Antipathy of BMA towards Vaping

Vaping proponents and advocates of Tobacco Harm Reduction, in general, have been baffled and confused by the curious inability of the BMA(British Medical Association) to change its policy towards e-cigarettes. As an example of this, simply type search e-cigarettes onto their website a plethora of negativity results.

Following the Royal College of GP latest announcement, to align with the policy positions of most Public Health organisations in the UK, the BMA is now an outlier, along with a few influential rogue malcontents. ** note this announcement was revoked and replaced Jan 2017 by RCGP(no reason given)

It is unconscionable for them to maintain this position, especially as they seem to be the 'go-to' organisation for commentary on e-cigs in the media.Their media influence has undoubtedly influenced the attitude of non-smokers, and smokers alike, contributing to the dismal public perception of 15%  believing it much safer than smoking.

 Some absolutely shocking media interviews could be cited as examples here eg Banfield (Wales), Rae(N.E.) but I shall spare readers further grief.

Various conspiracy theories exist for this increasingly implausible policy position, maybe some have a part to play in the antipathy of the BMA,but it is this author's contention that the paucity of education(in Nicotine and THR) whilst training has played a huge part in their flawed policy.

Recent examples of this misperception exist a,b,c,d,e within Dr's and Health professionals, I maintain it could well be due to flawed, possibly biased but certainly incomplete Education(but we need a large UK study of this phenomenon to confirm this ).

A perfect example of what educators need to foster is demonstrated here, stimulate intellectual curiosity, and challenge the perceptions!

So Why is this important?

The BMA  policy has to be voted upon(via members proposals) by a membership who have anything up to 50% misperception of the harms of nicotine and the value of Tobacco Harm Reduction

The(possible) self-perpetuating spiral of ignorance reflected in its policy needs addressing AND SOON! Inaction literally does kill!

Naturally, this will not be unique to the UK, all Doctors Medical Associations around the World will probably demonstrate the same antipathy for similar ill-founded reasoning.

Time to #ReThinkNicotine ! and maybe they take some advice

Waffle about Press Coverage

As we are all too aware, the accuracy and narrative across the various media outlets varies enormously in general terms, but more specifically related to Vaping.

I cannot recall many other divisive or polarised topics in my lifetime,  that emulate this,with the possible exception of climate change(I am an agnostic with insufficient knowledge to voice a considered opinion), maybe Industrial relations(UK) in the 70's-80's qualify here also.

However, my attempts at memory recall, and unintended conflict of viewpoints in my above examples are not the purpose of this entry, more to highlight a few of the events over the last 24 hours,mostly of a minor nature but they need raising nonetheless,

Guardian article discussing poverty came up with

in the middle of an article on poverty and deprivation in South Wales. 'dens of iniquity' and 'opium dens' are what were conjured up in my mind by the authors' use of den. Whether intentional or mistakenly it gave off a subliminal message that there was something seedy about a vape shop. 

A local Newspaper then came up with this irresponsible trash with quotations from poorly informed councillors. 

The resulting comments are a model of what should happen at any level of media  mis-reporting. Challenging garbage is crucial, but once again can we help to gain control of the narrative here - give your local press some stories that they may consider covering especially as they are always short of news. 

Two hugely contrasting stories highlight 'cool' or stylish  

This from GQ was one of the first positive pieces regarding a stylish product, usually most are dismissed as 'douch-bags' 'silly' etc etc ,this dross  typically un-amusing when referring to the topic . To me it matters nought what others may think what my product looks like, BUT it may well matter to a smoker who is considering giving Vaping a whirl. So GQ need a bit of a shout out from us maybe 

So nothing heavyweight or profound here(nothing unusual there!) 

***updated with more recent examples 

from  this Guardian article  

and 

from this one