Vapers Digest 1st December

Monday’s News at a glance:

Sri Lanka Warned for Restrictive Approach ~ GMP Seizes Over £1 million ~ Scholarship Entries Open ~ FCTC Principles Abandoned For Ideology ~ Cigarettes, Cravings, and EMDR: What the Feeling-State Protocol Tells Us About Smoking ~ The FCTC’s Fear of New Zealand: What Happens When Evidence Wins Against Ideology ~ Anti-Smoking Groups Worry that THR Strategies Like E-Cigarettes or Snus can Re-Normalise Smoking ~ Youth vaping rates halve within two years, ‘negligible’ number smoking – survey ~ Vaping no longer considered ‘cool’ by youths as underage vaping numbers drop ~ Disappointing news out of Gilgit-Baltistan; Pakistan: ~ Here’s How BC Can Help People Quit Smoking ~ UK Budget 2025: Vaping costs set to rise sharply ~ Vape aerosols show dramatically lower toxicity than cigarette smoke, new CoEHAR study finds ~ Regulation: E-cigarettes ~ Misunderstanding nicotine delivery: a discussion on nicotine pouches | #GFN25 Science Discussion

Three From Dave Cross, Planet of The Vapes

Sri Lanka Warned for Restrictive Approach

The South Asian island of Sri Lanka has been warned that its restrictive approach to safer nicotine alternatives, blocking access to safer products such as vapes ‘will cost 85,000 lives’. Details of how Sri Lanka is obstructing escape routes for tobacco users and squandering the chance to save lives is detailed in a major new report by international health experts.

GMP Seizes Over £1 million

Greater Manchester Police has seized over £1 million in criminal assets, including illegal disposable vapes, tackling organised criminality behind cash rich businesses during a month-long operation across October. Greater Manchester Police officers achieved this by working alongside partner agencies.

Scholarship Entries Open

1.2 billion people use risky tobacco worldwide, leading to eight million preventable deaths annually. The Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme run by Knowledge·Action·Change (K·A·C) is looking for individuals committed to tackling the public health crisis of tobacco use through harm reduction.

FCTC Principles Abandoned For Ideology

Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), Scoop

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) condemns the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat for permitting Bloomberg-funded prohibitionist NGOs to dictate policy narratives at COP11, directly contradicting the treaty’s foundational principles.

The “Dirty Ashtray Award” presented to New Zealand exposes a fundamental corruption of the FCTC process. The Secretariat has allowed ideologically-driven NGOs to write unaccountable rules, then shame countries refusing compliance with a prohibitionist script disconnected from real-world health outcomes.

This has nothing to do with saving lives. It is about control.

Cigarettes, Cravings, and EMDR: What the Feeling-State Protocol Tells Us About Smoking

Timothy Vermillion, DSW, LCSW, BCD, Paradise Institute

For years, most conversations about smoking have focused on nicotine, willpower, and “readiness to quit.” Useful, but incomplete. If you work with veterans or other high-stress populations, you already know: cigarettes are not just a chemical habit. They are tied to feelings—calm after chaos, connection with buddies, a moment of control when everything else is out of control.

The Feeling-State Addiction Protocol (FSAP), an EMDR-based approach, is built around that idea: addictions are powered by a fused link between a specific behavior and a powerful positive feeling state. Break that link, and the behavior loses its emotional jet fuel (Miller).

One small but interesting study applied this directly to smoking.

The FCTC’s Fear of New Zealand: What Happens When Evidence Wins Against Ideology

Alan Gor, Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)

Why New Zealand’s success is an existential threat to the WHO’s abstinence-only doctrine, and why Australia is held up as the obedient alternative.

For years, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has insisted that the only acceptable path to reducing smoking is abstinence: no nicotine, no alternatives, no deviation.

Their message is simple:

Quit or die, but don’t you dare switch.

Anti-Smoking Groups Worry that THR Strategies Like E-Cigarettes or Snus can Re-Normalise Smoking

Duncan Mlanjira, Nyasa Times

It has been observed that anti-smoking groups often oppose Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) strategies, such e-cigarettes or snus, because they are worried that these alternatives might undermine efforts by smokers to quit or that they might re-normalise smoking.

This was observed at the Good Conference of the Parties 2.0 during a panel discussion titled: ‘Where’s the Parade?-Why do Anti-Smoking Groups Oppose Harm Reduction’ — where it was discussed that some groups also believe these alternatives aren’t proven to be safe or effective long-term solutions.

Youth vaping rates halve within two years, ‘negligible’ number smoking – survey

Pretoria Gordon, Radio New Zealand (RNZ)

A survey of more than 30,000 of New Zealand’s Year 10 students has indicated that the perception of vaping is changing.

The number of teenagers who vaped regularly – once a month or more – had tripled between 2019 and 2021, peaking at 20.2 percent.

But the latest Action on Smoking and Health survey has found that number has halved since then.

