Vapers Digest 30th April
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Operation Machinize ~ The Lords Debate ~ VApril Ends ~ Retailers Write to Government ~ Nicotine Patch for Long COVID or Alzheimer’s? Why Nicotine? ~ The Hypocrisy of VitalStrategies Harm Reduction Stance: Embracing Science in One Area, Denying It in Another ~ Sweden praised for its stand against European restrictions on safer alternatives to smoking ~ Healthcare Hub ~ Family Tragedy Spurs One Man’s Drive to Cut Smoking in South Africa ~ The fightback begins: Sweden seeks to block Spanish pouch ban ~ Spanish watchdog demands evidence to justify vape and nicotine pouch rules ~ Does Canadian Smoking Harm Reduction Depend on Pierre Poilievre? ~ Fear First, Facts Later: Griffith’s Blurred Minds Academy Pushes Panic Over Evidence ~ China’s E-Cigarrette Industry in Shenzhen Comes to a Standstill in Wake of Trump’s Tariffs ~ 20 years of WHO’s tobacco control draws criticism, not celebration ~ 20 Years Later, WHO’s Tobacco Control Framework Draws Criticism, Not Celebration ~ The WHO’s Failure to Protect Health: A TPA Webinar ~ The physics of vaporisation in e-cigarettes | GFN SCIENCE FAQ: PART 3
Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
Operation Machinize
Barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses across England have been targeted by police and other law enforcement officers during a three-week crackdown on high street crime. In total, 265 premises were visited across Operation Machinize, where officers secured freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m, executed 84 warrants and made 35 arrests.
The Lords Debate
Baroness Merron presented the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to the House of Lords for consideration and debate last week. The government’s position remains that it should be allowed to grant itself 66 delegated powers to clamp down on vapes, eliquids and vaping under the guise of protecting children.
VApril Ends
VApril, the “largest and most successful vape awareness campaign in the world” has come to its conclusion, having placed public education at the top of the agenda. In its 8th year, organisers sought to combat “record-high misperceptions about the stop smoking tool”.
Retailers Write to Government
A group of small retailers and corner shop owners have written to the government about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill currently passing through Parliament. The business owners believe that measures contained within the Bill will add additional constraints, making it harder for them to survive at a time of economic difficulty.
Nicotine Patch for Long COVID or Alzheimer’s? Why Nicotine?
, The People’s Pharmacy
For decades, researchers have considered nicotine a serious health problem. It is, after all, the addicting compound in cigarettes and other tobacco products. Humans have apparently been using tobacco as a drug for over 12,000 years (Nature Human Behavior, Feb. 2022). People have smoked, snuffed and chewed it. More recently, drug companies have created nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges, as well as nicotine gum. Nicotine is supposed to help people stop smoking. Such products are available without a prescription. Could this ancient drug also help people who are suffering from long COVID or Alzheimer disease?
Family Tragedy Spurs One Man’s Drive to Cut Smoking in South Africa
Kiran Sidhu, Filter
Kurt Yeo is the co-founder of Vaping Saved My Life (VSML), a South African consumer group, which among other things shares information about tobacco harm reduction and platforms testimonials from people whose lives THR has transformed.
Yeo is in that number. His father’s death to smoking-related illness—sadly, that would not be the last such tragedy in his life—spurred his own journey of switching from cigarettes to vapes.
Two from Clearing The Air
The fightback begins: Sweden seeks to block Spanish pouch ban
The Swedish government has announced that it will mount a legal challenge to Spain’s proposed ban on nicotine pouches at the EU level.
Swedish Minister for Foreign Trade, Benjamin Dousa, announced that his government planned to submit what’s known as a Detailed Opinion, or DO, to the European Commission. This forces Spain to delay the implementation of its proposals for three months and respond to the Swedish government’s submission.
The Spanish proposal limits the amount of nicotine that can be contained in a pouch to a level far lower than the weakest varieties today, amounting to a de facto ban on the entire category. Spain also wants to ban all flavors except tobacco.
Does Canadian Smoking Harm Reduction Depend on Pierre Poilievre?
Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch
It’s challenging to determine the extent of influence the pro-harm reduction community has on general elections. Claiming that he’ll “save vaping again” certainly did Donald Trump’s election chances no harm.
Similarly, I wonder if Rishi Sunak has had a sleepless night or two, worrying about how his support for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill further alienated the Conservatives from their supposed core values, such as personal liberty and free markets, thereby turning off 5.6 million potential voters.
Alan Gor, Australia, Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)
Another week, another moral panic. This time, Griffith University’s Blurred Minds Academy has turned its sights on nicotine pouches, claiming to “educate” young people while delivering an emotionally charged, one-sided narrative riddled with fear, ideology, and half-truths.
Let’s be clear: protecting young people from harm is a worthy goal. But distorting evidence and pushing alarmist messaging isn’t education, it’s propaganda. And that’s exactly what this latest campaign against nicotine pouches has become: a masterclass in scare tactics over science.
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