Vapers Digest 17th Jan
Tuesday’s News at a glance:
State, city should be friendlier for e-cigarettes – E-Cig Alarmists Are Ignoring How Helpful The Devices Are To Quit Smoking – Blu hosts cigarette amnesty pop-up – I fear the release of HNB products on the market – The War on E-Cigarettes – Waiting for Tobacco Control to REALLY Prove that It Has Engaged in Junk Science for Decades – By 2020, everything will be known about vaping – I hope the WHO adopt another position on new vaporization technologies – Are e-cigarettes a miracle or a menace? A doctor investigates – PA vape distributor sues the state over killer 40% tax – New vape laws send customers underground – A Big Shift Towards The Idea Of Harm Reduction – NSP Daily Digest
State, city should be friendlier for e-cigarettes
Indianapolis Business Journal
Even though a half-million Americans die every year from smoking-related illness, roughly 17 percent of U.S. adults continue to smoke.
It’s encouraging that new options have come to the market in recent years for those who find they just can’t quit the habit. Electronic cigarettes and other vapor devices deliver nicotine without the negative effects of tar and carcinogens. While vaping isn’t completely safe, the best evidence suggests it’s about 95 percent safer than smoking cigarettes.
E-Cig Alarmists Are Ignoring How Helpful The Devices Are To Quit Smoking
Steve Birr, Daily Caller
Health officials in Tennessee echoed the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Monday, warning that electronic cigarettes are dangerous, ignoring evidence showing they help smokers quit.
“There’s a national drumbeat against electronic cigarettes, and the CDC is the leading champion for this demonization of a useful product,” Dr. Edward Anselm, senior fellow at the R Street Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are many challenges associated with the CDC’s war on e-cigarettes, and I don’t think its wrong to talk about a war on e-cigarettes.”
Blu hosts cigarette amnesty pop-up
Hannah Ellison, Event Magazine
Electronic cigarette company Blu staged an e-cigarette amnesty pop-up from 2-8 January, aimed at targeting smokers looking for an alternative to cigarettes as part of their new year’s resolutions.
The pop-up was situated in London, Birmingham and Manchester, and coincided with the start of the new year so as to catch those trying to quit smoking at an optimum time.
Blu encouraged visitors to shred their cigarettes via the branded Blu shredder, in return for a money off voucher redeemable against a new Blu e-cigarette kit. Brand ambassadors were also on site at each location to support the activation.
I fear the release of HNB products on the market
Jérôme Harlay, VapingPost
I have the feeling that e-cigarette is going to progress. I believe that vapers are now so convinced that e-cigarettes are less harmful than combusted tobacco, baptised “the killer”, that they fear to return to smoking. It’s a good prevention line. I dread the competition that will take place with the forthcoming marketing of heated tobacco products. Big Tobacco companies have unlimited fundings to carry out emission studies, which is not the case of independent manufacturers. Based on my scientific readings, the overall toxicity of heat-not-burn cigarettes is higher than the e-cigarette.
The War on E-Cigarettes
Jeff Stier & Gregory Conley, National Review
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that from 2005 to 2010, the nation’s smoking rate experienced a measly decline, from 20.9 percent to 19.3 percent. This, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in government anti-smoking campaigns and higher cigarette taxes. The CDC now estimates that the smoking rate will be 17 percent in 2020, far short of the sub–12 percent goal set by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
If there’s any chance of reaching the goal, influential anti-tobacco activist groups should quit stubbornly relying on the government to solve the problem, especially when the private sector is coming up with innovative approaches to reduce the risks related to tobacco use.
Waiting for Tobacco Control to REALLY Prove that It Has Engaged in Junk Science for Decades
Junican, Bolton Smokers Club
Here is the trick. Briefly, two groups of smoker volunteers were assembled. Individuals in, shall we say, Group A were sat down and a cigarette, lighter and ashtray were placed in front of them. Conversations took place and researchers waited to see when the volunteer picked the cig up and lit it. The same happened with Group B, except that, at some point, a researcher started to puff on an ecig. The smokers in Group B were inclined to pick up the cig and light it sooner than those in Group A. THEREFORE, seeing someone vaping caused the smoker to pick up and light the cig.
