Wednesday’s News at a glance:

CTSI Attacks Pouches ~ New Zealand Follows International Success ~ Hartlepool Raids Unearth Disposables ~ Follow-Up to My Exposé on the American Lung Association ~ The Limits and Risks of Overstating the OurFutures Vaping Study ~ Where’s the Wastewater Data, Minister? ~ Tobacco Harm Reduction Policy Brief ~ Australia’s war on nicotine is failing. A smarter strategy is needed ~ COP11 Agenda Reveals Deep Bias Against Harm Reduction ~ Bangladesh’s E-Cigarette Ban: Fueling Illicit Trade, Not Health ~E-cigarettes help smokers quit: prof calls for science-based policies in SA ~ Downtrading, illicit e-cigarette market weighing on c-store retailers ~ “Infantile” UK Plan Would Fine People Who Vape at Bus Stops ~ expert reaction to an observational study comparing teen smoking rates and vaping use across three UK birth cohorts over 50 years ~ Disposable ban fails to stick as quarter of UK retailers break the law ~ ‘Candy’ kiosk sparks outrage for illegal vape sales despite government’s promise to crack down on public health scourge ~ A tobacco product tax cut slated for one year has been extended by two ~ Unforgiving Logic | The Crusade That Forgot Its Cause

Three From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

CTSI Attacks Pouches

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is warning that nicotine pouches are being promoted prominently in shops and pose “a worrying child appeal with their flavours and eye-catching packaging, mimicking that of sweets”. Nicotine pouches have become popular with vapers for situations where vaping isn’t possible and are increasingly popular as a smoking cessation tool.

New Zealand Follows International Success

New Zealand is staying the course, according to The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), by following international success with proven tobacco harm reduction. The consumer group has welcomed news that the New Zealand government’s decision to include oral nicotine products as part of its strategy to remain a global leader in achieving a smokefree future. The group described the government as “forward thinking”.

Hartlepool Raids Unearth Disposables

Thousands of counterfeit and illicit cigarettes, hand-rolling tobacco and illegal disposable vapes have been seized in a major operation targeting Hartlepool businesses. Hartlepool Borough Council’s Trading Standards Team, HM Revenue and Customs officers and Hartlepool Neighbourhood Policing Team officers recently joined forces to take part in Op Rover.

Follow-Up to My Exposé on the American Lung Association

Dr. Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

Last week I shared my objections to the American Lung Association’s specious screed on vaping, noting, among other concerns, a non sequitur about popcorn lung from the ALA chief medical officer: “Dr. Rizzo offers an entire paragraph devoted to a disease that has never been diagnosed in a vaper. The definitive article on [popcorn lung] is by Clive Bates (here).”

In a subsequent comment on X, Jukka Kelovuori observed that the “@Clive_Bates article is about ‘EVALI,’ not ‘popcorn lung.’”

I stand corrected, sort of.

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

The Limits and Risks of Overstating the OurFutures Vaping Study

The OurFutures Vaping trial has been promoted as a breakthrough in preventing youth e-cigarette use. However, a closer reading reveals methodological, contextual, and interpretive limitations that caution against drawing sweeping conclusions, especially those used to justify restrictive policies that may unintentionally harm youth by pushing them toward more dangerous alternatives like cigarettes.

Where’s the Wastewater Data, Minister?

For years, these reports compiled by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) have helped track real-time drug and nicotine use across the country. They’ve offered policymakers, researchers, and the public an independent snapshot of what Australians are actually consuming. But the last publicly available report was released on 7 November 2024. Since then? Silence.

Tobacco Harm Reduction Policy Brief

Harm Reduction Australia

See HRA’s new Tobacco Harm Reduction Policy Brief to understand why Australia should urgently reform its current tobacco control strategy to an evidenced-based harm reduction approach including reducing tobacco excise, establishing a legal, regulated market for lower risk nicotine products and, shifting investment from enforcement to regulation…

Australia’s war on nicotine is failing. A smarter strategy is needed

James Martin, Alex Wodak, Crikey

Alarming new polling data from Roy Morgan has revealed that both smoking and vaping rates have risen in Australia since the government’s 2024 crackdown on nicotine vaping products. After years of gradually declining smoking prevalence, this reversal should sound alarm bells in Canberra. It highlights a fundamental failure in Australia’s approach to tobacco and nicotine regulation that is driving more people back to deadly cigarettes and fuelling a dangerous black market.

COP11 Agenda Reveals Deep Bias Against Harm Reduction

Michael Landl, World Vapers’ Alliance

The recently released preliminary agenda for COP11 confirms what many in the tobacco harm reduction (THR) community have long known: the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is again not preparing for an open, evidence-based conversation on safer nicotine alternatives. Instead, the way the agenda is framed reveals a dangerously biased and ideologically driven direction for the upcoming negotiations.

Item 4.5 reads:

“Implementation of measures to prevent and reduce tobacco consumption, nicotine addiction and exposure to tobacco smoke, and the protection of such measures from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in light of the tobacco industry’s narrative on ‘harm reduction.’”

Bangladesh’s E-Cigarette Ban: Fueling Illicit Trade, Not Health

Ziauddin Islam, LinkedIn

Bangladesh’s ban on e-cigarettes (ENDS), while allowing combustible cigarettes—killing 161,000 annually (WHO, 2020)—is a public health disaster. Cigarettes cause 8 million global deaths yearly, yet the government, a 9% shareholder in British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB), bans safer alternatives like vaping, shown to be 95% less harmful (Public Health England, 2015). This echoes India’s ban, influenced by Bloomberg Philanthropies anti-tobacco agenda, dismissing evidence-based harm reduction.

