Vapers Digest 29th October

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

The Time Cost of Vaping At Work ~ Parliament Matters ~ Coalition Supports New Bill ~ Not your choice: Brussels surrenders your body to Geneva ~ Open Letter to the Premier, Attorney General, and All Members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia ~ SMILE project: Oral health and THR at the IMEDIC Symposium in Jakarta ~ CORESTA PSPT 2025: REPLICA presents its latest findings in France ~ JOSEPH MAGERO: Poll on tobacco bill exposes its dangers to public health, jobs and security ~ It’s Time to Get Behind the 20IsPlenty Campaign ~ Oral nicotine pouches studied as a tool to quit smoking ~ Resistance to the Anti-Nicotine Movement Sparked by a Betrayal ~ FDLI 2025 (fall) – Common Ground Requires Common Goals ~ FDA Tobacco Director Says Agency Could Authorize Flavored Vapes ~ Thailand Looks to Overhaul Tobacco Law Against E-Cigarette Surge ~ “Science Must Lead Policy”: Health Experts Call for Evidence-Based Harm Reduction ~ FCTC bureaucrats have decided national delegations just get in the way ~ FDA’s Bizarre Decisions about Nicotine Pouches Lead to the Wrong Products on Shelves ~ The “Philanthropic” Death Toll: How Billionaire Dogma Is Fuelling a 100 million-Life Catastrophe. ~ Exclusive: BAT pauses unlicensed US vape launch as FDA action accelerates ~ The truth about vaping every smoker should know ~ Is vaping really a gateway to smoking? New review of youth vaping confirms uncertainty ~ Doug Elliott Talks Bill 24

Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

The Time Cost of Vaping At Work

Nicotine pouch experts, Alternix, surveyed smokers and vapers to understand how much time they spend on their habit and the results are surprising. One in five (20%) vapers says they spend upwards of two hours vaping during the working week with men vaping more than women. They say that they spend at least 5% of their time at work taking vape breaks.

Parliament Matters

In the first of two visits to Parliament this week, Planet of the Vapes hears from Baroness Merron proposing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill moves to a Grand Committee. Also, Hilary Benn MP tell the House of Commons about how the Bill will be applied to Northern Ireland, and Danny Chambers lauds the Bill during a debate.

Coalition Supports New Bill

Over 1200 public health professionals have written an open letter to urge all political parties to ensure the swift passage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. In it, they warn that an estimated 124,600 young people will have taken up smoking since the legislation was first introduced last November. Leading vape retailer VPZ tells Planet of the Vapes that it supports the call.

Not your choice: Brussels surrenders your body to Geneva

Konstantinos Bogdanos, Brussels Signal

They are coming for your body and your wallet. Not in some distant future – next month, in Geneva, where unelected EU bureaucrats will sign away Europe’s sovereignty to the World Health Organisation’s tobacco inquisitors at COP11. Brussels will then import the bans and force them into EU law. It has become a pattern on the road to serfdom.

National parliaments? Reduced to the formality of 27 stamps with a variety of coats of arms. Citizens? Told to shut up and obey. This is not governance. This is postmodern colonisation.

Open Letter to the Premier, Attorney General, and All Members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Maria Papaioannoy, Rights 4 Vapers

Dear Premier Eby, Attorney General Sharma, and Members of the Legislative Assembly,

My name is Maria Papaioannoy, and I am writing to you not only as a Canadian who vapes but as the founder of Rights 4 Vapers, Canada’s largest consumer movement dedicated to educating and advocating for safer nicotine products. This includes the very vapour products that have helped millions of adult smokers transition away from combustible tobacco that you are targeting with Bill 24.

Two From Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR)

Prof. Amaliya, researcher from the Indonesian branch of CoEHAR, took part in the second edition of the International Military Medicine Symposium and Workshop (IMEDIC) in Jakarta to discuss oral health and tobacco harm reduction.

Prof. Massimo Caruso and Prof. Rosalia Emma, from the REPLICA team, presented the latest updates on the research project at the 2025 CORESTA PSPT Conference held in Annecy, France, from October 19 to 23.

JOSEPH MAGERO: Poll on tobacco bill exposes its dangers to public health, jobs and security

Joseph Magero, The Star

Voters have had a say about the new Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill 2024. And it should make uncomfortable reading for the Government.

A nationwide survey shows the Bill’s proposed bans on flavoured vapes and nicotine pouches, plus punitive restrictions on other safer alternatives, will backfire dramatically – fuelling illicit trade, endangering people and killing job opportunities.

It’s Time to Get Behind the 20IsPlenty Campaign

Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch

As the Tobacco and Vapes Bill moves through parliament, some of the UK’s largest consumer groups have banded together to form 20IsPlenty, a campaign that aims to ensure nicotine pouches get the sensible regulations they deserve.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening and how you can get involved.

Oral nicotine pouches studied as a tool to quit smoking

Patty Shillington, Medical XPress

In ongoing efforts to pinpoint the best evidence-based ways to quit smoking, a University of Massachusetts Amherst public health researcher has turned her attention to a tobacco-free product gaining in popularity across the country—oral nicotine pouches.

Because the Cochrane team only found four small studies that were appropriate for their review, the evidence is not yet clear on whether oral nicotine pouches can help people quit smoking or vaping.

Resistance to the Anti-Nicotine Movement Sparked by a Betrayal

Kim “Skip” Murray, Filter

People who use nicotine have earned a reputation for pushing back against flavor bans, new taxes, registry bills and other restrictions on access. To people outside that community, the resistance seems irrational. After all, over a billion people worldwide still smoke, and up to half of them will die early from smoking-related causes. Why would anyone fight measures meant to save lives? The answer is simple: Many measures are no longer about saving lives; they are about abstinence.

