Vapers Digest 16th February

Friday’s News at a glance:

State of smoking and health in the United Kingdom – You Might be Using a Black Market Vape – Legal challenge crowdfund against government’s vape restrictions – Next Commission will make ‘political’ decisions on directive – Come To GFN24! – Stabbing School Uses Sniffer Dogs – Glantz Protegé’s Study Dismantled – Ex-WHO Officials Deliver THR Message – Electronic Nicotine-Delivery Systems for Smoking Cessation – expert reaction to e-cigarettes to quit smoking – Vaporising e-cigarettes – In Favor of Flavor – The pharmacy nightmare is about to begin – ‘Hundreds of thousands’ of people switching – Tax dollars up in smoke – Anti-vejp group spreads message at WHO conference – Tension in Panama – A Misguided Crusade – Califf Pressures Biden to Pass Menthol Ban – Behavior bans threaten better future – Tobacco Harm Reduction Uganda – Will Godfrey recaps COP10 in Panama – The Advocates Voice 2024

State of smoking and health

In the United Kingdom – FSFW

Tobacco is responsible for 18.9 thousand or 22% of total IHD deaths, 25.7 thousand or 81% of all COPD deaths, 6.1 thousand or 15% of all Stroke deaths and 31 thousand or 83% of all tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer deaths in 2019.

“If current/ex-smokers had never smoked, the difference in the equivalent rates of economic activity would boost the UK economy by £19.1 billion a year or 1.9% of earnings.”

You Might be Using a Black Market Vape

Without Even Knowing It – Jack Ramage

Take a stroll down London’s Oxford Street and, amongst the American Candy Shops and high-end retailers, you’re bound to find a man attempting to flog a pack of disposable vapes. Sold pretty much anywhere – from local off-licences to barber shops, nightclubs and tanning salons, the list goes on – Britain’s streets have become inundated with these brightly coloured, highly addictive sticks of plastic.

It’s a big problem, affecting both our health and the environment. According to data from the environmental campaign group Material Focus, approximately five million disposable vapes are discarded each week in the UK.

Legal challenge crowdfund

Against government’s vape restrictions reaches first target

A crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising funds for a legal challenge against the government’s announced restrictions on the sale of vapes has surpassed its initial £15,000 target.

This means the money can be used to hire a King’s Counsel Barrister (KC) who can provide legal advice and guidance on how to appropriately challenge the government.

The Vape Protection Alliance (VPA), led by Arcus Compliance and representing a significant group of UK vape businesses, launched the campaign yesterday.

Robert Richter is a leading criminal barrister who #vapes
He explains how Australia’s ‘de facto’ ban increases criminal activity and does more harm than good
He recommends we legalise and regulate now

Paywalled. Article pasted ⤵️https://t.co/o9tIqZXNgW

I’m a vaping barrister.…

— Dr Colin Mendelsohn (@ColinMendelsohn) February 14, 2024

[CH] Beweislage deutlich verdichtet: E-Dampfprodukte erfolgreich für Rauchstopp https://t.co/8BTDQRO5WM via @DampfFreiheit

— European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (@europethra) February 16, 2024

Next Commission will make ‘political’ …

Decisions on tobacco directive

“Political decisions” about the future of novel tobacco and nicotine products in Europe will be made by the next European Commission, EU spokesperson Stefan de Keersmaecker told EURACTIV; punting tobacco firmly beyond June’s elections.

The EU executive is currently conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the EU legislative framework on tobacco control, the so-called Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), including via wide public consultations.

The existing Directive covers traditional cigarettes and novel products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco and has imposed severe restrictions.

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Come To GFN24!

The organisers of #GFN24 have a simple message: “Come to the Global Forum on Nicotine – the conference where everyone is welcome!” The World Health Organization’s COP10 took place last week but consumers and advocacy organisations were barred from the event. Unlike the clandestine COP, “GFN recognises that nicotine consumers are key stakeholders for the smoke free future” and will be welcome in Warsaw, Poland.

Although everyone was shut out from FCTC COP, “you will be greeted warmly at our conference. Safer nicotine products could mitigate the huge toll of smoking – over 6 million deaths globally – if and when their access is ensured.

Stabbing School Uses Sniffer Dogs

A school that was recently at the centre of a stabbing investigation is focussing on overblown vaping fears and going over the top with a canine response. Wacky bosses at the City of Norwich School have decided that the best way to dissuade their students from using ecigs is to bring in a highly publicised sniffer dog patrol.

Media was all over the story that a student at the City of Norwich School had been stabbed with a tail comb last October. The police dropped the investigation shortly afterwards and declared the incident an accident – meaning everyone had got worked up over nothing.

