NNA Reviews A Successful Year
The New Nicotine Alliance has reviewed its successful last twelve months and hopes vapers will support its actions in 2023
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by Dave Cross
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In January, NNA’s busy year kicked off with its Chair being interviewed for an article about a review of heated tobacco by the Cochrane Library. The review stated: “Heated tobacco products could benefit public health if they reduce risk and help people stop smoking normal cigarettes, without attracting people who would otherwise avoid tobacco entirely.”
Chair Louise Ross said: “It’s really good to see how stop smoking services can be flexible and responsive, especially during the difficult times of the last couple of years.”
Next up, the charity sent its ideas about the “ten policy proposals” that the Government could adopt in response to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s request for people to give him ideas for easy Brexit wins. The free to implement suggestions included to “remove wasteful restrictions on vaping product tank and e-liquid container size that have no discernible purpose,” but Rees-Mogg failed to act.
The following month, the NNA responded to the Scottish consultation.
“The EU Tobacco Products Directive, which the UK ratified prior to Brexit, already stipulates bans on vaping adverts on TV, in newspapers and in magazines, but this new initiative from the Scottish government aims to treat vaping products the same as cigarettes by prohibiting in-store promotional displays as well as ads on billboards, bus stops and anywhere else currently permitted. The plans would also prohibit vape companies from sponsoring any event or activity and ban free or cut-price samples,” it said.
As well as making a submission to the Scottish Government, the charity spoke out to the media and engaged social media influencers to join in the campaign to get the politicians to see the errors in the proposals.
In March, the NNA made a detailed submission to the Khan Review, informing Mr Khan about evidence and 20 proposals to boost tobacco harm reduction in the UK. The board coordinated a push to get the NNA’s supporters to write to Mr Khan too.
Next on the agenda was the Welsh Tobacco Control Plan consultation.
“We urged consumers to respond with their stories about how vaping works and why it should be central to future government strategy,” it says.
April saw the UK Government’s review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.
“We wrote on how we believe the regulations could be improved by relaxing pointless vaping controls which only serve to inconvenience vapers and deter smokers switching, but also by better acknowledging the positive contribution other harm reduction options can provide.”
Not relaxing for a second, two trustees took part in an online meeting with Javed Khan to give evidence on behalf of the NNA to the government’s Independent Tobacco Review.
Come May, “NNA Trustees met with MPs Mark Pawsey and Adam Afriyie in the House of Commons where they had a constructive discussion on vaping and harm reduction matters.”
In July, the NNA responded to an EU Commission call for evidence.
The charity went on to address misleading articles in journals, oppose ban proposals, and continue to attempt to engage with a succession of Secretaries of State for Health.
You can read more about the work the charity does on the NNA’s website.
References:
- Support the New Nicotine Alliance - https://nnalliance.org/supporters/donate
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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