Vapers Digest 4th July

Friday’s News at a glance:

Parliamentary Matters in the Lords – Parliamentary Matters 3 – EPSCO Can Learn From Sweden’s Success – Light Show Illuminates the Voiceless – Tobacco Industry Accountability Is Ending — But the Harm Isn’t – Australia: Vapes – The Data Doesn’t Lie: Albanese’s Vape Crackdown Backfires as Young Australians Turn to Smoking – Nicotine – Opportunities – Tobacco Excise Directive Impact Assessment – Champions League of Harm Reduction: EU Sidelined as Reform Leaders Take the Trophy – Europe’s New Puritans – ‘No Crackdown on Vape Sellers Until proper Legislation’, rules Lahore High Court – The figures that prove the Albanese government’s vaping ban is a failure – Smoking scheme extended after first year success – Prisons selling vapes? Smart public health policy and a step toward autonomy behind bars – CASAA’s Fall: A Stark Reminder of What Happens When Harm Reduction Can’t Afford to Speak – Smoking study committee should ‘folVapes risk “renormalising” smoking, claims major new WHO reportlow the science’ – Most HTP users say the product helped them quit smoking, Greek study finds – Ireland has “taken its eye off the ball” on smoking, warns addiction specialist – Vapes risk “renormalising” smoking, claims major new WHO report

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Parliamentary Matters in the Lords

Our third trip of the week to the Palace of Westminster takes us to the House of Lords, where Conservative peer Lord Bourne fires questions about Australia, tax, vape disposal and the environment to Lord Livermore and Baroness Hayman. By the end of the article you ought to be enlightened as to the government’s position on these matters.

Parliamentary Matters 3

Our fourth day at Westminster sees Planet of the Vapes return to the House of Commons as the Department for Health and Social Care fields further questions. Conservative Assistant Whip Andrew Snowden is thinking about children in Fylde while Transport Committee chair Ruth Cadbury isn’t sweet on the teens in Hounslow.

EPSCO Can Learn From Sweden’s Success

The European Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) should learn from Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Greece, says the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA). The organisation sent an open letter to European health ministers ahead of the recent EPSCO Council meeting.

Light Show Illuminates the Voiceless

As the World Conference on Tobacco Control (WCTC) opened its doors in Dublin, a light show illuminated the conference centre, visually representing the voices of millions of consumers who remain unheard and unrepresented in global tobacco control discussions, organised by the World Vapers’ Alliance.

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Australia: Vapes

Tobacco Insider

Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has received just 40,000 Special Access Scheme (SAS) notifications for vaping products sold without a prescription from 2,000 pharmacists from October 1, 2024 to May 30, 2025. However, authorized vape sales volume could be higher as SAS notification data don’t include the cases where therapeutic vape is prescribed by a health practitioner and multiple-unit sales can be dispensed as part of a single notification. Nevertheless, in comparison to the 7 million illegal vapes sezied by the Australian Border Force in 2024 alone, legal vape sales volume remains minuscule in Australia.

The Data Doesn’t Lie: Albanese’s Vape Crackdown Backfires as Young Australians Turn to Smoking

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

The Roy Morgan survey findings from May 2025 have confirmed what many of us in the tobacco harm reduction community have been warning about for years: Australia’s punitive, prohibitionist approach to vaping is not just ineffective, it’s actively harming public health.

According to Roy Morgan’s latest report, the overall number of Australians who smoke or vape has increased since the so-called “vape crackdown” began in mid-2024. The most concerning trend? A sharp rise among 18–24-year-olds—the very group these policies were supposedly meant to protect.

Nicotine – Opportunities

Skip Murray, Skip’s Corner – Let’s Talk!

You can quickly find updates since the last edition by looking for “*NEW*.

Reminder: I cannot know which journal submission requests are from reputable entities. I include conferences I find that might be of interest to people in the nicotine space, some of which may not have nicotine on the agenda.

Tobacco Excise Directive Impact Assessment

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA)

The cost of quitting smoking and remaining smoke free could potentially become a lot more expensive, according to a leaked Impact Assessment Report on the revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive. The Directive sets minimum rates of excise duty which will be applied to tobacco and tobacco-related products.

The impact assessment notes that declines in smoking prevalence across the EU have been tragically slow. Smoking prevalence decreased by a mere 4 percentage points from 2012 to 2023, falling from 28% to 24%.

