Vapers Digest 24th October

Monday’s News at a glance:

The benefits of vaping – How many adult Australians vape? – The FDA’s Youth Vaping Problem – Philip Morris sweetens offer for Swedish Match – Observer Danger – WVA Polish Politician Call – Flavored tobacco ban wouldn’t work in ‘real world.’ – Juul Calls FDA Rejection “Substantively Flawed” – Ground Zero | U.S. War on Vaping Mars Global Debate

The benefits of vaping

Letters – The Guardian

Your editorial about vaping does not match the science (“Before we embrace vaping, we need to know more about its long-term risks”). No credible scientist says vaping is “completely safe” – few things are. The point is that vapes are far, far less harmful than smoking. Moreover, the public health consensus that vaping is a “much less harmful” alternative to smoking is based on robust independent reviews of the scientific evidence, not “assumptions”.

The evidence on whether vaping helps smokers to quit is not “mixed”, as your editorial suggests. The weight of high-quality evidence – from Cochrane, among others – shows e-cigarettes are more effective than nicotine replacement therapy in helping smokers quit. Cochrane reviews are a highly trusted source of objective health evidence used by policy makers worldwide.

How many adult Australians vape?

Dr Colin Mendelsohn

THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 1,150,000 current adult (18+) vapers in Australia, or about 5.5% of the adult population. A tiny minority of vapers (5-10%) have a nicotine prescription as required by Australia’s draconian prescription-only laws.

The numbers are a clear indication that vaping nicotine has been embraced by Australia’s smokers as a safer alternative to deadly smoking. In the 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, vaping was Australia’s most popular quitting aid, used by 22% of smokers to quit or reduce smoking. By comparison, only 1.8% used Quitline.

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The FDA’s Youth Vaping Problem

Lindsey Stroud

Despite youth e-cigarette use being cut in half between 2019 and 2022, politicians, public health, and Bloomberg-funded nanny state organizations continue to decry a youth vaping epidemic. These e-cigarette opponents will seemingly stop at nothing until all flavored and regulated e-cigarette products are off the market. In their world, even one child using a product that is significantly less harmful is much worse than a million adults who successfully quit smoking by using that same device.

While youth should never use tobacco or vapor products, public health must realize this negative externality is unavoidable. The question now is what the acceptable percentage of youth using these products to warrant adult access is. Fortunately for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and lawmakers who want to address the fake youth vaping crisis, an answer exists in old tobacco control policy: the Synar Amendment.

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PMI sweetens offer for Swedish Match

By Akriti Sharma and Marie Mannes

Marlboro maker Philip Morris International Inc on Thursday raised its buyout bid for Swedish Match AB in a last-ditch effort to get backing for its $16 billion offer that has been met with shareholder opposition.

Although Philip Morris raised its bid by more than 9% to 116 Swedish crowns per share and called its “best and final price”, some Swedish Match shareholders seem to be holding out for more.

Their concern is that the total value of the new offer is little changed from the original bid due to the appreciation in the U.S. currency against the Swedish krona.

Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Observer Danger

Last week, The Observer carried an editorial titled “The Observer view on the dangers of assuming vaping is a safe alternative to smoking”. The ignorant piece pushed forward a position that “e-cigarettes can carry serious risks”, regurgitating commentary more typical of a Bloomberg funded hit piece.

It said that the only people supporting the widespread adoption of vaping products as replacement for cigarettes were “the tobacco industry – and, to some extent, Public Health England”. Clearly a lie.

“On the other,” it continued, “public health experts, including the World Health Organization, point to its dangers”, adding that the WHO concludes: “To date, evidence on the use of e-cigarettes as a cessation aid is inconclusive.”

WVA Polish Politician Call

The World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) has called on the Polish politicians to make more of an effort to support vaping. The global vaping advocacy group timed the call to link in with its recently launched #BackVapingBeatSmoking action in Warsaw to draw attention of the nation’s politicians, to encourage the policymakers to embrace harm reduction and vaping.

As part of their #BackVapingBeatSmoking campaign, the WVA delivered the message that vaping can save one million lives in Poland and 19 million lives in Europe to representatives of the PIS and Platforma Obywatelska.

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Ground Zero

U.S. War on Vaping Mars Global Debate | Pt. 2 Alex Wodak Interview

The American public health establishment continues its war on vaping while the rest of the world suffers an onslaught of misinformation about potential health risks and benefits.

In part two of our interview with Dr. Alex Wodak, physician and harm reduction pioneer, we dig deep into public health’s strident opposition to tobacco harm reduction and discuss whether it may change. Will the war on vaping end?

Flavor ban wouldn’t work In ‘real world.’

It would ‘bust’ businesses – Alex T. Boehnke and Beth Wymer

A sweeping ordinance that makes it more difficult for adult tobacco customers to buy their preferred tobacco and vape may seem like a good way to stop people from using these products.

But that idea simply doesn’t work in the real world.

Wherever state and local governments pass these bans, customers go to the closest community where those products continue to be sold.

Juul Calls FDA Rejection….

“Substantively Flawed” in Combative Appeal – Alex Norcia

On October 21, Juul Labs published its administrative appeal of the marketing denial order (MDO) issued by the Food and Drug Administration at the end of June 2022. The move, and Juul’s decision to make it public, reflects the company’s apparent offensive pivot from its longstanding defensive strategy. It calls into question the decision made by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP)—which Juul maintains came from an incorrect and incomplete assessment of its data, leading to an insufficient review of its premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs).

Days after receiving the MDO, Juul obtained a temporary court stay, and has been able to sell its products “pending additional review” from the agency. The FDA granted the company an administrative stay but did not rescind the initial MDO.

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On this Day…2021

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

How Vape Bans Increase Tobacco Use

James Dunworth – Ashtray Blog

I remember my local pub a decade ago. Just outside, the smokers would gather, sipping their beer and blowing streams of smoke into the air by the road. Even when I vaped, I would join them, as quite often that was where the most interesting conversations were.

How different it is now. One by one, the smokers took their last puff and switched to vaping. They’ll still gather outside when it’s warm, but it’s vapour, not smoke, that fills the air around them.

They’re not alone. In the UK millions of people have switched from smoking to vaping. According to ASH England, more than 2 million of them have also gone on to stop using nicotine entirely. It’s a situation replicated around the world, with over 60 million smokers quitting since vaping was introduced.

USPS Vape Mail Ban Is Now in Effect

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

The United States Postal Service will issue a final rule Oct. 21 that will end delivery of vaping products through the U.S. Mail. The new USPS rule, which will take effect immediately after publication in the Federal Register, will drastically change online sales and shipping of vaping devices and liquids.

As mandated by Congress in the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act (POSECCA), the final rule will not contain any exceptions for residential delivery of either nicotine or cannabis vaping products (except within the states of Alaska and Hawaii). POSECCA was passed with no opposition and signed into law by President Trump last December as part of the federal budget bill.

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