Despite more and more academic research establishing vaping as less harmful than smoking, public opinion seems to be heading in an entirely different direction. As this blog has said before, simple Google searches for phrases like ‘E-cigarette news’ overwhelmingly present us with a barrage of negativity - stories about impending bans and mod devices acting as a supposed gateway to smoking. If you believed everything you read, you’d think products like multiVAPE are undoing decades of hard work and somehow re-glamorising the filthy weed.
It’s safe to say the dominant narrative frames vaping as a bad thing. It’s also true to say that the majority of voices speaking ill of the phenomena claim to champion public health while ignoring the mounting evidence.
For that reason, we welcomed the recent intervention by Public Health England (PHE) when they published a detailed report describing e-cigarettes as far less dangerous than tobacco and going so far as to recommend their use as a harm-reducing alternative. In light of the latest research, this is just common sense.
The report was very clear on the relative dangers of smoking and vaping, saying “While vaping may not be 100% safe, most of the chemicals causing smoking-related disease are absent and the chemicals which are present pose limited danger. It has been previously estimated that EC [electronic cigarettes] are around 95% safer than smoking. This appears to remain a reasonable estimate.”
It is great to see an authoritative source like PHE make such a clear statement and it would be nice to think the debate will now turn a corner and head in the direction of rationality. But it would perhaps be inadvisable to hold one’s breath.
We need to stop the knee-jerking and introduce calm into the conversation. Until that happens and until all parties stick to reason as they form their arguments, we won’t make the right public health decisions as a society.
As things are, it can only be said that those with the shrillest voices are doing more harm than good, however lofty and loud their protests.
