The War on Truth
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates exposes the deadly consequences of vaping misinformation, saying that mainstream anti-vaping propaganda costs lives
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by Dave Cross
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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has released a damning position statement, warning that misinformation about safer nicotine products is putting millions of lives at risk and undermining global public health efforts – a deadly consequence of vaping misinformation.
CAPHRA’s analysis reveals that persistent anti-vaping propaganda, often promoted by influential health bodies, is drowning out mounting scientific evidence supporting tobacco harm reduction. Countries such as the UK and New Zealand, which have embraced evidence-based approaches, are seeing significant declines in smoking rates-yet, according to CAPHRA, much of the world remains gripped by outdated ideology.
Clarisse Virgino, CAPHRA Representative for the Philippines, commented: “The scale of misinformation about safer nicotine products is staggering and deliberate. It is costing lives by discouraging smokers from switching to less harmful alternatives. Ideological opposition is being prioritised over science, and the public is paying the price.”
CAPHRA’s statement highlights that, despite robust evidence showing vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, global health agencies continue to mislead the public about the risks.
Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator CAPHRA, criticised the World Health Organisation for “ignoring the science and silencing consumer voices,” arguing that this approach perpetuates the deadly smoking epidemic.
Loucas said: “The refusal to acknowledge the benefits of harm reduction is not just misguided-it’s dangerous. Public health policy should be based on facts, not fear or coercion.”
CAPHRA is calling on governments and health authorities to embrace transparency and evidence, and to recognise harm reduction as a vital tool in the fight against smoking-related disease.
Loucas concluded: “We need pragmatic solutions, not ideological warfare. The stakes are simply too high.”
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates is a regional alliance of consumer tobacco harm reduction advocacy organisations.
The organisation says: “CAPHRA is not related to, or funded by any commercial interests. It is composed of volunteer consumer advocates from the Asia Pacific Region. We hope putting forward this information would clarify any doubt as to our interests and intentions.
“CAPHRA stays committed to its mission to educate, advocate and represent the right of adult alternative nicotine consumers to access and use of products that reduce harm from tobacco use. We advocate for the rights of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region to access and use evidence-based, regulated, and properly marketed harm reduction products as a means of reducing the devastating impact of smoking-related diseases.”
References:
- Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates - https://caphraorg.net/
- Access the full position paper: http://bit.ly/3EZEVDp
Photo Credit:
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash, resized and cropped
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.
