UK's largest vape retailer targets a smoker free future

Last week there was the contentious claim that 'More than 300,000 UK smokers may have quit owing to Covid-19 fears'.

As I explained here, that figure seemed to be extrapolated from the responses of six former smokers (from a total of 310) who responded to an ASH/YouGov survey, but the media can't resist a headline-grabbing stat, even one that appears to have little relation to reality, and so it was reported far and wide.

This week the results of two more surveys have been reported online but with hardly any coverage:

Data published by online vape retailer VPZ has revealed that in the past month, more than 1,100 NHS staff members have used the supplier’s discount scheme to access products to help them quit smoking.

That may be true but what struck me was a quote by Doug Mutter, director at VPZ, the UK's 'biggest vaping retailer'. According to Mutter:

“Smoking and coronavirus is a lethal combination and NHS staff are more acutely aware of this than anyone.

That's a hell of a claim but is it supported by the facts when many people, including academics, seem to think the jury is still out on the issue of smoking and coronavirus?

On Monday the Mail Online – which has devoted endless column inches to the subject and has been extremely fair, reported:

More evidence emerges that smokers are protected from coronavirus: Italian study finds them FIVE TIMES less likely to end up in hospital (but almost twice as likely to die if they do).

It's true that several studies have suggested that if you are a smoker and are hospitalised with Covid-19 the risks of ending up in intensive care are higher than if you are a non-smoker, but the same studies (and many more besides) have also suggested that the number of smokers who are hospitalised with Covid-19 is significantly smaller than might be expected based on the smoking rates in the country where the relevant research took place.

To claim, without any qualification, that "Smoking and coronavirus is a lethal combination" is stretching the truth somewhat.

Yesterday, in the run-up to next week's ban on menthol cigarettes, it was also suggested that 'Almost half a million smokers will quit as a result of the menthol ban, study reveals' (Talking Retail).

Again, what struck me was not the study – which I haven't seen because there wasn't a link to it – but the quote by Vape Club director Dan Marchant:

“It’s great to hear that the steps being taken are set to have a real effect on the number of tobacco smokers in the UK, and take us closer towards the government’s 2030 UK smoking targets."

'Steps?' Does he mean the prohibition of menthol and capsule cigarettes?

I don't blame vape retailers for doing everything they can to promote their businesses and encourage smokers to switch, but it does annoy me that while Forest frequently defends vaping and publicly criticises vaping bans, many vaping advocates and entrepreneurs have no problem throwing smokers under the bus and supporting any anti-smoking initiative whether it be 'quit for Covid' or the prohibition of menthol cigarettes.

I understand why they do it but it's not a good look and it will come back to bite them, I'm sure.

Compare it to the annual VApril campaign. VApril takes a softer more educational approach, rarely if ever adopting an anti-smoking tone, and to my mind it is all the better for it.

PS. In my next post I will have some information about a new Forest survey, conducted by Populus and published earlier today. Watch this space.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Bullies like this are exactly part of the reason why I would never vape. The other part is that for all the bragging, no one knows for sure what the long term effects of vapng will be. Remember when doctors pushed smoking as safe some decades ago? I am not falling for that from wannabe Big Vape too just because they want some of Big tobacco's Big Billions.

A curse on all their houses.