2024 Session 2 Seminars

Across the UK and globally government and public health bodies are focused on exploring effective measures to discourage youth vaping.  However, evidence of unintended consequences of potential vaping policies remains a concern. In this session, Jasmine and Martin will share fresh data on the “Policy Decision Making Aid” that will explore foreseeable unintended consequences and potential ideas to minimise them. Key policies to discuss include:

• Reducing affordability (tax, minimum pack size)
• Restricting appeal (flavours, packaging)
• Reducing accessibility (Age of sale, licensing)

Vaping is emerging as a key method of administering drugs beyond nicotine. For example, in legal cannabis markets, cannabis vaping products have emerged as highly popular. Vaping drugs such as cannabis could offer valuable opportunities for reducing the harms of smoked administration. This is particularly important given that cannabis is widely co-administered with tobacco. On the other hand, vaping products for drugs such as cannabis may not always be less harmful and could carry greater risks. For example, they might contain drugs different to those expected by the consumer, such as synthetic cannabinoids – highly harmful synthetic drugs that are implicated in half of all prison deaths. Inspired by media reports of vaping-related serious adverse events in schools, we tested the contents of vapes collected from 27 schools in England, seized from pupils during normal school operation. We found the presence of synthetic cannabinoids in 17.5% of all samples and in 78% of all sampled schools. We found THC (the active drug in cannabis) in only 1.6% of samples. Informed by discussions with young people, we believe that pupils are being mis-sold synthetic cannabinoids as ‘cannabis’ in vapes, and are unaware that they are being sold a considerably more harmful drug. These findings raise significant concerns for the health of young people using these vapes.

Smoking among people experiencing homelessness is extremely high, and as smoking rates come down, it leads to a widening of health and social inequalities. Project SCeTCH is a nationwide cluster randomised controlled trial for people accessing homeless services delivered by people who work within the services. Over the 3-year trial, 477 people accessing 32 homeless services were randomised to receive either an e-cigarette starter pack (intervention) or a referral to the stop smoking service (usual care). This talk will present the study findings, including findings from our qualitative process evaluation and consider broader implications of reducing smoking in line with national treatment and policy agendas, such as Swap to Stop and the Smokefree Future.

An increasing proportion of youth and adults are inaccurately perceiving vaping as equally or more harmful than smoking. In this session, Dr Katie East will provide an update on what we currently know about harm perceptions of vaping among youth and adults, including their relationship with vaping and smoking behaviours as well as interventions to correct misperceptions. Findings from an online experiment evaluating the impact of brief vaping facts films (designed for social media) on correcting vaping misperceptions among young adults in the UK will also be presented. Dr East will also discuss gaps in the evidence around vaping perceptions, particularly in the UK, and how these could be filled.

Package design and elements are powerful tools for the marketing and promotion of tobacco and nicotine products. In 2024, the UK Government has proposed powers to regulate nicotine product packaging and flavours; however, to date, these have not been outlined.

Dr Eve Taylor will discuss her work on standardising the packaging, flavour descriptors and nicotine descriptors of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products and how this may effect the appeal and harm perception of adults and youth.

The regulatory context around tobacco and vapes is reactive and fast-moving. This session will reflect on Cancer Research UK’s role in commissioning timely research that helps inform key outstanding evidence gaps and policy questions on vaping policy.

Identifying effective interventions to minimise unintended consequences