Vaping Digest March 13th
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Government messages are still not getting through to NHS trusts ~ National No Smoking Day – Tackling Confusion Over Vaping ~ Easier access to nicotine vaping products likely to improve public health and reduce health system costs, study says ~ Reducing harm or barking at cars? ~ Lithuania: Excise taxes on vapor products go into effect ~ Jharkhand becomes the first state to implement ban on e-cigarettes after government advisory notice in India ~ Bataan solon wants ban on e-cigarettes until these are cleared to be safe ~ Edgewater Raises Age for Sale of Tobacco to 21 and Increases Smoke/Vapor-Free Protections ~ Even Norwegians do not understand how low-risk snus is ~ Trump Wants $100M in Fees from the Vape Industry ~ Trump Budget Seeks Ill-Advised E-Cigarette Tax ~ Trump Wants to Tax Your Juul ~ $100M Vape Industry Tax ~ JUUL Joins UKVIA
Government messages are still not getting through to NHS trusts
New Nicotine Alliance
In August, the government’s Science and Technology Committee produced a report detailing, amongst other recommendations, suggested policies on e-cigarette use on NHS property. Specifically dealing with mental health facilities, it stated:
NHS England should set a clear central NHS policy on e-cigarettes in mental health facilities which establishes a default of allowing e-cigarette use by patients unless an NHS trust can show reasons for not doing so which are demonstrably evidence-based.
National No Smoking Day – Tackling Confusion Over Vaping
Yorkshire Cancer Research
E-cigarettes are now widely acknowledged by public health officials as a useful stop smoking method, but some people remain confused about their safety compared to tobacco.
To mark National No Smoking Day, we talked to Doncaster-born vaper Terry Walker about his switch to e-cigarettes after seven decades of smoking.
Easier access to nicotine vaping products likely to improve public health
and reduce health system costs, study says
University of Melbourne, Medical XPress
Easier access to e-cigarettes containing nicotine is highly likely to lead to health gains and cost savings in the health sector, Australian and New Zealand researchers have found.
The research modelled what would happen if the number of people in New Zealand who vape increased due to greater access to nicotine-containing e-cigarettes compared to current patterns of use.
Reducing harm or barking at cars?
Eric Crampton, NewsRoom
If the Government genuinely wants people to switch from smoking to new, less harmful alternatives it needs to review its regulation and taxation regime, argues Eric Crampton of the New Zealand Initiative.
There’s an old joke about the neighbourhood dog that loved to chase cars down the road – what would it ever do if it caught one?
The Government has been a bit like that with tobacco harm reduction. A very promising car has come around the corner and stopped. And the puzzled dog is standing there growling at it.
Lithuania: Excise taxes on vapor products go into effect
Vapor Products Tax
Vapor products sold in Lithuania are now subject to excise taxation. Amendments to the excise law approved by the nation’s Seimas (Parliament) in July 2018 and in effect as of 1 March 2019 introduced taxes to electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products.
With these reforms, Lithuania joins its neighboring Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia in taxing the liquid used in e-cigarettes. While Latvia levies taxes on both e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, Estonia currently taxes only the latter. Lithuania now follows half the European Union Member States in taxing tobacco for heating.
$100 million seems like a great deal for the vaping industry. In exchange for that they get:
– Threatened with extinction every day
– No specific standards
– Accused of marketing and selling to children
– The worst kinds of lies told about their products https://t.co/0QPFzqJSVA— Jim McDonald (@whycherrywhy) March 11, 2019
Jharkhand becomes the first state to implement ban on e-cigarettes
after government advisory notice in India
Prabhjote Gill, Business Insider
The Indian government called for a ban on all Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) in August last year, but since it was only an advisory notice — individual states in the country didn’t necessarily have to abide by it.
But the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand finally took the plunge and announced that it is banning the sale and usage of e-cigarettes.
Bataan solon wants ban on e-cigarettes until these are cleared to be safe
Charissa Luci-Atienza, Manila Bulletin News
Bataan Rep. Jose Enrique Garcia III wants to restrict the importation, manufacture, use, sale, distribution and advertisement of electronic cigarettes.
