Tag: CAPHRA

THR Group Asks Kazakhstan to Reassess Policies
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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) today called on the government of Kazakhstan to reassess its stance on tobacco harm reduction (THR) products, citing compelling evidence from Japan demonstrating the significant health and economic benefits of embracing safer alternatives to smoking.
A recent study published in the journal Healthcare reveals that if 50 percent of smokers in Japan switched from combustible cigarettes to heated tobacco products (HTPs), it could prevent 12 million patient cases and save JPY 454 billion in healthcare costs. This data underscores the immense potential of THR strategies in countries with high smoking rates.
Nancy Loucas, the executive coordinator of CAPHRA, stated that the Japanese example clearly illustrates that HTPs can be an effective harm reduction tool in nations where smoking prevalence remains high, and other safer nicotine products are unavailable.
“Kazakhstan, with its significant gender disparity in smoking rates and tobacco-related health issues, could greatly benefit from adopting a more progressive approach to THR. Kazakhstan’s current policies treat all nicotine products, including less harmful alternatives, the same as traditional cigarettes,” Loucas explains in an e-mailed release. “This approach, coupled with the recent ban on vapes and high taxes on smokeless alternatives, demonstrates a concerning lack of acceptance for harm reduction strategies.
“By ignoring the potential of THR products, Kazakhstan is missing a crucial opportunity to save lives,” Loucas added. “Our analysis suggests that embracing harm reduction policies could prevent 165,000 premature deaths in Kazakhstan over the next four decades.
The government must reconsider its stance for public health, stated Loucas. CAPHRA urges Kazakh policymakers to:

Review and revise current regulations to differentiate between combustible cigarettes and less harmful alternatives.
Following Japan’s successful model, the introduction of HTPs should be considered as a harm reduction tool.
Engage with public health experts and THR advocates to develop evidence-based policies.
Implement a tiered taxation system encouraging smokers to switch to less harmful products.
“The time for Kazakhstan to act is now,” Loucas stated. “By embracing tobacco harm reduction, the country can significantly improve public health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and potentially narrow the life expectancy gap between men and women. We stand ready to support Kazakhstan in developing and implementing effective THR policies.”
November 18, 2024
CAPHRA: Vape Misinformation is ‘Propaganda’

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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is denouncing the widespread misinformation surrounding tobacco harm reduction as biased propaganda perpetuated by “certain factions” within the tobacco control community.
These factions refuse to accept the proven role of reduced-risk products in helping people quit smoking, thereby undermining public health efforts.
Recent commentary and reports have highlighted a disturbing trend of disinformation about safer nicotine products, according to an emailed CAPHRA press release.
“It is spread by those who are ideologically opposed to harm reduction strategies, despite mounting evidence that safer nicotine products (SNPs) can significantly reduce smoking rates and associated health risks,” said Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA. “The quantity and depth of this campaign makes it clear that certain factions within the tobacco control community are more interested in maintaining their prohibitionist stance than in embracing evidence-based harm reduction strategies that can save lives.”
Studies have consistently shown that vaping and other SNPs are far less harmful than smoking combustible tobacco.
Furthermore, countries that have adopted harm reduction strategies, such as the UK and New Zealand, have seen significant declines in smoking rates.
“The refusal to acknowledge the benefits of SNPs is not just misguided; it is dangerous. By spreading disinformation, these groups are effectively discouraging people who smoke from switching to less harmful alternatives, thereby perpetuating the smoking epidemic,” said Loucas.
CAPHRA is calling on governments and public health bodies to promote accurate information, ensure that public health messaging about SNPs is based on the best available scientific evidence, and embrace harm reduction strategies as a key component of tobacco control policies.
July 30, 2024
CAPHRA Applauds Philippine’s Vaping Measures

Vapor Voice Archives
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) stated that it extends its full support to the Government of the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in their efforts to protect consumers and prevent youth access to vaping products.
However, instead of ending online sales CAPHRA advocates for greater enforcement of existing laws to prevent youth access to vaping products and ensure the appropriate collection of taxes. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently suspended the online sale of vape products, citing concerns about youth access and tax evasion.
“While the intention behind the suspension is commendable, CAPHRA believes that a more effective approach would be to enhance enforcement measures rather than imposing outright bans that could inadvertently drive consumers back to more harmful combustible tobacco products,” stated Clarisse Virgino, a leading tobacco harm reduction expert from the Philippines and member of CAPHRA.
“CAPHRA supports the government’s efforts to crack down on illegal sales to minors and urges for increased penalties and surveillance to ensure compliance, under the existing Vape Law, or Republic Act No. 11900.”
CAPHRA is aware that too many importers and retailers are failing to register for and pay the appropriate taxes, leading to significant revenue losses for the government.
“With appropriate enforcement of internal revenue stamps for vape products by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, these concerns can be overcome,” Virgino stated in an emailed release. “We need to ensure that all vape products in the market are properly taxed and that violators face strict penalties.”
July 22, 2024
CAPHRA Urges End to Disinformation About Vapes