For some harm reduction advocates, it’s about personal freedom—the simple belief that what people choose to do with their own bodies is no one else’s business. But for most of us, the story runs deeper.

FDLI 2025 (fall) – Common Ground Requires Common Goals

Skip Murray, Skip’s Corner – Let’s Talk!

This is the presentation I gave during my panel’s discussion at the 2025 FDLI Tobacco and Nicotine Products Regulation and Policy Conference.

Panel information:
”Consumer Behavior: What People Are Doing and Why it Matters

Speakers: Jessica Zdinak, Kenneth Michael Cummings, Marina Murphy, Skip Murray

How are regulations, market dynamics, public health campaigns, and social trends affecting consumer behavior? This panel will explore patterns in product use, switching, quitting, and uptake across product categories, generational cohorts, location, and time. Speakers will examine how adult and youth nicotine users react to changes in the real world, based on FDA’s interpretation of the TCA and adaptive definitions of APPH responding to a changing nicotine user landscape.

FDA Tobacco Director Says Agency Could Authorize Flavored Vapes

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

The FDA could authorize additional vaping products in the near future, according to comments made today by the acting director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).

According to an X (Twitter) thread from longtime tobacco control leader Cliff Douglas, CTP Acting Director Bret Koplow told attendees at a Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) tobacco and nicotine policy conference that he supports “promoting a tobacco harm reduction approach to reduce cigarette smoking.”

Two From Tobacco Reporter

Thailand Looks to Overhaul Tobacco Law Against E-Cigarette Surge

Thailand’s Cabinet ordered an urgent amendment to the Tobacco Products Control Act B.E. 2560 (2017) to address “the rapid spread of e-cigarette use, particularly among young people.” Official data show the number of Thai e-cigarette users aged 15 and above has surged from 78,000 in 2021 to more than 400,000 in 2024.

“Science Must Lead Policy”: Health Experts Call for Evidence-Based Harm Reduction

When ANC Treasurer-General and former Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa took the podium at the Progressive Business Forum (PBF) Colloquium on the Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle and Wellness recently, her message was as pragmatic as it was progressive: South Africa cannot afford to let ideology stand in the way of evidence.

FCTC bureaucrats have decided national delegations just get in the way

Loremipsumdolor, COPWatch

Before our next foray into the intentions of the FCTC Secretariat at the upcoming COP11 conference to be held in Geneva in November, it is worth just reiterating what the acronym COP actually means. To do this, COPWatch directs you to one of our first explainer articles from four years ago.

Note the “decision makers are national governments” part. This is because COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” which means the (unelected) administrators of the FCTC treaty should be presenting objective options and then sitting back and letting the Parties (representatives of elected national governments) decide what happens next.

FDA’s Bizarre Decisions about Nicotine Pouches Lead to the Wrong Products on Shelves

Roger Bate, Brownstone Institute

A walk through a dozen convenience stores in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, says a lot about how US nicotine policy actually works. Only about one in eight nicotine-pouch products for sale is legal. The rest are unauthorized—but they’re not all the same. Some are brightly branded, with uncertain ingredients, not approved by any Western regulator, and clearly aimed at impulse buyers. Others—like Sweden’s NOAT—are the opposite: muted, well-made, adult-oriented, and already approved for sale in Europe.

Yet in the United States, NOAT has been told to stop selling. In September 2025, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the company a warning letter for offering nicotine pouches without marketing authorization.

The “Philanthropic” Death Toll: How Billionaire Dogma Is Fuelling a 100 million-Life Catastrophe.

Zia Uddin, LinkedIn

A new, comprehensive report reveals that a staggering public health achievement is within our grasp: over 100 million premature deaths among current adult smokers could be averted globally by 2060. This is not a theoretical hope. It is a data-driven projection based on integrating 21st-century innovations into tobacco control Yet, this life-saving opportunity is being actively obstructed. The Lives Saved report, co-authored by Dr. Derek Yach—a former WHO cabinet director who led the development of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)—and Dr. Delon Human, former Secretary-General of the World Medical Association, is an indictment of a failing status quo. It exposes how the World Health Organisation (WHO) and influential billionaire funders, in their pursuit of an outdated ideology, are preventing the greatest public health gain of our century.

Two From Clearing The Air

Sweden is Europe’s first smoke-free nation as Scotland’s progress stalls

Tim Hong

Sweden has become the first country in Europe to achieve smoke-free status, while smoking rates in Scotland have stalled amid restrictions on vaping and a decline in cessation funding.

Sweden reaches smoke-free milestone

On October 25, 2025, Sweden reached smoke-free status, meaning fewer than five per cent of its population are daily smokers, according to economist David Sundén. His calculation, based on public health statistics, aligns with the World Health Organisation definition.

The UK government’s push to create a “smoke-free generation” is facing major challenges – both in the courts and on the streets.

Ali Anderson

A potential legal clash in Northern Ireland threatens to derail new nationwide tobacco laws, while new data shows that disposable vape use remains widespread despite it being banned.

A new report from online nicotine retailer Haypp reveals that 62.5 per cent of UK vapers are still using disposable products, rising to 82 per cent among 25 to 34-year-olds. Even more strikingly, 35 per cent of disposable users say they are still buying the products, despite the government’s efforts to stamp them out.

On this day…2021!

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

100 experts speak up

In favour of harm reduction – NNA

The NNA heartily welcomes the dramatic intervention of 100 specialists in nicotine science, policy and practice who have submitted a letter this week criticising the WHO for their objections to tobacco harm reduction.

Tobacco Industry, my Love

INNCO.org

The US FDA’s wonderful romance: The story behind the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recent market approvals of tobacco industry products while spurning literally millions of independent claimants, all refillable vaping system producers and sellers, can be difficult to understand.

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