Vapers Digest 31st May
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Taking Stock | Royal College of Physicians on Vape Debate ~ Vaping restrictions signal turbulent markets in Quebec ~ What does the evidence say about youth vaping? – study ~ The Queensland government sinks to a new low – vaping report ~ A Ban By Any Other Name ~ How Vaping Has Surged Among Prisoners in the UK ~ Parliament ~ Government To End Free Vapes ~ Elf Bar Ad Breaks Code ~ No more free vapes for kids ~ At COP10, British delegates must champion vaping as a primary means of reducing tobacco harm ~ How Sweden outpaces the EU’s anti-smoking policies ~ Finland stoops to regulatory ‘nonsense’ in bid to ban nicotine pouches ~ Legalise Vaping Party: A new political force against Labor’s vape criminalisation ~ Australian madness infects the BBC ~ Open Letter From 41 Experts To Australian Health Minister Gives Insight Into Why New Zealand Must Stay The Course ~ Ignoring the evidence: Is ‘conventional wisdom’ hindering the fight against smoking? ~ Biden HHS spends millions on ‘anti-vaping’ social media campaign for LGBT youth ~ Summit introduces Tobacco Harm Reduction to fight smoking ~ Experts for developing framework on tobacco harm reduction ~ In today’s India, it seems, even to talk about harm reduction issues is illegal ~ Expert: PH Should Be More Open To Vaping In Combating Smoking ~ How a Vape Store in Ohio Is Trying to Neutralize a Notorious Speed Trap
Taking Stock | Royal College of Physicians on Vape Debate
Dr. Sanjay Agrawal, Brent Stafford, Regwatch
The debate over nicotine vaping polarizes people “even in tobacco control,” says the chief tobacco control expert at the venerable Royal College of Physicians in the UK.
Representing over 40,00 doctors across 80 countries in the world, the RCP leads the way in public health’s mission to end the epidemic of tobacco addiction. But the RCP sits at the center of controversy over vaping since taking an early stand in support of nicotine vapes as a tool for harm reduction.
Vaping restrictions signal turbulent markets in Quebec
Ian Irvine, C.D. Howe Institute
The Quebec and British health systems have recently taken opposing stances on the role of reduced-harm nicotine products.
Last month, Quebec announced its intention to ban the sale of all flavoured e-cigarette products, to limit the capacity of pods and disposables to 2 millilitres and limit the capacity of e-liquid containers to 30 ml, with the changes likely to take effect this fall or in early 2024.
Two from Dr Colin Mendelsohn, ColinMendelsohn.com.au
What does the evidence say about youth vaping? – study
EVERYONE AGREES that young people should not vape or smoke. However, the current fear and panic about youth vaping is not based on the evidence, according to our peer-reviewed paper published today in the International Journal of Drug Policy.The main concern is vaping by young people who have never smoked (never-smokers) and we reviewed the evidence for this group. Vaping among young people who already smoke may be beneficial if it diverts them away completely from cigarette smoking.
The Queensland government sinks to a new low – vaping report
THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT has sunk to a new level of misinformation and scaremongering in its latest attempt to demonise vaping.
The government laboratories tested seventeen black market vaping products and made unjustified and exaggerated claims, with the Premier saying that the results are staggering and that vaping is no safer than smoking. Read the report here.
A Ban By Any Other Name
Neil McKeganey, Andrea Patton, Tobacco Reporter
If there is one phrase that must keep e-cigarette and e-liquid company executives awake at night, it must surely be “flavor ban.” In their public statements, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have always denied pursuing a ban on e-liquid flavors, encouraging e-cigarette manufactures instead to “show us the data” where e-cigarette flavors are compared to tobacco flavor in terms of their effectiveness in assisting adult smokers in quitting.
