Vapers Digest 21st September
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
The Tragic Combination of Smoking, Cancer, and Suicide ~ Is there a tech answer for safer smoking—Need for policies to re-jig? ~ FDA: Fix Department, ASAP ~ The Need for Tobacco Harm Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa ~ Are we about to see SA’s tobacco bill go up in flames? ~ The Fight to Increase Life Expectancy for HIV-Positive People Who Smoke ~ Experts Deliver Answers ~ THR in Sub-Saharan Africa ~ Snus is safe and e-cigarettes are miracle products ~ Dutch flavour ban fears: Copy Sweden’s harm reduction model instead ~ New research shows vape taxes have led to increase in cigarette sales ~ Vaping Community is Fighting Back ~ Biden’s FDA Should Heed Own Advice and ‘Follow the Science’ on Vape Products ~ California Youth Tobacco And Vapor Use Continues To Decline ~ Why lying about the harms of vaping is deadly ~ Juul sues FDA for documents said to justify e-cigarette ban
The Tragic Combination of Smoking, Cancer, and Suicide
Kim Murray, Town Hall
Every day, 1,300 Americans die from smoking-related diseases. Tragically, some people die from other causes such as suicide because smoking has made them unbearably ill. Rather than focusing on the primary goal of reducing diseases and deaths from smoking by authorizing proven ways to stop smoking, the United States has turned its attention to youth use of novel nicotine products. While the Food and Drug Administration dawdles and delays authorizing life-saving tobacco harm reduction products, adults who smoke have been tossed aside, left to suffer and die from horrible causes. The regulatory process in the United States that makes it nearly impossible for safer nicotine products to replace lethal combustible cigarettes needs to change and embrace innovation.
New: @JUULvapor goes to court after @FDATobacco refuses FOIA requests to disclose the scientific reasoning behind FDA’s decision to order Juul off the market.
Why so secretive? I think we know the answer to that. https://t.co/FDAutnBt6W
— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) September 20, 2022
TWO from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
Experts Deliver Answers
Action for Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 and other experts have delivered expert submissions delivering answers to New Zealand’s latest smokefree bill. Consumer group Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) said that it was important for politicians to heed the contributions and act upon them.
THR in Sub-Saharan Africa
Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) has published its latest Briefing Paper titled “Tobacco Harm Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa”. The GSTHR Briefing Paper explains why Sub-Saharan Africa must embrace harm reduction.
Snus is safe and e-cigarettes are miracle products
Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist
There were a couple of studies published last week that are worth bookmarking. They don’t tell us anything we don’t already know, but they contradict what a lot of people think they know.
The first looks at smokeless tobacco and oral cancer risk. It finds that the kind of smokeless tobacco widely used in Asia, such as gutkha, is strongly associated with oral cancer (partly because these products contain many other ingredients in addition to tobacco), but there is one notable exception.
Dutch flavour ban fears: Copy Sweden’s harm reduction model instead
SnusForumNet
A proposed Dutch flavour ban has tobacco harm reduction advocates scrambling, prompting questions as to why the Netherlands doesn’t instead follow Sweden’s example when it comes to regulating nicotine products.
Brady Meyer, FOX 11 News
Lawmakers have tried to stop the rise of vaping in younger generations by implementing taxes — but a concerning consequence may have resulted instead.
“When these e-cigarette taxes go in, there is a notable increase in cigarette sales,” University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh Economics Professor Chad Cotti said.
PDF: New research shows vape taxes have led to increase in cigarette sales
Vaping Community is Fighting Back
Health Fitness Revolution
Biden’s FDA Should Heed Own Advice and ‘Follow the Science’ on Vape Products
Sen. Todd Johnson, Inside Sources
As President Joe Biden attempts to salvage his abysmal approval numbers ahead of the midterms, his hand-picked FDA commissioner is not doing him any favors. After a series of blunders regarding the recent baby food shortage and now an anti-science, strict prohibition stance on nicotine products, the FDA is backpedaling in an attempt to maintain what is left of its credibility.
California Youth Tobacco And Vapor Use Continues To Decline
Lindsey Stroud, Independent Women’s Forum
Indeed, according to data from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), in 2021, only 1% of 7th and 9th graders and 2% of 11th graders reported current cigarette smoking, defined as having smoked a cigarette on “one or more days” in the 30 days prior to the survey. Further, since 2015, combustible cigarette use has declined by 50% among 7th graders, by 75% among 9th graders, and by 71.4% among 11th graders. In fact, 2021 combustible cigarette use rates are some of the lowest levels recorded.
Why lying about the harms of vaping is deadly
Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, ColinMendelsohn.com.au
A NEW STUDY has clearly demonstrated that exaggerating the risks of vaping leads to more smoking. Smokers who (incorrectly) believe vaping is as harmful as smoking are less likely to try vaping, less likely to switch and more likely to relapse to smoking.
The study published in BMC Public Health examined the data from the US PATH Surveys from 2014-2019. It found that ‘risk misperceptions’ are continuing to increase.
Juul sues FDA for documents said to justify e-cigarette ban
Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Juul Labs has sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the agency’s refusal to disclose documents supporting its order banning the company, which has been blamed for fueling a teenage vaping crisis, from selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market.
In a complaint filed on Tuesday with a federal court in Washington, D.C., Juul accused the FDA of invoking the “widely abused” deliberative process privilege to improperly withhold scientific materials that are “central” to understanding the basis for the June 23 sales ban.
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