Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Seduction of smoking, a documentary by Peter Taylor

Seduction of smoking, Are e-cigarettes less harmful is the latest documentary by Peter Taylor who was the reporter in the 1976 classic Death in the West. He also authored in 1984 the excellent book The Smoke Ring. I, therefore, had high expectations but I was a bit disappointed as I feel he avoided detailing the gap within the public health community about vaping. He does interview people in both camps but not really in depth. There is no mention of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, nor of the Juul controversy. He visits East Timor, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia (but without a word about the prohibition of vaping there), Ireland: all places where the tobacco industry is fighting to maintain its old marketing tactics and opposes the implementation of the FCTC, including plain packaging. Plain packaging is now the rule in France (since January 1, 2017) but I don't think I saw any effort by the tobacco industry to litigate about it.  Maybe because its impact was not obvious, contrary to what was expected and keeps being touted? Not that I am against plain packaging, I am not so sure about its impact. Plain packaging also became the rule in Belgium very recently, without legal threats from the industry. What remains more effective is raising prices via taxes, although Australia that has the highest price seems to have reached a limit and as the prevalence among poor people remains the highest, the tax regressivity is getting worse without having more poor people quit. A thorough documentary about the pro-against vaping debate in the Juul era remains to be made. I still wonder what the most prohibitionist people would say to smokers who quit combustibles for e-cigs. Tough luck?

No comments:

Post a Comment