Smokers in England to be offered vaping kits
Weaver M. The Guardian. Smokers in England to be offered vaping kits to help them quit cigarettes: ‘Swap to stop’ scheme comes despite increasing alarm about the rise in young people vaping. 11 April 2023
“The government has an ambitious plan of making England smoke-free by 2030. Campaigners say the target, which equates to getting smoking rates to less than 5%, will be missed without further action.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, said: “Vapes increase smokers’ chances of successfully quitting, as do vouchers for pregnant smokers, so these are welcome steps in the right direction, but they are nowhere near sufficient.”
Comment: Vaping is not considered an effective cessation method. It increases the chances of initiation and continuation of nicotine addiction and the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. (The attitude is “Never mind, we won’t know the overall harm for decades, so we’ll swap the disputed benefit of getting some adults off cigarettes in the short term for the long-term harm to both adults and youth despite the evidence of damage to the human body from e-cigarettes already evident in the research.)
Stephen Hamann
