Matt Ridley

‘Quitting is suffering’

His life-saving invention has always been designed to drive out cigarettes. Why can’t public health panjandrums see that?

Few people have heard of Hon Lik, which is a pity because he’s probably saved more lives already than anybody else I have met. Twelve years ago, he invented vaping — the idea of getting nicotine vapour from an electronic device rather than a miniature bonfire between your lips. Vaping is driving smoking out at an extraordinary rate, promising to achieve what decades of public health measures have largely failed to do.

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