Vaping Digest June 7th

Friday’s News at a glance:

How Big Is the So-Called Teen Vaping Epidemic? – Pregnant smokers should be encouraged to vape – Any Hope for Smokers that enjoy the habit? – Dame Sally’s unscientific review of vaping – New Research Supports Something We’ve Said About Vaping For Years – Ex-EU Commissioner Loses Suit – Cinnamon Study Debunked – The American Liars Association – Gang Related – Idiocy in India – RCM Supports Vaping – Juul to San Francisco: ‘We’re staying’ – Calgary to tighten its hold as Canada’s cannabis capital – More States Ban Vaping, E-Cigarette Use in Workplaces – War on E-Cigarettes Ignores Their Benefits – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest

How Big Is the So-Called Teen Epidemic?

Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth

Federal authorities insist upon the existence of a teen vaping epidemic, based on results of the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). They claim that current (past-30-day) use of e-cigarettes surged 78% in 2018, resulting in over three million high school vapers.

Federal officials ignore two other 2018 estimates from a commercial online panel that are representative of the U.S. population. It’s called KnowledgePanel, and it’s a product of the German firm GfK (Growth from Knowledge). While both of these published studies focus on JUUL use, I will examine only their e-cigarette estimates.

Pregnant smokers…

Should be encouraged to vape – Gaelle Walker

Pregnant smokers should be encouraged to use vaping devices to help them quit tobacco, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has recommended.

While vaping devices such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) do contain some toxins, they are at “far lower levels than found in tobacco smoke,” a new RCM position statement said.

“If a pregnant woman who has been smoking chooses to use an e-cig and it helps her to quit smoking and stay smokefree, she should be supported to do so,” it said.

Any Hope for Smokers that enjoy the habit?

Joseph Magero

Becoming addicted to smoking means learning to want the pleasure of smoking, right? Today we have about 1 Billion cigarette smokers worldwide. Do these smokers know smoking is a terrible habit that harms their health? What motivates them to carry on puffing away?
Do we have a situation where 1 billion smokers are looking to quit but are too addicted and helpless to give up smoking? I’ve spoken to hundreds of smokers about this, fact is, most knew the dangers of this habit, but were unwilling to quit smoking. No matter the stats and facts I threw at them, it did not seem to move them, they saw smoking as part of their identity, and enjoyed it

Take note, @FDATobacco: “This, in turn, raises the question of just how much more rapidly the use of lethal cigarettes could decline if public awareness and public policy were to facilitate, rather than obstruct, such a transition.” — David Sweanor @OttawaHealthLaw https://t.co/K3OtvZtEPP

— IA Attorney General (@AGIowa) June 6, 2019

Why are we still saddled with this ridiculous woman? Not a shred of evidence to justify a ban, just ‘I don’t like it’. @Metcalfe_SBET https://t.co/eUPazUoZeR

— 🦋 Sarah J 🐞 (@Twigolet) June 7, 2019

New Research Supports Something…

We’ve Said About Vaping For Years – ChurnMag

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease around the globe. As such, we’re constantly in need of new tools which can help smokers end their dependence once and for all. Unfortunately, vaping has traditionally gotten tied in with smoking, despite having only been invented as a way to help smokers quit. As a result, the regulations regarding vaping are continually shifting and getting stricter, including the push for an e-liquid flavor ban. However, this doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of peer-reviewed evidence that they’re invaluable tools. In fact, a new report concluded e-liquid flavors help adult smokers fight the urge to start smoking again far better than tobacco flavored e-liquids do.

Effects of Flavorings in Electronic Cigarettes on the Use and Appeal

Dame Sally’s unscientific review of vaping

Thanks as always to @dnglos for the YouTubage

Ex-EU Commissioner Loses Suit

Barbara Leonard

The European General Court threw out a lawsuit Thursday by a former EU health commissioner who resigned when he was implicated in a bribery scheme with tobacco lobbyists.

John Dalli, a resident of Malta, became embroiled in scandal in 2012, midway through what would have been a four-year term with the commission.

That year tobacco producer Swedish Match complained that Silvio Zammit, a Maltese businessman with ties to Dalli, requested a bribe of 60 million euros from the European Smokeless Tobacco Council, a lobby otherwise known as Estoc, to ensure that Dalli would kill an EU law banning the sale of snus tobacco.

Five from Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes

Cinnamon Study Debunked

Last week, we reported how Stanford University’s press office claimed how Joseph Wu’s research showed: “Flavourings may increase heart disease risk”. The in vitro study exposed cell cultures to liquids containing eliquid flavours or the blood from vapers. Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos has joined in the condemnation of the flawed work.

The study said: “[The] cells exposed to the e-liquids or blood are less viable and exhibit significantly increased levels of molecules implicated in DNA damage and cell death. The cells are also less able to form new vascular tubes and to migrate and participate in wound healing.”

The American Liars Association

“How to talk to your kids about vaping” by the American Lung Association (ALA) ranks as one of the most despicable things it has done. Branded “dangerous” and “outrageous”, the organisation should change its name to the American Lie Association and be done with any pretence at objectivity.

Clive Bates, one of the foremost experts in tobacco harm reduction strategies, lambasted the ALA, calling this work both “incredible” and “outrageous”. Tom Pruen, who used to be the Science Officer for defunct British trade body ECITA, slammed the document as: “Appalling, dangerous, irresponsible, inaccurate … negligent”.

