Vapers Digest 18th December

Monday’s News at a glance:

Prohibition and ‘public health’- Demonising vaping is prompting young people to switch to tobacco – Vaping grows fastest among UK groceries in 2023 – Australians smoking daily on steady decline – WHO Announcement Provokes Backlash

Prohibition and ‘public health’

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

If Rishi Sunak goes ahead with his ruse of banning anyone born after a certain year from ever buying tobacco, the UK will be the only country in the world to have such a policy, but it will not be the only place in the world. I have only recently learnt this, but apparently there is a suburb of Boston where no one born in the 21st century can buy tobacco.

Politicians in Brookline, Massachusetts introduced the law under the cover of Covid in 2020 and it is currently being reviewed by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court. The Boston Globe has been covering the story…

---

---

Demonising vaping …

Is prompting young people to switch to tobacco

Scare stories and misinformation about the harms of vaping could be triggering a rise in young people smoking, experts have warned.

Last week a report revealed that a decades-long decline in the number of smokers in England had flatlined since the Covid pandemic. Researchers suggested this was likely due to more young people starting to smoke.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health told this newspaper that she believes misinformation about the dangers of vapes is partly to blame. ‘All the negative press around vaping hasn’t helped,’ she said.

---

---

Vaping grows fastest …

Among UK groceries in 2023

Vaping products were the fastest growing category in UK grocery for the second year running in 2023, while sales of cigarettes, cigars and loose tobacco fell sharply, industry data showed.

Britain’s government in October proposed banning younger generations from ever buying cigarettes and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it also needed to act on youth vaping.

And on Thursday the World Health Organization (WHO) urged governments to treat e-cigarettes in a similar way to tobacco and ban all flavours, threatening the bets tobacco companies have made on smoking alternatives.

Australians smoking on steady decline

Brianna Morris-Grant and Claudia Williams

The number of Australians smoking daily has dropped, more adults than ever have a mental health condition, and less than 10 per cent of us are eating the recommended amount of fruit and veggies.

That’s according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The National Health Survey provides an insight into the health of Australians in 2022 by collecting information on long-term health conditions, smoking, weight, alcohol consumption and physical activity.

---

---

---

WHO Announcement Provokes Backlash

Tobacco Reporter

Tobacco harm reduction advocates have vehemently criticized the World Health Organization’s call to crack down on e-cigarettes.

On Dec. 14, the global health body issued a statement urging action to prevent the uptake of e-cigarettes and counter nicotine addiction.

“E-cigarettes as consumer products are not shown to be effective for quitting tobacco use at the population level,” the WHO wrote. “Instead, alarming evidence has emerged on adverse population health effects.”

In its announcement, the WHO described e-cigarettes with nicotine as highly addictive and harmful to health.

---

On this Day…2022

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

Vaping’s “major role” in the UK’s….

Record low smoking rate shows that harm reduction works

New Nicotine Alliance

As has been widely reported, new data published last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that the smoking rate for over 18s in the UK in 2021 declined to a record low of 13.3%. The ONS described the drop in smoking numbers since the previous year’s rate of 14.0% as statistically significant and concluded that vaping had played “a major role” in the reduction.

This is great news at the end of a difficult year for many, but also a ringing endorsement of vaping as a successful nicotine alternative for millions of people wishing to quit smoking. As advocates for tobacco harm reduction, we are obviously encouraged by these data which align with the experience of our trustees and many of our associates and supporters who have managed to quit combustible tobacco by using vaping products instead.

Late contender for junk science of the year

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of e-cigarette research from California until someone can figure out what the hell is going on.

Teenage drinking is a top public health concern, generating social costs of over $28 billion per year, including substantial external costs associated with alcohol-related traffic fatalities. At the same time, the high rate of electronic cigarette (“e-cigarette”) use among teenagers has become a public health concern, with state and local policymakers turning to e-cigarette taxes as a tool to curb consumption. This paper is the first to explore the spillover effects of e-cigarette taxes on teenage drinking and alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

The study, currently a working paper but no doubt destined for a top ‘public health’ journal, is titled ‘Can Anti-Vaping Policies Curb Drinking Externalities? Evidence from E-Cigarette Taxation and Traffic Fatalities’. I would be fascinated to hear more about the proposed causal mechanism here, but not enough to pay $5.

---

Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World

---