Asia-wide movement to support 'safer' nicotine products launched

Tobacco harm reduction advocates gathered in Makati City last Friday, February 28, 2020, to launch the Asia- wide education and information campaign#SmokeFree4Life and urged the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Department of Health (DOH) to respect the rights of smokers who want to switch.

Tobacco harm reduction advocates gathered in Makati City last Friday, February 28, 2020, to launch the Asia- wide education and information campaign#SmokeFree4Life and urged the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Department of Health (DOH) to respect the rights of smokers who want to switch to safer smoke-free alternatives. The regional movement, spearheaded by the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) and supported by thousands of vapers and former smokers from different countries, aims to curb the smoking epidemic in the Asia-Pacific and inform smokers about the existence of safer alternatives, such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), or electronic cigarettes, heat-not-burn tobacco products and snus. “We, vapers and former smokers, and advocates of tobacco harm reduction, have an opportunity to add to the global discussions on ENDS, heat-not-burn tobacco products and snus as much safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes. We stand up for our freedom of choice. We stand up for our rights as consumers,” said Clarisse Virgino, the Philippine representative to CAPHRA. “We stand up for the well-being of more than a billion cigarette smokers globally who are now presented with better and innovative nicotine products. We are here united and collectively call on the WHO and other health authorities to start caring for them by allowing them access to safer alternatives that they want and deserve,” Virgino said in her speech during the launch of #SmokeFree4Life in Poblacion, Makati City. Virgino also addressed the questions on the safety of vaping, or the use of e-cigarettes, because of the e-cigarette, or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI) cases in the US. Virgino said EVALI cases were eventually linked to the use of vitamin E acetate and tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC oil—the same substance in marijuana. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as earlier reported by the US Food and Drug Administration said vitamin E acetate, used as a thickening agent for THC – the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis, was “a very strong culprit of concern” in EVALI cases. “Those substances were not supposed to be there in the first place. This is why we need regulation to prevent people from taking these substances,” said Virgino. Arthur credit Nonie Reyes To Read full article click here Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Sourced from: businessmirror.com.ph Great to see Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates lead an education and information campaign well done!