Vapers Digest 15th August
Friday’s News at a glance:
Nice Barnet – Trading Standards Action in Stoke – HEALTH POLICY FAILURES EXPOSED – Vape Trends in GB Adults – County Durham Crackdown – Addressing E-Cigarette Consumption in India: A Policy Dilemma – If recreational vapes are banned, why are there still vape shops everywhere? – Disposable Vapes Still Widely (and Predictably) Sold in Post-Ban UK – Should Vape Shops and C-Stores Be Treated the Same? – The World Conference on Tobacco Control’s Harmful Hypocrisy – Banning Online Sales of Nicotine Pouches Is a Disaster for Rural America – Are nicotine pouches the future of Big Tobacco? – Naming the Risk, Telling the Harm – Wastewater doesn’t lie — but the report does a neat little sleight of hand – ARAC Study Finds Glas Vapes Help Smokers – Anuzis: Nicotine drop in youth a public health win, but adults left behind – Why Big Tobacco is buzzing over nicotine pouches – Byron Donalds, Aaron Bean join Tobacco Harm Reduction Caucus – Two in five disposable vapers don’t understand ban – Vaping Taxes Reduce Use More Than Cigarette Taxes Reduce Smoking, Raising Harm Reduction Concerns – National Analysis Reveals Shifting Tobacco Use Patterns in South Korea – Portugal calls for lower vape taxes in EU tax plan – Menthol flavour HTPs help menthol smokers slash cigarette use by 80%, new U.S study shows – Vaping in Czechia: Progress Made, Challenges Ahead ft. Petr Horáček | Ep. 84 – Delphi Approach to correct nicotine and relative risk misperceptions – Workshop | #GFN25 – Breaking Myths: The Truth About Vaping and Harm Reduction with Dr Mark Tyndall
Five From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
Nice Barnet
Three stores have been shut down after Barnet Council’s Trading Standards team seized nearly £50,000 in illicit smoking and vaping products in a single day of action. Included in the officers’ haul was 895 illegal vapes, carrying an estimated value of £8,950. In addition, the officers discovered illegal cigarettes, hand rolling tobacco, and shisha tobacco.
Trading Standards Action in Stoke
Trading standards officers in Stoke have seized almost £700,000 of illegal tobacco and vapes in their latest crackdown on dodgy shopkeepers. Stoke-on-Trent City Council says it is stepping up its action on illegal tobacco and vape sales following this mammoth haul of illicit cigarettes, tobacco and vape products.
HEALTH POLICY FAILURES EXPOSED
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has released a comprehensive analysis entitled “The Right to Health and Public Health Policy,” which exposes critical failures in global public health systems and highlights the urgent need for policy reform grounded in human rights principles.
Vape Trends in GB Adults
Vape trends in the adult use of electronic cigarettes has been highlighted by the latest Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Smokefree GB survey data. The information reveals the current number of British adults who now vape, how it has impacted on their smoking behaviour, and the level to which misconceptions are jeopardising the future.
County Durham Crackdown
The crackdown on bad actors in the retail sector continued in County Durham as trading standards officers conducted raids and discovered illicit products leading to a business closure order. The business owner claimed the illegal merchandise had been given to him by a stranger – and expected this to be a taken as a reasonable excuse.
Addressing E-Cigarette Consumption in India: A Policy Dilemma
Nimisha Chadha, Observer Research Foundation (ORF)
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes or vapes), formally known as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), are devices that heat liquids typically containing nicotine, alongside chemical compounds, to produce an inhalable vapour – a process referred to as vaping. Invented in China in 2003 as an alternative to smoking, ENDS began appearing in global markets by 2007, and their uptake has surged in a short span since.
If recreational vapes are banned, why are there still vape shops everywhere?
James Martin, David Bright, The Conversation
Recently, you may have noticed an increase in the number of shops selling tobacco in your area. Alongside cigarettes, these shops often sell vapes.
In July 2024, the federal government banned the sale of recreational vapes nationwide. The only way to get one legally is from a pharmacist. Some states also require a doctor’s prescription.
So why, then, more than a year on, are these stores still selling vapes, in broad daylight?
In short: it’s because restrictions on the supply of legal nicotine have created a black market so big that it’s grown beyond the capacity of regulators to effectively suppress.
Disposable Vapes Still Widely (and Predictably) Sold in Post-Ban UK
Kiran Sidhu, Filter
Disposable nicotine vapes are still being sold by retailers in the United Kingdom, even though they were recently banned. This was widely predicted by tobacco harm reduction advocates and others, but new research sought to illustrate its extent.
The UK controversially banned sales of single-use e-cigarettes on June 1. A recent investigation claims that almost one in four retailers are breaking the law by continuing to sell them.
