In a bid to be smoke free by 2030, the government launched a pioneering ‘swap to stop’ scheme to encourage one million smokers to make the all-important switch.
If only the rest of the world viewed vaping in the same way that Britain’s rule makers seem to…as a less harmful alternative instead of the villain in their narrative.
When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was questioned at Westminster on how the National Health Service could be relieved of its ever-growing pressures, he put anti-smoking policies at the centre of his response.
With 5.4 million people in England still smoking tobacco, it remains the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death.
With Cancer Research stating it could free up 75,000 GP appointments each month, if smokers made the switch to a reduced-risk alternative.
Sunak said:
“There is such persuasive evidence from that program and the schemes that we have done on a smaller scale…
“That if you can help existing adult smokers to switch away from smoking to using vapes…there are clearly public health benefits of acting before the bigger problems come down the line.”
By linking the programme to a wider public health approach, Sunak is suggesting that vaping is the answer to saving our NHS, a fact that advocates have been saying for years.
It seems other world leaders should take a leaf out of the UK’s book, in their support for vaping, with one vaper writing:
“You are like a shining beacon of hope to the US…
“Unfortunately, our public health authorities would still rather misinform about the alternatives and cause undue death on a massive scale.”
When launching ‘swap to stop’, the health minister said the scheme was ‘the first of its kind in the world’ and vowed to provide a million smokers across England a free vaping starter kit.
The UK is yet to see the direct effects of this programme, but we can only hope that the Prime Minister continues to support the vaping community’s own attempts to save lives.
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