Vapers Digest 20th December
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Don’t let this British success go up in smoke ~ Harry’s blog 43: Safe Havens ~ Is the FDA about to regulate e-juice flavors? ~ Critics Accuse New Foundation of Acting as Smoke-Screen for Big Tobacco ~ Reynolds enters FDA modified-risk tobacco gauntlet with Camel Snus styles ~ Thailand’s Public Health Ministry Insists E-Cigarettes are Hazardous to Your Health ~ NZ health entity speaks up in defense of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation ~ An article about vaping amongst teens, leaves out important detail ~ Council accepts reports on vaping and marijuana ~ Latest Statistics: Smoking In England ~ Can you quit smoking with patches and gums?
Don’t let this British success go up in smoke
Matt Ridley, VapersUK
Health organisations now agree vaping is far less harmful than smoking yet it continues to be demonised and restricted
Imagine if Britain led the world in a new electronic industry, both in production and consumption, if independent British manufacturers had a worldwide reputation for innovation and quality, were based mainly in the north and were exporting to Asia. And that this innovation was saving lives on a huge scale while saving consumers over £100 billion so far.
Harry’s blog 43: Safe Havens
Harry Shapiro, Nicotine Science and Policy
One of my favourite Woody Allen quotes come from his film Stardust Memories which goes, “intellectuals are like the Mafia. They only kill their own.” Fortunately, within the conflicted world of tobacco control and tobacco harm reduction, there are relatively few albeit influential sabre-rattlers. But this area of public and scientific discourse is relatively new, so plenty of time for the dogs of war to be let loose. I’m sure the hurricanes of hate blow through the climate change community and there is this salutary tale about Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist. She built a career on research around power posing, the idea that briefly adopting assertive, open poses can improve one’s performance in various social settings (in part because doing so cues certain hormonal changes).
Is the FDA about to regulate e-juice flavors?
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The FDA Center for Tobacco Products is about to ask for public comment on flavored e-liquid, and the agency appears to be following the tobacco control party line that maintains that some flavors are geared toward teenagers.
A draft of the agency’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) is working its way toward publication by the FDA in the Federal Register. No one is certain if the language currently in the document will change before the final call for comment is issued.
Critics Accuse New Foundation of Acting as Smoke-Screen for Big Tobacco
Lisa Schlein, VOA News
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND —
Controversy is swirling around the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. This new non-profit organization has come under intense criticism from health agencies and anti-tobacco campaigners who accuse it of acting as a smoke-screen for Big Tobacco, a charge vigorously denied by the foundation’s president. Derek Yach, who created and heads the foundation, was one of the architects of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force February 27, 2005.
Reynolds enters FDA modified-risk tobacco gauntlet with Camel Snus styles
Monday, six styles of Camel Snus became the first Reynolds American Inc. tobacco products to enter the Food and Drug Administration review process for gaining modified-risk status. Reynolds submitted modified-risk tobacco product applications April 3. The FDA has filed modified risk applications for substantive review for 18 Camel Snus styles and the process could take up to a year to complete. The styles are Frost, Frost Large, Mellow, Mint, Robust and Winterchill.
A Billion Lives – Demand Film
Coming to a Cinema near You – Reserve your tickets Now!
Thailand’s Public Health Ministry Insists E-Cigarettes are Hazardous to Your Health
Editor, Chaingrai Times
BANGKOK – The Public Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department has insisted that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are hazardous to health and should not be used as a means to quit smoking, said Dr Assadang Ruay-archin, deputy director-general of the department. Dr Assadang, also the department spokesman, also dismissed as untrue a report that the Public Health Ministry had distorted an analysis about safety risks, toxic substances and heavy metal in e-cigarettes.
NZ health entity speaks up in defense of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation
Diane Caruana, Vaping Post
In response to a press release by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand (ARANZ), saying that e-cigarettes are unsafe, a Maori public health organization is saying that such claims could be putting the Smokefree 2025 goal at risk. Last March, the government of New Zealand announced that vaping products would be legalized, and while many commended this motion, the ARANZ spoke against it. Despite evidence to the contrary, the organization claimed that the products are harmful to the respiratory system.
An article about vaping amongst teens, leaves out important detail
Diane Caruana, Vaping Post
An article published on The Guardian quoted data from a US survey released yesterday, and argued that nowadays, youngsters are more likely to experiment with e-cigarettes than regular cigarettes. The article failed to add that not only are e-cigarettes less addictive, but unlike those who experiment with cigarettes, the majority of these youngsters never become addicted. The data which was collected across the US via The Monitoring the Future Study and published a few days back by The Institute for Social Research, indicated that smoking rates by high school seniors have dropped by 73% since 1997.
Unpopular opinion: I am totally fine with vaping among teens. Nicotine is a performance-enhancer (like caffeine in many ways) and the fewer teens smoking cigarettes, the better for public health. They are practicing #harmreduction.
— Sheila Vakharia PhD (@MyHarmReduction) December 18, 2017
Council accepts reports on vaping and marijuana
Tristan Turner, The Morinville News
Council has received two new reports for information on hot-button topics: vaping and marijuana legislation. Both reports were prepared by Sgt. William Norton, Morinville’s Manager of Enforcement Services, and were accepted as part of a larger sudo ‘consent agenda’ motion, where council also received many other items for information and passed motions. The larger motion – which accepted these reports for information – passed 5-2 with councillors Richardson and Dafoe opposing. As a result of their acceptance en masse, council did not offer any comments or questions to either report, and no further action was taken.
Latest Statistics
Smoking In England
This section provides a summaries of useful national statistics for the current year, including information on smoking prevalence, motivation to stop, quit attempts, what people use when they try to quit, actual quit rates, regional differences, use of the stop smoking services and more.
Can you quit smoking with patches and gums?
Kevin Crowley,Vaping Links
Are attempts with these quit smoking products successful? Can you find success rates for them? Do they work? Can you quit smoking? I’m sure there are a few who will say yes. I say it is a deceptive practice to say you can. To quit smoking with any approved method is a challenge. Why is that? Can you quit with Nicorette® patches and gums? I asked, not so innocently, for success rates with Nicorette® product(s).
On this Day…2016
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
A non-lethal nicotine e-liquid ingestion case reported
Jérôme Harlay, VapingPost
A case of non-fatal intoxication with liquid nicotine is diverted by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to support US Surgeon General’s unsubstantiated warnings against the e-cigarette. But the issue is somewhere else.
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) reports to the media on the case of ingestion by a child aged of 6 years and links the incident to the recent warnings of the US Surgeon General that qualified e-cigarettes a “major public health concern.” On the other side, the scientific case report [1] published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, orientates the debate on the inconsistency of vaping products regulation.
Anti-Vaping Policies Are Bad for Public Health
Sally Satel & David Sweanor, RealClear Health
In 1964, public health experts began an all-out assault on smoking when the Surgeon General released his landmark report on smoking and health. Today, the reported smoking rate among adults is down to 15 percent.
Still, cigarette smoking remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of premature death due to 37 million people who can’t or won’t quit. These people could benefit tremendously if they switched to products such as electronic cigarettes that deliver nicotine much more safely than conventional cigarettes.
Yet, perversely, the very government agencies dedicated to fighting smoking have turned on smokers themselves by systematically distorting the ample evidence on the vast benefits of alternative products.
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