This month’s roundup of articles includes big news coming out of Malaysia and the United States in addition to reports from around the globe. Also featured heavily in the news-- scientists, activists, and consumers question the wisdom and motivation of the World Health Organization and governments pushing anti-nicotine policies at the expense of public health.
‘Our health – Consumers the often forgotten majority’, Tom Gleeson, New Nicotine Alliance Ireland
Potentially the greatest resource available to tobacco control, a grassroots movement of people who have quit smoking, is being ignored. We are the ones with the testimony of quitting smoking, we are the ones who improved our own health. We achieved what tobacco control didn’t think was possible. We stopped smoking and improved our health prospects without abstinence from nicotine. We are the people with the lived experience of switching. We are the evidence that harm reduction works.
Contemptible misinformation about vaping in the Daily Mail, Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove, Iron Fist
After the government announced the possibility of e-cigarettes being available on prescription (which has always been an option anyway), journalists went looking for anti-vaping voices to give an alternative viewpoint. As usual, the 'public health' dinosaurs Martin McKee and Simon Capewell were invited to spout their nonsense. Both feature heavily in this Sunday Times article.
E-cigarettes could be available on NHS to tackle smoking rates, BBC News
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said e-cigarettes could be an important tool to reduce smoking rates. "Opening the door to a licensed e-cigarette prescribed on the NHS has the potential to tackle the stark disparities in smoking rates across the country," he said.
But Prof Peter Hajek, director of the tobacco dependence research unit at Queen Mary University of London, said the move sent a positive message that e-cigarettes could help people to quit. He questioned whether it would have the intended consequences as the costs of applying for approval could be a barrier to many manufacturers.
Review excise tax increase on vape products, says vape association, Teh Athira Yusof, New Strait Times
"We hope the government can consider reviewing the tax rate that has been set because it is quite high. The increase in tax will make vape products more expensive than tobacco cigarettes in Malaysia. Along with economic and industrial developments, the tax rates implemented should be made with proportional risks of the product benefits to the hardcore smoking community.”
Malaysia Will Legalize and Tax Nicotine Vaping, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
One of the world’s largest vaping markets will finally include legal nicotine when the Malaysian government formalizes its plan to regulate and tax vaping products. Consumer products containing nicotine are currently illegal in Malaysia.
‘There is something for everybody’: readers on switching from cigarettes to vaping, Rachel Obordo, The Guardian
In an attempt to reduce the smoking rates in England, the NHS is considering making e-cigarettes available on prescription to help tobacco smokers quit and switch to vaping.
Four people speak about their experiences of using e-cigarettes and how they helped them stop smoking.
Tobacco Industry, my Love, INNCO
The FDA’s Byzantine regulatory system requires a PMTA for every single new harm reduction product, sub-product and accessory. A PMTA for every combination of device and liquid, every flavor and every bottle size. Thus creating an exponential multiplication of duplicative applications. Ironically, new cigarettes are FDA approved through a much simpler process of “substantial equivalence” with old combustible products. Products that are just-as-deadly are fine. The safer ones? No way
Harm reduction gains traction, but vaping still a blind spot for many, Consumer & Society
It’s welcome news, then, that momentum is building in Canada for a shift towards a drugs policy centred around harm reduction. This positive development, however, only makes it more mystifying that Canada is swiftly moving in the opposite direction with regards to e-cigarettes. In June, Health Canada proposed draft regulations that would restrict all flavoured liquids except for tobacco, mint and menthol. The measures would also curb the use of most flavouring ingredients, including sugars and sweeteners, in vaping products.
England could become the first country to prescribe e-cigarettes, Amy Woodyatt, CNN
Alan Boobis, emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London and chair of the UK Committee on Toxicity, said: "I think it's fair to say that using an e-cigarette that meets current consumer standards will be a lot less harmful than smoking cigarettes. "Smokers trying to quit can try vaping, without waiting for a medicinally licensed product to go on sale before doing so. However, licensed vaping products will have to meet a defined standard set by the medicines regulator, the MHRA, and in return they will be available to clinicians to prescribe to their patients, which will be an important step forward," he told the Science Media Centre.
