Vapers Digest 18th February
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Pouch Ban Triggers Warning ~ Cold Weather Warning ~ Expert Reaction to Ban Consultation ~ Government Considering Extending Bans ~ And So It Goes: The Cycle of Tobacco Tax Policy ~ New Pouch Mini-Review Highlights Potential in South and Southeast Asia ~ Nicotine industry body launches in Finland amid tighter regulation ~ Major review finds nicotine pouches could be safest alternative yet for smokers ~ Snus battle threatens new EU budget – Finland clashes with Sweden over taxes ~ Overshoot: How Australia’s Nicotine Policy Has Crossed Its Own Tipping Point ~ The Politics of Fear Calibration ~ Part II: The Scientists Are Doing Their Part. Advocates Must Do Theirs. ~ Smears, Bots, and Bureaucrats: The Next Phase of the EU Attack on THR ~ Impact Unfiltered and the Politics of Silencing ~ Spurious correlation news ~ Against the vape ban ~ From Tobacco to Ultraprocessed Food: How Industry Engineering Fuels the Epidemic of Preventable Disease ~ Vape manufacturers signal co-ordinated price increase ~ Vaping in cars carrying children to be banned in England ~ “Dual use” may be a statistical fiction, experts argue ~ Nicotine use has not fallen despite Australia’s vape crackdown, studies show ~ Harm reduction, not prohibition, right approach to nicotine ~ The holiday destinations cracking down on vaping, with hefty fines, jail sentences and even caning ~ MEXICO’S VAPE CRACKDOWN EXPLAINED!
Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
Pouch Ban Triggers Warning
Smoke Free Sweden tells Planet of the Vapes that new research exposes an alarming rise in lung cancer mortality among Spanish women. The organisation says this has triggered fierce criticism of Spain’s proposed ban on oral nicotine pouches. The international health experts are warning that the move will lock women into smoking and result in thousands of preventable deaths.
Cold Weather Warning
As temperatures plunge across the United Kingdom, vapers are donning extra sets of underpants and discovering that the phantom glove thief has removed one glove from every pair. As this wasn’t enough to be contending with, the cold presents issues when it comes to vapes – and the experts at Tablites are here to tell you all about the device damage and fire risk.
Expert Reaction to Ban Consultation
In our other article today, we detail how the Department of Health and Social Security has announced plans for a consultation on wide-ranging measures to prohibit vaping in various locations and equates secondhand vape with secondhand smoke – running contrary to advice from the NHS. Here, acknowledged experts on vape-related research and tobacco harm reduction give their reaction.
Government Considering Extending Bans
The Government is considering extending bans on where you can vape “to protect children from secondhand vape” including in your car. It has launched a consultation on extending smoke-free places and introducing vape-free and heated tobacco-free spaces. Vapers are encouraged to contribute their opinions to the government via the consultation website and directly to their MP.
Michael Landl, World Vapers’ Alliance
In the final hours of the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC)* session on the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED), a manoeuvre emerged that has left observers stunned. Andris Gobiņš, a Latvian member of the EESC, chose the very end of a long process to drop 24 amendments that would strip the draft of any economic and harm reduction realism.
The timing raises a critical question: Is this a genuine late-stage epiphany, or a coordinated strategy to bypass meaningful debate?
Impact Unfiltered and the Politics of Silencing
Amanda Matos, World Vapers’ Alliance
In recent weeks, a little-known NGO called Impact Unfiltered has found itself at the center of a troubling controversy in Brussels. The organization claimed that thousands of consumer submissions to the EU Tobacco Tax Consultation were not genuine, but rather coordinated, industry-driven, or outright fake. Despite offering no transparent methodology or verifiable evidence, those claims were taken seriously in policy circles, raising the possibility that the real voices of citizens could be ignored in the EU’s decision-making process.
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