Vapers Digest 3rd July
Monday’s News at a glance:
Government Issues Engagement Guidance – GFN23: Day 1 – Vapers Oppose Bangladesh Vape Ban – New Wave Of Anti-Vaping UK Press Articles? – New Finnish Coalition Government Pulls Back on Nicotine Pouch Ban – Why Don’t They Just Stop? – Scare stories: causing more harm than good – Breaking Barriers, Inspiring Change: – Suggestions for Improvement of FDA Review – Harm Reduction in Georgia – Sweden’s Public Health Agency
Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
Government Issues Engagement Guidance
The government has issued updated guidance for government departments and ministers in their engagement with the tobacco industry. The Department of Health and Social Care says that its advice is also for all public bodies in how they should act to protect public health policies when engaging stakeholders with tobacco industry links.
The Department of Health says the guidance sets out how interactions should be limited with the tobacco industry in line with the requirements of article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The guidance also applies across the UK government, including:
GFN23: Day 1
The Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) took place in Warsaw, Poland. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the event opened up to four packed days of workshops and presentations, attended by experts in tobacco harm reduction, advocates and consumers. Day 1 set the agenda for the coming event with packed rooms and busy conversations.
Discussing reducing the environmental impacts, Australian physician and academic Dr Colin Mendelsohn argued that those concerns are being used to further justify opposition to tobacco harm reduction despite being reasonable and justified in themselves.
Vapers Oppose Bangladesh Vape Ban
The Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Wealth has introduced amendments to its smoking and tobacco legislation aimed at banning vapes which will ban the production, importation, exportation, storage, sale and transportation of vapes and their components. It is proposing to impose a fine, imprison for 6 months, or both for anyone transgressing the new law.
The main reason given by the minister responsible for the legislative proposals is to help Bangladesh achieve its Smoke-Free 2040 goal.
VoV Bangladesh – a vape advocacy group which recently organised a summit to educate consumers about harm reduction, opposes the ban. The summit can be watched on YouTube.
New Wave Of Anti-Vaping Press Articles?
Michelle – EcigClick
For some reason a lot of the UK media have gone above and beyond their usual anti-vaping stance. I smell a bit of a rat?
What the bloody hell is going on? I am used to seeing perhaps 1 or two negative articles a week, but this past week it has gone crazy?
Is there somebody panicking about the UK Government being “Pro-Vaping” and wanting to change the narrative? We know this happens in the USA with “Bloomberg” influences.
In Scotland, the poo is hitting the fan about Disposable vapes and it is looking like they may get banned. Is this influencing the press – to try and win Scottish readers?
Dear @KirstyStricklan
Who do you think you are to decide what vaping was meant for? Stop projecting your personal struggles on people who do not share them. To advocate denying others the opportunity you had is callous.
Regards,
Phil pic.twitter.com/lqlvwzr8Jp— Phil (@phil_w888) July 3, 2023
New Finnish Coalition Government
Pulls Back on Nicotine Pouch Ban – Richard Crosby
After months of regulatory wrangling, Finland’s moral crusade against nicotine pouches may be coming to an end. Now, it looks as though the election of a coalition government will see the product heavily regulated but not banned, which is encouraging news for anyone with a serious interest in reducing smoking-related deaths and illness in the country.
Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats finished third in a tight general election. Now, Petteri Orpo of the conservative National Coalition Party will seek to form a coalition with the right-wing populist Finns Party. Their draft coalition program includes a more sensible approach to nicotine pouches.
Scare stories:
Causing more harm than good – Richard Crosby
I recently read an article on the BBC news website – ‘Vaping: E-cigarettes have ruined my life, woman says’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-66003264) – which featured on the front page for several days. Given the ridiculous article title I’m not surprised – looks like the BBC has been taking tips from the tabloid press.
The article details the story of a 19-year-old girl who started using vape products aged 16. This has apparently ‘ruined’ her life. Oh, she also now smokes cigarettes too… however it’s mentioned only in passing, I personally question this claim given how much people like to push the idea vaping is a gateway to combustible cigarettes.
Why Don’t They Just Stop?
Cheryl K. Olson
“The decline in smoking prevalence has slowed to a trickle.” That’s how Kenneth Warner of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health phrased it in a 2013 editorial on the tobacco endgame. With progress stalled, tobacco control advocates searched for dramatic measures to kick-start it. A Google Scholar search for “tobacco endgame” brings up over 7,000 results for the past decade.
One popular idea is to simply declare game over. A 2018 editorial in Tobacco Control pointed to clever ads placed in U.K. newspapers by Philip Morris International saying, “We’re trying to give up cigarettes.” Rephrasing that slogan as “Stop me before I kill again,” the editorial stated, “There is no reason why a plan to phase out cigarette sales cannot be developed and pursued now.”
