Vapers Digest 13th February

Monday’s News at a glance:

Who sets tobacco control policies in the European Union: – ASH is just gasping at trivia here over single use vape – WHO kills off Covid vaccine – Successful effort to do the wrong thing – Vaping Could Save £Billions – Thai Vape Corruption – New Minister Bodes Well for Future – Bloomberg’s$420M Attack on Vaping – More Millions From Bloomberg to Push Bans – R.J. Reynolds Asks FDA to Target Disposable Vapes – Debunking Vaping Myths | CASAA Explains – Vaping found far less harmful than smoking – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

Who sets tobacco control policies in the EU:

Accountable civil servants or third parties? – ETHRA

On 24 January, EU officials announced that the tender for the Single Framework Contract for Support Actions in the Field of Tobacco Control had been awarded to three contractors: Open Evidence (a Spanish research and consulting firm), the European Network for Smoking Prevention (ENSP), and the University of Crete. Open Evidence reports that they will be leading the international consortium. The consortium also includes ICF Consulting in the UK, Milieu Law & Policy Consulting, Vital Strategy (sic) and SGS. The contract will last for four years and has a value of €3 million. 25% of the value is likely to be subcontracted to third parties.

The tender procedure was initiated in mid-2022 by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) and is based on the EU4Health Programme which envisages, among other things, “evaluating legislation in the field of tobacco control for possible revisions.”

ASH is just gasping at trivia….

Over single use vape – Tim Worstall

We would, obviously, prefer defiant teenagers to vape their way into coolness rather than smoke. At which point ASH decides that this should be taxed out of existence, this lower damage method of teenage rebellion:

Add £4 to the price of every vape to put off children from buying them, campaigners have said.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) are calling for an excise tax on disposable vapes to stop children from being able to buy them for less than £5.

The charity said adding £4 to each single-use vape, which currently cost around £4.99, would make them significantly less affordable for children while still less expensive than tobacco.

One of the justifications put forward is:

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WHO kills off Covid vaccine

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

The corrupt and incompetent World Health Organisation has killed of an effective Covid vaccine for quasi-religious reasons.

Health Canada approved the vaccine Covifenz in February of last year, after studies showed two doses were 71 per cent effective in protecting adults 18 to 64 against COVID-19 infection and disease. The vaccine was 70 per cent effective against Omicron.

The Medicago technology was also widely seen as having great potential for creating both vaccines and antibody treatments for other conditions, including cancers, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

But the plants used in production are a cousin of the tobacco plant and were supplied by tobacco giant Phillip Morris, which was a minority (21 per cent) shareholder.

You can probably guess where this is going.

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Successful effort to do the wrong thing

Clive Bates

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine doesn’t challenge the faulty reasoning behind the move to marginalise or isolate this vaccine company because of the minority shareholding by Philip Morris International (PMI), a tobacco company. It takes the claims of activists and bureaucrats at face value without any critical appraisal.

Instead, it transcribes the celebratory statements of misguided activists and officials:

PMI has set ambitious goals to deal with the main problem associated with its business, namely the toll of death and disease caused by smoking, primarily cigarettes. It has two broad approaches to doing that:

How the WHO helped kill a promising made-in-Canada vaccine

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Vaping Could Save £Billions

Anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health has made a Spring Budget submission to the Government and provided a cost benefit analysis that would result by achieving Smokefree 2030. Funding for the submission came from the British Heart Foundation , Cancer Research UK, and the Department of Health and Social Care.

ASH and SPECTRUM published the budget representation and Cost Benefit and Public Finances analysis, detailing the cost of smoking and the benefits of investing £125 million a year to deliver the Government’s Smokefree 2030 ambition. The quantity of money was recommended last year in the Independent Khan review.

Thai Vape Corruption

With vapes being banned in Thailand, the door of opportunity is open to corrupt policemen seeking to extort bribes from visitors to the country. Last month, a tourist was relieved of £750 in the town of Pattaya – but this is an issue that covers the entire country. UK travellers have been advised by the Home Office not to take their devices or eliquids with them when visiting.

An unidentified Chinese tourist was stopped on Walking Street in Pattaya at the end of January. Seen using a vape, he was stopped by Sergeant-Major Noppakrit Pornwatthanakit.

