Vaping Digest March 6th
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Gottlieb Resigns from FDA; the Future of Vaping Remains Uncertain ~ FDA Commissioner Gottlieb, who raised alarms about teen vaping, resigns ~ FDA Supremo Scott Gottlieb Resigns – Will This End the ‘War On Vaping’ In America? ~ Harry’s blog 83: The arrogance of public health ~ EU Vaping Regulations: A Chance for Change? ~ Tobacco control ratf**king ~ Nicotine-Free Vaping ?! ~ Ad Hominem ~ Double standards and the futility of making personal attacks on journalists ~ FDA’s Bizarre Ban on E-Cigarettes Would Endanger Millions of Lives ~ ~ Do bad facts make smokers avoid safer snus? ~ A Ban on Smoking and Vaping in Cars With Minors Will Have Racist Consequences ~ European Union, who is afraid of electronic cigarette?
Gottlieb Resigns from FDA; the Future of Vaping Remains Uncertain
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb resigned yesterday after less than two years on the job, and will leave office next month. In January, Gottlieb denied that he was quitting the job, telling his Twitter followers, “I want to be very clear – I’m not leaving. We’ve got a lot important policy we’ll advance this year. I look forward to sharing my 2019 strategic roadmap soon.”
FDA Commissioner Gottlieb, who raised alarms about teen vaping, resigns
Harry’s blog 83: The arrogance of public health
Harry Shapiro, Nicotine Science and Policy
This blog unashamedly takes its title from a very interesting article by Ronald Dworkin who is an American anaesthesiologist, teaches political philosophy at George Washington University and is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he heads up its Medicine, Society, and Culture project.
In this article Dworkin compares the parallel histories of medicine and public health. His main point is that the origins of public health were science-based, for example trying to isolate the causes of cholera and determining that it was a water-borne disease and so you install or improve the sewerage and the quality of the water.
EU Vaping Regulations: A Chance for Change?
James Dunworth, Ashtray Blog
In the run up to new vaping regulations, the infamous Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive, many vapers and vape businesses were in panic mode.
The regulations was the result of a messy compromise between those who wanted an effective ban on vaping and those who were determined to protect smoker’s right to safer alternative.
Retailers were particularly worried about the impact of testing regulations and warning labels, while vapers were infuriated at limitations on nicotine strengths, tank sizes and more.
Tobacco control ratf**king
Carl V Phillips, Anti-THR Lies
Sorry for the silence, though it may get worse. As some of you know, I lost my funding to keep working on THR issues, and I expect I have to fully move on to other work. But I thought I would pop in with some insight from the old guard. After that, I have an epic post that is almost finished (years in the making). These will be good notes to go out on.
Nicotine-Free Vaping ?!
Joseph Magero, Medium
Can you vape without Nicotine ? You’ll be surprised to know that a large number of e-cigarette users within our region vape nicotine free. I may not be an e-cig expert, but I do know that vaping nicotine free is possible.Arguments around vaping devices here mainly to focus on nicotine, which is addictive, but is not the main cause of harm in smoking. Combustion is what causes the most harm in smoking. Nicotine is a mild stimulant,similar to caffeine.
Ad Hominem
Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
Rather than address the issues of research and the veracity of findings, anti-vape campaigners are indulging in attempting to discredit findings and perspectives by attacking the people behind them. Simon Chapman left rational debate at home in his attempt to discredit Colin Mendelsohn, ATHRA and LGA. Robert Jackler refuted research by questioning the funding and publishing journal.
Also from Dave Cross: Free Vapes for Manc Smokers
Double standards and the futility of making personal attacks on journalists
Simon Clark, Talking Liberties
All bar one is behind a paywall but the headlines tell you all you need to know.
On Friday one read ‘Instagram promoting vape products to children as young as 13, Telegraph investigation finds‘.
Another reported ‘Children as young as 14 are becoming addicted to e-cigarettes, head of Britain’s biggest addiction clinic says‘.
On Saturday the paper ran two further reports. One was headlined ‘Tobacco companies are using e-cigarettes as a ‘Trojan Horse’, experts warn‘.
Scott Gottlieb, who has done an absolutely terrific job as Commissioner of the FDA, plans to leave government service sometime next month….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
FDA’s Bizarre Ban on E-Cigarettes Would Endanger Millions of Lives
Ross Marchand, Town Hall
Vaping products can save lives, but not without the permission of one of America’s most powerful federal agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Led by Scott Gottlieb, the FDA is on the cusp of effectively banning flavored vaping products, despite the potential for said products to transition smokers away from traditional cigarettes.
Do bad facts make smokers avoid safer snus?
The study focuses on what smokers think about snus, a Swedish style product that is popular in Scandinavia, but newer to the United States. Snus—a Swedish word for “snuff”—is a moist powder tobacco that can be sold in a loose form or in small prepacked pouches that users place under the top lip for about 30 minutes. It is typically spit free. About seven in 100 men use some form of smokeless tobacco in the United States, a figure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report is on the rise.
While smokeless tobacco products are addictive, contain cancer-causing chemicals, and have been linked with cardiovascular and certain cancer risks, products such as snus have comparatively fewer health risks when used exclusively—not in tandem with smoking—and may serve as harm-reduction alternatives for smokers unable or unwilling to completely quit tobacco.
A Ban on Smoking and Vaping in Cars With Minors Will Have Racist Consequences
Marewa Glover, Filter
On a main city street in Auckland, New Zealand last month, two women staged a protest against police inaction over violent assaults against women. Naked, with black gaffer tape across their mouths symbolizing that they felt silenced, fake blood smeared across their bodies and pooled at their feet, they stood for one brave hour. Across their chests was scrawled “Silence is Violence” and “I need to file a police report.” On cardboard at their feet was written, “Do women have to be dead before police respond to violence?”
European Union, who is afraid of electronic cigarette?
, Sig Magazine
Vaping is Not Tobacco – the European Citizens’ Initiative aimed at requesting a European law on vaping separate from the one governing tobacco – is already being called into question, even before the collection of signatures has begun. The first attempt at delegitimising the petition comes from the European edition of Politico, in an article by Katie Jennings entitled: Big Tobacco’s push for Big Vape.
The position of the article was already clear from the questions put to Dustin Dahlmann (Representative) and to myself (Substitute), which substantially focused on the role of Imperial Tobacco, and not on the content of the Initiative.
On this Day…2017
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Prohibition or Harm Reduction
Robert Innes, Vaping Post
It is a funny old world where people beg for something and when it arrives they reject it. First there was the cigarette, and some people decided, for the best of reasons, that they did not like it because of the harm it caused. So, people tried to stop other people from smoking, which was difficult because smoking was addictive, and in any case, smokers tended to enjoy smoking – they just did not like the idea of falling ill, so many stopped, but not all.
The ‘Rigour’ Of Simple Simon
Dick Puddlecote
If you ask the public what they understand by the title of “academic”, they might imagine an austere and profoundly thoughtful sciencey type who will dot every i and cross every t before issuing their opinion.
But tobacco control ‘academics’ are far from that stereotype. Take Simple Simon Chapman, for example…
Proposed e-cig prohibition in Taiwan
Clive Bates, The Counterfactual
The government of Taiwan has been consulting on amendment its Tobacco Hazards Prevention and Control Act. Article 14 of the amendment bill bans the manufacture, import, sale, and display of e-cigarettes (unless authorised as a pharmaceutical product). See newspaper coverage. The original Taiwan Chinese language bill is available online and a vendor has produced a summary in English.
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