Vapers Digest 5th January

Friday’s News at a glance:

Current Tobacco Prohibition in U.S. – A Brighter Future – Tobacco Harm Reduction Consumers Speak Out – Life’s too short to battle public health puritans anymore – Research Shows Fewer Quitters – WHO Ban Call Elicits Response – Heads up: Singapore – Briefing Paper Explains Benefits – Fifth Circuit Court Rips FDA, Grants Triton Appeal – India Doubles Down on Vape Ban – For smokers, e-cigarettes can be a breath of life – Scathing Rebuke for FDA – Australia’s Nicotine Headache – Will Godfrey on Advancing THR

Current Tobacco Prohibition in U.S.

Prisons Would Violate the Geneva Convention, As It Treats Incarcerated Americans Worse than Wartime POWs

Brad Radu, Tobacco Truth

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2015 finalized a rule prohibiting inmate “possession of smoking apparatus and tobacco in any form.” Nine years earlier, the Bureau had discontinued tobacco sales at prison commissaries.

Announcing the final rule, Bureau officials discounted the issue of black market activity, saying that the agency’s staff was already trained to intercept contraband, so the addition of tobacco involved zero “additional burden.” They promised to increase searches of Bureau employees to assure that they don’t become contraband sources, and to impose “more severe inmate sanctions for violations” to deter “possession of tobacco products.”

A Brighter Future

Jessica Zdinak

Much ink has been devoted to the dichotomy presented by electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS)—are they a friend or a foe?

For several years now, we have seen a surge of a variety of different e-cigarette products, overrunning the U.S. commerce both legally and illegally. The question remains for some, including our regulator: Do they serve as an alternative to traditional combustible cigarettes, or do they serve as an initiator for youth and young adults? This dichotomy revolves heavily around the authorization of and use of flavored e-cigarette/e-liquid products.

THR Consumers Speak Out at …

EU Parliament – Kiran Sidhu

On December 5, the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, held an unprecedented event, titled “Harm Reduction: The Road to a Smoke Free Europe.”

Topics discussed included tobacco harm reduction’s efficacy in preventing smoking-related disease and deaths, and how better European Union policies could unlock this potential.

Advocates told Filter that the event was unique, as the first time tobacco harm reduction (THR) consumers have been formally represented at the European Parliament.

My millennial “vape” predictions from the year 2000. What is the future of the tobacco industry? https://t.co/83BSpUGZLd

Not all right, but not so wrong either. https://t.co/S3LiwO1wVy

— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) January 4, 2024

Merci la vape: a mobilization on an unprecedented scale in the history of the fight against smoking in France. https://t.co/FAQyUwGwRl

— European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (@europethra) January 4, 2024

Life’s too short…

To battle public health puritans anymore – I’m over it. Terry Barnes

Colin Mendelsohn

TERRY BARNES IS A HARDENED PULIC HEALTH CONSULTANT and a former adviser to Michael Wooldridge and Tony Abbott. After years of advocating for vaping, he realises you can’t win a debate when one side is not listening. He is reluctantly withdrawing from the fight. He explains why.

The Morrison government’s prescription model was bad enough. It treated adult vapers as addicts and treatment by doctors was optional. The New Year’s Day ban and the proposed outlawing of all vapes later this year was the last straw and Terry is “over it”. As he explains:

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Research Shows Fewer Quitters

A study published in BMC Medicine looks at the decline in smoking in England since the pandemic, drawing comment from experts and the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA). The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) says that this is happening as new figures from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) show that smoking costs the UK around £50bn every year.

University College London’s Sarah Jackson, Harry Tattan-Birch, Lion Shahab, Emma Beard and Jamie Brown looked at data from 101,960 adults participating in the Smoking Toolkit Study, a monthly representative household survey, between June 2017 and August 2022. Interviews were conducted face-to-face until March 2020 and via telephone thereafter.

Briefing Paper Explains Benefits

The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project has released a new Briefing Paper explaining the huge potential of tobacco harm reduction for people experiencing homelessness. Current estimates show that up to 85% of homeless people smoke in the UK, approximately seven times the national rate, and that smoking contributes to a shocking disparity in the life expectancy of UK homeless people, who die at roughly half the age of the general population.

The new Briefing Paper from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR), a project from UK-based public health agency Knowledge·Action·Change (K·A·C), examines the significant potential of the approach to help people experiencing homelessness.

