Vapers Digest 5th December

Friday’s News at a glance:

Parliamentary Matters ~ Index Repeats Crucial Error ~ How Australia’s Extreme Tobacco Taxes Created a Criminal Empire — with Expert Voices That Governments Can’t Ignore ~ Taxpayers pressures government in nicotine tax battle ~ WVA condemns EU “super tax” proposal on heated tobacco ~ How Tax Policy Can Reduce the Harm Caused by Smoking ~ Profile in Courage: The World Health Organization’s Lone Dissenters ~ Most Brits can’t identify an illegal vape, new survey finds ~ Russia steps up anti-vape crackdown with new regional retail ban ~ Promoting cigarettes, contraband, and human suffering. A brief intro into the new anti-vaping legislation in British Columbia, Canada. ~ Let’s talk e-cigarettes, November 2025 ~ We are no longer in the world of ‘unintended consequences’ – Why Restricting Vape Flavors Risks Driving Smokers Back to Cigarettes ~ CEO Breaks Down PMI’s Smoke-free Future for Investors ~ 5th Circ. Grills FDA on PMTA Rules ~ ETHRA November news roundup ~ Danish Presidency and European Commission push ‘super tax’ on heated tobacco as NGO influence overrides member state concerns ~ Denmark’s “Compromise” on the Tobacco Excise Directive Is Not a Compromise ~ New study: Swedish innovation reduces oral sores related to snus ~ The Dual Role of in Advancing Oral Health and Quitting Success ~ The Problems With ASH Scotland’s Midwife’s Guide to NRT ~ Imperial Tobacco Canada Calls for Action as CBC News Investigation Exposes Widespread Illegal Nicotine Pouch Sales ~ Expert Panel Backs e-Cigarettes for Cessation ~ Health select committee erupts into heated debate over roll out of oral tobacco and nicotine products ~ New Mexican Study Confirms that Prohibition Doesn’t Work ~ Driving Trust in Nicotine Product Safety Via Site and Trial Design | #GFN25 Science Discussion

Two From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Parliamentary Matters

Thrills and spills abound as Westminster literally pulsates with excitement as MPs ask questions related to vaping and get thrilling responses from government ministers. What do you mean? I’m exaggerating? Well, if I am, they started it. Bob Blackman asked a question he already knew the answer to, one there is no answer to, and one that the answer to is blindingly obvious. Hold on to your hats…

Index Repeats Crucial Error

The 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index repeats a crucial error by considering the vaping industry to be the same as the tobacco industry, according to vape company IVG. The company’s Commercial Director, Jacqueline Hoctor, writes about the subject on behalf of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).

How Australia’s Extreme Tobacco Taxes Created a Criminal Empire — with Expert Voices That Governments Can’t Ignore

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

Before anything else, let’s be clear: the government was warned. Experts from every sector, criminologists, economists, former AFP and Border Force officers, public-health analysts, retailers, and even international researchers, have said the same thing: Australia’s extreme tobacco taxes and prohibition-heavy nicotine policies were supercharging the black market. Yet when pressed, Minister Murray Watt denied it, waving away the evidence from Dr James Martin; dismissing retailer testimony; ignoring the ACIC wastewater data; brushing off a Lancet Public Health analysis confirming taxation-driven illicit supply; and even rejecting the CIS report documenting exactly how fragmented regulation and punitive excise created the perfect storm.

Taxpayers pressures government in nicotine tax battle

Stefan Mathisson, Vejpkollen

“Swedish snus users should not have to pay SEK 70 for a can of white snus” This is the view of the Swedish Taxpayers’ Association, which is now entering the debate on the EU’s proposal for a new tax on smokeless nicotine products. Through a petition, they want to give Swedish politicians support in negotiations with the other EU countries.

