Let's Talk E-cigarettes
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research interview Louise Ross from the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training
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by Dave Cross
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Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research interview Louise Ross from the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT). The NCSCT is a social enterprise committed to supporting the delivery of effective evidence-based tobacco control programmes and smoking cessation interventions provided by local stop smoking services.
Louise Ross has worked in smoking cessation for over 20 years and consults for the NCSCT and is part of the senior team on the Smoke Free App, a digital service for helping people stop smoking. Louise also sits as the Chair with the New Nicotine Alliance.
Louise spoke about the ‘swap to stop’ scheme that aims to reach a million people who smoke to give them a chance to switch less harmful vapes. The swap to stop training is not only for qualified stop smoking practitioners but is also aimed at the frontline services working with for example debt management teams within social housing, homelessness, substance use, and other groups.
This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic and funded by Cancer Research UK.
Louise told them: “I've worked in smoking cessation for over 20 years now. I used to manage to stop smoking service and in fact, it was the first vape friendly service in the world I guess. We kicked it all off before there was any evidence about this. We just had a, or I just had a gut feeling that this was the right way to go. And in fact, you know, history has proved us right and I now work for the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training. But I'm also part of the senior team on the Smoke Free App, which is a digital service for helping people stop smoking and we’re worldwide.”
Louise celebrated that, “we've got very evolved stop smoking services in the UK now, and I'm talking for England specifically. Most areas have got a local stop smoking service so people can go along to and to get individual tailored advice on stopping smoking. So that will be behavioural support and the stop smoking aid as well. Some people, if they happen to live in an area where that's not available, they can go to their general practitioner and get help to stop smoking, and we've also got a growing field of digital support. So, my organisation supports people anywhere in the world, but particularly we're doing a lot of work in in England at the moment, to help people stop smoking and it because it's available 24/7, people don't have to actually have to go to a service to get support. They can, you know, they've literally got support on their phone.”
The full podcast, where Louise speaks about the ‘swap to stop’ scheme is available here. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson also provide an update on the latest Cochrane findings.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