The illicit tobacco trade in Bangladesh is already rampant. Illicit trade costs 8 billion Taka in revenue (4% of tobacco revenue, World Bank, 2019). Smokeless tobacco (SLT) is a bigger issue, with nearly all products flouting packaging laws, signaling a thriving black market (Tobacco Control, 2022). Banning e-cigarettes risks flooding the market with unregulated vapes, increased prevalence of smoking and its related harms, endangering lives without oversight, as seen globally.

E-cigarettes help smokers quit: prof calls for science-based policies in SA

Nivashni Nair, Times Live

A leading Italian physician has weighed in on South Africa’s Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, calling on parliament to adopt science-based tobacco harm reduction policies.

Prof Riccardo Polosa, who leads the Centre of Excellence for Harm Reduction at the University of Catania and has more than two decades of experience in smoking cessation, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on health on Friday that policymakers should seriously consider “evidence-based tobacco harm reduction strategies”.

Downtrading, illicit e-cigarette market weighing on c-store retailers

Diane Adam, CSP

Convenience-store retailers have a cautious view on the outlook for the tobacco category, according to Goldman Sachs’ second-quarter 2025 Nicotine Nuggets survey. This was mainly due to inflation, economic uncertainty and tighter regulations, which are driving lower usage of cigarettes and further downtrading.

The survey, analyzed by New York-based Goldman Sachs Managing Director Bonnie Herzog, represents about 46,000 c-store locations across the United States.

“Infantile” UK Plan Would Fine People Who Vape at Bus Stops

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

People who vape at outdoor bus stops in the United Kingdom could soon be fined up to £100, under a new law being discussed in Parliament.

Vaping at bus stations and on board buses is already prohibited, but the law would give transportation authorities new powers to fine those who vape in other public areas, such as outdoor bus stops. Failure to pay promptly could lead to an increased fine of as much as £1,000.

expert reaction to an observational study comparing teen smoking rates and vaping use across three UK birth cohorts over 50 years

Dr John Robins, Prof Lion Shahab, Prof Peter Hajek, Science Media Centre

An observational study published in Tobacco Control looks at teen smoking rates in three UK birth cohorts before and after vape use.

Disposable ban fails to stick as quarter of UK retailers break the law

Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Nearly one in four UK vape retailers are selling disposable vapes illegally just weeks after they were banned, according to a new investigation.

The findings, published by online nicotine retailer Haypp, show that 23 per cent of shops visited by mystery shoppers were willing to sell disposable vapes – despite a UK-wide ban on their sale from 1 June.

“This national project involved hiring mystery shoppers to visit 48 different shops across nine UK cities,” Haypp said. “The shops ranged from independent vape stores and corner shops to large retailers, with the visits taking place between 2 and 6 June.”

‘Candy’ kiosk sparks outrage for illegal vape sales despite government’s promise to crack down on public health scourge

Isabella Rayner, Sky News

A Melbourne “candy” kiosk has sparked outrage on social media for its conspicuous sale of illegal vapes – despite the government’s promise to crack down on non-pharmacy retailers selling them.

The shop in Melbourne’s CBD advertises vapes as “cheap” on a small billboard, with two fluorescent signs reading “Candy” on the storefront.

A lit-up picture of a giant lollipop is also featured on one wall, along with the words “Sweet Spot”.

A tobacco product tax cut slated for one year has been extended by two

Guyon Espiner, Radio New Zealand (RNZ)

The tax break for Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) made by Phillip Morris has been extended for an extra two years.

In July 2024, the government cut the tax on HTPs in half, in what it said would be a one-year trial subject to an evaluation.

But NZ First Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told RNZ the evaluation would now be done in July 2027 and the reduced tax rate would apply to HTPs at least until then.

Unforgiving Logic | The Crusade That Forgot Its Cause | RegWatch

Brent Stafford, Regulator Watch

Tobacco control is all virtue, no restraint. And when it deploys power, it does so as if it holds absolute moral authority: unquestionable, unforgiving, and unshakably certain of its final destination.

It doesn’t ask “Does this reduce harm?”

In this RegWatch public statement, we expose the divide between tobacco harm reduction and the ideology driving tobacco control. Moral absolutism rooted in resentment, not science, has shaped a global war on safer nicotine products that smears vaping, discredits researchers, and marginalizes anyone who refuses to walk the path of abstinence.

It was never about tobacco. It was always about control. In the tobacco control movement, there’s no grace. No nuance. No end in sight.

On this day…2021

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

Vape Industry Can’t Advertise to Kids…

But Anti-Tobacco Crusaders Are Doing It For Them

Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

Anti-tobacco crusaders have for three years been blaming e-cigarette manufacturers and retailers for increased teen vaping, which the CDC, citing National Youth Tobacco Survey results, dramatically terms an epidemic.

Why Harm Reduction is the Right Path…

Forward for India – Corinne Day

Though India has the second largest population of tobacco users in the world, e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products are banned. The man responsible for this ban, Minister of Health Dr. Harsh Vardhan, recently resigned, placing India on the brink of a potential policy overhaul. Adjusting the regulatory framework to encourage healthier alternatives to combustible tobacco products will promote consumer safety and reduce the overall number of tobacco users.

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

Vapers Digest 30th July