Royston Smith is MP for Southampton Itchen.
The success of vaping in helping to drive down England’s smoking rates to one of the lowest in Europe is one of the many Conservative achievements of the past ten and more years.
But we find ourselves now at a critical juncture in this journey. As the Government embarks on a major reform of nicotine product laws, we must strike a balance between tackling underage and illicit vaping, and ensuring vapes remain an accessible alternative for the six million plus remaining adult smokers.
Electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes, first became available shortly before David Cameron took office in 2010, and since then have become a lynchpin of our public health strategy for bringing down smoking rates.
In the ten years between 2012-2022, England’s smoking rate tumbled by over thirty percent. Vaping has played a crucial role in this stunning success and is now considered the most effective quitting aid in the country, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
According to ASH polling, Britain today has 4.7 million vapers, 93 per cent of whom are former smokers who have used vaping to either quit cigarettes entirely or reduce their habit.
The deeper meaning of these numbers is the lives that have been saved. Whereas one in two smokers die from tobacco related diseases, OHID and its predecessor, Public Health England, have repeatedly reported that, based on the weight of evidence, vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking. “If you smoke, vaping is much safer,” says Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
However, concerns about underage use of vaping products are well-founded. No child should ever get access to nicotine products, but it is clear that some are.
It is reprehensible that there are certain vaping products reaching British shores that seem to be specifically designed to appeal to our children. Equally, it is unacceptable that some rogue retailers and manufacturers are failing in their duty as gatekeepers. These problems must be addressed head on.
What is vital is that we tackle the genuine issues associated with certain vaping products, without making vaping less effective for adult smokers looking to quit. So yes, let’s move fast to outlaw irresponsible sales tactics, and increase punishments for those that do not abide by the law.
But banning all vape flavours, for example, would be immensely counterproductive. Smokers consistently report that having a gamut of flavours to choose from was key to their ability to let go of cigarettes and switch to vapes.
Similarly, banning disposable vapes outright seems to me an unnecessarily nuclear option. Surely a better answer would be to directly address problems such as child-appealing flavour names and packaging, and irresponsible retailers, rather than take disposables off the table for adult smokers who appreciate their ready-to-go convenience.
Our progress in driving down smoking rates over the past decade cannot, and should not, be taken for granted. The scale of the challenge, despite significant progress, is still vast: Britain has over six million adult smokers. Clearly, more must be done to encourage those smokers to switch.
Misconceptions about vaping are already making this challenge harder. According to the OHID, two thirds of England’s remaining smokers have been found to wrongly believe that vaping is just as harmful as smoking, while the NHS has cited misconceived fears about the relative safety of vapes to be the biggest impediment to their further uptake by adult smokers.
To treat vapes unduly harshly would only add weight to these misconceptions, when what is needed now is action to re-establish trust in them as a less harmful alternative to smoking.
As the Government embarks on its important reboot of our nation’s nicotine policies, it is vital that we protect our children whilst also prizing adult smokers from the clutches of cigarettes. This is not a binary choice: the health of more than six million Brits depends on our being able to serve both objectives.
I am entirely confident that this Conservative Government, taking our party’s core values as its compass, can chart a course leading to the promised land of a smoke free nation.
Royston Smith is MP for Southampton Itchen.
The success of vaping in helping to drive down England’s smoking rates to one of the lowest in Europe is one of the many Conservative achievements of the past ten and more years.
But we find ourselves now at a critical juncture in this journey. As the Government embarks on a major reform of nicotine product laws, we must strike a balance between tackling underage and illicit vaping, and ensuring vapes remain an accessible alternative for the six million plus remaining adult smokers.
Electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes, first became available shortly before David Cameron took office in 2010, and since then have become a lynchpin of our public health strategy for bringing down smoking rates.
In the ten years between 2012-2022, England’s smoking rate tumbled by over thirty percent. Vaping has played a crucial role in this stunning success and is now considered the most effective quitting aid in the country, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
According to ASH polling, Britain today has 4.7 million vapers, 93 per cent of whom are former smokers who have used vaping to either quit cigarettes entirely or reduce their habit.
The deeper meaning of these numbers is the lives that have been saved. Whereas one in two smokers die from tobacco related diseases, OHID and its predecessor, Public Health England, have repeatedly reported that, based on the weight of evidence, vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking. “If you smoke, vaping is much safer,” says Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
However, concerns about underage use of vaping products are well-founded. No child should ever get access to nicotine products, but it is clear that some are.
It is reprehensible that there are certain vaping products reaching British shores that seem to be specifically designed to appeal to our children. Equally, it is unacceptable that some rogue retailers and manufacturers are failing in their duty as gatekeepers. These problems must be addressed head on.
What is vital is that we tackle the genuine issues associated with certain vaping products, without making vaping less effective for adult smokers looking to quit. So yes, let’s move fast to outlaw irresponsible sales tactics, and increase punishments for those that do not abide by the law.
But banning all vape flavours, for example, would be immensely counterproductive. Smokers consistently report that having a gamut of flavours to choose from was key to their ability to let go of cigarettes and switch to vapes.
Similarly, banning disposable vapes outright seems to me an unnecessarily nuclear option. Surely a better answer would be to directly address problems such as child-appealing flavour names and packaging, and irresponsible retailers, rather than take disposables off the table for adult smokers who appreciate their ready-to-go convenience.
Our progress in driving down smoking rates over the past decade cannot, and should not, be taken for granted. The scale of the challenge, despite significant progress, is still vast: Britain has over six million adult smokers. Clearly, more must be done to encourage those smokers to switch.
Misconceptions about vaping are already making this challenge harder. According to the OHID, two thirds of England’s remaining smokers have been found to wrongly believe that vaping is just as harmful as smoking, while the NHS has cited misconceived fears about the relative safety of vapes to be the biggest impediment to their further uptake by adult smokers.
To treat vapes unduly harshly would only add weight to these misconceptions, when what is needed now is action to re-establish trust in them as a less harmful alternative to smoking.
As the Government embarks on its important reboot of our nation’s nicotine policies, it is vital that we protect our children whilst also prizing adult smokers from the clutches of cigarettes. This is not a binary choice: the health of more than six million Brits depends on our being able to serve both objectives.
I am entirely confident that this Conservative Government, taking our party’s core values as its compass, can chart a course leading to the promised land of a smoke free nation.