Vapers Digest 14th June
Friday’s News at a glance:
Restricting flavoured vapes could harm smoking cessation efforts – Vape ban to cost Scotland ‘billions’ in lost revenue – Sunak would Deliver “Murder and Mayhem” – Glover Report Released at GFN – Euro 24 Warning – Another Thai Crackdown – Council expanding ‘free vapes’ scheme – Proposed tobacco rule changes – Michael Russell Award 2024 – Channel 7 Sydney – Australia Must Follow New Zealand and Sweden – Vapes “Designed to Kill,” Claims Org – Regulators Urged to Embrace THR – The Dangers of Public Health Zealotry – Mayo Clinic: No Lesser of Two Evils – New Zealand Halves Smoking Rate – Quit Like Sweden
Restricting flavoured vapes
Could harm smoking cessation efforts – University of Bristol
Restricting the choice of flavoured vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, could have an adverse effect on the many adults who use them to reduce or quit smoking, according to a new University of Bristol-led study published in the journal Harm Reduction.
In March/April 2023, the proportion of children experimenting with vaping had grown by 50% year on year, from one in 13 to one in nine1. Concerns about children becoming hooked on vapes has led the UK government to consider banning flavours to make them less attractive to young people.
Vape ban to cost Scotland ‘billions’
In lost revenue – Ali Anderson
The Scottish Government has revealed the new disposable vape ban will leave local retailers billions of pounds out of pocket over the next 10 years. A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland is due to come into effect on 1 April 2025 under proposed legislation.
However, a new review by ScotGov reveals that even in a “best case scenario,” the ban will lead to shops in Scotland collectively losing a massive £1.2 billion. In a “worst case scenario” they will miss out on £2.1 billion, making the likely midpoint £1.6 billion in lost revenue.
These losses do not factor in refits many shops will have to fund in order to comply with tighter rules on displays of refillable vapes. The figures are outlined in the Prohibition of the sale and supply of single-use vapes Full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment published this week.
Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
Sunak would Deliver “Murder & Mayhem”
Sunak’s authoritarian overreach on e-cigarettes is more likely to lead to “murder and mayhem” than be a fix for youth vaping, according to Dr Colin Mendelsohn, this year’s recipient of the Michael Russell Award at the Global Forum on Nicotine (#GFN24) in Warsaw. The statement should echo in the ears of the UK’s next Prime Minister.
With a general election only weeks away, the UK is facing down the barrel of a gun as both Labour and the Conservatives contemplate draconian measures on safer nicotine products like vapes. Draconian measures that in countries, like Australia, have seen the rise of criminal turf wars and gang violence.
Glover Report Released at GFN
New Zealand’s smoking rate has halved in just five years due to the widespread acceptance and use of smoke free nicotine products, according to a new Smoke Free Sweden report by a panel of international experts led by public health expert Dr Marewa Glover of New Zealand.
New Zealand, like Sweden, has a daily smoking rate just above 5 per cent, the point at which the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares a country ‘smoke free’.
Euro 24 Warning
Vaping football fans heading off to Germany to witness Euro 2024 have been warned not to take their “banned” vape items into stadia during the tournament. Penalties for vaping can include expulsion from the stadium with a report to the police, or a complete ban from future Euro 2024 games
Football fans heading to the UEFA Euro 2024 games are being warned not to vape or bring e-liquids to the venue while attending fixtures in Germany, where both actively vaping and possession of e-liquids have been banned within stadiums hosting the games this year.
Another Thai Crackdown
Thailand loves to hate vaping. The government loves to hate it so much it bans it all over again every couple of years. Each time the bans have failed. Last time, the ban announcement included some well publicised arrests and fines, prompting British travel firms and the UK Government to warn travellers. A couple of years on and this ban has also failed. Now the Ministry of Interior has said it’s implementing an urgent policy aimed at “eradicating e-cigarettes”.
Smoking? Well, that’s completely legal in Thailand – which is almost certainly nothing to do with the fact the government holds an interest in the dominant tobacco company.
We just launched “Quitting Strong: New Zealand’s Smoking Cessation Success Story”
Read it here: https://t.co/fpdER3Apya
Thank you @MarewaGlover pic.twitter.com/SgBGleyHUw
— Smoke Free Sweden (@SmokeFreeSweden) June 12, 2024
Council expanding ‘free vapes’ scheme
To help residents quit smoking – Elliot Jessett
Knowsley Council aims to increase the availability of free vapes in an attempt to reduce the number of people smoking. In April last year, the government introduced the ‘Swap to Stop’ scheme which aimed to help one million adults to quit smoking. The scheme made provision for the distribution of free vapes in the hope people would ‘swap’ their smoking habits and stop using cigarettes.
Although vaping is not recommended – the ideal is for people to stop smoking and vaping – data suggests vapes are less harmful than smoking and have proved to be an effective tool to quit smoking.
Proposed tobacco rule changes
Both undermine EU law-making – Nick Powell
When EU health ministers meet on 21 June, they will have a last-minute Danish Health Minister proposal added to their agenda that seeks to disrupt the checks and balances that are meant to characterise the European Union’s approach to passing laws and making regulations. It affects the always controversial question of tobacco and nicotine regulation, where the wrong decision can deny smokers the safer alternatives that they often need to quit cigarettes, which continue to damage the health and ultimately cost the lives of too many European citizens.
