Vapers Digest 19th November

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

E-Cig Store Partners With Morrisons – Tamarind Reveals MEP Ignorance – Consumer groups ask WHO tobacco control body to acknowledge their rights, adopt harm reduction – COP11 Day 1: The Echo Chamber Effect – COP11 Day 2: Voices Breaking Through the Noise – EU Commission Spreads Misinformation on Vaping at COP11 – COP 11 Media Pack – COP Live Day One #COP11 – COP Live Day Two #COP11 – -THR Advocates Criticize COP11 Transparency, Agenda – FCTC Locks Out Voices As NZ Champions Safer Nicotine – Mapping Bloomberg’s Billions Against Tobacco Harm Reduction – Experts Urge Reform, Challenge WHO’s Approach to Harm Reduction – EU working against Sweden in secret as COP11 kicks off – Many MEPs Still Fail to See the Difference Between Cigarettes and Nicotine – Majority of smokers believe e-cigarettes are as dangerous as cigarettes – ”A lie that costs lives” – Some good news about smoking – Bias, Confusion and Consequences: How Misleading Vape Studies are Undermining Public Health – Personal Attacks on THR Proponents Ramp Up Amid COP11 – Echo chamber? More than half of WHO’s accredited tobacco control NGOs underwritten by Mike Bloomberg – COP 11: The “dirty ashtray” award goes to…New Zealand? – Study linking vapes to COPD faces criticism for flawed methods – Ireland weighing nicotine pouch ban, says chief medical officer – Denmark sees dramatic drop in youth smoking rates as vaping increases – Why Europe has no common position on tobacco and nicotine – The Misuse of Tobacco-Control Awards – GOOD COP 2.0 | Day 1 of 5 | RegWatch (Live) – GOOD COP 2.0 | Day 2 of 5 | RegWatch (Live) – COPCast: David Williams & Maria Papaioannoy-Duic – Media, misinformation and public health – Panel Discussion | #GFN25

Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

E-Cig Store Partners With Morrisons

The E-Cig Store, a leader in the UK’s vape retail landscape, tells Planet of the Vapes that it has secured a milestone agreement to open over 400 stores at Morrisons supermarkets across the United Kingdom over the coming years – firmly establishing itself as the country’s largest vape retailer by store count.

Tamarind Reveals MEP Ignorance

A sizeable number of MEPs at the European Parliament are completely wrong on whether vapes and pouches are better than smoking according to Tamarind Intelligence. Its survey suggests that Europe’s parliamentarians are increasingly divided into “pros” and “antis”.

Consumer groups ask WHO tobacco control body to acknowledge their rights, adopt harm reduction

Manilla Bulletin

Consumer advocacy groups are asking the World Health Organization (WHO) to include tobacco harm reduction (THR) in its global control policies and listen to the voices of over a billion consumers at an upcoming meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Four From Michael Landl, World Vapers’ Alliance

COP11 Day 1: The Echo Chamber Effect

Today, COP11 has opened with the same old story. Countries patting each other on the back for ever-stricter restrictions on less harmful nicotine products, while barely glancing at what the evidence actually shows about outcomes.

COP11 Day 2: Voices Breaking Through the Noise

Day two of COP11 offered something unexpected. While most delegations continued the well-rehearsed ritual of announcing bans and restrictions, a handful of countries broke ranks again. They demanded evidence, transparency, and a seat at the table for harm reduction. Their statements were clear, measured, and rooted in science. For a brief moment, the echo chamber showed cracks.

Voices Unheard – Consumers Matter!At COP11, adult smokers and vapers must have a real voice in shaping vaping and harm-reduction policy. As bans and restrictive rules spread, the people most affected are left out of the conversation. Attacks on harm reduction, including flavour bans, threaten to wipe out years of progress and deny safer alternatives to those who need them.

Two From Loremipsum, COPWatch

COP Live Day One #COP11

Welcome to Copwatch’s COP Live reporting on FCTCCOP11. Here we bring you our observations and impressions on day one.

COP11 participants list
This is now published on the COP11 site: https://storage.googleapis.com/who-fctc-cop11-source/Additional%20documents%20-%20Diverse/fctc-cop11-div-1-en.pdf

We haven’t had much time to look at this but notice that Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids has a whopping 31 representatives at COP11, and the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) has 38.

COP Live Day Two #COP11

Welcome back to Copwatch’s COP Live reporting on FCTCCOP11. Here we bring you our observations and impressions from day two.

