International organizations suggest regulating electronic cigarettes in Mexico

Alternatives should be regulated so that people can freely decide what they want to consume

In various high-income countries, such as France and the United Kingdom, vaporizers are part of public policies to combat smoking. Recently, Egypt, a developing nation, lifted restrictions on these devices with the aim of combating tobacco consumption.

In our country, since May 2022, the government, by presidential decree, banned everything related to the vaporizer industry.

International suggestion

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recently recommended the implementation of regulatory frameworks for the electronic cigarette market with the aim of contributing to and ensuring their use restricted only to people of legal age, in order to promote safer and more responsible consumption habits.

In this sense, Mexico and the World Vaping, a civil organization headed by Juan José Cirión Lee, assured that the support of these international institutions, through José Gerardo Moya Medina, representative in Mexico of both organizations, represents “a great step in the fight against smoking.”

“Contrary to the prohibitionist policy of the Mexican government, the decision of the WHO and the PAHO to support the regulation of vaporizers is in line with the strategy of bringing low-risk instruments to people who want to quit smoking, while defining rules to prevent these electronic devices from being out of reach of minors,” Cirión said from the Global Nicotine Forum (GFN), in Warsaw, Poland.

On June 12, Moya Molina, in the framework of a press conference on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, highlighted that both institutions – WHO and PAHO – recommended regulating the market for electronic cigarettes. “From PAHO/WHO we recommend creating environments that are 100 percent free of tobacco smoke and emissions, regulating electronic cigarettes, prohibiting advertising, promotion and sponsorship,” said the official.

The exhortation

In this vein, the activist criticized the fact that in Mexico vaporizers are prohibited by presidential decrees, while the Egyptian authorities agreed to allow and regulate the commercialization of electronic devices to combat smoking.

Therefore, he urged the Mexican authorities to review and learn from the international experience where reduced-risk devices, such as vaporizers, have proven their scientific effectiveness in reversing tobacco consumption; he also asked them to assume a responsible position and stop confusing and misinforming the population about the advantages that vaporizers represent.

“From the moment our governments, the first thing they do is apply prohibitions based on lies, we realize that the population does not understand the reality of the concept of harm reduction due to the government’s own misinformation,” he said from the Global Nicotine Forum.

Looking for a solution

Egypt, a developing nation, joined the nations that lifted restrictions on electronic devices with the aim of combating smoking; the country that reports the highest per capita cigarette consumption in the Middle East and North Africa region after, in 2011, its Ministry of Health banned the marketing, registration and importation of electronic cigarettes, a measure that unleashed a dangerous “black market” of devices.

However, given the results of several studies on the advantages of vaporizers in the fight against smoking and international experience, this 2024, Egypt legalized the marketing and consumption of the devices; its territory is home to around 13.9 million smokers, just over 61 thousand people die annually from this condition.

“In Mexico we must seek to regulate alternatives so that people can freely decide what they want,” Cirión Lee said.

Other opinions

At the end of April, the results of a study carried out by David Levy (Georgetown University) and Mexican Rafael Meza (University of British Columbia) were released, which revealed that if the ban were repealed in Mexico and a regulation based on science were promoted, smoking rates would be significantly reduced: 40% for men and 30% for women, thus avoiding 106 thousand deaths between 2025 and 2049.

At the GFN, Roberto Sussman, president of the Provapeo organization, also called for leaving aside misinformation and dogmatic positions and giving way to knowledge and science. “There is no scientific justification for a general ban such as environmental tobacco smoke,” he considered.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, a cardiologist and researcher at the Onassis Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Athens, Greece, has also spoken out in favour of specific regulations being applied in different countries to prevent the use of vapes by minors.

Source: infobae