Glantz Protegé’s Study Dismantled

Stanton Glantz’s protegé has attempted to continue his work linking vaping to heart attacks, but the work has been dismantled by Floe Foxon, Riccardo Polosa, Ray Niaura, Michael Cummings, Michael Siegel, and Neal Benowitz. Leading harm reduction expert Clive Bates called it an “outstanding takedown”.

In his paper “Electronic Cigarette Use and Myocardial Infarction”, Talal Alzahrani makes the debunked claim that “current electronic cigarettes is associated with myocardial infarction”.

Ex-WHO Officials Deliver THR Message

Robert Beaglehole was the Director of the Department of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion at the World Health Organization. Ruth Bonita used to be the World Health Organization’s Director of Surveillance in the Noncommunicable Disease Cluster. The pair have written to The Lancet to comment on harnessing the benefits of tobacco harm reduction.

The pair of harm reduction experts now work at the University of Auckland and believe that the application of a harm reduction philosophy has worked successfully in a range of public health spheres, notably in reducing the harm of substance abuse.

Electronic Nicotine-Delivery Systems

For Smoking Cessation – NEJM

In this open-label, controlled trial, we randomly assigned adults who were smoking at least five tobacco cigarettes per day and who wanted to set a quit date to an intervention group, which received free e-cigarettes and e-liquids, standard-of-care smoking-cessation counseling, and optional (not free) nicotine-replacement therapy, or to a control group, which received standard counseling and a voucher, which they could use for any purpose, including nicotine-replacement therapy. The primary outcome was biochemically validated, continuous abstinence from smoking at 6 months.

Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, said:

“This new study is a well-conducted, independent and robust randomized controlled trial, and clearly shows that nicotine e-cigarettes can help people to stop smoking. It adds to a strong and consistent body of evidence supporting the use of nicotine e-cigarettes as a stop smoking aid.

Vaporising e-cigarettes

RiskMonger

To put it lightly, the tobacco industry is unloved. The WHO has led a decades-long campaign to denormalise “Big Tobacco” – ostracising these companies and working with activist allies to exclude them from participating in policy, public discourse and societal institutions. There are an army of institutions and NGOs who have one goal and only one: destroy the trust and market for tobacco and nicotine products. No public actors, literally no one, will stand up and defend the tobacco industry’s right to exist.

The Advocates Voice 2024

Australia and the United Kingdom – CAPHRA Asia Pacific

In this episode we explore the situation in Australia and the evolving situation in the United Kingdom. Draconian “regulations” or De Facto Ban? Language Warning. We let you hear from the people directly impacted.

In Favor of Flavor

Jeffrey Smith

In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) to develop regulatory guidelines to manage the tobacco (and, later, nicotine) marketplace with the goal of reducing negative tobacco-related health outcomes. One of the CTP’s current priorities is understanding the public health implications of reduced-risk flavored tobacco and nicotine products, which include electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS, also referred to as vapes or e-cigarettes), heat-not-burn (HnB) products, and oral tobacco and nicotine products (snus, snuff, and nicotine pouches).

The pharmacy nightmare is about to begin

For vapers – Colin Mendelsohn

SOURCING YOUR PREFERRED VAPES through pharmacies will be a nightmare under the new rules being introduced on 1 March 2024. Dr Carolyn Beaumont is an Australian GP and vape prescriber and she explains the new rules and the challenges vapers will face.

Australian vapers have needed a prescription for nicotine e-liquid since October 2020. But at least they were able to buy their preferred products via personal importation, usually from a wide selection in New Zealand. The various consumables such as replacement pods were accessible without any script requirements.

Hundreds of thousands of people switching

‘to vaping from smoking’

Action for Smokefree 2025 Director Ben Youdan says “hundreds of thousands” of people in New Zealand have switched from vaping to smoking. Mr Youdan says vaping is “substantially less harmful” than smoking. “There’s been significant reviews of global evidence,” he told Sky News Australia.

“People smoke from the nicotine, but it’s the smoke and the tar … that causes almost all the death and diseases. “In New Zealand, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people have switched to vaping from smoking. “To the point where we’ve actually seen smoking reach half in five years.”

Tax dollars up in smoke

To send public servants to Panama anti-nicotine summit

This week your tax dollars have been supporting 15 or so public servants who have travelled to Panama for a “Big Fear” health conference (not its real name) organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the risks of tobacco and nicotine.

Why Panama? Martin Cullip of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance’s Consumer Center explains that the anti-tobacco gang at the WHO are very impressed with countries that erect high barriers to tobacco use, including smoking bans, high taxes, age restrictions and so on.

