It is no secret that smoking was, and still is, a worldwide debate that has stirred a wave of controversy throughout the years ever since its conception. While the World Health Organization (WHO) utilized all possible tools and efforts into pushing smokers to adopt a ‘quit or die’ approach, advanced studies were carried out, trying to find a middle ground for smokers, one that reduces harmful risks by considerable levels. As a result of that strenuous empirical research, vaping comes in as a groundbreaking technology that offers smokers far less harmful nicotine-containing products.
According to various credible and impartial studies, including a recently published report by the UK’s renowned Royal College of Physicians (RCP), vaping has proved to be “at least 95 percent safer” than smoking. A game-changing conclusion in itself, relevant authorities are now encouraging doctors and health experts to promote the use of vape devices, as viable and promising alternatives to combustible cigarettes.
As a treaty that was supposedly designed to “protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke”, the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) actually led to the increase in the number of smokers in China and other poor countries primarily targeted by the agreement. In such countries, smokers sought illicit tobacco products as an alternative to legal products that were targeted by excessive non-evidence based regulations, the same regulations that the FCTC is pushing WHO member states to adopt and implement in order to regulate vaping and low-risk nicotine products.
While several studies show that a great number of people in several countries have already switched completely to vape products, as a viable alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes, these same studies and statistics are in conflict with the WHO’s strategy to oppose vaping alternatives, resulting in an increase in the number of smokers worldwide.
Consequently, Julian Morris, Vice President of research at the Reason Foundation, a prominent non-profit U.S. think tank, believes in a recently published report by the Foundation that “the FCTC has not been a stellar success on its own terms”, adding that it is crucial that the WHO embrace and accept vaping technologies as reduced-risk products, moving away from the failed ‘quit or die’ approach, which has led to adverse effects on the well-being of smokers across the globe.