Vapers Digest 14th October
Monday’s News at a glance:
UKVIA’s FOI Findings – Ignorance Is A Death Sentence – French consumer vaping organisation SOVAPE dissolves itself – Denmark plan to set up severe restrictions on nicotine pouches – So Much To Celebrate! – Undeniable Benefits of Allowing Vaping in Jails – The UN’s Recent Special Rapporteur Ignores Harm Reduction in Relation to Tobacco Use – The Telegraph Caught With Its Hand in the Clickbait Cookie Jar – New Zealand Achieves Smokefree Goal – Activists Celebrate Declining Smoking Rates – The European Commission’s DG SANTE acts as judge, jury and executioner – Trump vows to ‘save vaping’
Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
UKVIA’s FOI Findings
A new Freedom of Information request submitted by the UK Vaping Industry Association has revealed that local authorities never received the promised (and much celebrated) £30 million funding for Trading Standards enforcement activities promised by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government. The history of this pledge is covered in a second article today.
Seventeen major city and London borough councils have confirmed they have never received any of the Conservative government’s promised £30 million enforcement boost. The funding top-up was positioned as an answer to youth vaping and illicit tobacco concerns.
Ignorance Is A Death Sentence
International health experts have warned that governments of the world are condemning millions to die if they continue to ignore the irrefutable benefits of tobacco harm reduction policies. Smoke Free Sweden’s Dr Delon Human backed up Professor Marewa Glover’s statement last week that ignoring Sweden’s smokefree example will be “a death sentence for millions”.
In an open letter to delegates at the United Nations General Assembly, Dr Delon Human of Smoke Free Sweden, along with other leading tobacco harm reduction specialists, called for tobacco harm reduction to be incorporated into standard tobacco control measures worldwide. By doing so, millions of lives could be saved from smoking-related diseases, they say.
SOVAPE dissolves itself
Ali Anderson – Clearing the Air
French consumer vaping organisation SOVAPE announced this week it will shut down. Founded in 2016, organised three important vape summits in France and co-founded the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) umbrella group.
For the last five years, SOVAPE has commissioned annual surveys of French public opinion on vaping and nicotine conducted by major market research firm BVA.
However, BVA recently notified SOVAPE that it could no longer take part due to a health industry client’s contract prohibiting it from also working with nicotine-associated organisations.
Some useful information from this account. It’s a nice change. https://t.co/DH2mCOXtYj
— Phil (@phil_w888) October 14, 2024
Denmark plan to set up severe restrictions
On nicotine pouches – Pouch Forum
Following the position paper presented at Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council on the 21st of June, Denmark has now notified the commission that they intend to impose very strict limitations on nicotine pouches. The rules will not be a blanket ban as put in place/proposed in the Benelux countries but will ban most flavours and any product with a nicotine content above 9 mg per pouch.
A nicotine cap at 9 mg per pouch is less than half the amount of nicotine allowed in most countries that have a cap put in place and would remove approximately half of the products sold on the European market. Products with 6-12 mg of nicotine per pouch are the most popular strength with 40% of the sales and products with higher than 12 mg of nicotine per pouch represented 28% in 2023.
Two from Diane Caruana, Vaping Post:
Undeniable Benefits of Vaping in Jails
Vaping is allowed in prisons in several countries, particularly as a harm reduction tool to help inmates quit smoking traditional cigarettes. The UK is one of the most prominent examples, where vaping products are available in prison tuck shops, and programs supporting vaping as a healthier alternative to smoking. This has been implemented as part of broader smoking cessation efforts, and reports have noted improvements in prison atmospheres and a reduction in inmate violence after the products were introduced in prisons.
The UN’s Recent Special Rapporteur
Ignores Harm Reduction in Relation to Tobacco Use
A recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, has drawn criticism from tobacco harm reduction (THR) experts for its negative stance on vaping and other reduced-risk nicotine products which are known to lead to decreased smoking rates. The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) which represents THR advocates across the Asia-Pacific region, believes the report is misguided and could endanger millions of smokers seeking safer alternatives.
So Much To Celebrate!
Kim “Skip” Murray
Those in the same email group I’m in might have seen these. To those of you who haven’t seen them yet, I believe they are worth your time and consideration.
- Kids No Longer Smoke Cigarettes. Why Aren’t We Celebrating?
- Where’s the parade? Record-low smoking rates get no respect.
