Vapers Digest 20th December
Friday’s News at a glance:
UKECRF Briefing – Intimidation In Bath – More Shops Hit With Closure Orders – Indonesia Could Save Lives – Maldives enforces blanket ban on vapes – New Zealand rushes vape restrictions through parliament – The Five Winners and Losers of BAT Becoming Predominantly Smokeless by 2035 – Liza Katsiashvili gives us her New Years’ Wishes for 2025 – Pro-consumer laws and an endorsement for vaping – ‘We should learn from New Zealand’ – 10,000 unlawful vapes seized by authorities across NSW – Iowa Vape Companies Sue to Block PMTA Registry Law – FDA’s Proposed Cigarette Prohibition – A Flawed Approach to Global Tobacco Control – Dartmouth-led Study Shows E-Cigarette Switching Can Ease Respiratory Symptoms – Trump’s Vaping Reforms Promise to Reverse Biden’s Public Health Failures
Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
UKECRF Briefing
The UK Electronic Cigarette Research Forum (UKECRF) has released its latest update of the Electronic Cigarette Research Briefing, providing an overview of current ecig evidence. The briefing is part of a series of quarterly updates intended for researchers, policy makers, health professionals and others who may not have time to keep up to date with new findings and would like to access a summary that goes beyond the study abstract.
The group does not focus on every vape-related study, rather they focus on high profile studies relevant to the key themes identified by the UKECRF:
Intimidation In Bath
New research from the University of Bath claims researchers in the tobacco sector are “frequently targeted with intimidation tactics”. The most common method used by corporations or their proxies is public discreditation. What Bath fails to point out is that a number of its sources indulge in that practice and have vilified researchers, advocates and members of the public.
Bath says: “Published in Health Promotion International, the study reveals the wide range and seriousness of these tactics used by ‘health harming industries’ (HHIs). These actions are designed to undermine and discredit advocates and researchers who give evidence to policymakers working to improve public health through stronger regulations.
More Shops Hit With Closure Orders
More shops have been issued with closure notices following raids revealing the sale of illicit vaping products as Trading Standards continues to crack down on the black market. Coventry officials detail their activities that resulted in a city store being shut down, and Buckinghamshire Council has been conducting similar enforcement operations.
A Coventry store known as La Mirage, has been ordered to close its doors for six weeks after a Council investigation revealed the persistent sale of illegal tobacco and vaping products, officials say.
Indonesia Could Save Lives
More than 4.6 million lives could be saved if Indonesia embraces smoke-free alternatives to traditional cigarettes, according to a sensational new report. Indonesia has one of the highest smoking rates globally and records 300,000 deaths every year from tobacco-related diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts this woeful toll will increase even further next year when the smoking rate is forecast to rise to 37.5% of adults.
A ground-breaking report released last week shows that the awful trend in Indonesia could be dramatically reversed if the country integrated tobacco harm reduction (THR) strategies into its public health policy.
Two from Ali Anderson, Clearing the Air:
Maldives enforces blanket ban on vapes
The Maldives has brought a sweeping new ban on the use and sale of vapes into effect. The ban – which was implemented on Sunday December 15 – follows recent amendments to the island country’s Tobacco Control Act. These were signed into law by President Mohamed Muizzu on November 13.
The new legislation means the sale, distribution, and use of vapes are now illegal in the Maldives. Anyone caught breaching these rules will face a hefty penalty.
New Zealand rushes vape restrictions
The New Zealand government has pushed tough new restrictions on vapes through parliament before Christmas under “urgency.”
The new legislation, announced by the Ministry of Health, means the “manufacture, sale, supply, and distribution of disposable vapes” will be banned from June 2025.
In addition, vapes and their packaging will no longer be allowed to be on display in general retail shops. This includes advertising and display in online stores and in automated vending machines.
Swedish Match has published almost 200 peer-revied scientific studies since 1968. It has now put them all in one place so the liars in the tobacco control industry know what page to avoid reading. https://t.co/l699lTVjS2
— Martin C (@NannyFreeState) December 19, 2024
Booking is now open for #GFN25, the leading international conference, welcoming of consumers, that discusses everything nicotine and tobacco harm reductionhttps://t.co/jFTdx1uZQH @GFNicotine #vape #vapingnews #GFN25 #harmreduction #nicotine #smokefree
— Planet of the Vapes (@PVapes) December 18, 2024
The Five Winners and Losers of BAT …
Becoming Predominantly Smokeless by 2035
Well, it’s happening. British American Tobacco (BAT), the second-largest tobacco company in the world, has announced that by 2035 they’ll become a predominantly smokeless business. In light of these changes, let’s look at who will be the winners and losers from this transformation.
