Why would ADPH lie to the Scottish Government?

On the 23rd of December 2014 the Association of Directors of Public Health website featured a link to their response to the Scottish Government’s consultation “Electronic Cigarettes and Strengthening Tobacco Control in
Scotland”. This is taken from that response:

The second paragraph begins “Electronic cigarettes are also a gateway product to the use of tobacco”.

This is a barefaced lie, without any evidence to support such a wild and scaremongering assertion. So I decided to try the Ask For Evidence service run by Sense About Science/Evidence Matters.

I received a standard reply email on the 24th December, informing me that the ADPH had received my request and that they would respond after the Christmas break.

As you can see by the response I received today, evidence doesn’t seem to be high on the ADPH agenda. Not only that but the response itself – a predictable “policy statement” mix of Mckee-esque wibble and “concerned” waffle – seemed vaguely familiar.

That’s because their hastily revised and altered submission looked like this:

So we’ve gone from “Ecigs are a gateway” to “surveillance is required to assess the possibility that ecigs may prove to be a gateway.”

Evidence matters, eh?

Quite why the ADPH are so keen to influence this consultation is beyond me, but the Scottish Government might do well to take anything they say on the subject of e-cigarettes and vaping in public places with a huge pinch of salt. The evidence clearly shows that they are not to be trusted.

H/T to @DikDeklan for finding & sharing the initial ADPH response & their amended one.