Vaping advocates, particularly in the UK, have been left outraged after claims about the country’s falling smoking rate made no mention of vapor products or, indeed, harm reduction, according to an opinion piece by Fergus Mason published on vapingpost.com.
On the 10th anniversary of the ban on smoking in pubs, most press releases and blog posts had focused on the fall in the incidence of smoking that had occurred since the ban was introduced – from around 21 percent in 2006 to just over 16 percent now, Mason said.
But, in fact, the figures showed that smoking rates in the UK had been falling for years before the ban.
Moreover, they showed that from 2007 to about 2011 this decline had stopped.
‘Smoking rates didn’t start heading down again until e-cigarettes became popular several years later, and then they began dropping at an unprecedented speed,’ Mason said.
‘However, you wouldn’t know this from the self-congratulatory outpourings from pressure groups.
‘ASH, who claim to be supportive of vaping, didn’t mention tobacco harm reduction at all in their numerous statements on the ban. Instead they credited the fall to plain packs, which were only introduced this May, and the ban on smoking in cars with children.
‘Cancer Research also failed to mention vapor products.
‘However, a statement by Public Health England [PHE] made clear that vaping had played a role in the decline.’
Meanwhile, Mason reported a British politician as having criticised the EU’s approach to vapor products, saying the Commission’s scaremongering could have a “perverse effect” and risk reversing progress made on reducing smoking.
‘Anne Main, the Conservative MP for St Albans, highlighted the landmark 2015 PHE report which estimated vaping to be at least 95 percent safer than smoking, and argued that the UK is not doing enough to support science-based solutions to tobacco use,’ Mason said.
‘She said that continuing with the regulations in their current form was likely to make this worse.
‘In particular, she said the use of health warnings similar to the ones on tobacco could dissuade people from making the switch to reduced-harm products.
‘Main also urged the British government to rethink the regulations once the UK has left the European Union.’