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Vapes '95% safer' than cigarettes messaging backfired
The message that vaping is 95% safer than smoking has backfired, encouraging some children to vape, says a top health expert.
Dr Mike McKean treats children with lung conditions and is vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
He says the 2015 public messaging should have been clearer - vapes are only for adults addicted to cigarettes.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Dr McKean said: "Vaping is not for children and young people. In fact it could be very bad for you," although he stresses that it is not making lots of children very sick, and serious complications are rare.
"Vaping is only a tool for adults who are addicted to cigarettes."
He says the 95% safe messaging was "a very unwise thing to have done and it's opened the door to significant chaos".
The "switch to vape" message has had an unintended consequence of driving children to take up e-cigs, he says.
Prof Ann McNeil was one of the co-authors of the original 2015 report and told the BBC that the advice was based on the literature at the time and what was known about what the products contained.
"It was never intended to communicate that they're safe - it was intended to say there is a big difference in the harms."
She says vaping is less risky than smoking, but children should not be doing it.
Doctors, public health experts, cancer charities and governments in the UK all agree that - based on the current evidence - e-cigarettes carry a fraction of the risk of cigarettes.
The latest UK update on vaping and health published in 2022 says:
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in the short and medium term, vaping poses "a small fraction" of the risks of smoking
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vaping is not risk-free, particularly for people who have never smoked
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long-term effects or risks of vaping are unknown and need studying
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there is a lack of evidence on whether flavourings affect health risks
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the risk and severity of nicotine dependency from vaping is lower than for smoking but varies by product
Smoking rates in the UK have been steadily falling in adults and children, both before and after vapes were introduced. Vaping can help smokers quit cigarettes.
Source: BBC News, 26 September 2023
See also: Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update main findings
ASH Factsheet - Use of e-cigarettes (vapes) among young people in Great Britain| ASH Vaping Mythbuster Factsheet
Editorial note: The misperception that vaping is ‘as or more harmful than smoking’ has steadily increased among adults and young people since 2013. In 2023, 54% of GB 11-17 year olds thought that vaping was ‘as or more harmful than smoking’. This has coincided with an increase in youth vaping, particularly since 2021, with regular e-cigarette use among young people increasing from 1.2% in 2021 to 3.7% in 2023. The increase in youth vaping has largely been driven by a substantial rise in the popularity of disposable e-cigarettes, with 69% of young vapers saying that they primarily used disposable vapes in 2023, compared to only 7.7% in 2021.
ASH has called for stricter regulation of e-cigarettes to reduce youth vaping, while at the same time ensuring that adult smokers are not discouraged from using vaping to quit smoking. Find out more here.
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ASH Deputy Chief Executive Hazel Cheeseman discuss vaping on BBC Radio 5 Live
ASH Deputy Chief Executive, Hazel Cheeseman, appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss the claim that the message that ‘vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking' figure has backfired and contributed to a rise in youth vaping.
Cheeseman argues that the ‘95% less harmful’ figure is unlikely to be the cause of the rise in youth vaping and points out that the increase has coincided with teenagers believing that vapes are more harmful, not less. She states that the rise in youth vaping has been driven by the recent growth in the popularity of disposable vapes and calls for the introduction of an excise tax on disposable vapes to make them less affordable and restrictions on the promotion and marketing of vapes.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live, 27 September 2023
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Policy must tackle root causes of England’s record mental ill-health, says report
Ministers must tackle poverty, poor housing and air pollution to improve England’s worsening mental health, a coalition of charities, thinktanks and staff groups has urged ministers.
Their blueprint for better mental health also includes a crackdown on racism, reforms to the benefits system and action to end the stark inequality whereby people with severe psychiatric conditions die up to 20 years sooner than the general population.
Their ideas are contained in a report, published on Wednesday by the Centre for Mental Health, that draws on policy proposals put forward by 35 key organisations.
They include the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the counselling service Place2Be and children’s charities including the Children’s Society.
Sustained action is needed because Covid-19, austerity and the cost of living crisis have led to a rise in recent years in the numbers of people in England suffering mental ill-health, the coalition says.
