The Addiction Economy happens in plain sight - what to do?

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - How hard it is to act when things are 'in plain sight' but don't fit the prevailing narrative - eg vapes and smoking.

This is an excellent report on hashtag#CommercialDeterminantsOfHealth from Gateshead Council - really worth reading and taking seriously their recommendations. I have no criticism of it at all.

Profit Before People Report - Gateshead Council

However. The report echoes many of our disbelief that super-harmful products like tobacco, ultra-processed foods, gambling, alcohol all happen 'in plain sight' facilitated by inaction by successive governments and companies and acceptance by many of us as just one of those things. And yet, the report skates over vapes, though Newcastle and Gateshead is one of the hotspots of vaping addiction in young people, and what led Joe to make his Vaping Dilemma film.

Here, as elsewhere, the dangers from smoking loom so large in the short term that the potential for similar long term health problems from vapes is discounted. Totally understandable. Lots of talk about regulation of ingredients etc may or may not be enough to prevent them.

But the over-riding lesson of the past is the importance of acting in a precautionary manner to prevent future harms and fundamental to that is telling the early warnings from the background noise.

In addiction to increasing reports of health harms, the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health reports that air pollution is the most dangerous preventable killer, with tobocco second. Smoking and air pollution together are responsible for over 16 million deaths globally per year.

And the lesson from these global catastrophes is that inhaling something other than fresh air into the lungs should be strenuously prevented.

We really don't know if we are right about vapes or being over-precautionary and are scared that if people listen to us then smokers will die who shouldn't and a vape addiction is like coffee, a mild but expensive addiction with no limited health impacts.

But vapes to us flag plenty early warnings of the addiction economy playbook the report talks about, mental and physical health problems are showing up, let alone the depressing feeling of being addicted to something like nicotine at a young age and not being able to stop. That's enough to take more action than is currently planned by the government vapes in our view.

Here's our White Paper and Recommendations if interested.

https://lnkd.in/ekWU2Gdc

Thanks Paul Belcher FRCP MFPH for the post and Julia Chamova, MBA for the heads up. What do you think?