Vapers Digest 5th April

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

Innco Weekly Issue ~ Beyond Tobacco Harm Reduction ~ International Association on Smoking Control and Harm Reduction expert weighs-in on challenges ~ Healthcare Ethics: the Tuskegee Study vs. Tobacco Control ~ Big Pharma Driving Anti-vape Rhetoric ~ House Oversight Chair Wants Answers from FDA on Politicization of Vape Regs ~ Anti-Vaping Sensors and CCTV in Schools: Is the UK Joining In? ~ Palau makes ‘import, advertising, sale, and use of e-cigarettes’ illegal ~ Malaysia Will Legalize and Tax Nicotine Vapes

Innco Weekly Issue | April 3rd, 2023

International Network of Consumer Organizations (INNCO)

Hi Dear Friends,

We hope you are doing amazingly well. The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training UK has released an updated version written in partnership with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) of their guidance. It makes a case for providing nicotine vapes as a first-line option for clients alongside medicinally licensed stop-smoking products. This edition updates some of the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of vapes.

Beyond Tobacco Harm Reduction

Clive Bates, Tobacco Reporter

There is no doubt that tobacco harm reduction is a powerful and effective public health strategy. It takes the widely understood public health concept of harm reduction (see drugs, alcohol, HIV and so on) and applies it to the enormous burden of harm created by smoking. We already have enough science and experience to know that this strategy works. Two conditions must be met: (1) The new noncombustible nicotine products must be much less risky than smoked products; (2) these low-risk products must displace the high-risk combustible products. Let us briefly consider these two questions.

International Association on Smoking Control

and Harm Reduction expert weighs-in on challenges

Prof Solomon Rataemane, South Africa Today

Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) Expert, Prof Solomon Rataemane says it’s imperative to look to the science when it comes to harm reduction, this following a consensus of THR experts post the 5th Scientific Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction.

Despite knowing the harmful health effects of smoking for decades, and implementation of smoking control efforts for decades, still more than 1 billion people globally smoke and more than 7 million die prematurely every year from smoking-related diseases.

Healthcare Ethics: the Tuskegee Study vs. Tobacco Control

Charles A. Gardner, Medium

(Where is a bioethicist when you need one?)

When I worked as a Program Officer at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), I also taught an evening class at a local medical school (NIH encourages professional staff to have academic affiliations). So, for a while, I taught Healthcare Ethics to medical and nursing students. That experience often influences my thinking now that I have entered the very contentious field of tobacco control.

One from Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Big Pharma Driving Anti-vape Rhetoric

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is wondering whether payments from pharmaceutical companies lie behind anti-vaping rhetoric. “The health of whanau is not for sale in Aotearoa, yet worryingly, perhaps we’ve seen the first evidence that it could be,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.

House Oversight Chair Wants Answers from FDA on Politicization of Vape Regs

Jessica R. Towhey, D.C. Journal

A top congressional Republican has a warning for the Biden administration: When it comes to regulating e-cigarettes, don’t put politics ahead of science, particularly with American lives at risk.

In a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said his committee has “deep concerns” that the agency has been “influenced by political concerns rather than scientific evidence” in regulating tobacco and nicotine products.

https://twitter.com/Tobaccoharmred1/status/1643182868686942208

Anti-Vaping Sensors and CCTV in Schools: Is the UK Joining In?

Kiran Sidhu, Filter Magazine

Some schools in the United Kingdom have begun using CCTV and sensors in an attempt to detect and stop student vaping, which they say is an increasing problem. They follow many schools in the United States and elsewhere that have taken such measures.

This development, in a country that has broadly welcomed vaping as tobacco harm reduction, comes months after the government’s school behavior advisor, Tom Bennett, called vaping “a huge health hazard and an “enormous distraction” in schools, urging them to confiscate vapes and punish vaping with “zero exceptions.”

Palau makes ‘import, advertising, sale, and use of e-cigarettes’ illegal

Radio New Zealand

Palau has outlawed e-cigarettes or “vaping” after President Surangel Whipps Jr signed a law for “a total ban on the import, advertising, sale, and use of e-cigarettes” on March 29. The law – RPPL 11-27 – has expanded the Tobacco Control Act to include e-cigarettes and will come into effect 60 days after being enacted. It means that from May 29, businesses and individuals can be prosecuted if found with e-cigarette products. Authorities are hoping that the new law will “protect the public’s health”, in particular the young people of the island nation.

Malaysia Will Legalize and Tax Nicotine Vapes

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

The Malaysian health minister announced last Friday the country would exempt nicotine used in e-liquid from the country’s Poisons Act. The decision opened the doors for what will be a large legal nicotine vaping market.

The finance ministry had already included a tax on vaping products in its 2023 budget, and published it in the country’s official gazette on March 29.

On this Day…2016

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

Somebody Has Made A List

Paul Barnes – Facts Do Matter

Trouble is, they’ve not checked it twice. It must be a really slow day for the opponents of vaping, though you would hardly suspect that considering how often this article appears from a variety of seeming unrelated twitter accounts.

Why Are States Taxing e-Cigarettes?

Alex Brill and Alan Viard

Cigarette taxes are one of the many sources of revenue that states have come to rely on. Taxing cigarettes makes sense based on the plentiful evidence that smoking imposes significant health care costs on society. As a bonus, cigarette taxes also bring in money for state governments.

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

Vapers Digest 5th April

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

Innco Weekly Issue | April 3rd, 2023

International Network of Consumer Organizations (INNCO)