Vapers Digest 2nd February
Monday’s News at a glance:
Questionnaire : how much nicotine do you need? ~ Can ‘public health’ be ethical? ~ Disengaging from the stakeholders ~ Australia Didn’t “Beat Smoking.” It Outsourced It to Criminals and Still Won’t Admit Why ~ Correlation Isn’t Causation: How Vaping Is Blamed for Trends It Didn’t Create ~ Evidence disproves scaremongering about safer alternatives ~ The Call I Didn’t Want to Take ~ The Man with the Scale: David Nutt and the Weight of Things ~ Vaping can help disadvantaged Australians quit smoking. What now for clinical practice? ~ Interesting New Paper Explores Smoking Relapse Data ~ Massachusetts Association of Health Boards Wants to Ban the Use of Flavored E-Cigarettes, by ANYONE ~ The Role of NRT Fatally Undermines the Anti-Vape Case ~ Nearly half of smokers quit after switching to nicotine pouches, U.S. study finds ~ Let’s talk e-cigarettes, January 2026 ~ From Vietnam to Mexico, Vape Bans Are Fueling Smoking, Not Stopping It ~ THR Weekly Wrap Up – 2026 Is Just Getting Started ~ After Mexico bans vapes, cartels tighten their grip on a booming market ~ Tobacco, Vape and Nicotine: Still a vital category ~ BENOIT: Health Canada claimed vaping was as bad as cigarettes — the data proves otherwise ~ Are Safer Nicotine Alternatives Being Misrepresented in the EU?
Questionnaire : how much nicotine do you need?
stop2smoke
Answer 5 questions to assess your nicotine consumption as a smoker (or your consumption when you smoked). We will then use this information to calculate the optimal nicotine concentration in your e-liquids, nicotine-based medications (patches, gum, tablets, inhalers), or nicotine pouches. Our statistics show that these 5 questions allow us to estimate your nicotine needs with twice the accuracy of using only the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
Two From Christopher Snowdon
Can ‘public health’ be ethical?
The Snowdon Substack
A few “public health” academics have reflected on the damage done to their reputation from bending the truth during the pandemic. It was a time, some of them now admit, when the “illiberal and unpopular aspects of public health became apparent and amplified”. The UK losing its measles elimination status this week was a reminder that once trust is lost, it is not easy to win back.
But such ethical debates are the tiniest niche in ‘public health’ academia. A year ago, a book titled The Ethics of Public Health Paternalism by T. M. Wilkinson was published. Despite being free to download as a PDF and published by the Oxford University Press, I have not seen it mentioned anywhere.
Disengaging from the stakeholders
The Critic
Last November, I reported on the EU’s plan to force member states to levy punitive taxes on e-cigarette fluid and nicotine pouches. The European Commission launched a public consultation which received 18,480 responses, overwhelmingly from consumers who were against. Having lost the numbers game, anti-nicotine NGOs went running to Politico who published an article claiming that the consultation had been “swamped with pro-industry feedback”. Citing an unpublished analysis from a mysterious new “tobacco control consultancy” called Impact Unfiltered, it alleged that “thousands of the posts use terms created only by the [tobacco] sector”, including the phrases “harm reduction” and “illicit trade”.
Two From Alan Gore
Australia Didn’t “Beat Smoking.” It Outsourced It to Criminals and Still Won’t Admit Why
This Bloomberg piece reads like an autopsy report that refuses to name the cause of death.
Australia, readers are told, “thought it beat smoking.” Then somehow, the black market exploded, youth smoking declined, organised crime moved in, excise revenue collapsed, and violence followed. The article carefully circles the wreckage, catalogues the damage, interviews the usual experts, and yet still pulls its punches at the one factor tying all of this together: a tobacco control strategy that mistook ideology for evidence and enforcement for success.
