Vaping Digest October 11th

Friday’s News at a glance:

‘Facts Not Fiction’ – Who Is Really Behind The Attack On Vaping? – Heated Discussions – Age Counts: – Misinformation About Respiratory Disease Outbreak is Spreading – Throwing “lifeboat ethics” thinking overboard – Glantz Debunked Yet Again – Vape Superstore Partners Smokefree Hackney – Netherlands Ban Call – FDA Warns Against THC (Again) – Tang’s Cancer Mice – Accidental Entrepreneurs – The CDC and Vaping: A Perfect Storm – Older Smokers Are the Forgotten Victims – Changes in E-Cigarette Use – Yukon Government tables bill – New Zealand ‘surge strategy’ needed – India Banned E-Cigarettes – Why People Are Dying from Vaping in the U.S. and Not the U.K. – Small stores suffer as vapers turn away – Telling People ‘Just Don’t Vape’ Not Effective – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

‘Facts Not Fiction’

UK Vaping Industry Association

National newspapers will today feature full-page messages from the UK’s leading vaping trade body, with premium advertising space taken up in the I and Metro.

The UK Vaping Industry Association committed to the campaign after misinformation and scare-stories threatened to push British vapers back to cigarettes. Public Health England advises that vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking and a valuable tool for smoking cessation.

The national campaign, Facts Not Fiction, reassures the UK’s 3.6m vapers that British vaping standards are robust, and products are highly regulated. Cases of illnesses in the US, which have been linked to black market batches of THC, are therefore not being seen here.

Vaping companies hit back with ‘Facts Not Fiction’ press campaign

Vaping : Facts not Fiction

BBC Breakfast 11th Oct. Thanks as always to @dnglos for the YouTubage

Who Is Behind The Attack On Vaping?

Vape Club Blog

Vaping has been on the receiving end of a brutal bashing recently, with news reports stating that there are now at least 18 deaths attributed to ‘inhaling e-cigarettes’. Consequently, as things stand, Trump is trying to push through a nationwide flavour ban, Massachettus has temporarily issued a statewide ban on e-cigarettes, whilst the widely expected flavour bans in the states of New York, Rhode Island and Washington are in the pipelines. As well as this, India have put a blanket ban on vaping altogether, resulting in a damning condemnation of vaping worldwide. All of this is down to the media and easily swayed governments of course, who are overwhelmingly rejecting a scientifically-proven safer alternative to smoking.

Heated Discussions

Paul Barnes, Facts Do Matter

As mentioned previously, I’ve found another study to have a look at. This time, it isn’t about vaping (shock!). Instead, it’s about that divisive product – Heat-not-burn.

Considering that whenever heat-not-burn gets mentioned by a vaper (such as myself) on social media the response is, sadly, predictable. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog (notably here, and here) heat-not-burn products are essential to give smokers (and the odd vaper) the widest array of choices possible. Let the market do what it does best.

Age Counts:

Who Vapes (Tobacco/Nicotine) and Who Gets Lung Injuries

Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

Federal officials, most notably at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, continue to be remarkably vague about the cause of 1,299 acute lung disease injuries and 26 deaths among people who have vaped.  This ambiguity, which I believe is out of sync with normal CDC investigations, has led to a media frenzy and partial or full bans on e-cigarette sales in many localities.  Major retailers are scrapping e-cigarettes while continuing to sell cigarettes, which have killed 368,000 smokers already this year. Making vastly safer cigarette substitutes unavailable to 8 million adult vapers will inevitably increase cigarette consumption, driving the death count even higher.

News Headline Shows..

How Misinformation About Respiratory Disease Outbreak is Spreading

Michael Siegel, The Rest Of The Story

The featured headline of a news article published yesterday at NorthJersey.com (the North Jersey Record) was: “Vaping with JUUL Damaged NJ Woman’s Lungs, Left Her Hospitalized.” The headline of the article itself read: “‘My Lungs Were Chemically Burned’: NJ Victim Speaks Out Against Vaping.”

These headlines certainly give the impression that this unfortunate 21-year-old woman developed acute respiratory failure due to her use of JUUL. If true, this would be an absolute disaster because there are an estimated 7 million JUUL users.

Throwing “lifeboat ethics” overboard

Carl V. Phillips, Anti-THR Lies

Readers of this blog should check out a newly published short booklet that includes a cartoon by Marewa Glover and an essay by me (plus a brief introduction) on the theme in the title of this post. It speaks for itself and is shorter than many of the posts here, so I will just suggest you go read it.

One of my favorite observations to teach is, “the quality of an answer is highly dependent on what question is being asked” (most often in the context of what is the “best” research method — it depends on the question!).

