In this interview, tobacco harm reduction advocate Nancy Loucas unpacks how consumer voices are pushing back against vaping misinformation in New Zealand, why education matters in a “post-truth” world, and how Asia-Pacific communities win by doing it “their way".
Transcription:
00:10 - 00:25
[Joanna Junak]
Nancy, you are an advocate in tobacco harm reduction and a key voice for vaping communities. So can you tell me how consumer voices are currently perceived in public debates about tobacco harm reduction in New Zealand?
00:25 - 01:26
[Nancy Loucas]
Well, we don't have many debates per se, but what we do have is on social media. One of the things that's happening in New Zealand is we have a lot of anti-vaping NGOs, and they place, I guess, press releases and articles in the news, misinformation, malinformation, disinformation. And one of the things that we're finding, and as time goes on, the more that they put on, the more the vapors engage on these forums, on these platforms, to kind of disprove what they're saying. and the general public's kind of coming along with us. So the more they lie and the more they put out information that is easily disproved, people are just like, they don't even listen to them anymore. So I think, in general, it's good, but we don't have that engagement with the government anymore. We don't have, AFCA was disestablished with the smoke-free laws, so we don't really have that direct connection to the government anymore. But in the community as a whole, I think we're doing okay. We could do better but we're doing okay.
01:26 - 01:29
[Joanna Junak]
Who is the hardest to talk to about harm reduction?
01:31 - 02:15
[Nancy Loucas]
Anyone who is how do I put this? There are people that believe everything they see in the news and they believe that there's this really huge youth vaping problem. And they believe that, you know, you're not an expert. You know, I'm going to believe the quote unquote expert and they don't want to hear anything different. I think it's, it's a fear thing. I think it's a, It's ingrained. Kiwis tend to not raise their head above the parapet. They don't want to buck the system. So if somebody's on TV and they're quote unquote expert, they're going to believe them over me or someone else. But we do work with those people and we do give them the information and give them the time to process it. We've seen a few come around to the, I say, the bright side, let's say.
02:16 - 02:22
[Joanna Junak]
What message did you share with participants during the session you hosted at this year's GFN conference?
02:23 - 03:09
[Nancy Loucas]
I think the main message that we're trying to get across to everyone is that we're all in this together. And especially in the LMICs, we have to approach it our way. We cannot allow other people that come in and they do things their way. It doesn't work for us. We have to do it our way. And our way is not so much about the individual, it's about the collective. Our way is more about networking. In Asia Pacific, it's more about My cousin might know this person or I know this person. It's much more personal. It's much more networking and much more that as a consumer, you have a much closer connection to the people that you need to talk to.
03:10 - 03:16
[Joanna Junak]
Okay, and why is education so important in THI?
03:17 - 04:00
[Nancy Loucas]
Education is important in anything. What we live in now, the way I perceive it anyway, is a post-truth world. If you put something out there, a lot of times people are going to believe it because they don't have the time or the energy or the critical analysis skills to see something and say, this isn't right. Whereas we have the responsibility to, I feel anyway, to educate people. This is what we're doing. This is why we're doing it. And here's the evidence or the science or what you need to prove that we're not lying to you. And that's, I think, the difference between us and them. And I hate to say us and them, but that's really what it's become. We're the ones that are giving the people the information they need to make an informed choice. That should be coming from the other side. It's not.