Tobacco endgame

Are e-cigarettes the magic bullet?

Whilst the vast majority of people, all around the world, know that smoking can be catastrophic for their health, cigarettes remain a powerful and enduring motif in popular culture. People still take it up and, of course, once you’re hooked, you’re hooked. 

Enter e-cigarettes. They’ve been rather sly don’t you think? E-cigarettes have slipped quietly and quickly into the lives of many smokers, promoting themselves as a much healthier option to dirty old cigarettes. But are they the silver bullet they claim to be or is it more sinister than that? Where’s the research to back up the benefits? Are there any harms? Should we be worried about the increasing trend of young people taking up e-cigarettes? 

In this wide-ranging discussion, public health and behaviour experts Hayden McRobbie and Alys Havard discuss the merits of e-cigarettes and whether they are a legitimate tool to break addiction, or just a smoke screen. 

Presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).