A leading health expert has argued that the message that vapes are ‘95% safer’ than cigarettes has backfired.
Dr Mike McKean, vice president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the BBC that it was a ‘very unwise thing to have done and it’s opened the door to significant chaos’.
The messaging was part of a 2015 review published by Public Health England (PHE) that claimed e-cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than tobacco.
More than one in 10 young people aged 16 to 24 said they were daily or occasional vape users in 2022, say figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Dr McKean added that there are now many children and young people who have taken up vaping who never intended to smoke.
‘Difference in harms’
Professor Ann McNeil was one of the co-authors of the original report. She told the BBC that the report was based on the literature that was available at the time. She added that it was not intended to say vaping was safer than cigarettes but rather that there was a ‘difference in harms’.
The safety of vaping has dominated headlines in recent months, with reports suggesting that ministers may ban disposable vapes.
However, a recent study suggested that vaping does not act as a gateway into smoking.
Research led by Queen Mary University of London and funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) suggests there is no sign that e-cigarettes products promote smoking.
Competing against cigarettes
It also found some evidence that these products compete against cigarettes. As a result, it may be speeding up the demise of smoking – but this finding is only tentative. Researchers said more data is needed to determine the size of this effect.
The study compared the time course of use and sales of electronic cigarettes with that of smoking rates and cigarette sales in countries with historically similar smoking trajectories, but differing current e-cigarette regulations.
Professor Peter Hajek is the director of the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London. He said: ‘The results of this study alleviate the concern that access to e-cigarettes and other low-risk nicotine products promote smoking.
‘There is no sign of that, and there are some signs that they in fact compete against cigarettes, but more data over a longer time period [is] needed to determine the size of this effect.’
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