Vapers Digest 25th July
Tuesday’s News at a glance:
A few comments on e-cigarettes and cigarette smoking – Whanganui bans vaping in public places – Vaping is not the enemy – FDA Regulations Threaten to Derail Small Business – Blanket ban on sale, consumption of e-cigarettes – Why Rancho Cucamonga is redefining its smoking ban policy – Yet Another Group of Anti-Tobacco Researchers Encourage Lying to Kids – Vaping to Combat Smoking in Pregnancy – Less nicotine may be more harmful for vapers – NSP Daily Digest
A few comments on e-cigarettes and cigarette smoking
AEI
In a recent JAMA Pediatrics article on the correlation between e-cigarette use and subsequent cigarette smoking among adolescents and young adults, Dartmouth demographer Samir Soneji and his co-authors find that the probability of cigarette smoking at follow-up is significantly higher among all e-cigarette users than among individuals who never used a nicotine product. Based on this finding, they conclude that “strong e-cigarette regulation” by the federal, state, and local governments are needed to minimize the potential “future population-level burden of tobacco.” This conclusion is unwarranted based on the nature of their results.
Whanganui bans vaping in public places
Stuff NZ (Health)
Whanganui’s mayor is defending his council’s move against vaping in public, arguing the practice is a health hazard.
The move to extend the council’s smokefree policy to include vaping comes despite Government plans to legalise e-cigarettes as part of a strategy to help New Zealand go smokefree by 2025.
Vaping devices mimic smoked tobacco products, but produce a vapour that users inhale. They’re viewed as an alternative to smoking, but critics say they can lead to people starting smoking.
Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said medical evidence and other factors led the council to its decision.
The evidence showed people who vaped had a higher chance of oral cancers, he said.
“If you take anything hot into your mouth that vapourises, it’s going to be affecting your mouth and, potentially, your lungs.”
Whanganui District Council signed off its new smokefree policy last week.
Vaping is not the enemy
Wanganui Chronicle
The Whanganui District Council has adopted its smoke-free policy and laudably aims to cut smoking rates by 5 per cent by 2025.
While not enforceable the policy “discourages” smoking in public areas and parks.
Whanganui smoking rates have increased to almost 20 per cent locally at a time when the national rate has declined.
Clearly whatever initiatives council can bring to the table to address that are welcome.
The addition of vaping to that policy, however, is curious.
When vapers exhale they often release large plumes of vapour – mostly vegetable glycerin – which studies have found to be harmless to others, unlike second hand cigarette smoke.
But it is anti-social to say the least. Nobody wants to walk through clouds of anything, and council is right to want to discourage vaping in public places.
But those were not council’s only arguments for including vaping.
FDA Regulations Threaten to Derail Small Business
People’s Pundit Daily
Republicans control the White House and the U.S. Congress, but Obama era regulations are threatening to derail small businesses in the emerging vapor industry. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently regulates e-cigarette products far more stringently than actual cigarettes.
It’s a government-sanctioned competitive advantage carved out just for big players in Big Tobacco. Absent action by Republican lawmakers, FDA regulations coming down the pipe will decimate the vapor industry, retroactively removing 99% of vaping products from the market.
By August 2018, a potentially life-saving alternative to smoking will effectively be regulated out of existence.
There were two bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would level the playing field regarding how the FDA is regulating Big Tobacco and the vapor industry.
Blanket ban on sale, consumption of e-cigarettes
Greater Kashmir
J&K government on Monday imposed complete ban on manufacture, consumption and sale of e-cigarettes in any form in a bid to discourage tobacco consumption here.
As per a circular (HD/Coord/27/2017 ) issued by government, “sale (including online sale), manufacture, distribution, trade, import and advertisement of electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS)/e-Cigarettes” has been banned completely in J&K with immediate effect.” The move, as per a statement issued by directorate of health services Kashmir (DHSK), was intended at discouraging consumption of tobacco products.
Minister for health & medical education Bali Bhagat said that J&K was the fifth state in the country to implement such ban. He said that the decision was a landmark moment in anti-tobacco measures initiated by the government. Minister of State for health & medical education Asiea Naqash also praised the step and said that government was committed to strengthening tobacco control measures across state.
Why Rancho Cucamonga is redefining its smoking ban policy
Daily Bulletin
Elected officials here want to modify the definition of smoking to be able to ban certain use of vaping and e-cigarettes within city limits.
Rancho Cucamonga has banned smoking at city-owned properties such as public parks, Victoria Gardens Cultural Center and City Hall since 2008. Two years later it expanded that ban to prohibit smoking within 20 feet of bus stops, train stations and lines for services such as ATMs and theaters.
But the rise in use of electronic cigarettes and hookahs, particularly among teens and young adults, prompted officials to look into revising its policy in June 2016, said Joanna Marrufo, a management aide in the city manager’s office.
Read Freedom to Vape's 2017 Annual Review: https://t.co/N6u29sHaqM via @VapingFreedom
— Freedom To Vape (@VapingFreedom) July 25, 2017
Yet Another Group of Anti-Tobacco Researchers Encourage Lying to Kids
Michael Siegel, Tobacco Analysis
It seems that honesty has disappeared as a core principle in tobacco control. Today, I report that yet another group of tobacco control researchers is bemoaning the fact that many youth understand the relative health effects of vaping and smoking and is encouraging lying to kids instead.
In a paper published in Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, investigators from the University of Louisville examined YouTube videos promoting electronic cigarettes. They found that one of the major selling points for vaping in these videos was the claim that using e-cigarettes is safer than smoking and switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes can therefore improve health.
Vaping to Combat Smoking in Pregnancy
Mawsley, Planet of the Vapes
A report published by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) on behalf of the Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group was launched at a joint event between the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on baby loss and the APPG on smoking and health. The new Tobacco Control Plan (TCP) targets a reduction in smoking rates among pregnant women, and sees vaping as a means to that end.
Among the joy of a shift in focus towards electronic cigarettes lies the perturbing fact that 10.5% of women are still smoking up to the point of delivery. This figure fluctuates by region, and is currently at 16% in the Northeast.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “It was encouraging to see smoking rates at their lowest ever levels, but smoking still kills around 79,000 people in England every year so the battle is by no means won. We have taken bold action to protect the public by introducing standardised packaging for cigarettes, making it illegal to smoke in a car with a child and covering up tobacco products in shops.”
Less nicotine may be more harmful for vapers
Dr Colin Mendelsohn
A study published this week found that lowering the nicotine level in e-liquid can increase the toxins in the vapour.
Smokers and vapers regulate (titrate) their smoking/vaping habit to deliver just the right amount of nicotine. When less nicotine is available, users puff more intensely to get the dose of nicotine they need.
This is why switching to a ‘light’ cigarette may not reduce harm as smokers puff more intensively – more puffs, longer and deeper puffs – to extract the desired amount of nicotine (compensatory puffing). However, this also increases the intake of tars, carbon monoxide and other toxins.
When vapers switch from a high nicotine e-liquid to a lower concentration eg from 24 to 6mg/ml, previous studies have demonstrated that they puff more intensely, having more puffs, inhale more deeply and use considerably more e-liquid.
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