Vapers Digest 17th November
Friday’s News at a glance:
Letter to the Foundation for a Smoke Free World – UK councils still imposing vaping bans – Public Health’s Useful Idiot – Health impact of E-cigarettes – IQOS Opponent Misrepresents 3-Month Studies to FDA – Mental health patients who smoke – Heat not burn products similar to smoking for heart disease? – MN Groups Abuse Government Process – GFN Dialogue London – Q&A – Who Owns All The Vaping Brands – Another Triumph For Repulsive Elitist Snobs – The Pursuit Of Happiness – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest
Foundation for a Smoke Free World
Clive Bates, The Counterfactual
So, a big tobacco company puts up $1 billion over twelve years to fund a foundation with an objective “to accelerate global efforts to reduce health impacts and deaths from smoking, with the goal of ultimately eliminating smoking worldwide“. I certainly share that goal or something like it (see my ‘endgame’ scenario), and would like to see plenty of money spent wisely on pursuing that cause. But then there is the issue of a big tobacco company putting up the money.
Go straight to letter (PDF) or cover note and letter
UK councils still imposing vaping bans
As Australian experts fight to modernise attitudes
Fergus Mason, Vaping Post
An alarming report from the UK has revealed that local government is continuing to force vapers out into smoking areas – and the number of councils doing this is actually rising. Meanwhile, in Australia, prominent tobacco control experts are pushing back against the country’s reactionary health establishment by calling for legalisation of vapour products.
Libertarian advocacy group The Freedom Association released its latest report into how British local councils are treating vapers this week, and the results paint an alarming picture.
Public Health’s Useful Idiot
Paul Barnes, Facts Do Matter
“Big Vape is copying Big Tobacco’s playbook” says Liza Gross in her recent article on The Verge. This isn’t the first time, nor I suspect will it be the last time, that a media outlet tries to conjure up images of a faceless, and evil industry by conflating the tobacco and vaping industries.
Even if a representative of the vaping industry is interviewed (which is rare), the journalistic hack tries to subtly (or not so subtle in some cases) taint the piece with the usual “shill” claims…
Health impact of E-cigarettes:
A prospective 3.5-year study of regular daily users who have never smoked
Riccardo Polosa, Nature
Although electronic cigarettes (ECs) are a much less harmful alternative to tobacco cigarettes, there is concern as to whether long-term ECs use may cause risks to human health. We report health outcomes (blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, lung function, respiratory symptoms, exhaled breath nitric oxide [eNO], exhaled carbon monoxide [eCO], and high-resolution computed tomography [HRCT] of the lungs) from a prospective 3.5-year observational study of a cohort of nine daily EC users (mean age 29.7 (±6.1) years) who have never smoked and a reference group of twelve never smokers.
Important to remember that #vapers and #smokers are the most important people in the debate surrounding #vaping. Vaping has quite literally changed the lives of millions for the better! #ecigsummit pic.twitter.com/y8AL5GgqeN
— IBVTA (@TheIBVTA) November 17, 2017
Smoke But No Fire:
IQOS Opponent Misrepresents 3-Month Studies to FDA
Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth
Stanton Glantz, a University of California, San Francisco professor, this week urged the FDA to “…deny [Philip Morris Intermational’s] application to market IQOS [its heat-not-burn cigarette] as a modified risk tobacco product because PMI’s own data fails to support a modified risk claim in people who are actually using the product.”
Mental health patients who smoke
Should have access to e-cigs – Diane Caruana
A number of health organizations and charities are highlighting the importance of supporting smokers who suffer from mental health conditions, by giving them access to smoking cessation tools such as electronic cigarettes.
In a statement titled, ‘Why smoking and mental health matters’, the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership pointed out that since smoking retains a strong presence in mental health settings, e-cigarettes and other harm reduction tools should be made easily available in such contexts.
MN Groups Abuse Government Process
In Attempt To Raise Vaping And Smoking Age
Carl V. Phillips, Daily Vaper
Anti-tobacco groups are blitzing Minnesota towns, trying to get them to enact “Tobacco 21” laws. These laws would raise the legal age for buying vapor products, cigarettes and other tobacco products from 18 to 21. To do this, these groups aim to abuse imperfections in the American system of governance.
Tobacco controllers are notorious for ignoring the collateral damage their tactics cause. They pursue their special interest politics with what can only be described as religious zeal that ignores all of humanity’s other concerns.
Heat not burn products
Similar to smoking for heart disease? – Dr Farsalinos
An abstract at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions evaluated the acute effects of exposing mice to a heated tobacco product (IQOS) on endothelial function in comparison with a tobacco cigarette. The study found that IQOS had the same adverse effects on Flow-Mediated Dilatation (FMD), a marker of endothelial function, as the tobacco cigarette.
GFN Dialogue London – Q&A
Who Owns All The Vaping Brands
GoSmokeFree.co.uk
Vaping is often recommended as a helpful way to quit smoking. With doctors getting on board, MPs supporting vaping and even this year’s Stoptober campaign featuring e-cigs. But did you know that vaping companies such as Blu and 10 Motives are actually owned by Big Tobacco? Interestingly enough, this correlation doesn’t end there and quite a few vaping brands are owned by the tobacco companies they’re trying to steer customers away from. To find out who owns who, who looked at the top major vaping brands and traced back their parent companies.
Triumph For Repulsive Elitist Snobs
Dick Puddlecote
I remember back in 2007 when the English smoking ban came in, the reaction from politicians and health zealots was nauseating.
If it was truly about protecting bar workers’ health, they may have said something like “we’re really sorry smokers, we realise this is unfair on you but it’s something we feel we have to do”. But no, Health Secretary of the time Alan Johnson almost punched the air in delight announcing it..
The Pursuit Of Happiness
Simon Thurlow, Midnight Musings
Much can be seen in the world media these days about how violent and unhappy a place the world is becoming. We have a rise in hate-crime, we have a rise in world conflicts, we have a rise in violence on the streets, we have rise in violence against the police. The list goes on and on.
But ask yourself what is driving this rise in violence and general unhappiness ?
On this Day…2016
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Eliquid Sweetener Research
Mawsley, Planet of the Vapes
The researchers believe that the wide availability of sweet flavours is a factor in the popularity of electronic cigarettes. Especially among youth, they are keen to note (in case anybody has forgotten about the children). Demonstrating a huge grasp of eliquid manufacture, they believe the sweetness in eliquids is created by the addition of sugar, honey and caramel.
WHO tells the world: ban vaping
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
Ban or restrict vaping.That what the World Health Organization (WHO) encouraged at its tobacco control meeting last week. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) just concluded its seventh Conference of the Parties (COP7) in Delhi, India.
The result isn’t shocking. This is the position the WHO has always taken on e-cigarettes, and the pre-meeting document issued by the FCTC set the stage by being completely focused on the potential harms of vaping without any consideration of the benefit to millions of smokers.
Another Engineered Study
Claims Teen Vaping Leads to Smoking – Brad Rodu
A research letter published last week in JAMA asserts that teens who used e-cigarettes became “heavy” smokers. The research appears to have been engineered to produce that result.
The lead author is Adam Leventhal, a University of Southern California psychologist with a history of exaggerated anti-e-cigarette claims (here).
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
