Vapers Digest 19th July

Friday’s News at a glance:

The genius of Michael Russell – more right than ever – Tough on smoking, tough on alternatives to smoking – Adult Smoking and Vaping Trends – Action on Smoking and Health’s Speech Take – King’s Speech Confirms Vape Flavour Restrictions – Hold WHO And FCTC Accountable – Advocates Urge Rethink as UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill Returns – Experts Slam “Ridiculous” WHO Tobacco Cessation Guidelines – “You’ll Get That Bounce!” – FDA Authorizes Vuse Alto – FDA Appropriations Bills – PMI Will Build $600M ZYN Factory in Colorado – Second-hand vaping exposure “very low” – The Granite State should help veterans quit – This vape shop is using its window to protest the province’s ‘hypocrisy’ – Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax – Vaping May Be an ‘Attractive’ Cessation Tool – Harnessing THR: Lessons From Sweden, Japan

The genius of Michael Russell –

More right than ever – Clive Bates

Professor Michael Russell died 15 years ago this week. His fundamental insights from the 1970s onwards are (or should be) shaping the debate about tobacco and nicotine today. He is justly famous for “people smoke for the nicotine, but die from the tar”, but there is rather more to his work than that.

Let us look at ten of his wisest insights, with a short commentary by me on each.

Tough on smoking…

Tough on alternatives to smoking – Christopher Snowdon

The week’s least surprising news was that our new Labour government will be picking up Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill where he left off. When it comes to tobacco prohibition, as with so many other misguided, virtue-signalling policies — banning “junk food” advertising, creating a football regulator, banning “no fault evictions”, forcing bouncers to undergo anti-terrorism training — you cannot slide a cigarette paper between the two parties. Cigarette papers will also be banned, by the way, because the Labour Party has not taken its policy from the New Zealand Labour Party whose legislation (since repealed) only included cigarettes, but has copied and pasted Rishi Sunak’s “everything but the kitchen sink” legislation ….

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Adult Smoking and Vaping Trends

A new paper led by Harry Tattan Birch, University College London, has looked into what has happened to trends in adult smoking and vaping prevalence in England since disposable vapes started to become popular. According to Dr Sarah Jackson, the short answer is that it is complicated.

Overall nicotine use has risen among adults in England since disposable vapes started becoming popular, due to a rapid increase in vaping among young adults coupled with a modest overall decline in smoking, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

Action on Smoking and Health’s Speech

The Government announced that reintroduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill was an early priority for Keir Starmer’s Labour administration in the forthcoming session, in yesterday’s King’s Speech. Predictably, Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-smoking charity, was over the moon at the news.

Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Today’s announcement puts us in pole position to be the first country in the world to end smoking. Smoking puts pressure on our NHS and social care system, but the greatest financial impact is the damage to our economy due to lost productivity. ..”

King’s Speech Confirms Vape Restrictions

“In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history,” said Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. Vapers and the electronic cigarette industry must have been feeling the same way when King Charles III announced the new government’s intention on resurrecting the Conservative’s deeply flawed Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

When Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill was left on the floor of the House of Commons after the announcement to hold the general election, many health bodies lamented it missing the “wash up” as a lost opportunity to take a decisive step to eliminate teen smoking.

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has released a revision to their groundbreaking report ‘The Subversion of Public Health: Consumer Perspectives’, calling on governments worldwide to hold the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) accountable for their exclusion of consumer perspectives in tobacco control policy discussions.

“This exclusion not only undermines public health efforts but also disregards the lived experiences and expertise of millions of former smokers who have successfully transitioned to safer nicotine products (SNPs),” said Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.

New paper published today in the BMJ finds a sharp increase in the proportion of adults reporting vaping for >6 months since 2021, particularly at younger ages.

Suggests the recent rise in vaping among young adults is not purely experimentation.

Around half of >6m vapers now… pic.twitter.com/jgymMq8t3K

— Sarah Jackson (@DrSarahEJackson) July 18, 2024

Two from Kiran Sidhu:

Advocates Urge Rethink

As UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill Returns

The United Kingdom’s new Labour government has reintroduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the King’s Speech announced on July 17. The bill, which would ban anyone born after 2008 from legally buying cigarettes, was originally put forward by the Conservative Party, which lost power in the July 4 general election.

