Vapers Digest 29th January

Monday’s News at a glance:

UK to ban disposable vapes, restrict flavours and do more stupid stuff – The government’s proposals on single use vapes, flavours and packaging are misguided and will cost lives – How to rig a public consultation – UK Government Bans Disposable Vapes – Sunak Pledges To Destroy Vaping – Trade Bodies Respond to Disposable Ban Rumour – Here Comes The Disposable Vape Ban – Doctors call for ban – Sen. Schumer Attacks Nicotine Pouches – It’s Time for the Progressive Nanny State to Back Off of Tobacco-Free Nicotine – COP 10 organization faces yet another scandal – Largest E-Liquid Company On Quest to End Smoking – How is California’s Vape Flavour Ban Panning Out? – California shoots itself in the foot, again – ASH says current policies working to make smoke free target

UK to ban disposable vapes…

Restrict flavours and do more stupid stuff

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual

The UK government has decided it will ban disposable vapes and suggests it will ban vape flavours. This will trigger more smoking, more illicit trade and more workarounds. The problem of youth vaping is a non-problem and the government is reacting to a moral panic it doesn’t understand.

You may be aware that the UK government is in the process of caving in to a moral panic on vaping while taking pointless action on smoking.

Here is the government’s press release…

Government’s proposals single use vapes

Flavours and packaging are misguided and will cost lives.

New Nicotine Alliance

The New Nicotine Alliance is extremely disappointed to hear that the UK government plans to ban single use vapes, restrict many flavours which can help people quit smoking, enforce plain packaging, and severely reduce the visibility of life-saving products.

The government’s response to the recent public consultation has ignored the most knowledgeable experts in tobacco control and put forth measures which will fail to tackle the issue of youth vaping and illicit sales, while also producing outcomes which will be damaging to public health.

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How to rig a public consultation

Christopher Snowdon

When plain packaging for tobacco was being considered in the mid-2010s, a government consultation received more responses from opponents of the policy than from supporters. This was awkward for the Department of Health who said something along the lines of ‘it’s not an opinion poll’ and made it clear that it was the quality of the evidence and arguments that mattered, not the quantity. And that is fair enough. Consultations are primarily for people to provide evidence and expertise to guide policy-making.

But in the consultation response on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, published today, the Department of Health simply weighs the ‘votes’ and briefly mentions the arguments made by each side.

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UK Government Bans Disposable Vapes

Michelle – ECig Click

Oh dear the day has come – the UK Government has responded to the results of the UK consultation with new laws to curb Youth Vaping, Smoking and illicit products.

You can read the full press release here on the Gov.uk website: “Disposable Vapes banned to protect children’s health” – or scroll to the end of this article where I will be copy pasting it in full.

More on the ban from around the interwebs:

British Government to Ban Disposable Vapes – Kiran Sidhu 

Banning disposable e-cigarettes won’t stop kids vaping – Spectator

Vape ban to force one million Brits to start smoking again – Express

UK Plan: Ban Disposables, Restrict Flavors, Require Plain Packages

WVA Criticises UK Government’s Proposed Ban on Disposable Vapes

Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

Sunak Pledges To Destroy Vaping

As predicted by Planet of the Vapes over the last two years, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a raft of illiberal measures aimed at combatting youth vaping which will hit every aspect of vaping and tobacco harm reduction. A lack of action by the industry has fed into a situation whereby the Government will change the face of the UK’s vape industry forever and destroy our reputation for being a world leader in tobacco harm reduction.

Trade Bodies Respond to Disposable Ban

Trade bodies the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) and the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) have commented on the rumour that the Government is set to announce a ban on the importation and sale of disposable single-use vapes. UKVIA says it is “dismayed” by the suggestion and IBVTA says that “bans do not work”.

Here Comes The Disposable Vape Ban

Planet of the Vapes predicted that 2023 would be the year attacks increased on disposable single-use vapes and that manufacturers urgently needed to get their houses in order. Here we are at the end of January 2024 and the Government is set to propose a blanket ban on disposable single-use vapes and a range of other anti-vape measures.

According to multiple sources, the Government is expected to announce its range of measures to curb youth use of vape products on Monday 29 January. The proposals are set to include a complete ban on the importation and sale of disposable single-use vapes.

Doctors call for ban

Doctors have called for prescription-only vapes in a letter to The Times under the guise of protecting children. The blinkered demand completely ignores the impact a similar approach has had in Australia where declining smoking rates stalled due to attacks on tobacco harm reduction. The mad medics also ignore Action on Smoking and Health saying a ban would have unintended consequences.

The doctors’ letter to The Times is hidden behind a paywall. The seventeen practising and retired paediatricians are all former chairs or members of the British Paediatric Respiratory Society executive committee. They demanded that the government takes immediate action to address a claimed crisis in youth vaping.

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Sen. Schumer Attacks Nicotine Pouches:

Zyn Users Hit Back – Jim McDonald

Nicotine pouches—and specifically Zyn-brand pouches—went viral this week, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call for government action to prevent a Juul-like “epidemic” of teen use. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has been a longtime foe of nicotine and tobacco.

