NEWS
Too little,
too late?
Ireland will be 27 years late in reaching its tobacco-free target as
the government is accused of doing a ‘disservice’ to smokers by
not endorsing e-cigarettes for smoking cessation.
By Róisín Delaney
The Republic of Ireland’s largest vaping trade association has
called on the government to listen to the needs of smokers
and promote vaping, if it is to try to meet its smoke-free target.
Vape Business Ireland has called on the Health Service
Executive (HSE) to endorse vaping as a smoking cessation
tool as Public Health England has across the Irish Sea.
Despite the mounting evidence which shows vaping to be 95
percent less harmful than smoking, and research on the mental
health benefits of quitting smoking, plus the recent findings
published in the New England Journal confirming vaping to
be twice as effective as traditional quit methods, policy makers
in Ireland refuse to throw their support behind e-cigarettes.
Around the world, countless public health agencies and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are promoting
vaping as a crutch for smokers who want to quit for good.
Among them, Smokefree New Zealand, The American
Cancer Society, Public Health England, Cancer Research UK
and ASH UK.
VBI says ‘the unwillingness’ of Irish anti-smoking policy
makers to provide ‘clear and neutral information’ about all
alternatives to smoking, not least vaping, “is doing a disservice
to smokers in Ireland.”
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Race to tobacco-free
The Irish Government established a plan for a Tobacco Free
Ireland by 2025 back in 2013, setting itself a target of lowering
the smoking rate to five percent by this deadline. VBI says this
statistic is ‘worryingly’ stuck at 17 percent with five years to go.
Last year, the HSE confirmed fears that assuming the current
trend continues, and all other factors remain constant, Ireland
can only expect to be tobacco-free by 2052, not 2025 as desired.
That would be 27 years behind schedule.
In comparison, Ireland’s closest neighbour can expect to be
tobacco-free by 2030 and it just so happens that vaping has
been endorsed as a smoking cessation aid in the UK more so
than anywhere else in the world, driving the British tobacco-
free initiative.
Director of Vape Business Ireland, Keith Flynn, told Vapouround:
“The UK Government’s progressive approach to vaping
clearly emphasises the lack of action by Ireland’s own
government. As such, the role vaping can play in supporting
the State’s Tobacco