Why we have to ignore this chart

This post is about how sometimes we have to ignore the power of big numbers and be precautionary.

Regular readers will know that Joe Woof and I are frustrated by the UK’s almost total focus on promoting vapes to help smokers quit and dismissal of concerns about the effects of vapes on society in general.

We propose that vapes should be treated like cigarettes, with plain plain packaging, restricted flavours and availability, no lifestyle marketing and progressively made illegal, like cigarettes, with immediate effect. Vapes should also be taxed, and like gambling, a hypothecated levy on the companies funding prevention, cessation and countering health effects overseen by an independent body.

The graph below shows why it is understandable to propose we are ‘focusing on the wrong problem’ as I was told by the CEO of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) recently. But here are 4 reasons why vaping must be stopped in its tracks despite their importance in helping smokers quit.

1. Nicotine is the reason why 50% smokers think they can’t give up cigarettes, often right up until the moment it kills them. Evidence shows nicotine inhaled through vapes is as addictive as that inhaled through cigarettes. Knowledge of negative health effects from vapes is growing, but even without this, inhaled nicotine should surely be strenuously avoided on addiction grounds alone.

2. Let’s say smoking bans and ‘swap to stop’ are successful. Current policies mean that in 20 years time we will have a society addicted to vapes. Drug addictions, even dependencies, are horrible (I was told by PHE young vapers are ‘only dependent’). A chemical addiction like nicotine dominates your life, makes you feel powerless, irritable, anxious, stupid. You wish you hadn’t started, but feel compelled to continue. And it’s expensive - another life altering impact. Many non-smoking children and young adults feel their vaping habit is affecting their mental health in these ways already.

3. Vapes are not the only game in town to help smokers quit. Legal means such as the progressive ban Rishi Sunak has introduced will work. New evidence shows certain talking therapies are as, if not more effective than pharmacological ones. But pharmacological cessation is the only one recommended on the NHS. Vapes can be useful, but vigorously promoting only one choice and leaving smokers with another inhaled nicotine addiction, when other approaches work as well, is wrong.

4. Inhaling something other than fresh air is the biggest cause of preventable death in the world, with air pollution and smoking killing 16 million people a year. Vaping as a vehicle for inhaling other substances is growing. THC via a vape is common, but there are fast growing problems with other synthetic drugs in Asia. We must prevent this vehicle for drugs being normalised before it escalates out of control.