Vaping Digest April 24th
Wednesday’s News at a glance:
Harry’s blog 86: Wormholes, black holes and dark matter ~ FDA to fully ban e-cigarettes ~ Tobacco company Philip Morris starts life insurance firm ~ Juul believes deal with Altria will help hasten demise of tobacco ~ Shoe Drops | Health Canada Puts Flavours, Nicotine & Adult Access on The Table ~ Top tips for safer vaping ~ How Australia’s Ban on Nicotine Vape Spawned a Thriving Black Market ~ Should pharmacy sell e-cigarettes and encourage people to vape? ~ Politics and Tobacco Harm Reduction: Things Congress Mix Up ~ Bates Responds to “Bizarre Restrictions” ~ Maha ban on vaping ~ Worms addicted to mango flavoured poison (plus nicotiiiiiiiiiine)
Harry Shapiro, Nicotine Science and Policy
When I’m not unhealthily hunched over my laptop consuming my nth cup of nuclear coffee, I quite like to relax in front of Star Trek Discovery on Netflix. Gibberish science, cod philosophies and mawkish sentiments notwithstanding, I still find it eminently watchable. Wormholes into parallel future universes often feature, so does dark matter, supremely enigmatic but nevertheless thought to comprise 85% of all the matter in the universe and of course, the world got its first view of a black hole into which all things get sucked but no light appears.
FDA to fully ban e-cigarettes
The Asian Age
The state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has directed its officers to enforce a complete ban on e-cigarettes in the state.
FDA commissioner Dr Pallavi Darade has written a letter to all drug enforcement officers across state, following the Union government’s decision to curb rampant usage of e-cigarettes and ban their sale, manufacture, and trade.
Tobacco company Philip Morris starts life insurance firm
Angelica LaVito, CNBC
Philip Morris International, the tobacco company that sells Marlboro cigarettes, is getting into the life insurance business.
Called Reviti, the wholly owned subsidiary will initially sell life insurance in the U.K. with plans to expand into more markets overseas. Smokers will receive discounts if they stop, quit or switch to a possibly less carcinogenic product, like Philip Morris’ vaping devices.
Juul believes deal with Altria will help hasten demise of tobacco
Alice Hancock, Financial Times
Few companies look to help another that would put them out of business. But that is what vaping start-up Juul claims Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, did when it took a 35 per cent stake in the company at the end of last year. “We’ve got the biggest manufacturer of cigarettes in America to hasten their own decline,” said Dan Thomson, managing director of Juul UK. “No one has ever done that.”
Shoe Drops | Health Canada Puts Flavours, Nicotine & Adult Access on The Table
Brent Stafford, Regulator Watch
The federal regulator is considering every measure to stem the tide of youth vaping and is calling on parents, educators, youth and public stakeholders to weigh in on key issues in a consultation on potential regulatory measures to reduce youth access and appeal of vaping products in Canada.
Top tips for safer vaping
How Australia’s Ban on Nicotine Vape Spawned a Thriving Black Market
Sam Nichols, Vice
Mary* is quick to list the benefits that vaping has over smoking: it’s more affordable than tobacco, it makes her feel healthier, and her hands and hair no longer smell of stale smoke: “I also prefer being able to just have a puff of a JUUL, and not have the commitment of a whole cigarette because most of the time, I don’t feel like a whole dart,” she says.
Opinions, The Pharmaceutical Journal
A smoking cessation expert and a pharmacist share their views on whether pharmacies should stock and recommend e-cigarettes to people who want to kick their tobacco habit.
Nanny state nonsense: Mitch McConnell doesn’t want to let 20-year-olds smoke or vape
Brad Polumbo, Washington Examiner
At age 20 in the United States, you’re old enough to fight in the military overseas, work full time, have a child, and even vote to determine the future of our country. But apparently Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., doesn’t think a 20-year-old is mature enough to buy a pack of smokes.
Politics and Tobacco Harm Reduction: Things Congress Mix Up
Michael McGrady, Vaping Post
When has prohibition ever worked? The U.S. federal government tried it with the ban on alcohol and, until recently, politicians and policymakers started to see the failure of the so-called war on drugs.
The great American novelist Mark Twain once wrote: “Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it.”
Such a statement still holds so much truth in our modern day.
Bates Responds to “Bizarre Restrictions”
Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its draft guidance for proposals to change the market approval system for vaping products. Clive Bates explains the nonsensical system that would render reduced harm products more difficult to get hold of than tobacco products.
Maha ban on vaping
Vicky Pathare, Pune Mirror
While the popular belief is that e-cigarettes or other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is the exit route for the youth who then graduate to smoking real cigarettes. Acting on the latter belief and armed with an advisory from the Union ministry of health and family welfare, issued in August last year, the food and drug administration (FDA) of Maharashtra has banned use of such devices.
Worms addicted to mango flavoured poison (plus nicotiiiiiiiiiine)
Christopher Snowden, Velvet Glove Iron Fist
Whenever you think the USA’s anti-vaping fanatics have reached their limits, they find new depths to plumb. This, from the ironically named and state-funded “Truth Initiative”, is something else.
I am lost for words. Just watch the video.
On this Day…2017
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise….
Vape Research Increases
Mawsley, Planet of the Vapes
Commentators used to say that it was difficult to make an assessment about vaping because there were not many studies. Not so now, research is being conducted at such a pace it’s difficult to keep up. Twenty ecig-related papers were published on Pubmed in the first week of March alone. A few recent ones are covered in brief below.
USA continues push for tough vaping laws
Despite mounting evidence – Fergus Mason
The United States Navy has announced a complete ban on possessing or using e-cigarettes on any of its vessels or aircraft, citing the risk of battery explosions as justification. Meanwhile the town of Aspen, Colorado is the latest place to consider raising the minimum vaping age to 21. This flies in the face of a new study which confirms that tough rules on teen vaping just lead to more smoking.
Visit Nicotine Science & Policy for more News from around the World
