Vapers Digest 5th May

Friday’s News at a glance:

Introducing the authors of the COP10 agenda – Wisdom From Smoking Cessation Pioneers – The EU’s Demented Attack on Harm Reduction – Policymakers and Bloomberg Dropped the Ball – NCSCT Updates Professional Guidance – Government Calls For Teen Evidence – Parliament – Up in smoke – The public health pooh-bahs have won – The Advocates Voice – Vaping reforms met with criticism – The nanny state’s coming war on vaping – CoEHAR researchers’ “guidebook” – International pressure rises – Tobacco smokers struggling to quit have options – Dear Gen Z – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

The authors of the COP10 agenda

COPWatch

The New Nicotine Alliance in the UK has done a good job of highlighting the threats to harm reduction which could materialise at COP10 in this document. Their call to action lists them

The nature of these may seem far-fetched to the casual reader, so how realistic is it that what seems to be a full-on assault on vaping will make it onto the COP10 agenda?

Copwatch decided to investigate by looking at the make-up of the FCTC Bureau, the body which will be writing the agenda. It would be preferable if they published their November and March meeting minutes so we could read the plans first-hand but, as Copwatch reported previously, it seems their typewriter is still at the repairers.

Wisdom From Cessation Pioneers

Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

A search of the medical literature on the topic “smoking cessation” finds 32,446 published articles, yet, surprisingly, there are no articles linked to this topic until the year 1980, and only 27 articles were published from 1981 to 1990. Medical researchers primarily focused on smoking cessation in the last three decades — 1991 to 2000 (4,481 articles), 2001 to 2010 (10,976 articles), and 2011 to the present (16,964 articles). Despite this impressive volume of research, the U.S. still records 480,000 deaths annually due to smoking.

I was interested to learn more about the 1981-1990 period, as it preceded my entry into the field in 1994 (here, here and here).

The EU’s Demented Attack

On Harm Reduction – Mark Oates

Whatever you think about the pros and cons of Brexit, if you’re trying to stop smoking, leaving has some benefits for Britain. The EU’s deranged and misguided attempts to reduce smoking have extended to punishing tobacco harm-reduction products, including nicotine pouches.

While the UK will be spared this madness from EU regulators, those living in EU countries won’t be as lucky.

Let’s explore this strange move from Brussels and try to figure out what’s actually happening.

Great response from the vaping community in survey. Less than 20% will stop vaping once it is double banned. @Mark_Butler_MP @Anne_Ruston @AlboMP @ColinMendelsohn @2GB873 @abcnews @GCBulletin pic.twitter.com/hIBdudKE8L

— Theo Foukkare (@theofoukkare) May 3, 2023

For Wanting To Protect the Kids…

Policymakers and Bloomberg Dropped the Ball – Lindsey Stroud

One could be forgiven for thinking that flavored vapor products are the worst thing parents need to fear for their children. With the influx of literally hundreds of millions of dollars by billionaire and nanny stater Michael R. Bloomberg funding a campaign to end the sales of flavored tobacco and vapor products, it is hardly any wonder that five states currently ban flavored e-cigarettes. Hundreds of localities have also banned such sales and several states are currently mulling their own statewide prohibitions. The problem is that there is no youth vaping epidemic. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quit using that term. There is, however, an alarming and growing mental health crisis among American youth that policymakers and Bloomberg-funded public health groups have dropped the ball on.

Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

NCSCT Updates Professional Guidance

The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) has updated its vaping guide for health and social care professionals. It covers what vaping is, who does it, why they do it, and how it should be treated with the various client groups the professionals will encounter.

The NCSCT produced its first guide back in 2014 and it was “a world-first review of the literature on use, effectiveness, and safety of e-cigarettes”.

The follow up, in 2016, leant heavily on the ground-breaking report issued by Public Health England, finding that vaping was “at least 95% safer than smoking”.

Government Calls For Teen Evidence

As part of its broadly welcomed changes to its approach to vaping, the UK Government has called for evidence about teen vaping and how best to combat it. It says the call for evidence is seeking “information on a range of themes about children and vaping (using an e-cigarette) to inform evidence-based policy decisions.”

The Government says: “Vaping is an important tool to help the government achieve its ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030. This is because vaping is one of the most effective ways to help people quit smoking.

Parliament

Luke Pollard wanted steps taken to prevent ‘buy vapes now pay later’ schemes from operating. Graham Brady wanted regulation enforcement strengthened. Royston Smith was concerned about non-MHRA compliant products reaching the market and the testing of those products. Samantha Dixon was thinking about the children. None of them appear to know how a search engine works.

Luke Pollard, the Shadow Defence Minister wants the Secretary of State for Health to wage war on buy now, pay later vapes.

Up in smoke

Noel Yaxley

Australia has some of the most draconian anti-smoking laws in the world. Like most public health puritans, Mark Butler doesn’t think this goes far enough. Not content with regulating personal lifestyle choices out of existence, Labor wants to ban people from vaping.

Vapes or e-cigarettes containing nicotine are already illegal without a doctor’s prescription, but legal loopholes and black market imports from China have made a wide range of products available both online and under the counter in thousands of convenience stores across Australia.