E-Cigarette Opponents Torture PATH “One-Puff” Relapse Data to Deny E-Cigarettes’ Cessation Impact, Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth Blogspot
I have worked extensively with the PATH data. Two years ago, I found that the authors of one study knowingly included vapers who had heart attacks 10 years before picking up an e-cigarette. That article was retracted by the journal editors. In the new JAMA Network Open report, the authors took a different approach to mischaracterize the facts. They teased and tortured PATH survey data, which collected information on thousands of factors, to fit their pre-conceived narrative about e-cigarettes and smoking relapse.
Fighting the Last War: An Excoriation of the WHO and Tobacco Control, Helen Redmond, Filter
The reasons the number of smokers remains high, despite all the efforts of tobacco control, are many and complicated by geopolitics. One is that the WHO and its NGO allies insist on continuing to wage a historic battle on dozens of fronts against tobacco companies. It has become a forever war that takes resources and money away from actually helping smokers quit. More recently, nicotine itself has become the enemy, and they have launched a massive disinformation campaign against most forms of safer nicotine products (SNP). Nicotine prohibition is the endgame as the WHO throws its support behind bans of SNP around the world.
Is plain packaging of snus working in Norway? Official body raises the question, David Palacios Rubio, TobaccoIntelligence
Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) found that plain packaging did not produce a decline in men’s snus use in Norway, with “inconclusive results” on both smoking and women’s snus use. The study, carried out by the national public health agency and published in the official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SNRT), concluded that men’s use of snus in Norway actually increased after the imposition of standardised packaging.
The Youth Vaping “Epidemic” Has Ended; So Should Extreme Youth-Centric Anti-Vaping Measures, Michelle Minton, CEI
It is no accident that the debate over vaping has become singularly fixated on the issue of youth vaping. That is the intended result of a well-funded political campaign aimed at dragging the conversation away from the science, which shows e-cigarettes are a life-saving alternative to combustible tobacco, and instead transforming the issue into a false moral choice between saving adults or protecting children. So far, that prohibitionist narrative has worked.
If Less Vaping Means More Smoking, That Won't Be a Public Health Victory, Jacob Sullum, Reason
Cigarette sales in the United States rose last year for the first time in two decades, according to data published by the Federal Trade Commission this week. Although the 0.4 percent increase may be due at least partly to smokers who stocked up on cigarettes during the COVID-19 pandemic, it coincided with declines in e-cigarette use by teenagers and adults—a potential warning sign that the campaign against vaping is undermining public health by boosting cigarette consumption.
The medicine isn't working. More medicine! Christopher Snowdon, Velvet Glove, Iron Fist
Meanwhile, in the USA, cigarette sales have risen for the first time in twenty years after a relentless campaign against vaping. As CNN notes, at the very end of their report on this news… “Smokers are also switching back to traditional cigarettes from vaping devices in response to restrictions on e-cigarette flavors”
Don't expect any contrition from the people who have been at the forefront of the war on vaping.
Why Did Cigarette Sales Rise in 2020 After Falling for 20 Years? Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
Americans bought 203.7 billion cigarettes (about 10.2 billion packs) last year—an increase of 800 million cigarettes, or 0.4 percent. That breaks down to an average of about 300 packs a year for each of the approximately 30 million people who smoke, or a little less than a pack a day each. Mainstream news outlets have focused on the coronavirus pandemic as the primary reason for the increase, but a more likely cause is the decline of the U.S. vaping market in recent years.
Anti-Vaping Scare Tactics and Cigarette Sales, Veronique De Rugy, National Review
The pandemic is an obvious culprit here. However, the negative health impact of the pandemic that will result from this increase in smoking (I assume people are buying more cigarettes because they want to smoke more) could have been tempered if the CDC and the FDA hadn’t spent so much time demonizing the less harmful alternative that is vaping.
