smokers as a proportion of the population dropped by just
0.6 percentage points between 2013-2016. By contrast, the
UK’s relatively liberal approach to vaping lead to smoking
rates falling by 2.9 percentage points. Japan also banned
e-cigarettes, but they allow heat-not-burn products which
has resulted in a significant decline in cigarette sales.
America also takes a more realistic approach to tobacco
harm reduction in some areas. Juul, an e-cigarette three
times too potent for the UK market, is permitted in the US;
it’s created a cult on campuses – ‘heroin chic’ no more, it’s
‘Juul dudes’ now. Despite the public health lobby being in
hysterics about the ‘Juul epidemic’, since Juul entered the
market in 2015 we’ve seen smoking rates fall by 1.6 per
cent from 2016-2017.
We could see similar falls in smoking rates in the UK if
we liberalised regulation around advertising. Specifically,
e-cigarette companies can’t talk about the relative risk
of harm reduction products compared to cigarettes.
This curtails their freedom to run an effective advertising
campaign aimed at encouraging smokers to switch.
A current example of the effectiveness of advertising is the
latest sunscreen campaign with a tattoo of the word sun
damage on a child’s face. Just imagine, if an e-cigarette
company released a similarly convincing ad: a twenty-a-
day ex-supermodel, looking haggard, fag in hand, next to
Cara Delevingne vaping away with youthful skin. The switch
would be an instant hit among young women. (Saatchi &
Saatchi, I’ll send you my invoice.)
The public know about sun damage, but we don’t know
enough about the benefits of harm reduction products
compared to cigarettes. In fact, the majority of smokers
across the UK do not believe that e-cigarettes are less
harmful than cigarettes and this situation has got worse
over time. “Even fewer are aware of the existence of newer
reduced-risk products like ‘heat-not-burn’ devices,” warns
Daniel Pryor, the author of the latest report from the Adam
Smith Institute.
“WOMEN HAVEN’T BEEN ADOPTING
VAPING PRODUCTS IN THE UK.
PERHAPS THIS IS DUE TO THEIR
CHUNKY APPEARANCE COMPARED
TO A CIGARETTE, THEIR FIDDLY
NATURE MAKES IT MORE AIRFIX
THAN AUDREY HEPBURN”
“IT IS YOUNG WOMEN’S LUNGS THAT
ARE MOST BLACKENED BY THE TPD, AS
WOMEN ARE MUCH LESS LIKELY TO
SWITCH TO VAPING THAN MEN”
Adverts targeted towards young women have the potential to be
the most effective. And it is young women’s lungs that are most
blackened by the Tobacco Products Directive, as women are
much less likely to switch to vaping than men. While 8.9 percent
of young men vape, for women it is just 2.6 percent. Women are
however continuing to smoke with nearly 16 percent of women
aged 16-24 smoking.
Women haven’t been adopting vaping products in the UK.
Perhaps this is due to their chunky appearance compared to
a cigarette; their fiddly nature makes it more Airfix than Audrey
Hepburn. American women, however, have been using small,
skeek available in the States, which resembles a USB stick,
rather than a Hornby train.
Liberalising rules and regulations around vaping and heat-not-
burn products would allow innovation in advertising and products,
ultimately saving ‘over a million years of Britons’ life’. The
evidence is on the table, but no-one knows about it. We don’t just
need Public Health England, we need Don Draper too.
*This article was originally published by The Spectator Health.
Vapouround was granted permission by the author to republish.
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