Vapers Digest 4th March
Monday’s News at a glance:
Rumours of a vape tax in the budget – Copwatch #COP10 summary – Under pressure, conflicted WHO allies reveal their twisted version of harm reduction – Nicotine Pouches – 30000 Illegal Vapes Seized – More Parliament – Why It Matters That THR Brightens Smiles – Leafbox podcast – Episode 12: Maria Papaioannoy
Rumours of a vape tax in the budget
New Nicotine Alliance UK
It has been widely trailed in the media that the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is planning to implement an extra tax on vaping liquids in the budget on Wednesday. This would be a monumental mistake which just adds to a systematic dismantling of the government’s previous world-leading approach to harm reduction and will cost lives.
The New Nicotine Alliance is disappointed that the government is abandoning opportunity after opportunity to increase the chances of achieving its own Smoke-free 2030 goal. In just a few short weeks, the UK government has undone its former position as a world-leader in reducing the prevalence of smoking.
Copwatch #COP10 summary
COPWatch
Well – we survived! Copwatch has been taking a breather, to digest what happened last month at COP10. Getting confirmation of what had happened took time, because the decisions were slow to arrive on the official website – presumably written to paint the event in the most positive light possible.
The live coverage on these pages revealed frustration amongst the FCTC ranks which was echoed by the head of the Secretariat, Adriana Blanco Marquizo, remarking at the end of the conference that her organisation had “survived”.
Under pressure, conflicted WHO allies
Reveal their twisted version of harm reduction – Martin Cullip
The saying, “oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,” could have been written to describe the convoluted back-pedaling now routinely seen in various tobacco control industry circles after years of dishonest research, outrageously biased scientific reviews, deliberately false claims of potential harm, and blatant lying about reduced risk nicotine products.
One of the most egregious of these has been the casual accusation that the concept of harm reduction in the field of tobacco products is a commercial invention of the tobacco industry instead of a well-recognised strategy accepted in all other areas of public health.
A medical association is very disappointed that cigarette smoking has been displaced by a far less harmful alternative. It’s a crisis for @ama_media. https://t.co/tDBCeaMm9q
— Jukka Kelovuori (@jkelovuori) March 2, 2024
Nicotine Pouches
Tobacco Insider
In our note below (January 2024), we highlighted the risks associated to ZYN’s “explosive” growth in the US and mentioned the new market chatter: Is Swedish Match to PMI what JUUL was to Altria? Acquisition from Hell?
Philip Morris International now faces its first major legal challenge1 for ZYN in the US on the basis of ZYN being addictive and harmful to young people. The lawsuit says that ZYN pouches deliver more nicotine than cigarettes and that PMI benefits from “Zynfluencers” who promote the brand on social media (with an estimated 30,000 TikTok accounts that use the hashtag #Zyn).
Two from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:
30000 Illegal Vapes Seized
Working with Sheffield Trading Standards, South Yorkshire cops have swooped to seize a huge haul of 30,000 illegal black market single-use vapes from a tiny Sheffield store’s stockroom. The raid serves as a reminder of how things will be following the disposables ban and raises the question as to how Trading Standards will cope.
Sheffield Trading Standards said: “The large quantity, which filled the shop and the storeroom, took a considerable amount of time to remove from the premises and is a reminder to all businesses that Trading Standards will investigate locations where they think there is illegal activity.
More Parliament
Someone may have once said, ‘you can never have too much Andrea Leadsom. True, it may have been Andrea Leadsom in her CV, but our final article covering questions about vaping and tobacco harm reduction sees her got in to bat for the Department of Health against the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald. The Scot posed a couple of questions exemplifying how far we have fallen when it comes to understanding the benefits vaping offers.
Kirsten Oswald, the Shadow SNP Spokesperson for Women and their Shadow Spokesperson for Equalities asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what steps are being taken to help raise public awareness of “the risks of vaping”. Oswald didn’t explain what these supposed risks are.
Why It Matters That THR Brightens Smiles
Kiran Sidhu
People who switch from cigarettes to smoke-free nicotine options have whiter smiles than those who continue to smoke, a study has found. Its implications are far more than just aesthetic.
That’s because appearance can be an important motivation for people to quit smoking, as past research has shown. Other work has indicated that tooth discoloration is a major source of dissatisfaction among people who smoke.
The new study is the first to investigate changes in oral health and dental aesthetics among people who’ve switched from cigarettes to harm reduction alternatives such as vapes.
Leafbox podcast
Colin Mendelsohn
TODAY I HAD THE PLEASURE OF speaking with one of Australia’s leading experts in tobacco control, Dr. Colin Mendelsohn. With over three decades of dedicated service in smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction, Dr. Mendelsohn’s expertise is both rare and invaluable. In our discussion, we delve into the complex world of public health, examining the often unnoticed echo chambers, the intricate web of incentives that shape government policies, and the impact of societal and governmental biases on public health decisions.
This episode is more than just a talk on tobacco control; it’s a lens to try to understand the authoritative landscape of Australian and public health in general, exploring alternative approaches and addressing solutions on a global scale.
Episode 12: Maria Papaioannoy
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
In this Good COP/Bad COP edition of Across the Pond, Maria Papaioannoy of Rights 4 Vapers, joins Lindsey and Martin to discuss COP10, her thoughts on harm reduction, and her future plans for COP11.
On this Day…2023
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
Martin McKee: Still wrong about vaping
Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove Iron Fist
The heavily overweight Zero Covid crank Martin McKee had a letter published in The Times yesterday in response to an op-ed from the paper’s resident puritan Alice Thomson (whom we have come across before). Thomson has spotted a real problem – the sharp rise in vaping among teenagers, especially those using Elf bars – but characteristically comes up with the wrong solutions: banning flavours, banning colours and getting Public Health England (which she thinks still exists) to “treat vaping in the same way as cigarettes”.
This is music to the ears of Fatty McKee who is claiming that his ignorant and dishonest campaign against e-cigarettes has been vindicated.
Exposing Defective Research…
But Denied Credit for the Effort: Case 2
Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth
Two weeks ago I described a flawed mortality study by National Cancer Institute staff that led to a correction but no recognition for our group’s work in uncovering the errors. Here we detail a second, similar case, involving a vaping study by faculty at Columbia and the University of Arkansas, including a former member of the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).
Emine Bircan and colleagues in April 2021 published a study, “Electronic cigarette use and its association with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma- COPD overlap syndrome among never cigarette smokers,” in the journal Tobacco Induced Diseases (here).
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