Three from Colin Mendelsohn:
Michael Russell Award 2024.
And the winner is….
I AM PROUD TO ANNOUNCE that I received the Michael Russell Award for 2024. The Award honours someone who has made a substantial and innovative contribution to the science and understanding of safer nicotine products and tobacco harm reduction.
The award is presented each year at the Global Forum on Nicotine in memory of Professor Michael Russell, a psychiatrist and research scientist, who was a pioneer in the study of tobacco dependence and the development of treatments to help smokers quit.
Channel 7 Sydney
“inaccurately portrayed me as a representative of Big Tobacco”
THE CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAM 7NEWS Spotlight breached the Commercial TV Code of Practice by inaccurately portraying me as a representative of Big Tobacco. The breach occurred in relation to the episode titled Killers in the Mist which was broadcast by Channel Seven Sydney Pty Limited nationally on 28 May 2023.
This was the finding of an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Their report was published on the ACMA website today here.
ACMA concluded that the ordinary reasonable viewer would have incorrectly assumed I represented the tobacco industry based on the material presented in the broadcast.
Aussie TV show rapped – Ali Anderson
Australia Must Follow New Zealand …
And Sweden to Reduce Smoking
NEW ZEALAND AND SWEDEN have experienced unprecedented declines in smoking by enabling smokers to switch to lower-risk alternatives. Both countries are on-track to be ‘smoke-free’* within the next two years. A similar approach in Australia could save thousands of lives.
This was the finding of a new report titled SmokeFree New Zealand, authored by Professor Marewa Glover and a team of international experts from 13 different countries, launched today in Poland. I was the Australian co-author.
Vapes “Designed to Kill,”
Claims Org Designed to Protect World Health – Lindsey Stroud
“What looks cute, smells good, but is designed to kill?” asked the World Health Organization (WHO) in a June 11 tweet: “A vape!”
This joke-format falsehood from our planet’s premier health agency is far from comic, when it’s only the most explicit recent example of a noxious campaign against harm reduction products that save lives.
The WHO and its regional offices and partners persist in outrageously misleading governments and consumers. Thanks to this orchestrated moral panic, many of the world’s adults who smoke are denied harm reduction alternatives—either because of resulting laws, or because they’ve been deceived about relative risks.
Regulators Urged to Embrace THR
Derek Yach
More than 1.8 million lives could be saved within the next 40 years by replacing World Health Organization-directed tobacco control efforts with products like vapes and e-cigarettes, snus and nicotine pouches, a new study has found. Urgent action is required to tackle continuing prevalence of smoking as global efforts to end smoking have stalled and current approaches to tobacco control have proven insufficient, the researchers said.
Instead of current measures, researchers found that tobacco harm reduction (THR) products that replace smoking with nicotine alternatives promise to make a significant improvement in health outcomes in the Middle East and save millions of lives.
The Dangers of Public Health Zealotry
Steven Greenhut
One of the major public health crusades in recent years has been a push to ban the sale of flavored-tobacco products — something California adopted statewide in 2023. “It will be a point of deep pride and personal privilege as a father of four and as someone who’s had many, many family members die at the hands of the tobacco industry to sign that bill,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom as Senate Bill 793 made its way toward his desk.
The tobacco industry then qualified a referendum in an attempt to overturn the law, but voters sided with the governor and his allies by nearly a two-to-one margin. That initiative campaign delayed the law’s implementation, but didn’t make much headway among the political class or voters.
Mayo Clinic: No Lesser of Two Evils …
When It Comes to Tobacco Use – Joseph Hart
“The lesser of two evils” is a well-known and widely used idiom. It’s hard to put an exact date on when it was first coined, but some form of the concept is found in various places:
My point here is that humans have been grappling with difficult choices for millennia. The phrase resonates with us today just as much as it did to these pre-Enlightenment or pre-Christian thinkers because it is a pragmatic moral framework to help us make more moral, wise, or safer decisions.
New Zealand Halves Smoking Rate
New Zealand’s smoking rate has halved in just five years due to the widespread acceptance and use of smoke free nicotine products, according to a new Smoke Free Sweden report by a panel of international experts led by public health expert Dr Marewa Glover of New Zealand.
New Zealand, like Sweden, has a daily smoking rate just above 5 per cent, the point at which the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares a country ‘smoke free’.
Quit Like Sweden:
“We need solutions to a century-old problem”
On the occasion of the start of the GFN 2024 activities, the Quit Like Sweden platform hosted an event in Warsaw to discuss and draw insights from the successful smoking cessation strategies of New Zealand and Sweden
Yesterday, at Level 27 in Warsaw, the newly established Quit Like Sweden platform hosted the event “Will New Zealand Quit Like Sweden?”.
The meeting was organized to discuss and draw insights from the successful smoking cessation strategies of New Zealand and Sweden, and to explore what other countries can learn from their experiences.
On this Day…2023
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
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