Vapers Digest 12th September
Monday’s News at a glance:
‘Problematic information’ about nicotine and COVID-19 – U.S. Public Is Badly Served by the FDA – Why Aren’t We Celebrating the End of Teenage Smoking? – Alaska Governor Vetoes Vape Tax Bill – NHS Dorset Rolls Out The Vapes – Lee County Fibbers – Big Philanthropy | Professional ‘Givers’ Quest to Destroy Vaping – Vape Company to Spend More Money – Vaping ban is myopic – BAT study: Heat-not-burn cigarettes – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest
‘Problematic information’
About nicotine and COVID-19 – Christopher Snowdon
A study titled ‘The influence of pro-vaping “gatewatchers” on the dissemination of COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter’ has been published in something called the Journal of Medical Internet Research. It’s paywalled but the pre-print version is here. It is yet another whinge about people retweeting things that ‘public health’ academics don’t agree with.
The authors lament the lack of gatekeepers on Twitter to control what scientific information people have access to. They then invent the meaningless term ‘gatewatchers’ to describe anyone who has built up a following and puts out interesting tweets. After the usual dredging of Twitter, they conclude that quite a few of the people who mentioned the evidence that smokers are less likely to get COVID-19 in 2020 had a ‘pro-vaping bias’.
U.S. Public Is Badly Served by the FDA
Martin Cullip
The United Kingdom’s leading anti-smoking organization, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), has released a report detailing the use of vaping products in England, Scotland and Wales. The report is based on a survey of 13,000 adults and has been widely publicized in British media.
ASH reports that there has been a large increase in the number of people who vape in Great Britain, with 4.3 million current vapers in 2022, a 19.4 percent increase from 3.6 million in 2021. Further, more than half (2.4 million) of current e-cigarette users in the 2022 survey had switched entirely from combustible cigarettes to vaping.
Why Aren’t We Celebrating the End …
Of Teenage Smoking? – Charles Gardner
When I was a teen in a small Midwestern town in the 1970s, the US high school smoking rate was over 25 percent. It was legal for 16-year-olds in many states to purchase tobacco products, and many high schools had designated smoking areas where both students and teachers took smoke breaks.
Thankfully, by the turn of the millennium, high school smoking had dropped to about 20 percent.By 2011, high school smoking had dropped to 16 percent.
Then, over the past decade, US high school smoking dropped a further 90 percent. “Current use” of combustible tobacco cigarettes is now 1.9 percent. But for teens, “current use” means even one puff in the past month. “Frequent use” (20 or more days per month) is now 0.38 percent. Essentially nil.
A thought-provoking thread. I agree with much of what was said, but I could (and will) argue with a couple of points. https://t.co/8sAucz0D1A
— Phil (@phil_w888) September 10, 2022
Retweeting this reply because it was hidden by @BCM_AGP. https://t.co/UXMYYP4pjF
— Jukka Kelovuori (@jkelovuori) September 11, 2022
Alaska Governor Vetoes Vape Tax Bill
Jim McDonald
Earlier this year, both houses of Alaska’s state legislature passed a bill that would impose a statewide tax on vaping products, and prevent U.S. Mail delivery within the state. Now Governor Mike Dunleavy is considering whether to sign bill SB 45 into law or veto it.
The governor has until Sept. 16 to decide. If he does nothing, the bill will pass automatically, and take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. If Gov. Dunleavy signs the bill or allows it to become law, he will have broken a 2018 campaign promise to not pass any new taxes over 25 percent.
Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
NHS Dorset Rolls Out The Vapes
NHS Dorset has given the go-ahead to begin using Venta SVS electronic cigarette vending machines in its hospitals, starting with one machine in an NHS Dorset acutes site. The joint venture comes from a mix of Venta Services’ pledge to supporting smokers access a safer alternative to tobacco and NHS Dorset’s commitment to driving down smoking-related preventable ill health and premature death.
“A great start to the week for the team,” said Venta SVS last Monday. “Confirmation of the first e-cigarette vending machine to be installed at an NHS Dorset acutes site. This installation will be set up with age verification. We are proud to be part of the vision that is a smokefree NHS.”
