Amanda Strange, managing director of the company that organises the event, Smooth Events, explained the Summit’s goal: “To create an independent and evidenced-based platform that can facilitate respectful dialogue in what has proved to be a divisive area in science, tobacco control, and public health.”
Professor Ann McNeill became the Chair for the London events in 2013. She is Vice Dean at King’s College London and Professor of Tobacco Addiction. Many will know her as one of the co-authors of the evidence updates on vaping, produced by Public Health England since 2015.
McNeill explained her position on vaping in 2013: “I’d been aware that e-cigarettes were emerging, we were picking them up in a number of surveys, but we didn’t know an awful lot about them. We were scrambling around for information.”
When she was approached about the possibility of a conference taking place, “I thought it was a great idea. At that time there wasn’t anything similar out there”.
Professor Thomas Glynn is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Prevention Research Centre. Speaking about his decision to chair the American summits, he praised the organisers for always striving to produce a balanced programme. “I know there are some people in the U.S. who say, ‘oh that’s just for the e-cigarette enthusiasts’, but it really hasn’t been.”
Glynn cited Matt Myers, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, as an example of the balance: “He’s been a stalwart in coming to it. Every year.”
Asked whether they thought the Summits have been a positive contribution to the harm reduction debate, or whether they are just echo chambers preaching to the converted, McNeill said she felt they’d been very important.
“It’s not just the research evidence,” she said, “but it’s also regulators, stakeholders, and the opportunity to discuss issues that you wouldn’t normally get just between researchers. It’s very, very valuable.”
Amanda Strange is a vaper herself, having used the technology to help her quit smoking. She confesses that it was the sense that vapers and smokers are often marginalised when people discuss matters relating to tobacco harm reduction that motivated her to begin organising the events.
Ann McNeill accepted that this situation is still very much in effect: “In part, part of the problem is that, in the UK, smoking is more concentrated in more deprived groups, so I don’t have smokers in my immediate social circle anymore.”
Glynn agreed: “It’s getting more difficult to reach out to smokers.” Since he began working in the area, smoking rates have dropped from over 40% to under 14%, making reaching them harder. “It’s one of the things these summits do in bringing different people in, so we have exposure to one another. We can understand better the dilemmas they’re facing.”
Taking place over two days this week, Planet of the Vapes will be bringing you highlights from some of the best presentations.
News from: https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/vaping-news/2020-12-01_e-cigarette-summit-2020.html