Vapers Digest 22nd August

Friday’s News at a glance:

UKVIA Fears Relapse Impact – Parliament Matters 2 – Manufacturers Need to Champion Environment – The State of Academic Research on Nicotine, Part 2 – Epidemiology should be designed to measure; epidemiologists usually do it wrong – Misleading by design: experts slam Daily Mail for exaggerating youth vaping harms – India’s policy think tank calls for vape ban change as illicit youth use surges – EU Plan to Heavily Tax Safer Substitutes for Cigarettes Draws Fire – Harm Reduction or Harm Creation? Rethinking Global Tobacco Policy – Postal Service Joins Federal Vape Crackdown – RFK Jr. calls pouches ‘safest way to consume nicotine’ – American Manufacturing is Pushing Big Tobacco Aside in the Vape Market – Altria announced the launch of on! PLUS nicotine pouches in the U.S. – Indonesia’s PP No. 28/2024 Threatens to Reinforce Cigarette Use Through Misguided Regulation – Experts: WHO tobacco policy ineffective as smoking rates remain high – Battling unregulated vapes, Big Tobacco tries a new strategy: joining in – Is the Disposable Vape Ban Working? – After Disposable Vape Ban, Britons Throw Away Reusables Instead – SWEDEN’S SECRET | Nicotine Innovation Challenging the Norms

Three From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

UKVIA Fears Relapse Impact

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is concerned at the prospect of vapers returning to smoking in the wake of the implementation of the single-use vapes ban. The trade organisation says it is not surprised to discover that one in four vapers who previously used disposables have returned to smoking or switched to illicit products since the single-use ban came into effect.

Parliament Matters 2

Opposition Whip Andrew Snowden pushed the Education Department on the impact of the disposable vapes ban on schools. Meanwhile, Conservative Party Chair Kevin Hollinrake questioned the Department for Transport about vape bans on the buses. Hollinrake also pushed the Department for Health and Social Care for extensions to bans on vaping in public spaces – including bus stops.

Manufacturers Need to Champion Environment

In response to mounting concerns over the environmental impact of discarded vaping products, the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is calling on manufacturers to show genuine leadership in sustainability and social responsibility.

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Misleading by design: experts slam Daily Mail for exaggerating youth vaping harms

Leading tobacco control experts have described a Daily Mail article claiming that vapes have a “devastating health impact” on young people as “misleading by design”.

Experts say the paper behind the headline does not show causation, excludes benefits by design, and relies heavily on low-quality evidence.

The study, published in Tobacco Control, is an umbrella review of reviews – an analysis of existing systematic reviews rather than new research. Led by the University of York and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, it aggregated 56 reviews of youth vaping and reported associations with later smoking, asthma, coughing, injuries, and some mental health outcomes.

India’s policy think tank calls for vape ban change as illicit youth use surges

India’s top policy think tank is calling for a review of the country’s vape ban amid growing evidence of illicit use among young people.

“India’s ban on e-cigarettes may have slowed uptake, but rising illicit use among youth demands urgent policy and public health attention,” said Nimisha Chadha of the Observer Research Foundation’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy.

EU Plan to Heavily Tax Safer Substitutes for Cigarettes Draws Fire

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

The European Union is looking to impose heavy and unprecedented bloc-wide taxes on safer nicotine products. Tobacco harm reduction advocates and scientists are among the opponents of a measure they say will hamper efforts to reduce smoking. And their hopes have been boosted by individual countries raising objections—when all 27 EU nations would need to agree on the proposal.

Harm Reduction or Harm Creation? Rethinking Global Tobacco Policy

Diane Caruana, Vaping Post

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) recently released a powerful report, “The Right to Health and Public Health Policy,” authored by C.Y. Virgino and N.E. Loucas, which exposes a disheartening contradiction. While governments invoke the human right to health—enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights—they continue to lean on heavy taxation of combustible cigarettes (thus sustaining government revenue), while suppressing safer alternatives like vapes and nicotine pouches.