Two people are asking a similar question 1.5 years apart. I know others are asking, too. I don’t see people with answers. Where are they? What consequences will their silence contribute to?
The Telegraph Caught With Its Hand …
In the Clickbait Cookie Jar – The Daily Pouch
I’m not old enough to remember the time when the only people who lied about tobacco products were Big Tobacco and the morally bankrupt scientists they bought and sold. Yet, sometimes, I feel a faint nostalgia for that bygone era. Mainly because at least you knew where you stood.
Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to decipher the motivations behind the steady flows of lies (both of omission and direct), distortions, and misinformation about the harms of tobacco.
New Zealand Achieves Smokefree Goal
Ahead Of Schedule – CAPHRA
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is thrilled to announce that New Zealand has achieved its Smokefree 2025 goal well ahead of schedule, with smoking rates plummeting to unprecedented lows.
Recent data from the New Zealand Health Survey reveals that smoking rates have fallen dramatically, particularly among youth. The decline has been so significant that statisticians now struggle to accurately measure the small proportion of young smokers due to sample size limitations.
Activists Celebrate…
Declining Smoking Rates
New Zealand has achieved its Smoke-Free 2025 goal ahead of schedule, with smoking rates plummeting to unprecedented lows, according to the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).
Data from the most recent New Zealand Health Survey reveals that smoking rates have fallen dramatically, particularly among youth. The decline has been so significant that statisticians now struggle to accurately measure the small proportion of young smokers due to sample size limitations, says the CAPHRA, which attributes the success to New Zealand’s accommodation of new nicotine products as tools to help nicotine users transition away from cigarettes.
The European Commission’s DG SANTE
Acts as judge, jury and executioner
“Not very satisfactory” was how the European Ombudsman’s team described how the Commission’s DG SANTE – which is in charge of proposing long awaited new restrictions on safer nicotine products – responded to allegations that the NGO it hired to help them do so had a clear conflict of interest.
The context is a report on the Ombudsman’s decision to investigate SANTE for failing to manage conflicts of interest in awarding a contract to help it revise Europe’s tobacco rulebook. The report was obtained by Clearing the Air via an Access to Documents request, and centres on SANTE’s relationship with the European Network on Smoking Prevention, or ENSP.
Trump vows to ‘save vaping’
Scott Tong, Will Walkey, Allison Hagan
Former President Donald Trump vowed to “save vaping” after a private meeting with an e-cigarette lobbyist last month.
In contrast, the Trump administration years ago issued several regulations of nicotine products, including vaping.
Tevi Troy, the author of “The Power and the Money,” served as a political appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services under former President George W. Bush and vice president for the e-cigarette company Juul Labs from 2018 to 2020.
On this Day…2023
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
Government sets out next steps…
To create ‘smokefree generation’
People of all ages are being invited to take part in a public consultation seeking views on plans to crack down on youth vaping by reducing the appeal, affordability and availability of vapes to our children.
The consultation launched today (12 October 2023) is open to anyone, of any age, in the UK and includes proposals to restrict child-friendly flavours and bright coloured packaging. People have 8 weeks to share their experiences and opinions and help shape future policy on vaping and smoking.
Kids are buying illegal vapes illegally
Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist
As the government opens an eight week public consultation on vaping and smoking regulation, the BBC runs a story about a 12 year old girl who was supposedly hospitalised as a result of vaping.
Never start vaping, says 12-year-old girl with lung damage
A 12-year-old girl who suffered a lung collapse and spent four days in an induced coma has told the BBC that children should never start vaping.
Sarah Griffin had asthma and was a heavy vaper when she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems a month ago.
There is always a frustrating lack of detail in articles such as this. There are a lot of vapers in Britain, but very few cases of lungs collapsing as a result, even among children. You don’t need to read between the lines too much to see that there may be more to this than meets the eye.
Why a ban on disposable vapes …
Is a dangerous strategy, by Dr Marina Murphy
News reports suggest that disposable (or single-use) vapes could be outlawed in the UK as part of a government crackdown on youth vaping.
In April, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) put out ‘a call for evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children assessing and using vape products, while ensuring they are still readily available as a quit aid for adult smokers’.
No child should have access to vape products and no child should be vaping. But as was rightly pointed out in the objectives of this consultation, the solution cannot and should not be to take these products out of the hands of the adults who need them.
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