Panel Discussion: Smoking: Are e-cigarettes part of the problem or part of the solution?

Smoking: Are e-cigarettes part of the problem or part of the solution?

A panel discussion

According to the WHO, tobacco use kills more than 5 million people per year. It is responsible for 1 in 10 adult deaths. Among the five greatest risk factors for mortality, it is the single most preventable cause of death. Recently, e-cigarettes have been introduced that provide nicotine in vapour form. The question that the panel will discuss is whether e-cigarettes are part of the solution to the problem of smoking-related mortality or not.

The panel will consider

the commercial interests that are served by making e-cigarettes more or less available

Panel members

Professor Peter Killeen is currently a visiting fellow at the Moore Institute in NUI Galway. He is emeritus professor of psychology at Arizona State University, and has also been visiting scholar at the University of Texas, Cambridge University, and the Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo.

Professor David Finn is Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research and Leader of the Galway Neuroscience Centre at NUI Galway.

Dr Brendan Kennelly is a lecturer in health economics at NUI Galway. He was also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania from August 2002 to December 2003 and from January 2010 to August 2011. He has published articles on welfare economics, public choice, the welfare state and health economics.