The Nursing Times (13 November 2017) brings us news of a great way to raise awareness of lung cancer for the citizens of the historic city of Leicester in England.

Specialist nurses will run a stall at a shopping centre where they ‘will be promoting e-cigarettes to the public…as part of efforts to boost smoking cessation.’

One of these highly skilled nurses, Sharon Savory, says: ‘We want to show the public what to look for, whom to see, and to learn to love their lungs.’

The key message, we are informed, is that ‘e-cigarettes are a “great way” to reduce the harm caused by smoking tobacco.’

Then there’s the cheerful news that on the appointed day, ‘Everyone is invited to take a break from their shopping to learn about the early signs and symptom recognition of lung cancer.’

We also hear from the well known Leicester e-cigarette enthusiast, Louise Ross: ‘We know that vaping is at least 95 per cent safer than smoking, and that people who switch to vaping do very well with their quit attempt.’ I have written about this down-to-earth lady in a previous blog.

The advice given by Ms Savory, bless her cotton socks, is somewhat restricted. Why should you learn to love just your lungs? What about the rest of your anatomy? The marvel of the human body is that in health everything works in perfect harmony with everything else. And smoking, though it obviously affects the lungs, also has widespread harmful effects on the blood, heart, brain, stomach, and indeed every organ and system of the body.

What she says is just a slogan, of course, but it would be a better slogan, surely, if the intention is to discourage smoking, if it went something like: ‘Love your life’, ‘Respect your body’, or ‘Your body is the temple of God. Don’t desecrate it by smoking.’

Apart from this, there’s something unseemly about nurses trying to promote e-cigarettes. To start with, it’s incorrect to say ‘we know vaping is at least 95 per cent safer than smoking.’ Nobody can say they know this – it’s merely an unproven assertion.

The specialist nurses should be more aware than most people that to inhale e-cigarette vapour hundreds of times daily for years on end, as vapers typically do, could be a disaster. We just don’t know what the long term effects will be, and won’t know until probably another 20 years.

And to say ‘people who switch to vaping do very well with their quit attempt’ is patronising and meaningless.

By all means let nurses and anyone else so inclined try to boost smoking cessation. But why do they think the best way to do this is to encourage the use of e-cigarettes? Are other methods no good? Or, if they really believe in this defeatist position, at least let them be open about what it is they’re offering.

What they will be saying at their shopping centre stall to the smoking public on the appointed day, although they appear to be unaware of it, in effect is this:

Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business with smoking come hither. Smoking puts you at serious risk for getting the horrible disease of lung cancer. If you stop smoking you will greatly reduce this risk. You need to understand that the only reason you smoke is because you are addicted to the nicotine in tobacco. If you feel you cannot do the obvious sensible thing and quit smoking forthwith, however, you might consider an alternative way of continuing to be addicted to nicotine that is, we hope, safer than smoking, namely, using e-cigarettes.

There’s a further unfortunate aspect to Ms Savory’s words. It’s reminiscent of the advertisement for LeoLites e-cigarettes (illustrated) which was banned in Britain in 2014 because it was deemed to imply that e-cigarettes were beneficial to the user’s health.

Before our specialist nurses get carried away by their eagerness to encourage these new drug delivery devices, apart from the unknown risks of using e-cigarettes, perhaps they should consider whether anyone needs to be in an altered mental state with nicotine at all.

Text © Gabriel Symonds