FEATURE
WHY THE
UK VAPE INDUSTRY
IS THE ENVY OF THE WORLD
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT, BUT MORE SMOKERS NEED TO
UNDERSTAND THE BENEFITS OF SWITCHING TO E-CIGARETTES
LONDON. JUNE 5-6
BY PATRICK GRIFFIN
The approach of UK regulators and our government to vaping
was described at the ENDS conference as “benign, if not
overwhelmingly constructive.”
John Dunne, managing director of E-Liquid Brands UK and a
board member of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA)
said the future looked bright for the UK vape industry.
He told the conference: “The UK vaping industry is currently in
a position that our American and European colleagues, not to
mention the rest of the world, would envy.
“It is important to remember that our government and
public health communities’ approach has been benign if not
overwhelmingly constructive on the whole. We must also
recognise how engaged our parliamentarians are on the
subject. The debates are markedly constructive and really
demonstrate that our country’s politicians, on the whole, really
get vaping’s significance.”
He described the recent parliamentary inquiry into vaping as
“hugely constructive and positive” and called on the Advertising
Standards Authority to “change the advertising rules so that we
can let the public know the truth about vaping ourselves rather
than relying on Public Health England to do it for us.”
Speaking about Brexit, he said now was the time to build the
right advocacy base to help shape future legislation adding:
“We can really use the vaping industry as a case study in how
things can be done differently and for the better after we get
back control of our own laws. We have a real opportunity to
take advantage of the progressive attitude of our government
and public health community to shape a bespoke regulatory
regime for the future, one that really benefits public health.”
Also looking to the future he said there were “great opportunities”
for future growth in the convenience and grocery sectors for
those consumers who didn’t want to visit vape stores.
He called for more work to be done to counteract the public
perception as vaping, saying that just over half of smokers
understood that vaping was less harmful than smoking.
Mr Dunne told the conference: “Not only are people not
understanding the relative risks of our products, but from 2013
to 2018, the proportion of UK adults who believed that vaping
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products are as harmful or more harmful than smoking has
nearly quadrupled from seven to 25 percent.
“All of this negative perception has led to the number of UK
vapers having increased by just 0.4 percent from 2017 to
2018. If we compare this to 2013, where the number of vapers
increased by 86 percent, we can see how significant the
slowdown is.
“Despite the mounting public health evidence and the
endorsement, the vaping industry has received in the
government’s Tobacco Control Plan, it seems that message is
not getting through to consumers yet.”
He also criticised several aspects of the TPD where packing
regulations of vaping products were more stringent than those
of more hazardous products such as bleach.
He described the TPD as “an important starting point” for
product standards and said the industry needed ample
regulation to build confidence among consumers, but was
critical of, “arbitrary, non-evidence-based restrictions on bottle
sizes and nicotine strengths.”