New Minister Bodes Well for Future

“The appointment of Dr Ayesha Verrall as New Zealand’s Health Minister is good news for the country’s collective effort to achieve Smokefree Aotearoa 2025,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates).

“Dr Verrall understands better than anyone that to eradicate the harm from combustible tobacco, viable safer nicotine products must be available for smokers to successfully make the switch,” says Ms Loucas.

Bloomberg’s $420M Attack on Vaping

The World Vapers’ Alliance is warning that billionaire Michael Bloomberg has committed $420 million to increase smoking rates through Bloomberg Philanthropies. Bloomberg’s organisation made the announcement last week and will focus on traditional anti-smoking policies, such as extending warning labels and smoke-free zones and support various anti-vaping policies, such as flavour bans.

“Due to the previous hostility against harm reduction products from Bloomberg Philanthropies and organisations funded by the organisation, consumers expect further anti-science misinformation campaigns about harm reduction,” says the World Vapers’ Alliance.

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More Millions From Bloomberg

to Push Bans Will Cause Greater Harm Than Good – Lindsey Stroud

Michael Bloomberg, billionaire and former mayor of NYC, recently announced an additional $140 million campaign against flavored e-cigarette and tobacco products. This comes three years after the nanny state enthusiast donated $160 million towards the same battle. Unfortunately, these bans have come at a cost to young adults. Policymakers need to stop being blinded by his billions and instead embrace tobacco harm reduction products.

In the press release, Bloomberg Philanthropies takes pride in having “successfully supported the passage of 55 state and local flavor bans,” and points to the declines in U.S. youth e-cigarette use.

R.J.R Asks FDA to Target Disposable Vapes

Jim McDonald

The maker of Vuse e-cigarettes has filed a formal citizen petition asking the FDA to focus its vaping product enforcement policy on the disposable vapes that now dominate sales in the convenience store/gas station segment of the U.S. vaping market. The petition was filed by RAI Services Company on Feb. 6, and posted by the FDA to Regulations.gov for public comment on Feb. 8.

RAI Services Company is the regulatory compliance arm of Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and a variety of other Reynolds-owned manufacturers, including R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, the maker of Vuse e-cigarettes. RAI itself is owned by British American Tobacco, which sells Vuse around the world.

Debunking Vaping Myths | CASAA Explains

Does vaping cause popcorn lung? Does e-liquid contain antifreeze? Will vaping make your lungs collapse? On this CASAA Explains clip, CASAA CEO Alex Clark and CASAA Member Coordinator Kristin Noll-Marsh take on some of the most common myths, exaggerations and misinformation about nicotine vaping products!

Vaping found far less harmful

Malaya Business

Dr. Debbie Robson of Queens College London said the latest independent review commissioned by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, formerly known as Public Health England, the highest health authority in the UK, found that vaping exposes people to much lower levels of toxicants compared to the risks of smoking.

“In terms of health risks, we said that vaping imposes a small fraction of the risk of smoking in the short to medium term. Consistently, vaping exposes people to much lower level, significant lower levels of risk than smoking,” Dr. Robson said.

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On this Day…2022

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

China’s war on vaping

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

The Chinese government has arrested Chu Lam Yiu, the owner of Huabao, China’s biggest e-cigarette company.

Eighteen months ago I asked why the Chinese government, which owns the world’s biggest tobacco company, was clamping down on vaping. It was a rhetorical question. Vaping is an existential threat to tobacco. I said…

But it seems that I was wrong. China Tobacco does have the ‘public health’ lobby cheering it on.

China’s vaping queen is dethroned as Beijing targets tobacco

Memo for European Commission Seminar

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) welcomes the opportunity to participate in a European Commission seminar on Emerging tobacco and nicotine products in tobacco control policies. We represent the interests of those most directly affected by such policies either as current consumers of these products or as smokers who may in future switch from high-risk to low-risk products and benefit from potentially life-saving reductions in health risks.

ETHRA is a partnership of 25 consumer associations in 17 European countries, representing approximately 27 million consumers across Europe and supported by scientific experts in the field of tobacco control or nicotine research.

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