The public health pooh-bahs have won

Terry Barnes

In his draconian crackdown on vaping, announced on Tuesday, Labor Health Minister Mark Butler characterised his new policy as addressing a ‘threat to public health’.

In truth, he was addressing a threat to the public health establishment.

Back in November, announcing a government review of vaping policy, saying ‘nothing was off the table’. For a moment, it seemed that common sense might trump zealotry.

The Advocates Voice – Special Edition –

Australia and CoP 10 – CAPHRA Asia Pacific

SPECIAL EDITION OF TAV Sunday Sessions….THIS SUNDAY, 7 May 2023 at 21:00BST. Discuss the policy bomb that dropped in Australia this week & the impact for #SaferNicotine & #THR globally – especially at the CoP10 in November this year.

Vaping reforms met with criticism

Georgia Tacey

The Federal Government’s vaping and e-cigarette reforms have been met with criticism by tobacco treatment and harm reduction experts.

The reforms, announced this week by Health Minister Mark Butler, will reinforce the prescription-only model and restrict the flavouring and nicotine content.

Dr Colin Mendelsohn, an academic researcher and tobacco treatment and harm reduction expert, said these reforms would only lead to increased smoking rates.

The nanny state’s coming war on vaping

John McGuirk

One of the more depressing things about democracy, as a system of Government, is that banning things is very popular. Following the news that Australia is to ban most disposable vapes, which broke this week, our sometime friends over at the Journal ran a poll yesterday asking if vaping should be banned in Ireland: The results, predictably, were overwhelmingly in favour. Internet polls are not scientific – but on topics like this that are not, for the moment, issues of public controversy they do tend to capture the public mood reasonably well.

One of the reasons that banning things is so popular is that most things which are banned are not things that most people do, and most people usually only consider laws in terms of how the law might affect them.

CoEHAR researchers’ “guidebook”:

How to identify data misinterpretations in ecig studies

Researchers from CoEHAR’s In Silico Science project have developed a two-step technique to identify spin bias, research reporting that results in an intentional or unintentional misinterpretation of research results

The results of scientific studies in the biomedical field reported presented to show the effect of an intervention with the aim of emphasizing the importance of the findings and assuring their publication. However, the careful analysis of how findings are reported reveals that nonsignificant findings are presented as significant or demonstrating an effect. When researchers suggest that nonsignificant data shows favorable or unfavorable effects then their conclusions are distorted by spin bias.

International pressure rises –

Sweden must defend its successful harm reduction approach

Sweden is the most successful country worldwide in reducing smoking rates, but the Swedish approach is under pressure from the EU and the WHO. To urge the Swedish government to defend its consumer-friendly approach towards snus, vaping, and nicotine pouches, consumers held a protest in front of the Swedish parliament.

World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA), an international vaping consumer organisation, together with Swedish consumers, vape shop owners and local harm reduction groups such as “EU for Snus” and the “New Nicotine Alliance Sweden” deflated a 5-metre tall cigarette in front of Riksdag in Stockholm as a part of the wider #BeatSmokingLikeTheSwedes campaign.

Tobacco smokers struggling have options

Adult tobacco smokers who wish to quit the vice should be given more alternatives to help in their gradual decrease of nicotine consumption, a research group said on Thursday.

In a media forum, ASCRA Consulting Inc.’s project coordinator Joze Songsong introduced the concept of Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) which would provide options or safer nicotine products —like e-cigarettes or vaping products, heated tobacco products, snus and US smokeless —and nicotine replacement therapy such as patches, gums, lozenges, sprays, and inhalers, for tobacco users who are struggling to quit smoking.

Dear Gen Z, Here is what you need to know

About nicotine pouches – Josephine Njoroge

As e-cigarette (vaping) use among teens and adults continues to cause concern, another type of flavoured nicotine product is growing in popularity. Oral nicotine patches.

This new category of “tobacco product” (without tobacco), like VELO, is gaining particular traction in the youth market due to the wide range of youth-friendly flavours.

While advertising may make them seem convenient and appealing, the fact remains that these products deliver varying amounts of the addictive chemical nicotine.

On this Day…2022

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

Digital minister backs e-cig sales

INNCO | Weekly Issue | May 2nd, 2022

It’s always a pleasure to greet you. The Topic of the month is the statements of over 100 respected scientific and public health organizations that have reviewed the evidence and agree that safer nicotine alternatives are in fact safer. If you like to tweet these statements is as easy as just clicking any statement you will like to post. Check them out here.

The Global Forum on Nicotine announced its lineup for Panels One and Two. Panel One will be live-streamed. It’s titled ‘Academic freedom and the ghost of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’. Hosted by Kevin McGirr, it features Marewa Glover, Sree Sucharitha, and Brad Rodu. A hot topic in nicotine science and THR, but rarely tackled head-on. Panel Two is titled ‘Safer nicotine products – it’s not all about vaping.’

Vaping promotion ban ….

Would hit disadvantaged hardest – Ryan Nixon

SCOTS shopkeepers have raised concerns about the suggestion of outlawing in-store displays in a response to a Scottish Government consultation.

The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) says a ban on the display of vapes in Scotland’s shops would be “irrational and hit disadvantaged communities hardest”.

The convenience store trade organisation has highlighted its objections about any such move in an official response to a Scottish Government consultation on the advertising and promotion of vaping products.