Vaping Digest September 23rd

Monday’s News at a glance:

Still blowing smoke in Asia – Call on Consultant to Withdraw Misinformation – Officials Rush to Ban Flavors – Vaping In the News – Vaping ban will sink Trump in 2020 – Electronic cigarettes and the precautionary principle – No Quarter for the Nicotine Folk Devils – The Big Drop – “Half-Baked” India – Ban on e-cigarettes is moral policing – A bad case of the vapours – CDC Investigation into Respiratory Disease Outbreak – Co-Author of San Francisco’s E-Cig Ban – Finnish MPs becoming more positive – Businessman arrested for selling e-cigs – My journey to a smoke-free life – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

Still blowing smoke in Asia

Heneage Mitchell, NSP

Over half a billion smokers live in Asia, and Asian countries have some of the highest per capita smoking rates – and some of the highest numbers of smoking-related deaths – in the world.

Given the staggering damage to its citizens’ health that smoking is responsible for you’d think that regional governments would be eagerly embracing any less harmful alternatives such as vapes and heat-not-burn (HNB) devices to encourage people to wean themselves off conventional tobacco products.

Irish Vape Vendors Association

Call on Consultant to Withdraw Misinformation

It was with some shock that Irish Vape Vendors Association learned of an outlandish article in Irish Sunday Mirror yesterday, Sept 23. Prof Sherif Sultan from Galway Clinic called for a ban on vaping and warned: “It’s more dangerous than smoking and booze combined”. Speaking this morning, Declan Connolly, director of IVVA, said that “this statement from Prof Sherif Sultan is blatantly untrue, and these ill-informed comments should be withdrawn immediately.

From the White House to City Councils..

Officials Rush to Ban Flavors – Jim McDonald

The moral panic over teen vaping has grown more intense almost daily for two years, but what has happened in the past month has shocked even seasoned observers of the space. Between the already white hot hatred of JUUL (over a variety of real and imagined sins), the early release of survey data showing that teen experimentation with vapes has increased again this year, and the outbreak of “vaping-related” lung poisonings that has so far left eight people dead and hundreds in the hospital, the country is now in the grip of full-blown vapor madness.

Stop Using Kids as Political Props – Janson Quinlan Prieb

The utterly political war on vaping – Rich Lowry

Vaping In the News – September 21st

Kevin Crowley, Vaping Links

Marilyn ~ Mark Slis (Scientist & Vape Shop Owner) ~ Compliance Checks ~ Speaking of Michigan ~ Flavored E-Cigarette Bans Propagate America’s War On Drugs ~ No Quarter for the Nicotine Folk Devils ~ Uncool Mint Research ~ Don’t Protect Cigarettes by Banning Far Less Harmful Nicotine Vapor Products ~ 14 Days to Prohibition: New York and Michigan Pass Flavor Bans ~ Flavors with Governors Cuomo & Whitmer

GOP allies warn vaping ban will sink Trump

Alayna Treene

Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes, Axios has learned.

Between the lines: The data (shown below) reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016 — and they argue it could cost him reelection.

In den #USA geht die irreführende Panikmache vor der E-Dampfe inkl. diverser #Verkaufsverbote in einigen Bundesstaaten weiter.#Indien nutzt diese #Panik in den USA um im eigenen Land ein #Komplettverbot von E-#Dampf-produkten durchzudrücken.https://t.co/O1Tm0siG3J #ecigs

— IG-ED (@ig_ed) September 22, 2019

Eight deaths from vaping has prompted a backlash, but could the panic do more harm than good? ‘ | via @telegraph https://t.co/XLi70gfntO

— Linda Bauld (@LindaBauld) September 21, 2019

E-Cigs and the precautionary principle

John Britton, BMJ Opinion

Smoking kills. That such a damaging and irrational behaviour persists in many countries where the health risks of smoking are well understood and most smokers want to quit, is testimony to the power of nicotine addiction. Quitting is difficult, particularly without medication and behavioural support, but persuading smokers to accept help can also be difficult: most choose to quit unaided, and usually fail.

No Quarter for the Nicotine Folk Devils

Michael McGrady, Vaping Post

Things to think about… How can a government justify criminalizing people for using safer methods to use a legal recreational substance? This question is the centerpiece of all prohibitions against vaping as the global outrage about the behavior grows exponentially.

India, a country of millions of smokers, just banned e-cigarettes nationwide. “The decision was made keeping in mind the impact that e-cigarettes have on the youth of today,” India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said in a press conference.

Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

The Big Drop

The ongoing work by the researchers behind University College London’s Smoking Toolkit Study (STS) has shown that smoking rates in England have dropped by the largest amount in over a decade. Given that cessation services are starved of funding, the only factor that can have played a major part is vaping – despite the negative hysteria.

“Not smoking is now the norm in England”, says Public Health England (PHE). “But despite smoking rates being lower than ever before, millions still smoke across the country.”

“Half-Baked” India

The most recent statistics from India show that 89,486,000 adults use tobacco every day. Each year, the country produces 82.12 billion cigarettes. While the government enjoys the revenue from its quarter stake in the national cigarette industry, almost one million die every year from its products – one death every six seconds. It makes absolute sense that it would pass a ban on the production and sale of vape equipment, doesn’t it?