“Vaping is not as cool as it used to be,” chairperson Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole told RNZ.

Vaping no longer considered ‘cool’ by youths as underage vaping numbers drop (Podcast)

Robert Beaglehole, Newstalk ZB

An anti-smoking group says young people don’t think vaping is as cool as it used to be.

Action on Smoking and Health has released the results of its survey which asks more than 30-thousand Year 10 students about their smoking habits.

It shows 7.1-percent of the age group vape daily – down from the 10-percent peak in 2022 – and less than a third have ever tried it.

ASH Chair Robert Beaglehole says Government policy has played a big role in the change.

He says it took some time for the regulation to catch up with the issue – but it is clearly working now.

Listen above.

Disappointing news out of Gilgit-Baltistan; Pakistan:

, LinkedIn

Disappointing news out of Gilgit-Baltistan; Pakistan:

The Provincial Assembly just passed the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Act 2025, slapping a total ban on all emerging tobacco products—from heated tobacco and vapes to smokeless pouches like VELO. No more sales, use, or promotion. Penalties are steep, and enforcement ramps up immediately.

This feels like a gut punch for Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) in Pakistan. We’re talking tools that could shift smokers toward less harmful options, yet they’re now off-limits in an entire region. The intent to protect youth is noble, but outright bans ignore the science showing these alternatives save lives compared to traditional cigarettes.

Here’s How BC Can Help People Quit Smoking

Craig Plain, The Tyee

Every day, I work with people who are ready to take one of the hardest steps in their lives, to quit smoking. For most, it’s a deeply personal decision, often years in the making, and it requires the right tools at the right time.

That is why I welcome the legislature’s budget committee recommendation that the government “consider increasing access to Health Canada-approved nicotine pouches by allowing their sale alongside tobacco products as a smoking cessation aid.”

The call is included in the report on budget consultations by the legislature’s standing committee on finance and government services. The committee held 16 public meetings and sought online comments.

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

UK Budget 2025: Vaping costs set to rise sharply

Vaping expenses will rise significantly next year following the tax increase confirmed in today’s Autumn Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her statement to reaffirm that a new excise duty on e-liquids will come into force from October 2025, marking the most substantial shake-up of vaping taxation since vapes entered the UK market.

According to estimates from vapeshop.co.uk, the price of a standard 10ml bottle of e-liquid will rise from around £3.99 to £6.44 once the new duty is applied. Larger bottles will be hit even harder: a typical 50ml shortfill currently retailing at around £11.99 is expected to jump to £25.20.

Vape aerosols show dramatically lower toxicity than cigarette smoke, new CoEHAR study finds

Four popular nicotine e-liquids produced dramatically less toxicity in human lung cells than cigarette smoke.

No reactive oxygen species (ROS) – a major marker of oxidative stress – were detected from any flavoured e-liquid aerosol.

Trace metals and microplastics in the e-liquids were found at very low levels, all below WHO drinking water limits.

Cigarette smoke caused severe cell damage, including mitochondrial breakdown, while e-liquids preserved cell integrity.

A major new lab study has shown that aerosols from nicotine e-liquids are vastly less toxic than cigarette smoke.

Regulation: E-cigarettes

Tobacco Insider

A group of Russian lawmakers introduced amendments proposing a full ban on the sale of vapes and vape liquids across the country, significantly tightening the earlier draft law focused on licensing trade in tobacco and nicotine products. The deputies behind the proposal argue that only a complete prohibition can adequately protect public health – especially children and adolescents – from the growing risks associated with vaping. Their initiative aligns with statements from national leadership calling for radical measures to curb youth nicotine use.

The ban is added to a broader regulatory package that will require retailers to obtain licenses for selling tobacco and nicotine products starting March 1, 2026, with unlicensed trade prohibited from September 1, 2026 and a transition period lasting until September 2027.

Misunderstanding nicotine delivery: a discussion on nicotine pouches | #GFN25 Science Discussion

Global Forum on Nicotine

Misunderstanding nicotine delivery: a discussion on nicotine pouches. PMI’s Carrie Wade and Gizelle Baker discuss the problems with comparing nicotine content of pouches with combustible tobacco. #GFN25 Science Lab discussions.

On this day…2016

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

To tax or not to tax?

Response to EU on taxing vaping and other reduced risk products

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual

European Commission consultation: the Commission is consulting on applying excise duties (i.e. tax) to vape products and other reduced risk alternatives to smoking – see here for consultation page with online form for interested parties to complete – please do add your response.

Snus, E-Cigs, Now iQos

ASH Hate Them All – Dick Puddlecote

So, after months of hearing about the things, Philip Morris have today launched their iQos ‘heat not burn’ system in the UK (albeit only in London).

The press have avidly taken up the story, most probably due to PMI CEO Andre Calantzopoulos dangling the media-friendly suggestion that the global company “could stop making conventional cigarettes”.

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