Vapers Digest 8th November

Friday’s News at a glance:

NNA: New Tax Is Misguided – IBVTA Questions Tax Rise – Vaping Industry Expert Weighs In – Experts Deliver their Tax Responses – What Does the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill Mean for Nicotine Pouches? – Paris’ plans to ban nicotine pouches – Sweden set to be declared world’s first ‘smoke-free’ country – Voices of Harm Reduction Pt 6: Kurt Yeo – I’d like to talk about a friend of mine – “Dual Use” of Vapes and Cigarettes Is Unfairly Maligned – Poland plans to ban nicotine pouches – More on the Czech Republic’s proposals – A Smoke-Free Zambia – Kyrgyzstan’s Vape Ban –

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

NNA: New Tax Is Misguided

Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a ridiculous and hefty tax on vaping during the Budget speech last week. It followed through on ex-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s plans to hit vapers and tobacco harm reduction. Vape advocacy charity the New Nicotine Alliance has responded by saying the Chancellor’s new vape tax proposals are a misguided assault on quitting smoking.

When plans to attack vapes by placing a sin tax on eliquid were first mooted by Jeremy Hunt’s office, the New Nicotine Alliance called it “wrong in principle and childlike in application,” calling the plans rushed, flawed and demonstrating a lack of understanding about vaping and why it works as a smoking cessation method.

IBVTA Questions Tax Rise

It is questionable to increase the cost of vaping, according to The Independent British Vape Trade Association’s Marcus Saxton, responding to the Chancellor’s budget announcement. The independent trade association for the UK vaping industry reiterated its concerns of unintended consequences rising from making vaping far more expensive – and therefore less attractive to smokers.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced during the Budget speech that the UK will see a flat-rate tax applied to all eliquid bottles from the 1st October 2026, adding £2.20 to every 10ml of liquid – whether it contains nicotine or not.

Vaping Industry Expert Weighs In

Dan Marchant, CEO and founder of Vape Club, the UK’s largest vaping retailer, has shared his thoughts following news of the new Tobacco and Vapes Bill. The Bill was introduced into Parliament on 5th November. It will set about to bring in a licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco, vape and nicotine products, and will include “on the spot fines of £200 to retailers found to be selling these products to people underage”.

The new measures are being introduced to protect businesses that are following the law and tackle rising illicit and underage sales across the UK.

Experts Deliver their Tax Responses

Experts from the worlds of advocacy, independent research and retail have offered up their reactions to the Budget tax on vaping announcement. Dr Sarah Jackson and Professor Nicholas Hopkinson commented on the Tobacco Duty and the Vaping Products Duty. While Clive Bates, Grimm Green and the National President of the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed) added in their takes.

Dr Sarah Jackson is a Principal Research Fellow at the University College London Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group. She said: “The decision to pivot from the planned duty structure, which would have taxed products containing higher nicotine strengths at higher rates, to a flat-rate duty is welcome….”

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What Does the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Mean for Nicotine Pouches? – Richard Crosby

The UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill has finally dropped. It’s a mixed bag of terrible, barely enforceable ideas and a few more interesting policies, such as the introduction of a vape licensing scheme. Most of the commentary has rightly addressed issues around cigarettes and vapes, but what does the bill mean for nicotine pouches?

Nicotine pouches are not directly mentioned in the 190-page report. However, that’s not to say the government overlooked the harm reduction product. Indeed, the bill uses broad language, such as “nicotine products,” which will encompass pouches.

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Paris’ plans to ban nicotine pouches…

Do not add value to public health – Colin Stevens

Banning nicotine pouches in France looks like another counterproductive measure that mainly encourages the illegal trade of cigarettes and other smokeless tobacco products. For fresh ideas, we should look to the Swedish harm-reduction model, which has a real added value for public health, and the country is on the brink of achieving its smoke-free target.

France plans to ban nicotine pouches that have gained popularity among consumers and are considered an alternative for those wishing to stop smoking. “They are dangerous products because they contain high doses of nicotine,” Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq told Le Parisien, adding that the ban will be announced later this year.

Two from Ali Anderson & Peter Beckett

Clearing the Air:

Sweden set to be declared world’s first

‘Smoke-free’ country

Sweden could be just one week from being declared the world’s first ‘smoke-free’ country – 17 years ahead of the European Union target. The Scandinavian country has by far the lowest smoking rate in Europe, having fallen from 15 per cent in 2007 to 5.6 per cent in 2022.

