Vapers Digest 5th November
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
VPZ Speaks at Parliament ~ Rochdale Cops Shut Shops ~ ONS Smoking and Vaping Report ~ Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation ~ Study: E-cigarette flavor ban may push users to cigarettes ~ Two Former WHO Leaders Warn: Rejecting Harm Reduction Will Cost 100 Million Lives ~ Does the EU Commission think you are a rat? ~ The New Health Despotism: EU Commission Uses Nicotine Tax to Boost Its Clout ~ Brussels’ War on Tobacco Masks an Assault on National Power ~ Vapers overtake smokers for first time in Britain ~ The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is prohibitionist madness ~ OPINION: The Commission is trying to trick EU countries that support harm reduction. They must not fall for it. ~ ETHRA October news roundup ~ Why is Dr. Glantz Calling a Letter from an Independent Public Health Practitioner an “Aggressive Lobbying Effort” by the Tobacco Industry? ~ America’s Focus on Vaping Misses the Point ~ Vaping as a Harm Reduction Tool: What the FDA Gets Wrong in Its Approach ~ Can India learn from Saudi’s bold tobacco quit strategy? ~ Two Major Powers With Contrasting Plans for COP11: Does THR Stand a Chance? ~ Bhutan Implements 115% E-Cigarette Tax ~ Will the Conference of the Parties (COP11) in 2025 support tobacco harm reduction? ~ Thailand’s Fast-Tracked Vaping Crackdown Risks Public Health Amid National Mourning ~ 🛑 Reacting to Attorney General Niki Sharma’s push for Bill 24 — and why Canadians should be alarmed. ~ Vaping Behind the Smoke and Fears with Dr Mark Tyndall Part 2 Smoking, Vaping, and Health Equity ~ Challenging Perceptions. Effective Communication for Tobacco Harm Reduction – Discussion | #GFN25
Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
VPZ Speaks at Parliament
VPZ, the UK’s leading vape retailer, says it has strengthened its position as a responsible and credible authority on vape regulation following three formal parliamentary meetings held on Tuesday 28th October. They took place following the first Committee Stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in the House of Lords.
Rochdale Cops Shut Shops
Two further shops have been shut down for the sale of illicit products, as Rochdale Borough Council and its partners continue to clamp down on illegal activity. With a flood of similar stories to POTV Towers, it seems like Trading Standards departments have been instructed to shout about their successes.
ONS Smoking and Vaping Report
The Office for National Statistics has released a report on 2024 adult smoking habits in the UK, Tuesday 4th November. This report is one of the UK’s most significant and extensive annual report on smoking, e-cigarettes and vaping statistics, including statistics on cigarette smoking habits among adults in the UK and the use of e-cigarettes.
Cochrane Library
Rationale
Electronic cigarettes (EC) are handheld electronic vaping devices that produce an aerosol by heating a liquid. People who smoke, healthcare providers, and regulators want to know if EC can help people quit smoking, and if they are safe to use for this purpose. This review update was conducted as part of a living systematic review.
Objectives
To examine the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of EC for helping people who smoke tobacco achieve long‐term smoking abstinence, in comparison to non‐nicotine EC, other smoking cessation treatments, and no treatment.
Study: E-cigarette flavor ban may push users to cigarettes
Aisha Morales, WBAY
When researchers looked at statewide bans on flavored e-cigarettes and the effects on different age groups, they found the bans did not affect e-cigarette use by teens or young adults.
However, for users between 18 and 24, the bans led to an increase in traditional cigarette smoking.
The study put together data from different reviews and surveys, including the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Does the EU Commission think you are a rat?
Michael Landl, World Vapers’ Alliance
Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi used the FILTERED Conference to address the EU cardiovascular plan and signalled that the EU Commission plans to increase taxation and regulation on less harmful nicotine products, such as vaping and nicotine pouches.
In his opening line, he points out that the organisers, the FILTERED Project, are funded by the EU. That alone should raise eyebrows, because FILTERED is not just an event organiser or research group. It is a lobbying initiative that actively campaigns for stricter rules on vaping and other nicotine alternatives.
Two From The European Conservative
The New Health Despotism: EU Commission Uses Nicotine Tax to Boost Its Clout
Tobias Teuscher
Enough with enjoyment! EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) now intends to wipe out the tobacco industry worldwide, straight out of Brussels. Under the pretext of environmental protection and the abolition of tax competition between member states, a new form of political virtue-administration is emerging in Brussels: pleasure-free, risk-free, contradiction-free. Pleasure becomes a case for suspicion, enjoyment a taxable sin. Until the tobacco industry is finally extinguished for good, its last puffs are meant to fill the EU budget.
Brussels’ War on Tobacco Masks an Assault on National Power
Javier Villamor
The European Union is preparing one of the most drastic measures in its recent history: the prohibition of cigarette filters and electronic cigarettes. The draft forms part of the EU’s position for the upcoming World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco control conference (COP11), scheduled for November 17–22 in Geneva.
But beyond the sanitary or environmental narrative, the plan represents a new attempt by Brussels to concentrate fiscal and regulatory powers at the expense of the Member States.
Vapers overtake smokers for first time in Britain
Philippa Roxby, BBC
For the first time in Great Britain, there are more over-16s using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking cigarettes, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Some 5.4 million adults use vapes daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million using cigarettes, an ONS survey for 2024 suggests.
Daily use of vapes is most common among 25-49 year olds, with rising use among women.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is prohibitionist madness
Rob Lyons, Spiked
According to the Office for National Statistics’ latest figures, published today, the proportion of the adult population in the UK who smoke cigarettes fell from 11.9 per cent (six million) in 2023 to 10.6 per cent (5.3million) in 2024.
Smoking rates have been falling steadily for decades, with or without government intervention, and in the past 15 years a significant factor has been smokers switching voluntarily to reduced-risk products such as vapes and, more recently, nicotine pouches.
OPINION: The Commission is trying to trick EU countries that support harm reduction. They must not fall for it.
Peter Beckett, Clearing The Air
When EU negotiations go late into the night, it invariably means “we can’t agree on something”. That’s exactly what happened at yesterday’s meeting of EU countries to determine the bloc’s position on the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which will be discussed later in the month at the UN in Geneva. There is no white smoke yet, and apparently there’s a risk that there is no EU position on some of the items.
From what I understand there are two camps. The first – let’s call them the prohibitionists – are led by the Commission, Belgium (who seem to want to hand the nicotine market to cocaine smugglers), France and Ireland. They want the EU to go to the next WHO meeting on Tobacco Control supporting resolutions that would endorse the banning of safer nicotine products.
ETHRA October news roundup
European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA)
ETHRA’s monthly roundup of news: EU COP11 position – Tobacco Taxation – ETHRA writes to SANT – UK 20 is Plenty Campaign – Is Vaping a Gateway to Smoking? – COP-11: a survival guide for delegates – E-Cigarettes in Historical Context – Anti-Vaping Advocate Misrepresenting Science – Country updates. Read on for more.
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