Skip Murray, Skip’s Corner – Let’s Talk!
My Friend up in Canada, Bill Tarling, sent me this article last Thursday: $20K fee to run a vape shop? Roanoke council considers new restrictions. Imagine charging vape and/or smoke shops a $20K annual fee, but not charging the same fee to C-stores and other retailers of tobacco products.
According to Roanoke City Councilman Phazhon Nash, it would be a way to deter those kinds of shops from conducting business in Roanoke.
The World Conference on Tobacco Control’s Harmful Hypocrisy
Martin Cullip, The Daily Pouch
In an insightful and quietly devastating editorial in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Dr. Caitlin Notley of the University of East Anglia offers a first-hand account of the 2025 World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin. What she describes is not a celebration of evidence-led progress, but a conference riddled with contradictions, intellectual confusion, and a disturbingly narrow public health mindset.
Banning Online Sales of Nicotine Pouches Is a Disaster for Rural America
Martin Cullip, DC Journal
As America struggles with a worsening retail crisis and a patchwork of misguided public health policies, some states are doubling down on a move that defies logic and compassion by banning the online sale of safer nicotine alternatives like nicotine pouches. What may seem like a regulatory footnote is, in fact, a serious threat to public health and personal freedom, especially for rural Americans.
This is not about children ordering candy-flavored tobacco from TikTok. It is about adult smokers in underserved areas of the country trying to access products that could save their lives.
Are nicotine pouches the future of Big Tobacco?
Matt Kenyon, City AM
Nicotine pouches are all the rage at the moment. Sometimes erroneously described as ‘snus’ – this only refers to tobacco-based products – the pouches are mainstay of Square Mile pubs, start-up offices and even Premier League football pitches.
But are they a passing fad, or the new cornerstone of ‘Big Tobacco’? And, for an industry whose core products are under siege from governments around Europe, are the regulators coming for the pouches next?
Naming the Risk, Telling the Harm
Claudio Teixeira, Dispatches From the Editor’s Desk
It’s not just nicotine—it’s the history behind it. For decades, the fight against tobacco focused on a visible enemy: the combustible cigarette. But in the 21st century, nicotine products are evolving faster than the policies designed to control them, and the risk landscape has grown more ambiguous—and more political. Curves, voices, nuances, and tensions now define the new battleground of public health.
In the United States, the map of youth nicotine use is once again shifting in shape and color. After the meteoric rise of vaping, which peaked in 2019, when 27.5% of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past month, the statistical curves finally began to trend downward.
Wastewater doesn’t lie — but the report does a neat little sleight of hand
Alan Gor, Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)
A continuation from my previous blog.
Why Australia’s national wastewater data show nicotine hasn’t fallen, and why the ACIC’s wording hides the only question that matters.
Australia’s National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program (NWDMP) has been quietly collecting one of the best population-level records of substance use in the country since 2016. The latest collections (August and October 2024) cover roughly half to just over half the population and give us a fresh snapshot of nicotine and alcohol use across capital cities and regional Australia.
ARAC Study Finds Glas Vapes Help Smokers
Nicotine Insider
A new study has found that Glas Menthol and flavored electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products help heavy combustible cigarette smokers in reducing their smoking and dependence. Over three months, researchers from Applied Research and Analysis Company (ARAC) observed 400 adult smokers who smoked at least 20 cigarettes daily and had no intention of quitting.
Anuzis: Nicotine drop in youth a public health win, but adults left behind
Saul Anuzis, The Detroit News
Not long ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a monumental public health win to celebrate: the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey revealed that the rate of youth tobacco use dropped to the lowest level ever reported since the survey began 25 years ago.
This win, however, has come at a cost, as there are still nearly 30 million adult smokers in the United States and cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the country.
Why Big Tobacco is buzzing over nicotine pouches
Financial Times
As the popularity of cigarettes has slid in the past couple decades, Big Tobacco has been searching for a new hit product. Now, they think they’ve found it: nicotine pouches. FT reporters Clara Murray and Mari Novik explain how nicotine pouches became popular, and whether they’ll become the sector’s newest addiction or if they will be snuffed out.
Byron Donalds, Aaron Bean join Tobacco Harm Reduction Caucus
Peter Schorsch, Florida Politics
U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean and Byron Donalds, both Republicans, have joined the House Tobacco Harm Reduction Caucus, adding their names to a bipartisan coalition aimed at adopting harm reduction methods and innovation as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control. U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat, also previously joined the caucus.
Two in five disposable vapers don’t understand ban
Elinor Zuke, The Grocer
Two in five disposable vapers do not understand that it is now illegal to sell them.
