A new initiative is taking aim at bad vape science, as record-high misperceptions threaten to undermine vaping’s stop smoking potential.
VapeVerify, launched by the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), brings together experts across science, public health and tobacco harm reduction to examine the latest research on vaping.
Together, the independent panel will flag everything from poor methodology to misinterpretation of data and a lack of transparency to ensure policy and public understanding about vaping is only being shaped by sound evidence.
The campaign comes at a time when misperceptions about the stop smoking tool are at an all-time-high, with half of smokers wrongly believing vaping to be as or more dangerous than smoking.
The VapeVerify panel includes:
- Dr Marina Murphy – a PhD chemist, science communication specialist and Senior Director of Scientific Affairs at Haypp Group
- Sairah Salim-Sartoni – a chartered health psychologist and award-winning stop smoking expert
- David Lawson – a leading regulatory and compliance expert, qualified medical toxicologist and founder of Inter Scientific
- Dr Ian Fearon – a tobacco harm reduction specialist and Director of whatIF? Consulting
- Damien Bové – Member of the Institute for Clinical Research and Chief Regulatory Officer for ADACT Medical
- Dr Garrett McGovern – a GP specialising in addiction, clinical lead for the HSE Addiction Services and Director of Priority Medical Clinic
Speaking on the new initiative, Dr Marina Murphy said: “Vaping has already helped millions of adults switch away from smoking – which needlessly claims 80,000 lives every year in the UK and remains a leading cause of preventable death.
“Sadly, there are potentially millions more who are unwilling to make the switch because they have been misinformed about the relative risk of smoking versus vaping. Guarding against bad science and unreliable research is the first step in correcting the narrative so vaping can have the strongest positive impact.”
She added: “The VapeVerify panel wants to create an environment where people are armed with the facts so they can make informed decisions – because there is no public health without public knowledge.”
VapeVerify launches in tandem with VapeWatch – a first-of-its-kind media watchdog campaign which will monitor for and challenge inaccurate headlines and flawed reporting about vaping.
Under the initiative, any misleading articles will be flagged to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which regulates the UK news industry to upholds the highest editorial standards – including when it comes to accuracy.
As with VapeVerify, VapeWatch was created to ensure the public narrative about vaping is shaped by the truth and follows previous expert warnings that alarmist news reporting is deterring adults from making the switch away from smoking.
The campaign will also run an ongoing ‘league table’ of the worst offending publications.
John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association, said: “We are at a crossroads. Vaping can either go down in the history books as a seismic force for public health good or a tragically missed opportunity, and the factor that will tip the scale is public perception.
“Millions of adults have already kicked the habit thanks to vaping, which has been instrumental in securing record low smoking rates in the UK, but so many more still smoke – in part because they’ve been scared off making the switch.”
He continued: “These two campaigns are designed to hold those who inform – or rather misinform – to account; because there’s too much at stake to let bad science and misleading news go unchecked.”
Members of the public, healthcare professionals, consumers and researchers can all support the campaigns by flagging questionable content to VapeVerify and VapeWatch.
The independent VapeVerify panel members are volunteers; they do not receive any funding from the UK Vaping Industry Association for their participation and contribution to the initiative.