Vapers Digest 29th September

Monday’s News at a glance:

Parliament Matters – French Pouch Ban – A Cruel Joke – Make Vaping Easier. New White Paper for the FDA – Foundational Agenda Questions – Perceptions of prevention and cessation ads among US youth who use multiple tobacco products: A qualitative study – The State of Academic Research on Nicotine, Part 3 – Can the Pursuit of Pleasure Find Common Ground? – Health risk markers improve when smokers switch to HTPs, new review reveals – Four countries leading the way in harm reduction – Trump’s vow to protect vaping sparks backlash after inaction – FDA Vape Regs Need Bold Reform – Justice Department Files Complaints Against Raided Vape Companies – The Smoking Gun – Consumers voices, WHO must listen to lived experience. – The Report’s Basements and the Bodies That Do Not Grow – Interview with Mark Oates for COP11 – Brussels tobacco plan comes under fresh attack – EU Consultation Shows 76% Support for Harm Reduction in Cardiovascular Policy – Euromonitor: RRP Market Reaches $74 Billion, Accounting for 12.7% of Global Nicotine Industry as Five Key Trends Drive Transformation – Regulation: The US – After Ranbir Kapoor, Leonardo DiCaprio seen vaping: CBFC blurs scenes of e-cigarette in ‘One Battle After Another’ but gives THESE things a pass – Letters to the Editor, Sept. 29, 2025 – Smokeless Shift | Tobacco Exec on PMTA, Science & Missed Opportunity – A Trifecta of Failure – GFN.TV Interviews | EMOTIONAL OVERRIDE | Why Feelings, Not Facts, Distort the Risk of Safer Nicotine

Two From Dave Cross, Planet of The Vapes

Parliament Matters

As part of a Home Office debate in the House of Commons on the subject of “Crime in City Centres”, Minister of State Sarah Jones linked inner city crime to vape stores. Tory Kevin Hollinrake doesn’t want to see vaping officially banned inside pubs – something that’ll delight the industry – and Andrew Snowden wants to know more about using Snapchat to buy vapes containing spice.

French Pouch Ban – A Cruel Joke

France’s pouch ban is ‘a cruel joke’ that will turn holidaying Swedes into criminals, according to the international health experts at Smoke Free Sweden. The organisation added that European Union policies such as this are driving smokers back to cigarettes. Leading Vape retailer Vape Club has already warned British tourists to be mindful of the different laws when travelling abroad.

Make Vaping Easier. New White Paper for the FDA

Sally Satel, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

I wrote this policy white paper with three colleagues for FDA Commissioner Marty Markary. But it’s also for anyone interested in rational anti-smoking policy.

Regulating the Tobacco and Nicotine Market in the American Public Interest: A Reform Agenda for the FDA [PDF – 26 pages]

The report’s primary objective is to make the case for non-marginal reform to the FDA’s PMTA process, based on the idea that the legal vape market is out-competed by the Chinese illegal market because the FDA excessively constrains the former, effectively promoting the latter.

Foundational Agenda Questions

Network for Principled Nicotine Policy

These aren’t “frequently asked questions.”

The most important questions are often the ones that go unasked in mainstream public health. Below, we pose Foundational Agenda Questions—the urgent, essential, and sometimes uncomfortable questions that must be confronted if we are serious about ending smoking.

These questions are an invitation to think differently, challenge assumptions, and imagine a more effective, more humane approach to tobacco control and nicotine policy. We invite you to engage with these questions, share them, debate them, and most importantly – act on them.

Perceptions of prevention and cessation ads among US youth who use multiple tobacco products: A qualitative study

Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Oxford Academic

Abstract

Background: Around 30% of youth who use tobacco use multiple tobacco products (MTPs), yet little research has evaluated campaign ads to address youth MTP use. We qualitatively examined how youth who use MTPs perceive tobacco prevention and cessation ads.

The State of Academic Research on Nicotine, Part 3

Arielle Selya PhD, Selya Behavioral Science Substack

This is a multi-part series on content that I first presented in my Michael Russell Oration at the Global Forum on Nicotine conference in Warsaw, June 2025 (full video). This is a high-level and wide-ranging synopsis of: (Part 1) the pervasive, but often preventable, flaws in research on nicotine and tobacco; (Part 2) how problematic incentive structures in academia have contributed to the state of the research; and (Part 3, here) what we can do about it. This is my own perspective, based on ~10 years in academia and ~5 years as a consultant to industry.

Can the Pursuit of Pleasure Find Common Ground?

Skip Murray, Skips Corner – Let’s Talk!