How Vaping Has Surged Among Prisoners in the UK
Three From Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
Parliament
Parliament heard more questions and answers about vaping and tobacco harm reduction. Our final article from the House of Commons this week hears from South Leicestershire Conservative MP Alberto Costa, Shadow DUP Health Spokesperson Jim Shannon, Dartford’s Conservative MP Gareth Johnson, and Fabian Hamilton, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Government To End Free Vapes
The Government has announced that it plans to increase education and have dedicated school police liaison officers to keep illegal vapes out of schools. It intends to change the rules around sale of nicotine free vapes and to review the fines for shops selling illicit vapes. It will also close the loophole that currently allows retailers to give free samples of vapes to children.
Elf Bar Ad Breaks Code
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has found against Elf Bar, declaring that a TikTok advert had breached regulations following a complaint lodged by Imperial Tobacco. CAP Code rule 22.12 states that, except for media targeted exclusively to the trade, “marketing communications with the direct or indirect effect of promoting nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components which are not licensed as medicines are not permitted in online and some other forms of electronic media.”
No more free vapes for kids
The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Neil O’Brien MP, GOV.UK
A loophole that allows the vaping industry to give free samples of vapes to children in England is set to be closed under new plans announced by the Prime Minister today to clamp down on youth vaping. This comes as recent NHS figures for 2021 showed that 9% of 11 to 15 year old children used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018.
Related: Quitters’ aid or addiction risk? Growing debate over vape regulation
At COP10, British delegates must champion vaping
as a primary means of reducing tobacco harm
Mark Pawsey, Conservative Home
The Government recently announced its new vaping ‘swap to stop’ policy. This new scheme will offer free vapes and e-liquids to smokers to assist them in quitting – the first initiative of its kind.
How Sweden outpaces the EU’s anti-smoking policies
Michael Landl, The Brussels Times
The smoking rate in the EU is at 25% and more than 700,000 people die yearly from smoking. Most member states will fall miles short of the EU target of a smoking rate of under 5% by 2040 if politics continues as before.
However, a look at Sweden shows that there is another way and the ambitious goal of a smoke-free society is achievable.
Finland stoops to regulatory ‘nonsense’ in bid to ban nicotine pouches
SnusForumNet
Finland’s pharmaceutical regulator recently declared it would cease regulating nicotine pouches, spurring a contentious, possibly legally questionable scramble to reassert the nation’s tacit ban on the product.
It’s the latest twist in a long-running “moral crusade” against the nicotine products that have the potential to cut down smoking rates and enhance public health.”
Legalise Vaping Party: A new political force against Labor’s vape criminalisation
Brian Marlow, Legalise Vaping
Today, on World Vape Day, the world’s first political party dedicated to the rights of vapers, the Legalise Vaping Party (LVP), launches to fight against Mark Butler and the Labor Party’s intent to criminalise Australia’s 1.3 million adult vapers.
“Today, we vapers say, ‘Enough!’ It is outrageous that the Federal Health Minister is pushing States and Territories to impose prison terms for recreational vaping like what the Australian Capital Territory currently has” said Brian Marlow, Director of Legalise Vaping Australia and the LVP.
Biden HHS spends millions on ‘anti-vaping’ social media campaign for LGBT youth
Gabe Kaminsky, Washington Examiner
President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services has spent millions in taxpayer dollars on a social media project “to prevent vaping initiation among LGBTQ youth,” records show.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse handed more than $2.2 million to the University of Pennsylvania for an “anti-vaping messages” project from July 2021 to April 2026 that aims to craft social media strategies “to reduce disparities in vaping” among “sexual and gender minority youth,” according to funding documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
An international doctor and specialist in tobacco treatment encouraged the Philippines to be open in educating Filipinos about the benefits of vaping as a way to stop smoking. Contradicted by many Filipinos, the presence of vaping in the country was seen as an ‘unhealthy habit’ related to smoking.
How a Vape Store in Ohio Is Trying to Neutralize a Notorious Speed Trap
Nico Demattia, The Drive
Sometimes heroes come from most unexpected places. The Planet of the Vapes smoke shop has been using its advertising powers for good by using a billboard to warn drivers of a famously tricky speed camera that’s been catching and ticketing countless unsuspecting drivers unaware of an abrupt speed limit change.
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