Vapers Digest 3rd December

Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Budget Provokes Comment ~ Criminals Hammered in Hammersmith ~ Luxembourg Snus Law Draws Criticism as ‘De Facto Ban’ ~ Why the World Health Organization’s anti-nicotine policy could keep millions smoking ~ Youth Need Protection. Smokers Need Choices. EPSCO Can and Must Deliver Both. ~ Nicotine pouches: solution or smokescreen? ~ Youth vaping halves in New Zealand ~ Fruit and mint flavours dominate vape sales after disposable ban, new data shows ~ DOCUMENT: EU Health Ministers to discuss new curbs on safer nicotine products ~ Health Canada let kids get nicotine while blaming industry ~ Tobacco Regulation: The European Union ~ WHY NEW ZEALAND WAS SHAMED FOR REDUCING SMOKING?
Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
Budget Provokes Comment
The Budget has been presented by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and includes plans to clamp down on illicit vapes and shopkeepers who sell them. Fines, prison sentences and digital registrations are claimed to be able to curtail the black market – but given the potential for large profits it remains uncertain if the measures will work in reality.
Criminals Hammered in Hammersmith
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham says its Trading Standards officers have seized more than £100,000 of illegal vapes since April 2021. The authority says seizures have skyrocketed since 2021 as it targeted removing “potentially toxic and over-strength” vapes from its local high streets.
Luxembourg Snus Law Draws Criticism as ‘De Facto Ban’
Tobacco Reporter
Luxembourg-based snus producer Heintz Van Landewyck criticized the country’s new anti-tobacco legislation, which effectively removes snus from the domestic market despite not explicitly banning it. The law, approved in late October, limits nicotine in snus pouches to just 0.048 mg per pouch—roughly the amount naturally found in two aubergines (eggplants)—making the product unappealing to consumers seeking nicotine.
Why the World Health Organization’s anti-nicotine policy could keep millions smoking
Guy Bentley, Reason Foundation
The World Health Organization (WHO) is pushing for countries to regulate e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco just as strictly as traditional cigarettes, even suggesting outright bans. If these recommendations are put in place, they could discourage millions of smokers from switching to these safer alternatives, leading to more deaths and diseases from smoking instead of reducing them.
Youth Need Protection. Smokers Need Choices. EPSCO Can and Must Deliver Both.
Pouch Forum
As EPSCO considers novel nicotine products, protecting youth must be done with evidence and integrity, while ensuring that adult smokers are not denied access to substantially lower-risk alternatives that can reduce smoking and its related harms. A balanced regulatory framework is also strongly supported by the responsible actors in the value chain who want clear rules, proper enforcement and a level playing field.

Nicotine pouches: solution or smokescreen?
The Spectator
There has been a renewed focus on tobacco and nicotine products across Europe. Just as countries seek to speed up the process to a smoke-free future, through measures like generational smoking bans and increased regulations on packaging and advertising, there has been a sharp increase in young people using alternative nicotine products like vapes and pouches.
Three From Clearing The Air
Youth vaping halves in New Zealand
Tim Hong
Youth vaping in New Zealand has fallen sharply, with new national data showing regular use has halved in just two years. The findings come from the latest ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey, which polls more than 30,000 students each year.
It’s a shift public health experts say reflects the impact of targeted regulation rather than blanket bans.
The survey of more than 30,000 14 to 15-year-olds found regular vaping – once a month or more – has dropped from a 2021 peak of 20.2 percent to around half that level today. Daily use has fallen from the 2022 ‘peak vape’ high of 10.1 percent to 7.1 percent.
Fruit and mint flavours dominate vape sales after disposable ban, new data shows
Tim Hong
Fruit and mint flavours remain the most popular vape categories sold since July’s disposable vape ban, according to new figures.
The data from online retailer Haypp reinforces industry warnings that flavour choice is central to supporting smokers who switch to reduced risk products.
DOCUMENT: EU Health Ministers to discuss new curbs on safer nicotine products
Alistair Cohen
EU Health Ministers will tomorrow discuss new restrictions on “novel tobacco and nicotine products” at a closed door lunch, according to a briefing document seen by Clearing the Air and published here (email signup required).
The working lunch “will allow Member States to identify priority areas for this evaluation –
specifically, measures to protect children and adolescents from novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products and consideration of how a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive
Health Canada let kids get nicotine while blaming industry
Sydney Fizzard, Rebel News
How is it a tiny little pouch caused waves of controversy across the country?
Children are being harmed, a monopoly within a monopoly was established, alongside a booming black market, while honest businesses and yet another entire industry get taxed and regulated out of existence, and Canadians are left off less healthy with less freedom.
These pouches contain nicotine; users tuck them in their upper lip, and remove them once the stimulant has been absorbed, usually after over half an hour.
Tobacco Regulation: The European Union
Tobacco Insider
The Danish EU Presidency is pushing for a major increase in minimum EU excise duties on heated tobacco products as part of the ongoing revision of the Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD). Denmark circulated a new draft that significantly increases the tax level for heat-not-burn products compared with the European Commission’s July 2025 proposal. The Danish EU Presidency’s version would lift the minimum excise burden on heated tobacco by 132%, far above the Commission’s earlier framework1. Such a move would substantially reduce the tax advantage of heated tobacco products relative to traditional cigarettes. The Danish amendments also tighten definitions for products like “raw tobacco,” “waterpipe tobacco,” and “electronic cigarettes,” ensuring all their variants fall under the new tax regime, and revises how taxes are applied when measured on a “per‑item” basis. For heated tobacco products, in particular, the concern is that if taxed “per item” without linking the tax base to weight, volume, or nicotine content, this could incentivize product design shifts and leave room for tax‑avoidance or under‑taxation.
WHY NEW ZEALAND WAS SHAMED FOR REDUCING SMOKING?
Global Forum on Nicotine
In this exclusive GFN News interview, Joanna Junak speaks with Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA Executive Coordinator, about the fallout from COP11 in Geneva and the controversial Dirty Ashtray Award given to New Zealand.
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
Transformers Versus Abolitionists
Clive Bates, Tobacco Reporter
In November, two major treaties had their Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings. COP26 of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Glasgow, and COP9 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was held online. Both aim to address a globally significant problem, and both aim to achieve radical transformations in the markets for energy and tobacco, respectively.
Stop Smoking Start Vaping Is a Guide…
For Potential Vapers – and Much More – Jim McDonald
Colin Mendelsohn’s new book about vaping is out just in time to buy as a holiday gift for smokers, new vapers, nervous family members of smokers and vapers, and open-minded smoking cessation counselors. It would also benefit the elected officials in your city or state that are planning to make vaping a lot harder for you in the near future—if they had enough curiosity to make the gift worthwhile.
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