Nicotine may have some deleterious and costly health effects, but so do winter sports, mountaineering, motorcycling and many other activities we leave to personal choice. (I have never been asked to work on a government anti-skiing campaign, though if the opportunity arose I would happily volunteer my services for free.)
But it is absurd that vaping is now the target of much more opprobrium than alcohol. I suspect part of the explanation can be found in an HM Government health warning which appeared on cigarette packets in the 1980s: ‘Most Doctors Don’t Smoke.’ Indeed so. Most doctors don’t vape either. But, in my experience, doctors drink a lot. (The idea of taking lifestyle advice from the medical establishment seems absurd to anyone who has witnessed the behaviour of medical students.)
Boozy doctors seem to overlook abundant nightly evidence from A&E which reveals that alcohol is much the larger social problem.
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