16.09.11
BIT nudge to smokeless cigarettes
The Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) has released its first annual report, suggesting the promotion of ‘safe’ alternatives to cigarettes, in order to save lives.
BIT, also known as the ‘nudge unit’, is developing ideas based on the principle that the Government must make the ‘right’ choices easier for the public to make – but without forcing people to do things. Developing alternative products could allow smokers to receive nicotine in a vapour instead of within smoke alongside harmful toxins and carcinogens.
The annual report reads: “It will be important to get the regulatory framework for these products right, to encourage new products. A canon of behaviour change is that it is much easier to substitute a similar behaviour than to extinguish an entrenched habit.
“If alternative and safe nicotine products can be developed which are attractive enough to substitute people away from traditional cigarettes, they could have the potential to save 10,000s of lives a year.”
These smoke-free cigarettes are illegal in certain countries due to the potential side effects that have not yet been fully investigated. Medicines regulators in the UK have previously discouraged the development, marketing and promotion of such devices as nicotine is still an addictive substance. However, they are now looking into approving cigarette alternatives.
The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’s head, David Halpern, told the Guardian: “As with seatbelts and the smoking ban, these ideas were unpopular at first but after a while when you explain them to people, they understand and say, 'Yeah, alright then.’
“A year in, we're much more confident about how well this can work, and the early trials have also made us much more confident about public acceptability. There's no doubt it can save many lives and hundreds of millions of pounds.”
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