Vaping Post: Now we are in 2017, what do you retain from the year 2016?
“(…) if the truth can be found anywhere, it can be found everywhere” -O. Kershaw
Oliver Kershaw: On face value I suppose you’d call it a tie between the FDA regulations and the RCP report on vaping. However, I’m going to call it for the RCP report (after all, the FDA regs were originally announced in 2014!). The report was a direct result of the science-led work of a number of Europeans who have diligently sought the truth and put their professional lives on the line. It’s really quite extraordinary that this has occurred at all.
So, while the impact of the deeming regulations might be larger, the significance of the RCP report should not be underestimated: if the truth can be found anywhere, it can be found everywhere.
And, of course, France has had an enormous achievement in securing the exemption from notification for hardware.
Vaping Post: So, what would be your expectations for this year?
“It’s a disgrace and it needs an intervention – and it needs it now” -O. Kershaw
Oliver Kershaw: I think things look pretty good for the UK and France right now. France especially. So, I hope that in 2017, despite the wider political changes, the UK and France can be united as world leaders in realising the promise that we all know vaping has.
Of course, what I’d really like is for some public health leadership in the United States. Sadly, US citizens have been utterly misled by their administration, and a moral panic has been created which shows no sign of ending. It’s a disgrace and it needs an intervention – and it needs it now (or at some point in 2017!).