Champions League of Harm Reduction: EU Sidelined as Reform Leaders Take the Trophy

World Vapers’ Alliance

Europe’s New Puritans

Lauren Smith, The European Conservative

There are plenty of reasons to be outraged by France’s outdoor smoking ban. Most obviously, telling the French where they can and cannot smoke is akin to outlawing a national pastime. Then there is the justification for the ban. It was, we are told, for the sake of the children that cigarettes must be prohibited in parks, on beaches, at bus stops, and in sporting venues. It is also part of President Emmanuel Macron’s drive to forge a “smoke-free generation” by 2032.

Smoking scheme extended after first year success

Andy Giddings, BBC News

A smoking programme which helped 135 people quit in its first year in a city has been extended for 12 months.

Swap to Stop in Wolverhampton provides free vaping kits and support around smoker’s behaviour to help them give up the habit.

Launched by the City of Wolverhampton Council in 2024, the programme ran over a 12-week period with weekly check-in sessions at community venues.

Prisons selling vapes? Smart public health policy and a step toward autonomy behind bars

Michelle Minton, Reason

When it comes to America’s prison system, it’s rare to find policy proposals that advance both public health and personal freedom. In the world of tobacco policy, proposals offering clear public health benefits without triggering concerns about costs or youth exposure might be even rarer. But, in a recent Filter article, author Jonathan Kirkpatrick offers a policy idea that accomplishes both: Let prisons sell safer alternatives to smoking through commissaries.

It’s an idea that, if implemented carefully, could improve inmate health, reduce contraband tobacco markets in prisons, and lower prisons’ healthcare expenses without increasing risk to the public.

CASAA’s Fall: A Stark Reminder of What Happens When Harm Reduction Can’t Afford to Speak

Diane Caruana, Vaping Post

Consumer‑facing advocacy has always been the engine driving tobacco harm‑reduction (THR) forward. Now that engine is losing one of its most influential components, the Consumer Advocates for Smoke‑Free Alternatives Association (CASAA). For 15 years the pre‑eminent U.S. grassroots organization has been defending access to lower‑risk nicotine products. But sadly, as of August 2025, it will cease all legislative activity because of insufficient funding. And while the group’s website will remain online as an educational archive, its real‑time mobilization of 250,000 registered members will end.

Smoking study committee should ‘folVapes risk “renormalising” smoking, claims major new WHO reportlow the science’

Marc Hyden, Newman Times-Herald

It wasn’t that long ago when screaming “follow the science” was all the rage, even if the alleged science wasn’t remotely settled. Fast forward a few years, and that phrase has largely fallen by the wayside, but plenty of people are still not following the science—although the Legislature has an opportunity to do so. Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns announced the formation of the House Study Committee on the Costs & Effects of Smoking. It is tasked with examining “the cost of smoking, including short-term and long-term health care costs, the impact on Medicaid and Medicare, childhood health costs resulting from secondhand smoke exposure and the loss of worker productivity attributed to smoking.”

Three from Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air

Most HTP users say the product helped them quit smoking, Greek study finds

Most heated tobacco product (HTP) users polled (67.8%) were verified former smokers, confirmed via carbon monoxide breath tests

Of these, 90.1% said HTPs helped them quit cigarettes entirely

Daily HTP users were nearly seven times more likely to have quit smoking compared to occasional users

Among those who still smoked, HTP use was associated with a 50% median reduction in daily cigarette consumption

Ireland has “taken its eye off the ball” on smoking, warns addiction specialist

Ireland has lost focus on tackling smoking while intensifying efforts to restrict vaping, a leading addiction specialist has said.

Dr Garett McGovern, a GP and Medical Director at the Priority Medical Clinic in Dundrum, says the national conversation has become increasingly hostile towards vaping, even though smoking remains a far greater health threat.

Vapes risk “renormalising” smoking, claims major new WHO report

WHO says vapes risk “renormalising smoking behaviour,” particularly among youth

The 2025 report warns newer nicotine products may reverse public health gains

Vapes are described as “addictive and harmful,” and linked to increased cigarette uptake

Harm reduction advocates accuse WHO and BMJ of uncritical, misleading framing

On this day…2018

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

Smoking rate rises in first year of plain packaging and TPD

Cristopher Snowden, Velvet Glove Iron Fist

The Office for National Statistics has just released its annual publication, Adult Smoking Habits in Great Britain, with data for 2017.

Survey Finds E-Cigarettes Are Effective Cessation Tool, Undermining Democrat Claim

Elizabeth Harrington, The Washington Free Beacon

Less than 1 percent used vaping as ‘gateway’ to smoking:

New survey results undermine a Democratic talking point that electronic cigarettes are a gateway to smoking cigarettes, as users of the popular vaping product JUUL report high rates of quitting.

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