My colleague Victoria Hewson and I recently wrote a report about vaping in which we discussed the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle is often invoked as a justification for banning things. When it comes to reduced risk nicotine products, we argue that such an approach is reckless rather than cautious.
We have ample evidence that e-cigarettes are much safer than smoking and are attractive substitutes to cigarettes for smokers. A study published last week found that smokers in Germany are 78% more likely to quit smoking if they use e-cigarettes, for example.
But we would not have any of this evidence if every country had acted like Australia and preemptively banned them. The lesson is that we need an innovation principle, not a precautionary principle.
We discuss what that should look like in our report Vaper Trails which you can download for free here.
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