Northern Ireland Reinventing The Wheel
A researcher in Ireland plans on duplicating other British ecig studies.
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by Dave Cross
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CH&S claim to have directly contributed “to a 60% decrease in coronary heart deaths” through their activities, but they do not see vaping as playing a part in tobacco harm reduction. In 2014, a representative of the charity stated: “e-cigs contained nicotine, which is a most powerful drug, more addictive than heroin. The NI Chest Heart and Stroke is convinced that only adult smokers who have tried all other supports, e.g. nicotine replacement therapy, should begin to think about the use of e-cigs.”
It’s a traditionally pharma-funded point of view, similar to that found in other public health bodies who rely on funding from the pharmaceutical industry. It is interesting to note that the CH&S do not provide a breakdown of where they obtained just under £3.5 million from in the 2016 full accounts.
With the money funding this study beginning to look suspect, it’s interesting to hear what Simpson herself has to say: “Ecigarette use in young people and adults is increasing rapidly in the UK. Some researchers view them as being less harmful and as a useful alternative to tobacco smoking, whereas others view them as having a potential risk to the normalisation of cigarette smoking.”
Any cursory glance, even by non-scientists, at the smoking rates in the United Kingdom reveals that there has been no ‘normalisation’ of smoking since vaping took off in 2008; it is an utter nonsense to insinuate otherwise.
“Evidence also suggests that they may be contributing to a relapse in past smokers,” she continues, “leading to other tobacco use – and they [ecigs] have the potential to undo the decline in smoking behaviour that we have seen over the last few years.”
If evidence existed to support her claim that vaping leads to relapses in ex-smokers (which it doesn’t) then it would be wholly outweighed by the body of evidence demonstrating that vaping works as well or better than traditional products at helping smokers quit. By coming out with these red herrings, Simpson is colouring her study in bias from the outset. We would ask her, if vaping could contribute to undoing the declining smoking rates then why has vaping boomed during a time of record falls in smoking?
Her study is targeting the least affluent in society and those falling into the 11-16 age group, “as they are more at risk of uptaking of tobacco smoking, and potentially (there’s that word again) being exposed and more likely to use ecigarettes.”
She justifies her use of £116,453 because NI quit programs are seeing falling numbers and she needs to know if this is because people are vaping. Again, if she had used Google, Simpson would have discovered the answers are already there.
Or maybe her study might just miraculously find that vaping is a problem for Northern Ireland’s teens?
Photo Credit:
Images from YouTube
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave 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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