“It comes in a whole lot of flavors,” Schumer said in a press conference last Sunday. “Smooth, spearmint, citrus, cinnamon, chilled. It’s dangerous.” Schumer urged the Federal Trade Commission and FDA to investigate Zyn and other nicotine pouches

It’s Time for the Progressive Nanny State…

To Back Off of Tobacco-Free Nicotine – Ryan Costello

Once again, here comes the Nanny State. In their latest attack on personal freedom and individual liberty, progressive New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is hard at work pitting working-class Americans against the elite establishment with his attack on Zyn.

Zyn is a popular tobacco-free nicotine product that’s widely used by the type of blue-collar men and women I was proud to represent for years in Congress. Zyn is dangerous, Schumer claims, because he believes it’s being aggressively marketed to kids via social media.

COP10 – V2:

February 2024 & UK Government Position

Michelle – ECig Click

So after the original COP10 (Conference Of The Parties) FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) meeting was postponed in November – it has now been rescheduled for February the 5th to the 10th in Panama.

You can visit the WHO (World Health Organisation) FCTC COP10 website here.

We have plenty of articles on COP10 here including guides from GSTHR (Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction) and the NNA (New Nicotine Alliance) to help you get your head around what is going on and the threats to vaping and other safer nicotine products.

COP 10 faces yet another scandal

Alberto Hernandez

COP10 finds itself entangled in a new controversy following the scandal that led to its postponement back in November.

The first incident involved allegations in February 2023 against Reina Roa, coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Commission at the Ministry of Health (MINSA), who was accused of an offense related to the illegal refusal, omission, or delay of official duties, carrying potential penalties of imprisonment or fines.

Monster Mission

Largest E-Liquid Company On Quest to End Smoking | RegWatch

Since they produce and market the very products at the center of the debate over vaping, their perspective is vital to understanding the powerful impact these products have on people’s lives and why they are essential to the global effort to end smoking.

Joining us today in a special episode of RegWatch is Batel Cohen, international brand manager for Monster Vape Labs, part of The Monster Group. Based in Orlando, Florida, and operating in 58 countries, Monster Vape Labs is the largest manufacturer of brand-owned e-liquid in the world.

How is California’s Vape Flavour Ban?

Diane Caruana

Signed into law in 2020, Proposition 31 banned the sale of flavoured tobacco and vaping products. However, despite their aim to reduce tobacco harm, smoking cessation experts have long argued that such bans are ineffective, leading consumers to seek alternative channels like overseas purchases or the black market. Reports from California support this claim, revealing a surge in online shopping for flavoured cigarettes and vapes after the law went into effect.

In fact, a study published in the journal Tobacco Control on November 7th, highlighted a significant increase in online shopping queries, with a 194% rise for cigarettes and a 162% spike for vaping products, surpassing anticipated levels.

California shoots itself in the foot, again…

With restrictive flavored tobacco policies – David Medoza

This year, tobacco prohibition has intensified in California, and that’s bad news for both sellers and consumers of various flavored tobacco and nicotine products.

Assembly Bill 935 went into effect on January 1st, building on Senate Bill 793, which prohibits any tobacco retailer in California from selling “most flavored tobacco products,” including flavored e-cigarettes, vapes, menthol cigarettes, and others according to the California Department of Public Health. The law is intended to curb the use of flavored tobacco and nicotine products by teens, but this is highly unlikely, since bans usually only encourage consumers to seek the product from black market sources.

ASH says current policies working

To make smoke free target

Our decline in smoking in the past four years is extraordinary – equivalent to what took two decades to achieve. New Zealand has recently had some of the most dramatic decreases in smoking in the world, including for Māori and highly deprived groups.

Last month, the New Zealand Health Survey showed the daily smoking rate is now down to 6.8 per cent in adults, half the rate in 2018; almost a quarter of a million fewer Kiwis are now smoking daily, and it puts us in a tiny club of countries that have smoking rates under 7 per cent.

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On this Day…2023

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

Misinformation lives forever …

On the Internet – Dr. John Oyston

A flawed study falsely stated that an increase in teen vaping was associated with an increase in teen smoking. The article was quietly corrected, but outraged headlines and calls for action are still highly visible on many websites without any reference to the correction.

In June 2019, David Hammond and others published a paper called “Prevalence of vaping and smoking among adolescents in Canada, England, and the United States: repeat national cross sectional surveys” in the British Medical Journal.

The Canadian Cancer Society stated: “The study, led by Professor David Hammond of the University of Waterloo, found that among those 16-19 years old, vaping increased by a stunning 74% from 2017 to 2018, from 8.4% to 14.6%.”

THR should be on Congress’ agenda

Guy Bentley

The United States faces a host of public health challenges, including the opioid overdose crisis and pandemic preparedness. Cigarette smoking, however, remains the leading cause of preventable death in America. “Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent says.

Public polling indicates many American smokers say they want to quit using combustible cigarettes. Despite the existence of tobacco control policies and traditional cessation methods, 30.8 million adult smokers remain, many of whom have not tried to quit or have not quit successfully. For this population of smokers, a suite of safer nicotine alternatives such as e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, snus, and heat-not-burn products may succeed in helping them quit where other policies have failed.

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