The government’s position on vaping (Editorial, 30 January) is hopelessly confused, aided and abetted by a similar ambivalence among UK physicians who regard vaping as both good and bad. We are not well placed to convincingly persuade our youth that vaping is highly addictive and potentially poisonous, while we are enthusiastically promoting it as a quit-aid for adults – on which its track record is poor other than as part of an interactive smoking-cessation programme. Meanwhile, we are in bed with big tobacco, presiding over an explosion of vape usage in our schools that cannot now be controlled because its users are hooked on nicotine.
We have connived at prolonging nicotine addiction and disease into another generation (the holy grail of the tobacco industry), at the very moment in history when smoking had started to become “denormalised” and discredited. We bear, as physicians, a heavy responsibility, and there is no end in sight.
Dr Philip Barber
Consultant respiratory physician
