Media Release: LVA backs Australian health experts call for Chief Medical Officer vaping advice to be urgently updated
Media Release: LVA backs Australian health experts call for Chief Medical Officer vaping advice to be urgently updated
Leading Australian health experts and medical practitioners have today called upon the Australian Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Brendan Murphy to urgently update and correct the misleading and unscientific health advice it has published in relation to nicotine vaping and electronic cigarettes.
Legalise Vaping Australia (LVA) Campaign Director Brian Marlow said that the evidence arising out of the United States by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has now firmly and comprehensively identified black-market THC liquids containing Vitamin E acetate as being the cause of lung injury in the country.
“Groups such as the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA) and other Australian health experts have now been proven to be entirely correct in identifying THC and Vitamin E oils as the culprit ingredients and the Australian CMO advice published on 13 September has now been demonstrated to be negligently false and misleading.
“Despite earlier indications and the now clear and irrefutable evidence from the CDC that vaping normally manufactured nicotine or non-nicotine liquids are not causing lung injuries, the Australian Government and the Federal Health Minister continue to rely on and actively promote the incorrect CMO advice on vaping.
“To make matters worse, an Australian Government Department of Health recently published a blog post further pushing their false and misleading views on vaping.
“This blog post is riddled with blatant inaccuracies and cherry-picked science and in fact the evidence emerging from around the world is that not only is vaping 95 per cent safer than smoking but that it is now the most popular and effective quit smoking tool available.
“It has been more than apparent since the lung injury outbreak began in August that the issues were confined only to the US and were not being reported in other markets where vaping is legal and regulated such as the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.
“LVA is becoming increasingly concerned that the Australian Department of Health, the Chief Medical Officer and the Minister for Health Greg Hunt are now literally making up health advice to serve their own political purposes.
“We now call upon the Chief Medical Officer to do the right thing, acknowledge the latest evidence from the CDC, listen to leading Australian harm reduction experts and urgently update the official health advice to reassure Australian vapers that there is no risk to using their usual e-liquids and to highlight the real dangers posed by black-market and unregulated liquids containing THC and Vitamin E oil,” Mr Marlow said today.