UK Vape News
A round-up of some recent interesting UK-based vape news articles.
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by Dave Cross
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“Drugs, gums or patches won't increase your chances of quitting,” writes Simon Chapman. The obsessed Australian is trotting out his usual line of puritanical nonsense – quit his way or don’t bother quitting as far as Simon is concerned. And his way doesn’t include vaping – and now, apparently, doesn’t include nicotine replacement products or Champix and Zyban.
While it’s easy to tune out the irresponsible noise he makes, it’s more difficult when his rubbish is being received in the UK via the popular MedicalXpress website. He glibly writes off anecdotal evidence – so that’s all 2.8 million of you home nation vapers.
The Liverpool Echo published a piece that carried a headline Chapman could have written: “Could e-cigarettes have caused this little-known lung condition called popcorn lung?” The answer is ‘no’. The Echo knows the answer is no because the article goes on to state that – but in an age where people scan headlines and rarely delve deeper, this is an act of gross irresponsibility.
Dr Lion Shahab, a senior lecturer in health psychology at the University College of London told them: “while some flavourings (not all) found in e-liquid contain [diacetyl and acetyl propionyl], it is at levels much lower than that found in conventional cigarette smoke. Exposure for smokers is at least 85 times higher. But, what’s more, there is no reliable link between exposure to these chemicals through smoking conventional cigarettes and popcorn lung.”
There’s no hysteria or bluster from Science Daily as they report on another of Peter Hajek’s studies. In it, Hajek discovered that 61% of people trying a cigarette go on to become full-time smokers. It afforded him the opportunity to add: “Concerns were expressed that e-cigarettes could be as addictive as conventional cigarettes, but this has not been the case. It is striking that very few non-smokers who try e-cigarettes become daily vapers, while such a large proportion on non-smokers who try conventional cigarettes become daily smokers. The presence of nicotine is clearly not the whole story." The full study can be found here.
Riccardo Polosa, vape advocate and professor of internal medicine, has attended a House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee hearing as an expert witness. He told MPs that e-cigarette rules should be relaxed to encourage smokers to switch.
“Scientific evidence shows that there are benefits of exclusive use of e-cigarettes after using conventional cigarettes, particularly in areas such as respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases,” said Polosa. “Our priority is to have as many smokers as possible switch to less harmful products.” Full details can be found in the Pharmaceutical Journal.
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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