Nicotine…and The Pleasure Principle

I began writing this on the U.S.’s Inauguration Day. As is typical for the United States, we were divided in our hopes and fears for the next four years. Yet I think most of us are not divided in valuing certain rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That phrase, from the Declaration of Independence, speaks to something more profound than politics. It highlights the notion that pleasure, joy, and fulfillment are legitimate human pursuits. Things worth protecting, not dismissing.

Two From Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Health risk markers improve when smokers switch to HTPs, new review reveals

A new review of randomised controlled trials found some health risk markers improved when smokers switched to heated tobacco products (HTPs).

One cancer biomarker and two cardiovascular biomarkers showed statistically significant signs of harm reduction.

For many other biomarkers, results pointed in a positive direction but were limited by small study sizes.

Researchers emphasise that larger, more robust studies would help strengthen the evidence of the benefits of switching.

Four countries leading the way in harm reduction

New evidence shows that four countries are proving safer nicotine alternatives can cut smoking rates, prevent disease and save lives.

The findings come from The Safer Nicotine Revolution: Global Lessons, Healthier Futures, a new report that tracks how products such as nicotine pouches, vapes and heated tobacco products are helping millions of smokers switch away from deadly cigarettes.

Trump’s vow to protect vaping sparks backlash after inaction

Tim Hong, Clearing The Air

President Donald Trump’s pledge to “save vaping” is drawing criticism from vapers and harm-reduction advocates, who say his administration has instead overseen a crackdown on the very products he promised to protect.

In September 2024, Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social that he would defend flavoured vapes if re-elected. “I saved flavored vaping in 2019, and it greatly helped people get off smoking,” he posted.

“I raised the age to 21, keeping it away from the ‘kids.’ Kamala [Harris] and Joe [Biden] want everything banned, killing small businesses all over the country. I’ll save vaping again.”

FDA Vape Regs Need Bold Reform

Sally Satel, Brad Rodu, Real Clear Health

Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary were present at a raid outside Chicago that seized 600,000 units of illegal vapes.

The bust reflects a wider public health scandal: more than 80 percent of the vaping market comprises illicit products, a majority of which are smuggled in as disposable devices from China.

Justice Department Files Complaints Against Raided Vape Companies

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

The Trump administration has finally named the vape businesses targeted Sept. 10 in multi-state raids by agencies of the Department of Justice (DOJ). According to a joint announcement by the DOJ and FDA, the actions resulted in the seizure of more than two million “illicit” products from five distributors and six retailers in seven states, and complaints filed in multiple federal jurisdictions.

The Smoking Gun

Alan Gor, Australia, Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)

For decades, Australia was celebrated as a global leader in tobacco control. Plain packaging, ad bans, and high excise taxes — each reform was sold as world-leading. Smoking rates fell, public health was hailed, and the story seemed settled.

Then came the vaping panic.

In 2024, Health Minister Mark Butler introduced sweeping prohibition laws on nicotine vapes. The stated goal was clear: protect young people from a “new generation of nicotine addiction.”

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

Consumers voices, WHO must listen to lived experience.

Richard

Yet again, it is time for consumers and former consumers to have a voice; the NGOs that claim to represent us often do not, as they have their own agendas. I would encourage everyone, vaper or not, to ask the UK delegates to bring this up; lived experience is considered essential in many fields of public health. That should be no different to tobacco control.

Instead, we are sidelined and accused of somehow being involved with the tobacco industry (in fact, many of us no longer buy their products, preferring independent THR companies instead).

The Report’s Basements and the Bodies That Do Not Grow

Claudio Teixeira, Dispatches From the Editor’s Desk

In a hospital in Quetzaltenango—more than 2,300 meters above sea level, where hypoxia steals invisible grams from newborns— a nurse cradles a tiny body that fits entirely in the palm of her hand. It weighs barely more than a pack of Rubios, as if life had been condensed into a fragile cardboard packet. Outside, the father lights another cigarette, and the red dust of the street drives the smoke against the windowpanes.

No Guatemalan doctor needs to consult the latest report from the World Health Organization to intuit the connection.

Interview with Mark Oates for COP11

Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties 11 (FCTC COP11) is approaching, and it promises to be the most contentious of the FCTC events yet. A total lack of transparency and the exclusion of harm reduction, industry bodies, and stakeholders come as standard. However, this year, article 4.5 looks like this:

Brussels tobacco plan comes under fresh attack

Martin Banks, EuReporter

The European Commission’s revision of tobacco taxation has drawn sharp criticism from member states and industry groups, who allege the moves could “devastate” rural economies, drive up illicit trade, and open the door for China to expand its control over Europe’s tobacco supply chain.

