Taxpayer Group Releases New Explainer on Tobacco Harm Reduction & Vaping for Policy Makers and Members of the Media

For Immediate Release
December 1, 2020
Contact: Patrick Hedger
(425-283-6512)

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), a nonpartisan advocacy organization representing taxpayers and consumers across the United States, today released a comprehensive new report explaining the science behind reduced risk alternatives to deadly combustible tobacco. This new explainer is designed to break down the available scientific literature in an accessible, easy to understand manner, and to debunk the numerous myths and disinformation that have been spread in the community by vested interest groups. Structured in a question and answer format, it will allow readers to easily find answers to the exact questions that concern them, and is supported with references to dozens of peer-reviewed academic studies.

“The academic evidence is overwhelming and can no longer be considered in dispute,” said author Tim Andrews, TPA Senior Fellow. “People disputing the science on vaping are no different from people who claim vaccines cause autism in terms of their scientific credibility. On every metric, reduced risk tobacco alternative are overwhelmingly – up to 95% – safer than deadly combustible cigarettes, and three times as effective as traditional nicotine replacement therapies. Every health indicator in smokers who have quit using this method have shown near miraculous outcomes, while academic modelling has repeatedly demonstrated that encouraging smokers to quit their deadly habit by making the switch to reduced risk alternatives would lead to millions of lives being saved. There is no other policy change the US government could make that would save more lives than embracing these new technologies helping smokers quit”.

Andrews continued: “It is vital that the incoming Biden administration acts in accordance with its pre-election commitment to follow the science. This document will help combat the obfuscation and fake pseudo-science that has been spread by providing actual evidence. Policy members should use this guide to equip themselves with the necessary information and knowledge to make the right decisions”

Andrews concluded: “Half a million Americans die every year because of deadly combustible cigarettes – more than double the COVID-19 related death toll in 2020. Eliminating this scourge would be the greatest public health benefit of our lifetimes. Americans have already witnessed this year how missteps by governments and regulatory failings have led to unnecessary deaths. Refusing to follow the science and let smokers quit through embracing this new technology is a sin at a far greater level than even that. This is one of the greatest moral issues of our time. Quite literally millions of lives depend on policymakers understanding it.”

The full publication can be downloaded at: https://www.protectingtaxpayers.org/report/harmreduction101/

#