Vapers Digest 9th May

Friday’s News at a glance:

Experts To Challenge Perceptions ~ Parliament Matters ~ Sweden Praised for Safer Approach ~ Malaysia Putting Health at Risk ~ Dr Tedros Admits That the FCTC Treaty Has a “Systemic Problem” ~ “Proceed as if success were inevitable” ~ EU neighbours slam Spain’s pouch ban plan ~ House of Lords warned vape ban could have “perverse consequences” ~ Brazil cracks down on digital platforms advertising vapes ~ The Election Is Over. It’s Time for the Media to Start Telling the Truth About Safer Alternatives. ~ Government must distinguish between smoking and harm reduction tools, warns expert ~ Senate panel must reopen hearings on tobacco bill ~ Greece’s Flavour Ban: From Progress to Prohibition ~ Spain pouch ban proposal sparks Swedish wrath ~ RDH Magazine on the Oral Health Threat of Nicotine Pouches ~ As Sweden regulates nicotine products, US pulls back ~ New York City’s Campaign Against Vapes Will Cost Lives ~ Opinion: Puritanism on nicotine is another thing Carney should axe ~ Truth Interrupted | Public Health Insider Speaks Out About the War On Nicotine

Four from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Experts To Challenge Perceptions

In Warsaw from 19 to 21 June, the 12th annual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN25) is set to address a major obstacle in efforts to reduce smoking, which remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Organisers say that pervasive misconceptions about safer nicotine products and their role in smoking cessation could see tobacco harm reduction fail to fulfil its huge potential.

Parliament Matters

In this week’s trip to Parliament, Tristan Osborne asked a question about a licensing scheme for vape sales. John Hayes is worried about the illegal ecigs in his constituency. Rachel Blake and the government ignore an easy solution to cigarette butt pollution and Bob Blackman pats himself on the back for his part in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Sweden Praised for Safer Approach

International health experts are applauding Sweden for opposing restrictions on safer alternatives to cigarettes in other EU member states and warn that blanket restrictions on nicotine products simply fuel the smoking epidemic. The Swedish government has taken unprecedented action to challenge Spain’s proposed regulations on tobacco-free nicotine pouches, commonly known as “white snus”, which would severely limit consumer access to these reduced-risk products.

Malaysia Putting Health at Risk

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has urged Malaysian authorities to reject counterproductive bans on vaping and adopt risk-proportionate regulations, citing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) persistent neglect of harm reduction strategies as a key driver of preventable smoking-related deaths.

Dr Tedros Admits That the FCTC Treaty Has a “Systemic Problem”

Loremipsumdolor, COPWatch

Or would do so, if he was being consistent.

During a press briefing at WHO headquarters last week, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, came tantalisingly close to identifying a big problem with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty.

As reported in Geneva Solutions:

Tedros said that the organisation had already identified in a 2017 analysis its overreliance on a few major donors as a “systemic problem” and its need for reform.

“Proceed as if success were inevitable”

Claudio Teixeira

The coffee steams quietly in an old white cup, its surface cracked by time. Across the crazed porcelain, a fading inscription clings stubbornly to life: Proceed as if success is inevitable. Cliff Douglas holds the cup as one might grip a modest shield—a fragile defense against the rough weather of the world.

From his office—perhaps tucked away in a corner of the University of Michigan or his suite at Global Action to End Smoking—Cliff Douglas, surrounded by memorabilia stacked like trenches against forgetting, recounts to GrimmGreen a life spent on the front lines of public health: an existence devoted not only to fighting smoke, but to dismantling a machinery of systematic deception.

The Election Is Over. It’s Time for the Media to Start Telling the Truth About Safer Alternatives.

Government must distinguish between smoking and harm reduction tools, warns expert

Tony Corbin, Talking Retail

Following the news that nicotine pouches may be included in the Government’s smokefree generation legislation, a spokesperson from a nicotine pouch brand has spoken about the importance of responsible regulation to ensure that nicotine pouches remain an adult-focused, harm reduction tool.

Senate panel must reopen hearings on tobacco bill

Joseph Magero, People Daily

Kenya has a new Senate Health Committee, but it seems the same old disregard for public input remains firmly in place.

