Falling Smoking Rates and Vaping
Insurance companies welcome the FDA’s tough stance on ecigs but Dr. Siegel isn’t convinced
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by Dave Cross
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported last Tuesday that smoking rates in adults has fallen from 16.8% but almost two points to 15.1%. As the rate reduces the smokers left are those least sensitive to pack cost and messages about cancer – and yet it is this traditional approach to tobacco control that carries the bulk of the insurance industry’s commentary.
While Insurance News mentions the part that vaping might have played in the recent drop, only Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids gives his input. They mention, in passing, the Royal College of Physicians report but immediately downplay it: “Myers countered by saying that ‘public health authorities in the U.S., including the CDC and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, have found there is not enough evidence to conclude whether e-cigarettes are a safe and effective smoking cessation device’."
It is shameful in many ways because, while attempting to give the impression it is a balanced piece, it relies on the same tired arguments from the same suspect individuals. It is a league apart from the sensible coverage of the issue being given out by Dr Anitha Anchan on The Healthsite.com. While she is sceptical of the efficacy of ecigs to help people quit for good, feeling they simply substitute one form of addiction for another, the opinions are supported by reasonable evidence.
Anchan’s piece is far from perfect, leaving a lot to debate, not least that ecigs aren’t safe. A focus from a harm-reduction perspective would be that they are safer, but at least it gives the impression she is open to new information – albeit that she currently sits squarely on the side of the World Health Organisation and fails to provide any of the recent evidence from the UK.
On the other side of the fence is Dr Michael Siegel. A professor at the Boston University School of Public Health who spent two years working at the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC, giving him a unique insight into their workings. Siegel takes issue with the stances adopted by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Lung Association.
He believes that such organisations aren’t just telling people they should quit smoking but that smokers should only do it in the ways they advocate “or they might as well continue smoking.”
“This is perverse paternalism. It is an attempt to so strongly control the lives of smokers that the American Lung Association is literally lying to smokers in trying to control their behaviour,” he writes.
He contends that these groups are only comfortable with traditional quit methods and approaches to tobacco control and this will stand in the way of further progress in helping the staunch smoking cohort to move away from cigarettes.
Next year’s figures may well see a further decline in smoking rates – but it is important to note that they will not reflect the legislation being introduced during 2016. It won’t be until the following year that we may see the sad side effect of governments clamping down on the vaping revolution.
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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