Vapers Digest 8th January
Monday’s News at a glance:
Australia’s vaping train wreck – The latest regulations on vaping in Australia – Vape funding allocation to help smokers quit – Wigan Council part of national ‘swap-to-stop’ campaign to stop smoking – Pregnant Adolescents Switch To Vaping – Kiwi Progress – Michigan Vape Bills Would Ban Flavors – e-Cigarettes Help More Tobacco Smokers Quit – BAT starts rollout of nicotine pouches – Taxes on e-cigarettes: South Africa
Australia’s vaping train wreck
Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist
As Australia makes its umpteenth attempt to ban e-cigarettes, the Sunday Times reports that prohibition is going as well as ever.
As of this month, the government has banned the importation of nicotine-free vapes. The early indications are not good.
The article makes it very clear that Australia has enormous problem with illicit vapes and that the Aussie public feel no compulsion to obey stupid laws. Doubling down on prohibition will only make the problem worse. Despite it all, deluded wowser Becky Freeman (one of Simon Chapman’s protégés) reckons there’s nothing to worry about.
Latest regulations on vaping in Australia
Colin Mendelsohn
VAPING REGULATIONS ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING in Australia and most vapers are confused. This blog provides an up-to-date summary of the current regulations at 8 January 2024 and the proposed future changes.
It is important to note that these regulations only apply to the legal market which is currently <10% of the total vape market in Australia, and is expected to reduce further.
Vape funding allocation
To help smokers quit – Torbay Council
Government funding of £57,000 has been earmarked for the Bay as part of the Swap to Stop scheme to encourage smokers to switch from cigarettes to vapes to improve their health.
Tobacco use remains the largest contributor to premature mortality and is a leading cause of cancer and heart disease.
Vapes provide another option for people who find it difficult to quit. Vapes contain nicotine, but do not contain the carbon monoxide or tar found in cigarettes. So, whilst vapes are not risk free to non-smokers, they are safer for smokers than cigarettes. Vapes are not recommended for use in non-smokers and it is illegal to sell these to anyone under 18 years.
Welp, there ya have it. https://t.co/TafqYYLspn
— Lindsey Stroud (@lmstroud89) January 8, 2024
[AU] Australien – ein feuchter (Alb)Traum wird wahr https://t.co/G8b0lGqRaz via @DampfFreiheit
— European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (@europethra) January 4, 2024
Wigan Council part of national …
‘swap-to-stop’ campaign to stop smoking
As part of the swap-to-stop initiative, the council’s Be Well Stop Smoking Service team will offer four-week vaping kits as part of their supported programme.
The nationwide campaign aims to encourage smokers to quit smoking by using vaping as a less harmful option for adult smokers. The offer can be extended for up to 12 weeks.
Last year Wigan Council’s Be Well Stop Smoking Service supported more than 500 people to quit.
Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
Pregnant Adolescents Switch To Vaping
A new study from the University of Buffalo has been published by JAMA Substance Use and Addiction. The paper’s authors discovered that more pregnant adolescents have switched from smoking to vaping, which is surprising for the United States given the war on evidence and truth. The team also found that the use of vapes did not negatively impact birth weights – mirroring similar studies conducted in the United Kingdom.
The researchers say they were interested in vaping among pregnant adolescents since more adolescents in general use vapes than use combustible cigarettes.
Kiwi Progress
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is celebrating New Zealand’s significant strides in reducing smoking rates, particularly among younger age groups. The latest data reveals that daily smoking is now under 4% for under 25-year-olds, marking a substantial decrease from previous years. Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole, chair of Action on Smoking New Zealand, highlighted the positive trends.
“New Zealand’s ambitious goal of becoming smoke-free by 2025 is well underway, with comprehensive tobacco control legislation, targeted interventions, and a focus on tobacco harm reduction products playing a crucial role”, said Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA.
Michigan Vape Bills…
Would Ban Flavors, Impose 57% Tax – Jim McDonald
Michigan lawmakers have introduced a series of bills intended to eliminate access to popular flavored vapes and other low-risk nicotine products, and price the remaining products out of reach for many consumers. The legislation, promoted by anti-tobacco and anti-vaping activist groups, is similar to bills previously introduced in the state.
The eight-bill package includes several components that will negatively affect people who vape or use other low-risk nicotine products:
e-Cigs Help More Tobacco Smokers Quit
Than Traditional Nicotine Replacement – Patty Shillington
Nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective in helping people quit smoking than conventional nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT), according to the latest Cochrane review co-led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst public health and health policy researcher.
The review of studies published on the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found high certainty evidence that e-cigarettes, which allow users to “vape” nicotine instead of smoke it, lead to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional NRT.
BAT starts rollout of nicotine pouches
Edna Mwenda
BAT Kenya has moved to aggressively market its oral nicotine product Velo, signaling that the company and the government have found a common ground on regulation of the commodity that is seen as an alternative to cigarettes.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm had introduced the product, then branded Lyft, in 2019 as it sought to diversify from the mainstay cigarettes which have faced increasingly stringent regulation and heavy taxation around the world.
The company stopped marketing the product in 2020 after the government said it should be regulated as a tobacco product, even as BAT built a factory to produce it in Kenya.
Taxes on e-cigarettes:
South Africa must strike a balance between economic arguments and health concerns
Marius van Oordt
The 21st century has seen a massive expansion in the ways that people can consume tobacco and nicotine. Innovative new products include electronic nicotine delivery systems (“ENDS” or e-cigarettes) and heat-not-burn (HnB) products.
One of the challenges this has thrown up is the tax rates on these products.
Combustible tobacco products like cigarettes and loose tobacco are generally taxed at similar rates since the harmful behaviour tied to these products – inhaling tobacco toxins released by burning – is the same. But e-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco and HnB devices do not burn tobacco. Nevertheless, they contain nicotine, which is addictive.
On this Day…2023
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
On National Technology Day…
Let’s Recognize the Power of Innovation to Reduce Smoking
Martin Cullip – Taxpayers Protection Alliance
January 6th was National Technology Day, which recognizes the power of technology and innovation to change the world for the better and make a positive impact on the daily lives of millions of people worldwide. Just as technology brought the world air bags to make driving safer, technology has delivered tobacco harm reduction products to help smokers quit smoking deadly combustible cigarettes.
Sadly, as Calestous Jouma details in his celebrated book, Innovation and Its Enemies, it is rare that new technology gets an easy ride before becoming uncontroversial. It seems strange now that refrigeration was once resisted by certain sections of society, despite it now having all but eradicated botulism in the western world.
PRI’s Positive Ecig Position
Dave Cross – Planet of the Vapes
The American Physicians Research Institute has issued a position statement on the subject of vaping, and it is very positive. The Baltimore based organisation has relied on the quality independent research that has been conducted in the United Kingdom and ignored the laughably bad junk science produced in the States.
The Physicians Research Institute says: “A State Medical Society member of PRI recently requested information on the value of vaping as a harm reduction solution to tobacco use. There is considerable information, pro and con, with respect to the subject of vaping and PRI was unable to give its member Medical Society an informed answer. Accordingly, the PRI Board decided to retain an expert with respect to vaping and related issues.”
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