Vapers Digest 6th July

Majority of UK smokers wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as cigarettes, experts find ~ American Lung Association Finds It “Appalling” that Nicotine Pouch Maker is Allowed to Tell the Truth ~ New Zealand’s Accelerated Decline in Smoking after Embracing E-Cigarettes ~ FDA recognises nicotine pouches life-saving potential as Europe heads in the opposite direction ~ FDA Says ZYN Can Be Marketed as Lower-Risk Than Cigarettes ~ PMI defends AI consultation tool as scrutiny grows over EU tobacco rules review ~ Tobacco Harm Reduction IS Harm Reduction ~ Responses to ZYN MRTP Announcement ~ Untethered | FDA’s Flavor Policy Defies Reality | RegWatch ~ Parliament | Tobacco Bill proceeds to next stage: Dr Kgosi Letlape ~ The Nicotine-Free Generation: Prohibition That Doesn’t Work? | Inside Sources Editorial Board ~ The real costs of prohibition | #GFN26 Panel ~ How should we think about nicotine addiction? | THR Unfiltered

Majority of UK smokers wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as cigarettes, experts find

Ian Sample, The Guardian

More than half of adult smokers in the UK wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes, making them less likely to switch to vapes and quit the deadly habit, research has found.

Evidence from scientific studies shows that, while vaping is not risk-free, it is far less harmful than smoking tobacco, which produces thousands of chemicals, including toxic metals, poisonous gases and substances that cause cancer.

American Lung Association Finds It “Appalling”

that Nicotine Pouch Maker is Allowed to Tell the Truth

Michael Siegel, The Rest of the Story

It used to be that we castigated the tobacco companies for lying to or misleading the public. Now, apparently, we think that it’s appalling that a tobacco company be allowed to tell the truth.

Years ago, I testified in the Engle case, a class action suit brought by Florida smokers against Big Tobacco that resulted in a $145 billion punitive damage verdict against the companies. The basis of the lawsuit was that for years, the tobacco companies lied about the health effects of their products and were liable for damages based on their fraudulent behavior. And in a more recent lawsuit, the tobacco companies were forced to put corrective statements on cigarette packs in order to atone for deceptive statements they had made in the past. Clearly, a major problem for which we held tobacco companies responsible was lying to the public about the health effects of their products.

New Zealand’s Accelerated Decline in Smoking after Embracing E-Cigarettes

Arielle Selya PhD, Selya Behavioral Science Substack

Beaglehole et al.’s article presents a straightforward analysis of the adult smoking rate in New Zealand. Critical context is that in 2019, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health officially endorsed e-cigarettes as a tool for smoking cessation and harm reduction. Beaglehole et al. performed a joinpoint analysis, which (for the non-statisticians out there) takes a trend over time and does some math to fit the curve to a series of straight lines, and tells you where the slope of the lines changed.

FDA recognises nicotine pouches life-saving potential

as Europe heads in the opposite direction

Smoke Free Sweden

The world’s most influential health regulator has recognised that nicotine pouches can dramatically reduce smokers’ risk of deadly disease – just as the European Union is considering new restrictions that could make these products less accessible.

FDA Says ZYN Can Be Marketed as Lower-Risk Than Cigarettes

Michael Graham, DC Journal

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized ZYN to be marketed as a lower-risk alternative to cigarettes, the first time a nicotine pouch has cleared that high regulatory bar. It’s a big win for advocates of “harm reduction” public health policy and a setback to anti-nicotine activist groups lobbying for prohibition and products bans.

PMI defends AI consultation tool as scrutiny grows over EU tobacco rules review

 Colin Stevens, EU Reporter

The controversy comes as Brussels prepares a major review of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive, two central pillars of the EU’s tobacco-control framework.

The European Commission launched a call for evidence on 18 May 2026, followed by a public consultation on 22 May, seeking views from citizens, public authorities, businesses, academics, researchers, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.