Vapers Digest 11th May

Monday’s News at a glance:

FDA vape regulation “untethered from reality” ~ Trump Is Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary ~ Makary thought his job as FDA commissioner was safe – until the moment it wasn’t ~ US FDA to ease crackdown on some under-review unauthorized vapes ~ FDA Issues Guidance on Enforcement Priorities for Unauthorized ENDS and Nicotine Pouch Products ~ The Scientists and Academics Who Carry the Weight of Tobacco Harm Reduction ~ The Cracks in Australia’s Anti-Vaping Narrative Are Becoming Impossible to Ignore ~ The Inquiry That Exposed Australia’s Tobacco Control Contradiction ~ The Times Solution to Non-Existent Problem is as Creepy as it is Out of Touch ~ Health Policy Watch are Morally Lost on Bangladesh ~ Fire VarHar ~ Quiet, children. The grown ups are talking. ~ Tobacco Harm Reduction Should Be Part of HIV Care ~ Belgium to ban flavoured vapes from 2028 as crackdown intensifies ~ Why some vape studies miss the people who actually quit smoking ~ What Pakistani Doctors Don’t Know About Nicotine Could Be Costing Lives ~ Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund Hires Sachs Media ~ England’s proposed anti-vaping policy casually tramples over basic rights

FDA vape regulation “untethered from reality”

Clive Bates, Brad Rodu, Sally Satel, David Sweanor,

Stefanie Miller, The Counterfactual by Clive Bates

This is a long article; a comment on the FDA’s Draft Guidance for Industry: Flavored ENDS Premarket Applications – Considerations Related to Youth Risk

Comment by: Clive Bates, Stefanie Miller, Brad Rodu, Sally Satel, and David Sweanor. Available as a PDF (18 pages) at the download link below.

Summary – the Draft Guidance is untethered from reality

The health and well-being of over 60 million Americans, by far the majority being adults, are directly affected by Draft Guidance that shapes the lawful market for safer alternatives to smoking, including popular flavored ENDS.

Trump Is Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary

Liz Essley Whyte, Josh Dawsey, Wall Street Journal

President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, according to people familiar with the matter, following a tumultuous period for the regulator that included clashes over vaping, abortion and drug policy.

[PDF version Trump Is Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary) ]

Two From The Daily Pouch

Media Watch: The Times Solution to Non-Existent Problem

is as Creepy as it is Out of Touch

The Daily Pouch

Adult smoking in the UK was about 45% in the mid-60s. It is now down to 10%. Getting to this point has involved a series of interventions in the form of:Health educationLarge media campaignsHigher prices and taxesSmoke-free lawsStigmatisation of smokingAvailability of harm-reduction products.

Of course, once you get through the loose soil, you reach a bedrock of hardcore smokers who are less susceptible to stopping. Solving this problem will require more desperate measures, which is also true for youth smoking, which has dropped from 9% to 1% in around a decade.

Health Policy Watch are Morally Lost on Bangladesh

Joseph Hart

There is a big difference between knowing what to think and knowing how to think. Too often, this failure makes people and organisations blind to simple facts or apply basic morality to their opinions. Today, we present to you a special case where a non-profit has become so detached from reality that it’s bordering on contempt for the people they’re meant to protect.

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

Fire VarHar

David Zaruk, Firebreak

The European Commission has its own version of a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) leader: Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi (or VarHar). When VarHar posts a text on X, it is often followed by a long list of Community Notes correcting his false statements. When he gives a speech, the news more often reports on his outrageous or unsubstantiated remarks. Rather than engaging with the health communities and consulting their views, he approaches policy and stakeholders in a confrontational manner, in the same fashion as the person who appointed him, former Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

Quiet, children. The grown ups are talking.

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove – Iron Fist

Accelerationists believe that things have to get worse before they get better and that the faster things get worse, the sooner people will wake up and demand radical change.

I’ve always been sceptical about this because, as Adam Smith said, there is a lot of ruin in a nation. Some people will never change their minds or admit that they were wrong.

Tobacco Harm Reduction Should Be Part of HIV Care

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

Globally, around 41 million people are living with HIV. And just about everywhere, smoking rates for this population are far higher—anywhere up to four times higher—than national averages.

In Australia, for instance, 21 percent of people with HIV smoke, compared to 11 percent of the general population. In countries such as Austria, Germany and Italy, around half of people with HIV smoke. In South Africa, which has the world’s highest HIV rate, general rates of smoking are 32 percent for men and 7 percent for women; for people with HIV, those rates are 52 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Belgium to ban flavoured vapes from 2028 as crackdown intensifies

Belgium will ban flavoured vapes from 1 September 2028, in a move ministers say is aimed at reducing youth uptake.

The decision, approved by the federal government, means only tobacco or neutral flavours will be permitted. Popular options such as bubblegum, cola and fruit will be removed from the market.

Why some vape studies miss the people who actually quit smoking

A major new review of US vaping research is raising uncomfortable questions about how some of the most influential studies on vaping and smoking cessation are designed – and whether they may be systematically overlooking people who successfully stop smoking by switching to vapes.

The paper, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, examined 28 studies using data from the US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study – one of the world’s largest tobacco behaviour datasets.

What Pakistani Doctors Don’t Know About Nicotine Could Be Costing Lives

Zia Uddin, LinkedIn

There is a question worth sitting with: if the person advising you to quit smoking is working from inaccurate information, what are the odds your cessation attempt will succeed? This is not hypothetical. Endit Foundation spent six months surveying 312 healthcare professionals across Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar — doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and allied health practitioners — asking them what they know and believe about Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) products. The results were sobering, not because the professionals were careless or indifferent, but because the system that trained them let them down. Pakistan has a serious tobacco problem

Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund Hires Sachs Media

Legis1 News

The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund has filed a new lobbying registration disclosure, bringing on Sachs Media Inc. to advocate on tobacco policy. The registration, signed April 28, 2026, adds a fourth firm to the organization’s federal lobbying operation.

The Fund has maintained an active federal lobbying presence, and this new engagement signals an expansion rather than a pivot. The addition of Sachs Media comes at a moment when federal tobacco control policy faces pressure from multiple directions, including proposed budget cuts to the FDA and regulatory rollbacks on flavored tobacco products.

England’s proposed anti-vaping policy casually tramples over basic rights

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual

I responded to the Department of Health and Social Care consultation on Smoke-free, heated tobacco-free and vape-free places in England (closed 8 May 2026).

The short version is that the Department has failed to make a credible case for central government intervention through legislation. The government ignored the superior alternative option of letting the owners and managers of properties, including local authorities, and education and healthcare providers, decide policy based on their specific and evolving circumstances. The key policy question is not what the policy should be in any particular place, but who should decide.

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

Vapers Digest 11th May

Monday’s News at a glance:

Clive Bates, Brad Rodu, Sally Satel, David Sweanor,

Stefanie Miller, The Counterfactual by Clive Bates

Liz Essley Whyte, Josh Dawsey, Wall Street Journal

[PDF version Trump Is Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary) ]

David Lim, Sophia Cai, Politico

Reuters

Three From Al Gor

Two From The Daily Pouch

The Daily Pouch

Joseph Hart

David Zaruk, Firebreak

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove – Iron Fist

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Zia Uddin, LinkedIn

Legis1 News

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual

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

You’re Simply Common Prohibitionists – Dick Puddlecote

Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

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