RE: The Highs and Lows of Vaping: What Does Science Say?
Hey, how spectacularly useful of you, I was planning on a running a seminar activity on vaping this coming week. My general plan was something along the lines of “Should a healthcare system incentivise the use of e-cigarettes?”.
The links you have here are a great start, thank you!
Some thoughts:
• I honestly don’t yet have an opinion either way on this just yet (something that’s very rare!).
• I had no idea that some countries had banned their use (although it makes sense now that I think about it). I wonder how much of that is down to pushing from big tobacco.
• If used as an aid to quitting rather than a replacement the (possible) greater negative effects might be outweighed by the long term gains from successful cessation.
• That long-term effects by using data from theatrical smoke is a great example of a scientist thinking outside the box! I’m blown away by the ingeniousness.
Each of us has to make up our own minds about what's best for us.
Sadly, it’s of course far more complicated than this. If incentivised more people will do it, if there are disincentives less will do it. This then becomes a public health issue, it’s too much to expect members of the public to assess all of the scientific literature and weigh up the pros and cons without bias. How the system reacts will make all the difference.
So much to think about here. Thanks!
:) Never underestimate the public. People spread knowledge through scientific findings wide and far. I haven't known the harming facts in detail but it's already common sense here in Germany that the e-cigarette smoke is damaging. If people nevertheless decide in doing unhealthy things it is them who must deal with the consequences.
I guess it happens to you too, that if you are, for example, dealing with health topics within your social circle, your sibling or parent might not openly agree with you but your words do have some weight and secretly your people (or friends or whatever) took to their hearts what you've told them? And vice versa?
For the rest, which is not being taken up by another person, one can let go of trying to convince or teach a person, no?
Curious you say that, about having an effect on family. A few years back my brother was stricken with a mysterious illness. It defied diagnosis and he was deteriorating fast. We (nieces, nephews, wife and I) put our heads together and helped to guide the diagnosis. It turned out to be a rare disease--though we're learning it is not so rare, but rarely recognized.
And yes, I learn to keep my opinions to myself more as I grow older. After all, I am so often wrong :)
What a great reply. I had originally added a line at the end which suggested we could make up our own minds or allow a regulatory agency to do that for us. My husband didn't like the sound of it, so I cut it out:) I have mixed feelings--I think you're right that industry sways regulation. It's one of the reasons people are suspicious of government action (we're back to your blog on trust!). So many discrete influences the public never learns about. Incentivizing, rather than regulating, is likely to be more effective. Education and information. Otherwise, black markets will always spring up. People find a way to do what they want.
I'm glad you find the references useful. When I write a blog like this I learn so much. Hard to keep it compact, but I feel for the reader so this awareness tempers my inclination to say more.
Yeah, all of this health recommendation business it’s a hard balancing act. The Nuffield ladder of intervention is often a good framework to when thinking about public health policy. Each step up is philosophically different from the step before. If an intervention is important to health there is often more we can do that just provide information and let people decide for themselves, but equally head too far up the ladder and we run the risk of committing some pretty intense ethical violations.
I love the ladder--"doing nothing is an active policy decision". It's actually comforting to see that policy-making is systematized logically and rationally. Fascinating reflection of values. I can see how these might vary depending on culture and education. Quite a field you've chosen--constantly evolving. You'll be learning and studying the rest of your life :)