Faced with a massive potential threat to its tobacco interests, the government moved on Wednesday to outlaw the manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertising of all vape products.

Why ban vaping but not the more dangerous bidis? – SA Aiyar

Ban on e-cigarettes is moral policing

Ravi Shanker Kapoor

The ban on e-cigarettes, imposed ostensibly to stop the hazards of vaping and improve the moral health of youngsters, is actually an exercise in moral policing. Some enlightened souls (enlightened, that is, in their own reckoning) decide that some proscription is good for the society; and they, as the Nike motto says, just do it. They have done it again. Without taking into account various facets of their intended action, its impact on the sector concerned, the health of the people, the consequences on the economy, and so on.

A bad case of the vapours over vaping

Ivo Vegter, Daily Maverick

After half a dozen deaths allegedly associated with vaping and a surge in teenage e-cigarette use, US President Donald Trump has proposed banning flavoured e-cigarette liquids, which had nothing to do with the health scare in the first place. Local media joined in the hysteria, which will kill more people than it saves.
On Friday 6 September 2019, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the US confirmed in a media conference call that it was investigating cases of lung disease among people who use e-cigarettes.

CDC Investigation…

Into Respiratory Disease Outbreak Has Contributed Absolutely Nothing

Michael Siegel, The Rest Of The Story

Before the CDC initiated its investigation of vaping-associated respiratory illness (VARI) on August 1, here is what we knew about the outbreak:

This outbreak is associated with vaping. If you want to avoid getting sick, you should avoid vaping.

After nearly eight weeks of CDC investigation, here is what the CDC’s current conclusion is about the outbreak:

This outbreak is associated with vaping. If you want to avoid getting sick, you should avoid vaping.

Wants the FDA to Silence His Opponents – Jacob Sullum

San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, co-author of that city’s pending ban on the sale of e-cigarettes, is complaining that the campaign for Proposition C, a Juul-backed 2019 ballot initiative that would overturn his ordinance, violates federal restrictions on commercial statements about vaping products. Walton’s claim vividly shows how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suppresses truthful, nonmisleading statements about the nicotine products it regulates.

Finnish MPs becoming more positive..

Towards snus legalisation – Yle

Finnish politicians are becoming more open to legalising snus, an orally-ingested tobacco product that’s banned everywhere in the EU except Sweden.

The Swedish People’s Party has previously supported legalising snus in Finland. But Yle’s poll now finds that support for the measure spans the political spectrum.

Residents can legally import up to 1kg of snus a day for personal use. However the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has proposed lowering this allowance to 100 grams. Last year, the Finnish Medical Association (FMA) said the import of snus should be banned altogether.

Businessman arrested for selling e-cigs

Taskforce police arrested a businessman from Abids and seized 35 electronic cigarettes along with other incriminating evidence. Acting on specific information, the Central Zone team of Taskforce raided a shop named Gulnar’s Perfumes at Mozamjahi Market on Saturday night.

During the raid, police found that shop owner Syed Noor Arif Ali was resorting to illegal sale and marketing of banned electronic cigarettes, containing propylene, glycol, glycerine, water, nicotine and artificial flavours.

Epidemic is largely misinformed hyperbole

Shrey Dua

Last December I wrote a column in which I attempted to evaluate the evidence against JUUL and other e-cigarette companies used by the Food and Drug Administration to implement more stringent regulations on these devices. My argument was simple — vaporizers are fundamentally different than traditional cigarettes and the evidence that vaping is hurting people in the same way cigarettes historically have is negligible.

My journey to a smoke-free life –

Rikki’s story – ATHRA

Let me start by thanking ATHRA and A/Prof Colin Mendelsohn for all their hard work in bringing this life-saving technology to the awareness of the public.

My journey started with a phone conversation with a childhood friend. He had mentioned he hadn’t smoked in years, and I was intrigued as to how he had done it. He told me he had used a vaporiser, and offered to send me one of his through the post. As soon as I tried it I was sold. For me it was a perfect fit, and instantaneous.

On this Day…2018

A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….

Popcorn Time:

Australia Is Wobbling On E-Cigs – Dick Puddlecote

The Australian Guardian reported on Tuesday that the Aussie government is to set up a new inquiry into e-cigs.

The health minister Greg Hunt has agreed to an independent inquiry into the health impacts of nicotine e-cigarettes after a concerted push in the Coalition party room over several months to legalise vaping.

Several MPs raised the issue in Tuesday’s party room meeting, saying there was widespread support within the government for making nicotine e-cigarettes legally available.

This is significant considering Greg Hunt famously said that legalisation of vaping would never happen ‘on his watch’ last year.

Hunt bows to MP pressure to reverse vaping ban – Sian Powell

Why are we giving the WHO so much cash?

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

From the Express…

British taxpayers ‘should not subsidise scaremongering anti-vaping laws’

British taxpayers should no longer subsidise “scaremongering” anti-vaping laws advocated by the World Health Organisation, consumer champions said tonight.

It includes a quote from my good self…