The reemergence of the bill is no surprise. The Labour Party supported it after it was introduced in November 2023 by the Conservatives, who only shelved it when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a snap election in May.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been criticized by tobacco harm reduction advocates, as well as some politicians.

Experts Slam “Ridiculous” WHO…

Tobacco Cessation Guidelines

The World Health Organization has released its first-ever guide for tobacco cessation in adults. Its stated aim is “helping the more than 750 million tobacco users who want to quit all forms of tobacco.”

Tobacco harm reduction experts criticize the guidance for badly identified targets, and for recommendations with gaping holes.

The guideline endorses behavioral support from health care providers, “digital cessation interventions” and pharmacological treatments as ways of helping people quit tobacco.

“You’ll Get That Bounce!”

NY Harm Reduction Org Hosts Vaping Group – Helen Redmond

Saint Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction (SACHR) is a pioneering organization. When it started handing out sterile syringes to New Yorkers using drugs, during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ‘90s, it was illegal to do so.

Since 1990, SACHR has operated the longest continually-running syringe services program in the United States. Its participants are mostly on low incomes, and mostly Black or Latino. Having started out dispensing supplies from the trunk of a vehicle, SACHR now offers a wide range of programs in a spacious, brightly painted building in the South Bronx.

Three from Jim McDonald, Vaping 360:

FDA Authorizes Vuse Alto

The FDA today authorized sale of the Vuse Alto pod vape and six tobacco-flavored refill pods for the device. The Alto is the single most popular vape product sold in the convenience store/gas station segment of the U.S. vaping market.

The Alto pods granted marketing authorization are the Golden Tobacco and Rich Tobacco flavors, both available in 1.8, 2.4, and 5.0 percent nicotine strengths.

FDA Authorizes Marketing of Vuse Alto Tobacco-Flavored E-Cigarette Pods

FDA Appropriations Bills

Federal legislators who control FDA funding are demanding stricter enforcement against vaping products that have not been granted marketing authorization by the agency. If the FDA doesn’t deliver on the congressional demands, legislators have proposed penalties for the agency.

In the last week, both the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House Appropriations committees passed Fiscal Year 2025 spending bills that would punish the FDA if the agency doesn’t pursue tougher enforcement policies, especially against flavored vape products and popular disposable vapes.

PMI Will Build $600M ZYN Factory

ZYN is the most popular brand of nicotine pouches, controlling over 70 percent of the fast-growing nicotine product market segment. Rapid growth and high demand for ZYN products has led to widespread shortages of the popular pouch brand.

PMI will spend $600 million to build the new facility, located in Aurora, Colorado. It is expected to employ 500 people. The company says it plans to break ground in Aurora this year, and begin preliminary operations at the new facility by the end of 2025.

Second-hand vaping exposure “very low”

Compared to second-hand smoking – Ali Anderson

Children exposed to vaping indoors absorb less than one seventh the amount of nicotine as children who are exposed to indoor smoking, a new study has revealed. The research by University College London (UCL), published in JAMA Network Open, looked at blood tests and survey data for 1,777 children aged three to 11 in the United States.

Lead author Dr. Harry Tattan-Birch, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said: “Our study shows, using data from the real world rather than an artificial lab setting, that nicotine absorption is much lower from second-hand vapor than from second-hand smoking.

The Granite State should help veterans…

Quit smoking through vapes – Jayson Wulf

AS A proud U.S. Marine I can attest to the truth in the joke that “America’s military runs on nicotine and caffeine.” It was probably being in the miliary, fighting overseas in places like Fallujah, Iraq, with a constant supply of nicotine, that helped get me addicted to smoking. But an addiction to smoking is not a laughing, or healthy matter.

Right now, one million veterans who receive care from the VA report smoking combustible cigarettes. Cigarette use is an all-too-common feature of service to our armed forces, and the battle to help veterans quit smoking cigarettes should be a priority for the Granite State.

This vape shop is using its window…

To protest the province’s ‘hypocrisy’

From the street, the red brick building in Picton, Ont., gives few clues about what’s inside. The windows are tinted, the blinds drawn. A sign with “Stinky Canuck” written in bold blue and red letters, and “Vape Shop” in a smaller font below, is the only indication of what’s for sale.

It’s another message on the glass below that’s catching the eyes of passersby, however. “The provincial gov’t made us remove our business name from this window,” it shouts in white capital letters.

