Asia-Pacific’s Anti-Vaping Stance Faces Global Scrutiny

Monday, 12 January 2026, 8:29 am
Press Release: CAPHRA

A leading US harm reduction outlet has published a hardhitting oped by CAPHRA executive coordinator Nancy Loucas, putting global attention on Asia-Pacific’s tobacco control failures and New Zealand’s success with vapingled harm reduction.

The Filter Magazine article, “Asia-Pacific’s Harm Reduction Blind Spot Is Costing Lives,” draws directly on CAPHRA’s 2026 position paper on tobacco harm reduction in the region.

“Most of the world’s smokers live in Asia-Pacific, but many governments are protecting cigarettes by banning safer alternatives,” said Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).

“You cannot call that public health when countries like New Zealand are proving that regulated vaping helps drive smoking down.”

The article and position paper warn that total bans and punitive tax regimes in countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines are pushing people towards illicit markets or back to smoking, while officials claim progress on paper.

By contrast, New Zealand’s riskproportionate approach to vaping has helped reduce adult daily smoking to around 6.8 percent - one of the lowest rates in the world, while youth smoking has fallen to historic lows.

“New Zealand did not get to 6.8 percent smoking by accident,” Loucas said. “It got there by making safer products legal, affordable and proportionately regulated.”

International coverage in Filter, a respected harm reduction publication, shows growing global interest in how riskproportionate regulation can save lives in low and middleincome countries.

“When readers in the US and Europe are asking why Asia-Pacific is banning tools that work, policymakers here should be asking themselves the same question,” Loucas added.

“The choice for governments is brutally simple: fewer people dying, or more of the same.”
 

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