Vapes

Is vaping harmful to your health and to the environment?I'm back with a new series of Sliced Bread and I'm kicking off with a topic many of you have suggested - vapes. They've become controversial largely because of the rise in single-use, or disposable, vapes. Nearly eight million are sold in the UK each week, a figure that's doubled in the past year. And according to the organisation Material Focus, which campaigns to increase recyling rates, five million of those are thrown away. Listener John has spotted them lying around on the pavement and is worried about their effect on the environment.I'm joined by Scott Butler from Material Focus who takes apart a disposable vape and shows me just what's inside and explains why they're harmful to the planet and what can be done to improve recycling.I'm also investigating the reason vapes were introduced in the first place over a decade ago - as a smoking cessation aid. Listener Sam wants to know if they really do help you stop smoking or whether the convenience of disposable vapes means they just prolong or even worsen the addiction? I speak to Professor Anne McNeill, co-author of a landmark review into the health impact of vapes and their effectiveness when it comes to helping people stop smoking compared to previous treatments like nicotine patches or gum. Presenter: Greg Foot Producer: Simon Hoban

Om Podcasten

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up… Dough. Dough is the series from BBC Radio 4 which looks at the business behind profitable, everyday products and considers how they might evolve in the years to come.In each episode, entrepreneur Sam White speaks to industry experts to find out how these products manage to make a profit and what game-changing - and pointless - innovations they have seen in their time.Tom Cheesewright, a technology expert and applied futurist, then offers his predictions on what might be coming beyond the current production pipeline.Episodes of Dough are released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else. Produced by Jon Douglas. Dough is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in April when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread.In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.