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Vapers Digest 28th August

Kevin CrowleyPosted on Posted in Latest News

Friday’s News at a glance:

Philanthropic Colonialism Warning ~ Retailers Warned About Age of Sale Changes ~ Three Hundred Firebombings: How Many More Before Australia Changes Course? ~ Simon Chapman’s $10 Cigarette Argument Accidentally Makes the Case for Cutting Tobacco Excise ~ When Evidence Challenges the Status Quo: Senator Dorinda Cox and Australia’s Tobacco Policy Reckoning ~ Cochrane evidence must guide UK rules on vapes ~ Media Watch: SCI News on NicoTeen Depression and Anxiety ~ Big Tobacco turns to more potent nicotine pouches in battle for US ~ A cross-country road trip uncovered a booming illicit nicotine pouch market ~ STONE: Two years after Ottawa’s nicotine pouch restrictions — Canadians trying to quit deserve more than ‘trust us’ ~ In defense of nicotine ~ Before the TPD proposal: Cochrane gives vaping its highest grade of evidence ~ Op-Ed: Harry Shapiro – Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction ~ US court overturns FDA vape denials over unlawful rule ~ Vaping is better than patches or gums for quitting smoking – updated review ~ 80,000 Responses Later, Will the EU Listen to the Evidence on Tobacco Harm Reduction? ~ Bureaucrats shouldn’t stand between smokers and safer choices ~ Canada has an illegal nicotine market. ~ DOJ Decision Weakens FDA’s Ability to Impose Monetary Penalties on Retailers that Sell Unauthorized Tobacco Products ~ USA: Tobacco Regulation – States ~ Does Prohibition Actually Protect Public Health?

Two From Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Philanthropic Colonialism Warning

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has issued a warning that the tobacco cessation grants round from Bloomberg’s Vital Strategies risks philanthropic colonialism. It goes on to warn that donor-driven frameworks which sideline harm reduction end up fuelling illegal markets and prolonging the use of combustible tobacco products.

Retailers Warned About Age of Sale Changes

The Local Government Association (LGA) is encouraging retailers to prepare for new measures under the Tobacco and Vapes Act with new government guidance. New guidance from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) covers measures due to come into force on 29 October 2026 and 1 January 2027, including new age-of-sale requirements for tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, restrictions on free distribution, fixed penalty notices and a ban on vending machines selling tobacco and vaping products.

Three From Alan Gor

Three Hundred Firebombings: How Many More Before Australia Changes Course?

There are numbers that should change a public policy debate, and three hundred firebombings are surely one of them. Australia has now crossed an extraordinary threshold, with the Tobacco Wars tracker reporting more than 300 firebombings nationally associated with the illicit tobacco conflict, while UNSW researchers recently reported that nearly 300 arson attacks linked to the illicit tobacco trade had occurred since 2023 alongside extortion, intimidation and murders. This is no longer an inconvenient black market operating quietly behind the counter. It is a violent criminal economy operating in Australian suburbs.

Simon Chapman’s $10 Cigarette Argument Accidentally Makes the Case for Cutting Tobacco Excise

Simon Chapman’s latest attack on tobacco excise reform is certainly colourful. “Brain farts”, “commercially illiterate”, “drunken sailor”, “fantasists”. But once the rhetoric is stripped away, the economic argument is considerably less convincing.

When Evidence Challenges the Status Quo: Senator Dorinda Cox and Australia’s Tobacco Policy Reckoning

Senator Dorinda Cox and the Government Senators had an extraordinary body of evidence placed before them during the Senate inquiry into Australia’s illegal tobacco crisis. They heard about organised crime, collapsing legal tobacco sales, billions of dollars in lost revenue, enormous quantities of illicit cigarettes entering Australia, widespread illegal vaping and the limitations of enforcement, yet Senator Cox and her Labor colleagues emerge from the inquiry largely defending the policy architecture that helped create the conditions now being investigated.

Cochrane evidence must guide UK rules on vapes

Smoke Free Sweden

Major new research which identifies vapes as the most effective quit-smoking aid should guide UK lawmakers as they consider strict new rules on safer nicotine alternatives, say international health experts.

The landmark Cochrane review found that smokers using nicotine-containing vapes are up to 67% more likely to quit than those using traditional nicotine-replacement therapies, such as patches or gum. Vapes are also twice as effective as behavioural support alone or attempting to quit without assistance.

Media Watch: SCI News on NicoTeen Depression and Anxiety

The Daily Pouch

There is a really interesting paper titled “How readers understand causal and correlational expressions used in news headlines” (Adams, 2007). As you might gather from the title, it looks at how readers interpret news headlines, and in particular, how much causation they think the wording communicates.

Over the course of four controlled experiments, participants were shown short, headline-like claims that spanned a variety of subjects. After each headline, they were asked the question:

“According to the headline, to what extent does [X] cause [Y]?”

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Two From Clearing The Air

Op-Ed: Harry Shapiro – Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction

Harry Shapiro

As the new Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report shows, THR inexorably marches on, but the spectre of denial is ever present.

