Vapers Digest 30th January
Monday’s News at a glance:
Misinformation lives forever on the Internet – Tobacco harm reduction should be on Congress’ agenda – The tobacco bill violates human rights – Cops Allegedly Caught Escorting Illicit Cigarettes – What substances are adolescents vaping? – All In (Part 2) | Is Big Tobacco A Threat to Vaping? – Restrictions Let Down Smokers
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.
Restrictions Let Down Smokers
Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
It is a disservice to smokers to restrict specialist vape shops and restrict the extent to which they can help tobacco users looking to quit, according to advocacy group CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates). The comments come following new proposals in New Zealand.
“Whilst we have absolutely no issues with restrictions around primary and secondary schools and Kura, we do have issue with adult community locations, such as universities, and other tertiary facilities,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.
A recent survey conducted by the National Cancer Institute shows that the majority of French people are totally misinformed about vapour products.https://t.co/y44FCAGDNN
— European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (@europethra) January 30, 2023
Dispatch founder Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch shared some good insight about the anti-vaping hysteria on his consistently terrific @TheDispatch podcast. pic.twitter.com/BEdYwug5wn
— American Vapor Manufacturers (@VaporAmerican) January 27, 2023
The tobacco bill violates human rights
Kurt Yeo
Every South African has the right to equality, the right to access information, the right to healthcare, and the right to life, according to the Bill of Rights enshrined in the constitution. This includes the 12.7 million South Africans who consume nicotine in all forms.
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill will rob people of these rights because of the tightened restrictions around one of the most effective tools in reducing harm and achieving smoking cessation.
What substances are adolescents vaping?
Estimating nicotine-specific and marijuana-specific vaping from US national youth surveys
Arielle Selya, Sooyong Kim, Saul Shiffman, Joe G. Gitchell, Floe Foxon
Background: The prevalence of electronic cigarette (“e-cigarettes”) use among youth has raised alarm over recent years. Vaping is usually assumed to be of nicotine, but uncertainties in survey definitions may also include non-nicotine substances which can impose different risks (particularly marijuana). The current study quantifies the proportions of nicotine-specific and marijuana-specific vaping among adolescents.
Methods: Data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) 2020 survey and National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) 2021 were analyzed with respect to the substance vaped: nicotine, marijuana, or (in MTF) flavoring only. Past-30-day nicotine-specific vaping (exclusively, or also having vaped other substances) and marijuana-specific vaping were calculated. Results were also broken down by grade level, by cigarette smoking history (current, former, or never), and among frequent e-cigarette users (on 20+ days out of the past 30 days).
Is Big Tobacco A Threat to Vaping?
RegWatch
Is big tobacco a threat to the nicotine vaping industry? This is an old and touchy question for many vaping advocates.
Most assume that at some point, tobacco companies acted deliberately to thwart vaping’s rise. Yet today, big tobacco is positioned to drive the future of vaping. The question: Is there room for both?
Joining us today for part two of our interview is Jonathan Fell. For over 30 years, he’s covered the tobacco industry in his role as a financial analyst for tobacco stocks.
Produced in partnership with GFN.TV. Part 1 of our interview with Jonathan Fell can be found here, or look for it on the GFN.TV YouTube channel.
Cops Allegedly Caught …
Escorting Illicit Cigarettes – Bianca Lalbahadur
A large shipment of illicit cigarettes was allegedly escorted by police officers on Monday, 30 January. Half a million packs of cigarettes were allegedly found in a gas tanker and a truck with a tax value of about R12 million in Marble Hall. One of the vehicles leading the shipment allegedly belonged to the Hawks.
Tax Justice SA (TJSA) believes the incident proved that authorities have lost control in the country. The organisation’s founder Yusuf Abramjee said that the trade of illegal tobacco is brazenly operating outside the law. According to Abramjee the shipment allegedly contained Remington Gold cigarettes that are produced in Zimbabwe. He added that the SA Revenue Service and police must account for their failure to tackle the problem.
On this Day…2022
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
Groundbreaking Study Shows …
Vaping Far Less Toxic Than Smoking
James Dunworth, Ashtray Blog
A replication study has demonstrated that vaping is far less toxic than tobacco cigarettes.
The study was carried out by Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction of the University of Catania. (CoEHAR). The study is part of the Replica Project, which aims to replicate high quality studies that compare cigarettes with electronic alternatives.
The studies chosen were originally conducted by the tobacco industry, and therefore carry a high risk of bias. To eliminate this risk, studies were replicated by 5 different universities across the world. To minimise the risk of error, each university used three different protocols to measure the toxicity of vapour on human cells.
CDC is mimicking anti-vaxxer rhetoric..
In its messaging on nicotine – Martin Cullip
Imagine waking up one morning and reading the following statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): “Hundreds of people have been hospitalized due to side effects of Covid19 vaccinations. Being vaccinated risks known adverse consequences of blood clotting and cardiovascular problems.” Also imagine that the CDC failed to mention the hugely greater advantages of taking the vaccines for hundreds of millions of people. You would, quite rightly, think they had taken leave of their senses.
Yet, this is precisely what the CDC is doing when talking about reduced risk products which are helping millions of smokers quit tobacco.
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