Selbie Hits Back
Public Health England’s Duncan Selbie hits back at media coverage suggesting there is a teen vaping or gateway problem
-
by Dave Cross
Share on:
Selbie is the founding Chief Executive of Public Health England. He joined the NHS in January 1980 before becoming the Chief Executive of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. He moved on from there to become the Chief Executive of South East London Strategic Health Authority.
He became the Director General of Commissioning after a stint as the Director General of Programmes and Performance for the NHS – and then the Chief Executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, the regional teaching hospital for the south east of England.
It is clear to see that Duncan Selbie brings a wealth of leadership experience to the role with Public Health England, and the difference between his voice and that of the FDA’s Scott Gottlieb is stark when it comes to applying that leadership to tobacco harm reduction.
Selbie writes: “Smoking prevalence is at an all-time low in England with fewer young people smoking and we have a fighting chance of a smokefree generation. This week we published our latest evidence on e-cigarettes with a particular focus on patterns and use, the concern being that these might be gateway into smoking, something no one wants to see. This shows that regular vaping among young people remains low in Britain and has plateaued among adults.”
He adds: “The findings show that in contrast to the experience in the US, we are not seeing a surge in e-cigarette use among young people in Britain. While there has been an increase in the total number of young people that have ever tried an e-cigarette, given that e-cigarettes are now the most common quit aid for smokers, this is not unexpected.”
“Some media coverage suggested that vaping in young people has doubled over the past five years,” Duncan adds, “but in truth the rate has hardly changed in the last few years. Among 11-18 year olds, the proportion of regular vapers (weekly or more) has been steady at about 1.7% and all but a small number (0.2%) of those young people using e-cigarettes were smokers or ex-smokers.”
Selbie concludes: “We shall remain vigilant to any change in this profile and continue to publish the evidence and act on this.”
Resources:
- Public Health England evidence update - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/vaping-news/2019-02-28_new-phe-vaping-report.html
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.
Join the discussion
Harm Reduction For The Rich
The United Kingdom risks becoming a harm reduction country only for the wealthy, according to Michael Landl of the World Vapers’ Alliance
-
by Dave Cross
CAPHRA Highlights Tobacco Control Flaws
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates highlights the flaws in tobacco control which has led to the rise of black market in Australia
-
by Dave Cross
A Missed Opportunity at COP10
The Smoke Free Sweden movement says that COP10 was a missed opportunity to save millions of lives
-
by Dave Cross
COP10: Promote Tobacco Harm Reduction
Experts with Smoke Free Sweden are emphasising the urgent need for a Tobacco Harm Reduction approach at COP10
-
by Dave Cross
