The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a subsidiary of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Americas, recently released the "2022 Report on Tobacco Control in the Americas." In it, once again, the WHO failed to acknowledge the potential role electronic cigarettes could play in reducing the harms caused by smoking.
In this nearly 150-page report, the World Health Organization dedicates an entire chapter to what it calls "novel nicotine and tobacco products," repeating myths that have already been debunked about e-cigarettes. The report suggests that the emergence and popularity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) can be attributed to the fact that "tobacco control remains a priority and a challenge.
If the World Health Organization truly cares about controlling tobacco use and helping smokers quit, it should stop criminalizing electronic cigarette devices and promote their use as a smoking cessation aid. As evidenced by testimonies from quitters around the world, these devices are a part of the solution, not the cause of smoking as a continuing public health issue.
Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been accused of manipulating public opinion by attacking advocates of electronic cigarettes. They claim that terms such as "harm reduction" or "risk reduction" can be confusing and that there is no scientific evidence proving that consuming e-cigarettes - so-called reduced-risk products - is safe for health. However, no e-cigarette advocate has ever claimed that e-cigarettes are completely risk-free and that we should blindly use them. The WHO seems to misunderstand that scientific evidence shows that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking, so the term "tobacco harm reduction" is entirely valid. Regardless of how the WHO tries to discredit it.
It appears that this is not enough, as the World Health Organization goes even further by daring to deny the use of ENDS as a smoking cessation aid. It explains that "these products are designed to exponentially reduce nicotine concentration over a specified period of time, but they are subject to less scrutiny by national authorities, so they cannot benefit from the same level of quality assurance as approved NRTs." This is not true.
As the name suggests, these devices are designed to safely consume nicotine rather than eliminate its consumption entirely. Additionally, nicotine has minimal health effects, as seen in other NRTs such as nicotine gum or patches, so why is it a concern with e-cigarettes?
Quitting smoking is a challenging task and it becomes even more difficult without help. Cold turkey methods often fail, and we cannot expect many smokers to quit overnight through sheer willpower. We know that when they try to quit, they experience withdrawal symptoms, and if they cannot overcome this, they may relapse.
Why not help smokers by providing them with safer and more effective ways to quit? E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than smoking and the most effective method to quit smoking. Health organizations should stop assuming that smokers only have two options: quit or die. Instead, they should promote harm reduction overall, especially e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting smoking.
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