Vapor Voice archives
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) states that as it celebrates World Vape Day on May 30, 2024, the organization is urging global leaders to recognize the life-saving potential of safer nicotine products and to expose the ongoing disinformation campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Despite overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the reduced risk of vaping compared to combustible tobacco products, the WHO continues to ignore the facts and mislead the public,” said Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA. “These products, including e-cigarettes, snus, and heated tobacco products (HTPs), offer a viable alternative for millions of smokers seeking to reduce their health risks.
“The GSTHR reports have shown that these alternatives are not only effective in reducing harm but also play a significant role in public health by providing accessible and acceptable options for smokers worldwide.”
CAPHRA has criticized the WHO’s exclusionary tactics, particularly at the 10th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10). By excluding consumer groups and harm reduction advocates, the WHO has demonstrated a blatant disregard for the voices of those directly impacted by tobacco use, according to an emailed press release.
“One of the most egregious aspects of the WHO’s stance is its use of children as pawns to propagate the false narrative that vaping is not a tobacco harm reduction product,” said Loucas. “This disinformation campaign not only undermines the credibility of harm reduction efforts but also jeopardizes the health of millions of adult smokers who could benefit from switching to safer alternatives.”
CAPHRA is calling on all vaping industry stakeholders, including policymakers, public health officials, and the media, to recognize the truth about tobacco harm reduction. The release states that it is time to challenge the disinformation spread by the WHO and advocate for evidence-based policies that prioritize the health and well-being of smokers worldwide.
“It’s time for the WHO and FCTC to listen to consumers and integrate harm reduction into their policies. Only then can we tackle both the public health crisis of smoking and the escalating illicit tobacco trade,” said Loucas. “The WHO’s stance not only ignores the evidence supporting these strategies but also undermines the global fight against the tobacco epidemic.”
May 29, 2024
Activists Plea for Consumer Participation at COP10

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Consumer advocates are calling for the next New Zealand government to support greater consumer advocacy participation in the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Panama.
“The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has contributed to some progress in the implementation of tobacco control measures, but they need to provide honest, risk-proportionate communication and regulatory recommendations for Tobacco Harm Reduction [THR] products,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).
“While not perfect, these THR products can be a less harmful alternative to smoking and can help smokers quit. It is critical that smokers have access to accurate information about these products and that regulations are proportionate to their risks,” says Loucas.

The WHO FCTC should stop denying smokers, vapers and other tobacco users of their right to have a meaningful participation and inclusion in the formulation of policies that hugely impact them.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
“The WHO FCTC should stop denying smokers, vapers and other tobacco users of their right to have a meaningful participation and inclusion in the formulation of policies that hugely impact them.”
CAPHRA is calling on the New Zealand government and next minister of health to ask all member states who will be attending COP10 to reject the prohibitionist proposals contained in COP10 provisional agenda items 6.1 to 6.4 that the organization insists will just further contribute to millions more of unnecessary deaths from smoking.
“New Zealand should prioritize science-based inclusive policy making, including at the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is essential that policy making is based on the best available evidence and that all stakeholders—including consumer advocates are included in the decision-making process,” said Loucas.
August 17, 2023
Activists Dispute Smoking Gateway Findings

