UK government’s vaping policies are endangering our health, suggest evidence

In the UK vaping products are easily accessible. In contrast, such products are much more restricted in Australia. And the question of access is important because studies show vape usage presents a general health hazard.

Health hazards of vaping

A May 2021 systematic review, published in Heart & Lung, found vaping is directly associated with lung injury. Moreover, a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute paper, published in 2019, warned that vaping:

may cause harmful effects to lung tissue, including inflammation and genetic damage that could indicate long-term risk for respiratory disease and even cancer

So what do vapes contain that’s of concern?

A Harvard Medical School paper, published in June, pointed out that US vaping products can contain the following:

In addition, according to one lung cancer expert, substances commonly found in vapes can include:

Research shows vaping can lead to conventional smoking

In 2022, a systematic review conducted by researchers at the Australian National University found that vaping:

increases the risk of multiple adverse health outcomes, including poisoning, addiction, seizures, burns, lung injury and smoking uptake.

Furthermore, ABC News said the review found:

“substantial evidence” that e-cigarette use results in dependence on nicotine, and that e-cigarettes can increase the uptake of tobacco smoking in people who don’t smoke.

Alarmingly, professor Emily Banks, who led the review, told ABC News that it found:

Young non-smokers who vape are around three times as likely to take up smoking than non-vapers

Teenagers and young adults especially at risk

A July 2022 paper, published in the British Medical Journal, argued that the biggest uptake of vaping is by teenagers and young adults. The study concluded:

The true impact of vaping on respiratory health will manifest over the coming decades, but in the interval a prudent and time tested recommendation remains to abstain from consumption of inhaled nicotine and other products.

A UK government report identified a legal loophole that allows shops and companies to give free samples of vaping products to be given to persons of any age. The report also refers to a survey that revealed 24.8% of persons aged 11 to 17 have admitted that friends had given them vaping products.

Meanwhile, a small US study, published in the Harvard Gazette, showed around 28% of high school students were vape users. That’s despite evidence that vaping can lead to “small airway obstruction and asthma-like symptoms”.

Vaping products availability in the UK

Anyone 18 years and over can buy vaping products in the UK – including those containing nicotine – without a prescription. The NHS states it will next review that practice in October 2025.

In June, the Guardian reported how several pro-vaping lobby groups are promoting their products via social media. They include Save My Vape and #BackVapingSaveLives.

Global Britain Ltd, which is headed by former Brexit party politician Brian Monteith, is linked to Save My Vape as well as Say No To WHO (World Health Organisation).

We Vape UK is another lobby group, set up by an Adam Smith Institute (ASI) fellow. It runs the #BackVapingSaveLives campaign. ASI has received sponsorship from Japan Tobacco International.

Other approaches to vaping availability

Meanwhile, Australia has adopted a more restrictive approach to vaping. There, it’s illegal for persons “to possess a nicotine-filled vape unless they are over 18 and have a prescription to help them stop smoking”.

In May 2023, BBC News reported that Australia is set to ban recreational vaping for users of all ages. As a result, only pharmacies will supply vaping products. The country will also ban disposable vapes.

In Singapore, restrictions are even more severe: all vapes are illegal. In the US it is complicated, with each state legislating differently.

Further restrictions needed

Earlier this month, councils across England and Wales urged Westminster to place a ban on single-use products by 2024 on health and environmental grounds. The throwaway products, they point out, are also a fire risk and a pollutant.

MPs are demanding action too – but only in regard to the packaging and marketing of single-use vapes.

Associate professor of public health Becky Freeman makes it clear we need to go much further, commenting:

The ideal public health solution would see the elimination of all vaping product sales, nicotine and non-nicotine alike, that fall outside of the prescription-only access pathway.

Indeed, given the numerous health risks outlined via evidence-based clinical studies, such a recommendation makes sense. It only remains for the government to act upon that evidence. Or, as with its handling of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, it will risk accusations of again being asleep at the wheel.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons – TBEC Review cropped 770×403 pixels