Another day another interview on e-cigarettes.
This time I was woken up by a call asking me to go on Morning Call, the BBC Radio Scotland phone-in:
Sales of e-cigarettes have soared by 340 per cent over the past year leading to calls for greater restrictions on them … Charity ASH Scotland say e-cigarettes normalise smoking, and are calling for age restrictions and limits on advertising the products. Louise White asks: Is it time to toughen up on e-cigarettes?
I was on for 40 minutes but didn't say an awful lot, which wasn't a bad thing. It was far more interesting listening to callers, the majority of whom were smokers and/or vapers.
My direct opponent was a woman called Merissa (?) who was described as a "PhD researcher". She favoured the precautionary principle and was very articulate.
Nevertheless her opening comments were peppered with the word 'may'. E-cigs 'may' result in this, 'may' result in that.
Michael Matheson, minister for public health in Scotland, was also on. I got the feeling that his position on e-cigs is driven primarily by hatred of the tobacco industry, which is extremely short-sighted (in my view).
One or two callers were equally hostile to the companies and didn't want them advertising any products on television.
The caller I agreed with most was comedian Karen Dunbar who was vaping as she spoke. She made the strong case that nicotine is a recreational drug and should be treated no differently to caffeine.
Another caller, John, was an ex-smoker with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It's not sexy to have lung cancer, he said, and I don't know anyone who would disagree with that.
However this is not an argument against advertising e-cigarettes on television or anywhere else. There is no evidence that vaping leads to smoking, or causes lung cancer (or COPD).
I have never come across anyone who started smoking through vaping.
Indeed, every caller on Morning Call who said they vaped was either a smoker or ex-smoker.