NZ First Minister Casey Costello …

Orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has cut the excise tax on Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs), as she aims to make them more attractive as an alternative to smoking.

Costello, who is also Customs Minister, has cut the excise rate on HTPs by 50 percent effective from 1 July – a move silently dropped on the Customs website.

Costello refused to be interviewed by RNZ but a spokesman said she had made the move to reduce the cost of the products to encourage smokers to switch to safer alternatives.

E-cigarettes could be a critical tool

For reducing tobacco use

The tobacco pandemic continues to ravage our communities, claiming countless lives and crippling health systems. For my justice-impacted community, the toll of tobacco addiction is particularly devastating. Despite decades of valiant efforts to combat this scourge, smoking remains a leading cause of preventable death globally, with a disproportionate impact on marginalized populations like ours.

In the United States, where the stark reality of tobacco’s deadly consequences is well-documented, it’s imperative that we adopt innovative solutions to reverse this trend. One such solution is nicotine e-cigarettes, a polarizing yet potentially game-changing tool in harm reduction and smoking cessation.

A Closer Look At ‘Backfired’ Vaping Wars

Joe Gitchell

WHO’s Cessation Treatments Remain…

Unaffordable for Majority of Smokers – Joseph Magero

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a comprehensive set of tobacco cessation interventions. The interventions include behavioral support delivered by health-care providers, digital cessation interventions, and pharmacological treatments in a first guideline on tobacco cessation.

WHO recommends varenicline, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), bupropion, and cytisine as effective treatments for tobacco cessation. However, while the guideline marks a pivotal moment in public health, it also brings to light the stark affordability challenges faced by smokers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

High Stakes

Former NJOY Exec on Tobacco Control & FDA Regulation | RegWatch

Over the past decade, how many people have been chided, misled, bullied, or driven away from considering reduced-risk nicotine products as a safer alternative to combustible tobacco? It’s a difficult question with a stark answer.

Joining us for part two of our special two-part edition of RegWatch is former NJOY exec Jeffrey Weiss. Weiss’s tenure at NJOY was significant and consequential, serving on the board, as general counsel, and during the tumultuous years as interim president. His time at NJOY concluded with the Altria purchase in 2023.

How Misinformation About Vaping

Are Harming African Smokers

The devastating impact of tobacco-related deaths tells us one thing: it is time to confront the misconceptions surrounding Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR). According to a report, tobacco-related deaths are estimated at 8 million lives annually, with 80 percent of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries. Africa has witnessed a staggering 104 percent surge in smoking rates in North Africa and the Middle East, and a 75 percent increase in sub-Saharan Africa since 1990.

PMI On the Battle for Smoke-Free Future

Global Forum on Nicotine

Harnessing Tobacco Harm Reduction:

Lessons From Sweden, Japan

In the early 2000s, Sweden had and adopted the concepts and ideals behind Tobacco Harm Reduction when it introduced Snus, a smokeless tobacco product that has since become a national phenomenon. Snus is placed under the upper lip and does not require smoking. Its popularity in Sweden has contributed to a significant public health triumph.

Akinwande Puddicombe, West & Central Africa’s Scientific Engagement Manager for New Category Products, British American Tobbaco (BAT), while elaborating, said the Sweden and Japan experience are worthy of emulation by other countries.

On this Day…2023

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

Follow the science when regulating vaping

Justin Leventhal, Inside Sources, Press Of Atlantic City

While often justified to protect teen health, regulators have begun treating vaping products as equally, if not more harmful, as smoking traditional tobacco products. This push means that more teen and adult nicotine users will use cigarettes, which are far more dangerous.

More effort is needed to prevent teen nicotine use. Still, in doing so, we should make sure not to encourage teens and adults to use products that could cut an additional 10 years off their lives.

The power of information:

Embrace science for a healthier future

Joseph Magero, KBC

In today’s digital age, we find ourselves immersed in a sea of information, constantly pounded by news, opinions and myriad claims from various sources. While this access to information can be empowering, it also poses a significant challenge: distinguishing between fact and fiction.

Nowhere is this more critical than in the realm of medical knowledge, as the recent COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated. As the virus spread around the world, a contagion of conspiracy theories, cod science and fake news bombarded the public, hindering the drive to save lives.