Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share #BattleFest2015: Planet of the Vapes - why is there a war on e-cigarettes?
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
#BattleFest2015: Planet of the Vapes - why is there a war on e-cigarettes?
In recent years, the
popularity of e-cigarettes has exploded. They have been celebrated by
many as being the greatest aid to smoking cessation ever invented, with
even the anti-smoking group ASH giving them grudging approval.
E-cigarettes do not contain the tar and toxins that make cigarettes
harmful, but as this is a relatively new technology, some argue we
cannot be sure of their long-term effects on people’s health. And even
if they do turn out to be harmless, detractors worry they will
‘renormalise’ smoking and act as a gateway to smoking for young people.
On these grounds organisations like the British Medical Association
say they should be subject to the same stringent regulation, advertising
bans and high taxes as tobacco. Internationally, a WHO report has
called for them to be banned in public globally and the sale of
e-cigarettes and the nicotine liquid they use is already banned in most
Scandinavian countries. Several US cities, including New York and
Chicago, have banned their use in public places.
As of 2016 in the UK, e-cigarette manufacturers will have to choose
between being regulated as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency or adhere to strict new EU regulations that
would put them under similar regulation to tobacco products. The Welsh
Health Ministry has said it would like to ban their use in public places
and, across the UK, many pubs, workplaces, universities and public
transport companies have already banned their use despite the lack of
state coercion or public demand to do so.
There is resistance, however: the WHO report was met with an open
letter from a group of over 50 leading doctors and scientists from 15
countries urging them to reverse their call for a ban, stating that:
‘There is no evidence at present of material risk to health from vapour
emitted from e-cigarettes’ and that there is no ‘credible evidence’ that
e-cigarettes act as a gateway to smoking tobacco.
Should the precautionary principle be applied in regard to
e-cigarette regulation? Should we be wary of the rise of e-cigarettes
when many say we should be striving towards a nicotine-free society?
Or, is the movement to ban or hyper-regulate e-cigarettes less to do
with concern for people’s health and more about a broader culture war
over people’s lifestyle choices?
Speakers
Lorien Jollye
vaping advocate, New Nicotine Alliance UK
Dr Richard Smith
chair of trustees, ICDDR,B; former editor, British Medical Journal; chair, Patients Know Best
Christopher Snowdon
director, lifestyle economics, Institute of Economic Affairs; author, The Art of Suppression
Duncan Stephenson
director of external affairs, Royal Society for Public Health
Chair
Rossa Minogue
resources editor, Institute of Ideas
View all episodes
By academyofideas
3.9
77 ratings
In recent years, the
popularity of e-cigarettes has exploded. They have been celebrated by
many as being the greatest aid to smoking cessation ever invented, with
even the anti-smoking group ASH giving them grudging approval.
E-cigarettes do not contain the tar and toxins that make cigarettes
harmful, but as this is a relatively new technology, some argue we
cannot be sure of their long-term effects on people’s health. And even
if they do turn out to be harmless, detractors worry they will
‘renormalise’ smoking and act as a gateway to smoking for young people.
On these grounds organisations like the British Medical Association
say they should be subject to the same stringent regulation, advertising
bans and high taxes as tobacco. Internationally, a WHO report has
called for them to be banned in public globally and the sale of
e-cigarettes and the nicotine liquid they use is already banned in most
Scandinavian countries. Several US cities, including New York and
Chicago, have banned their use in public places.
As of 2016 in the UK, e-cigarette manufacturers will have to choose
between being regulated as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency or adhere to strict new EU regulations that
would put them under similar regulation to tobacco products. The Welsh
Health Ministry has said it would like to ban their use in public places
and, across the UK, many pubs, workplaces, universities and public
transport companies have already banned their use despite the lack of
state coercion or public demand to do so.
There is resistance, however: the WHO report was met with an open
letter from a group of over 50 leading doctors and scientists from 15
countries urging them to reverse their call for a ban, stating that:
‘There is no evidence at present of material risk to health from vapour
emitted from e-cigarettes’ and that there is no ‘credible evidence’ that
e-cigarettes act as a gateway to smoking tobacco.
Should the precautionary principle be applied in regard to
e-cigarette regulation? Should we be wary of the rise of e-cigarettes
when many say we should be striving towards a nicotine-free society?
Or, is the movement to ban or hyper-regulate e-cigarettes less to do
with concern for people’s health and more about a broader culture war
over people’s lifestyle choices?
Speakers
Lorien Jollye
vaping advocate, New Nicotine Alliance UK
Dr Richard Smith
chair of trustees, ICDDR,B; former editor, British Medical Journal; chair, Patients Know Best
Christopher Snowdon
director, lifestyle economics, Institute of Economic Affairs; author, The Art of Suppression
Duncan Stephenson
director of external affairs, Royal Society for Public Health
Chair
Rossa Minogue
resources editor, Institute of Ideas
More shows like Academy of Ideas
View all
Making Sense with Sam Harris
26,339 Listeners
The spiked podcast
208 Listeners
Americano
266 Listeners
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
33,968 Listeners
Academy of Ideas
565 Listeners
TRIGGERnometry
1,838 Listeners
The Brendan O'Neill Show
367 Listeners
Last Orders - a spiked podcast
50 Listeners
Quillette Podcast
789 Listeners
Planet Normal
194 Listeners
heretics.
572 Listeners
The Rest Is History
13,048 Listeners
The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters
536 Listeners
The Current Thing
27 Listeners
Beyond Gender
36 Listeners