Vapers Digest 12th December

Friday’s News at a glance:

SGF Demands Pouch Guidance ~ Skye Nose Where Vapes Are ~ Human Rights and Harm Reduction ~ Hope vs. Reality: Lessons from the MIND Study ~ expert reaction to study of dual use of cigarettes and vapes ~ Patterns of e-Cigarette Use and Smoking Cessation Outcomes: Secondary Analysis of a Large Randomised Controlled Trial to Inform Clinical Advice ~ World Health Organization Explicitly Rejects Harm Reduction in Tobacco Control, Endangering Millions of Lives Worldwide ~ OLIVER DICKSON | Public health without science, compassion and common sense is just policy theatre ~ The Lives of People Who Use Nicotine Are Not an “Endgame” ~ Love Island’s Shakira reveals the villa’s secret ‘vape box’ ~ YouTuber’s viral video shows vaping less harmful than smoking ~ Moving the Goalposts on Harm Reduction ~ Warns against EU taxes on nicotine – ”Risking jobs and public health” ~ The ITEC (Illicit Tobacco and Vapes Commissioner) Report 2024–25: A Glass-Half-Empty Defence of a Broken System ~ Progress & Peril | A.G. Miller Scores Smoking, Vaping & Public Health | RegWatch ~ WHY MORE COUNTRIES ARE FIGHTING FOR TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION?

Three From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

SGF Demands Pouch Guidance

The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) has written to the UK Government’s Health Secretary calling for clear guidance around the sale of nicotine pouches. The trade leaders says industry and government can work collaboratively on guidelines for the sale and promotion of products

Skye Nose Where Vapes Are

Skye the springer spaniel sniffer dog is the limit for bad actors in the retail sector as she sniffs out illicit vapes and helps trading standards officers to close down convenience stores. In addition to banned ecigs, she also sniffed out almost 4,500 cigarettes and 3kg of hand rolling tobacco despite the extreme lengths criminals are taking to hide them.

Human Rights and Harm Reduction

There are words beginning with ‘B’ that could sum up a piece from the Bloomberg-funded Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath – words like balderdash, bunkum, and boloney. The article makes some outrageous statements, published in the British Medical Journal, prompting harm reduction experts to deliver a rapid response.

Hope vs. Reality: Lessons from the MIND Study

Marina Murphy, Lindsay Reese, Nicotine Insider

For years, scientists have searched for ways to slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that robs millions of their memories and independence. Among the most intriguing ideas was the use of nicotine—a compound long associated with smoking-related harm—but also known to interact with brain receptors involved in learning and memory.

The MIND Study (Memory Improvement Through Nicotine Dosing) set out to test whether nicotine patches (an FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy) could help older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a stage often considered a precursor to Alzheimer’s.

expert reaction to study of dual use of cigarettes and vapes

Prof Caitlin Notley, Prof Linda Bauld, Bruce Usher, John Usher, Science Media Centre

A study published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research looks at outcomes from dual use of cigarettes and vapes.

Patterns of e-Cigarette Use and Smoking Cessation Outcomes: Secondary Analysis of a Large Randomised Controlled Trial to Inform Clinical Advice

Nicotine & Tobacco Research

Abstract/Introduction

Limited data exist on how to use e-cigarettes (EC) to optimize smoking cessation.

Methods

We examined associations between patterns of EC use and outcomes at 1 year in a large trial (N = 886) comparing nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and EC.

Results

Use of tobacco flavor was limited and associated with a lower smoking cessation rate compared to other flavors (relative risk; RR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.35 to 0.89). EC users reduced nicotine strength over time.

OLIVER DICKSON | Public health without science, compassion and common sense is just policy theatre

Oliver Dickson, Times Live

South Africa can turn years of debate into action by embracing evidence-based policies that save lives and ease the strain on public health.

It is trite that cigarette smoking makes people sick, places a heavy burden on the healthcare system and sometimes kills. We’ve been told this for decades, yet barely any practical steps have been taken, whether in policy or in practice, to get fewer people to smoke cigarettes despite the fact that science tells us less harmful alternatives exist. We need to address this.

Moving the Goalposts on Harm Reduction

David Zaruk, Firebreak

Activists are never wrong. When their policies miss, they just move the goalposts. When their jobs (and income) are based on winning campaigns, activists have no problem adapting their ideologies when their dogma becomes unpopular or unworkable. It is not uncommon to see something NGOs were once campaigning against becoming a core strategic policy.

We seem to be at a moment where many in the NGO community are beginning to acknowledge the failures in their campaign against tobacco harm reduction via safer nicotine alternative products.

Warns against EU taxes on nicotine – ”Risking jobs and public health”

Stefan Mathisson, Vejpkollen

87 industry organisations, manufacturers and retailers are raising the alarm about the European Commission’s planned tax increases on cigarettes and smokeless nicotine products. The sector warns of job and fiscal collapse – and says public health could suffer.

87 industry organisations, manufacturers and retailers are now openly protesting the European Commission’s upcoming proposal to substantially increase taxes on cigarettes – and perhaps above all on new smokeless nicotine products. An open letter to the Commission and the finance ministers of 27 countries sets out in detail what they fear will be the consequences if the Commission does not reverse its current approach.

The ITEC (Illicit Tobacco and Vapes Commissioner) Report 2024–25: A Glass-Half-Empty Defence of a Broken System

Alan Gor, Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education

The ITEC Commissioner Report 2024–25 has landed, immediately heralded as a triumph of coordination, enforcement, disruption, and government resolve.

But strip away the press-friendly language, and you are left with something far less impressive.

The report is essentially a logbook of raids, seizures, counterfeit busts, “disruptions,” forced closures and operational wins. It documents the smoke, not the fire. The activity, not the impact. And crucially, it avoids the one question that matters:

Why does illicit tobacco exist on such a massive scale in Australia at all?

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

E-Cigarette Summit 2022: Round Up

James Dunworth

Nine years ago I walked through the streets of London towards the impressive Royal Society building to attend the inaugural E-Cigarette Summit. I went to a conference where the debate was split, where optimism based on basic science was confounded by a dearth of studies, and where it looked like the UK faced an imminent ban on vaping devices.

Rethinking nicotine:

Illusions, delusions and some conclusions – Clive Bates

Presentation to the UK E-cigarette Summit on 9 December 2022. Looks at how our approach to nicotine must evolve from a “tobacco harm reduction” to treating nicotine like a socially acceptable recreational stimulant with minimal harm.

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