Vapers Digest 15th February
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Key milestones for COP10 ~ Vaping: The Great Innovation Public Health Failed to Embrace ~ Indigenous People’s Fight For Inclusion on World Cancer Day ~ Path to prohibition ~ Vaping Bans Aren’t Helping Smokers in Thailand. What’s next? ~ Notice of Departure – Charles A. Gardner PhD. ~ Call To Support Filipino Law ~ UK Disposables Ban One Step Closer ~ Radio 4 Lays Into Disposables ~ New Bill Pressures FDA to Crack Down on Disposable Vapes ~ Tobacco Harm Reduction Reflections, as My Years of Reporting End ~ Awareness of electronics in India: Findings from the 2016-2017 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) ~ UNIFIED STANCE | Vape Groups Align for Fight to Save Vaping | RegWatch
Key milestones for COP10
LOREMIPSUMDOLOR, COPWatch
The Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be held in Panama from 20 – 25 November.
Below we provide a graphic of the key milestones leading up to COP10, and opportunities for engagement.
Vaping: The Great Innovation Public Health Failed to Embrace
Sally Satel, Sensible Medicine
Put aside everything you currently believe and think about the following paragraph, one which appear in an article reflecting on the biggest healthcare innovations in the last 15 years.
Electronic cigarettes easily top the list of “disruptive technologies in public health.” In 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary christened “vape” the Word of the Year, a tribute to the impressive rise of the electronic cigarette, a battery-powered device that heats a flavored solution containing nicotine and converts it into an inhalable, or “vape-able,” aerosol. Electronic cigarettes have become the most important tool in the battle against cigarette smoking since Surgeon General Luther Terry first warned of their risks in 1964.
Mariam Gogolishvili, World Vapers’ Alliance
Tobacco is the leading cause of thousands of preventable deaths in Thailand. According to BMC Public Health, smoking is the first leading risk factor for early death and disability in the kingdom, particularly for people with cancer, pulmonary complications and heart disease. As of 2019, almost 50,000 people die from smoking every year.
The good news is that they can actually do something about it. Endorsing the conversion of current adult cigarette smokers to less harmful products must be the main focus of their tobacco control strategy.
Kenneth Warner (U of Michigan), Neal Benowitz (UCSF), Ann McNeill (King's College London), and Nancy Rigotti (Harvard Med School) are co-authors on a new article in Nature Medicine.
Waiting on the PDF, but the message looks good. https://t.co/iPWekmPTvO
— Gregory Conley (@GregTHR) February 15, 2023
I depart @INNCOorg with great love and immense respect for all INNCO country members, the Governing Board and Secretariat members.https://t.co/spRt5octM7
— Charles A. Gardner, PhD (@ChaunceyGardner) February 14, 2023
Notice of Departure – Charles A. Gardner PhD.
Innco
The Governing Board of INNCO wishes to notify its members and the general public of the departure of INNCO’s former Executive Director, Mr Charles A. Gardner PhD.
Charles joined INNCO in April 2021, and was responsible for leading the activities of INNCO’s secretariat to support its members and drive the global movement for tobacco harm reduction. During his tenure, Charles championed several causes within INNCO, such as promoting public knowledge about the benefits of safer nicotine, including its therapeutic benefits, and the widespread misinfodemic about vaping. Charles is a man of science and values the use of evidence to make convincing arguments in favour of harm reduction.
Three from Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
Call To Support Filipino Law
It is time for politicians to support the pro-harm reduction Filipino vape law, not relitigate it, says the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA). “Any concerns about youth vaping are well covered in last year’s landmark vape law. The Philippines has more than enough regulations and safeguards now in place, without a Senator trying to relitigate everything,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.
UK Disposables Ban One Step Closer
Dr Caroline Johnson presented her 10-Minute Bill to Parliament with the support of two ex-Health Secretaries and has progressed to the next legislative stage. The MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham had the support of MPs including Andrea Leadsom, Caroline Lucas, Maggie Throup, and Steve Brine among others. The action is notable for the number of Conservative politicians in favour of banning an aspect of vaping, a party hitherto committed to tobacco harm reduction and free markets.
Radio 4 Lays Into Disposables
Planet of the Vape News predicted that 2023 would see a growing rise in pressure on disposable products and manufacturers. Coming at the same time as a move to ban disposables in Parliament, BBC Radio 4’s show You and Yours looked at the environmental impact of disposable products, the lack of adherence to WEEE regulations by the industry, and took UKVIA’s John Dunne to task.
New Bill Pressures FDA to Crack Down on Disposable Vapes
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
A new House bill would require the FDA to update its vaping product enforcement guidance to specify “how the agency will prioritize enforcement against disposable ENDS products.” The bill was introduced last week by Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, and has been assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“As the mother of two children and a former healthcare executive, I am pleased to introduce this critical legislation,” said Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat serving South Florida’s 20th congressional district. “I am calling on the Biden Administration to close this harmful loophole for the sake of our youth and to put an end to this national epidemic.”
Many people who vape, or are otherwise involved in tobacco harm reduction, will remember the summer of 2019. That was when Juul faced endless criticism from Congress—by October, the company had voluntarily stopped selling most of its flavored e-cigarettes even online—and the media became transfixed on a string of vaping-related illnesses throughout the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named this phenomenon “e-cigarette, or vaping product, use-associated lung injury,” or “EVALI.” In a matter of weeks, it seemed, two separate narratives had been conflated: Vaping—with which Juul, at that point, was basically synonymous—was rampant among teenagers, and now it was killing them.
On this Day…2021
APPG Holds COP9 Inquiry
Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Vaping held its initial fact gathering inquiry for the forthcoming World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of Parties (COP9). It heard representations from the UK Vape Industry Association, Professor Lynne Dawkins, the New Nicotine Alliance and WeVape.
One thousand, Three hundred
Skip Murray
I started my day with a moment of silence. A quiet reflection about the 1,300 families who will be crying tears of sorrow today as they lose a loved one to death by smoking. This happens every day in America, the need to plan 1300 more funerals. A heartbreaking reality on Valentine’s Day.
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