He said the government should institute a policy to prohibit the importation, manufacture, use, sale, and distribution of electronic cigarettes until they are cleared to be safe to promote a healthy environment and protect the citizens from the hazards of e-cigarette use.
Edgewater Raises Age for Sale of Tobacco to 21 and Increases Smoke/Vapor-Free Protections
On Tuesday, March 5, 2019, the Edgewater City Council voted unanimously to raise the minimum legal sale age for tobacco products in Edgewater from 18 to 21. This ordinance requires that all tobacco retailers examine identification to confirm the customer is at least 21 years of age before selling any tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. Raising the minimum sale age is a proven strategy for reducing youth access to, and initiation of, tobacco by making it more difficult for youth to obtain these products. Edgewater is the fifth community in Colorado to raise the age of sale to 21, joining Aspen, Avon, Basalt and Carbondale.
Even Norwegians do not understand how low-risk snus is
Carl V. Phillips, Anti-THR Lies
In honor of my launching my Patreon account a few hours ago…
[Inevitable plug: If you like my work and consider it valuable, please consider becoming a patron. There will also be some premium content for donors. Check it out here.]
…I thought I would write about one of the rare good and useful bits of new research in this space. It is “Relative Risk Perceptions between Snus and Cigarettes in a Snus-Prevalent Society—An Observational Study over a 16 Year Period” by Karl Erik Lund and Tord Finne Vedoy, available open-access (kudos!) here. In it they discover that despite Norwegian population becoming one of the small number of THR success stories, perceptions about the risk from snus (the leading low-risk substitute for smoking there) are still way off.
Trump Wants $100M in Fees from the Vape Industry
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The Trump administration’s proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2020 includes user fees on vaping manufacturers. The fees, previously assessed only on tobacco companies, pay for the operations of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), including regulatory and enforcement activities, and public education like the $60 million Real Cost campaign.
Trump Budget Seeks Ill-Advised E-Cigarette Tax
President Trump’s budget submitted to Congress today contains an ill-advised tax on e-cigarettes. CEI Senior Fellow Michelle Minton says such a tax would do less to improve public health than to throw more money at the FDA and help big companies over little ones.
Trump Wants to Tax Your Juul
Eric Boehm, Reason
President Donald Trump’s budget proposal would make vaping more expensive by targetting e-cigarettes with a new “user fee” intended to generate $100 million annually.
The tax would fund regulatory programs and public health campaigns run by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products—despite the fact that there is no tobacco used in e-cigarettes, which instead use nicotine-laced fluids. Cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco are already subject to the FDA’s user fees.
$100M Vape Industry Tax
Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
U.S. President Trump has announced his intention to place an anti-business tax on the vape industry. Companies would be expected to stump up $100 million a year in “user fees” that would be used for “federal oversight”. It forms part of his budget proposal, released yesterday.
JUUL Joins UKVIA
Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) was formed in 2016 with the aim of spreading a positive public health message about vaping to the UK’s smokers. UKVIA has announced that it is “excited to be joining forces with key industry player JUUL to continue this shared mission.”
On this Day…2017
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Surgeon General Continues to Lie
About Tobacco in E-Cigarettes – The Rest of the Story
In an article published earlier this month in JAMA Pediatrics, the Surgeon General claimed that electronic cigarettes: “are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, and hookah.” The article repeatedly refers to e-cigarettes as a form of tobacco. In fact, the article contains four statements indicating that e-cigarettes are a “form of tobacco” or that vaping is a “form of tobacco use.”
Can BAT Beat Philip Morris
Rich Duprey, Motley Fool
The cigarette giant has grand plans to quadruple the number of markets in which it sells electronic cigarettes by 2018, but competition is fierce and some analysts believe it needs to offer something better than what its rival already has on the market. Moreover, because Philip Morris is present in nearly as many markets as BAT aspires to target, it suggests that in two years time it will be even further ahead.
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