Vapers Digest 6th April

Monday’s News at a glance:

The Mail Fails Again ~ UK milestone: vaping surpasses smoking — what it means for public health ~ Many Flaws, Few Retractions: “Vapes-Cause-Cancer” Studies ~ Is there “third hand vaping”? ~ Is there “third hand vaping”? Part II. The case for/against Third Hand Vaping ~ The Prothrombotic Phenotype of Thirdhand Electronic Cigarette Exposure is Sex Independent and Involves Systemic Mediated Effects on Platelet Function: Evidence from a Mouse Model ~ Not Harmless, Not Honest ~ When Authority Speaks Without Understanding: Why Some Doctors Still Don’t Get Tobacco Harm Reduction ~ What’s new in things to do? ~ See Opportunities ~ How to eliminate the tobacco industry ~ ETHRA March news roundup ~ Considerate Pouchers On TPD Evaluation: “A Sabotage Of The Swedish Success” ~ FDA’s Nicotine Pouch Delay Undermines Adult Smokers ~ How Prevention Becomes Position ~ BENDSTA calls for evidence-based policy on e-cigarettes ~ Oklahoma Cuts Cigarette Tax for HTPs ~ Pennsylvania’s New ENDS Directory Law Raises the Bar for Market Access ~ HOW AUSTRALIA BLOCKS SAFER NICOTINE?

Many Flaws, Few Retractions: “Vapes-Cause-Cancer” Studies

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

Two more published studies claiming to link vaping to cancer have come under fire for what experts identify as major methodological flaws—resulting in one of them now being retracted. Another, new example of such claims has meanwhile garnered global attention—and more scath

ing criticism. Many researchers’ determination to prove a vaping-cancer link remains undimmed, but they often seem willing to cut corners and overclaim in their attempts to do so.

Three From Roberto Sussman, Roberto’s Substack

Is there “third hand vaping”? Part I. Third Hand Smoke

This is an open and interesting question. I would like to assess if environmental “second hand” vaping aerosols can evolve and produce an analogue of “third hand smoke” (THS).

I will address this issue in two posts. In this one, part I, I will provide a precise explanation of what THS is. In the following post, part II, I will provide arguments to examine if vaping aerosols are compatible with the aging phenomena that defines THS in smoking. I will also criticize studies that have proposed it.

Is there “third hand vaping”? Part II. The case for/against Third Hand Vaping

This is the second part of the discussion on the existence of “third hand vaping”. It is the continuation of the previous post (Part I) where I addressed “Third Hand Smoke” (THS). That first part was necessary, as it is important to understand what is THS in order to see if this phenomenon is applicable to vaping.

The Prothrombotic Phenotype of Thirdhand Electronic Cigarette Exposure is Sex Independent and Involves Systemic Mediated Effects on Platelet Function: Evidence from a Mouse Model

Roberto A. Sussman, PubPeer

The authors examine the exposure of laboratory mice to (what the authors call) a “third hand e-cigarette” (THEC) aerosol, a phenomenon they assume to be generic of vaping aerosols as an accurate analogy to the way third hand smoke (THS) relates to tobacco smoke. There are several serious shortcomings in this study:

Not Harmless, Not Honest

Miles Eames

Say it out loud. It’s the perfect bureaucratic phrase: serious, cautious, scientifically defensible. The ultimate “CYA” (Cover Your Ar**) for health agencies. If a regulator says something is “not harmless” and a minor side effect later appears, they can point to the transcript and say, “See? We warned you.”

And yet, as we move through 2026, it is painfully clear that every time a health agency repeats this like a holy incantation, they are misleading the very people they intend to protect.

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

Events

In a hurry? To quickly find additions to the previous Events post, look for the ones labeled NEW.

If you know of any missing events, please send them to me at: mnsmokefree (at) gmail (dot) com.

These newsletters are read by a variety of people. Academics, media, regulators, public health, industry, tobacco control, and people with lived experience are among my readership. There may be content you support and some you don’t. But if I’m going to preach that people like me should have a seat at the table, it is important to me to practice what I preach and offer a seat to as many perspectives as I can.

See Opportunities

These newsletters are read by a variety of people. Academics, media, regulators, public health, industry, tobacco control, and people with lived experience are among my readership. There may be content you support and some you don’t. But if I’m going to preach that people like me should have a seat at the table, it is important to me to practice what I preach and offer a seat to as many perspectives as I can.

Click to visit Danish Vapers Association

How to eliminate the tobacco industry

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual by Clive Bates

ETHRA March news roundup

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA)

ETHRA’s monthly roundup of news: TPD Evaluation Report – Tax Directive – EU’s Bloomberg Report – Irish Flavour Ban – Smokefree Sweden – Save Vaping Website Launch – War on Vaping Defies Science and Reality – Review of Nicotine Pouches – Country updates. Read on for more.

