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 ** note this announcement was revoked and replaced Jan 2017 by RCGP(no reason given)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