Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is just one of many organisations that are stuck with a name that no longer aligns with their purpose. Much like Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, their moniker instead serves as a stark reminder of how far they have drifted from their stated purpose: helping people stop smoking.
Smoking is still a big issue in the UK, with adult prevalence around 12%. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it’s a problem because organisations like ASH seem entirely occupied with fear-based messaging about youth nicotine use.
The thing is, the market already took decisive action on smoking and health by providing safer, cheaper products like vapes and pouches. It had faith that when given a range of options, people would make the right choices. And many of us have, in spite of the meddling of the government, a hostile media, and, in many respects, ASH itself.
Latest ASH press release
ASH UK’s latest press release is another in a long line of alarmist public statements from a charity that is primarily funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK).
It opens with this statement:
The press release is essentially psychedelic in its demand of readers to hallucinate living in a world where public health crises have been solved so thoroughly that we’re all the way down to fretting about a 5% rise in youth awareness about pouches. Remember, that’s not the use of pouches, just the simple fact of being conscious that the product even exists. It's almost Orwellian.
If that weren't trippy enough, we’re then meant to collectively gasp at the idea that almost 4% of teens have even tried the product! Again, to be clear, that’s not data about how many teens regularly or currently use nicotine pouches; it’s simply a measure of how a demographic who are on a journey of experimentation and self-discovery have tried a product made for adults, often as little as once.
Alas, it gets worse.
Cheeseman’s take
I’ve been sceptical about Hazel Cheeseman’s suitability for the role of CEO of ASH UK for some time. Her quote from the press conference might just push me over the edge.
Cheeseman is essentially normalising conspiracy thinking at this point. She is indistinguishable from whacky Bloomberg-funded academics and NGOs on this topic, even down to minor details like mangling the term “surge” to reference a mere 5-point rise in awareness.
The thing is, platforms like Facebook and Instagram have policies that prohibit ads promoting the sale or use of nicotine products, including nicotine pouches. YouTube, TikTok, and X also automatically age-gate this kind of content for those below 18 or 21, depending on the platform.
If youth awareness about pouches is rising, it’s probably more to do with:
- Endless shrieking media coverage that scares parents into having a “talk” about pouches.
- Educational workshops in schools that literally raise awareness about pouches and vapes.
- Hearing about pouches from their peers.
Cheeseman and her ilk have fanned the flames of a moral panic that will continue to drive this awareness. So, you’ll forgive me if I don't share the opinion that the survey “indicates” much about industry marketing strategies.
The part about football stars and male influencers cements Cheeseman’s myopia. Footballers have been discreetly using snus and pouches for years. The main reason anyone even knows or cares about it is because the media uses sports stars' clout for clicks. Footballers are not appearing in ads promoting pouch use, though you wouldn’t know it from Cheeseman’s quote.
The last sentence is most offensive of all. Cheeseman’s equivocation over pouches being “very likely to be less harmful than smoking” is outrageous. We know they are, you know they are, we know that you know they are, but the fact that you don’t have the integrity to properly commit to the truth is wild, especially considering your role as CEO of Action on Smoking and Health.
The upshot
Now that the data about awareness is in, ASH wants to put the pressure on all of a sudden. However, this is something that Considerate Pouchers UK did more than two years ago in a letter to then-Conservative Minister for Primary Care and Public Health, Neil O’Brien.
Richard Crosby, who is the director of Considerate Pouchers UK, advocated for sensible regulations that protect under-18s from pouches while still ensuring their availability as a smoking cessation tool for adults.
You can read the full letter here, alongside O’Brien’s response.
So, what are we to make of ASH's demands to quickly push through an already flawed Tobacco and Vapes Bill on the basis of a 5% rise in youth awareness (not use) of pouches?
The first thing that stands out to me is that ASH is totally behind the curve. Cheeseman needed data about 2025 teen awareness to spring into action, while Considerate Pouchers diagnosed the problem and the solution more than two years ago. ASH is a very well-capitalised charity with a CEO making in excess of £100k. I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be outworked and outthought like that.
The other thing is groups like ASH bleat about nicotine pouches as if they exist in some kind of regulatory Wild West where teenagers can stroll into supermarkets and grab a load of 150mg pouches without as much as an ID check.
While pouches might not be governed by specific smoking or vaping regulations, they are covered by the General Products Safety Regulations 2005. Furthermore, as O’Brien points out in his reply to Considerate Pouches, the government is satisfied that they’re safe for consumption under reasonable use.
But let’s say we do buy into the loose argument that pouches are completely unmoored from directives or standards. Then we must also admit that the industry is largely self-regulating because it doesn't, for example:
- Sell to under-18s
- Advertise to under-18s
- Offer pouches containing more than 20mg per pouch.
This observation is surely devastating for the argument that Big Tobacco is an evil that is only held back from its fiendish plans because of the work of governments and charities like ASH UK. If I were Cheeseman, I’d be reluctant to mention the unregulated market argument because one of the questions that comes downstream from there is, “What the hell do we even need you for, if the market is already regulating itself?”
Similarly, the market has done more than other bodies to solve the problem of smoking by providing alternative products. Again, what is it that we need you for, ASH? You’re two years behind pouch advocacy groups, you don’t recognise that industry and retailers are self-regulating, and you can’t even be 100% sure that nicotine pouches are a safer option than a product that has killed hundreds of millions of people. It’s madness.
Finally, when you’re a full-throated supporter of policies like the “generational tobacco ban”, you’re basically outing yourself as a naive supporter of a baroque, prohibition-based solution that should be beneath anyone running a charity that is meant to actually tackle smoking, rather than create optimal conditions for a thriving black market.
Final thoughts
ASH’s obsession with youth nicotine use is annoying, and its alarmist press releases are unbecoming of a serious organisation. But it’s the fundamental failure to properly assess policy consequences and embarrassing promotion of tenuous and often pseudoscientific mouse studies that really grinds my gears.
If we want to tackle smoking, we need anti-smoking groups that are concerned about reducing death and illness from combustible tobacco. Chasing publicity or straining to prove your relevance to justify funding or your salary? That’ll be a no, thank you from me. But keep the surveys coming, credit where it’s due.
