Vapers Digest 7th November
Tuesday’s News at a glance:
Smokers turn to vaping as NHS Stoptober prompts a 29 per cent rise in e-cigarettes – Vape Cancer Research – Is Brexit a Fork in the Road – Turkey keeps vape ban; great job, says WHO – Smokers Turn to e-Cigarettes in Attempt to Quit – Study Squashes Fears over Secondhand Exposure to Vaping – NSP Daily Digest
Smokers turn to vaping as NHS Stoptober prompts a 29 per cent rise in e-cigarettes
Sarah Dunsby, London Loves Business
The latest sales figures show that Public Health England’s new harm reduction approach to decreasing smoking rates across the UK has not only been widely accepted, but capitalised upon this Stoptober. For the first time, vaping has featured prominently within the NHS Stoptober campaign, with the official website included in the Stoptober TV advertisement.
Vape Club – the UK’s largest online retailer of vaping products and e-cigarettes – saw e-cigarette starter kit sales increase by 29 per cent year on year following the launch of the 2017 campaign.
Through the adoption of this harm reduction strategy, the UK has seen record high rates of smoking cessation and is fast becoming a European leader in this respect.
Vape Cancer Research
Mawsley, Planet of the Vapes
The first positive study, carried out by an academic at the University of St. Andrews, modelled the effect of electronic cigarette aerosol emissions and compared them with the smoke produced when tobacco combusts. The second, by a research team in Italy and Australia, concerned itself with the particles contained within electronic cigarette vapour. Dr. Farsalinos lamented that the media is highly unlikely to cover either.
In Comparing the cancer potencies of emissions from vapourised nicotine products including e-cigarettes with those of tobacco smoke, Dr. William Stephens sought to quantify the relative harm of vaping when stacked up against the known dangers of smoking. He feels this is a priority within vape research as “the general public tends to view ‘vaping’ [electronic cigarettes] as equally or more harmful than smoking tobacco.”
Through modelling exposure and risk, Stephens estimated the lifetime cancer risks from daily exposure, but he noted that there’s a relationship between aldehyde production and the application “of voltages beyond the normal range of use”. He concluded that the bulk of studies demonstrate that “many [electronic cigarette] emissions have cancer potencies within an order of magnitude of a nicotine inhaler, a product generally regarded as safe.”
Is Brexit a Fork in the Road?
Chad Taylor, EU Policies
IS BREXIT A FORK IN THE ROAD FOR NONTRADITIONAL CIGARETTES?As with many issues closely linked to Brexit, the future of electronic cigarettes in the UK is blanketed in a haze of uncertainty. On the one hand, vaping (along with other smokeless devices) is being hailed as a crucial component in the battle to reduce smoking numbers. On the other, the much-maligned Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) – a ruling which is designed to enforce limits on the sale and merchandising of both tobacco and tobacco-related products within the European Union (EU) – is seen as a major obstacle in encouraging e-cigarettes as a viable alternative to smoking.
The reason for the directive’s lack of popularity among vapers is clear to see. Up until its implementation, the UK was seen as a vaping-tolerant nation.
However, the TPD – which was passed in 2016 but gave a year’s grace to vendors to fall into line with its restrictions – has made life harder for vapers, who view it is costly, clunky and inconsistent. E-liquid bottles have been reduced from as large as 60ml to just 10ml, while tanks for e-cigarettes – many of which are 4ml or larger – are now only allowed to be 2ml. Maximum e-liquid nicotine revels must now be limited to just 20mg/ml, while there are also tougher restrictions on packaging and design, as well as a six-month notification period for new products.
Turkey keeps vape ban; great job, says WHO
Jim McDonald, Vaping360
Turkey will maintain its ban on the sale and manufacture of vaping and heat-not-burn products, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is so delighted that it issued a press release applauding the country.
In Turkey, 28.8 percent of all adults smoke cigarettes daily — more than double the rate of daily smoking in the U.S. and U.K., where e-cigarettes and other low-risk nicotine products are widely available.
The WHO issued a press release to praise the authoritarian Turkish government for the move. Turkey had planned to relax its laws and allow vaping and heat-not-burn products, but changed its plans — probably due to pressure from the WHO. The press release describes “strong public reaction to the threats posed by the tobacco industry’s proposals to begin importing and producing heat-not-burn and ENDS products in the country.”
Vaper who also smokes? Would you be willing to help with an important study? Click the link for more info: https://t.co/uoEYQuq1yj
— Smokers' Clinic (@SmokersClinic) November 7, 2017
Smokers Turn to e-Cigarettes in Attempt to Quit
Maureen Salamon, Medscape
e-cigarette smokers are highly likely to use the alternative nicotine product as part of their effort to quit smoking tobacco, according to results from a new survey on e-cigarette usage.
In the Tennessee-based study, current cigarette smokers were seven times more likely than nonsmokers to be e-cigarette users. Additionally, tobacco smokers who also smoked e-cigarettes were at least 3.5 times more likely than non-e-cigarette users to have quit smoking for a day or longer during the past 12 months for the sake of quitting.
“There’s evidence here that Tennessee smokers are using e-cigarettes as an aid to quit smoking,” said investigator Ransom Wyse, MPH, an epidemiologist with the Tennessee Department of Health in Nashville.
“This is the first time we’ve seen this,” he said here at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2017 Annual Meeting.
Study Squashes Fears over Secondhand Exposure to Vaping
Steve Birr, Daily Vaper
A forthcoming study investigating the health impact of aerosol vapor emitted from electronic cigarettes shows it poses no meaningful secondhand risks.
The study, set to be published in the Journal of Aerosol Science in January, investigates the immediate health effects of vaping on a daily user and the impact to those in the user’s vicinity. Dr. Mauro Scungio of the University of Cassino in Italy spearheaded the research effort, which concluded that chemical levels in the vapor released from e-cigarettes are well below the safety limits suggested by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, reports Health Thoroughfare.
The researchers determined that vaping is statistically 5,700 times less harmful to users than combustible cigarettes, drastically reducing the risk of developing smoking related illnesses. The scientists compared particles in the air from e-cigarette vapor with particle levels released from tobacco smoke to reach their conclusions.
“The extra risk of develop [sic] lung cancer due to the mainstream EC aerosol exposure is lower than the limit values proposed by EPA and WHO, leading to the conclusion that electronic cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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