Vapers Digest 7th August

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

Call to Close Dodgy Shops ~ UKVIA Writes to the Prime Minister ~ Bangladesh is Warned ~ The Wall We Keep Building ~ Longitudinal association of switching to dual cigarette and e‐cigarette use vs. continued exclusive cigarette smoking with tobacco‐specific nitrosamine and nicotine intake ~ Stefanie Gratale – Let’s Talk E-Cigarettes – July 2026 ~ Sweden Leads EU Rebellion Against Poland’s Tough Vape and Nicotine Curbs as Smoking Death Toll Hits 56,000 a Year ~ White House Pouch Tweet Prompts Anti-Nicotine Misinformation ~ Daily Smoking Falls by a Third as Six in 10 UK Vapers Are Former Smokers ~ Ohio’s Top Court Hears Vape Case That Could Limit Attorney General’s Office

Three From Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Call to Close Dodgy Shops

The Association of Convenience Stores says that it has responded to a consultation on closure orders for business found to be selling illicit products. The body that represents small retailers adds that it called on the Government to extend the length of closure orders to 12 months. Currently, closure orders for a store or shop in the UK currently lasts for a maximum initial period of 3 months. This can be extended by a further 3 months upon application to a total limit of 6 months.

UKVIA Writes to the Prime Minist er

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) Director General John Dunne has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging the Government to reconsider proposals that could restrict business rates relief for vape shops. Burnham went on record last week to say that vape stores do not make a positive contribution to high streets and society.

Bangladesh is Warned

International health experts have warned Bangladesh’s lawmakers that proposed restrictions on oral nicotine pouches would be a backward step in the fight against smoking, which is killing more than 130,000 people in the country every year. More than one in three adult men in Bangladesh smokes, while the country has made only limited progress in reducing cigarette use.

The Wall We Keep Building

N.E. Loucas, Wherever You Go, There You Are

If the next batch of smoking data disappoints, or does not fit the “acceptable paradigm” of NRT or complete cessation from nicotine, it will be tempting for tobacco control, industry and tobacco harm reduction (THR) advocates to point fingers at one another rather than ask a harder question:

WHY so many people who smoke still aren’t switching to reduced risk products?

Public health movements, understandably passionate about getting this right, have a habit of splintering into camps when they believe the science or the moral ground is on their side alone. Tobacco control and THR have each, at times, framed the other as the obstacle rather than the ally.

Longitudinal association of switching to dual cigarette and e‐cigarette use vs. continued exclusive cigarette smoking with tobacco‐specific nitrosamine and nicotine intake

Editor note: Comment from

Lynn Dawkins, PubPeer

**Misinterpretation of Compensatory Behavior in Dual Users: Clarifying Misleading Citations in Chen et al. (2026) **

Chen et al. (2026) use PATH data to compare biomarkers of exposure (BOE) to tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in people who transitioned to dual use (smoking cigarettes and using electronic nicotine delivery systems [ENDS]) from exclusive smoking compared to people who continued to exclusively smoke. Transitioning to dual use was associated with a significant decrease in TSNAs which was more pronounced in baseline lighter smokers.

Smoking Death Toll Hits 56,000 a Year

Smoke Free Sweden

International health experts have welcomed a Sweden-led formal EU objection to Poland’s proposed crackdown on safer nicotine alternatives, warning that politicians must put science before ideology.

Poland is planning sweeping restrictions that would ban most flavours used in nicotine products, outlaw disposable vapes and even classify some innovative nicotine products as medicines.

But in a submission to the EU, Sweden has warned the measures would amount to a de facto ban on products that help adult smokers quit cigarettes.

White House Pouch Tweet Prompts Anti-Nicotine Misinformation

Joseph Hart, Daily Pouch

Yesterday, the Trump White House tweeted about Philip Morris International’s plan to double its investment in the Colorado Zyn factory in Aurora. The Big Tobacco giant will now shell out $1.2 billion on the site, which will bring 500 direct jobs, 1000 indirect jobs, and around 5,000 construction jobs during buildout.

Of course, because it’s our deranged modern political landscape, predictably everyone has become an expert on the ills of nicotine all of a sudden. Let’s dismantle some of the nonsense I’ve seen.

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