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GTNF18

GTNF18 heard that access to affordable vape equipment is a human right for smokers in poor countries according to a New York University academic

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Experts, industry leaders and innovators met up at the Rosewood hotel in London for presentations, discussion and networking at GTNF18. As is customary nowadays, vaping featured high on the list of conversations due to the way it has disrupted the tobacco markets.

Apart from the speakers representing the tobacco industry, there were people connected with vaping and harm reduction, including:

  • Clive Bates (Counterfactual)
  • Martin Cullip (New Nicotine Alliance)
  • John Dunne (UKVIA)
  • Karl Fagerstrom (Nicotine & Tobacco Research)
  • Konstantinos Farsalinos
  • Martin Jarvis (University College London)
  • Oliver Kershaw (E-Cigarette Forum)
  • Andrej Kuttruf (Evapo)
  • Neil McCallum (JAC Vapour)
  • Neil McKeganey (Centre for Drug Misuse Research)
  • Lord Matt Ridley
  • David Sweanor (academic and advocate)
  • Carrie Wade (R Street Institute)
  • Derek Yach (Foundation for a Smoke-Free World)
  • Eve Wang (Shenzhen Smoore Technology Co.)
  • James Xu (Avail Vapour)

Redmond told the 300 attendees: “It’s a human rights issue – as a harm reduction device, prices need to come down. Nicotine is not a dirty drug, it helps with depression and anxiety.”

The assembled experts in harm reduction told the audience that vaping forms an essential tool for smokers wanting to quit using tobacco. Lord Matt Ridley told the audience: “We should treat vaping in the same way that we treat access to mobile phones. The best way to get people to give up smoking is to innovate with technology. Vaping is a motorway OUT of smoking!”

Dr. Neil McKeganey pointed out the dangers associated with the moves taking place in the United States: “If we lose flavours from the vaping sector, we lose this sector.”

FOREST’s Simon Clark said that the Tobacco Products Directive, “infantilises consumers.”

When it comes to managing methodological flaws in research papers on methodologies, Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos said that the difficulty is that some scientists are perpetrators when it comes to spreading the resulting information, and that journals are very reluctant to admit this when it’s discovered.

Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, spoke about The WHO’s “scaremongering stance” on vaping, and how it lies “at odds with the British Government’s evidence-based position.”

“The UK taxpayer is paying through the nose to support this prohibitionist organisation. So far, the Department of Health has been unable to turn our money into influence. It is now time to get tough. Unless the WHO withdraws its support for the prohibition of vaping, the government should withdraw its funding.”

Dave Cross avatar

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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