Smoke, Roccatti (Anafe): ‘Incomplete Scheer report, ignore e-cig advantage’

“While integrating some observations made by Anafe into its final opinion, the Report of the Scheer Committee (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and emerging risk), an advisory body of the European Commission, has continued to have a conservative and maximum precautionary approach, as well as analyzing the effects of vaping only in absolute terms, without making a comparison with traditional cigarettes, which still today are the cause of about 700,000 deaths every year in the European Union “. This was stated by Umberto Roccatti, president of Anafe Confindustria – the national association of electronic smoke producers, to Adnkronos Salute. “The conclusions of the report – adds Roccatti – are still too partial if we consider that almost all the data and the scientific bases referred to come from the US market, where the regulation is extremely less stringent than the European one and where the consumption habits of such products have evolved in a significantly different way compared to the Old Continent. In Europe, in fact, the electronic cigarette has already been recognized by some authorities, primarily by those of British public health, as a valid tool for cessation. Therefore, in consideration of this chaos of information, in recent days we have decided to promote together with Liaf (Italian Anti-Smoking League) the petition on Change.org “Smoking or Vaping: I have the right to an informed choice”. Among the objectives of the initiative: to defend the right of citizens to have correct and exhaustive information on electronic cigarettes “. “The conclusions produced by Scheer – confirms Riccardo Polosa, founder of the CoEHAR International Research Center for the reduction of harm from smoking at the University of Catania – surprisingly omit any scientific evaluation of the reduction of harm from smoking and demonstrate non-compliance by the Commission with all the basic rules of sharing and listening. Thousands of scientific studies have already shown that, for those who cannot quit smoking on their own, switching to non-combustion products reduces the harm related to smoking up to 95%. We know that for people suffering from certain diseases, such as arterial hypertension, diabetes, BPCO and even schizophrenia, switching to electronics is the most effective solution to reduce and completely quit smoking. “” We know – highlights Roccatti – that the percentage of Italians who turn to the National Health Service for help in stopping f humare is irrelevant, just 0.1% of the total, 0.05% every year succeeds. This is why the EU’s plan to fight cancer, which among the objectives has the reduction of the percentage of smokers within the European Union from 25% to 5% by 2040, risks remaining impossible if it is not helped. , for those smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit, through reduced-risk products such as the electronic cigarette. In fact, we believe that the e-cig is the tool to achieve mass cessation from smoking and tobacco and we ask that the health authorities also support second-level tools as a tool, after assisted cessation practices, which however we know are aimed at a number very few smokers, the reduced risk approach, and we ask financial institutions not to hinder this path ”, he concludes.