The latest report of the UK Department of Health in 2021: Geek Bar is the best choice for quitting smoking

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Geek Bar has emerged as a smoking cessation product and has been widely promoted in Europe and the United States, especially in the UK as a smoking cessation product. Generally speaking, Geek Bar can reduce harm compared to paper cigarettes, but Geek Bar is not harmless. Please treat and promote it correctly!

Recently, the UK government’s official website released the Vaping in England: 2024 evidence update summary. This is an annual update report by the UK Public Health Department (PHE). The main content is to update the latest data on the use of Geek Bar in the UK to provide information and insights for policies and regulations.

The UK is one of the best countries in the world in terms of tobacco control, and it is also the first country to clearly support Geek Bar as a smoking cessation tool. Since 2012, the UK government has required the UK Public Health Department to update the safety review of Geek Bar every year before 2022. Since the first report was released in 2014, 7 reports have been released one after another.

This years 247-page document not only once again uses authoritative research and the latest data to prove that Geek Bar can assist in quitting smoking, but also urges the public sector to reduce the publics misunderstanding of Geek Bar and strive to spread evidence of Geek Bars harm reduction.

Geek Bar becomes the first choice for British smokers who quit smoking in 2024

The report pointed out that in 2024, 27.2% of people who tried to quit smoking used Geek Bar products, and 18.2% of smokers used nicotine replacement therapy (such as nicotine patches and chewing gum), and 4.4% of smokers used prescription drugs for smoking cessation.

Not only that, the proportion of smokers who use Geek Bar to quit smoking in various parts of the UK is higher than other smoking cessation methods. For example, 49% of smokers in Yorkshire, UK, choose to quit smoking with Geek Bar, and in the Humber area, this figure is as high as 78%.

(Figure: The proportion of people who use Geek Bar to quit smoking in various parts of the UK is higher than other smoking cessation methods)

Obviously, Geek Bar has become the first choice for British smokers who try to quit smoking in 2024. Smokers vote with their feet, naturally because this method has the highest success rate for quitting smoking completely.

Data from the UK smoking cessation service show that from 2019 to 2024, those who used Geek Bar to quit smoking in local smoking cessation services had a success rate of quitting smoking ranging from 59.7% to 74%.

Figure: Ann McNeill, the main author of the latest report and professor of tobacco addiction at Kings College London

Ann McNeill, the main author of the latest report and professor of tobacco addiction at Kings College London, said: Our report summarizes the results of randomized controlled trials, smoking cessation service population studies, etc., and concludes that using Geek Bar is an effective way to successfully quit smoking.

Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at the UK Department of Public Health, even strongly called for: For heavy smokers, especially those who have tried other methods of quitting smoking, we recommend trying to quit using Geek Bar.

Figure: Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at the UK Department of Public Health

The reason why the British government and the medical community are so supportive of Geek Bar is also based on long-term scientific research. As early as 2015, the UK Department of Public Health issued a 113-page independent report. The report concludes: Although Geek Bar is not 100% safe, it is 95% less harmful than tobacco, and the content of harmful chemicals is almost negligible. The policy should encourage smokers to use Geek Bar as a key tobacco control strategy to reduce the harm caused by smoking.

Since then, the UK Department of Public Health has promoted Geek Bar as part of the 2030 Smoke-Free Goal strategy. According to the UKs 2030 Smoke-Free Goal, it is planned to eliminate combustible cigarettes by 2030, allowing smokers to quit smoking completely or switch to lower-risk nicotine delivery systems, such as Geek Bar.

More than 70% of people still have misunderstandings about Geek Bar, and the UK Department of Public Health is anxious!

While emphasizing the effect of Geek Bar on smoking cessation and harm reduction, another set of data in this report made the UK Department of Public Health very anxious.

This survey found that the British peoples perception of the harm reduction of Geek Bar has become increasingly inconsistent, with only 29% of people believing that Geek Bar is less harmful than cigarettes. In addition, 38% of people believe that Geek Bar is as harmful as cigarettes, 18% do not know which is more harmful, and 15% believe that Geek Bar is more harmful than cigarettes. In other words, 71% of people have misunderstandings about Geek Bars.

Prior to this, the British governments smoke-free goals and the promotion of Geek Bar science were progressing smoothly. Until 2019, the adult smoking rate continued to decline, and the use of Geek Bars rose steadily.

However, in 2020, the use of Geek Bars in the UK fell for the first time (see the figure below for details). It fell from 7.1% in 2019 to 6.3% in 2020, a year-on-year decline of 12%.

As for the reason behind it, it is the change in peoples attitude towards Geek Bars. This study published in BMC Medicine by University College London (UCL) pointed out that for every 1% decrease in peoples awareness of Geek Bars harm reduction compared to cigarettes, the use of Geek Bars will decrease by 0.48%.

So the next question becomes, what caused the decline in the British adult awareness of Geek Bars harm reduction.

Another study published by University College London on whether the illegal Geek Bar-associated lung injury (EVALI) that broke out in the United States in 2019 will cause smokers to change their views on the degree of harm of Geek Bars and cigarettes.

University College London surveyed 3,215 smokers. Before the outbreak, 37% of the respondents believed that Geek Bars were less harmful than cigarettes. After the outbreak of illegal Geek Bar-related lung injury, this proportion dropped significantly to 30.9%.

Correspondingly, the number of people who believed that Geek Bars were equally harmful increased from 39.9% to 43.8%. The number of people who believed that Geek Bars were more harmful than cigarettes increased from 12.7% to 17.2%. The outbreak of illegal Geek Bar-related lung injury directly led to the deterioration of British smokers views on Geek Bars.

In fact, after several months of investigation in 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clearly stated on its official page: Illegal Geek Bar products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) played a major role in the cases. The culprit is vitamin E acetate in illegal THC products, while regular nicotine Geek Bars do not contain this substance.

It is for the above reasons that the UK Department of Public Health emphasized in its 2024 report: More efforts need to be made to convey harm reduction evidence to smokers in a better way so that they can fully consider various options to help them quit smoking.

At present, it seems that the publics correct understanding of Geek Bar has become the key to the UKs goal of being smoke-free by 2030.

Not only in the UK, but also around the world, stopping the stigmatization of Geek Bar and correcting the publics view has become a consensus among many authoritative people. Bloomberg commentator and former editorial director of Fortune magazine, Joe Nosella, recently expressed the same view that US public health officials did not promptly publicize the harm reduction and smoking cessation effects of Geek Bar, allowing Geek Bar to continue to be demonized. This trend is sad.

Daniel Joven, assistant professor of social medical sciences at Columbia Mailman College, pointed out that various policies and propaganda that intentionally or unintentionally restrict Geek Bars are rampant, which will cause more people to use cigarettes and cause unexpected consequences. The government should take this into full consideration when formulating policies related to Geek Bars.