Vapers Digest 9th October

Monday’s News at a glance:

Why an EU-wide nicotine pouch ban could undermine public health – Snus Culture History: Royal Courts to Working Hands – Sweden Must Defend Its Approach – Youth vaping call for evidence analysis – UK to defy calls for vaping ban – While It’s Stoptober in the UK, It’s Keep Smoking in The U.S. – Flavored products play an important role – Common Sense Strategies That Help Smokers Quit – France urged to accept the science – Providing safer alternatives more likely to reduce smoking – Largest U.S. Study Shows E-Cigs Help Smokers Quit – Drama in Congress –

Why an EU-wide nicotine pouch ban …

Could undermine public health

Stockholm, 9 October 2023 – In a baffling move that disregards data-driven public health strategies, the European Union is considering a full-scale ban on nicotine pouches. Smoke Free Sweden strongly condemns such a backward proposal, highlighting its potential to sabotage the progress made in reducing smoking rates across Europe.

This information has been brought to light by Sweden Democrats’ MEP Charlie Weimers, who exposed a concealed EU report advocating for the prohibition. The document is part of preparatory works for the update of the Tobacco Products Regulation, expected in 2024.

Sweden Must Defend Its Approach

Dave Cross – Planet of the Vapes

Smoke Free Sweden says that as the world awaits the upcoming World Health Organization’s (WHO) Conference of Parties (COP 10) meeting, the Swedish government finds itself in a unique position to emphasise the significance of their approach towards achieving a smoke-free society. “The international community is looking to Sweden for guidance on how to reach this critical milestone that could save millions of lives globally”, it states.

Swedish Minister of Social Affairs, Jakob Forssmed, has stated that, “Swedish positions for the upcoming meetings have not yet been finalised.”

Snus Culture History:

Royal Courts to Working Hands – Snusforumet

What is the history of snus culture? Snusforum spoke to Johanna Tengblad, Snus and Match Museum’s coordinator, in Stockholm, to understand how it went from a royal luxury to an everyday staple for Sweden’s working class.

“Snus was more than just tobacco. It was looked upon as an affordable luxury, a quick break during work, and a quiet acknowledgment of shared experiences among workers,” Johanna Tengblad, explains as she talks about how snus became deeply ingrained with Swedish culture in the 1800s. She is the museum coordinator at the Snus and Match Museum in Stockholm.

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Youth vaping call for evidence analysis

Office for Health Improvement & Disparities

The call for evidence was open for 8 weeks and received 441 submissions to the online form. Of these submissions, the majority (324, or 74%) were from individual citizens. A total of 117 organisations responded, of which:

• 64 were from the public sector
• 29 were from the not-for-profit sector
• 20 were from the private sector
• 4 were unknown

We received a mix of responses. Many were based on lived experience or opinions while some included data or research to support their submission. This included references to studies and published papers as well as ongoing studies, reports from local authority trading standards and survey data. Further submissions were provided by email.

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UK to defy calls for vaping ban

Sam Blanchard – The Sun

MINISTERS will stand up to hardline global health chiefs next month to defend our “world-leading” swap-to-stop free vapes scheme.

The World Health Organisation will call for COP10 countries to clamp down harder or even ban e-cigarettes, which it calls “harmful to health and not safe”.

But England this year launched the world’s first government scheme to offer free vapes to smokers to help them kick the killer habit.

While It’s Stoptober in the UK…

It’s Keep Smoking in The U.S. – Lindsey Stroud

For more than a decade, the UK National Health Service (NHS) has used October to promote a public health campaign urging the 6.4 million smoking adults to quit during the month as part of “Stoptober.” According to officials, the campaign has been quite effective. Because of regulatory inaction and draconian prohibitions, October 2023 won’t be “Stoptober” for the estimated 36.5 million American adults who still continue to smoke.

It’s quite apparent that the refusal by American public health officials to embrace less harmful alternatives not only hinders any chance of a Stoptober, but is lessening declines in smoking rates overall.

The United Kingdom (UK) has embraced tobacco harm reduction. In 2017 (for the first time), the Stoptober campaign officially embraced e-cigarettes as an effective tool to help adults quit combustible cigarettes.

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Proven Correct

Largest U.S. Study Shows E-Cigs Help Smokers Quit | RegWatch

It’s the largest study of its kind in the United States, which shows e-cigarettes are effective in helping smokers to quit—just don’t call it “cessation.”
In many countries, making smoking cessation claims in advertising and marketing is illegal. And, for tobacco control researchers writing funding applications, investigating cessation is a non-starter.

Government health agencies say the evidence to recommend e-cigarettes for smoking cessation is insufficient. But is this truly the case?