Less combustible smoking is an obvious benefit for public health. The more people that move away from lethal cigarettes, the fewer cases of cancer and other smoking-related deaths and illnesses. In a British context, BAT going smokeless is exactly the sort of preventative action that Wes Streeting wants to implement to save the NHS.
SPREADING AWARENESS
Liza Katsiashvili gives us her New Years’ Wishes for 2025
In this festive Christmas special, Liza Katsiashvili reflects on a year of impactful milestones in the tobacco harm reduction community, spotlighting key campaigns like Every Life Counts by the World Vapers Alliance.
Pro-consumer laws and an endorsement
For vaping: why smoking is disappearing in Aotearoa New Zealand#
Aotearoa New Zealand has experienced a steady decline in smoking rates over the past 50 years, and since the legalisation and widespread adoption of vaping products in the past decade, this decline has gathered pace with a significant uptick in the use of safer products. Aotearoa New Zealand is now on track to become one of the first “Smokefree” countries in the world, a designation indicating that smoking prevalence has been reduced to below 5%. This Briefing Paper seeks to explore the complex and rapid trajectory of Aotearoa New Zealand’s smokefree journey, and the lessons that can be learned from the country’s consumer-forward approach to public health.
‘We should learn from New Zealand’ –
10,000 unlawful vapes seized by authorities across NSW
Authorities have seized thousands of illicit vapes, tobacco, and other substances in nationwide operations to enforce Australia’s vaping laws and disrupt illegal trade.
Flawed Approach Global Tobacco Control
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2003, is often celebrated as the world’s first global public health treaty to reduce tobacco consumption and its associated harm. At its core, the treaty is supposed to protect public health, regulate the tobacco industry, and curb the devastating effects of smoking worldwide. While the FCTC has drawn attention to the tobacco epidemic and prompted policy action in some countries, a closer examination reveals significant flaws. The FCTC’s approach is often misleading, ineffective, and ideological, undermining its credibility and doing more harm than good.
Iowa Vape Companies Sue
To Block PMTA Registry Law – Jim McDonald
An Iowa vaping industry association, along with several individual businesses, has filed a lawsuit to stop the state from enforcing its PMTA registry law, which is scheduled to begin in February 2025. The law would shut down most or all specialty vape stores in the state.
Like most PMTA registry bills, Iowa’s HF 2677 was created and promoted by one or both of the tobacco companies Altria and R.J. Reynolds to protect sales of cigarettes and their own ineffective (but FDA-authorized) vaping products. It creates a registry of vapes legal in the state, which is intended to make enforcement against “unauthorized” products simpler.
FDA’s Proposed Cigarette Prohibition
Would Cost $33 Billion in Annual Tax Revenue
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent draft rules to the White House that would ban the sale of cigarettes as we now know them. Under a new product standard, all cigarettes sold in the US would be subject to a maximum nicotine content threshold. This new threshold—a very low nicotine (VLN) product standard—would likely be substantially lower than the amount of nicotine that naturally occurs in tobacco plants and is contained in cigarettes.
While the FDA may not declare their VLN product standard a prohibition on cigarettes, implementation of a VLN standard would function as one.
Trump’s Vaping Reforms…
Promise to Reverse Biden’s Public Health Failures
Will the coming change in the White House and Congress bring the much-needed reforms that smokers have literally been dying for, and allow federal agencies tasked with tobacco regulation to finally break free from bureaucratic immobilization and misinformation campaigns that have stymied smokers from being able to take advantage of remarkable new technologies in harm reduction under the guise of protecting public health?
Dartmouth-led Study Shows …
E-Cigarette Switching Can Ease Respiratory Symptoms
Findings from a new study, conducted by a team of researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and collaborating institutions and published in the journal e-clinical Medicine, a member of the Lancet family of journals, show beneficial effects on functionally important respiratory symptoms when persons who smoke switch completely to e-cigarettes.
There is controversy about whether substituting noncombustible tobacco products for cigarettes can improve respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing and nighttime coughing, as this has been difficult to study.
On this Day…2023
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
