Well over half of the participants in a three-month trial in which smokers tried vaping as a way of either stopping or reducing smoking successfully gave up cigarettes. Of those who continued to smoke while also vaping, 79% reduced their cigarette consumption.
There is a need to structure this debate in a way that speaks to the right parts. Preventing youth vaping and smoking remains a key and noble objective. It would be highly unfortunate and regrettable, though that, in attempting to reach this objective, we relinquish efforts to assist the over 8 million smokers in South Africa to quit smoking. It would be morally repugnant to penalise smokers in furtherance of our vendetta against the tobacco industry.
The World Health Organization (WHO) updates its Model List of Necessary Medications (EML), a list of medicines deemed essential by WHO experts. This list gets updated every two years.
