UKVIA Writes to Sunak
The UK Vaping Industry Association has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking him to pause the vape Bill amid serious concerns at its potentially disastrous health implications for vapers and smokers
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by Dave Cross
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The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking him to #PauseTheVapeBill amid serious concerns at its potentially disastrous health implications for vapers and smokers. The organisation represents the interests of its members in the vape industry and holds serious concerns about the Conservative’s illiberal Bill.
UKVIA Director General John Dunne says he has ‘extreme concerns’ that, when drafting the Bill, no consideration was given to the negative health impacts of fewer people using vapes to quit smoking.
The UK’s biggest vape industry trade body has therefore urged the PM to pause the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which was presented to the House of Commons for its first reading last week, until this issue is addressed.
John Dunne told the Prime Minister: “At a time when the UK looks increasingly unlikely to achieve its smokefree targets, it is deeply irresponsible for the government to potentially gamble with smokers’ lives by implementing regulations without a full understanding of their potential impact.
“Given the literal life and death nature of this matter, we urge you to delay further passage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill until a comprehensive impact assessment is completed that ensures future regulations do not cause unnecessary loss of life.
“Like you, we want to see the UK achieve it smokefree ambitions, but the way to do that is by supporting current smokers to quit rather than waiting for them to die.
“As always, the UK Vaping Industry Association would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Government to develop evidence-based regulations that prioritise keeping vapes out of the hands of children, while supporting wider smoking harm reduction efforts.”
Photo Credit:
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
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.