Correlation Isn’t Causation: How Vaping Is Blamed for Trends It Didn’t Create
In public health debates, few phrases are repeated as ritualistically and misunderstood as thoroughly as “the data show an association.” When it comes to vaping, that phrase has increasingly become a shortcut to a much stronger claim: that vaping has caused increases in smoking, particularly among young people. The leap from association to causation is rarely acknowledged, let alone defended. Instead, it is smuggled into headlines, policy briefs, and press releases, wrapped in the authority of academic journals and time-series charts.
Evidence disproves scaremongering about safer alternatives
Smoke Free Sweden
Leading international health experts have welcomed research dispelling the myth that safer nicotine alternatives are a “gateway” product for the underage.
New evidence from New Zealand shows that youth vaping rates are falling sharply while youth smoking continues to decline to historic lows, directly contradicting claims that reduced-risk nicotine products inevitably lead young people to cigarettes.
Dr Delon Human, leader of Smoke Free Sweden and a former Secretary-General of the World Medical Association, said: “The scaremongers have been proved wrong. The New Zealand data shows the ‘gateway’ theory does not stand up to real-world evidence.
The Call I Didn’t Want to Take
Jess Steier, DrPH, Unbiased Science
In November, I got a LinkedIn message from a consultant who works for one of the major vape (aka e-cigarette) companies. The message was innocuous enough, and it certainly piqued my interest.
Many cold messages are generic marketing and don’t warrant a second look. But I did not get that sense from this one—so I replied. Why? Morbid curiosity, maybe. Or maybe something else entirely. I’m called Unbiased Science, after all, and I wanted to check my own biases.
The Man with the Scale: David Nutt and the Weight of Things
Claudio Teixeira, Disobedient Margins
It was probably a cold morning in Bristol. The kind of chill that doesn’t stop at the skin. The responses came in like reports nobody wants to read: abrupt, loud, all caps. As if urgency alone might pierce the screen.
David Nutt doesn’t apologize for the tone. He doesn’t soften. Doesn’t ease in. Doesn’t hedge. He writes like someone who has run out of polite ways to be ignored. Like someone who’s lost faith in long form—and maybe in listening itself.
Vaping can help disadvantaged Australians quit smoking. What now for clinical practice?
Ryan Courtney, Hayden McRobbie, Insight
Vaping has shown promise as an effective quit smoking aid in the general population, but prior to this clinical trial vaping’s role in helping those experiencing socio-economic hardship to quit was unknown.
Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in Australia with over 24,000 Australian’s dying per year from attributable tobacco related disease (equating to 66 deaths per day). Daily smoking rates for those aged 14 and over are currently 8.3%, having dropped from 11% in 2019.
Interesting New Paper Explores Smoking Relapse Data
Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch
A new paper published in Addiction looks at an important but oft-overlooked question about smoking cessation via e-cigarettes.
Let’s see what’s going on.
A new paper from Peter Hajek et al, funded by The National Institute for Health Research and by Cancer Research UK, explores an interesting question:
Massachusetts Association of Health Boards Wants to Ban the Use of Flavored E-Cigarettes, by ANYONE
Dr. Michael Siegel, The Rest of the Story
The Massachusetts Association of Health Boards (MAHB) has disseminated a model nicotine regulation policy that it is recommending be adopted by all boards of health in Massachusetts. The policy makes it illegal for anyone in the state to possess a flavored electronic cigarette.
Existing state law prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products but it does not prohibit people from using these products. For example, although youth cannot be sold flavored e-cigarettes, they are not punished (i.e., fined) if they take a hit from one. Many adults use flavored e-cigarettes to keep off of real cigarettes, and although flavored products can’t legally be sold in the state, an adult is not punished if they are caught vaping a non-tobacco-flavored vape.
The Role of NRT Fatally Undermines the Anti-Vape Case
Roger Bate, Filter
Public health authorities insist they are guided by science. But when it comes to nicotine, policy is driven less by toxicology than by symbolism. Regulators approve long-term daily nicotine use through patches, gum and lozenges, while portraying nicotine as inherently dangerous when delivered through consumer products like vapes or pouches. This contradiction is neither subtle nor tenable.