Five from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Glantz Debunked Yet Again

Stanton Glantz foisted a deeply flawed association between vaping and myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) on the world with a poster at a conference in 2018. It immediately drew criticism for the glaring errors but he didn’t change anything in the subsequent published paper. Since then, the work has drawn further denunciation; this week, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine has published another letter highlighting its erroneous nature.

Superstore Partners Smokefree Hackney

Vape Superstore, a London based vape retailer, has partnered with a local quit smoking service, Smokefree Hackney, to support those most at risk of smoking addiction in the borough. With the launch of a quit smoking pilot scheme, Vape Superstore assisted the Smokefree team by supplying e-cigarettes and ongoing support to those looking to quit smoking.

The Hackney borough is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, and alongside this has a 6% higher smoking rate than the UK average. Due to this partnership, Vape Superstore says it has gained access to some eye-opening statistics on the correlation between smoking and poverty, not only in Hackney but across the whole of the UK.

Netherlands Ban Call

Leon van den Toorn, chairman of the Association of Physicians for Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis (NVALT) has spoken about “worrying developments” and has called on the Netherlands government to implement a total ban on vaping. Dutch consumer group AcVoDa and the European advocacy body ETHRA have called upon State Secretary for Health Paul Blokhuis to engage in dialogue.

Blokhuis is quoted as saying he is “very curious” in Leon van den Toorn’s insights. He said he, “wants to involve their findings in the ongoing research into the health risks of e-cigarettes. I cannot just issue a total ban, I also have to deal with European rules, for example. But I would like to do everything in our power to further reduce smoking and e-smoking.”

FDA Warns Against THC (Again)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a second consumer warning to stop using the THC products causing lipoid pneumonia. It’s the clearest indication yet that the authorities know the problem isn’t “vaping-related”, and yet the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) remains dragging its feet.

Doctor Konstantinos Farsalinos commented: “The FDA once again warns against THC vaping. I feel proud for supporting the obvious since the start of this epidemic.”

Tang’s Cancer Mice

Planet of the Vapes is issuing an urgent warning to all readers of the mouse persuasion – avoid the New York University School of Medicine at all costs. You may be proficient at sneaking off with a lump of cheese from a trap, but few come out alive after meeting up with Moon-shong Tang.

Moon-shong Tang is a researcher at the New York University’s School of Medicine. Last year Tang obliterated mice by using too much voltage through coils and dry burning them (the coils, not the mice). Now he’s back with claims that cancer-prone mice contract cancer. It’s a stunning finding that has shocked nobody, although genuine experts are perplexed and call his work “just noise”.

Accidental Entrepreneurs:

The Story of the UK Vape Industry – James Dunworth

I was recently very kindly invited to speak on behalf of the UK Vape Industry Association at SME for Labour at the Labour conference in Brighton. The brief was to talk both about how our own business got started and the benefits of the vape industry for the UK economy, although I couldn’t resist getting some points in about how vaping has changed people’s lives.

After the speech, Rachel from the New Nicotine Alliance suggested I turn the speech into a blog post. So here it is…

The CDC and Vaping: A Perfect Storm

Michael McGrady, Vaping Post

When is it appropriate for the government to misinform drug users? In light of the rash of severe lung injuries caused by almost exclusively illicit vape products, anti-vaping sentiments are building upon a perfect storm.

Vaping Post’s Diane Caruana, our hardworking in-house journalist, recently reported that some experts disagree with how the nation’s public health agencies have responded to the rash of severe lung injuries linked to the behavior of vaping.

Older Smokers Are the Forgotten Victims

Of Our Vaping Wars – Annie Kleykamp

You might have seen the recent article about an 18-year-old who vaped for two years and was told by a doctor that he now has the lungs “of a 70-year-old lifetime heavy smoker.”

What caused this and other vaping-related cases of lung damage became clearer in the past week, when the FDA announced that the majority of such cases were due to adulterants in illicit “products containing THC.” The conflation of these illicit THC vape products with nicotine-containing products has likely left many people confused.

Restrictions Make Vaping the Next Lucrative Product Line for Smugglers

Changes in E-Cigarette Use Behaviors

And Dependence in Long-term E-Cigarette Users

In a 2012-2014 baseline online e-cigarette survey, 1,863 respondents consented to participate in future research. A follow-up online survey was conducted in 2017-2018 to assess changes in e-cigarette use behaviors and e-cigarette-related dependence. For both surveys, exclusive e-cigarette use was defined as only using e-cigarettes in the past 7 days, and poly use was defined as using both e-cigarettes and other tobacco or nicotine products in the past 7 days. The Penn State Electronic Cigarette Dependence Index (PSECDI) score was calculated for each study subject and was used to evaluate e-cigarette dependence.