Lee County Fibbers
Lee County School District Student Services, Florida, are fibbers and spreading misinformation about electronic cigarettes to parents and children. While the claims the service makes can appear to be very humorous, it has major implications for adult smokers who might otherwise have tried to quit by switching to vaping.
“School is back in session, so make sure your students aren’t having a vaping ‘sesh’ in your classroom. Vaping can be done very discreetly, so know these signs,” says the Lee County School District Student Services on its Twitter account.
Big Philanthropy
Professional ‘Givers’ Quest to Destroy Vaping | RegWatch
There’s no mystery as to why nicotine vaping suffers a dismal reputation. Non-profits and foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies, Truth Initiative, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the “body part orgs” have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and applied tremendous pressure to misinform the public and influence policymakers regarding the potential harms of vaping.
Veteran reporter Marc Gunther joins us today on RegWatch to discuss the impact of private money in the war on vaping.
Vape Company to Spend More Money …
Preventing Youth Vaping Than States – Lindsey Stroud
Much like the then-celebrated state attorneys general’s “win” against the tobacco industry in the 1990s, more state attorneys are cheering another so-called win against JUUL Labs Inc. (JLI) after 32 states and one territory reached a tentative settlement regarding the company’s marketing of their e-cigarette JUUL.
Since 2018, JLI has come under intense scrutiny from a plethora of policymakers and regulators as its novel tobacco harm reduction product took over the market place. While todays AGs are quick to declare victory, it is truly a sad day for tobacco harm reduction and public health.
Vaping ban is myopic…
Must be reconsidered – Shantanu Guha Ray
Next month, it will be three years to India’s knee-jerk and myopic ban on vaping that continues to remain ineffective, anti-people and, actually, does more harm than good. For a billion-plus nation like India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should have found ways to minimize this human and economic loss by lowering risks from tobacco use.
The mandarins in the ministry’s corridors of power should have realised that the ban is useless, and its reversal is an urgent necessity. It can and should never be considered an indulgence. India, in fact, must consider humane, risk-proportionate regulations, while incorporating safeguards to prevent uptake. But it has not happened for the last three years despite the world taking the right kind of steps.
BAT study: Heat-not-burn cigarettes…
Reduce health risks to smokers
The conclusion of a yearlong research study of 267 people in the United Kingdom found a prominent reduced-risk role for British American Tobacco Plc’s heat-not-burn traditional cigarette glo compared with traditional cigarettes.
The final report was published last week by the Journal of Internal and Emergency Medicine. A preliminary six-month report was released July 1.The glo product has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It is the latest in a long line of smokefree tobacco and nicotine product reports posted by the Italian research group.
On this Day…2021
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
PMTA Decision Day:
FDA Leaves Vape Industry Twisting in the Wind – Jim McDonald
After a year of hype and endless stories about FDA’s Sept. 9, 2021 decisions that would “determine the future of vaping,” the agency punted on its obligations and left the vaping industry twisting in the wind. The FDA issued no product authorizations, announced no exemptions for manufacturers allowing continued sales, and offered no enforcement discretion assurances for businesses whose products haven’t been denied.
The agency reaffirmed in April that it would not (and could not, based on the court order) issue a blanket exemption to the industry. Companies that have not received a specific Marketing Denial Order (MDO) or authorization for a product will technically be selling it illegally tomorrow, but the agency said it recognizes “that we are unable, as a practical matter, to take enforcement action against every illegally marketed tobacco product, and that we need to make the best use of Agency resources.”
FDA Fails to Meet Deadline
To Decide on PMTA Applications for Vapes – Alex Norcia
On September 9, its longstanding deadline, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) effectively announced that it would need more time to process the remaining premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) that vape companies were required to file last year to stay legally on the market. Approval would mean that products were deemed “appropriate for the protection of public health”—a potential game-changer for tobacco harm reduction in the United States.
The agency did not mention how much longer it planned to take—nor did it officially state that it was essentially giving itself an extension. In a perspective hyperlinked to a press release, though, it did state that decisions would be made on a “rolling basis.” Hundreds of thousands of PMTAs, at least—including all of those submitted by the largest vape manufacturers—are left.
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