Africa: COP 10 – Health And Politics: Is There A Lack Of Transparency ?

Yeo expressed his perspective on the reluctance to include harm reduction in the conversations: “I think it has to do with the impact the tobacco industry has had on public health. I understand it because there were a lot of lies, deception, and significant costs, not just in human terms but also in terms of mistrust. However, the world is different now, and we need to have this conversation. It’s okay to disagree, but let’s talk about this. Additionally, cynically speaking, the WHO may not want to discuss it, because supporting harm reduction challenges the very structure built around something harmful.”

And when asked about when the paradigm will shift, he went on: “In the next five years, not really. Maybe in ten. When science catches up with reality, I think governments around the world will start seeing, particularly African governments, that they got this wrong. If these products weren’t acceptable, enjoyable, and effective, we wouldn’t see this growth of harm reduction products throughout the world. We are not looking closer at a hundred million users on the world. That is an incredible growth over a short period of time and at the same time, we are not seeing too many adverse effects. And there is also a form of hypocrisy where in South Africa, we want to ban vaping and we have just legalized cannabis for personal consumption. Things don’t make sense. And unfortunately, it is nothing to do with anything other than politics.”

According to the WHO, the number of smokers has increased by 104% in North Africa (and the Middle East) and 75% in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990’s. It is the place in the world,  where the prevalence of smokers has witnessed the highest rise.