Vapers Digest 18th May

Monday’s News at a glance:

Spain Slammed for Protecting Smoking ~ Life-Saving but Limited: A Response to RIVM’s Categorization of E- Cigarettes in New “Tasty but Toxic” Research ~ EU tobacco policy row intensifies as scientists accuse Brussels of ignoring evidence on harm reduction ~ How to Get Less Wrong, Nicotine Edition ~ “No Smoke Does Not Mean No Harm” And No Perspective Does Not Mean Public Health ~ World No Tobacco Day and the Public Health Industry That Lost the Plot ~ Real people. Real outcomes. A global view of tobacco harm reduction. ~CAPHRA warns WHO against one-size-fits-all nicotine pouch restrictions ~ New WHO report pushes tougher crackdown on nicotine pouches ~ WHO’s Paper on Nicotine Pouch Marketing is Hysterical, Garbled, and Ignorant ~ New Taxes on Nicotine Pouches in the EU Could Hamper Health Goals ~ Are there any dangers with nicotine pouches? ~ FDA’s New ENDS and Nicotine Pouch Enforcement Guidance: Lower Priority for Post-November 2021 Reviewable Applications, Higher Scrutiny for Illicit Products ~ House Oversight Committee Demands FDA Accountability for $200M Illicit Vape Enforcement Funds ~ Second Trump Administration’s Pivot On Vaping Leads To Resignations ~ The WHO vs. The Tiny Mint Pillow of Doom ~ Opinion: Rites of summer highlight the rights of individuals ~ HOW TOBACCO CONTROL LOST ITS WAY?

Spain Slammed for Protecting Smoking

Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Spanish politicians has been slammed for blocking access to reduced risk nicotine products such as vapes, and stand accused of protecting cigarette smoking by international health experts. The country’s two main political parties – the Popular Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) – have voted to confine the sale of vaping products and nicotine pouches to specialist stores.

Life-Saving but Limited: A Response to RIVM’s Categorization

of E- Cigarettes in New “Tasty but Toxic” Research

Tobacco Harm Reduction

New RIVM study recommends increasing vaping restrictions—but fails to account for the harm reduction element inherent to e-cigarette use.

On 4th May 2026, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published a research paper titled “Toxic but tasty: The role of flavours in e-cigarette product appeal”. Conducted by PhD student Ina Hellmich at Wageningen University, the conclusions of this research share that restricting non-tobacco flavours in e-cigarettes can “meaningfully reduce e-cigarette use” based on the Dutch flavour ban since 2024. The research recommends international adoption of similar measures and further suggests that standardising vaping device colours to “hues such as white or brown – could therefore be justified as part of broader flavour regulation”.

EU tobacco policy row intensifies as scientists accuse Brussels of ignoring evidence on harm reduction

Colin Stevens, EU Reporter

A fierce debate over the future of European tobacco policy is intensifying after European Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi (pictured) suggested that alternative nicotine products such as vapes, heated tobacco devices and nicotine pouches may cause the “same level of damage” as traditional cigarettes.

The comments, delivered during a Health Policy Conference in Brussels and later echoed before the European Parliament’s SANT Committee, have sparked a growing backlash from scientists, healthcare professionals and harm reduction advocates who argue that the Commissioner’s position is inconsistent with current scientific evidence.

How to Get Less Wrong, Nicotine Edition

Joe Gitchell, #PickOnGitch

In 2018, the prestigious Annual Review of Public Health did something new: it invited two sets of authors to cover the same public health issue, giving its readers the benefit of competing viewpoints. The editors introduced the two papers with an editorial titled “The Debate About Electronic Cigarettes: Harm Minimization or the Precautionary Principle” and it observed:

“In this volume, we present two reviews on e-cigarettes, which come to different conclusions. One, by Abrams et al. (1), takes a cautiously positive message from the research and practice experience he points to as evidence, to date, of successful use of e-cigarettes to quit smoking tobacco-burning cigarettes and of reductions in youth smoking of combustible cigarettes since the advent of e-cigarettes.

Two From Alan Gor

“No Smoke Does Not Mean No Harm” –

And No Perspective Does Not Mean Public Health

The latest campaign from the World Health Organisation is visually polished, emotionally loaded, and entirely predictable. Fruit flavours, bright colours, alarmist slogans, and carefully crafted imagery all push the same implication: nicotine pouches are simply the tobacco industry’s latest sinister attempt to “hook” a new generation. World Health Organisation

World No Tobacco Day and the Public Health Industry That Lost the Plot

What makes posts like these so revealing is not simply the criticism of the tobacco industry itself, but the complete inability to separate smoking from harm reduction. Everything is deliberately collapsed into a single moral category. “Smoke-free futures,” “harm reduction,” consumer advocacy, opposition to prohibitionist regulation, and even criticism of failed policy are all framed as suspicious industry manipulation rather than legitimate public debate.

