New Book: Co-Dir. of UK's NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation embraces vaping as THR

[Roger_Lafayette]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Prof. West is the most highly-placed gov't-employed cessation expert in the English-speaking world to endorse vaping as a tobacco harm reduction method.

Based on what I've seen coming out of Health Canada, the US CDC/FDA/NIH, and health authorities in countries ranging from India to Austrailia (not to mention the EU) ... this is a major development.

These are not off-hand remarks, BTW - article is a preview of an upcoming book.

[***]

http://www.independent.co.uk/
life-style/health-and-families/dont-give-up-giving-up-smoking-an-experts-guide-to-quitting-9134541.html

(I broke the link for safety, but a quick read yielded no obvious junk. You can paste the whole thing into your browser's URL line, the extra line won't matter.)

[***]

Heading a team of researchers at University College London, where he is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of Tobacco Studies at Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Research Centre, he has one aim: to find better ways of helping smokers who want to stop.

“There is a lot of stuff out there: Allen Carr, Paul McKenna, numerous websites,” says West. “But what smokers don’t have is the real story of the best ways of stopping, from the billions of pounds worth of research that has actually been done.”

Instead of suggesting just one sure-fire way to quit, West discusses the many things that can help someone forgo the fags: electronic cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy, professional support, and so on. With other positions West currently holds, including co-director of the NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and a board member of QUIT, he is one of the leading experts in the field [boldface added].

<snip>

Try an electronic cigarette [original boldface heading in article]

"We’re studying these quite intensively in my research group, trying to come to a view as to whether they’re helpful or just a fad. There’s every reason to believe that those e-cigarettes that give decent amounts of nicotine (maybe half that you get from a regular cigarette) can help. There are debates over their safety. But a study that has just been published shows that they have very low levels of any kind of toxin.

"They’re more than 100 times safer than smoking a tobacco cigarette. If I was a smoker and tried everything then I would definitely give them a go. However, smokers might well find the first one they try doesn’t suit them; they’re hugely variable. Shop around and find one with a profile that suits you. Treat it like buying a mobile phone."

The SmokeFree Formula: A Revolutionary Way to Stop Smoking Now by Professor Robert West. £9.99; Orion Books [original italicized portion ends article; some quotation marks were added as per American multi-paragraph quotation conventions.].

[***]

(And there's more ...)

http://www.independent.co.uk/
life-style/health-and-families/dont-give-up-giving-up-smoking-an-experts-guide-to-quitting-9134541.html

 

[DrMA]

"They’re more than 100 times safer than smoking a tobacco cigarette."

WOW! Even though I think that's a bit conservative (in means only 90% safer than cigarettes, whereas we think it's more like 99%), this is excellent news especially considering the source

 

[CES]

Nice! Maybe he'll get on board with helping to fight the heavy-handed regulation being proposed.

(just a note, 100 times safer is two orders of magnitude safer, and 99% safer is only twice as safe)

 

[DrMA]

(just a note, 100 times safer is two orders of magnitude safer, and 99% safer is only twice as safe)

I'm afraid we were both wrong. Here's how the math goes

Risk / (twice risk) = 1/2 = 50% Safer
Risk / (100xRisk) = 1/100 = 99% safer

further, 99.9% safer means 1,000 times less risk, and 99.99% means 10,000. See the pattern?

 

[CES]

i knew there were orders of magnitude in there somewhere.

 

[sebt]

Very interesting and heartening article.

The most sane part - to me - is this:

In his new book The SmokeFree Formula: A Revolutionary Way to Stop Smoking Now each factor that could contribute to someone stopping is viewed as an “ingredient”. West advises how to combine these ingredients into a personalised “formula”. His motto is “I guide – you decide”.

Also, his comment on e-cigs being "like buying a mobile phone - find one that suits you" is very sane.

All this is a million miles away from the all-too-usual false dichotomy argument, according to which e-cigs have to be a clinically-proven, effective for every single smoker as well as every single imaginable smoker stop-smoking aid to even be allowed to exist.

In fact his whole "ingredient" approach to the subject puts him at odds with the EU's "one-size-fits-all" approach, with their blathering about consistent nicotine dosage and so on.