Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGENEVA / E-CIGARETTES PRESSER
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: GENEVA / E-CIGARETTES PRESSER
TRT: 2:44
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 AUGUST 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT
RECENT – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
26 AUGUST 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, presser
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director of the Department for Prevention of Non-communicable Disease:
“E-cigarettes and similar products are a story of both risks and promises. They are an evolving frontier. In a sense they are a double edged sword. One of the main points of the report that we have issued today through the Secretariat for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, is that WHO is calling for global regulation of what we call electronic nicotine delivery devices.”
4. Close up, hands typing laptop
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director of the Department for Prevention of Non-communicable Disease:
“E-cigarettes are the most common prototype of these electronic nicotine delivery systems and according to the report that we are recommending to the parties of the Framework Convention, e-cigarettes need to be regulated for two main reasons: to further the science around e-cigarettes and to act on the science that we already have on e-cigarettes to protect public health.”
6. Wide shot, presser”
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director of the Department for Prevention of Non-communicable Disease:
“To have appropriate regulation, will mean that the potential of e-cigarettes and similar devices are maximized and at the same time with regulation risks will be minimized.”
8. Med shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director of the Department for Prevention of Non-communicable Disease:
“Existing evidence also shows that e-cigarettes aerosol is not merely as is often quoted, as water vapour, it is often claimed in marketing report of these products is what they admit is a water vapour, this is not the case.”
10. Close up, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director of the Department for Prevention of Non-communicable Disease:
“A major concern for WHO is that the tobacco industry is not taking a greater stake in the market, as the organization regards the tobacco industry is using the marketing of e-cigarettes to position itself as a public health partner, which it is clearly not. At the same time the tobacco industry pretends to be part of the solution to the health disaster that they have created. So through their new volleys in the e-cigarette market, they are trying to portray themselves on the side of finding solutions. As I said, finding solutions to disaster, a health disaster, a global health disaster that they themselves have created.”
12. Wide shot, presser
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for global regulation of electronic cigarettes and similar products.
WHO on Tuesday (26 Aug) issued a report on regulating e-cigarettes which are marketed by manufacturers as aids to quit smoking, or as healthier alternatives to tobacco.
The agency said that since 2005, the product has created a global industry with 466 brands worth an estimated $3 billion a year.
Speaking today to reporters in Geneva, WHO expert Douglas Bettcher said “e-cigarettes and similar products are a story of both risks and promises. They are an evolving frontier. In a sense they are a double edged sword. One of the main points of the report that we have issued today through the Secretariat for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, is that WHO is calling for global regulation of what we call electronic nicotine delivery devices.”
He added “e-cigarettes need to be regulated for two main reasons: to further the science around e-cigarettes and to act on the science that we already have on e-cigarettes to protect public health.”
Bettcher stressed “to have appropriate regulation, will mean that the potential of e-cigarettes and similar devices are maximized and at the same time with regulation risks will be minimized.”
He explained that “existing evidence also shows that e-cigarettes aerosol is not merely as is often quoted, as water vapour, it is often claimed in marketing report of these products is what they admit is a water vapour, this is not the case.”
The WHO expert underlined that “a major concern for WHO is that the tobacco industry is not taking a greater stake in the market, as the organization regards the tobacco industry is using the marketing of e-cigarettes to position itself as a public health partner, which it is clearly not.”
He added “at the same time the tobacco industry pretends to be part of the solution to the health disaster that they have created. So through their new volleys in the e-cigarette market, they are trying to portray themselves on the side of finding solutions.”
He emphasized “finding solutions to disaster, a health disaster, a global health disaster that they themselves have created.”
The report on "Electronic nicotine delivery systems" (ENDS) will be discussed at a tobacco control conference scheduled to be held in Moscow in October.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was adopted by the World Health Assembly on 21 May 2003 and entered into force on 27 February 2005. It has since become one of the most rapidly and widely embraced treaties in United Nations history.
