A House of Commons hearing on Tuesday to hear evidence on the impact of vaping in the UK on health conditions, legal challenges and economics, gives experts a chance to hit back at the usual public criticism of the technology.
The science and technology committee met with Professor Riccardo Polosa, Professor Peter Hajek, Dr Jamie Brown and others to take a closer look at vaping. The hearing was well-attended, with experts stressing the safety of vaping compared to smoking and its benefits for those trying to quit, and giving reasons for the media hysteria surrounding the topic.
The hearing was held to discuss the good and bad views surrounding vaping, and to talk about the gap in public awareness about the risks and how to properly and effectively control e-cigarettes.
“Some people see vaping as a useful tool to reduce smoking, while others see it as a tool to normalize smoking among younger generations,” explained Norman Lamb, a member of the council.
“We want to know where the gaps in the evidence system lie, the impact of regulatory legislation, and the impact of this growing industry on NHS costs and UK public money.”
In addition to the live Q&A session, over 80 proposals from vape associations, tobacco companies, pharmaceutical companies, professors, universities, vape company charities and individuals were submitted for the committee's consideration.
This mixed message is no longer surprising. We have well-documented and well-argued statements from Clive Bates, the Royal College of Physicians and Cancer Research UK (among others). On the other hand, there is also the ranting and hateful rhetoric against vaping from the likes of Martin McKee, Pfizer and more.
The hearing painted a rosy picture of vaping overall. Professors Peter Hajek, Mark Conner and Riccardo Polosa gave a broad overview of the available evidence in the first part, and Professors Lion Shahab, Jamie Brown and Paul Aveyard made relevant points in the second part.
Researchers highlighted the key benefits of vaping and gave an overview of data showing that vaping is safer than smoking . For example, Professor Shahab summarized his research showing that vapers reduced their exposure to 95% of the harmful chemicals in cigarettes. Professor Polosa discussed his research on vapers who had never smoked and had no negative symptoms.
The effects on bystanders from vaping were also dismissed. “I would be more concerned about breathing the air in Westminster than having someone vaping next to me,” Professor Polosa said.
Dr Jamie Brown discusses the positive signs in the Smoking Toolkit study when it comes to vaping helping smokers quit, and encourages quitting services to offer vaping advice to smokers. Professor Aveyard discusses the Cochrane Review on the effectiveness of vaping in quitting smoking, saying that while there are still concerns, vaping has doubled the chances of people quitting compared to those who do not seek help.
TPD’s regulatory framework was also discussed during the session, with the main focus on counterproductive nicotine limits, meaningless packaging and new warnings. Professor Hajek described these as pointless. Dr Brown also pointed out that countries that had taken a cautious approach to vaping, such as Australia, had been forced to change their stance as positive data emerged.
Fears of normalising smoking are also refuted by experts, who point out that very few regular vapers are younger generations, with Professor Aveyard stressing that vaping is the shortest route to quitting and very few cases of reversing.
The committee and experts also drew attention to the media’s overstatement of the dangers of vaping. Dr Shahab pointed out that the media often exaggerated the results of studies, such as a study showing hardening of the blood vessels being mistaken for “e-cigarettes causing heart disease”, even though exercise can also affect blood vessels. Professor Riccardo Polosa said that such exaggerated headlines were for engagement and did not reflect the actual evidence.
On future regulatory action, the panel agreed that overly restrictive regulations would do more harm than good. Professor Aveyard said that overly restrictive policies would increase the perception that e-cigarettes are harmful.
The UK remains at the forefront of accepting vaping as a smoking cessation method. Professor Peter Hajek says the US’ focus on nicotine and its role as a villain may be behind the vaping divide between the US and UK.
Overall, the hearing seems to have had a very strong impact on the development of vaping in the UK. What we can hope is that this positivity can spread to other parts of the world.
Source: Lee Johnson - Vaping360
Translated by: The Vape Club
