McNeill on Vape Regulation
Professor Ann McNeill reflects on the importance of balancing the risks and benefits of electronic cigarettes through regulation
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by Dave Cross
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As well as her work at King’s College London, Professor Ann McNeill is also a Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, involved in the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project, and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group. Professor McNeill has co-authored the recent Public Health England reports covering vaping and tobacco harm reduction.
In “Balancing the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes through regulations”, she notes that the UK government adopted an approach to vape regulations that aimed to balance the risks (e.g. of youth never smoker uptake) with a desire to maximise the benefits (smokers using e-cigarettes to stop smoking).
To this end, she argues, the UK is not an outlier in the world; advertising has been regulated in line with some other European nations, the TPD controls e-liquids, and both New Zealand and Canada have adopted policies similar to ours.
Moreover, despite the protestations of some within the tobacco control community, “the UK is a leader in tobacco control, as evidenced by topping the European Tobacco Control Scale and having one of the lowest smoking prevalence in the European Union”.
“England monitors e-cigarette use, uptake, attitudes, perceptions, safety, impact on cessation and smoking and the impact of regulations closely in order to get the regulatory balance right. So far, the data on youth uptake are reassuring and there is some convergence internationally on relative harms supported by the science.”
However, Professor McNeill is concerned that 37% of smokers have still not tried vaping Professor McNeill and that our current regulations may be limiting access: “We need therefore to understand whether regulations may be acting as a deterrent for some smokers. Indeed, regulations which go further such as by prohibiting flavours will be a deterrent, given the importance of flavours in masking the taste of e-liquids.”
“Another concern is that increasing the burden of regulations for e-cigarettes favours the tobacco industry and we would all agree, that a diversity of manufacturers for e-cigarettes is likely to ensure that the market continues to evolve to best support more smokers to stop.”
“For me, therefore, the ‘right’ regulatory approach is still unclear, but … countries could do worse than adopting the broad EU TPD regulatory framework, as they should reassure smokers, health professionals and advocates alike that there are controls around the product and how it is marketed.”
Resources:
- “Balancing the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes through regulations” by Professor Ann McNeill – [link]
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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