Despite the reshuffle that saw many new members join the Committee, its leadership refuses to reopen public hearings on the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Greece’s Flavour Ban: From Progress to Prohibition

Michael Landl, Nikolas Christofidis, The Parliament

Greece is once again at a crossroads in its approach to tobacco control. Despite recent progress, the government is now considering a ban on vaping flavours – a move that threatens to undermine the country’s hard-won gains in reducing smoking rates and improving public health.

Greece has long held one of the highest smoking rates in the European Union. According to Eurostat, the smoking rate in Greece rose from 38% in 2015 to 41% in 2021, while in many other EU countries, smoking rates were falling.

Spain pouch ban proposal sparks Swedish wrath

SnusForumNet

The Swedish government has issued a rare and sharply worded rebuke of Spain’s proposed restrictions that would effectively ban nicotine pouches.

In an unusually strong move, Sweden has submitted a formal detailed opinion to the European Commission, arguing that Spain’s draft law violates the EU’s internal market rules and amounts to an unjustified trade barrier.

RDH Magazine on the Oral Health Threat of Nicotine Pouches

Joseph Hart, The Daily Pouch

It seems like every publication wants to trump up the alleged harm of nicotine pouches. Now, the increasingly popular harm-reduction product is in the crosshairs of the dental hygienist magazine RDH.

What is RDH Magazine?

RDH Magazine is a monthly publication in the United States dedicated to registered dental hygienists. It’s an educational and professional resource that covers various subjects such as nicotine use trends, periodontal disease, antibiotic use, ergonomics, and water safety in dental settings.

As Sweden regulates nicotine products, US pulls back

Sandhya Raman, Roll Call

In its infancy, the Swedish market for nicotine pouches was akin to a sort of Wild West. There were limited industry-led standards and no age restrictions for the products until 2022.

The United States has been more cautious, authorizing fewer products and implementing more safeguards earlier on.

But now, the U.S. is entering its own uncharted territory. Sweeping changes to the nation’s regulatory landscape could dampen the ability to authorize new products, enforce existing regulations and make progress on smoking cessation.

New York City’s Campaign Against Vapes Will Cost Lives

Martin Cullip, Filter

A recent press release from the New York City Health Department, calling on New Yorkers to “imagine a city free from the harms of tobacco products,” reads like a triumphalist declaration in a misguided war against the very tools that could end smoking.

The fingerprints of Michael Bloomberg—the billionaire former NYC mayor, who bankrolls a global vendetta against people who vape—are all over it.

Opinion: Puritanism on nicotine is another thing Carney should axe

David Clement, Financial Post

During the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s past roles at Brookfield Asset Management and with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (FGANZ) came under some scrutiny. His membership on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies did not. But it should have. Bloomberg Philanthropies is the world’s preeminent bankroller of public-health puritans, those who wage a relentless, well-funded war against harm reduction from tobacco. Since 2005, they’ve poured $1.58 billion, nearly six per cent of their total spend, into discouraging less harmful forms of nicotine consumption, thus ignoring reason and pragmatism.

Truth Interrupted | Public Health Insider Speaks Out About the War On Nicotine

Brent Stafford, Regwatch

In public health, truth is supposed to be sacred. For decades, tobacco control defined and promoted the truth about combustible tobacco: cigarettes kill, nicotine is addictive, and the only path forward is to quit or die. But that truth, once necessary and urgent, has hardened into dogma.

In this revealing episode of RegWatch, Dr. Jeff Willett, a 25-year tobacco control veteran and former senior leader at the American Heart Association and Truth Initiative, confronts what he calls “the dangerous game” being played by some in the tobacco control movement: conflating nicotine with the deadly harms of smoking.

On this Day…2022

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

Sorry, not sorry:

I have been paid for work I have done for tobacco companies and vaping organizations

I have been banned from attending the Ottawa Model Conference on Smoking Cessation, the same conference where I have been a guest speaker a couple of times in the past, because of my association with the tobacco industry and vaping organizations.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids —

Can History Repeat Itself? – Kim Murray

A recent press release by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) expresses displeasure over a Connecticut bill that says all vapor products would have to be sold in age-restricted locations. Despite helping millions of American adults quit smoking, organizations like CTFK have exaggerated the issue of youth use of these products while ignoring the benefits these products provide for adults who smoke.

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