Vapers Digest 3rd August
Monday’s News at a glance:
Two Presentations, One Crisis: When the Evidence Points Beyond Enforcement ~ Embracing the Health Benefits of Nicotine ~ Time to reform Australia’s failed policy on smoking and vaping ~ World Lung Cancer Day: To Reduce Lung Cancer in Africa, We Must Also Reduce Smoking ~ What can you do with 500 disposable vapes? Take a workshop off-grid and drive 18 miles ~ TAM: Ottawa’s proposed vape flavour ban ignores science and punishes 2 million adult Canadians
Alan Gor
Editor Note: Jerome Adams was the 20th Surgeon General of the United States from September 2017 to January 2021.
Time to reform Australia’s failed policy on smoking and vaping
Alex Wodak, Pearls And Irritations
Things that can’t go on forever, don’t. Australia’s sky high cigarette excise and absurdly restricted availability of safer vaping can’t go on forever.
Australia’s tobacco control policy should primarily aim to reduce its 24,000 smoking-related deaths per year as fast as possible. This requires rapidly reducing smoking rates. For some years, Australia has pursued a policy that has been, by international standards, both extremely radical and extremely hegemonic in that Australian governments, the health establishment and most mainstream media all sang from the same song sheet.
Current tobacco control policy relies heavily on exorbitant cigarette excise and severely restricting the availability of nicotine vapes. For some years, both these policies have had catastrophic unintended consequences.
World Lung Cancer Day: To Reduce Lung Cancer in Africa, We Must Also Reduce Smoking
Joeseph Magaro, Soko Directory
World Lung Cancer Day highlights that reducing smoking is the most effective way to lower lung cancer rates. In Africa, where access to cancer treatment is limited, prevention must be a primary public health objective.
Quitting all tobacco and nicotine remains the best option, yet many adults continue to smoke despite attempts. Public health policies should acknowledge this and provide evidence-based strategies to reduce smoking risks.
An important distinction is often overlooked: while nicotine is addictive, it is not the primary cause of lung cancer from smoking. The main risk comes from burning tobacco, which produces tar and thousands of toxic carcinogenic chemicals. Combustion makes cigarettes particularly harmful.
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