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Recent claims by Otago University in New Zealand that vaping is a gateway to smoking have been disputed by leading global harm reduction experts Roberto Sussman, Konstantinos Farsalinos and Gerry Stimson. These experts have highlighted the importance of harm reduction strategies in reducing the negative health impacts of smoking.
Published on June 28 in Drug and Alcohol Review, the Otago University study analyzed data related to New Zealanders’ smoking and vaping status from the 2018-2020 New Zealand Attitudes and Values survey.
Unlike other studies, Post-graduate student Andre Mason and associate professor Damian Scarf found no consistent evidence that vaping acted as a cessation pathway from smoking. Mason said vaping appeared to be another smoking-related behavior, rather than a substitute for smoking that primarily helped people quit.
“We found that there was an equal likelihood of vapers transitioning to smoking as smokers were to vapers,” Mason told Radio New Zealand.
Tobacco harm reduction advocates questioned the findings. According to Sussman, there is no evidence that vaping is a gateway to smoking. “In fact, studies have shown that vaping can be an effective tool for smoking cessation,” he said. “The vast majority of vapers are former smokers who have successfully quit smoking thanks to vaping,” added Farsalinos
Gerry Stimson, a public health expert and advocate for harm reduction, emphasizes that harm reduction strategies like vaping are essential in reducing the negative health impacts of smoking. “We need to focus on providing smokers with safer alternatives to cigarettes, rather than demonizing harm reduction strategies like vaping,” he noted.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates, who compiled these comments, also disputed the gateway claim by Otago University.
Lous cited recent data, which suggest the smoking incidence rates in New Zealand have fallen significantly over the past five to 10 years. The current smoking rate of New Zealand adults is 8 percent in 2021/2022, which has decreased from 16.5 percent in 2015 and from 27 percent in both men and women in 1993. Loucas insists that vaping has played a significant role in the reduction of smoking rates in New Zealand over the past five to 10 years. According to research published in the NZ Medical Journal, the current vaping rate in New Zealand is 8.3 percent of adults being categorized as daily e-cigarette users, up from 6.2 percent in the previous year.
“We need to focus on harm reduction strategies that work, rather than relying on outdated and inaccurate claims about vaping being a gateway to smoking,” said Loucas. “The evidence is clear: vaping can be an effective tool for smoking cessation and harm reduction.
The government of New Zealand has given NZD1.4 million ($860,411) to a large trial to help New Zealanders quit vaping. Over six months, more than 1,000 participants will test whether cytisine—a medicine that partially blocks the effects of nicotine on the brain—is more effective than a tapered reduction in nicotine, when accompanied with behavioral support.
July 6, 2023
Advocates Clarify Science Controversies Ahead of COP10

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Tobacco harm reduction advocates are keen to clarify controversies surround the science on nicotine and vaping ahead of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which will take place in November 2023.
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates (CAPHRA) has written FCTC delegation heads to help inform their respective countries’ positions.
In its letter, CAPHRA notes that two high-profile studies, which have been quoted by tobacco controllers regarding the dangers of nicotine and vaping, have since been retracted and removed from significant medical journals.
“The first retraction is an article published in February 2022 in The World Journal of Oncology, claiming that nicotine vapers face about the same cancer risk as cigarette smokers,” CAPHRA wrote.
Another article, in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which reported an association between vaping and heart attacks was also retracted. Astoundingly, advocates noted, this article is still used as a reference in the FCTC guidelines around e-cigarettes.

Consumers’ rights to choose to use less harmful products to switch from smoking remain under tremendous threat from FCTC’s continuing failure to address scientific evidence, democratic processes and human rights.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
In addition, the THR regional advocacy group sent delegates a bibliography of key and current studies that disprove some of the more outrageous claims around harm.
On the supposed “youth vaping epidemic,” CAPHRA noted “a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food & Drug Administration suggests that youth vaping rates appear to be dropping, compared to pre-pandemic levels… In fact, youth vaping in the U.S. has plummeted by 60 percent over the past two years.’
“Consumers’ rights to choose to use less harmful products to switch from smoking remain under tremendous threat from FCTC’s continuing failure to address scientific evidence, democratic processes and human rights,” says CAPHRA executive coordinator Nancy Loucas.
The CAPHRA representatives reminded the health leaders that the FCTC has a mandate to pursue Harm Reduction as a core tobacco control policy—a position it has failed to acknowledge or implement since its inception, according to CAPHRA.
“WHO and its FCTC continue to press for signatory states to adopt ever more restrictive policies, including outright bans, based on dubious science. Delegates to COP10 should be representing the rights and aspirations of the citizens,” wrote the CAPHRA member organizations.
“Consumers have the right to make choices that help them avoid adverse health outcomes and smokers have the right to access less harmful nicotine products as alternatives to smoking. Please take account of these rights when making and presenting your submissions to COP10,” the letter concluded.
January 20, 2023
COP10 Delegates Urged to Consider Harm Reduction

