The Royal College of Physicians is calling on UK politicians and authorities to actively support smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, including through government information campaigns in the media.
High taxes on cigarettes, but low taxes on e-cigarettes. More warnings about the harm of smoking on cigarette packs, but clearer information that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking. Media campaigns to encourage smokers to switch to vejpning.
This is some of the advice from the Royal College of Physicians, which represents over 40,000 doctors in the UK. They are now calling on politicians and authorities in the country to take a clearer stance, with their latest report "Smoking and Health - 2021 - a coming of age in tobacco control?"
"Smoking beat Covid-19 in terms of deaths in the UK in 2020. 94,000 died from smoking-related diseases. These deaths are unnecessary and policy makers can do much more to prevent them", says the RCP in its report.
Campaigns for e-cigarettes
The UK government's ambition is to reduce the smoking rate in the UK to below 5% by 2030, from 14% today. But to reach that target, more powerful measures are needed than those currently in place, says the British Medical Association. In addition to tighter restrictions on smoking tobacco, the association wants to make it easier for smokers to switch nicotine sources.
"We recommend media campaigns that support the use of electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool. At the same time, we need to clarify the message that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes, that they are safe and effective smoking cessation tools. There is a widespread misconception about the harms of e-cigarettes among smokers today," writes the British Medical Association.
To make the message clear, the Association proposes that e-juice and other packaging for e-cigarettes should be labeled with texts informing about the relatively lower risk of vejping compared to smoking.
Significantly lower risk
The British Medical Association has previously concluded, in a high-profile 2016 report, that vejping is 95% less harmful than smoking. A figure that is controversial but still widely accepted among health scientists and medical institutions in the UK. At the same time, the Association believes that e-cigarettes should continue to be strictly regulated.
"E-cigarettes should attract smokers, but not non-smokers. Young people should be protected through restrictive marketing rules and an increase in the age limit from 18 to 21. The proportion of non-smoking young people who use e-cigarettes regularly is low today, but this is something that needs to be monitored continuously," writes the association.
Smoking ban should not apply vejpning
According to the RCP, it is important to distinguish between different types of nicotine products. Not only in terms of harm, but also in terms of policy decisions. Like smoking bans.
"Being able to use tobacco-free nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, in places where smoking is banned is an important step in keeping former smokers smoke-free," the organization writes. "Therefore, smoking bans should not automatically include e-cigarette use."
Higher risk of relapse in smoking rooms
According to the RCP, banning vejpning should be possible, but it should always be up to the premises manager to make that assessment on a case-by-case basis.
"Vaping can be perceived as a nuisance, but bans are often based on misunderstandings about the risks of vapor, which must be assessed as small to negligible. However, vapers who have switched from cigarettes are at risk of relapsing into smoking if they are always forced to be in smoky environments, such as smoking rooms, to use their e-cigarette," the association writes.
No longer need to comply with EU laws
The RCP report comes at a time when the UK is leaving the EU and no longer has to comply with the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). This has opened the way for less restrictive legislation on e-cigarettes and is an issue currently under investigation by the UK Parliament.
In Sweden, Member of Parliament David Josefsson (m) has recently taken up the British Medical Association's report in a Question to the Minister for Social Affairs Lena Hallengren.
Facts: E-cigarettes in the UK
- According to the UK Chochrane reviews there is very strong evidence in order to e-cigarettes are an effective tool in smoking cessation.
- Statistical studies show that e-cigarettes are the most popular smoking cessation tool in the UK.
- 6 percent of Britons, a majority of former smokers, vejpar regularly.
- 50 000 smokers per year succeed in quitting smoking completely, with the help of e-cigarettes.
- In 2021, a major study is underway where smoking patients in hospital emergency rooms will be offered e-cigarettes to quit smoking. Several UK hospitals allows vejping in the hospital area, at designated places. However, smoking is totally prohibited.
Facts: Royal College Of Physicians
- British Medical Association was early to warn of the harms of cigarette smoking. In 1962, the organization released the first report in the series "Smoking and Health".
- The report linked, for the first time, smoking to lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and other respiratory diseases.
- The report was met with disbelief from politicians and smokers alike. 50 years later, it turns out that the organization's analysis was right. The damage from smoking has cost millions of lives.
- The Royal College of Physicians has been a major influence on tobacco control and policy in the UK for much of the 21st century.
- The organization represents 40,000 doctors in the country.
- In the report "Nicotine without smoke", the Royal College of Physicans states that the risk of harm from nicotine vejpnig is less than 5% of the risks associated with tobacco smoking. The Association's statement is the basis for the UK Public Health Agency's position and message that "e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than cigarettes"
