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Ban disposable vapes to protect children - doctors
Children's doctors are calling for a complete ban on disposable vapes because they may damage young people's lungs and are bad for the environment.
But an anti-smoking campaign group says a ban would make it harder for some adults to give up smoking and increase the trade in illegal vapes.
UK governments are planning steps to reduce vaping among under-18s.
These are likely to include tighter rules on how vaping products are marketed and promoted.
Selling vapes or e-cigarettes to children is illegal, but that has not stopped a rise in 11 to 17-year-olds experimenting with vaping - from 7.7% in 2022 up to 11.6% in 2023, according to a YouGov survey for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
Charity and campaign group ASH says a complete ban would end up boosting the market for illegal vapes and make it harder to recycle them.
And it said disposable vapes were a useful tool for adult smokers, particularly older people and those with learning disabilities, to quit tobacco.
"We need to be really careful about banning them - vapes and e-cigarettes have been invaluable in stopping people smoking," said Prof Ruth Sharrock, respiratory consultant in Gateshead, who works with patients with respiratory failure.
Although disposable vapes are just one kind of vaping product, ASH estimates that they are used by 20% of vapers who have quit smoking.
Prof Nick Hopkinson, respiratory physician and chairman of ASH, said smoking remained "the biggest health problem for adults and children", and urged more funding for stop smoking services as well as stricter rules on vaping.
ASH says disposable vapes can be bought for "pocket money prices" and is calling on the government to put a tax of £5 on their price. This means they would cost a similar amount to rechargeable, reusable vaping products - but still much less than a pack of cigarettes.
It also wants rules to be tightened around the way vapes are promoted in shops, to reduce their appeal to children.
A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care in England said: "We are taking bold action to crack down on youth vaping through the £3m illicit vapes enforcement squad to tackle underage sales to children."
Source: BBC News, 6 June 2023
See also: ASH – Full press release ASH – Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain | ASH – Resources on youth vaping
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Opinion: Vaping as a cure for smoking has brought its own ills
Writing for the Financial Times, David Strain, associate professor in cardiometabolic health at the University of Exeter and chair of the BMA Board of Science, discusses the importance of using vaping as a tool to help adults quit smoking and the need for e-cigarette advertising to be curtailed away from younger people.
Strain breaks down the impact of tobacco on individual health, citing it as the biggest cause of preventable diseases, exacerbating the health gap between the rich and poor and responsible for 70% of lung cancers.
He emphasises the importance of encouraging people to stop smoking, by using ‘any tools that are available’, as stopping people smoking is one of the most ‘beneficial’ things we can do for people’s health. Strain states that when he is in his acute stroke clinic and chats with smokers about why they smoke, he encourages them to vape as an alternative to getting the ‘hit’ from the ritual of smoking and calls vaping ‘one of the best modern treatments for addition to cigarettes’.
However, Strain does worry about the lack of long-term data on e-cigarettes, but he is confident that ‘with the 5,000 or so chemicals and 70 proven carcinogens in tobacco’, vaping is sure to be a more positive alternative for people’s health. He goes on to say that the colours or flavourings on e-cigarettes is an unnecessary addition to a devise designed to stop people smoking cigarettes. He argues it could be a deterrent to adults wanting to quit if ‘their chosen weaning technology to be more attractive to the children than to them’.
Strain states ‘There is no reason to produce flavoured vapes with bright packaging designs, unless it is to appeal to children.’ And points to legislation banning advertising of nicotine-based products and the banning of menthol cigarettes as an effort to stop young people from smoking and yet at the same time it was legal for companies to offer free sample of single use vapes to children.
Strain concludes that vaping is a large threat to future generations due to the predatory marketing and promotion of e-cigarettes to young people, but it should not be discouraged as a method for helping adults quitting smoking.
Source: Financial Times, 2 June 2023
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Marlboro Man boss calls for date to be set for a full smoking ban amid switch to vaping and heated tobacco
The boss of the tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI), makers of Marlboro said a date should be set to ban cigarettes.
Jacek Olczak, chief executive of PMI, says cigarettes should be replaced by alternatives such as vapes.
Olczak calls on governments to support tobacco companies like PMI to research alternatives which are less damaging to health – while setting a deadline for banning traditional cigarettes.
There could be a tenfold reduction in deaths linked to smoking if smokers fully switched to smoke-free products, according to the World Health Organisation.
In the past, PMI – whose brand was advertised by the Marlboro Man from the 1950s to the late 1990s – has fought lawsuits that alleged it hid the dangers associated with smoking.
Source: This is Money, 5 June 2023
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Tobacco giant BAT reports ‘disappointing’ US cigarette sales but gains vapers
British American Tobacco (BAT) claims it has 900,000 customers in the US using new products like vapes in its first financial quarter.
But the company admitted it saw a “disappointing” performance in the US for cigarette brands like Camel, and an “underwhelming” start to the year for its Glo e-cigarette brand.
The FTSE 100-listed group has been growing its portfolio of so-called reduced-risk products, which includes vapes, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
It said it is on track to make £5 billion in revenue from tobacco alternatives by 2025 and for the category to be profitable by 2024.
New chief executive Tadeu Marroco insisted that BAT’s strategy has not changed since he took over at the helm last month and pledged to reduce the “health impact” of the business.
The global tobacco industry volume is expected to decline by around 3% in the year ahead, BAT said.
Source: Evening Standard, 6 June 2023
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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