The CVA Urges Public to Differentiate Between the Vape and Tobacco Industries

Source from:  Vapingpost 12/09/2020

Alarmist media reports, entities with political agendas, and sometimes sadly even well intentioned but misinformed health authorities, have been inaccurately linking the vaping industry with the tobacco industry.

This has caused a lot of damage as the vaping industry, which was started by well intentioned smokers looking for a safer alternative to help them quit, is being viewed with suspicion and is being ironically affiliated with the same industry it was created to come up against.

A recent example is a University of Bath study, which explored the Twitter activity around the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The study titled, “Exploring the Twitter activity around the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” inaccurately claimed that most arguments in favour of next-generation products (NGPs), were tweeted by entities affiliated with Big Tobacco.

A number of public health and tobacco harm reduction organizations and experts have since spoke up against these claims. “This UK study used highly inaccurate and unfair descriptions that undermined the quality of the research and the reputation of the University of Bath.

From as far away as New Zealand, we’ve raised concerns over the speculative method it employed without using any scientific evidence in labelling tobacco harm reduction advocates,” said Nancy Loucas, Executive Director for CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia-Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates).

The Association of Vapers India (AVI), which advocates for less harmful alternatives was one of the organizations attacked directly, and has written to the journal raising objections over being labelled as a tobacco industry front group, when infact their objective is being the opposite.

“We have written to the journal raising objections over casting us as a tobacco industry front group without any evidence and by drawing unfair inferences from our membership of International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO),” AVI director Jagannath Sarangapani said in response to the name-tagging by the University of Bath researchers.