The Chamber of Misinformation
The UK Vaping Industry Association has railed against the “so-called stakeholders” who presented oral evidence to the Tobacco & Vapes Bill committee
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by Dave Cross
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The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has railed against the “so-called stakeholders” who presented oral evidence to the Tobacco & Vapes Bill committee. The trade body accuses them of having “a vested interest” in the Bill’s passage through the legislative process and declares that this “was one of the most one-sided Bill Committee hearings ever to take place both in terms of the membership of the committee and those giving evidence.”
UKVIA stated: “No representatives from the vaping industry. No representation from the millions of vapers. Not one MP who opposed the Bill on the Committee. The result: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill committee hearing turned into the ‘Chamber of Misinformation’.”
The organisation, excluded from the process, could do nothing but sit back and note the succession of lies and misinformation being presented to the committee. So extensive was it, UKVIA has produced a PDF document detailing the nonsense during the evidence sessions on April 30 and May 1:
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health Scotland, has had a unique take on vaping facts for a number of years, actively campaigning for tough restrictions north of the border. Duffy told MPs that “there is a link between regular vaping and moving onto smoking”.
UKVIA states: “An ‘Addressing Common Myths About Vaping’ dossier – produced by ASH UK and reviewed by 16 leading scientists and academics - shows vaping is NOT a ‘proven gateway into smoking’.”
In that briefing, ASH explain that it is vital the evidence is accurately represented because vaping works, too many smokers still haven’t tried switching, and “smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death”.
Professor Steve Turner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told MPs: “There are few serious life-threatening complications, but you might have heard of popcorn lung, which is fortunately rare but is very serious.”
In 2018, Public Health England published a myth-busting blog post. Number 1 in Martin Dockrell’s list of vape myths was popcorn lung, saying: “One of the most commonly held concerns is that e-cigarettes might cause ‘popcorn lung’. This came about because some flavourings used in e-liquids to provide a buttery flavour contain the chemical diacetyl, which at very high levels of exposure has been associated with the serious lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans.
“However, diacetyl is banned as an ingredient from e-cigarettes and e-liquids in the UK. It had been detected in some e-liquid flavourings in the past, but at levels hundreds of times lower than in cigarette smoke. Even at these levels, smoking is not a major risk factor for this rare disease.”
UKVIA notes that Cancer Research UK reports, “there have been no confirmed cases of popcorn lung reported in people who use e-cigarettes”.
You can read about all of the ridiculous statements made by and to MPs in UKVIA’s ‘The Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the Chamber of Misinformation’.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Edward Howell 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.
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