Live streaming
The live streaming of agenda item 3 continued in this morning’s session. The asterisks on the agenda denote which sessions will be live streamed. So, no more streaming is expected until the final day.

THR Advocates Criticize COP11 Transparency, Agenda

Tobacco Reporter

As the Eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the WHO FCTC opened yesterday, many tobacco/nicotine industry and tobacco harm reduction advocates watched the livestream intently, as only parts of the first and fifth days are scheduled to be made available to the public and media, a fact that draws significant disapproval from the event’s critics. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO opened the event, saying, “We are so used to hearing ‘tobacco kills us’, it no longer shocks us… If tobacco were a virus, we would call it a pandemic.” According to his X account, he called upon Parties to advance implementation, be aware of “tobacco industry tactics,” and invited Parties to join the FCTC.

FCTC Locks Out Voices As NZ Champions Safer Nicotine

Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), Scoop

As the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP11) unfolds in Geneva, the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) hails New Zealand’s delegation for its courageous endorsement of evidence-based tobacco harm reduction.

New Zealand’s representatives declared in plenary: “Since 2019 smoking rates have declined more rapidly in association with implementation of tobacco harm reduction measures, particularly regulated access to vaping products”.

Mapping Bloomberg’s Billions Against Tobacco Harm Reduction

David Zaruk, Firebreak

How is it possible for one billionaire to control global public health policy and impose his prohibitionist ideology on billions of consumers with no public discourse or research evidence? Michael Bloomberg’s foundation (and to a much less extent, the Gates Foundation) has invested billions into controlling the narrative against beneficial tobacco harm reduction tools like vaping and nicotine pouches. Through his creation of activist groups, funding health NGOs and large donations directly to the World Health Organization (WHO), Bloomberg has been able to control the agenda and the decisions at the WHO and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which is starting his 11th Conference of the Parties (COP) today.

Experts Urge Reform, Challenge WHO’s Approach to Harm Reduction

Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA)

Overview of the Day

The second day of Good COP 2.0 expanded on themes of transparency, scientific integrity, and global harm reduction challenges. Expert panels and regional voices highlighted tensions between evidence-based public health and calls for continued prohibition. Discussions underscored what is at stake for consumers and policymakers as COP11 national delegations such as New Zealand and Serbia call for a more flexible harm reduction approach.

EU working against Sweden in secret as COP11 kicks off

SnusForumNet

Draft COP11 documents indicate that the European Commission is still open to supporting a ban on safer nicotine products, directly contradicting last week’s agreement among EU Member States that such bans were off the table. So far, the Swedish delegation has offered no resistance.

On Friday, EU countries reached a consensus not to support any COP11 language that could enable bans on products like nicotine pouches.

Many MEPs Still Fail to See the Difference Between Cigarettes and Nicotine

Pouch Forum

A recent survey by the well renowned market-analysis platform TobaccoIntelligence paints a concerning picture of how Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) perceive modern nicotine products, including nicotine pouches. According to the report, a substantial share of MEPs still equate novel nicotine products with cigarettes or remain uncertain about their relative risks. Even though it is encouraging that a majority of respondents identified nicotine pouches as the lowest risk category, other results indicate a persistent lack of understanding of what should be considered baseline, fundamental facts in the regulation of nicotine products.

Majority of smokers believe e-cigarettes are as dangerous as cigarettes – ”A lie that costs lives”

Christian Egefur, Vejpkollen

More and more smokers believe that vejping is as dangerous as cigarette smoking – or even worse. This is according to new opinion data independent UK organisation “Our World in Data“ highlights in a recent analysis.
Researcher Hannah Ritchie notes that misconceptions are spreading even though the research is clear: vaping is far less harmful than smoking.

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

Tobacco control and the wrath of God

Harry’s blog 112.

In a previous blog, I described a particularly absurd situation regarding tobacco control paranoia about the industry. An anti-smoking NGO operating in Southeast Asia announced an anti-smoking poster competition for young people. Buried in the terms and conditions of entry was the stipulation that entrants could not have any connection with the industry to the ‘fourth level of consanguinity’. In other words, teenagers were barred if their great-great grandfathers had any industry connections.

‘Impossible to ignore snus’

In EU’s beating cancer plan – Snusforumet

Swedish MEP Sara Skyttedal remains critical of the European Commission’s continued unwillingness to recognise the potential for snus and other harm reduction alternatives for reducing tobacco-related mortality as part of the EU’s beating cancer plan.

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