From today's issue of The Guardian:
The government is launching a new campaign to try to convince the UK’s smokers that vaping is safe and a good way to quit, in a bid to counter the scepticism generated by some scientific studies and media headlines.
Public Health England (PHE), which maintains that vaping is 95% safer than tobacco, is releasing a short video of an experiment which reveals the amount of sticky black tar that accumulates in the lungs of a heavy smoker, collected in a bell jar. By contrast, the same nicotine intake through vaping releases only a trace of residue.
“It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e-cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety,” said Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE.
“We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e-cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking. This demonstration highlights the devastating harms caused by every cigarette and helps people see that vaping is likely to pose only a fraction of the risk.”
In spite of PHE’s assertions about the safety of vaping, which are cited around the world, public confidence in e-cigarettes has fallen. Just over 40% of people believe they are as harmful as smoking or say they don’t know. “For all our efforts, the message has not been not getting through,” said Martin Dockrell, the tobacco control programme lead.
The government is launching a new campaign to try to convince the UK’s smokers that vaping is safe and a good way to quit, in a bid to counter the scepticism generated by some scientific studies and media headlines.
Public Health England (PHE), which maintains that vaping is 95% safer than tobacco, is releasing a short video of an experiment which reveals the amount of sticky black tar that accumulates in the lungs of a heavy smoker, collected in a bell jar. By contrast, the same nicotine intake through vaping releases only a trace of residue.
“It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e-cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety,” said Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE.
“We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e-cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking. This demonstration highlights the devastating harms caused by every cigarette and helps people see that vaping is likely to pose only a fraction of the risk.”
In spite of PHE’s assertions about the safety of vaping, which are cited around the world, public confidence in e-cigarettes has fallen. Just over 40% of people believe they are as harmful as smoking or say they don’t know. “For all our efforts, the message has not been not getting through,” said Martin Dockrell, the tobacco control programme lead.
