Cigar Industry Sharply Criticizes WHO Report
The global report published by the World Health Organization in the beginning of December concerning the consumption of tobacco across the world was massively criticized by the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR), a non-governmental coalition of tobacco sellers based in Columbus, Georgia.
World Health Organization, the issuer of the latest anti-tobacco report, is an agency of United Nations Organization. WHO never disclosed its sources of funds, however, it is well-known that the agency is funded mainly by private sector investments, rather than official assistance from United Nations. The private funding of the agency relies of pharmaceutical companies, including the makers of nicotine replacement therapies. So, it profits from anti-tobacco organizations, and many tobacconists name the report – unreliable.
Chris McCalla, legislative director of Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) said that the report by WHO is absolutely unreliable and is stuffed with ridiculous unconfirmed assertions. The IPCPR is a coalition of nearly 2.000 manufacturers, distributors and retailers of premium tobacco, cigars and related products.
McCalla said the cigar industry can’t withstand the force of WHO, as they are not Tobacco giants with lobbyists among Congressmen and comprise small family businesses that are involved in sales of a still legal product enjoyed by experienced tobacco-lovers like other enjoy a bottle of fine wine.
However the Association can not exist for too long while such organizations like WHO makes so shocking and ridiculous statements that seem absurd to all people that are able to think.
The IPCPR legislative director decided to avoid repeating the controversial findings by the report in order to not provide a larger coverage. But he added they would have to cope with those assertions made by the WHO concerning cigar smoking and its effects on public health.
The WHO reports claims there do not exist any safe levels of environmental tobacco smoke, however the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the opposite point of view, said Sharp. According to OSHA, such levels could be assessed and established, and they are much higher than those, found in eateries.
Sponsors of the WHO include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which, funds the campaigns in Africa helping to vaccinate children from malaria. However, World Health Organization top officials criticized the Foundation for focusing on particular campaigns instead of simply providing the WHO with the right to allocate funds where they want to.
Mr. McCalla underlined that the WHO should better deal with the spreading of infections in poor countries instead of terrorizing tobacco industry. However, it is an expected step from an organization that does not recruit employees who are smokers, he concluded.
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There are some problems with the facts in this article. First, the organization criticizing the WHO report was the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR), an association of retail tobacco dealers. Second, the quotes attributed to Norman Sharp were actually from Chris McCalla, the legislative director of the IPCPR. Third, Norman Sharp is president of the Cigar Association of America(CAA)and neither he nor the CAA offered any comments on the WHO report.
Thanx for covering the POV of IPCPR, but Norm Sharp is prexy of CAA, the Cigar Association of America, not the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. The news release, on which your article is based, attributed comments to Chris McCalla, legislative director of IPCPR.
Thank you very much for your critical feedback, we highly appreciate it.
We would like to apologize for the error in our article. We had no intention to mislead you, however, as an old maxim says – haste makes waste. We rushed this article to you without checking all the information, and now we have to correct our mistakes.