WVA condemns EU “super tax” proposal on heated tobacco

World Vapers’ Alliance

Adam Hoffer, Tax Foundation Europe

Tobacco harm reduction is at the forefront of excise tax policy discussions around the globe. Alternative tobacco products (ATPs) are at the heart of a heated debate regarding how to revise the European Tobacco Excise Directive (TED) and have been nearly the sole focus of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) for the past decade.

Profile in Courage: The World Health Organization’s Lone Dissenters

Christina Smith, Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The Eleventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from November 17-22. Member states sent delegations, and these representatives were expected to stick to the party line that vaping, heat-not-burn products and, incredibly, nicotine pouches are just as harmful as cigarettes and should play no role in smoking cessation. This dogma contradicts the wealth of evidence on these products’ relative safety and effectiveness as quit-smoking aids. Yet, there was a sea of conformity at COP11, and few dared to swim against the current. Member states such as Serbia and New Zealand courageously stood up for harm reduction even if it made WHO bureaucrats feel uncomfortable. For bringing some much-needed truth to a global agency untethered from reality, these dissenting countries are Profiles in Courage.

Two From Clearing The Air

Most Brits can’t identify an illegal vape, new survey finds

Ali Anderson

A new nationwide survey suggests the majority of UK adults are unable to distinguish legal vaping products from illegal ones.

The findings raise concerns about consumer safety and an escalating black market following the July 2025 disposable vape ban.

The research, conducted by nicotine pouch brand übbs, surveyed 1,000 adults across major UK cities and found that 68 per cent of respondents could not identify an illegal vape.

Despite months of warnings from health groups, trading standards and industry bodies, the findings indicate that consumers remain poorly equipped to navigate a market increasingly flooded with unregulated products.

Russia steps up anti-vape crackdown with new regional retail ban

Tim Hong

Russia has taken another significant step toward eliminating legal vape sales as one of its regions approved a full retail ban effective from March 1, 2026.

The law, introduced by Governor Dmitry Makhonin and passed after two readings, prohibits sales of all electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heated-tobacco devices and their components – regardless of nicotine content.

Individuals who violate the ban will face fines of ₽15,000 to ₽20,000 (€166 to €222), while companies could be penalised ₽50,000 to ₽100,000 (€554 to €1108). The region, Perm Krai, had already barred kiosk sales since 2024, but the new legislation closes off all remaining retail channels.

Danish Presidency and European Commission push ‘super tax’ on heated tobacco as NGO influence overrides member state concerns

Colin Stevens, EuReporter

A last-minute overhaul of the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED) shows the Danish Presidency and the European Commission embracing tax levels aligned with anti-tobacco NGO demands while ignoring repeated concerns raised by member states. Heated tobacco is targeted with a sudden “super tax” that critics say undermines harm-reduction goals and bypasses democratic scrutiny.

Denmark’s “Compromise” on the Tobacco Excise Directive Is Not a Compromise

Pouch Forum

The Danish Presidency has circulated what it presents as a compromise proposal for the revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive. In reality there is no compromise. The structure, logic and levels of taxation remain almost identical to the Commission’s original draft despite extensive objections from many Member States. None of the core concerns have been addressed. Minimum rates considered unacceptable by other Member States are unchanged. The approach to price parity provisions and inflation remains untouched. The delegated powers that would allow the Commission to raise the already unreasonably high minimum excise levels without political scrutiny are still there.

New study: Swedish innovation reduces oral sores related to snus

SnusForumet

For the first time, researchers have shown that technical innovations to snus pouches can help reduce sores and irritation in consumers’ mouths.

The findings come from a recent study showing that irritation, ulcers, or similar lesions on the oral mucosa linked to snus use can be prevented with a new pouch design.

The researchers behind the study, which was published in the journal Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, examined how different snus pouch designs affected tissue in the mouth.

The trial participants were all Swedish dentists. And the results were clear: with small, technical changes, both irritation and mucosal damage can be significantly reduced.

The Dual Role of in Advancing Oral Health and Quitting Success [PDF]

Tobaccoharmreduction.net

With 1.27 billion smokers worldwide and oral diseases affecting 3.7 billion people, this persistent failure represents

one of public health’s most devastating and preventable tragedies.