Considerate Pouchers On TPD Evaluation: “A Sabotage Of The Swedish Success”

Juan Taborcia, Considerate Pouchers

Considerate Pouchers has today issued a scathing response to the European Commission’s evaluation of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), labeling the report as a “dangerously narrow-minded” document that ignores the public health potential of nicotine pouches.

While the report acknowledges the EU is struggling to meet its 2040 smoke-free goal, it simultaneously suggests further restrictions on modern oral nicotine, the very product category that has allowed countries like Sweden to achieve the lowest smoking and tobacco-related mortality rates in Europe.

FDA’s Nicotine Pouch Delay Undermines Adult Smokers

Christina Smith, Real Clear Health

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying the fast-track approval of nicotine pouches like Philip Morris International’s Zyn and British American Tobacco’s Velo due to concerns about youth use. They also are scrapping the pilot program aimed at expediting reviews of the growing $22 billion nicotine market. It is noble that the FDA is concerned about youth use, but denying adults access to safer alternatives under the banner of “caution” is exactly the kind of paternalism that keeps smokers hooked on more dangerous products.

How Prevention Becomes Position

Claudio Teixeira, Disobedient Margins

If Before the Numbers examines how consensus was made to sound natural in Barmelweid, what follows turns to the structure that helped make it so. The language of prevention did not settle in the room by rhetoric alone. It was also sustained by institutions, certifications, funding streams, and forms of recognition that helped define who could speak, in what terms, and with what authority. What, exactly, is being called prevention, and what does that prevention sustain?

Atem und Wandel – Breathe for Change did more than name the conference.

BENDSTA calls for evidence-based policy on e-cigarettes

The Business Standard

Alleging the spread of misleading information regarding Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), or e-cigarettes, the Bangladesh Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Traders Association (BENDSTA) has called for evidence-based and pragmatic policies for the sector.

The association’s leaders made the remarks at a press conference held at a hotel in the capital on Sunday.

BENDSTA said that during the tenure of the interim government, obstacles were created in the import of vaping products, accompanied by what it described as the spread of negative perceptions, an issue the organisation said requires reconsideration.

Oklahoma Cuts Cigarette Tax for HTPs

Tobacco Reporter

Oklahoma lawmakers approved legislation amending the state’s cigarette stamp tax law to extend a 50% tax exemption to cigarettes “intended to be heated rather than burned,” effectively lowering the excise burden on heated tobacco products. The measure revises definitions in existing statute to clarify that products designed to be heated still fall within the legal definition of a cigarette, but then carves out a partial exemption for those products from the stamp excise tax. The change applies within Oklahoma’s long-standing cigarette tax framework under the oversight of the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

Pennsylvania’s New ENDS Directory Law Raises the Bar for Market Access

Azim Chowdhury, Kaitlyn Johnson, The Continuum of Risk

Pennsylvania has joined the growing group of states that condition ENDS sales on federal PMTA status. Enacted as Act 57 of 2025, House Bill 1425 adds Section 206-I to The Fiscal Code and directs the Pennsylvania Attorney General to maintain a directory of electronic cigarettes that may be sold in the Commonwealth. The law ties state market access to federal authorization status, but it does so through a fixed September 9, 2020 PMTA cutoff, recurring fees, a surety bond requirement, and a broad brand-family concept that will materially increase compliance costs for many manufacturers.

HOW AUSTRALIA BLOCKS SAFER NICOTINE?

Global Forum on Nicotine

Australia’s vape crackdown was supposed to curb youth use—but in practice, it has created prohibition by proxy. While still legal, access to nicotine vapes is tightly controlled and choice is so severely limited that over 90% of all vapes in Australia are purchased on the black market. In this episode of GFN Interviews, Australian GP Dr. Carolyn Beaumont examines how this system frustrates access to safer nicotine—from restrictive product approvals to medical guidelines that offer little real support for harm reduction.

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

Vapers Digest 6th April

Monday’s News at a glance:

Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of HArm Reduction (CoEHAR)

Kiran Sidhu, Filter

Three From Roberto Sussman, Roberto’s Substack

Roberto A. Sussman, PubPeer

Miles Eames

Alan Gor

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

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual by Clive Bates

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA)

Juan Taborcia, Considerate Pouchers

Christina Smith, Real Clear Health

Claudio Teixeira, Disobedient Margins

The Business Standard

Tobacco Reporter

Azim Chowdhury, Kaitlyn Johnson, The Continuum of Risk

Global Forum on Nicotine

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

Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction, CoEHER

Christopher Snowdon

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