Parliament
Further questions about vaping and tobacco harm reduction have been posed to the Government in the House of Commons
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by Dave Cross
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Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP for The Wrekin, asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if his Department will be commissioning further research into the health impacts of e-liquids containing propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin in vaping products.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil O'Brien MP replied: “The Department is currently considering how best to commission further research into the health impacts of e-liquids, including those containing propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. In September 2022, we published the last in a series of evidence reviews entitled ‘Nicotine vaping in England’. This report confirmed that vaping carries only ‘a small fraction of the risks’ of smoking but is not risk free.”
Mark Pawsey, Rugby’s Conservative MP, asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care which non-compliant vape products were seized most frequently in the most recent period for which data is available. Also, he wanted to know what recent discussions the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has had with the manufacturers of those products to help ensure that they are no longer supplied to the UK market.
It is illegal for vapes to be sold with tanks larger than 2ml or nicotine strength over 20mg/ml.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care responded: “The Department does not collect information centrally on non-compliant vape products seized. Local enforcement agencies are responsible for taking action against non-compliant vape products that are placed on the UK market.
“The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency work with manufacturers of vape products at the pre-market stage of notification. If necessary, they request corrective actions to bring each submission into compliance with notification requirements set out in the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.”
Most worryingly, especially on the back of Dr Johnson’s recent anti-vape sentiment expressed during the presentation of her 10-Minute Bill, Rachael Maskell, the Labour/Co-operative MP for York Central, asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether the Department is taking steps to discourage vaping.
Neil O'Brien informed her: “The Government supports smokers switching to vaping as they are substantially less harmful than smoking and one of the most effective tools to help adults quit smoking. However, we will continue to discourage vaping amongst people under 18. We have some of the strongest regulations in place including restricting sales to over 18s only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and restrictions on advertising.”
Maskell has previously expressed concern about the long-term impact of e-cigarettes on health and young people’s access to vape products. She hasn’t elaborated on why she believes vaping should be discouraged in the general adult smoking population.
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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