Joe Biden’s Great Big Tobacco-Tax Hike, Jim Geraghty, National Review
The fiscally conservative Tax Foundation notes that, “As a source of general fund revenue, the tax is exceedingly regressive. The vast majority of smokers have lower incomes, and tobacco is one of the few goods that have an inverse relationship with income in that consumption increases as income decreases.”
Cigarette and tobacco prices rise to more than £14 as Chancellor hikes smokers' tax, Levi Winchester, Mirror
Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said: “Smokers are sick and tired of being targeted every year with above inflation increases in tobacco duty. The majority of smokers come from poorer backgrounds. Many have suffered financially as a result of the pandemic and should not have to face yet another increase in the cost of tobacco at a time when they can least afford it.”
My View: Arizona, tobacco taxes, and the Biden promise, Sam Sohdi, Phoenix Business
Journal
According to a recent economic analysis of the higher tobacco taxes, retail sales will decline by $801 million nationwide. Employee wage income will drop by $630 million and job losses will top 14,000 as adult consumers make fewer legal purchases. Arizona store owners stand to lose as much as $12.5 million per year in revenue with a $4.6 million hit to labor income as prices rise and sales fall.
Whose WHO? Henry Hill, CAPX
It is too much to hope that we might withdraw from the FCTC Treaty and repatriate control of our laws on tobacco, although we should. As with Dominic Raab’s focus on the Human Rights Act rather than the UK’s membership of the Convention itself, there seems to be limited stomach for getting to the root of the problem with the controversy over Brexit so fresh.
But Britain should act, with the threat of funding cuts if necessary, to force the WHO to open its deliberations to press and public scrutiny. Technology may have made great strides, but in this case sunlight remains the best disinfectant.
Judges Reject FDA's "Surprise Switcheroo," Issue Stay to Triton, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
A three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Triton (also known as Wages and White Lion Investments, LLC) is likely to succeed in its MDO appeal, and that the FDA order is “likely arbitrary, capricious or otherwise unlawful.” The decision allows Triton to continue selling its products while the court reviews the FDA denial order.
Electronic cigarettes are the single most effective quitting aid, Colin Mendelsohn, Dr. Colin Mendelsohn
Vaping nicotine is more effective than all the available stop-smoking medicines, varenicline, nicotine replacement therapy and bupropion, according to a comprehensive analysis funded by the prestigious UK National Institute for Health Research. The study analysed 171 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) using a technique called a "network meta-analysis". This allows treatments to be compared with each other without having to test them head-to-head in the one trial.
FDA Puts A Second Vape Company Back Under Review, Alex Norcia, Filter
The FDA’s rescission by no means ensures that Fumizer’s vapor products will eventually receive authorization. But the move, amid a flurry of lawsuits against the FDA from dozens of vapor companies, might be indicating a pattern: namely that the agency, in its rush to meet a court-imposed deadline, did not consider evidence that would indicate these products met the standard of being “appropriate for the protection of public health.”
Britain should not listen to the unaccountable, unscientific WHO on vaping, Adam Afriyie MP, CAPX
In simple terms, the WHO now wants all member states to treat cigarettes and reduced risk products equally. Their stance towards vaping and other reduced risk products is made even more peculiar considering their own EURO Regional Grouping brief on Electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems, released in 2020, states that there is conclusive evidence that ‘completely substituting electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems for combustible tobacco cigarettes reduces users’ exposure to numerous toxicants and carcinogens present in combustible tobacco cigarettes’.
Global pressure mounts ahead of COP9 conference, Fuseworks Media, Voxy NZ
To be simulcast on YouTube and Facebook, sCOPe is a co-operative effort by THR consumer organisations globally. Totally excluded from COP9 despite being the main stakeholders, vapers and other safer nicotine consumers are being called to promote and mobilise around sCOPe.
