Positivity on 5
“No one should be put off vaping if it helps them quit tobacco”, concluded Channel 5 news as it aired the most reasonable coverage of vaping to date
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by Dave Cross
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Catherine Jones was justifiably shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards 2018 as evidenced by this article on vaping. Compared to the salacious nonsense being printed in the mainstream newspapers by health correspondents who ignore the science, Jones demonstrated the value of sticking to facts.
“E-cigarettes are proving their worth,” begins Jones, mentioning the recent study that found more than 50,000 smokers managed to quit the habit thanks to switching to vaping.
Linking to coverage of lung injuries on the American CBS news channel demonstrated the gulf between the U.S. and U.K. approaches to harm reduction and the danger of scaring smokers away from swapping to ecigs.
Fortunately, Jones got Professor Ann McNeill, Kings College London, to offer up balancing commentary: “We are seeing an uptick in the proportion of smokers who are using nothing to stop smoking, and that’s the least effective thing you can do.”
McNeill explained that it is troubling if smokers are deterred from vaping instead, “as this means they are just going to carry on smoking.”
Jones then showed how the U.K. has strict manufacturing standards and contrasted this with the unregulated American market and the fact that the lung diseases have come about through the use of THC liquids containing Vitamin E Acetate.
UK Vaping Industry Association’s John Dunne agreed and expanded upon how the range of regulations and toxicology reports ensures that smokers should be confident in the products they can obtain here.
“Nothing is safe, there are no free rides in life,” said Professor John Britton. “Electronic cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking tobacco. So, for the smoker it is a no-brainer – you should switch to vaping as soon as you can.”
Related:
- Catherine Jones - [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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