ActionSA Takes Health Department to Task for Misleading South Africans on Vaping

[Adephi]

*** Disclaimer : I make this post for informational purposes only. Politics in South Africa, and the world, is always a controversial subject. Please can we refrain from the politics and stick to the topic at hand when discussing. ***


ActionSA condemns the Department of Health for authorising radio advertisements which claim that “vaping is just as bad as smoking cigarettes.”

This statement is false and misleading. While vaping is not without risk, the available scientific evidence is clear that it is not equivalent to the harms of combustible cigarettes. By insisting otherwise, the Department is spreading propaganda rather than facts.

Even more concerning is that these advertisements are being run while the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill is still before the Portfolio Committee on Health. By presenting contested provisions of the Bill as if they are already law, the Department is deliberately misleading the public and undermining the constitutional role of Parliament.

South Africans are entitled to honest, evidence-based information, not fearmongering. Parliament is entitled to respect for its processes, not executive interference.

Consequently, ActionSA lodged a formal complaint with the Advertising Regulatory Board demanding the immediate withdrawal of these misleading advertisements, and submitted a separate complaint to the Speaker of the National Assembly against the Department of Health for contemptuous conduct that undermines the authority of Parliament.

The Minister must explain why the Department has chosen to misinform South Africans and interfere with established democratic process. ActionSA will ensure that accountability is enforced, and that Parliament’s authority is not trampled by an overreaching executive.

ActionSA Takes Health Department to Task for Misleading South Africans on Vaping

ActionSA condemns the Department of Health for authorising radio advertisements which claim that “vaping is just as bad as smoking cigarettes.”

www.actionsa.org.za

 

[Old_Goat]

Well now, isn’t that a familiar tune. The Department of Health still singing from the “vaping is as bad as smoking” hymn sheet, even though the science left that choir a long time ago. It’s one thing to debate the Bill in Parliament, it’s another to pump out radio ads that dress opinion up as fact. That’s not public health, that’s public herding.

Most of us old goats in the pen know the truth: vaping isn’t harmless, but it sure as hay isn’t on par with lighting up a Marlboro. The problem is, the average South African out there in traffic hears “just as bad” and believes it. That’s how you lose ground in a fight we’ve already been winning — the fight to get smokers onto something demonstrably less harmful.

I’m glad ActionSA has kicked up some dust about this, because if the Department keeps bleating propaganda into the airwaves unchecked, the whole flock gets misled. Parliament should be deciding the law, not the Department scribbling it into the margins ahead of time.

If anyone here wants to get past the noise and into evidence-based discussion on vaping, DIY, and harm reduction, I’ve been trying to build just that kind of space over at The Vape Workshop. Not a sales pitch — just a community where goats like us chew through the facts instead of the fearmongering.