Vapers Digest 23rd December
Friday’s News at a glance:
Dutch Danger – Global State of THR: ecig an unprecedented revolution – 2022 – Spring Has Sprung – 2022 – The First Quarter – California’s Vape Flavor Ban Begins – Cigarette Use At Record Lows In Arkansas – CDC Hides Data That Contradicts Bloomberg’s Anti-Vaping Activism – Regulation of e-cigarettes – Critics of FDA’s Tobacco Program Vindicated – Health Experts Deliver Damning Verdict – GFN‘s New Year Wish #4 – FDA Tobacco Program Panned by Expert Panel – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest
Dutch Danger
ETHRA
The Dutch government has launched a consultation on legislation to ban nicotine pouches. The consultation ends on 16 January.
This is a simple consultation to respond to, and it is important that you do.
The European Commission has already signalled that it would like an EU wide ban on nicotine pouches. If individual member states, such as the Netherlands, ban pouches, an EU wide ban becomes far more likely.
Nicotine pouches are becoming increasingly popular with people seeking safer alternatives to smoking. It is morally wrong to deny people who smoke access to products which are less harmful to their health.
Global State of THR:
ecig an unprecedented revolution – CoEHAR
Although the numbers of harm reduction supporters are growing, there are still too many smokers attracted to cigarettes: with over 1.1 billion smokers worldwide and more than 8 million smoke-related deaths each year, the smoking emergency is still a long way off from being in check.
Summing up, the third edition of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction outlines a clear framework on electronic nicotine delivery systems scenario: although there are now over 100 million people using these products worldwide, tobacco-related deaths still exceed 8 million a year and the strenuous opposition from governments and several public health authorities appears to be charting an uphill battle for smokers who can’t quit.
2022 – The First Quarter
Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
2022 has been another busy year in the world of vape as tobacco harm reduction has become cemented in the UK’s approach to reducing the damage caused by smoking. The same can’t be said of other nations. Our award-winning reporting has covered strip searches, ground-breaking research, political dithering, and industrious advocates – let’s dive in to the first three months.
The first quarter of 2022 gave an indication of how local authorities planned on treating vaping as news broke of multiple Trading Standards departments conducting raids on shops selling to underage buyers or stocking illegal products.
We were delighted to feature in the @vapingpost_fr review of 2022, and give our thoughts on what 2023 may hold for #tobaccoharmreductionhttps://t.co/st9zhhYIGR
— European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (@europethra) December 23, 2022
If you use safer nicotine Vapes and reside in California – you need to read this ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/jBeJEZZQs0
— INNCOorg (@INNCOorg) December 23, 2022
2022 – Spring Has Sprung
Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
2022 has been another busy year in the world of vape as tobacco harm reduction has become cemented in the UK’s approach to reducing the damage caused by smoking. The same can’t be said of other nations. Our award-winning reporting has covered strip searches, ground-breaking research, political dithering, and industrious advocates – let’s see what was happening during Spring.
April began with Planet of the Vapes News picking up not one but two industry award nominations. In addition, our industrious, good looking and all-round great guy News editor was nominated for Advocate of the Year [*have you been tucking into the egg nog already? – Boss man] in the Vapouround Awards.
California’s Vape Flavor Ban Begins
With Confusion, Enforcement Threats – Alex Norcia
On December 21, California’s nicotine flavor ban finally went into effect, a little more than a month after voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 31. The law will prohibit the sale of almost all flavored nicotine products—including vapes and menthol cigarettes, but excluding hookah and some premium cigars.
Many people who switch from cigarettes to vapes find flavors helpful, or even crucial, in doing so. Previous vape flavor bans, like one enacted in San Francisco, have led to increased smoking in some populations. Some vapers will also still find ways to obtain their preferred products. But in other ways, the landscape that will now emerge across the state is hard to predict.
Two from Lindsey Stroud:
CDC Hides Data That Contradicts…
Bloomberg’s Anti-Vaping Activism
As the year winds down, legislators are eagerly plotting various legislation they plan to introduce in the new year. Given the continued alarmism about an imaginary youth vaping epidemic, many will introduce bills that tax and/or ban the sales of vape products to adults. While addressing youth vaping is laudable, lawmakers remain ill-informed of the actual youth vaping numbers for their respective states. And they can’t even access that information because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to delay publishing the results from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).
Cigarette Use At Record Lows In Arkansas
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to delay publishing all state data, the Arkansas Division of Elementary & Secondary Education recently posted the results of its state’s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Just in time for state sessions, policymakers should pay attention to the significant declines in youth e-cigarette and tobacco use.
According to the 2021 YRBS, among Arkansas high school students in 2021, only 44.6% reported ever-trying e-cigarettes, 19.7% reported past-month e-cigarette use and only 6% of high school students were daily e-cigarette users.
Regulation of e-cigarettes …
May be pushing teens back to significantly more harmful traditional tobacco cigarettes
Karessa Weir, Sam Safford
MSU Sociology PhD student Sam Safford has published a research paper December 2022 that shows an unintended consequence of strict regulation of electronic cigarettes is an increase in the use of traditional cigarettes which carry significantly higher health risks.
Published in the Journal of Health Economics, “Intended and unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use,” Safford and co-authors found that taxing e-cigarettes reduces youth consumption but unintentionally increases youth use of traditional tobacco cigarettes.
GFN’s New Year Wish #4
THR CHAIN REACTION | Clive Bates and John Oyston
Critics of FDA’s Tobacco Program
Vindicated by Reagan-Udall Foundation Review – Karl Abramson
On Monday, the Reagan-Udall Foundation released a highly anticipated report evaluating the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The report highlights a stunning lack of direction and transparency within CTP that hinders the agency’s ability to effectively protect public health.
The Reagan-Udall panel called out a number of FDA’s failures in their report that AP News described as “blistering”. CTP’s regulation of tobacco and reduced-risk nicotine products is described as “reactive and overwhelmed”, and the report explicitly stated that CTP has “struggled to function as a regulator.”
Struggle To Function
FDA Tobacco Program Panned by Expert Panel | RegWatch
On Monday, the Reagan-Udall Foundation released its report evaluating the FDA’s tobacco program, and its findings are remarkable, if not shocking.
The expert panel cited numerous examples where the agency lacked sufficient strategic planning, useful and timely guidance, and internal leadership on critical issues, such as finding a balance between science and policy.The Reagan-Udall panel goes as far as to say that FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products has “struggled to function as a regulator in part due to its own policy choices.”
Health Experts Deliver Damning Verdict
On Kenya’s Nicotine Negativity
These are critical days in our enduring mission to reduce the deadly toll and devastating impact of smoking cigarettes.
Last week, I spoke at two separate conferences on two different continents featuring some of the world’s leading experts in the field of tobacco harm reduction.
The key message in each was simple: too many Kenyans, and millions of other people across Africa, are set to continue dying needlessly from tobacco-related diseases.
On this Day…2021
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
New Nicotine Alliance (NNA)
Quitters are increasingly turning away from less effective traditional Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) smoking cessation methods, though a continued decline in the smoking rate highlights the success of vaping for cigarette smoking cessation.
According to the latest Public Health England (PHE) data, the number of smokers setting a quit date using traditional NRTs through the NHS Stop Smoking Services hit a record low of 3.5% in 19/20, down from 7.3% in 13/14. That’s a 52% drop in six years.
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