THE Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a chance to “love our neighbours and seek their good”, the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, has said in the House of Lords.
The Bill, which was receiving its Second Reading, on Wednesday, is intended to make steps towards creating a “smoke-free generation” in the UK by 2030. If passed, it would make selling tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 illegal, effectively raising the legal age for customers each year until the sale of tobacco was banned. The Bill would also ban the advertising and sponsorship of all vapes and other nicotine products.
Speaking on the smoke-free-generation element of the Bill, Dr Croft said that it was “controversial for some because it is about choice. . . It recognises that our choices are made not in a vacuum but with consequences for others. . . Indeed, what is profoundly Christian is that this may be at the expense of ourselves and our own choices and preferences.”
Responding to the criticisms of vaping, Baroness Fox of Buckley (non-affiliated) told peers that she was “stocking up” on single-use vapes before the ban in June. “The ministerial power grab in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill means that democratic accountability could be going up in smoke,” she said.
“Once the proud winner of the Smoker of the Year award, I quit smoking 18 months ago after 40 years of chain smoking. It was tough, but, advised by no less than two doctors, I tried disposable vapes.”
Lady Buckley, who is partial to banana- and strawberry-flavoured vapes, which “worked a treat” when she stopped smoking cigarettes, questioned why “the Government [is] so fixated on demonising flavoured vapes?
“Does the Minister really believe that only children like sweet things? . . . Research shows that 65 per cent of adult vapers find fruit and sweet liquids preferable —ironically, often because of the perceived difference to the tobacco they are quitting.”
She continued: “Now, I am smoke-free. But, rather than patting me on the back, along comes DEFRA, which, with scant regard for public health, has prioritised the environment. I now live in dread of 1 June and an outright ban, and I am stocking up.”
Speaking in support of the Bill, Dr Croft said: “Stark inequalities in health remain one of the most persistent and negative health outcomes of modern times. Smoking falls clearly along this line of inequality. . .
“The Government have already committed to being smoke-free by 2030, and, although the most well-off parts of the country may be on track for that, Cancer Research UK reports, as the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, has said, that the most deprived areas are not likely to meet that target until 2050 at current rates.”
Lord Crisp (crossbench) said: “I recognise the point made by the Minister and others that vapes can help people give up smoking, and that most public-health specialists assess them as significantly safer than smoking.
“However, as the Chief Medical Officer has said, it is a very low bar for vapes to be safer than smoking. His advice, which I think one has to follow, is “If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.” It is utterly unacceptable to market vapes to children.”
Baroness Merron (Labour), who moved the Bill, said in her concluding speech: “I am grateful for the challenge. I have heard many concerns being expressed today, along with outright opposition to the Bill. I have also heard much support for the Bill, although there are rightly questions about the measures in it.
“However, let us remember that the harms of smoking extend beyond the individual. They impact on non-smokers, especially children and pregnant women, through secondhand smoke. This policy will be the most significant public-health measure in a generation. It will build on the previous steps I spoke of, such as the 2007 indoor-smoking ban, with the goal of safeguarding the health of future generations from preventable and serious harm. That is why we are bringing the Bill forward.”
