Vapers Digest 6th February

Monday’s News at a glance:

EU cancer summit snubs Swedes’ lung cancer success – Child poisoning from vaping. Is it time to panic yet? – More Than Half of Americans Favor Tobacco Prohibition – Vaping: public health’s unhealthy obsession – UK Disposable Vape Ban Bill – French Misunderstand Vaping Danger – Parliament – The Advocates Voice 2023 Premiere – Tobacco control is not a zero-sum game – Don’t bully us, say vapers – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

‘A missed opportunity’

EU cancer summit snubs Swedes’ lung cancer success – Snusforumet

Sweden boasts the EU’s lowest lung cancer rates, thanks largely to the prevalence of Swedish snus. Yet a high-level EU cancer conference hosted in Stockholm as part of the Swedish EU presidency failed to highlight Sweden’s success in combating the disease.

“A missed opportunity,” says Patrik Strömer, head of the Association of Swedish Snus Manufacturers.

The primary theme of the EU cancer conference, entitled “Equity, excellence, and innovation – modern cancer care for all”, was to highlight inequalities in cancer care and prevention across the EU.

Child poisoning from vaping.

Is it time to panic yet? – Dr Colin Mendelsohn

THE ABC RECENTLY REPORTED an alarming rise in child poisoning from vapes [here]. Fortunately, a closer look reveals that this was just another scaremongering campaign to vilify vaping.

In 2022, the NSW Poisons Information Centre (PIC) received 213 calls about ‘exposure’ to e-cigarette fluid by children under the age of four. The NSW PIC handles about half the nation’s >200,000 ‘poisoning’ calls per year.

Of course, anti-vaping advocates were quick to jump on the bandwagon and magnify the risk. However a closer look reveals a very different story.

More Than Half of Americans …

Favor Tobacco Prohibition – Jim McDonald

More than half of Americans would support a ban on the sale of all tobacco products, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The opinion came in responses to a 2021 survey, detailed in a paper published yesterday in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Among those surveyed, 57.3 percent strongly or somewhat supported prohibiting the sale of all tobacco products, and 62.3 percent supported a ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes.

Survey respondents were not given a definition of “tobacco products,” so it isn’t known how many believed that category includes e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

Rat study, so loaded with limitations.

“These findings suggest that non-nicotine tobacco smoke constituents influence later but not earlier stages of addiction in both adolescent and adult male rats.” https://t.co/iUw5uqbtRg

— Phil (@phil_w888) February 6, 2023

Algunos de los mayores expertos en tabaquismo a nivel mundial debatirán el próximo 23 de febrero en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos sobre cómo la ciencia puede ser clave en la lucha contra el tabaquismo. ¿Quieres asistir?#THRSummit2023

— Por la reducción del daño por tabaquismo (@PRDTabaquismo) February 3, 2023

Public health’s unhealthy obsession

Terry Barnes

The Australian public health industry is overpopulated with intellectual egotists – activists, academics, and bureaucrats who insist they know best for all of us, and brook no disagreement with their prescriptions for dealing with the vices and ills that beset our society.

As far as they are concerned, it’s their way or the highway. Ministers and MPs hang on their every word, or risk being condemned if they deviate from the prescription. Public health policies are made in close consultation with them. Many are treated as unimpeachable oracles of wisdom: Aristotle’s philosopher kings.

Three from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes:

UK Disposable Vape Ban Bill

The Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, Dr Caroline Johnson, is to push for a complete ban of disposable vapes in the UK in the House of Commons this Wednesday. Under the guise of protecting children, the member of Parliament will be presenting a Ten-Minute Rule Bill because of colours and flavours and something.

Dr Johnson MP will be presenting her Bill, Disposable electronic cigarettes (prohibition of sale), in the morning of Wednesday 8th February in the Main Chamber.

French Misunderstand Vaping Danger

A survey conducted by the French National Cancer Institute has discovered that almost 80% mistakenly believe that vaping causes cancer. The study sought the views from almost 5000 people who almost all knew what an electronic cigarette is. The works highlights the need for improved information campaigns across the European continent.

The survey was carried out on a representative sample of 4,938 people. Depending on the questions and sub-samples, the number of respondents to questions about e-cigarettes ranged from 4,595 to 2,292 people between the ages of 15 and 75.

Parliament

The latest questions and answers about vaping and tobacco harm reduction from the Palace of Westminster saw Alex Cunningham MP getting vexed because the Government still hasn’t published its Tobacco Control Plan (TCP) or given adequate resources to his local quit services. Bob Blackman was also concerned about the money quit services receive. Adam Afriyie was more concerned about the enforcement of current legislation.

Stockton North’s Alex Cunningham asked the Department for Health and Social Care said: “According to Cancer Research and Action on Smoking and Health, smoking costs the NHS in Stockton £9 million a year and social care £5 million a year, and it costs some £47 million in lost productivity, unemployment and premature deaths.

The Advocates Voice 2023 Premiere

CAPHRA Asia Pacific

Tobacco control is not a zero-sum game

Mazen Saleh

On Feb. 1, 12 senators across the political spectrum sent a letter to Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, railing against the inability of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products to stop youth from vaping. While the letter is right about the ineffectiveness of tobacco product regulation, the authors fail to diagnose the root cause of the issue: Tobacco control is not a zero-sum game in the United States, where we have to pick who lives and who dies. There’s more than one tool to help the United States’s 30.8 million adult smokers, while also addressing youth vaping.

The crux of the argument rests on delays by the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes. They argue that “the agency has neglected its duty under the law to regulate e-cigarettes, jeopardizing the health of millions of children.”

Don’t bully us, say vapers

Wendy Jasson Da Costa

Durban – While agreeing laws were needed to protect children, people in the vaping industry are angry at the government’s “bullying tactics” in a new bill and want a voice in the process.

The Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill was tabled in Parliament last month and will now go through the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces for review and adoption.

On this Day…2022

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

NNA recommendations

Would make new government policy announcements more achievable

Although other priorities have occupied politicians for many months, government minds are beginning to focus on other policy areas which have been side-lined during the pandemic. On 31^st January, it was announced that there would be a refocus on advantages to be gained from the UK leaving the European Union with the release of a report entitled The benefits of Brexit – how the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU. Page 83 of this report spoke of the government’s tobacco policy and potential post-Brexit reforms:

Tobacco harm reduction can play a significant role in advancing both these government agendas and the NNA has already formulated a set of proposals which will do exactly that if they are adopted.

E-cigarette risk perceptions –

An American crime scene – Clive Bates

Most Americans now incorrectly believe that e-cigarettes are just as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes. US health organisations have unethically cultivated this misunderstanding and compare unfavourably with UK equivalents. Their duplicitous behaviour resembles that of Big Tobacco 50 years ago.

I have drawn the chart above from the US National Cancer Institute HINTS survey, picking up results from 2014, 2017 and the most recent data from 2020. The current situation is shocking and the trend is a disgrace. But how has this happened?

In this blog, I compare the vaping risk communications of four major American health organisations with four similar UK organisations. The comparison is damning.