Yet within this crisis lies an unexpected breakthrough. Oral nicotine pouches (ONPs) represent a transformative

dual intervention, serving as highly effective cessation tools while directly improving oral health outcomes. Unlike combustible cigarettes that release thousands of toxic chemicals or traditional smokeless tobacco laden with

carcinogens, ONPs deliver nicotine without combustion, without tobacco leaf and with dramatically reduced harm.

The Problems With ASH Scotland’s Midwife’s Guide to NRT

Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch

ASH Scotland, the independent arm of Action on Smoking and Health, has released a guide to help midwives advise their patients about nicotine use during pregnancy. Sadly, it does more to confuse than educate.

Schrodinger’s nicotine

If you read a lot of public health information about nicotine, you’ll notice that nicotine often exists in a kind of superposition among health officials. Depending on the level of quackery we are dealing with, nicotine can be a lethal cancer-causing compound, something that destroys developing minds, or, in the case of ASH Scotland’s guidance, something that is safe to use during pregnancy.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Calls for Action as CBC News Investigation Exposes Widespread Illegal Nicotine Pouch Sales

Imperial Tobacco Canada, Cision

Imperial Tobacco Canada (Imperial) today urged federal decision-makers to take immediate action to address the rapidly growing illicit market for nicotine pouches in Canada, following a CBC News investigation that exposed widespread illegal sales in certain stores and online. The findings reinforce what Imperial has been warning about for months: the Ministerial Order forcing legal nicotine pouches like ZONNIC behind pharmacy counters has not protected youth. Instead, it has unintentionally accelerated the spread of unregulated, dangerous products.

Expert Panel Backs e-Cigarettes for Cessation

Serge Cannasse, Medscape

Electronic cigarettes have gained attention as an aid to smoking cessation, and some experts consider them an option alongside established treatments. Guidance remains cautious, however, because these products are not advised for pregnant or breastfeeding women or minors.

With limited robust clinical evidence on nicotine e-cigarettes, the French-speaking Society for Smoking Cessation convened an internal expert panel to assess the available data and determine whether a consensus could be reached. The findings were published in Archives of Public Health.

Health select committee erupts into heated debate over roll out of oral tobacco and nicotine products

Ruth Hill, Radio New Zealand (RNZ)

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has been back in the firing line on Wednesday over big tobacco’s influence, with a health select committee erupting into heated debate on government plans to roll out oral tobacco and nicotine products.

Last year, Cabinet agreed in principle to allow the sale of smokeless products (such as Swedish snus and nicotine pouches) – subject to the products meeting “safety requirements” and regulatory controls to stop youth access.

New Mexican Study Confirms that Prohibition Doesn’t Work

Prohibition does not work

Earlier this year, the Prohibition Does Not Work (PDNW) groundbreaking report, “Vapes & Violence: Mexico’s Prohibition Problem. set out the economic and public-health consequences of Mexico’s ban on lifesaving smoking alternatives and the rapid growth of the illicit market. This week, a new study by the Mexican human-rights organisation Defensorxs, Humo, Vapeo y Poder (“Smoke, Vaping and Power”), now provides an independent and deeply detailed confirmation of our central conclusion: prohibition has unleashed a human rights tragedy through strenghthening organised crime while doing nothing to reduce demand for nicotine.

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

Australia reaches peak clownshow

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

Congratulations if you had ‘doctor gives child cigarettes’ on your Australian clown show bingo card. I would have never thought of it myself. Seems too much like satire. Nevertheless, here we are…

E-Cigarettes and Public Health

Beverly Hallberg & Lindsey Stroud

Lindsey Stroud joins the podcast to discuss November’s Policy Focus: E-Cigarettes and Public Health. Tragically, 480,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases and illnesses. Many want to stop but struggle to do so and instead have transitioned from combustible cigarette use to safer e-cigarettes and vaping products.

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