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Three big players came
together for a must-see
panel
126 VM26
F E AT U R E S
A conversation between three key industry players proved to be the
biggest draw in the seminar area on the Friday. Chaired by Ashley
Hansen, the panel with Dan Marchant of Vape Club and Vape Base,
John Dunne of UKVIA and Martin Cullip of the NNA touched on a
number of key issues.
But the main topic of conversation was the differences in perception
of vaping in the UK verses the US and how US hysteria is changing
the narrative in the UK.
John explained that regulators view nicotine differently in the US.
The UK government targets smoking specifi cally whereas the US
lumps all nicotine products together as ‘tobacco.’
Martin agreed, noting how Stoptober showed that the government
sees vaping as a route out of smoking rather than another form of
tobacco.
Dan said: “The argument always goes back to vaping as ‘a gateway
to smoking.’ But if smoking is the bad guy, why are there no debates
about banning tobacco?
“Smoking kills 50 percent of people who do it. We’re letting the
narrative change. We should be talking about the positives of
vaping verses the negatives of smoking.”
The TPD’s 20mg limit on nicotine was briefly discussed. While many
in the industry were initially sceptical, Dan believes that it’s actually
turned out to be good for vaping. However, everyone agreed that the
nic limit should be increased to 2.5-3 percent.
The UK and US also look at statistics differently. This has led US
regulators to ‘overinflate’ the so-called youth vaping epidemic.
John said:
“They look at regular use as having vaped within the past 30 days,
whereas we say one week.
“But that is the same pattern of experimentation that you see with