Expert Reaction to Stall in Vaping Rates
Experts have responded to the news that the rates of switching and vaping in Great Britain has stalled due to the government banning disposable/single use vape products
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by Dave Cross
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Experts have responded to the news that the rates of switching and vaping in Great Britain has stalled due to the government banning disposable/single use vape products. The study, published in the journal Addiction, was conducted by researchers at University College London using data obtains from the Smoking Toolkit Study.
Prof Caitlin Notley, Professor of Addiction Sciences, Norwich Medical School, UEA, said: “This study presents an exploratory analysis of data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, an ongoing monthly cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of adults (≥16 years) in Great Britain.
“It reports that levels of vaping overall have stabilised, and that there has been a decline in use of disposable vapes by both adults and young adults in the last year, since the announcement of the forthcoming ban on disposable vapes. The study is well conducted and draws on a large dataset, so can be considered to accurately reflect what is happening currently in the UK population.
“The study is cross-sectional, so cannot determine causality, but it seems likely that the observed reduction in use of disposable vapes may in part be due to people being aware of the forthcoming ban, but also probably a reflection of market changes. The vape market has rapidly adapted, and already disposables are being displaced by simple reusable devices, which have many of the same attractive features (size, colour, flavours) of disposable devices, but allow recharging.
“It is good news that vaping prevalence overall has stablished while we continue to see a decline in population level tobacco smoking. As many people vaping will be ex-smokers, this suggests that we may be seeing a levelling off of vaping by people who have never smoked. This is clearly an important trend to monitor, as the public health goal is to encourage people away from harmful tobacco smoking, by vaping if it is helpful, but to also to discourage people who have never smoked from taking up vaping.
“The study suggests that the forthcoming disposable vape ban may have already had an impact and any additional impact once it comes in may be limited, as people appear to have pre-emptively changed the products they are using knowing the ban was coming. There is a need for ongoing research to evaluate how the policy change, once fully enforced, influences behaviour.”
Markus Lindblad, nicotine expert and director at Haypp, told journalists: “These findings should make the government stop and think before they decide how to implement the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Introducing measures to prevent youth access to nicotine products is the right thing to do, but these need to be targeted.
“Heavy-handed measures such as blanket bans on products or flavours will have the effect of turning adult smokers away from vaping and may not effectively address underage vaping in any case. Unnecessarily strict regulation could see the UK throwing the baby out with the bathwater by demonising vaping and discouraging people from switching from cigarettes to vapes.”
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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 start-ups to develop content for their websites.