Postal Service Joins Federal Vape Crackdown

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has joined other federal agencies to crack down on the sale and distribution of vaping products not authorized for U.S. sale by the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The multi-agency federal crackdown has intensified under the Trump administration, despite President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to “save vaping.”

RFK Jr. calls pouches ‘safest way to consume nicotine’

Sean Salai, The Washington Times

Smokeless nicotine pouches placed between the lips and gums could provide the safest alternative to cigarettes for addicts, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

President Trump’s top health adviser told Brazilian media last month that the pouches, which require no spitting since they do not contain tobacco, could help save Americans roughly $640 billion a year in cigarette smoke-related health costs.

“I think the nicotine pouches are probably the safest way to consume nicotine,” Mr. Kennedy said in a July 30 interview posted on YouTube. “Vapes are second. But the thing we really want to get away from are cigarettes.”

American Manufacturing is Pushing Big Tobacco Aside in the Vape Market

Rachel Alexander, Town Hall

The tobacco industry has been waging a war against the vaping industry, getting laws passed to restrict the competing new businesses. But this is because Big Tobacco wants to take over the industry themselves, fully aware that smokers are gradually transitioning to vaping. There are currently 1.36 billion tobacco users worldwide, with the vast majority cigarette smokers, compared to 82 million vapers worldwide, a significant increase from 68 million in 2020.

Altria announced the launch of on! PLUS nicotine pouches in the U.S.

Tobacco Insider

Altria’s Helix subsidiary announced that on! PLUS nicotine pouches will be launched in North Carolina, Texas, and Florida in Fall 2025. on! PLUS is manufactured in Richmond, Virginia, and will be available in Mint, Wintergreen, and Tobacco flavors. Each pouch is offered in multiple nicotine strengths (6mg, 9mg, and 12mg) and features Altria’s proprietary NICOSILK mesh technology. Read more: On Plus (on! PLUS) Nicotine Pouches

Indonesia’s PP No. 28/2024 Threatens to Reinforce Cigarette Use Through Misguided Regulation

Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates, GlobalNewsWire

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) today warned that Indonesia’s proposed PP No. 28 Tahun 2024 risks undermining public health and entrenching cigarette dominance by restricting access to proven harm reduction alternatives.

Indonesia is one of the world’s largest cigarette markets, where millions of people who smoke could benefit from reduced-risk alternatives, so the regulations must be fit for purpose and embrace harm reduction.

Experts: WHO tobacco policy ineffective as smoking rates remain high

Manila Standard Business

Public health and consumer advocates have urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to rethink its tobacco control strategy, warning that two decades of efforts have failed to significantly cut global smoking rates.

Speaking at the 2025 Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) in Poland, panelists said the WHO’s prohibition-driven stance is out of step with harm reduction practices. They said these practices could help over a billion smokers quit or switch to less harmful products like heated tobacco, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

SWEDEN’S SECRET | Nicotine Innovation Challenging the Norms

Global Forum on Nicotine

Sweden’s success with snus and now nicotine pouches proves tobacco harm reduction is a model for helping millions quit smoking. But there’s a secret behind this success. Shot on location at GFN 2025 in Warsaw, Poland, we speak with Anna Franzén and Tomas Hammargren of Emplicure about the big questions surrounding nicotine policy and the realities of recreational use.

On this day…2022

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

Illegal Sales Raids

Dave Cross

Various Trading Standards departments have been busy across the United Kingdom during 2022. The enforcement action on illegal sales of vape products continued recently in Gloucestershire. Teams of officers supported by the police have raided a series of stores across the country.

FDA and (Lack of) Access to THR

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been in the news recently for its role in regulating vapor products, it was not until 2009 that the agency was given authority to regulate tobacco products when Congress passed the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA).

Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World

Vapers Digest 22nd August

Friday’s News at a glance:

Three From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Arielle Selya PhD, Selya Behavioral Science Substack

Carl V Phillips, PhD, Carl V Phillips’s epistemic musings