A new poll for The Grocer found 29% believe there is a ban on selling disposable vapes, but that stores can sell off their old stock until it’s gone, while 9% were completely unaware of the ban.
Two from Lindsey Stroud, Tobacco Harm Reduction 101 (THR 101)
Vaping Taxes Reduce Use More Than Cigarette Taxes Reduce Smoking, Raising Harm Reduction Concerns
A new study in AJPM Focus examines how excise taxes on combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and both could influence tobacco and nicotine use among adults in the United States. Using a microsimulation model, the authors sought to estimate the five-year, population-level impacts of tax policy on both cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use among youth aged 12 to 17, young adults aged 18 to 24, and adults aged 25 years or older.
The researchers utilized the validated STOP (Simulation of Tobacco and Nicotine Outcomes) model, drawing on patterns in smoking and vaping from Waves 2 through 5 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study to simulate one million individuals whose demographics matched those of the PATH Wave 5 population.
National Analysis Reveals Shifting Tobacco Use Patterns in South Korea
A new study in Preventive Medicine Reports provides further evidence of tobacco harm reduction products replacing traditional cigarette use.
Researchers analyzed nationwide trends in South Korea to “evaluate the characteristics, trends, and health outcomes of exclusive combustible cigarette users and dual users of combustible cigarettes and non-combustible nicotine or tobacco products (NNTPs).” NNTPs – such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products – have become increasingly popular in recent years in South Korea.
Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air
Portugal calls for lower vape taxes in EU tax plan
The Portuguese government has voiced strong opposition to the European Commission’s recent proposal to sharply increase tobacco taxes across the EU.
It argues that less harmful products such as vapes, which are widely seen as an important tool in helping smokers quit, should be taxed at a lower rate than cigarettes.
As part of its €2 trillion budget proposal for 2028 to 2034, the Commission introduced a new 15 per cent levy on tobacco products – the Tobacco Excise Duty Own Resource (TEDOR) – aimed at generating additional revenue for the EU budget.
Menthol flavour HTPs help menthol smokers slash cigarette use by 80%, new U.S study shows
Menthol-flavoured heated tobacco products (HTPs) are twice as effective at replacing cigarettes as regular tobacco flavour
Smokers of menthol cigarettes cut their cigarette use by 80 per cent when switching to menthol-flavoured HTPs
Those who switched to regular tobacco-flavoured HTPs cut cigarette use by only 37 per cent
Researchers say flavour availability is a “key determinant” of substitution potential for menthol smokers
Vaping in Czechia: Progress Made, Challenges Ahead ft. Petr Horáček | Ep. 84
Vape TV / World Vapers’ Alliance
In this episode of Vaping Unplugged, our host Liza Katsiashvili, Director of Operations at the World Vapers’ Alliance, chats with Petr Horáček about the state of vaping in Czechia. Once seen as a frontrunner in embracing harm reduction, the country has made real progress — but big challenges remain.
Delphi Approach to correct nicotine and relative risk misperceptions – Workshop | #GFN25
Global Forum on Nicotine
Achieving consensus in debates around tobacco harm reduction is rare. This workshop explored how we can effectively build consensus in academic discussions around safer nicotine products, and correct misconceptions about tobacco harm reduction, using the Delphi Approach, a structured communications process. After short introductory remarks, participants engaged in group discussions using Delphi techniques and concepts, finishing with a Q&A and a look towards its future applications.
Breaking Myths: The Truth About Vaping and Harm Reduction with Dr Mark Tyndall
Tellwell
In this episode of Demystifying Self-Publishing, Dr. Mark Tyndall discusses his journey as an advocate for harm reduction and the writing of his book on vaping. He explores the challenges of public perception, the cultural differences in vaping acceptance, and the regulatory hurdles faced in promoting safer nicotine products. Tyndall emphasizes the importance of providing accurate information and the potential of vaping as a public health revolution.
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
The Japanese Tobacco Miracle
The World is Overlooking – Brad Rodu
Smokers in Japan consumed 92.4 billion cigarettes in 2023 — less than half as many as they did in 2014. Since vapor products are illegal there, the impressive decline is likely due to the introduction of heat-not-burn tobacco products, which didn’t exist in 2014, but accounted for 38% of the Japanese tobacco market in 2023. Notably, this progress occurred in an overall declining tobacco market.
With Youth Vaping Down…
Lawmakers Are Once Again Ignoring Adults – Lindsey Stroud
Not wanting to stymie the alarmism by acknowledging rapid declines in youth vaping, a handful of U.S. senators are again sounding the alarm on the so-called youth vaping epidemic. A recent letter to top executives of major convenience store chains “strongly encourage[s]” retailers to comply with federal regulations and remove all unauthorized e-cigarette products from their store shelves.
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