CAPHRA warns WHO against one-size-fits-all nicotine pouch restrictions

Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA)

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) says the World Health Organization is right to raise concerns about irresponsible youth marketing of nicotine pouches, but warns that overly restrictive guidance could shape policy across Asia Pacific in ways that deny adults access to lower-risk alternatives to smoking.

CAPHRA says the issue is straightforward: youth protection is essential, but it should not come at the expense of adults who are trying to move away from cigarettes and other high-risk tobacco products.

New WHO report pushes tougher crackdown on nicotine pouches

Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

The WHO is urging governments to consider strict regulation – and potentially bans – on nicotine pouches, warning they risk creating “a new generation” addicted to nicotine

The report argues nicotine pouches are being marketed with “youthful themes”, sweet flavours and “discreet” use messaging that could appeal to teenagers

But the document also highlights a growing divide in global tobacco control over how lower-risk nicotine products should be treated compared with cigarettes

Critics say increasingly restrictive approaches to safer nicotine products risk overlooking the role they may play for adults trying to move away from smoking

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

New Taxes on Nicotine Pouches in the EU Could Hamper Health Goals

Adam Hoffer, Jacob Macumber-Rosin, Tax Foundation Europe

As a part of the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED), the European Commission (EC) is proposing to set a minimum tax on nicotine pouches of 143 EUR/kg or 50 percent of the purchase price. The TED provides a common framework for Member States’ tobacco tax policy.

The proposed revision, released in an update last year, includes an increase to the minimum price of cigarettes and a substantial expansion of the products covered under TED.

Are there any dangers with nicotine pouches? (Editor Note: Podcast)

Newstalk

Walk into any petrol station, grocery shop or locker room today and you are likely to find a colorful tin of nicotine pouches.

They are small tea-bag-like sachets containing a strong amount of flavoured Nicotine. There’s no smoke, it’s absorbed straight into the bloodstream.

These pouches have become increasingly popular amongst young people but what are the dangers and how addictive are they?

Joining Shane to discuss this is Dr Garrett McGovern, Clinical Lead with HSE Addiction Services.

Azim Chowdhury, The Continuum of Risk

On May 8, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued final guidance describing how the Agency intends to prioritize enforcement for certain unauthorized electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and oral nicotine pouch products marketed without premarket authorization. The guidance is effective immediately and replaces FDA’s prior April 2020 ENDS enforcement-priorities guidance.

House Oversight Committee Demands FDA Accountability for $200M Illicit Vape Enforcement Funds

Javier Manjarres, The Floridian

The House Oversight Committee is pressing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide a detailed accounting of the $200 million allocated to combat illicit vaping products. Many of the targeted items are imported from China and marketed without authorization.

Despite this substantial investment, lawmakers say unauthorized disposable vapes remain widely available in convenience stores, gas stations, and online marketplaces across the country.

Second Trump Administration’s Pivot On Vaping Leads To Resignations

Joshua P. Cohen, Forbes

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s chief spokesperson Rich Danker resigned this week, citing “irreconcilable differences” over an effort to promote fruit-flavored e-cigarettes. This followed Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary’s resignation, a purported reason for which involved a disagreement regarding the second Trump administration’s push to permit tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes. Both Makary and Danker expressed worry about possibly fueling addiction, specifically among the youth, which aligns with the first Trump administration’s view on this matter.

The WHO vs. The Tiny Mint Pillow of Doom

Loremipsumdolor, COPWatch

The World Health Organization has released a new report on nicotine pouches titled “Exposing marketing tactics and strategies driving the global growth of nicotine pouches.” Unfortunately, after wading through dozens of pages of bureaucratic alarmism, a simpler title that might have been more accurate is “Everything We Hate About People Using Nicotine.”

Opinion: Rites of summer highlight the rights of individuals

Ian Irvine, Financial Post

The past week in Montreal has seen the gradual encroachment of restaurant, bar and café patios onto the city sidewalks and asphalt, any that isn’t potholed, that is. Our six-month winter is slowly yielding to the delights of a brew, a glass of whatever with a fish ‘n’ chips, or even a pricey mocha or latté in the warming outdoor spaces we wintry creatures so cherish. Patrons engage in people-watching and fashion-judging, all the while assessing the chances of Les Canadiens in their playoff quest for the Stanley Cup. Torontonians are doing much the same, except the conversation is in the form of Leafs lamentation.

HOW TOBACCO CONTROL LOST ITS WAY?

Global Forum on Nicotine

Twenty years after the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force, has the treaty lost its way? According to Jeannie Cameron, the answer is yes. Cameron is a tobacco policy expert with a background in international law who observed the FCTC negotiations from the beginning. She says a treaty once focused on reducing smoking-related disease has morphed into a global system hostile to tobacco harm reduction.

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