Breaking Barriers, Inspiring Change:
Key Insights from the GFN 2023 Workshop on Smoking Cessation and Transitioning
Gabriel Oke – THR Malawi
In a thought-provoking workshop led by Dr. Marewa Glover, renowned consumer advocate Judy Gibson, and esteemed INNCO Board Member Tomás O’Gorman at the recently concluded Global Conference on Nicotine conference in Poland, more than 60 attendees gathered to explore the challenges and opportunities surrounding smoking cessation and the transition to low-risk tobacco and nicotine products. At the session, participants from different backgrounds and countries collaborated to identify facilitators and barriers specific to various consumer groups.
Nicotaine based disposable
Inhale and exhale e-vapour does cause environmental impacts
The 10th edition of the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN23) currently being held in Warsaw, Poland considers that vaping — the disposable inhale and exhale vapour containing nicotine — does impact environment.
During a session on reducing the environmental impacts in tobacco harm reduction, it was observed that “there are reasonable and justified concerns about the environmental impact of vaping”.
However, Australian physician and academic, Dr. Colin Mendelsohn argued that these concerns are being used to further justify opposition towards Tobacco harm Reduction.
Suggestions for Improvement
Of FDA Review of New Tobacco Products – Dave Dobbins
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) (Pub. L. No. 111-31 (2009)) provides two primary pathways for marketing authorization of non-therapeutic nicotine products. Products on the market as of February 15, 2007 are “pre-existing tobacco products” and authorized to be sold in the United States.[1] Products that are “substantially equivalent” to pre-existing tobacco products are authorized so long as they do not have characteristics that “raise different questions of public health.”[2] For products that do not fit within these paths, they must be authorized as new tobacco products through Section 910 of the Act.
Harm Reduction in Georgia
Liza Katsiashvili
If you have been following harm reduction globally, you might have noticed that developing countries often struggle with both factors – high smoking rates and a lack of sensible harm reduction approaches or policies.
This is true for many countries, and Georgia is not an exception.
Lack of information on harm reduction. According to the Healthy Initiatives (an NGO) survey conducted in 2022, 26.4% of the adult population smokes conventional cigarettes in Georgia, and sadly, 51% do not even consider quitting. Only 2.8% of smokers quit through safer alternative nicotine products.
Sweden’s Public Health Agency
Endangers anti-smoking progress – Michael Landl
The Swedish Public Health Agency, Folkhälsomyndigheten, has called for stronger regulation of nicotine products such as snus and e-cigarettes. According to the World Vapers ‘ Alliance, such recommendations are a step backwards for Sweden. It ignores crucial scientific evidence, consumer experience, and expert opinions and endangers Sweden’s anti-smoking progress.
Commenting on the recommendation, Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA), said:
“It is a tragedy for public health when a country’s leading health agency fails to acknowledge the harm reduction potential of snus and vaping. The main objective has been overlooked: reducing the number of smokers and tackling smoking-induced illnesses……”
On this Day…2022
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
EU seeks to ban flavours in HTPs
ETHRA
The European Commission has moved forward with its proposal to implement a flavour ban for heated tobacco products (HTPs), which we first reported in March. The proposal will undergo a period of scrutiny by the Council and the European Parliament and enter into force 20 days after the publication in the Official Journal.
Announcing the move, Ms Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said:
“By removing flavoured heated tobacco from the market we are taking yet another step towards realising our vision under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to create a “Tobacco Free Generation” with less than 5% of the population using tobacco by 2040. With nine out of ten lung cancers caused by tobacco we want to make smoking as unattractive as possible to protect the health of our citizens and save lives.”
The clear and obvious problem with this statement is that we know that harms from smoking are due to combustion, not simply the use of a tobacco product. To conflate the two is highly misleading.
Click here for the ETHRA June news roundup
The FDA’s demonization of nicotine….
Harms consumers and people who want to quit smoking – Lindsey Stroud
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to play whack-a-mole on tobacco policies. The leading regulatory agency that oversees everything from food staples to pharmaceuticals to tobacco products still can’t understand that smoking rates are at all-time lows and continues with prohibitionist policies it likes to call “product standards.”
Earlier this year, the FDA announced new “product standards” that seek to eliminate menthol in combustible cigarettes and flavors in cigars. Now, the agency is doubling down in the form of taking on nicotine, and in doing so, is sowing nothing but confusion to the population that continue to smoke without understanding that there are less harmful forms of nicotine.
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