Joining us today is the lead author of this ground-breaking study, tobacco control researcher Dr. Matthew Carpenter, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and co-leader of the cancer control program at Hollings Cancer Center.

Flavored products play an important role

In tobacco harm reduction – Guy Bentley

There are more than 30 million smokers in the United States. Almost 500,000 Americans die of smoking-related diseases each year. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was tasked with regulating tobacco products in 2009, a host of safer nicotine alternatives to cigarettes have entered the market. The FDA has sought to incorporate these products as part of a harm reduction strategy where smokers who are unwilling or unable to quit cigarettes through traditional methods can switch to safer forms of nicotine consumption.

The FDA recognizes a “continuum of risk” when it comes to nicotine products, with cigarettes being the most dangerous and products like e-cigarettes and oral nicotine being far less dangerous.

Common Sense Strategies

That Help Smokers Quit Superior To WHO’s Failed Strategies

Strategies that provide smokers with less harmful alternatives to cigarettes are far more likely to reduce smoking than the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommendations to prohibit them while cigarettes remain widely available, public health experts said in a global forum.

“To remain at the forefront of adopting effective strategies to reduce smoking, countries that have experience regulating these new products, including the Philippines, must continue to advocate at the global stage for science to guide policy response, not vice versa,” Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of Quit For Good, a non-profit organization promoting harm reduction in the Philippines, said.

France urged to accept the science

On how to stop smoking – Nick Powell

France’s Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Assessment has concluded that a drastic change in approach is required to get cigarette smokers to stop smoking, A report prepared by members of both chambers of the French Parliament recommends a risk reduction approach that offers smokers the chance to switch to much less harmful electronic cigarettes, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

French tobacco policy relies heavily on high taxation to discourage cigarette smoking. This has led to an influx of smuggled, counterfeit and other illicit cigarettes and a continued high smoking rate compared with many other European countries.

Drama in Congress Should Not Distract

From FDA Shenanigans – Liz Sheld

All eyes are on the battle over the Speaker’s chair and how to fund the government into the next fiscal year. Don’t be distracted by the high profile fights and miss the Biden Administration chipping away at your rights. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken recent actions that fall right into that category of politically driven decision-making while nobody is looking.

Don’t get me wrong, the FDA does some important work. They study and approve life saving drugs all the time. The FDA just approved a blood test to screen for hereditary cancers. They have been studying controversial weight loss drugs to make sure users know the dangers.

Providing safer alternatives

More likely to reduce smoking – Francis Earl Cueto

Health experts believe that providing smokers less harmful alternatives will be more effective in reducing smoking than the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommendations prohibiting them while cigarettes remain available.

“To remain at the forefront of adopting effective strategies to reduce smoking, countries that have experience regulating these new products, including the Philippines, must continue to advocate at the global stage for science to guide policy response, not vice versa,” Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of Quit For Good, a non-profit organization promoting harm reduction, said.

Quit For Good Recommends….

WHO Modernize Their Tobacco Control Strategy

MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Quit For Good, a non-profit organization promoting harm reduction in the Philippines, said strategies that provide smokers with less harmful alternatives to cigarettes are far more likely to reduce smoking than the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommendations to prohibit them while cigarettes remain widely available.

“To remain at the forefront of adopting effective strategies to reduce smoking, countries that have experience regulating these new products, including the Philippines, must continue to advocate at the global stage for science to guide policy response, not vice versa,” Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of Quit For Good, said in a recent global forum.

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On this Day…2022

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

New OHID review of vaping in England

Re-emphasises public health benefits – NNA

The organisation which replaced Public Health England, the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), released its final Vaping in England review in the latest series last week and overall it is largely positive.

Stretching to a hefty 1,468 pages, this review is the most comprehensive yet and covers a wide range of evidence on the use of vaping products amongst adults and youth, as well as brief commentary on heated tobacco and nicotine pouches.

The review’s main finding, much reported in the media, is that using vaping products “poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking” with OHID re-emphasising that it estimates that vaping to be “at least 95 percent less harmful” than combustible tobacco.

Vaping and Pregnancy Commentary

Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

A commentary written by vaping and pregnancy experts has been published by Clinical and Translational Medicine journal. The team argue that because smoking during pregnancy is associated with a number of adverse pregnancy outcomes, helping pregnant smokers quit should be an urgent priority and that vaping is the way to achieve this.

Due to a change in metabolism, pregnant smokers rapidly break down the nicotine in their blood stream, which is what makes cessation through the use of patches or gum very difficult.

“Stop-smoking treatments such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and bupropion show only limited efficacy in this population while the third licensed stop-smoking medication, varenicline, is not recommended in pregnancy,” the authors say.

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