In the News 13th Jan 15

Tuesdays news at a glance

Videos of the “Most Dangerous E-Cigarette” and  The Louise Ross of Canada. Puddlecote Inc. is working overtime with ASH Scotland. An update from Dr Farsalinos and his Diacetyl study. Nonsmoking teens’ interest in e-cigarettes was very low and the Daily Digest from NSP 

The Most Dangerous E-Cigarette…..

….is a BANNED E-CIG! This video is parody of the Alaskan Quit Smoking video that is being aired on US TV right now. Their video uses data from studies on e-cig vapour which makes it sound negative – but when you actually look at the data, they could be reported as a positive. The word “toxic” is a good case in point.

View on YouTube: http://youtu.be/8hqvNjWZg0g

Is Vaping safer than smoking?

Louise Ross has a Canadian counterpart:

Vaping is everywhere. E-Cigaretters are increasingly popular, but are they safe? Dr. Gaston Ostiguy pulmonology specialist and director of MUHC Smoking Cessation Clinic talks about the trend….

NIOSH submits letter to the editor concerning our diacetyl study

News from Dr Farsalinos and E-Cigarette Reasearch Advocates Group:

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) submitted a letter to the editor of Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal concerning our diacetyl-acetyl propionyl study. As you may remember, that was a chemical analysis study evaluating 159 e-liquids from Europe and the US for the presence of diacetyl and acetyl propionyl. We found that 74.2% of the samples were positive for the presence of these chemicals. To assess the level of exposure, we used the NIOSH-established safety limits of occupational exposure and determined that the average daily exposure from the liquids tested was 100 and 10 times lower than NIOSH-set limits. The letter and our response were published by the journal today, but since they are not open-access, I will present the main points of the NIOSH letter and our response herein

“We Will Get Away With That”

A busy week at Puddlecote Inc:

In case you didn’t see it, a comment under yesterday’s article about the Scottish Tobacco Control Consultation yielded some astonishing information.

In April 2014 I attended an ASH Scotland conference on the subject in Glasgow. The chair was Donald Henderson – Head of Public Health Policy in the Scottish Government. I’ve just dug out the notes I made at the time to avoid the risk of misquoting him, and this is what he had to say about smokers:

“Well none of us want to stand next to one do we?”

And when asked whether Scotland should follow the Welsh and ban vaping wherever smoking is banned:

“We would like to follow the Welsh lead but we don’t have the argument of second hand smoke. The argument will be public nuisance based and we will get away with that.”

The impact of flavor descriptors on nonsmoking teens’ and adult smokers’ interest in electronic cigarettes

Smokers switching completely from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes are likely to reduce health risk, suggesting that e-cigarettes should be made appealing to adult smokers. However, uptake of e-cigarettes by nonsmoking teens would add risk without benefit and should be avoided. Although e-cigarette flavors may appeal to adult smokers, the concern is that flavors might attract nonsmoking teens.

Nicotine Science and Policy –Daily Digest– Tue, 13 January 2015