100 scientists urge WHO and the UK Government to take up vapes, David Maddox, Express UK
The British Government is being pushed to make sure its policy of encouraging e-cigarettes as an alternative is promoted at the meeting for others to adopt. The letter drawn up by Mr Bates has six recommendations, starting with a modernised approach to e-cigarettes.
On e-cigarettes, follow the science, Derek Yah, Deccan Herald
As evidenced by the e-cigarette ban, there is no measured sense on the part of the government or health authorities that THR may help, never mind that it can work. There is a yawning gap in homegrown product research in LMICs overall, and, in India’s case, at least, a concomitant dependence on outside organisations with political agendas – organisations such as the WHO, which was enacted 21 years ago and still refuses to amend its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to more fully define the concept of THR and the proportionate risks and benefits of products that have come onto the market in the interim.
FDA: E-cigarettes proven harm reduced product, Dr Kumar Subaramaniam, The Sun Daily
Reviewing evidence from 61 studies that included more than 16,000 participants, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce at the University of Oxford found that the findings provided more confidence that e-cigarettes with nicotine, such as those now approved by the FDA, can help people quit smoking better than other replacement aids such as gum or patches.
The Oxford scholar added that in studies testing e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking, there was no evidence that people using e-cigarettes were more likely to experience serious health issues.
The country fears that the US will set higher taxes on tobacco, Dominican Today
A Dominican delegation will travel on Monday to Washington, United States, headed by the Minister of Industry and Commerce and Mipymes (Micm), Victor-Ito, Bisonó, where together with the diplomatic legation led by Dominican Ambassador Sonia Guzmán, they will seek that the congressmen reverse these intentions that will affect thousands of Dominican producers, the country’s exports, employment in 13 agricultural provinces and the generation of foreign exchange.
Altria Will End U.S. IQOS Sales November 29th, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
Altria has announced that heated tobacco product (HTP) IQOS will be removed from the U.S. market Nov. 29, 2021. The decision follows an order by the federal International Trade Commission in a patent dispute initiated by British American Tobacco (BAT) and its U.S. subsidiary Reynolds American (RAI).
Estimating the reduction in US mortality if cigarettes were largely replaced by e-cigarettes, Peter N. Lee, John S. Fry, et al., Arch Toxicol (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-021-03180-3
Conclusions: Substantial reductions in deaths and life-years lost were observed even under pessimistic assumptions. Estimates varied most for X and F. These findings supplement literature indicating e-cigarettes can importantly impact health challenges from smoking.
Advocates furious after study bizarrely claims that vaping doesn’t help smokers quit, Staff Editor, Vapouround Magazine
A new study claims that vaping does not help smokers quit…so now tell that to the millions of people who used e-cigarettes to kick the habit. Advocates were furious after a University of San Diego report claimed that vaping was a less successful quitting tool than going cold turkey, accusing the body of misreporting its own findings.
Backlash Against the FDA Grows as Vape Company Ramps Up Legal Fight, Alex Norcia, Filter
The FDA missed its deadline to make decisions on the biggest vape companies’ products; it has subsequently approved just one. The agency has meanwhile issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) to numerous smaller players—and many of them are now pushing back against a process that has caused widespread anger.
Déjà Vu | New Alarm Over Youth Vaping in Canada | RegWatch (video)
Joining us to talk through the CBC report and to discuss Dr. Hammond’s new data is national vaping activist Maria Papaioannoy-Duic from Rights4Vapers.
During the EVALI lung crisis, my state banned all vapes. We were wrong. Shaleen Title, Leafly
As someone who had studied drug policy for years, I knew these types of knee-jerk bans tend to be based more on politics than actual evidence. In this case, the decision to ban all vape products only ended up putting Massachusetts residents at higher risk of serious injury or death.
For my part, I pointed out that purposely pushing people into the illicit market, where the dangerous products circulated, went against every principle of harm reduction and public health. But the decision-makers in the Baker administration seemed to be either unaware of or intentionally ignoring the growing body of evidence linking the outbreak specifically to unregulated THC vape cartridges.
