Vapers Digest 17th September

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

Barbados Needs Policy Reform ~ UCECRF’s Research Update ~ Warning for Arsenal Fans ~ Cochrane Research Update ~ LETTER: Cigarettes are everywhere, nicotine pouches hidden: How am I suppose to stay off the butts? ~ Should vaping be easier or harder to access? ~ EU Commission makes misinformation its official policy ~ Brussels’ official policy: Harm reduction pushed aside in favour of outdated myths ~ 2025 – TSRC ~ UK disposable vape ban failing to protect environment, says waste boss ~ Nicotine pouch sales jump 92% in Wales as users report health boost ~ Ryan Spak: FDA must do better for smokers trying to quit ~ France’s pouch ban ‘a cruel joke’ that will turn holidaying Swedes into criminals ~ Five Experts, Zero Solutions: Why Australia’s Tobacco Control Has Failed ~ MARTIN VAN STADEN: Calls to silence health committee MP ignore true extent of foreign anti-choice lobbying ~ Chinese vape giants` defy Labor’s ban with bulk sales to Australians ~ Vaporizing Censorship at the Oregon Supreme Court ~ Research: Nicotine Pouches ~ Tobacco kills 13.5L Indians yearly, costs nation ₹1.8L crore ~ Is Vaping E-Cigarettes a Gateway to Smoking?

Four From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Barbados Needs Policy Reform

International health experts at Smoke Free Sweden are urgently advising for immediate policy reform in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, insisting on the adoption of life-saving tobacco harm reduction strategies. They point to a proven global blueprint that has already empowered more than 150 million people to quit smoking.

UCECRF’s Research Update

The UK Electronic Cigarette Research Forum (UKECRF) has released its latest quarterly briefing that looks at the new studies on electronic cigarettes and provides a critical overview of selected studies. Only peer-reviewed primary studies and systematic reviews are included and studies funded by the tobacco industry are excluded. The work is funded by Cancer Research UK.

Warning for Arsenal Fans

Football fans who follow Arsenal and are planning on heading to Bilbao this week for the Champions League match are being warned not to vape or bring e-liquids to San Mamés Stadium, where the use of e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products has been banned. The police are warning they will be expelled from the stadium and their devices confiscated.

Cochrane Research Update

After missing a few recent updates due to other events, Planet of the Vapes looks at the latest news from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group’s living systematic review being conducted at the University of Oxford. Providing an overview is Nicola Lindson based at the University of Oxford and Jamie Hartmann-Boyce based at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on their podcast.

LETTER: Cigarettes are everywhere, nicotine pouches hidden: How am I suppose to stay off the butts?

Josh Hutchings, The Telegram

Cigarettes are everywhere. In gas stations, corner stores and vending machines. You can drive through half the outports in Newfoundland and Labrador and never worry about not finding a pack.

Nicotine pouches on the other hand, are nowhere. Maybe at pharmacy counters if they happen to stock the right kind, and if you make it there before closing, and if you’re lucky enough they’re not sold out.

Should vaping be easier or harder to access?

Radio New Zealand

An Australian former health minister says New Zealand should be copying Australia’s move to make vape products harder to access.

New Zealand’s daily vaping rates have surged from one percent of the population ten years ago to more than 11 percent now. Simultaneously, the number of people smoking cigarettes has deflated, from 16.4 percent of the population to 6.9 percent in the past fifteen years.

Two From World Vapers’ Alliance

EU Commission makes misinformation its official policy

The European Commission’s official statement that “new nicotine products” have health risks comparable to smoking marks a new level of misinformation. Commissioner Varhelyi confirmed this in a written answer to a question from Members of Parliament. By choosing ideology and ignoring scientific evidence, the Commission misleads millions of smokers and former smokers.

World Vapers’ Alliance Director Michael Landl said:

“Brussels is now making disinformation its official policy. Treating vaping and other alternatives as dangerous as smoking will do nothing but keep people smoking. The Commission is failing smokers by choosing headlines and ideology over facts.”