Anti-vejp group spreads message at…

WHO conference – vejpers ejected- Stefan Mathisson

Weather activists and anti-tobacco fanatics. Dedicated addiction researchers and prohibitionists. All gathered in Panama City to attend, monitor and comment on the tenth meeting of the WHO Tobacco Convention, COP10. Vejpkollen took the pulse of two movements fighting for, and against, the alternatives to cigarettes.

After a few chaotic hours and delays, the WHO opened the 10th session of the Tobacco Convention. From the first speeches, the message was clear: according to the WHO Tobacco Control Secretariat, the availability of new forms of nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches is a problem that needs to be addressed. At the same time, those who think differently did not get a word in edgewise. At least inside the meeting.

Tension in Panama

Claudio Teixeira

At the recent Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), held in Panama Feb. 5–10, the exclusion of Brazilian representatives from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the epicenter of the tobacco industry, generated a wave of criticism for secrecy, exclusion and a lack of democratic transparency. The incident, marked by the refusal to accredit deputies, a state secretary and the press, reveals deep tensions in the global debate on tobacco control, casting doubt on the inclusiveness and openness of the international decision-making process.

THR advocates SHUT OUT of COP10

Will Godfrey recaps COP10 in Panama | #GFNNews

Despite resounding criticism of COP10 from consumers, THR advocates and healthcare professionals, the WHO has applauded its own efforts to promote prohibitionist policies. In this episode Will Godfrey (Filter Magazine) recaps the proceedings of COP10 in Panama, featuring member state rebellions and fight back from consumers and advocates – you don’t want to miss this!

A Misguided Crusade

Catharine Dockery

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and many other countries. Shouldn’t our leaders do everything they can to prevent deaths and reduce harm?

Unfortunately, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and the Food and Drug Administration have missed a profound public health opportunity by not encouraging reduced-harm nicotine products such as Zyn. Instead, they are targeting these lifesaving products and proposing wide-reaching bans.

Califf Pressures Biden …

To Pass Menthol Ban – Jim McDonald

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf is engaged in a campaign to pressure the White House to approve a rule banning menthol cigarettes. According to a Politico story published today, Califf—who was appointed by President Joe Biden—-has asked friends and health experts to “press their White House contacts over the status of the long delayed policy.”

The rule, if finalized, will ban U.S. sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored small cigars. Califf has championed the policy, claiming it will reduce youth smoking initiation and make it easier for adult smokers to quit.

Behavior bans threaten better future

Grier Bailey

In Colorado we have a history of not telling adults what to do in nearly every policy space. We may not agree with someone else’s choices, but restricting legal access to services and products simply never works. At best, making something illegal just makes it slightly harder and more expensive to obtain, and also undercuts well-regulated and transparent processes by increasing and encouraging illicit trade.

A good example in Colorado is stealing defeat from the jaws of victory by sabotaging tobacco usage declines.

Tobacco Harm Reduction Uganda

Calls for adoption of science-based approaches to tobacco control

Activists from Tobacco Harm Reduction Uganda have emphasized the importance of evidence-based regulation and harm reduction principles, while advocating for informed discussions and policy changes regarding tobacco harm reduction and low-risk nicotine alternatives in Uganda.

Their advocacy work that has been on for quite some time stresses the need to prioritize public health and individual choices, which is imperative to foster informed discussions, that acknowledge the potential benefits of tobacco harm reduction strategies.

On this Day…2023

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

Exposing Defective Research…

But Denied Credit for the Effort: Case 1 – Brad Rodu

I have catalogued in this blog numerous instances of deficient research that has been published by respected medical journals. In some cases, journal editors have published our concerns and authors’ corrections (here).

It is extremely difficult to get critical letters published. Editors don’t accept letters that simply complain about debatable issues. Critics must raise concerns that are irrefutable and likely to affect the study’s results and/or conclusions. Journal editors are ultimately responsible for failing to detect erroneous research, as they choose the articles and the peer reviewers. When objecting to an article, the critic carries the burden of proof, often in the face of staunch, even coordinated opposition by all the other parties.

Remember man, you are but dust…

thatgotmethinkingblog

As Ash Wednesday approaches we are bound to get the annual deluge of quit-smoking features in the media. Recent years have seen this shift to focus on vaping versus smoking. Understandable as that’s a ‘burning issue’ in the minds of sub-editors who can’t resist a bad pun or dad joke.

It’s more disturbing to see interviews with well-known politicians who are completely uninformed on the issue. Of course not being informed ever held a politician back from expounding with great certainty on any subject and Monday on Newstalk we had an example of this ‘showing your ignorance’ from Regina Doherty, who claimed “We know vaping is as dangerous as smoking, the outcomes are the same” The lack of pushback from the presenter was more disturbing, was he as ignorant as she or just not willing to contradict her?