The epidemic of misinformation about the risks of vaping is one of the great public health disasters of the century and is all the more shameful for having been driven by people who have words “public health” in their job titles. The “popcorn lung” myth, the EVALI hoax and an endless series of tabloid scare stories — combined with the enduring misconception that nicotine causes cancer — have turned public understanding on its head. As the graph below shows, twice as many Britons think that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, if not worse, than correctly believe that it is far less harmful.
If vaccines or paracetamol were subjected to the same level of misinformation, public health professionals would be working frantically to move the public’s perceptions towards reality. Insanely, they are doing the opposite. The government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill will give the health secretary Henry VIII powers to regulate vapes like cigarettes, thereby cementing the notion in the public’s mind that the health risks are comparable. The government is being cheered on by a motley assortment of fork-tongued “public health” academics and activists who pay lip service to the benefits of e-cigarettes while doing everything they can to suppress demand for them.
A particularly egregious example of this was reported by the Independent this week. Members of the tiny, state-funded, prohibitionist pressure group Action on Smoking and Health have teamed up with researchers from King’s College to demand plain packaging for e-cigarettes. There is, of course, only one other product that comes in plain packaging: combustible tobacco.
No comments:
Post a Comment