Vaping Digest February 13th

Wednesday’s News at a glance:

CDC Misleads By Calling E-Cigarettes a ‘Tobacco Product’ ~ Alternative Nicotine Products Imperative for Protecting Public Health ~ The Arrogance of Public Health Advocacy ~ Abrams For Flavour ~ Hong Kong pushes ahead with blanket on e-cigarettes  ~ Vaping Taxes in the United States and Around the World ~ Fear Profiteers

 

CDC Misleads By Calling E-Cigarettes a ‘Tobacco Product’

Alex Berezow, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)

The CDC is one of the finest public health institutions on the planet. Because they fearlessly march into “hot zones” to battle deadly infectious diseases, we microbiologists think of the good folks at the CDC as real-life superheroes.

But not everything the CDC does is equally praiseworthy. As Dr. Josh Bloom explains, their portrayal of the opioid crisis has been unhelpful at best and lethal at worst.

Alternative Nicotine Products Imperative for Protecting Public Health

Michael McGrady, Real Clear Policy

Hundreds of countries have signed and ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Passed and entered into force almost fifteen years ago, the landmark international agreement is genuinely the most crucial global effort to combat widespread combustible tobacco use. Heralding tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy to reduce the consumption of tobacco products, the framework explicitly outlines the importance of offering legacy smokers the support they need to live healthier lifestyles.

While the FCTC is often considered a global success, I believe that it fails to accomplish a crucial goal: offering a more holistic acceptance of harm reduction strategies that have been proven to reduce combustible tobacco use and lead to cessation.

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The Arrogance of Public Health Advocacy

Ronald W. Dworkin, The American Interest

How a lack of humility and scientific rigor have led public health activists into dubious pronouncements on an ever-expanding array of controversial issues, from gun control to gender equality to foreign policy.

Early in my anesthesiology career, I took care of an elderly man who needed knee surgery but who smoked like a chimney. The surgical team feared he would suffer the usual smoker’s complications, so we told him to stop smoking a week before his operation. He refused. In the end we reached a compromise: On the day before surgery he would get by with nicotine patches.

 

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Abrams For Flavour

Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Hong Kong pushes ahead with blanket on e-cigarettes

with maximum penalty of 6 months in jail and HK$50,000 fine

Su Xinqi, South China Morning Post

A bill to amend the Smoking Ordinance targeting new tobacco products was submitted to the Legislative Council on Wednesday and will go through its first reading on February 20.

The near-total ban makes good on a pledge Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor made in her second policy address, as the government seeks to nip the relatively new habit in the bud before it becomes entrenched in the city.

Her proposal back then sparked heated debate over whether it would be effective in reducing smoking, and raised questions about the administration’s drastic change in policy from regulation to a blanket ban.

 

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Vaping Taxes in the United States and Around the World

Jim McDonald, Vaping 360

As vaping grows in popularity, it becomes a natural target for governments in need of tax revenue. Because vapor products are usually bought by smokers and ex-smokers, tax authorities correctly assume that money spent on e-cigarettes is money not being spent on traditional tobacco products. Governments have depended upon cigarettes and other tobacco products as a source of income for decades.

Whether vaping devices and e-liquid deserve to be taxed like tobacco is almost beside the point. Governments see them pushing smokers away from tobacco, and they understand that the lost revenue must be made up.

Fear Profiteers

Dave Cross, Planet Of The Vapes

Vaping is a paradigm shift in how smokers can legally use nicotine, but it has not been plain sailing due to vested interests having their noses knocked out of joint. America in particular has seen an orchestrated disinformation campaign rise up to smear this form of tobacco harm reduction. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Michelle Minton has detailed who profits from attacking vaping in her new report.

 

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