Vapers Digest 27th November

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

UKVIA Writes to Health Secretary ~ Swedish Success Can’t Be Ignored ~ Profile in Courage: Dr. Colin Mendelsohn ~ Sweden Advances Towards Becoming the First Smoke-Free EU Member State ~ Is The Vaping is 95% Safer than Smoking Claim a Myth? ~ Vaping could help stop ex-smokers from relapsing, new study finds ~ The EU Commission wants to ban vaping everywhere. MEPs should stand up to them. ~ Letter to Minister Saks from David Sweanor ~ Miscalculations… ~ New Article in American Journal of Medicine Claims that Youths Who Use E-Cigarettes are 5 Times More Likely to Become Cigarette Smokers ~ The ‘intimidation’ of ‘public health’ cranks ~ Despite Everything, More People Than Ever Choose Safer Nicotine Options ~ SCOTTISH PRISON SHIFT TOWARDS SAFER PRODUCTS | Featuring Governor Michael Stoney ~ Experts call for realistic strategies to reduce tobacco harm in Kenya ~ Opportunities for Tobacco Control During a Second Trump Administration ~ Philip Morris Romania launches ZYN tobacco-free nicotine pouches to accelerate the achievement of a smoke-free future

Two from Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

UKVIA Writes to Health Secretary

The UK Vaping Industry Association has issued a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting following the news that the soon-to-be-reintroduced Tobacco and Vapes Bill will include powers to introduce a licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco, vape and nicotine products in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Swedish Success Can’t Be Ignored

The World Vapers’ Alliance describes Sweden reducing its smoking rate to just 5.3% an achievement and a “remarkable milestone”. It says that while other countries will struggle to meet this goal by 2040, and that the European Union as a whole is projected to miss this target by 60 years, the country’s use of reduced harm nicotine products is an example that the European Union can no longer ignore.

Profile in Courage: Dr. Colin Mendelsohn

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

For most of the 1.2 billion cigarette smokers around the world, quitting is no easy feat. Even relatively effective quit-smoking aids such as nicotine patches have a 6-month success rate of less than 20 percent. Studies have repeatedly found that e-cigarettes are far more effective than traditional therapies in getting smokers to quit, all while being more than 95 percent safer than cigarettes. Yet, critics (including taxpayer-funded organizations) have been busy pedaling misinformation on vaping in an effort to stymie availability.

Sweden Advances Towards Becoming the First Smoke-Free EU Member State

Pouch Forum

New Insights from the 2024 Swedish National Public Health Survey Sweden has taken another substantial step towards becoming the European Union’s first smoke-free nation, reinforcing its leadership in public health. The Swedish National Public Health Survey for 2024, released on November 13, shows a continued decline in smoking rates, edging closer to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) benchmark for smoke-free status.

Is The Vaping is 95% Safer than Smoking Claim a Myth?

Joseph Hart, Daily Pouch

In a bid to drive interest in his talk at the Toronto Public Library, the self-described “internationally recognized forensic toxicologist, author, speaker, scientist” James G. Wigmore has promised to run a series on X exposing vaping myths.

Two from Clearing The Air

Vaping could help stop ex-smokers from relapsing, new study finds

Ali Anderson

Ex-smokers turn to vapes to stop them relapsing to the deadly habit, a new study has found.

The research, published in the scientific journal BMC Medicine and funded by Cancer Research UK, found that a rise in vaping over the last decade has largely been driven by people using vapes to quit smoking.

Led by researchers at University College London (UCL), the study looked at survey data collected between October 2013 and May 2024 from 54,251 adults in England who reported they had stopped smoking or had tried to stop smoking.

The EU Commission wants to ban vaping everywhere. MEPs should stand up to them.

Peter Beckett

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – a well known self-help book – has thoughts on scheduling. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule”, according to its author Stephen Covey, “but to schedule your priorities”.

The European Parliament has its own way of taking that advice. If a vote takes place at the end of the day on a Thursday, when most MEPs and journalists are on a plane home, that gives you some idea of how important that vote is in the grand scheme of things.

Letter to Minister Saks from David Sweanor

Rights 4 Vapers, David T. Sweanor J.D.

