Release: TGA blows smoke up Australia’s ash

Release: TGA blows smoke up Australia’s ash

SYDNEY - Legalise Vaping Australia (LVA)  today reprimanded the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for their misleading claim “that the current scheduling of nicotine remains appropriate as there is insufficient evidence to support an exemption from Schedule 7 for nicotine in heated tobacco products (HTPs).” The TGA used old US Food and Drug  (FDA)  positions to support this claim, when the FDA has in fact confirmed HTPs are less harmful than cigarettes.

HTPs like e-cigarettes create a smokeless vapor that the user can inhale to ingest nicotine, much like liquid vapes. Unlike cigarettes, both e-cigarettes and HTPs prevent the user from breathing in toxic chemicals and carcinogens. LVA supports legalising all forms of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) that help people quit smoking, reduce harm, and that have been shown by  the body of scientific evidence to be safer than cigarettes.

“The TGA has once again proved they are motivated more by politics, ideology, and stigma than protecting public health,” said LVA Policy Director, Emilie Dye. “They have chosen to ignore the FDA’s current ruling on HTPs and have instead hand picked opinions that match their presuppositions.”

“Health Minister Greg Hunt and the TGA have time and time again cited out of date studies to claim they lack evidence on the relative safety of vaping products and HTPs compared to ciggies. At this rate, I am surprised they haven’t started citing studies from 1945 claiming  we ‘lack evidence’ on the dangers of cigarettes.”

“Every other OECD nation, with the exception of Turkey, has legalised vaping products. The US allows companies to advertise HTPs as a safer way of consuming cigarettes. The UK has even started putting vape shops in hospitals to help people quit smoking.”

“Australia needs to catch up to the rest of the first world and let people choose healthier alternatives to smoking. The TGA has a responsibility to read the evidence from 2020 instead of relying on studies that have been out of date for up to half a decade.”

“The evidence exists. Smoking kills; nicotine replacement therapies like vaping and heat not burn products save lives by helping people off of traditional cigarettes. Australia needs to legalise all forms of nicotine replacement including gums, patches, sprays, inhalers, vapes, heat not burn products.”