E-cigarettes, vaping and performativity in the context of tobacco denormalisation.

E-cigarettes are devices through which a nicotine solution is 'vapourised' and inhaled by the user. Unlike cigarettes, the process involves no tobacco combustion. However, the inhalation and exhalation of vapour is reminiscent of smoking and there is debate about the possible harms and benefits of e-cigarette use, including the 'renormalisation' of smoking.

"They're thinking, well it's not as bad, I probably won't get addicted to that. But it's still got the nicotine in it, so…": Maturity, Control, and Socializing: Negotiating Identities in Relation to Smoking and Vaping-A Qualitative Study of Young Adults in Scotland.

Objective: To explore the understandings of and engagement with e-cigarettes, of young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, and how these may have an impact on existing smoking identities.

Methods: Twenty-two small group and 11 individual qualitative interviews were conducted in Central Scotland with 72 16-24 year olds between September 2015 and April 2016. Participants were mostly smokers and ex-smokers from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Using e-cigarettes in the home to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke: disadvantaged parents' accounts.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are subject to considerable public health debate. Most public health experts agree that for smokers who find it particularly challenging to quit, e-cigarettes may reduce harm. E-cigarette use in the home may also reduce children's secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, although e-cigarette vapour may pose risks.

Small Retailers' Tobacco Sales and Profit Margins in Two Disadvantaged Areas of England.

Aim: To explore tobacco profit margins and sales among small retailers in England.

Methods: Interviews with managers/owners of 62 small retail shops that sold tobacco in disadvantaged areas of Newcastle and London, England. The interviews included questions about tobacco sales and profit margins, and interest in reducing reliance on tobacco sales.

Smokers' and ex-smokers' understanding of electronic cigarettes: a qualitative study.

Objective: To explore among a diverse range of smokers and recent ex-smokers, particularly those from disadvantaged groups, how nicotine-containing products, particularly electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), are understood and experienced.

Methods: Qualitative study of 64 smokers and ex-smokers in Central Scotland. Twelve focus groups and 11 individual interviews were carried out with a range of purposively selected groups.

News media representations of electronic cigarettes: an analysis of newspaper coverage in the UK and Scotland.

Objective: Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) have recently been attracting interest for their potential as a less harmful alternative to smoking, their rising popularity and the regulatory issues they raise. The news media can play an important role in shaping public perceptions of new technologies. It is, therefore, important to understand the ways the news media present ENDS.

Smoking spaces and practices in pubs, bars and clubs: young adults and the English smokefree legislation.

Young adulthood is an important but overlooked period in the development of smoking behaviour. We know little about the impact of smokefree policies on this group. In a secondary analysis of longitudinal, qualitative interview data we explore smoking practices in young adulthood, the role of smoking in the spaces of the night-time economy, and the impact of smokefree legislation.

Regulatory issues concerning the development and circulation of nicotine-containing products: a qualitative study.

Introduction: This paper explores perceptions of how the regulation of nicotine-containing products (NCPs) impacts the development and availability of more effective cigarette substitutes.

Methods: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews with 20 key stakeholders (7 academic experts in tobacco control, 5 representatives of 3 pharmaceutical companies, and 8 representatives of organizations involved in tobacco-control policy making) and documentary analysis.

Results: Four main themes were identified.

Harm reduction and the medicalisation of tobacco use.

In tobacco control the focus has, for some time, been on abstinence from all types of tobacco use as the only solution to the problem of smoking, and harm reduction approaches are controversial. The most recent English tobacco strategy has incorporated harm reduction approaches in the form of new 'routes' to quitting smoking that encourage those who cannot quit to use safer sources of nicotine. This move away from a focus on abstinence can be seen as the result of gradual shifts over the past 50 years in the way that that the problem of smoking is understood and the solutions that are offered.

The regulation of nicotine in the United Kingdom: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine, but not a drug.

This article explores the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968.

Tobacco point-of-sale displays in England: a snapshot survey of current practices.

Background: Tobacco displays at the point of sale (PoS) are an important means for the tobacco industry to communicate with consumers. With regulations prohibiting PoS displays recently having come into force in Ireland, passed into law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and some Australian states, and being considered in New Zealand, Finland and Brazil, this is an increasingly important issue. This study explores the nature of displays, the extent to which they are tobacco industry funded, and the relation between the tobacco companies and retailers.