Yukon Government tables bill 

To change vaping legislation

The proposed bill, brought forth by Health and Social Services Minister Pauline Frost in the first sitting of the fall legislature, would replace Yukon’s current Smoke-Free Places Act, which does not pertain to vaping, with the Tobacco and Vaping Products Control and Regulation Act.

The proposed legislation raises the minimum age of purchase for tobacco and vaping products to 19, and expands the current prohibitions on the display and promotion of tobacco products to vaping products.

New Zealand ‘surge strategy’ needed

To reach Australia’s smoking target – ATHRA

Australia needs a ‘surge strategy’ to facilitate the uptake of safer nicotine products such as vaping if it is to reach the target of <10% daily smoking by 2025.

The strategy was recently recommended for New Zealand where the target is 5% daily smoking by 2025 in a new report by Action on Smoking and Health, New Zealand. Safer smokeless alternatives such as vaping, heated tobacco and snus are already legally available in that country.

India Banned E-Cigarettes —

But Beedis And Chewing Tobacco Remain Widespread

At a tiny kiosk on a Mumbai lane choked with rickshaws, Chandrabhaan Chaurasia is selling paan – betel leaves sprinkled with spices. They’re a cheap street snack across South Asia.

Chaurasia, 51, spreads a leaf with spicy herbal paste and then sprinkles it with dried tobacco. He folds the leaf into an edible little parcel, and sells it for 8 rupees — about $0.11. He also sells single-serving packs of chewing tobacco. Another kiosk nearby sells hand-rolled leaf cigarettes, called beedis.

Small stores suffer as vapers turn away

The thousands of shops that sprang up in cities and towns across the country over the past decade to sell vaping products have seen a stunning reversal of fortune, with their sales plunging in just two months amid news reports that vaping has sickened nearly 1,300 people and killed 26.

People who turned to vaping products to help them quit smoking have been turning away, even teenagers who used the products illegally, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says most of the people who suffered lung injuries from vaping were using products containing THC, a component of marijuana.

Local vape shops take hit from Baker’s ban

Why People Are Dying from Vaping

In the U.S. and Not the U.K.

Whenever Matt Culley travels to England, he feels as if he has entered a sort of Twilight Zone. A prominent vaping advocate on YouTube in the United States, Culley went so far as to describe the scene in the United Kingdom, where he often attends conferences, as a sort of “alternate reality.”

Imagine: You’re visiting a loved one in the hospital, and after popping into the cafeteria to eat a premade bologna sandwich or Jell-o, you’re jonesing for a cigarette.

Telling People ‘Just Don’t Vape’

Not Effective – Deborah Becker, Khari Thompson

There’s added urgency to the debate over vaping in Massachusetts after the state reported its first death: a woman in her 60s, from a lung illness apparently related to vaping nicotine.

News of the death came just days after Gov. Charlie Baker enacted a four-month ban on all vaping products, though that hasn’t stopped Massachusetts residents from traveling over the border to stock up on vaping supplies in New Hampshire.

CBS News investigates..

The THC vaping industry’s booming black market

To find out how dangerous and potentially deadly THC vaping products end up on the streets, CBS News took hidden cameras to a warehouse 75 miles east of Los Angeles, where the marijuana black market feels more like a house party.

The THC oil inside these cartridges is unregulated, so there’s no way to know exactly what’s inside or how it could impact a user’s health, even though every seller claimed to have a pure product. With flavors like “strawberry bubble gum” and “dirty Sprite,” people come to underground warehouses like the one in Los Angeles to buy hundreds of vapes at a time, just to resell them nationwide.

On this Day…2018

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

Vicious Vape Advocates

Mawsley, Planet Of The Vapes

Rooted in either paranoia or self-interest, the summary of COP8 published on a United Nations website paints vape advocates as extensions of the tobacco industry and calls the harm reduction volunteers “vicious”.

“Tobacco giants are adopting new ways and “disguises” to push their products,” states the UN article, “noxious both for people and the environment, and interfere wit ~h government efforts to regulate the sale and use of tobacco, the head of the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC, the United Nations-led tobacco control treaty, has told UN News.”

Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Product

Department of Health & Social Care, Gov.UK

Purpose

We seek feedback on the practical changes that will affect the tobacco and e-cigarette industries if the UK leaves the EU with no deal. We welcome feedback on any practical issues that you think should be considered as part of the implementation of changes.

Context

Current regulations for tobacco and related products are designed to promote and protect the public’s health. The government’s priority is to maintain the same high standards after the UK leaves the EU.

We firmly believe it is in the interests of both the EU and UK to strike a deal. That remains the goal on both sides and we are confident that this will be achieved. Nevertheless, we recognise the need to have clear plans in place for no deal.

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