Vapers Digest 14th March
Tuesday’s News at a glance:
Trump Nominates Scott Gottlieb to Head FDA – Vaping in the News – Betting on the future of e-cigarettes – Nicotine in the News – New Survey Shows that Most Physicians are Completely Misguided on E-Cigarette Recommendations – Isle of Man prisoners could be allowed e-cigarettes – PHE “Delighted” At Exiling Vapers To The Outdoors – Swedish men on target to be first to completely stub out smoking –
Trump Nominates Scott Gottlieb to Head FDA
Amercians for Tax Reform
President Trump has nominated Scott Gottlieb to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency mired in red tape and bureaucracy. You may recall, Gottlieb was first on my list of options under consideration and there are plenty of reasons to believe this is a good thing for the vapor industry and its consumers.
Nearly all of what you’ll read about Gottlieb relates to his belief that the approval of medicines and medical devices must be sped up. While many of you reading this may have an interest in those topics, I’m going to avoid commentary on the subject (other than to say it’s great) and focus on two issues of relevance to this newsletter.
Vaping in the News
Kevin Crowley, Vaping Links
Government, health organizations and special interest groups are counting on you to not pay attention. That’s the plan.
Don’t forget to set your clocks forward tomorrow. We get an hour less this week to fight the bastards.
Betting on the future of e-cigarettes
John Reid Blackwell, Richmond Times-Dispatch
In barely four years, Avail Vapor LLC has grown to become the largest U.S. retailer of electronic “vaping” devices, commonly referred to as electronic cigarettes.
The Chesterfield County-based company recently opened its 100th retail store specializing in selling the battery-powered devices, which have flooded the U.S. and international markets in numerous forms over the past few years, gaining customers who use them as an alternative to conventional tobacco products.
Sales in the e-cigarette industry could exceed $4 billion in the U.S. this year, according to industry stats.
Nicotine in the News
Harry Shapiro, Nicotine Science & Policy
It strikes me there is a marked difference between the way US and UK governments and their agencies handle information about controversial subjects. In the US, there is an obvious moral underpinning to much of what is published about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Or what isn’t published. As the major donor of the WHO, the US government has previously suppressed WHO reports stating cannabis was no more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco – and another which stated that moderate use of cocaine appeared to have no long term health consequences. Yes folks, this is the WHO speaking.
Back home agencies such as the FDA, CDC, NIDA and others all sing from the same hymn sheet – whether because they all genuinely believe what they publish or simply through fear of lucrative posts lost and funding cuts.
New Survey Shows that Most Physicians are Completely Misguided on E-Cigarette Recommendations
Michael Siegel, TobaccoAnalysis
A paper published in the current issue of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society reports the results of a survey regarding physician recommendations to their patients about the use of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.
Physicians were given a clinical scenario in which a patient who smokes seeks advice about smoking cessation. Most physicians report that they would recommend the patient try FDA-approved medication before trying e-cigarettes. However, physicians who recommended against e-cigarettes initially were then given a further scenario in which the patient tells the physician that they tried other medications to quit before, that they refuse a prescription, and that they ask the physician again whether they should try e-cigarettes to quit.
RegWatch
Of all the issues to care about, how did Ron Johnson the Sr. Senator from Wisconsin and Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee come to learn about the onerous FDA deeming regulations and the havoc they have brought on the vaping industry in America? Find out—only on RegWatch by RegulatorWatch.com.
From our #mostread list: Long-term e-cigarette use and smoking cessation: a longitudinal study with US population https://t.co/Sl8btDTWTv
— Tobacco Control (@TC_BMJ) March 13, 2017
Isle of Man prisoners could be allowed e-cigarettes
BBC News
Prisoners in the Isle of Man could be allowed to smoke e-cigarettes, the Manx government has announced.
It said a six-month pilot was aimed at reducing “risks and harm” caused by inmates smoking “illicit materials” like nicotine patches and tea bags.
More than 800 power cuts have also been caused at the prison by inmates trying to light homemade cigarettes using kettles and plug sockets.
In March 2008 the prison at Jurby became Europe’s first smoke-free jail.
A Department of Home Affairs spokesman said switching prisoners to e-cigarettes could save taxpayers £15,000 a year compared with providing them with nicotine replacement therapy.
PHE “Delighted” At Exiling Vapers To The Outdoors
Dick Puddlecote
As Frank Davis will admirably never cease to remind you, when the smoking ban was applied in 2007, an ecstatic Debs Arnott of ASH let her mouth run away with her and boasted gleefully about how “smokers will be exiled to the outdoors”.
It’s no secret that I believe the ban to have been the most socially destructive and disgracefully illiberal piece of legislation I will ever see in my lifetime. The enforcing of dictatorial rules on private property was hideous enough, but the vile marginalisation of law-abiding citizens and the consequential extension of the idea that laws based solely on snobbery and prejudice are acceptable has been nauseating. These days, you just have to say you are not a fan of something, some wanker will petition the government to ban it and – thanks to the precedent of the smoking ban – politicians will discard all thoughts of personal liberty and seriously consider it. If you can convince people on the back of deliberately contrived junk science that a few wisps of smoke is on a par with letting off a hand grenade, you can install fascist rules on just about anything.
Swedish men on target to be first to completely stub out smoking
New Scientist
Sweden is lighting the way to a cigarette-free world. The Swedish government has released data showing that the proportion of men aged between 30 and 44 smoking fell to just 5 per cent in 2016.
This makes it the first country to hit a notional tobacco “end game” target proposed by global health bodies and some governments to get the prevalence of smoking down to 5 per cent or below by an agreed date. Sweden hasn’t yet signed up to such a target, although Canada, Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand have.
Overall, just 8 per cent of Swedish men now smoke on a daily basis – itself a record-low percentage – compared with a European Union average of just over 25 per cent. The proportion of Swedish women who smoke also continues to fall, and is now 10 per cent.
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