By 2020, everything will be known about vaping
Jérôme Harlay, VapingPost
Hardware have made considerable progress. Now we have products with no leakage, we have “intelligent products” that prevent dry hits, we have more powerful products that can be used by everyone. Part of the power is useful to the vaper but another part of it dissipates in the environment, and this is one of the issues that may be discussed in a close future.
But now, we have an efficient way to deliver nicotine and an increasing number of studies show the benefits of switching to vaping for smokers. Vaping extends the fun of smoking without its adverse effects, it also helps controlling the weight with positive effects on blood pressure. Unfortunately, every now and then, a new study comes and casts a shadow over vaping. In France, the media use the conditional tense but in the USA and in Germany, the results are thrown without further explanation. I however notice a positive move in Germany and in Greece.
I hope the WHO adopt another position on new vaporization technologies
Jérôme Harlay, VapingPost
I believe that the international launch of Philip Morris’ HNB cigarette, iQOS, is the sign of a deep change in the tobacco products market. iQOS has been very successful in Japan where it represents 5% of the sales of tobacco products after a doubling of the value within only one year.
In the USA, when Totally Wicked announced they closed their shops after the new FDA regulation, it has been a shock for the professional sector. It is not excluded that the tobacco industry takes a place in the new technology markets at the expense of the e-cigarette, in its current form, and at the expense of its independent manufacturers, and retailers.
A Billion Lives – Demand Film
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European vaper? Wintery Sunday… what to do? Do this! It's easy and important > https://t.co/iozvxnNBog
Background: https://t.co/Do8CjZ9z8v— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) January 15, 2017
Are e-cigarettes a miracle or a menace? A doctor investigates
Denise Eriksen, The New Daily
Is Australia making a big mistake in not legalising the use of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine?
Yes, according to the evidence presented in a BBC Science documentary – Miracle or Menace on Foxtel’s BBC Knowledge channel on Wednesday 12 January.
Their use is highly controversial in this country, unlike in the United Kingdom where they are legally embraced as an invaluable aid for those wanting to give up cigarette smoking.
Medical science journalist and presenter Dr Michael Mosley, who is renowned for his interrogation of contemporary health issues, took a detailed look at the devices.
PA vape distributor sues the state over killer 40% tax
Jim McDonald, Vaping360
Remember the Pennsylvania vape tax? Yeah, that one — the 40 percent tax that has already closed more than 70 vape shops and manufacturers in the state.
The tax was promoted as a way for the state to collect $13 million a year in easy income. But, since it levied a floor tax that required every shop to make a lump sum payment for all onhand stock, it simply forced businesses to shut their doors. The tax even attempts to tax consumers who buy from online or out-of-state sellers, and provides criminal penalties for those who don’t pay.
New vape laws send customers underground
Emma Ea Ambrose, JC Online
In July, state regulations took effect on e-liquid manufacturers that vape stores worried might kill the vaping industry.
The law required that e-liquids sold by Indiana vendors be manufactured at facilities that meet strict new security guidelines. Only one company in Indiana meets the requirements to provide security to manufacturers: Mulhaupt’s Inc. in Lafayette.
That’s limited the number of products sold at vape stores across Indiana from the hundreds to precisely seven.
A Big Shift Towards The Idea Of Harm Reduction
Dick Puddlecote
With all the Christmas shenanigans going on, this positive short film (11 minutes-ish) from the Speccie kinda crept under my radar last month, but is definitely worth a watch.
Now, I’ve been rightly critical of TV Doc Sarah Jarvis before, but she is pretty sound when asked the question “Can businesses help us to be more healthy?”, as are Sam Bowman of the ASI (from whom I pinched the blog title) and Chris Snowdon, as you’d expect.
Call to Action
Changing how YOUR Council sees vaping
Vapers in Power
There is only one council in the entire country with a decent attitude towards vaping.
Thanks to the work of Freedom to Vape we now know that the vast majority of councils lump vaping in with smoking, against the advice of both Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive.
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