Dear Minister Saks,

I have played a key role in Canadian and global efforts to reduce cigarette smoking for over 40 years. I have promoted rational interventions that are based on science, reason and humanism, and have seen sterling results from these efforts. I am writing to express my concerns about ongoing efforts to limit access of Canadians who smoke cigarettes to viable low-risk alternatives.

Miscalculations…

Skip Murray, Skip’s Corner

In a must-read piece by Clive Bates, he said, “FDA also grossly underestimated the number of applications it would receive. It has had 26 million PMTA applications for vaping products, but its RIA [Regulatory Impact Analysis] estimate was for up to 4,050 e-liquids and 747 ENDS devices.”

Have you ever wondered why that number was so far off? Or has anyone wondered why the FDA didn’t expect more PMTAs after vape businesses went through the steps before needing to file a PMTA?

New Article in American Journal of Medicine Claims

that Youths Who Use E-Cigarettes are 5 Times More Likely to Become Cigarette Smokers

Michael Siegel, Tobacco Analysis

I’ve only been back at this for one day and the very first new article that I came across makes the preposterous claim that use of e-cigarettes increases by 5-fold the initiation of cigarette smoking among youth. The article, published as a commentary in the American Journal of Medicine, states as follows: “E-cigarette use by adolescents increases by up to 5-fold their initiation of tobacco cigarette smoking.”

The ‘intimidation’ of ‘public health’ cranks

Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

Anna Gilmore has been dipping into the millions of pounds she gets from Mike Bloomberg to complain about people being mean to her. Her latest ‘study’, titled ‘Intimidation against advocates and researchers in the tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed food spaces: a review’, is the usual Google-based fluff and is a bit rich from someone who set up a fake wiki to smear her opponents and who starts her article by describing the infant formula industry as a ‘vector of disease’.

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

Despite Everything, More People Than Ever Choose Safer Nicotine Options

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

“People talk about a war on smoking, a war on nicotine or a war on vapes,” Harry Shapiro told Filter. “But you don’t conduct a war against inanimate objects. This is a war against people.”

Shapiro is a British author and journalist whose extensive resume includes biographies of music figures like Jimi Hendrix, and books about drug culture and policy, such as Fierce Chemistry: A History of UK Drug Wars (2021). He’s worked for drug-related charities, too, and is the director of DrugWise.

SCOTTISH PRISON SHIFT TOWARDS SAFER PRODUCTS

Featuring Governor Michael Stoney

Global Forum on Nicotine

Barlinnie prison Governor Michael Stoney joins us for the first instalment of GFN Insights, a series following the exploits of THR advocates from around the globe!

Experts call for realistic strategies to reduce tobacco harm in Kenya

The Star

In Summary

The specialists were speaking during the inaugural Harm Reduction Society of Kenya workshop at a Nairobi hotel.
They said there’s need for science-based regulation to enable smokers transition from the more harmful traditional cigarettes.

Stakeholders in the health sector have been called upon to embrace pragmatic strategies to reduce the negative effects of tobacco among Kenyans.

Opportunities for Tobacco Control During a Second Trump Administration

Jeffrey Willett, LinkedIn

Regardless of changes in the administration, the United States was already at an inflection point in tobacco control. Rates of youth tobacco use are at historic lows and the very low level of youth cigarette use suggests future generations will largely be free from epidemic levels of death and disease from combustible tobacco use.

On the other hand, the U.S. Surgeon General recently stressed that an estimated 490,000 Americans still die each year from smoking-attributable mortality including those who die from diseases caused by exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke.

Philip Morris Romania, committed to accelerate the achievement of a smoke-free future, added ZYN nicotine pouches to its portfolio of smoke-free products designed for adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes. ZYN does not contain tobacco leaves, but pharmaceutical-grade nicotine in combination with food additives.

On this Day…2023

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

Experts Fault WHO’s Approach

Leadership News

Experts have tasked the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure its approach to tobacco control is driven by data that are science-based, adopts reason and respect for humanism.

How I quit smoking for good with vaping

Fiona’s story – Colin Mendelsohn

Fiona Patten started smoking at the age of 12. She tried to quit repeatedly but failed and failed again. Five years ago, she tried a small pod vape and was amazed to find she could finally quit effortlessly. She has not had a cigarette since and has noticed dramatic health improvement.

Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World