In the News February 10th
Wednesdays News at a glance:
Eyes Wide Shut – Alternatives to smoking – Propylene Glycol in E-Cigarettes: What All Vapers Need to Know – Response to McKee and Capewell – The E-Cigarette Barn Door Is Open – VT Hands Out Taxpayer Dollars So Children Can Campaign Against E-Cigarettes – CDC Exaggerates Smoking Quitline Success – Electronic cigarettes: the renormalisation of nicotine use – The impact of the EU Tobacco Products Directive – Another Aspect of the Ban on the Use of Grant Monies for Lobbying – Why vapers think e-cigarettes will lead to the end of cigarettes – Senate committee votes down restrictions on electronic cigarettes – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest – Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Eyes Wide Shut
Paul Barnes – Facts Do Matter
In a seemingly all too familiar refrain there’s another DoH Director, this time in Rhode Island, making grandiose and thoroughly misleading claims on vapour products. Last May, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott became the new director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, where she stated quite categorically that “some” of her priorities included: “addressing disparities in the health-care system and providing high-quality health care to more people”.
Alternatives to smoking
Louise Ross – Nursing in Practice
I’d be really surprised if any nurse hadn’t been told by one of their smoking patients in the last year that they were thinking about using an e-cigarette to stop smoking. Like advisors in stop smoking services, nurses will see patients who have smoked all their lives, have tried and failed to quit, and those who have become disheartened. There are also patients who claim to be happy smoking, and don’t want any advice about stopping….
Propylene Glycol in E-Cigarettes:
What All Vapers Need to Know – Ashtray Blog
Dihydrogen monoxide is used in pesticides, as a solvent in industry settings and a coolant in nuclear power plants, but you consume it every day.
That’s because it’s just water. Di-hydrogen mon-oxide: H2O.
Chemicals tend to have pretty scary-looking names, but they’re all around us, all the time. “Propylene glycol” sounds almost alien the first time you hear the word. Surely that must kill you? It’s even used in anti-freeze!
Response to McKee and Capewell
Great response by Zvi Herzig to the McKee/Capewell BMJ nonsense from Sept last year
Meta-analyses and a systematic review show that reduced smoking improves outcomes.
Moreover, McKee and Capewell’s citation derives from cohorts showing similar toxicant exposure among reducers and non-reducers, indicating compensatory inhalation. This would be expected without an alternate nicotine source. Conversely, dual users supplement their nicotine intake and should reduce their toxicant exposure per cigarette…..
The E-Cigarette Barn Door Is Open
Edward Anselm
The health of America’s 42 million smokers, whose lives will be cut short an average of ten years by their continued use of combusted cigarettes, is being held hostage by government inaction.
Public-health officials agree that e-cigarettes have a role in reducing the burden of illness; while e-cigarettes are not safe, they are a much less harmful way of delivering the nicotine to which smokers are dependent.
Ethics and E-cigs. An Analysis and A Proposal
Daniel Wikler, Professor of Ethics and Population Health, speaks at a research seminar at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, suggesting a public health initiative to decrease the amount of people suffering from illnesses caused by cigarettes. Introducing him is Gustaf Arrhenius, Director at the institute.
VT Hands Out Taxpayer Dollars
So Children Can Campaign Against E-Cigarettes – Guy Bentley
Vermont’s Department of Health is using taxpayer dollars to fund a children’s campaign against e-cigarettes.
The Our Voices Xposed (OVX) campaign — which is led and organized by high school students but financially supported by the Department of Health (DoH) — rallied outside the Vermont State Capitol Tuesday to warn against the alleged dangers of e-cigarettes…
CDC Exaggerates Smoking Quitline Success
Brad Rodu – Tobacco Truth
Acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak marked the 50th year of the federal government’s war on tobacco two years ago, noting, “We are at a historic moment in our fight to end the epidemic of tobacco use.” (here) “The good news,” he continued, “is that we know which strategies work best… [to make] the next generation tobacco-free.” The declaration left no room for consideration of tobacco harm reduction. The government’s grand plan does include telephone quitlines and web-based interventions for current tobacco users – two programs that in 2012 cost taxpayers about $100 million (here).
See also: A Qualitative Approach to Understanding Real-World Electronic Cigarette Use
Electronic cigarettes: the renormalisation of nicotine use
Kevin Fenton & Martin Dockrell
There is no ‘one size fits all’ medicinal regulation approach to the debate on e-cigarettes as Auf and others suggest; the regulatory and epidemiological contexts differ greatly between countries and there is simply not enough evidence to justify the claim that one approach is universally more effective.
In the UK, e-cigarettes are used almost exclusively by smokers and ex-smokers, including a million ‘vapers’ who have completely stopped smoking
The impact of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (PDF)
On e-cigarette regulation in the UK – ASH
In May 2016 the EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) will come into force. This revision included many updates to regulations on tobacco products but also sets out new regulations covering e-cigarettes. The UK Government has made clear that it will not be seeking to ‘gold plate’ the rules coming from the EU and will implement them to create a minimum burden on business….
Another Aspect of the Ban on the Use of Grant Monies for Lobbying
Bolton Smokers Club
I read somewhere that there is another aspect to the provision of grants, but I’m not sure how true it is, nor am I sure that it is linked to the new law. The idea is that grants should be in the form of contracts.
The implication is quite interesting. What form would such a contract have?
Why vapers think e-cigarettes will lead to the end of cigarettes
And why their optimism may be misplaced – Robin Ireland
Electronic cigarettes are a hot topic and not only in public health forums. Public Health England have pronounced e-cigs as around “95% less harmful than tobacco”. However the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in America and the World Health Organisation take a much more precautionary stance. The latter view ‘Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)’ as having potential public health benefits but these are yet unproven….
Senate committee votes down restrictions on electronic cigarettes
A bill that would have banned the use of electronic cigarettes in restaurants and many other public places in Virginia was defeated in a General Assembly committee on Tuesday.
By an 8-4 voice vote, the Senate’s committee on local government set aside the legislation introduced by Sen. John C. Miller, D-Newport News, which sought to include restrictions on e-cigarettes in the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act.
