Beaglehole on making smoke-free targets
ASH Chairperson Professor Robert Beaglehole writes:
Vaping has been the critical disruptor of cigarette smoking; more adults now vape than smoke. Because vapes are much less harmful than cigarettes, and much cheaper, New Zealand’s permissive, but tightly regulated market for vapes, will save thousands of lives.
That statement is not from the industry, but the Chair of ASH.
This is also the year in which youth vaping may have peaked. The 2022 ASH Year 10 survey results show that daily vaping is levelling off and regular vaping (at least once a month) is falling.
Many teachers and parents are concerned about youth vaping. I share that concern. Fortunately, there is no evidence to suggest it is a “gateway” to smoking.
The best thing is for young people to neither vape nor smoke, but if they have to do one of those, you definitely want them to vape rather than smoke.
First, the latest report prepared by the UK Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on the safety of vaping confirmed that it poses only a very small fraction of the risks of smoking.
Second, the ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in supporting people to quit found good evidence that e-cigarettes with nicotine increase quit rates compared to nicotine replacement therapy.
A very small fraction would suggest around 5%, maybe even lower.
The best way to reduce the demand for cigarettes is to support people dependent on smoking and encourage them to quit, including by the use of vapes. After all, it is the tar in cigarette smoke that causes the damage, not nicotine.
For these reasons, I am surprised that the Ministry of Health’s vaping advisers recently and arbitrarily changed the rules on the nicotine content of vapes. If this results in hundreds of devices being recalled, vapers may find it more difficult, and more expensive, to achieve the nicotine levels they need to sustain quitting; some will return to cigarettes.
The Ministry of Health is making it harder for people to quit smoking!