UK Office of National Statistics: e-cigarettes have not been a gateway to traditional smoking

[Oliver]

In today's Guardian: E-cigarettes have not been a gateway to traditional smoking

Is that growth in part driven by people who have never smoked trying it out to see if they like the feeling? No. Not at all. Only 0.14% of non-smokers use e-cigarettes compared to 11.8% of smokers and 4.8% of ex-smokers in Great Britain, according to a new report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As the report puts it “e-cigarettes are used almost exclusively by smokers and ex-smokers.”

Time for Americans to get very angry about the way this is being reported from CDC data.

 

[DC2]

Time for Americans to get very angry about the way this is being reported from CDC data.

I thought that time was awhile ago.

 

[DrMA]

Time for Americans to get very angry about the way this is being reported from CDC data.

Gotta remember UK (and EU) don't have the pesky problem of TMSA payments and tobacco bond payments to worry about. The US administration has to protect an income stream of several hundred billion dollars, lest a bunch of the largest states become insolvent.

 

[Oliver]

You're correct, of course, DrMA, but only in the detail.

In reality, the overall tax take (in the UK at least) is vast and probably parallels, if not rivals, the US (Federal and State) net income, per capita.

£11bn annual net goes to the UK exchequer. And that's after health-care for smokers is subtracted from the gross. To put that in perspective, £11bn is the cost of the budget line "security" - the courts, prison service, police, coastguard.

The difference is that, in the UK at least, there are not multiple interested parties with their own p&l sheets (I.e. state attorneys general) who are monitoring the income streams carefully to ensure their own fiscal stability.

The anger, in this case, should be towards the CDC who should not have that kind of conflict of interest, and should be reporting this stuff accurately. Their bias comes from ANTZ perspective rather than financial considerations, IMO.