EU Consultation Shows 76% Support for Harm Reduction in Cardiovascular Policy

World Vapers’ Alliance

An AI-powered review of the European Commission’s cardiovascular health consultation uncovers a clear trend: wherever harm reduction was discussed, more than 76% of respondents backed policies making less harmful nicotine alternatives part of the EU’s Cardiovascular Plan. Most of these voices called for legal access to vaping, nicotine pouches, and other low-risk products to reduce smoking rates and improve cardiovascular health.

Euromonitor: RRP Market Reaches $74 Billion, Accounting for 12.7% of Global Nicotine Industry as Five Key Trends Drive Transformation

2Firsts

Despite numerous regulatory and competitive challenges, the global nicotine business remains remarkably resilient, according to Euromonitor International. In a presentation during the International Tobacco Growers Association’s annual general meeting on Sept. 19 in Dortmund, Germany, Shane MacGuill, Euromonitor’s global lead for tobacco and cannabis, highlighted key trends and examined the outlook for both combustible cigarettes and next-generation products.

Regulation: The US

Tobacco Insider

In a letter sent to the U.S. FDA Commissioner, six leading public health and medical organizations urged the U.S. FDA to take immediate action to prevent major tobacco companies from marketing new nicotine products in the United States without FDA authorization. The letter was sent by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Truth Initiative.

After Ranbir Kapoor, Leonardo DiCaprio seen vaping: CBFC blurs scenes of e-cigarette in ‘One Battle After Another’ but gives THESE things a pass

Times Entertainment

‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ has been hogging the limelight left, right, and center. On the one hand, Aryan Khan is being praised for his vision and bold decision to take a satirical dig at Bollywood’s underbelly; on the other hand, the series has found itself in hot water owing to certain controversies. One of the rows was caused owing to the last scene of the series, where Ranbir Kapoor is seen using a vape, which violates the Prohibition of the Electric Cigarettes Act 2019.

Letters to the Editor, Sept. 29, 2025

Toronto Sun

Pouch Of Optionss:

Re “Carney should adopt Tories’ position on nicotine pouches” (Jay Goldberg, Sept. 26): As a registered pharmacist and certified tobacco educator, I agree wholeheartedly with his position. I would also like to add: Canada’s Tobacco Strategy to reduce smoking to 5% or less of the population by 2035 can only be achieved if safer nicotine alternatives are widely accessible and taxed at lower rates. Also, organizations that oppose big tobacco should tell the truth about harm reduction and the significantly lower risk of products like nicotine pouches compared to cigarettes.

Smokeless Shift | Tobacco Exec on PMTA, Science & Missed Opportunity

Brent Stafford, Regulator Watch

Youth smoking in the United States has collapsed to historic lows, yet public health remains silent.

At the same time, adult smokers are moving in record numbers to safer nicotine products, signaling a profound market shift that regulators struggle to keep pace with.

In this episode of RegWatch, Dr. Chris Junker, Group Head of Life Sciences at British American Tobacco and former VP of Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at Reynolds American, discusses the FDA’s slow-moving PMTA process, the collapse of youth smoking, and the importance of scientific transparency in tobacco harm reduction.

A Trifecta of Failure

Dr Joe Kosterich

Policies which delivers increased smoking rates, reduced excise revenue and massive gains to organised crime are a total failure. But dent expect admission of failure or change any time soon.

GFN.TV Interviews | EMOTIONAL OVERRIDE | Why Feelings, Not Facts, Distort the Risk of Safer Nicotine

Global Forum on Nicotine

Public health’s assault on vaping and safer nicotine products isn’t guided by evidence, it’s driven by fear, outrage, and a profound misunderstanding of risk. At GFN 2025 in Warsaw, David Zaruk, the “Risk-Monger,” reveals how emotion overrides science in policymaking.

On this day…2023

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

Disposable vapes & the race to prohibition

Christopher Snowdon, The Critic

As an enthusiastic and prolific vaper, I have mixed feelings about disposable e-cigarettes. For the last two years I have watched the rapid ascent of Geek Bars, Elf Bars and Lost Marys with a sinking feeling that a tabloid panic was on its way. It arrived this summer. The littering and underage use with which they have become associated has tarnished the entire category and allowed a lot of people who never liked e-cigarettes to crawl out of the woodwork and demand harsh regulation.

Are vapes 95% safer than smoking?

Probably, and scientists should be blunt about it – Stuart Ritchie

Vaping is 95 per cent safer than smoking. That’s a statement that you see repeated all over the place, not just from companies who make e-cigarettes but from respected government sources.

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