WHO Ban Call Elicits Response

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a call for “urgent action” to control e-cigarettes just before Christmas, eliciting rebuke from the UK Vaping Industry Association and the World Vapers’ Alliance. The WHO’s ridiculous statement claimed vapes are consumer products that aren’t effective for quitting tobacco use and pose “alarming” adverse health effects.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General and all-round clown, said: “Kids are being recruited and trapped at an early age to use e-cigarettes and may get hooked to nicotine. I urge countries to implement strict measures to prevent uptake to protect their citizens, especially their children and young people.”

Heads up: Singapore

Travellers need to be aware of possible problems when flying into Singapore Changi Airport following an announcement from their Ministry of Health and Health Sciences Authority. With the airport featuring as a transition point for many tourists to South East Asia, this news could pose serious problems for onward journeys.

The announcement from the Singapore Ministry of Health and Health Sciences Authority lacks clarity, just stating that all passengers arriving at Singapore Changi Airport must pass through the Red Channel if they have vapes and eliquids.

They state that by disposing of vapes in the Red Channel, travellers will avoid being subjected to strict penalties.

Fifth Circuit Court Rips FDA…

Grants Triton Appeal – Jim McDonald

In a long-awaited decision, a federal appeals court has reversed the marketing denial orders (MDOs) issued to Triton Distribution and Vapetasia, and ordered the FDA to conduct new reviews of the companies’ marketing applications. The en banc panel of judges voted 10-6 to grant the Triton and Vapetasia petitions for review.

In a 52-page decision dripping with sarcasm, 10 judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found the FDA acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it rejected Triton’s premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs).

As Appeals Court Gives Hope for Flavored Vapes – Kiran Sidhu

A federal appeals court has issued a scathing rebuke to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its handling of applications to authorize vaping products. A ruling in a key case, issued on January 3, accused the FDA of sending vape manufacturers on a “wild goose chase” under the agency’s Premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTA) process—misleading applicants and failing to honor its own guidelines.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed marketing denial orders (MDOs) issued by the FDA to Triton and Vapetasia, two mid-sized vape manufacturers, and ordered the agency to open new reviews into their PMTA applications.

India Doubles Down on Vape Ban

With Research and Media Censorship – Samrat Chowdhery

Over five million Indians have died of smoking-related causes since their government banned the sale of vapes and heated tobacco products in late 2019. Instead of being swayed into offering low-risk, effective alternatives to millions of people who smoke, the government has intensified its war on them.

Cheered on by the World Health Organization and allied groups, India’s government has now obstructed research on tobacco harm reduction (THR) products and gagged the media from discussing adoption of THR strategies.

Another Voice: For smokers…

E-cigarettes can be a breath of life – Charles A. Gardner

Each year, more than 7 million people worldwide lose their lives to toxic forms of tobacco. In New York State alone, approximately 750,000 are living with smoking-related cancer, heart or lung disease.

Obviously then, reducing use of toxic forms of tobacco would save lives and substantially improve public health. For most, that means quitting smoking. And there are nicotine products that can be considered “harm reduction” alternatives – the most controversial being nicotine vapes, or “e-cigarettes.”

Australia’s Nicotine Headache

With Carolyn Beaumont – Global Forum on Nicotine

Will Godfrey on Advancing THR:

International Success Stories & Challenges Ahead

On this Day…2023

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

Medical Journal Retracts a 2022 Study

That Linked Vaping to Cancer – Jacob Sullum

The World Journal of Oncology recently retracted a February 2022 article claiming that nicotine vapers face about the same cancer risk as cigarette smokers. “After publication of this article,” the editors explain, “concerns have been raised regarding the article’s methodology, source data processing including statistical analysis, and reliability of conclusions.” Because “the authors failed to provide justified explanations and evidence for the inquires [sic], subsequently this article has been retracted at the request of Editor-in-Chief.”

Some of the concerns raised by this article are similar to the problems with other studies that have linked vaping to smoking-related diseases. Most conspicuously, this study failed to address the question of whether diagnoses were made before or after people started vaping, a minimum requirement for inferring causation.

Calls on Journalists to Spread the Truth

INNCO

For many years, nicotine has been demonised by tobacco control “experts” as a gateway to teen smoking, and as a “brain toxin.” Yet, 15 past-Presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), the world’s top professional society in the field of tobacco control, recently published a paper rejecting these claims. Not one mainstream media platform carried their expert opinion as news. Their paper, published in the American Journal of Public Health, specifically encouraged the media, legislators, and the general public to re-evaluate negative attitudes toward nicotine vaping. Clearly, the mainstream media itself is biassed. It refuses to cover a profound shift underway in expert opinion about safer nicotine alternatives.