The AVCA believes that the publication of increasingly negative stories regarding vaping are no accident, and are being timed to coincide with current political events. “Just when Cabinet is about to approve the Ministry of Health’s latest vaping regulations and finalise Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall’s smokefree action plan, out come the attacks on vaping.”
There’s no teen vaping epidemic
Moreover, she added, these negative reports do not even match current evidence from empirical data. And even if they did, last year’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act had already banned all vaping advertising and placed restrictions to minimize youth access to the products.
“After examining a survey of over 27,000 secondary school students, University of Auckland researchers last year found that only 0.8% of 14 and 15-year-olds, who had never smoked, were regular vapers. Researchers subsequently confirmed there was no youth vaping epidemic in New Zealand,” she says.
TAV live panel discussion on media inaccuracies
Similarly, a recent live panel discussion of vaping advocates and experts discussed a number of inaccuracies that have been recently mentioned in the media. Hosted by Asia Pacific’s coalition of consumer Tobacco Harm Reduction organisation – The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), the Advocates Voice (TAV) panel discussion included a segment on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) latest Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg) Report and its counterproductive stance on tobacco harm reduction products.
The episode was simulcast on CAPHRA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/caphraorg, where viewers were encouraged to ask questions.
“WHO’s negative and obstructive approach towards safer nicotine vaping products continues to impact smoking cessation rates, costing lives globally. WHO continues to treat smoking and nicotine vaping as the same and ignores all the science,” said Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA, Nancy Loucas, ahead of the broadcast.
The author stated it correctly! There is NO teen epidemic! All of this misinformation is all intentional! it all comes down to lost $$$ in taxes over lives! the government and public health doesn’t care about you! they go where the money is!