Vapes ‘95% safer’ than cigarettes messages were ‘reckless’

A prominent health expert has argued that the message that vaping is ‘95% safer’ than cigarettes has failed.

Dr Mike McKean, vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told BBC that it was a “very unwise thing to do and opened the door to considerable chaos.”

The messages were part of a 2015 review published by Public Health England (PHE) which claimed e-cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than tobacco.

More than one in 10 young people aged 16 to 24 said they were a daily or occasional vape user in 2022, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) say.

Dr McKean added that there are now many children and young people starting to smoke who never intended to smoke.

“Damage Difference”

Professor Ann McNeil was one of the co-authors of the original report. She told him BBC that the report was based on the literature that was available at the time. She added that she did not mean to say that vaping was safer than cigarettes, but that there was a ‘difference in harm’.

The safety of vaping has dominated the headlines in recent months, with reports suggesting ministers may ban vaping.

However, a recent study suggested that vaping does not act as a gateway to smoking.

Research led by Queen Mary University of London and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) suggests there is no sign that e-cigarette products promote smoking.

Competing against cigarettes

He also found some evidence that these products compete with cigarettes. As a result, it may be hastening the death of smoking – but this finding is only tentative. The researchers said more data are needed to determine the size of this effect.

The study compared the time course of e-cigarette use and sales with that of smoking rates and cigarette sales in countries with historically similar smoking trajectories but different current e-cigarette regulations.

Professor Peter Hajek is 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 promotes smoking.

“There’s no sign of that, and there’s some sign that they actually compete against cigarettes, but more data over a longer period of time is needed to determine the magnitude of this effect.”

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