Brussels’ official policy: Harm reduction pushed aside in favour of outdated myths

Michael Landl

The European Commission has crossed a line: it’s now official policy to claim that new nicotine products carry health risks “comparable to smoking”. Commissioner Varhelyi confirmed this in a written answer to a question from Members of Parliament. Ignoring years of research and millions of personal stories, the Commission now wants to treat vaping and smoking as equally dangerous. Not only is this untrue, it’s a slap in the face for public health and for smokers looking for safer options.

2025 – TSRC

Skip Murray, Skip’s Corner – Let’s Talk!

Symposium: Collective Progress & Future Sustainability – Key Considerations, Shared Perspectives, and Common Ground. Monday, September 15, 2025. Knoxville, TN, US.

Good morning!

Thank you for including me in this important conversation.
It is an honor to be here today with this incredible group of master gardeners. You are all seed planters, and I hope to inspire you to plant more seeds.

Have you ever felt like one person can’t make a difference? I have. I used to think change required winning arguments or changing minds on the spot. What I’ve learned instead is that real change begins when we plant seeds and then allow them time to grow.

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

UK disposable vape ban failing to protect environment, says waste boss

A UK-wide ban on disposable vapes was supposed to curb environmental damage and ease pressure on the UK’s waste system. But just three months on, a leading waste firm says the policy is having the opposite effect.

Roger Wright, strategy and packaging manager at Biffa, said the number of vapes being thrown into general recycling – where they don’t belong – has actually increased since the ban came into force in June.

Nicotine pouch sales jump 92% in Wales as users report health boost

Nicotine pouches are becoming increasingly popular in Wales, with new figures showing sales volumes rose by 92 per cent between 2023 and 2024.

A study reported by the South Wales Argus found that 59 per cent of people who started using nicotine pouches did so in order to quit smoking. In Wales, 68 per cent of users said they felt “much better” after making the switch.

Ryan Spak: FDA must do better for smokers trying to quit

Ryan Spak, Trib Live

Email Newsletters TribLIVE’s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. I’m a businessman and a real estate developer, so I’m no stranger to overcoming obstacles. But one of my biggest achievements has nothing to do with the business world — it was quitting smoking.

I’m confident that anyone who’s done it will agree. It’s a habit that’s hard to leave despite knowing the health risks. What finally worked for me was having a better option — something that provided the nicotine I wanted without the deadly smoke that comes from burning tobacco.

France’s pouch ban ‘a cruel joke’ that will turn holidaying Swedes into criminals

Smoke Free Sweden

Health experts slam EU policies driving smokers back to cigarettes.

International health experts have slammed France’s ban on nicotine pouches, warning that it will criminalise ordinary Europeans crossing borders with safer nicotine products and push millions of ex-smokers back to cigarettes. The ban means that Swedes, who have achieved Europe’s lowest smoking rates thanks to pouches and snus, will be treated as lawbreakers if they take their products on holiday to France. A smoker who quits in Italy with pouches would also become a criminal simply by stepping over the border into France.

Five Experts, Zero Solutions: Why Australia’s Tobacco Control Has Failed

Alan Gore, Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)

Australia loves to parade its “world-leading” tobacco control model. High taxes, endless restrictions, and the prohibition of safer alternatives all hailed as proof of “success.” And yet, we now sit on the largest black market for tobacco in the world, a youth smoking rate that has stopped falling (and is rising), and a thriving organised crime economy that government policy itself created.

Recently, The Conversation asked five “experts” if lowering tobacco taxes could cut smoking rates. Predictably, all five said no. But when you read their responses carefully, a pattern emerges: they either ignore reality, cherry-pick history, or dodge the real issue entirely. Let’s break it down.

