Vaping Digest April 17th

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

Vaping is far safer than smoking and can help smokers quit ~ FDA Created the Youth Vaping Epidemic, Now It’s Doubling Down ~ Bizarre FDA vaping retail restrictions more likely to do harm than good ~ Media Misrepresents Ineffective FDA E-Cig Guidelines ~ E-cigarettes – facts and fiction ~ Lawsuit Against Juul/Altria Alleging Fraudulent Misinformation Provides Fraudulent Misinformation ~ E-Cigarette Maker JUUL Sued for Allegedly Targeting Young Users ~ With All Due Speed | Health Canada Reacts to Youth Vaping ‘Epidemic’ ~ Track And Trace ~ Truth Initiative Paid Protest ~ New Colorado law opens door for local nicotine tax ~ Data from NZ Indicate Low and Decreasing Teen Vaping Rates ~ New FDA head vows to carry out crackdown on teen e-cigarette use ~ Bill would hike smoking, vaping age from 18 to 21 in Florida ~ Torrington City Council delays vote on raising age to buy tobacco, e-cigarettes ~ How 2019’s pod systems will change the way we think about vaping

Vaping is far safer than smoking and can help smokers quit

Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association

A recent evidence-based review by the leading UK charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) confirms what most vapers already know: vaping is far safer than smoking and can help smokers quit.

FDA Created the Youth Vaping Epidemic, Now It’s Doubling Down

Michelle Minton, Competitive Enterprise Institute

E-cigarettes pose less risk than smoking. The science is clear: while cigarettes kill about half their users, e-cigarettes have perhaps five percent of the risk. Therefore, e-cigarettes have the ability to save the lives of those smokers who switch to vaping. Yet, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to eradicate e-cigarettes, a move that would sacrifice smoker lives and squander one of the greatest public health opportunities of our generation.

Bizarre FDA vaping retail restrictions more likely to do harm than good

Clive Bates, The Counterfactual

Caught in its auto-induced moral panic about the teen vaping epidemic, the FDA has decided that it would be better if certain vaping products were harder to get hold of than cigarettes, and the ones that were easiest to get hold of should be the ones most like cigarettes – tobacco and menthol flavour. This seems entirely mad to me and riddled with the potential for unintended consequences that would increase smoking in both adults and adolescents.

Media Misrepresents Ineffective FDA E-Cig Guidelines

Staff, Accuracy In Media

Media reports have given the impression that the new Food and Drug Administration guidelines on e-cigarettes will be successful in addressing the rise in teenage smoking – and that the policies are backed by sound public health research.

But that is not the case. In fact, there is a great deal of information available that completely refutes the effectiveness of the FDA policy and demonstrates why it might actually make more teenagers smoke.

E-cigarettes – facts and fiction

ASH Wales CYMRU

Misconceptions about e-cigarettes prevent many smokers from using them to give up smoking. To help smokers to make a more informed decision we’ve discovered the truth behind five common e-cigarette myths.

Bizarre FDA vaping retail restrictions more likely to do harm than good – my comment on new @FDATobacco restrictions on which shops can sell what and how. https://t.co/Nr9p864mP5

Comment period closes 30 April. You have a voice – use it!

— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) April 17, 2019

Lawsuit Against Juul/Altria Alleging Fraudulent Misinformation Provides Fraudulent Misinformation

Michael Siegel , The Rest Of The Story

Parents of a Florida teenager who became addicted to Juul have sued Juul, Altria, and Philip Morris USA based on a number of claims, including fraud, negligence, and violation of the RICO statute (the compliant is here). Dr. Stan Glantz and Lauren Lempert provide a nice summary of the reasoning behind the lawsuit and the specific claims being made. The case was filed on Monday in the federal district court for the middle district of Florida.

Related:

E-Cigarette Maker JUUL Sued for Allegedly Targeting Young Users

With All Due Speed | Health Canada Reacts to Youth Vaping ‘Epidemic’

Brent Stafford, Regulator Watch

If left unchecked, youth vaping poses an “existential threat” to the vaping industry in Canada.

This is the warning James Van Loon, Director General of the Tobacco Control Directorate at Health Canada, gave to industry stakeholders when it became clear to the regulator that the crisis of youth vaping—unfolding in the United States—had spread to Canada. The concern is real and substantial.

Two from Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Track And Trace

JUUL claims to be keeping its new program to combat teen vaping low key, designating it a ‘pilot’, but that hasn’t stopped it issuing a press release about it or contacting many members of the public. Focussed on the city of Houston, people are being encouraged to use an online portal to report confiscated JUUL products.

Truth Initiative Paid Protest

The Truth Initiative continues to prove that ‘truth’ the last thing it is concerned about when it comes to vaping and tobacco harm reduction. Its latest effort will no doubt be spun and promoted to say large numbers of teens signed a petition against JUUL Labs – but it will have been due to the offer of rewards for doing so.

New Colorado law opens door for local nicotine tax

Eli Pace, Summit Daily

A change in state law will give Colorado’s counties, cities and towns new powers to regulate nicotine products, including electronic cigarettes, beyond statewide restrictions this summer. Discussions across Summit County are early, but some local leaders are optimistic the county and towns will work raise the purchasing age of tobacco products and impose a new local nicotine tax.

Data from NZ Indicate Low and Decreasing Teen Vaping Rates

Diane Caruana, Vaping Post

On the contrary to alarming claims hailing from the US about the alleged catastrophic increase in teen vaping, data from New Zealand indicate that vaping rates remain low and are even dropping amongst some age groups.

Related:

New FDA head vows to carry out crackdown on teen e-cigarette use

Bill would hike smoking, vaping age from 18 to 21 in Florida

Torrington City Council delays vote on raising age to buy tobacco, e-cigarettes

How 2019’s pod systems will change the way we think about vaping

Siemon Vermetten, International Vaping

Do you know when the first smartphone ever was released? The answer might surprise you but in fact, smartphones have been in consumer hands since 1994(!). I know right, who would have thought they have already been around for a quarter of a century?

The biggest tipping point for the smartphone’s worldwide breakthrough was the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, since its debut, 13 years after IBM’s ‘Simon Personal Communicator’, smartphone ownership skyrocketed with half of the world’s population now connected via mobile.

On this Day…2015

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

CDC’s latest survey on teen “tobacco” use conflates vaping with smoking.

But it’s not the same.

Another day, another fraud perpetrated by our “public health” leaders at the CDC. Their latest report, Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2014, was released to much hype yesterday, the main news hook was the spectacular increase in teen vaping, approximately a three-fold increase over the survey period. They buried the lead, however, forgetting somehow to take note of the fact that teen smoking rates continue to test historic declines….