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Tag: Nancy Loucas

  • CAPHRA Slams Global Public Health Failures, Urges Policy Reform

    CAPHRA Slams Global Public Health Failures, Urges Policy Reform

    The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) released a scathing report this weekend, calling out governments for failing to uphold basic human rights in public health policy, particularly in their handling of tobacco control.

    Titled “The Right to Health and Public Health Policy,” the report criticizes the continued overregulation or banning of safer nicotine alternatives like vaping, while combustible cigarettes remain widely accessible. Authors Nancy Loucas and Clarisse Virgino argue this contradicts international human rights laws guaranteeing the right to health.

    “Governments are demonstrating extraordinary hypocrisy in their approach to tobacco control,” said Loucas. “They simultaneously tax tobacco products, creating reliance on tobacco revenue, whilst claiming to fight tobacco use.”

    The report calls for urgent reform, demanding public health systems prioritize accessibility, scientific integrity, and harm reduction. Without accountability and transparency, CAPHRA warns, global health inequalities will only worsen.

    Read the entire position paper here. 

  • CAPHRA Says Vaping Misinformation has Deadly Consequences

    CAPHRA Says Vaping Misinformation has Deadly Consequences

    Today (May 12), the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) released a critical position statement warning that misinformation about safer nicotine products is putting millions of lives at risk and undermining global public health efforts. 

    “CAPHRA’s analysis revealed that persistent anti-vaping propaganda, often promoted by influential health bodies, is drowning out mounting scientific evidence supporting tobacco harm reduction,” CAPHRA said in a statement. “Countries such as the UK and New Zealand, which have embraced evidence-based approaches, are seeing significant declines in smoking rates, yet much of the world remains gripped by outdated ideology.” 

    “The scale of misinformation about safer nicotine products is staggering and deliberate,” said Clarisse Virgino, CAPHRA Philippine Representative. “It is costing lives by discouraging smokers from switching to less harmful alternatives. Ideological opposition is being prioritized over science, and the public is paying the price.” 

    CAPHRA’s statement said that despite robust evidence showing vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, global health agencies continue to mislead the public about the risks. CAPHRA executive Coordinator Nancy Loucas criticized the World Health Organization for “ignoring the science and silencing consumer voices,” arguing that this approach perpetuates the deadly smoking epidemic. 

    CAPHRA is calling on governments and health authorities to embrace transparency and evidence, and to recognize harm reduction as a vital tool in the fight against smoking-related disease. “We need pragmatic solutions, not ideological warfare. The stakes are simply too high,” Loucas said. 

     Access the full position paper here.