Nearly half of smokers quit after switching to nicotine pouches, U.S. study finds
Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air
Nearly half of participants who smoked at the start of the study were not smoking after 10 weeks.
Weekly cigarette use among participants fell from 15.9% to 8.1%.
Almost a quarter of users switched completely from other tobacco products to nicotine pouches.
Researchers found cigarette and smokeless tobacco use “meaningfully decreased” over time.
Let’s talk e-cigarettes, January 2026
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, Nicola Lindson, Oxford University Podcasts
Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Associate Professor Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research outline. Nicola and Jamie describe what a living review is and discuss the steps involved in carrying out a living systematic review, from screening and extraction to data analysis and dissemination. They outline how the methods differ from traditional systematic reviews. They highlight the value of the living review process for the fast-moving topic of vape research. This approach means that the author team are constantly up-to-date with the literature and able to input into policy and to respond to press or research queries.
From Vietnam to Mexico, Vape Bans Are Fueling Smoking, Not Stopping It
Diane Caruana, Vaping Post
Despite more than a decade of growing scientific consensus that smoke-free nicotine products are far less harmful than cigarettes, governments across the world are accelerating bans on vaping, heated tobacco and other reduced-risk alternatives. From Southeast Asia to Latin America and Eastern Europe, policymakers are choosing prohibition over regulation—even as real-world data consistently show that access to safer nicotine products reduces smoking, disease and death.
Liza Katsiashvili, World Vapers’ Alliance
For the first time in 2026, I’m back with the weekly wrap-up blog, vapers. There’s quite a lot to report, so stay with me!
Even though the year has just started, the vaping world is already moving fast. This week brought both ups and downs for our community, and this blog covers a bit of everything.
After Mexico bans vapes, cartels tighten their grip on a booming market
Maria Verza, ABC News
When a drug cartel came calling at a store selling vapes in northern Mexico, the owners knew they were powerless.
The cartel abducted two employees, blindfolded them and demanded to speak with their bosses. The cartel said it was seizing the store, which would only be allowed to sell online outside the state.
Tobacco, Vape and Nicotine: Still a vital category
Kiran Paul, Asian Trader
he tobacco, vape and nicotine category remains one of the biggest footfall and profit drivers in UK convenience retail – but it is also one of the most volatile. Store owners are navigating a fast-changing landscape shaped by policy shifts, rising enforcement activity, pressure from the illicit trade, evolving consumer behaviours, and the growing likelihood of new restrictions and frameworks.
BENOIT: Health Canada claimed vaping was as bad as cigarettes — the data proves otherwise
Sabine Benoit, Western Standard
In a surprising turn of events, Health Canada has finally conceded that one of the best ways to fight cigarette use in Canada is through harm reduction, namely through vaping.
Canadian smokers have been told for years by the government and various activists that using a vape is just as bad as smoking. While equating smoking and vaping has always been scientifically inaccurate, cigarettes and vapes are still grouped together in official government documents like the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act. Cigarettes and vapes are also still taxed as though they were the same kind of product. These types of ongoing actions propagate the false narrative that they should be treated the same in terms of policy and regulation. They are not the same, and Health Canada has finally said it out loud, with data.
PDF: BENOIT Health Canada claimed vaping was as bad as cigarettes — the data proves otherwise
Are Safer Nicotine Alternatives Being Misrepresented in the EU?
Global Forum on Nicotine
EU nicotine policy is under fire after claims that smoke-free nicotine products are as harmful as cigarettes. In GFN News, Joanna Junak interviews Bengt Wiberg of Stingfree AB on why experts dispute these statements, what science says about nicotine pouches, snus, and vaping, and how the debate could impact tobacco harm reduction and future EU regulation.
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
ETHRA January News roundup
European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates
ETHRA’s monthly roundup of news: UK disposable ban & vape flavours restrictions – Nicotine pouches under threat – Defend Harm Reduction at COP10 – COP10 Updates – Harm Reduction: The Road to a Smoke Free Europe – Evidence briefs for tobacco harm reduction – Country updates. Read on for more.
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