“Time’s glory is to…unmask falsehood and bring truth to light”. Shakespeare

Despite temperatures soaring, wildfires destroying thousands of hectares across the globe and widespread drought damaging food security with increasing regularity – dare I say it – combustion is all the rage. Yet there are high profile (invariably) right wing politicians who publicly deny the whole idea of climate change or who deny we humans are to blame. Step up Trump, Putin, former Brazilian president Bolsonaro and the current Argentine incumbent Javier Milei.

US court overturns FDA vape denials over unlawful rule

Ali Anderson

A US federal appeals court has overturned a series of FDA decisions blocking vaping products from the market after ruling that the regulator used an unlawfully imposed standard that amounted to a “de facto ban”.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on August 19 granted seven consolidated challenges brought by vape manufacturers and retailers, vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial orders and sent the cases back to the agency.

Vaping is better than patches or gums for quitting smoking – updated review

Wayne Hall, The Conversation

If you’ve ever been a smoker, you’ll know how hard it is to quit. It can take as many as 30 attempts to finally break the habit.

An updated Cochrane review assessed the evidence of which common tools are most effective to help people quit smoking for six months.

It found e-cigarettes (or vapes) containing nicotine are more effective than other types of nicotine-replacement therapies (including patches and gums) and counselling support.

FDA Authorizations Reveal Big Tobacco’s Growing Hold on the THR Marketplace

Lindsey Stroud, Tobacco Harm Reduction 101 (THR101)

On August 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued marketing authorization orders to Swedish Match USA, Inc. for 11 nicotine pouch products sold under the ZYN ULTRA brand name. The newly authorized products include a wide variety of flavors, from citrus to wintergreen, and nicotine strengths of 9 mg and 11 mg.

While many tobacco harm reduction advocates have applauded the agency’s relatively quick turnaround in authorizing Swedish Match’s premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs), the latest orders also highlight a broader problem with the existing regulatory system: the companies best positioned to navigate the costly and complex process are increasingly securing a dominant position in the U.S. tobacco harm reduction marketplace.

80,000 Responses Later, Will the EU Listen to the Evidence on Tobacco Harm Reduction?

Diane Caruana, Vaping Post

The European Union is entering a potentially decisive period for tobacco harm reduction. With its latest tobacco consultation now closed, Brussels must decide whether future regulation will recognise the very different risks posed by cigarettes, vapes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches—or increasingly treat them as variations of the same problem.

Bureaucrats shouldn’t stand between smokers and safer choices

Christina Smith, Orange County Register

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has historically made a terrible habit of curtailing access to products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, which can give adult smokers less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. But a sudden policy shift under the Trump administration suggests reality is finally breaking through the regulatory bureaucracy and red tape.

Canada has an illegal nicotine market.

Jerry Agar, Iheart

(Editor note: Podcast)

JerryAgar 1010 speaks with Maria Papaioannoy, founder of Rights4Vapers about the nicotine market.

DOJ Decision Weakens FDA’s Ability to Impose Monetary Penalties on Retailers that Sell Unauthorized Tobacco Products

Yolonda C. Richardson, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

In yet another U.S. Government action that benefits the tobacco industry and harms public health, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to appeal a court decision that ruled against the FDA’s use of civil money penalties for retailers that are found selling illegal tobacco products. This decision backs away from one of the FDA’s strongest enforcement tools against the many unauthorized e-cigarettes and other illegal tobacco products currently on the market – including flavored products with proven youth appeal.

USA: Tobacco Regulation – States

Tobacco Insider

The California Legislature has passed landmark legislation banning the sale and distribution of disposable, single-use e-cigarettes, moving the state to the forefront of national efforts to curb electronic waste and mitigate recycling facility fires. The measure, Assembly Bill 762 (AB 762), targets single-use vaping products that embed non-removable lithium-ion batteries inside disposable plastic housings. The bill passed both houses of the state legislature following strong advocacy from environmental, waste management, and public health coalitions.

Does Prohibition Actually Protect Public Health?

Global Forum on Nicotine

Does prohibition protect public health – or can it make the problem worse? At #GFN26, Brent Stafford speaks with Alex Wodak and Ian Fearon about the unintended consequences of prohibition, the rise of illicit nicotine markets, and the growing divide over tobacco harm reduction.

On this day…2019!

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

Vaping and Your Respiratory Health: Interview with Prof Polosa

James Dunworth, Ashtray Blog

Professor Polosa has recently completed his latest study, a review of the effect of vaping on respiratory health. We got together with Riccardo Polosa to discuss how vaping can reverse harm, the potential to reduce infections, the latest controversy over vaping and respiratory diseases in the US and more.

CDC’s Bias Against E-Cigarettes Is Putting Kids’ Lives at Risk

Michael Siegel, National Review

The agency fails to single out the specific products that are causing harm.

In the wake of a teen death from vaping, health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are taking an anti-vaping posture. So far, the CDC’s advice to the public has been incredibly vague: The agency has warned against vaping in general, without admonishing the public to avoid any particular type of vaping product.

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