Vapers Digest 30th October
Friday’s News at a glance:
Smoke Free Europe ~ Where Illegal Pouches Thrive ~ Surge in High Nic Vaping ~ MHRA Updating Vape Database ~ When Listening Becomes Another Way to Lecture ~ E-Cigarettes: effective for smoking cessation even without behavioral support ~ Cobra Effect and the End of Cigarettes ~ Dear PM Carney, Did They Just Tell You to Ban Vape Flavours Because Michael Bloomberg Wants It? ~ Researcher Challenges Mouse Studies Claiming Thirdhand Vaping Risks to Children ~ Seoul, Between 350 and 900 Degrees ~ Quitting smoking: vaping helps without support, but twice as well with it ~ Where Is Snus Legal? ~ The Riksdag backs a hard line against the EU – but Sweden is under pressure over nicotine taxes ~ A Future of Quitting Smoking That Excludes The Most Effective Method? ~ Ireland Is Banning Vape Flavors. This Shop Owner Warns It Could Cost Lives. ~ The Global Illicit Nicotine Pouch Report 2026 ~ Virginia Youth Vaping Nearly Halves as State Enforces Restrictive Vape Directory ~ France rejects lifetime tobacco ban and targets health misinformation ~ Gutka: Tobacco Control’s Indifference to Improving Public Health ~ Our Email to Health Canada Demanding Action Against Les Hagen of Ash for Encouraging the PM to Listen to Bloomberg ~ Unpacking Australia’s illicit tobacco trade ~ Canadian Vaping Association Says Flavour Bans Are a Gift to the Illicit Market ~ No, Prof Reddy, Nicotine is Not the Killer ~ Vape shops call for clarity after Chancellor strips away rates relief – as smokers and vapers avoid further inflation-busting tax hikes in Budget ~ Sweden Threatens EU Tobacco Tax Deal as Nicotine Pouch Duty Dispute Looms Over November 9 Meeting ~ No Clear Rules | Mi-Pod’s Finance Chief on Uncertainty Facing U.S. Vaping | RegWatch ~ASIA FORUM ON NICOTINE 2026: MIDDAY SESSIONS ~ ASIA FORUM ON NICOTINE 2026: AFTERNOON SESSIONS
Four From Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
Smoke Free Europe
The World Vapers’ Alliance launched its campaign Smoke-Free Europe – One Goal, Many Paths with a protest in the European Union capital, hoisting a giant campaign flag from a bridge. The organisation told Planet of the Vapes that the action came as the European Union was revising its tobacco control framework and seeking to update the Tobacco Products Directive, the Tobacco Taxation Directive and the Tobacco Advertising Directive.
Where Illegal Pouches Thrive
The illicit nicotine pouch market thrives when regulation is strict, a new report from TobaccoIntelligence concludes. The work, “The Global Illicit Nicotine Pouch Report 2026”, examines the drivers of illicit pouch markets worldwide, from outright bans and nicotine caps to online restrictions and taxation.
Surge in High Nic Vaping
High-nicotine vape use surged by 80% among US 18-24 year olds between 2017 and 2022, and was associated with large increases in daily vaping and nicotine dependence, finds a data analysis published online in the journal Tobacco Control. The findings prompt the researchers to call on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review marketing approvals for these products to reflect their addictive potential as a matter of urgency.
MHRA Updating Vape Database
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says it is undertaking a major overhaul of its UK vaping notification database to remove old and obsolete products which are no longer being sold. It believes that action is needed “to support regulatory oversight, provide reliable information to consumers, enforcement authorities and ensure that MHRA records accurately reflect the products currently available on the GB & NI markets.”
Quitting smoking: vaping helps without support, but twice as well with it
Alistair Servet, Vaping Post
An open question
There is no longer any doubt that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking: the Cochrane review, which pools the randomised trials on the subject, concludes with high certainty that they outperform nicotine replacement therapy. However, most of these trials provided vaping alongside multi-session behavioural support. This was the case, for example, in the British trial published in 2019 in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which vaping, combined with four weeks of face-to-face support, was almost twice as effective as nicotine replacement therapy (18.0% quit at one year versus 9.9%).
Eddie Eleksis, Vivid Pouches
Snus and nicotine pouch law in 40 countries, every line sourced to a law, a regulator or a customs page. Checked every month.
The Riksdag backs a hard line against the EU – but Sweden is under pressure over nicotine taxes
Stefan Mathisson, Vejpkollen
Sweden’s caretaker government has received support from the Riksdag’s EU Committee to continue rejecting new EU taxes and a significantly expanded long-term budget. Meanwhile, Ireland, which currently holds the EU presidency, is seeking to push through an agreement on new minimum taxes on, amongst other things, e-liquids and nicotine pouches – despite Sweden having requested that the matter be postponed.
Ireland Is Banning Vape Flavors. This Shop Owner Warns It Could Cost Lives.
“Am I living in a fucking parallel universe here or something?” asks Eoin O’Boyle, a 28-year-old Irish vape shop owner facing the prospect of losing his business. “If there’s a piece of policy that makes sense, the government will do the opposite for some reason.”
The Global Illicit Nicotine Pouch Report 2026 (PDF)
Tobacco Intelligence
The rapid growth in the consumption of nicotine pouches has created significant opportunities for illicit trade networks, non-compliant manufacturers and criminal actors.
While benefiting in the same way as legitimate businesses from rapid growth in consumer demand for nicotine pouches and low barriers to entry, they do not have the same compliance costs. They also exploit
regulatory gaps and limited or inconsistent enforcement, all of which enables them to sell products that are lower-priced than legitimate ones or offer features that legal products cannot.
On this day…2017!
