Parliament

Another catch-up article of the political debate surrounding vaping from the first half of April – these MPs have gone vape crazy

by Dave Cross
May 5, 2023

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Don’t politicians have second and third jobs to be doing? You turn your back for a minute and they’re all debating vaping and asking more questions again. It’s almost like they want to be seen as doing their jobs properly rather than being held up as examples of disgrace. Well, I guess that all depends on what you reckon to the standard of questions they ask.

Ranil Jayawardena, the Conservative MP for North East Hampshire, is a case in point. Ranil wanted to know if an assessment has been made by the Department of Health into trends in the prevalence of lipoid pneumonia since the introduction of vaping.

Neil O'Brien, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care told him that such an assessment isn’t possible “because there is insufficient data to identify this trend.”

O'Brien pointed him in the direction of the report Nicotine Vaping in England 2022, where it covers the Systematic Review of evidence of respiratory risk.

Relentless Ranil then tried to ask a more stupid question. He wanted the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to make an estimate of the number of children vape.

Action on Smoking and Health have been producing this figure annually since 2013 – here you go Mr Jayawardena, you’re welcome: https://lmgtfy.app/?q=ash+teen+use+ecig.

Neil O'Brien was far too polite: “Data from NHS Digital showed that 9% of 11- to 15-year-olds identified themselves as current users of vapes in 2021. The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help adults quit smoking. Vapes should not be used by people under the age of 18 years old or non-smokers.”

Tory Neil Hudson asked a far better question that didn’t waste everyone’s time. He asked what assessment has been made “of the known medical risks of vaping”.

Oh Neil, come on, really? Have you been asleep for the past decade?

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary must have the patience of a saint. He told his inquisitor: “The Department’s assessment of the medical risk of vaping is based upon a series of evidence reviews commissioned over the past several years. The latest, The Nicotine Vaping in England: 2022 evidence update report was published in September 2022.”

The Government Neil is a part of has published the very answer to his question on the Government’s own website. Someone needs to ask the Secretary of State if the internet is down in Westminster – that seems to be the most pressing issue.

O'Brien continued: “This current report focuses predominantly on the potential health risks of vaping. It carried out reviews on biomarkers of exposure to nicotine and potential toxicants; biomarkers of potential harm to health cutting across several diseases, including cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases; biomarkers specifically associated with cancer, respiratory, cardiovascular or other health outcomes; poisonings; fires and explosions; nicotine and flavours.

“The report concludes that in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking, but that vaping is not risk-free, particularly for people who have never smoked.”

Clearly abashed by the sheer stupidity of his last question, Hudson took a breath and launched into a far better one, asking “what steps the Government is taking to stop vaping by under 18-year olds.”

Oh Neil, you’ve let your constituents down. You’ve let your Party down. But, most of all, you’ve let yourself down.

There’s no point detailing Neil O'Brien’s response, we all know it was something about legal ages, nicotine strength, bottle sizes and advertising.

Finally (for now), Rachael Maskell joined the growing list of MPs asking for the Government to ban disposable vapes.

Neil O'Brien replied: “There are no immediate plans to introduce a ban on disposable vaping devices. However, the Government is concerned by the increasing use of disposable vaping products, particularly amongst children, and their impact on the environment when they become waste. We are exploring a range of measures to address these issues.”

Physicist Carl Sagan wrote in The Demon-Haunted World: "There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question."

Carl Sagan never came across British politicians.

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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