Now it is on the brink of being recognised by the World Health Organisation as “smoke free,” which is defined as having fewer than five per cent daily smokers in the population.

Voices of Harm Reduction Pt 6: Kurt Yeo

Kurt Yeo left a 16-year corporate career in information systems to help smokers switch to vaping after he did so himself over a decade ago. After growing tired of seeing misinformation about safer nicotine products in the media, Kurt co-founded Vaping Saved My Life (VSML) in 2017 as a testimonial portal where vaping ex-smokers in his native South Africa could share their quitting journeys with others.

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I’d like to talk about a friend of mine

Kim “Skip” Murray – Thinking ’bout THR Newsletter

Today, my inbox notified me of a new piece in Filter and a documentary accompanying it: “906 Vapor” Tracks Assault on Grassroots Tobacco Harm Reduction. I am unable to stop the tears.

I was honored to be on a panel in Washington, D.C., last year to talk about tobacco harm reduction. Lindsey Stroud moderated the event, and my fellow panelists were Alex Clark from CASAA and Marc Slis. Mark owned 906 Vapor at the time.

“Dual Use” of Vapes and Cigarettes

Is Unfairly Maligned – Kiran Sidhu

Dual use, referring to people who smoke and vape concurrently, is a phenomenon often cited by opponents of vaping to discredit its harm reduction impact. To their claim that switching is not quitting, they add that dual use simply extends people’s addiction to nicotine, doesn’t help them quit smoking, and may even be worse for health than smoking alone.

Proponents of tobacco harm reduction counter that dual use is typically a transition period to much safer products, but that even long-term dual use has its benefits.

Poland plans to ban nicotine pouches

TVP World

Nicotine pouches, small parcels containing synthetic nicotine that are placed on the gums, have been gaining popularity in Poland as an alternative to smoking or vaping.

But health experts have said they trade one health risk for another, warning that they can lead to cancers of the mouth, throat and pancreas, as well as cardiovascular problems.

More on the Czech Republic’s proposals

GFN News

In the second part of our Czech Republic special, Filip Blaha guides us through the possible consequences of new regulations targeting psychoactive substances, and the potential for further vaping restrictions in the country. Make sure to check out our previous episode where Filip breaks down these new regulations in detail!

A Smoke-Free Zambia:

Lessons from Sweden’s Tobacco Harm Reduction Success

As Zambia contemplates the future of smoking cessation and tobacco control with the proposed bill, the Swedish model serves as a powerful example of how harm reduction can be leveraged to achieve lasting health benefits.

Sweden is set to become the first country in the world to achieve ‘smoke-free’ status when its tobacco smoking prevalence rate falls below 5% in the next few months.

The Swedish Model has made tobacco harm reduction products as accessible, acceptable, and affordable as possible to adult smokers, effectively wiping out smoking in a country where 50 years ago, 49% of men were smoking regularly.

Kyrgyzstan’s Vape Ban:

Clean Lungs or Dirty Lobbying? – Aigerim Turgunbaeva

In June 2024, the Kyrgyz parliament passed a law banning e-cigarettes set to take effect on July 1, 2025, pending the president’s signature. Deputies Shairbek Tashiev and Alisher Kozuev introduced the bill with the goal of safeguarding young people’s health. However, some stakeholders in the “tobacco discussion” question the efficacy of this approach. Notably, only vapes are banned by the law, while IQOS – a line of heated tobacco products manufactured by Philip Morris International – were excluded.

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On this Day…2023

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

Clive Bates, Slideshare

My presentation at the Food & Drug Law Institute Tobacco and Nicotine conference 26 October 2023. I discuss five problems with the APPH concept:

1. No means of trading off different types of benefits and detriments

2. Ignores vaping benefits to youth 3.

Blind to harmful unintended consequences of marketing denial orders

4. Impossible to estimate population effects at the product level – the standard only makes sense at the category level.

5. The aggregate effect of thousands of single product PMTA determinations may create adverse effects not captured in any individual application (de fact flavour ban)

Why Sweden going smoke-free

May not be such good ‘snus’

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE)

Sweden is poised to become Europe’s first smoke-free country largely thanks to the popularity of snus, a kind of moist snuff which is placed under the upper lip.

But some are worried the tobacco industry is peddling a “fairytale” that is too good to be true.

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