Anti-vaping Conference – Bloomberg Dossier

Titled: Bloomberg, the WHO and the Vaping Misinfodemic, this hard hitting dossier attacks the WHO and billionaire businessman Mike Bloomberg for its continued anti-vaping stance.

It features statements and evidence from a ton of health experts, academics, respected journalists and Tobacco Harm Control advocates.

The dossier calls for:

• The formation of a global independent Tobacco Harm Reduction Working Group comprised of independent scientists, global health experts, specialist academics, and People Who Use Safer Nicotine (ex-smokers)
• Complete transparency in all tobacco control funding, grants and collaborations
• A full independent and international review into current and past tobacco control dialogue

It’s an impressive document and has been put together by the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations [INNCO].

Earlier this week the team were protesting outside Bloomberg’s UK offices and spokesman Charles A. Gardner, PhD tweeted:

We have shared this dossier with journalists worldwide.

It explains how @BloombergDotOrg’s $$$ millions have captured @WHO global tobacco control.

We demand all Bloomberg grantees, including WHO, declare their conflict-of-interest.

As we know, the WHO is heavily funded by Bloomberg’s billions and are hardly likely to bite the hand that feeds…sad but true.

Clive Bates “Prohibitionists At Work…”

Prolific pro-vaping advocate Clive Bates has written a damming blog post on how the WHO’s anti-vaping stance is a “curse” on public health.

The extremely detailed article is broken down into six sections:

• The problem of prohibition
• Prohibition starts with confusion about objectives
• How the WHO, FCTC Secretariat and COP influence the FCTC without changing the text
• Ten ways in which the activity of the WHO and FCTC institutions promote prohibition
• By obstructing harm reduction, the FCTC fails public health
• What delegates to the Conference of the Parties should do now

Clive says:

This post examines how WHO and related institutions aggressively promote the prohibition of much safer alternatives to cigarettes, such as vaping and heated tobacco products.

The effect, if not the intent, is to protect the cigarette trade from competition, to promote black markets, to stimulate harmful workarounds, to nurture criminal networks, to harm young people, and to prolong the epidemic of avoidable smoking-related disease.

It’s a reckless policy, built on misplaced righteousness, defended by bureaucratic inertia, sustained by group-think, and cultivated by elitist billionaire foundation money.

It’s a curse and a blight on public health, and government representatives should apply real-world policy disciplines and reject it.

As always he absolutely nails it and the full article is a must read:

Prohibitionists at work: how the WHO damages public health through hostility to tobacco harm reduction

If you’re interested in following the COP9 meeting then do checkout the excellent website: COPWATCH: a Consumer Guide to FCTC COP.

The site is breaking down daily events at the conference into easily readable pieces…well worth a look.

UK Politician Calls For A “Vaping Revolution…”

Final word to Mark Pawsey MP who is the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Vaping.

He says it’s crucial the UK ‘holds the line’ as a pro-vaping country and says lives depend on it.

In a tub thumping commentary piece in the Daily Telegraph he says:

As the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping, a cross-party group of MPs and Peers who have increasingly come to see vaping as an important tool for smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction, I have long advocated for an evidence-based and science-led solution to help enable smokers to quit.

Such a solution must involve smokers being able to make the switch to vaping where they cannot quit nicotine entirely, given that it is a demonstrably less harmful alternative.

This, however, will count for little, if we do not hold the line in the face of the expected negative pressure in relation to vaping from the WHO, and the Secretariat to the FCTC, at COP9.

Regrettably, the WHO does not agree with the UK’s pragmatic, progressive and evidence-based policy on vaping.

Instead, it sees vaping and other reduced-risk products as inherently bad, conflates them with smoking, and publicly calls for more draconian measures to be placed on vapers.

He finishes with:

The UK should be proud of its position as a world leader in the fight against smoking and in embracing every available tool in respect of tobacco harm reduction.

Since 2012, with the advent and adoption by Public Health England of vaping, smoking rates have dropped.

Elsewhere in the world, similar results have been seen in New Zealand, who’s own health bodies recommend vaping as an effective tool for quitting cigarettes.

Contrast this with countries within the EU, which exhibit a more skeptical view on vaping, where we continue to see high smoking rates.

India, recently praised by the WHO for banning vaping, has a million smoking deaths per year.

Wise words.

And as final food for thought, checkout this graph that shows how over 20 years smoking rates have remained stable.

Just imagine the dent vaping would make if world governments and the WHO embraced rather than demonized new and novel nicotine products…

It’s as if the WHO really is propping up both Big Tobacco and Big Pharma in a ‘kill and cure’ pincer movement…

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More vape news on Sunday.