Great expose on tobacco corruption in vaping science

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - fantastic expose on front page of The Times today by Billy Kenber on the reprise of the old tobacco playbook of influencing science and public opinion to muddy the waters of public debate to make vapes a mainstream consumer product. The hashtag#AddictionEconomy at work again, as we have been saying for a while, but here new examples of that in action.

"Tobacco firms have bankrolled scientific papers playing down the risks of children vaping as part of a secretive lobbying campaign to boost e-cigarette sales and try to block public health measures aimed at protecting young people, a Times investigation reveals.

Doctors, scientists and “independent’ activist groups funded by or linked to multinational tobacco companies who sell e-cigarettes have been at the forefront of efforts to ensure Britain retains its liberal approach to vaping and doesn’t follow other countries in imposing bans, taxes or flavour restrictions."

Joe Woof and I agree, as regular viewers will know. Nicotine companies are looking to grow the market for vapes, as they’ve promised their shareholders they will replace lost revenue as smoking declines. As the memorable WHO campaign suggests, “if your product killed 8 million people each year, you'd also target a new generation”. Tobacco companies subvert the process as the article says and opportunistic disposable vape companies like China’s iMiracle (Elfbar/Lost Mary), who now dominate the UK market, ignore ethical concerns altogether, targeting children directly and work on the same ‘move fast and break things’ strategy as the tech companies they seem to be trying to emulate.

Can the UK tread the fine line between having vapes to help prevent the many smoking deaths and creating a new generation of nicotine addicts? Who knows. More on that from us later.