Gang Related

Dylan Jackson and Cashen Boccioa (University of Texas at San Antonio), Wanda E. Lealb (Texas A&M University) and Michael G. Vaughn (Saint Louis University) have combined to produce one of the most ridiculous studies ever produced about vaping. They believe their work has demonstrated “there may be something criminogenic about vaping among adolescents”.

“An emerging body of research indicates that vaping is becoming an increasingly popular trend among adolescents and young adults,” they write. With a tinge of sadness, they note that despite the wealth of vaping research that has conducted, nobody has considered a link to “drug use and delinquency.”

Idiocy in India

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is part of the Indian Department of Health. It has released a white paper purporting to be an extensive appraisal of vaping. The committee has ignored sound science, is rooted in corruption and ineptitude, and recommends “complete prohibition” of all vaping products.

There are in excess of 100 million smokers in India and 13% of the 720,000 annual premature deaths in India are tobacco-related.

RCM Supports Vaping

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has joined an ever-growing number of health bodies in the UK that are throwing their weight behind vaping as a successful way of reducing tobacco-related harm. The RCM says pregnant women should be encouraged to vape to help them quit smoking in its updated position statement.

The RCM revealed that almost 70% of Heads of Midwifery have reported that they are without a stop smoking specialist midwife in their maternity team. The finding came from its annual Heads of Midwifery survey and was published in the new position statement titled “Support to Quit Smoking in Pregnancy”.

Juul to San Francisco: ‘We’re staying’

Catherine Ho

As San Francisco officials prepare to consider a bill that would suspend the sale of e-cigarettes in the city, the CEO of Juul Labs — the controversial, homegrown company that sells the majority of e-cigarettes in the U.S. — said he’s committed to keeping the business and its fast-growing workforce in San Francisco.

“Yes, we’re staying,” Juul CEO Kevin Burns said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle’s editorial board. “San Francisco is our home. We want to be in San Francisco. We have 1,200 employees in San Francisco, a huge talent base in San Francisco. We want to be a resident, and I’m hopeful we’ll find a way to be a resident.”

As Canada’s cannabis capital

Calgary already has 29 cannabis stores. Ready for 25 more in the weeks ahead? With the provincial government’s decision to lift a moratorium on new stores, it’s expected to clear five new stores to open in Alberta each week as pot supplies improve.

A business strategist with the City of Calgary’s community standards said new stores will be popping up around town and it should be noticeable. Matt Zabloski said 25 store owners already have their development permit, building permit and business licence for a pot shop.

More States Ban Vaping, E-Cigarette Use

Bruce Rolfsen

Thousands of employers need to update their workplace no-smoking policies to include bans on vaping and electronic cigarettes as new state laws addressing the practice continue to crop up.

In the past three months, four states—Florida, New Mexico, South Dakota, and most recently Minnesota on May 31—put in place no-vaping mandates for most types of indoor workplaces.

Daren Bakst

Sometimes, it feels like we live in Bizarro World, where everything is the opposite of what we would expect. Consider, for example, the regulation of e-cigarettes and other alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Those who advocate policies that would help maintain existing levels of cigarette smoking are somehow viewed as the “righteous.”

The Tobacco Control Act, which gave the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products, is creating major obstacles for the sale of e-cigarettes and other alternative products, thereby doing more to block cigarette smokers from quitting than allowing them to stop.

On this Day…2018

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

Tobacco Control Contradicts Itself With Attacks On Vaping

Carl V. Phillip, The Daily Vape

Tobacco controllers will say basically anything they think furthers the particular message they are delivering at the moment, without regard to accuracy. Being loquacious and dishonest is a tricky combination to pull off. It is not terribly difficult to stick with a single lie, taking it as a premise whenever you address the topic and following through its implications. But when you cover a wide variety of subtopics and each have their own collection of rhetoric, untruths and exaggerations, it is a recipe for contradictions. Contradictions in tobacco control claims are frequently noted, but it may not be obvious just how contradictory the three core pillars of their anti-vaping attacks are.

WHO Missed A Trick With World No Tobacco Day

Neil H, EcigClick

The World Health Organization Taken To Task By Sarah Jakes and the NNA

World No Tobacco Day – that annual multi million dollar campaign to get smokers off the cancer sticks – hardly set the world alight and the main losers are sadly those looking to quit and make the switch.

Despite using the theme that tobacco is bad for the heart the WHO continued its snub of vaping and Snus both of which have literally no ill effect on heart health.

Indeed their total disregard of both smoking alternatives bordered on criminal given the sheer amount of smokers the world over making the switch to e-cigarettes.

The number of users of lit tobacco are tumbling here in the UK and US and last week France reported than 1million smokers had quit with many turning to vaping.

Wikipedia – encyclopaedic or idiotic?

Fergus Mason, Heat Not Burn

Everyone’s familiar with Wikipedia – “the encyclopedia that anyone can edit”. It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? A vast, sprawling reference work that everyone in the world can add their knowledge to, with administrators and fact-checking mechanisms to make sure nobody’s contaminating it with nonsense. In theory at least, it should end up containing all the open-source information in the world and be constantly checked for accuracy by thousands of dedicated users.

The trouble is that’s not exactly how it works. If the topic of an article isn’t controversial, Wikipedia is generally pretty reliable. Apart from the odd intentional vandalism or clumsy editing by a well-meaning newcomer, both of which usually get removed pretty quickly, articles about places, objects or anything else straightforward tend to be accurate and informative. I do research every day and I regularly use Wikipedia; the articles themselves give a good overview, and there’s a handy list of references at the bottom so you can dig deeper and verify facts.