MARTIN VAN STADEN: Calls to silence health committee MP ignore true extent of foreign anti-choice lobbying

Martin Van Staden, Business Day

The chair of parliament’s health portfolio committee, Sibongiseni Dhlomo (ANC), recently moved to have Dr Kgosi Letlape (ActionSA) recused from work on the Tobacco Bill. His reason? A supposed “conflict of interest” because Letlape cofounded the Africa Tobacco Harm Reduction Alliance.

Opposition parties quickly pushed back, rightly defending a respected doctor whose only fault seems to be speaking too persuasively against the bill. Letlape’s medical background and credibility make him a formidable critic, hardly the type of voice those intent on pushing prohibitionist policies want around the table.

Chinese vape giants` defy Labor’s ban with bulk sales to Australians

Mohammad Alfares, The Australian

Australia’s vaping crackdown is being undermined by brazen illicit vape companies who continue to illegally sell their products online and deliver them to customers via Australia Post, sparking a snap investigation by the federal government.

Despite new laws that banned the sale of all vapes outside pharmacies, The Australian has confirmed that major Australian-registered websites linked to some of China’s largest vaping juggernauts are continuing to sell commercial-quantity disposable vape devices and tobacco products directly to consumers.

John Thorpe, Goldwater Institute

Paul Bates faced a real pickle: the products at his Oregon vape shop were perfectly legal to sell, but for baffling reasons, the government barred him from accurately describing them to his customers. With the help of the Goldwater Institute, Paul fought the unconstitutional restrictions in court—and won. But the case isn’t over yet.

The state appealed, so now Paul’s case is headed to the state’s highest court. On Oct. 8, attorneys from the Goldwater Institute will appear before the Oregon Supreme Court to defend one of the most basic rights protected by the Oregon Constitution: the freedom of speech.

Research: Nicotine Pouches

A new study¹ suggests nicotine pouches — small, tobacco-free packets placed under the lip — may be catching on among smokers and other nicotine users looking for an alternative. Researchers analyzed data from more than 110,000 U.S. adults in the 2022–2023 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey and found that 2.65% had ever tried nicotine pouches, 0.42% were current users, and 0.18% used them daily.

Use isn’t evenly spread across the population. Men were far more likely to use pouches than women, and non-Hispanic White adults reported higher usage than other racial or ethnic groups. Pouch use was more common in the western U.S., and young adults aged 18–24 were the most likely to have ever tried one — though daily use was concentrated among slightly older adults.

Tobacco kills 13.5L Indians yearly, costs nation ₹1.8L crore

Akash Pandey, NewsBytes

Tobacco consumption claims the lives of 1.35 million (13.5 lakh) Indians annually, despite widespread awareness of its dangers. The financial burden of tobacco-related diseases on India is also massive, with over ₹1.77 lakh crore spent every year on treating such illnesses. Despite this, only 7% of smokers manage to quit without assistance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Is Vaping E-Cigarettes a Gateway to Smoking?

Floe Foxon

This talk was originally presented live at the 2025 annual meeting of the European chapter of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-E) held at the Grand Hotel Napoca in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in September. The talk was re-recorded to improve audio quality.

On this day…2023!

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

Nicotine Tax: Vapers Apply Pressure

Some Democrats Have Doubts – Jim McDonald

The proposed tax on vaping and other nicotine products isn’t a done deal yet. House Democrats continue to wrestle behind the scenes with the massive tax and spending bill that will fund President Biden’s “Build Back Better” infrastructure and social agenda—and some appear to be nervous about supporting the nicotine tax, which attempts to tax low-risk nicotine products like vapes at the same rate as deadly products like cigarettes.

If the FDA Doesn’t Kill the Vaping Industry

The Democrats’ Tax Hike Just Might – Christian Britschgi

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the vaping industry. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) let a deadline for authorizing vape products pass without having processed millions of pending applications—effectively making those products illegal to sell. Then on Monday, House Democrats unveiled a funding plan for their $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill that would impose steep new excise taxes on nicotine-containing vaping liquid for the first time.

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