Vaping - the two faces of ASH

According to MailOnline:

Demonising vaping is prompting young people to switch to tobacco as mixed messaging suggests they are equally as dangerous, experts warn

Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH, told the paper:

“All the negative press around vaping hasn’t helped,” she said. “Suggestions that vapes need to be in plain packaging, branded with health warnings and kept out of sight, like tobacco, just give the impression that both are equally harmful when that’s not the case.”

That’s all well and good.

In March, however, responding to a study that found that ‘removing bright colours, pictures and fancy lettering from packaging made youngsters less likely to be attracted to vaping, but did not deter adults who wanted to use vapes to quit cigarettes’, Arnott took a different view:

“The Government,” she said, “should take note and commit to implementing standardised packaging for vapes and vaping products without delay.”

A few months later, responding to another study, her deputy Hazel Cheeseman declared:

“Quantifying the impact on children of the growing promotion of vapes is crucial to determine the scale of the problem and how it can be best addressed. This analysis shows that in-store promotion has the biggest impact, which is why ASH is advocating that promotion and display of e-cigarettes in shops should be prohibited, as should the child-friendly packaging and labelling of vapes.”

So, if I’ve got this right, the CEO of ASH believes that calling for vapes to be sold “in plain packaging … and kept out of sight, like tobacco” would “give the impression that both are equally harmful when that’s not the case.”

Yet she and the group’s deputy CEO have, in the last eight months, urged the Government to (a) ban the promotion and display of e-cigarettes in shops, and (b) introduce standardised packaging for vapes, “without delay”.

Confused? Me too.

See also: With friends like these (a gentle reminder)