After FIVAPE (Interprofessional Federation of the vape) it's today France Vapotage who launches a press release in order to respond to the current controversy which announces vaping as "undeniably harmful".
VAPE SAVES LIVES, WHO FORGETS IT
France Vapotage, professional federation of manufacturers of vape products, deplores the latest statements by the WHO and is concerned about their repercussions on public health. To qualify the electronic cigarette as "undoubtedly harmful" is to weaken an alternative to tobacco that many smokers want to quit. She is astonished by this position, which is in total contradiction with numerous published scientific studies, including those of Public Health France, and calls for a peaceful debate based not on prejudice but on sound scientific approaches and knowledge. .
The publication, last July, of the seventh report of the World Health Organization (WHO) analyzing the actions and results of countries with tobacco control policies, was the subject of intense press coverage due to of his highly controversial injunctions and conclusions about the electronic cigarette. The latter is described as "unquestionably harmful" and would ultimately be "not recommended as a stopping device for smoking".
France Vapotage, professional federation of the products of the vape, is moved and worries about the repercussions of such statements on public health.
Indeed, There is now a scientific consensus that vapotage, if it can not be proven for the time being to be completely safe over the long term, is undoubtedly and uniquely less harmful than tobacco. Several studies have even shown that the vapor of the electronic cigarette contained 95% less harmful emissions than the tobacco cigarette (1). It contains in particular neither tars nor carbon monoxide. Of course, other scientific studies, especially epidemiological studies with large cohorts, must now establish the impact of vaping on health in the long term. But the fact remains that vaping helps consumers quit smoking and saves lives. It is in this perspective that, since the publication of the WHO report, many doctors or scientists have mobilized to defend the vape from a harm reduction perspective.
In addition, France Vapotage notes that these positions are in total contradiction with the conclusions issued by Public Health France in May 2019 on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day. National Public Health Agency has established that e-cigarettes are the most widely used smoking cessation aids by smokers who have made an attempt to stop their smoking (2), and this, in front of patches and other nicotine substitutes yet widely promoted by the public authorities and reimbursed by the Social Security. In another study published on 26 June 2019, Public Health France stressed that between 2010 and 2017, the electronic cigarette has allowed 700 000 daily smokers to get tobacco.
France Vapotage calls on WHO to cite and substantiate the scientific basis for the violent and sometimes contradictory conclusions reached in the published report. The federation wishes to know the dates of these studies, the sources of funding and the chosen protocols.
More globally, France Vapotage wants more moderation and reason in e-cigarette debates. She deplores the multiplication of anxiety-provoking, alarmist, often contradictory, and sometimes totally far-fetched communications around this product. All these communications create and maintain doubt in the minds of smokers. They weaken an alternative to tobacco that could be adopted by consumers for whom nicotine substitutes have not worked. They slow down the fight against smoking.
Smokers who try to quit do not need to play with fears and multiply polemics. They need a peaceful debate based not on prejudice but on sound scientific approaches and knowledge. It is in this spirit that our federation took the initiative this year to commission a review of existing scientific studies from Opus Line, excluding research funded by the pharmaceutical, tobacco or xNUMX vaping industry. This review of scientific studies (available on the site of France Vapotage) analyzes in detail the functioning of an e-cigarette, the known risks, the composition of the steam, the reasons which lead the smokers to vapot, the eventual « gateway effect "to tobacco etc.
The public health emergency is to recognize the reality of vaping, to seize the opportunity in terms of public health and to give it the appropriate regulatory framework.
1. Public Health England. E-cigarettes: an evidence update (2015).
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ecigarettes-an-evidence-update.