The report warns ministers that the increased number of people struggling with their mental health – 8.2 million live with at least one condition such as anxiety or depression – is causing “preventable misery, death, demand on stretched services, lost economic productivity and costs of tens of billions of pounds”.
It sets out other measures that should be included in a 10-year plan to improve mental heath. They include:
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A new Child Poverty Act to banish child poverty by 2030.
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The creation of a minimum income guarantee and reforming sick pay.
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Action against junk food, smoking, alcohol and gambling.
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The end of “hostile environment” immigration policies.
In April last year the health secretary, Steve Barclay, called for evidence to help guide the development of what he said would be a 10-year “health and wellbeing plan”, as well as a separate suicide prevention plan. However, in January this year the former was scrapped and instead subsumed into a much wider-ranging major conditions strategy, which is still being developed and also covers cancer, heart disease and other major killers.
A future government should start applying a “mental health test” to every policy it plans to implement, to ensure that it helps tackle mental ill-health, the 35 groups add.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’re going further and faster to transform our country’s mental health services, with up to an additional £2.3bn being invested annually until 2024 to expand services, so an extra 2 million people can get the support they need.”
The major conditions strategy will be “informed” by evidence submitted by mental health organisations last year for the now-scrapped dedicated strategy, they added.
Source: The Guardian, 27 September 2023
See also: Report - A Mentally Healthier Nation
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GPs' lack of asthma testing is abysmal, charity says
A lack of simple tests for common lung conditions is preventing GPs making accurate diagnoses, a charity says.
Asthma and Lung UK says it could cause serious problems for the NHS in winter, as respiratory viruses start to spread.
One in five people is affected at some point by a lung condition.
These include asthma and forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as
emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Lung disease is the third-biggest killer in the UK, behind cancer and heart disease.
Asthma and Lung UK's analysis suggests up to 750,000 people in England are misdiagnosed with asthma, costing the government an estimated £132m, every year. While a further £2.2bn is spent on avoidable hospital stays and treatment, as patients with undiagnosed asthma develop life-threatening attacks or incurable lung diseases.
Lung conditions cost the NHS £11bn every year, with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) the second most common reason for an emergency hospital admission.
These conditions are also a leading cause of winter pressures on the NHS, as patients are more vulnerable to respiratory viruses, including flu, and colder temperatures.
Source: BBC News, 26 September 2023
See also: Asthma and Lung UK - 'Abysmal' lack of testing for lung conditions is forcing GPs to play a 'guessing game' with diagnosis
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Call to ban sale of vapes and cigarettes near schools to protect children's health
Calls have been made to ban the sale of disposable vapes and cigarettes near schools in a bid to “protect young people”.
The step could work towards "educating a nicotine and tobacco-free generation", according to The World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO said the "tobacco industry relentlessly targets young people", with products such as single-use vapes made more affordable.
A new guide by the organisation aims to support schools and teachers in making campuses smoke and nicotine-free with a series of new policies.
The recommendations include prohibiting the sale of tobacco and nicotine products, such as vapes, near schools.
It comes amid calls in England to ban single-use e-cigarettes following a hike in the number of children and young people using them.
It has also been reported the government is planning to accept a recommendation that would effectively ban cigarettes for the next generation.
If implemented by 2026, it would mean anyone aged 15 and under now would never be able to buy a cigarette.
The UK is ahead of the WHO's recommendations in many places when it comes to tobacco products, but similar rules are not in place for vaping.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said the UK had effectively banned cigarettes from schools but is urging the government to come up with a similar plan for vapes.
She said any new strategy "needs to include banning e-cigarette branding with bright colours, cartoon characters and sweet names which we know appeals to children.
“Most children get their vapes in shops so we also want a ban on advertising and in-store promotion and display in any shop accessible to children and taxes on the cheapest products to stop them being available at pocket money prices, while keeping them cheaper than cigarettes for adult smokers who want to quit.”
Source: ITV News, 26 September
See also: WHO - Ban smoking and vaping in school to protect young people
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