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issue – yes, they produce vapour but
it’s essentially water vapour with a
small trace of nicotine and there’s no
evidence that we’re aware of that that
causes any harm at all.’
What the charity does support, she
stresses, is regulation, and it has just
responded to a consultation by the
Committee on Advertising Practice on
the marketing of e-cigarettes. ‘We do
think it’s appropriate that there are
restrictions on how the devices are
marketed – they’re mainly used as an
aid to cutting down or quitting
smoking and we think that it’s
appropriate that they be marketed in
that way, rather than as a lifestyle
product or something young people
might want to use.’
Cancer Research UK, however,
published a report last year,
The
marketing of electronic cigarettes in
the UK
, warning about the use of
channels likely to appeal to young
people, such as competitions and
mobile phone apps. ‘Arguably, some
of these products are being marketed
in an irresponsible way but the reason
we think it’s more appropriate to have
them licensed as medicines is that
that process would impose regulations
on the product in any case,’ Sandford
states. ‘If you have a product licensed
as a medicine, companies would be
able to market it but in a strictly
controlled way, and there would have
to be controls to make sure it wasn’t
directly aimed at young people.’
Co-author of the Cancer Research
report, Professor Gerard Hastings,
also pointed to what some see as a
potentially wider problem – the
general dangers associated with big
tobacco companies moving into the
e-cigarette market. ‘From past
experience we know they are
deceitful, determined and deeply
detrimental to public health. E-
cigarettes could provide them with the
cover they need to regain the
powerful position they once had – in
which case a Trojan horse will rapidly
become a Trojan hearse,’ he said.
‘I think that is quite an important
issue,’ acknowledges Sandford. ‘I’ve
read reports from the US, for instance,
that the industry could be using them
as an alternative means of brand
sharing. That wouldn’t be permitted in
this country, because we have a ban
on tobacco advertising, but the
tobacco companies often talk about
harm reduction and there’s not a lot of
evidence that they’re really serious
about it – they’re obviously interested
in getting into the e-cigarette market
because they can see the potential to
make money.
‘If they were all to say, “OK this is
the way forward and we’re going to
abandon cigarette production and
move wholesale into e-cigarette
production” then we wouldn’t have a
problem with that,’ she continues. ‘But
I don’t think that’s a very likely
scenario in the foreseeable future, so
we do need to be mindful of how the
industry’s approaching this and
question quite vigorously what their
motives are. If they are serious about
harm reduction, are they going to
move into alternative nicotine delivery
devices and stop production of the
product that we know kills people?’
Consultation at wales.gov.uk
The marketing of electronic cigarettes
in the UK at www.cancerresearchuk.org
See comment, facing page.
E-cigarettes are marketed as a safer
alternative to ordinary cigarettes and
regarded by some as a key element
of tobacco harm reduction. The
campaigning charity Ash (Action on
Smoking and Health) states that
‘there is little real-world evidence of
harm from e-cigarettes to date,
especially in comparison to smoking,’
and NICE supports the use of
licensed nicotine-containing products
as a harm reduction measure.
The Welsh Government’s public
health white paper, however (see news
story, page 4), now proposes restricting
the use of e-cigarettes in public places
to address concerns that they
‘normalise smoking’ and ‘undermine
the enforcement’ of the country’s
general ban on smoking in public
places. ‘E-cigarettes contain nicotine,
which is highly addictive, and I want to
minimise the risk of a new generation
becoming addicted to this drug,’ said
health minister Mark Drakeford.
While Ash has welcomed the white
paper consultation and attendant
debate, the charity has also stated
that it ‘hasn’t seen much evidence’
that e-cigarettes are normalising
smoking behaviour. ‘I know a lot of
people have expressed concerns, and
as more and more products have
come on the market inevitably there
has been a rise in usage, but we’ve
conducted surveys regularly since
2010 and among adults certainly
there’s no evidence of non-smokers
being interested in using them, and
among young people it’s almost the
same,’ Ash spokesperson Amanda
Sandford tells
DDN
.
Those young people who have
expressed an interest in, or tried, e-
cigarettes are ‘nearly always’ the same
young people who have already tried
smoking, the charity has found. ‘The
situation may change, of course,
which is why we need to keep
monitoring it, but so far it seems that
there isn’t the evidence to support the
hypothesis that it’s encouraging the
take-up of smoking,’ she says.
What about the Welsh
Government’s argument that use of e-
cigarettes in public places undermines
enforcement of their smoking ban?
‘Again, it would be interesting to see if
they can provide examples of that,’ she
says. ‘Obviously, there’s a range of
approaches to e-cigarettes but we
don’t think it’s appropriate to have
them regulated under the smoke-free
legislation because that was designed
to protect people from second-hand
smoke, which it has done –
compliance rates have been extremely
high. These devices don’t contain
tobacco so there’s no passive smoking
Is the Welsh Government right to propose a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in
public places, or does it risk seriously undermining tobacco harm reduction?
News focus |
Analysis
NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE?
6 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| May 2014
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
‘So far it seems
that there isn’t
the evidence to
support the
hypothesis that
it’s encouraging
the take-up of
smoking...’
AMANDA SANDFORD