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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates’ (CAPHRA) nine member organizations have written to Framework Convention for Tobacco Control delegation heads from around the world, urging them to review the evidence that supports a tobacco harm reduction (THR) approach ahead of COP10.
With governments sending delegates to COP10 in November 2023, CAPHRA was keen to send leaders comprehensive reference material for their COP10 planning, submission writing and deliberations.
COP10 will held in Panama and is hosted by the World Health Organization’s FCTC.
‘We do this on behalf of the four million current users of safer nicotine products in the wider Asia Pacific region. As you are aware, our region bears the brunt of the harm and death from combustible and unsafe oral tobacco globally,’ said the letter.
The CAPHRA representatives reminded the health leaders that the FCTC has a mandate to pursue harm reduction as a core tobacco control policy.
“It has been known for decades that tar and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke, cause the death and disease associated with smoking, not nicotine. Research has proven that nicotine, while usually mildly addictive in the same way as caffeine, is not a health issue,” they wrote.
The letter also called on delegates to deplore FCTC’s policy to conduct COP10 sessions behind closed doors.
“Delegates to COP10 should be representing the rights and aspirations of the citizens whose taxes are paying for their attendance, who expect them to speak on their behalf, acknowledge the science underpinning the harm reduction benefits of ENDS, and maintain democratic principles,” they wrote.
The CAPHRA representatives asked countries to take into account, when making their COP10 submissions, that consumers have the right to make choices that help them avoid adverse health outcomes. What’s more, people who smoke have the right to access less harmful nicotine products as alternatives to smoking.
The evidence-based documentation was wrapped up in a recently released white paper, titled “The Subversion of Public Health: Consumer Perspectives,” which was presented by CAPHRA executive co-ordinator Nancy Loucas at the Fifth Asia Harm Reduction Forum.
December 8, 2022
Study on Vape’s Adverse Effects on Teeth Debunked

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A claim in the British Dental Journal that found vaping to cause tooth damage was made by two food science lecturers at the Cardiff Metropolitan University School of Sport and Health Science. That study has now been shown to be rife with errors.
A letter has since been published in the British Dental Journal by Newcastle University vaping and dentistry experts Richard Holliday, Elaine McColl, Anthony Weke and Zella Sayeed debunking the claims out of Cardiff.
The four wrote they “were disappointed to see several basic errors and misrepresentations” and went onto correct five major errors in the “erosive potential of vaping” paper.
Newcastle’s experts say the study authors cite a World Health Organization poster and incorrectly claim that nicotine causes a “high risk of oral and whole-body health complications.”
In reality, nicotine has been used in the form of NRT for over 30 years, including in pregnant women, and is regarded as extremely safe, even for long-term use, according to Scoop.
Also significantly, the authors wrongly claim that e-cigarettes are associated with cancer. The supporting reference does not make this claim and instead states “no long-term evidence related to oral and systemic health effects exist.”
The Newcastle experts then “point UK dental professionals to the well-considered public health guidance which basically concludes that, for the best chances of quitting smoking, one should use support and pharmacotherapy and that e-cigarettes can be part of that package.”
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), said the food science lecturers’ biggest mistake was “one made by so many – that is talking up the WHO’s anti-vaping stance” as the official public health position.
“Tellingly, all UK public bodies, including the NHS, ignore the WHO’s advice. They support vaping, knowing it does not erode teeth nor lead to gum disease,” said Loucas. “Once again science and human evidence have trumped another untenable ideological lie about vaping.”
July 12, 2022
Activists Outraged Over Australian Vaping Policy

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Tobacco harm reduction activists are outraged over a new Australian government document on vaping.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recently published its 2022 CEO Statement on Electronic Cigarettes, which provides guidance to public health policymakers.
According to the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), the document falsely claims that vaping is not an effective quit-smoking tool, but a gateway to smoking with most vapers becoming dual users. Vaping, the document states, also increases the risk of smoking relapse. The NHMRC exaggerates the health impacts, poisoning and explosion risks of e-cigarettes, according to CAPHRA, while references to toxins and potential harms are made without a fair comparison to smoking.
“This latest government document on vaping makes outrageously false claims and will only cost more Australian smokers their lives,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA.
“Ridiculously, Australia’s chief medical officer considers vaping the next biggest health issue after COVID-19. Has he ever heard of smoking which kills over 20,000 Australians every year? This 18-page document is a complete joke. It is full of statements that can be easily debunked by international science and human evidence the world over,” says Loucas.

This egregious document is not worth the paper it’s written on, yet it’s now the bible for public health guidance in and around Australia.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
CAPHRA says Australia’s hardline anti-vaping approach is increasingly out of step with other Asia Pacific countries, with the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand set to lift their vaping bans. What’s more, New Zealand, across the Tasman, is already operating under a regulatory framework that has seen smoking rates decline.
“This egregious document is not worth the paper it’s written on, yet it’s now the bible for public health guidance in and around Australia,” says Loucas.
It is illegal to sell, supply or possess nicotine vaping products, with Australia the only Western democracy that requires a nicotine prescription to vape. Alarmingly, 2.3 million Australians continue to smoke cigarettes.
Last year Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration expanded its prescription-only model with customs clamping down at the border on the likes of personal imports of nicotine vaping liquids from overseas websites.
July 1, 2022