Re-exploring the early relationship between teenage cigarette and e-cigarette use using price and tax changes, Michael F. Pesko, Casey Warman, Health Econ. 2021 Oct 20. doi: 10.1002/hec.4439. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34672061.
We find evidence that e-cigarettes and cigarettes are same-period economic substitutes. Coefficient estimates (while imprecisely estimated) also suggest potentially large positive effects of past e-cigarette prices on current cigarette use, indicating intertemporal economic substitution. Our findings raise doubts about the conclusion of government-sponsored reports that e-cigarettes and cigarettes are strongly positively associated. We recommend revisiting and possibly amending this conclusion.
E-Cigarettes Less Addictive Than Cigarettes, Traci Pedersen, Invito Health News
“We found that e-cigarettes appear to be less addictive than tobacco cigarettes in a large sample of long-term users,” said Jonathan Foulds, professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine. More than 3,500 current users of e-cigs who were ex-cigarette smokers completed the Pennsylvania State Cigarette Dependence Index and the Penn State Electronic Cigarette Dependence Index. The online surveys were designed to assess participants' previous dependence on cigarettes as well as current dependence on e-cigs.
USPS Vape Mail Ban Is Now in Effect, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The United States Postal Service will issue a final rule Oct. 21 that will end delivery of vaping products through the U.S. Mail. The new USPS rule, which will take effect immediately after publication in the Federal Register, will drastically change online sales and shipping of vaping devices and liquids.
Letter urging Director Zeller and others at FDA/CTP to initiate a review and updating of the 20-year old Clearing the Smoke report, Tobacco Reform
42 public health leaders have signed onto a letter urging Director Zeller and others at FDA/CTP to initiate a review and updating of the 20-year old Clearing the Smoke report so that a new report can address the evolved tobacco and nicotine marketplace and allow stakeholders to get back on a track in advancing public health objectives. Download the letter
PMTA News: FDA Authorizes Zombie Nicotine Product, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
It’s questionable whether “addicted smokers” would get any relief from an oral product containing 1.5 mg of nicotine, but it’s also a moot point—at least for now. Altria hasn’t manufactured or sold VERVE since 2018, and the company has not said that it intends to put VERVE back into production.
Global broadcast counters secretive WHO conference, The Daily Blog NZ
A co-operative effort by THR consumer organisations globally, sCOPe is totally independent and non-aligned. Its format and content have been developed to inform the public and media, as well as the millions of ex-smokers now using safer nicotine products. With only weeks to go, organisers are now calling on vapers and consumers of other safer nicotine products to promote and mobilise around sCOPe.
Youth19 Vaping Survey - Dated, Disingenuous And Damaging, Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy, Scoop NZ
“Every time somewhat obsessed Otago University researchers rubbish vaping, despite it being 95% less harmful than cigarettes and the most effective smoking cessation tool, New Zealand gets further away from achieving smokefree - not closer! “Dragging out a 2019 youth survey on vaping, when so many new rules and restrictions aimed at the youth have since come into effect, is disingenuous at best and damaging for Smokefree Aotearoa at worst,” says Nancy Loucas.
Biden’s FDA Just Gave Big Tobacco Control of the Vape Industry, Dave Morris, Inside Sources
Disappointed by the lack of effective options, smokers took their future into their own hands and created the modern vaping market, building their own devices and flavors in their homes and in their free time. Over the next decade, over 10 million smokers successfully quit, and a flourishing industry emerged, comprised mostly of small businesses. Unfortunately, recently the FDA ripped control of this revolutionary movement away from the victims of Big Tobacco that created it and handed over control of these life-saving products to the tobacco manufacturers.
More Bad Behavior from Journal Authors & Editors on A Fatally Flawed Study of Vaping & COPD, Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth
These egregious errors should have been discovered and corrected by the authors, and by the journal’s reviewers and editors. Among the five authors is Pebbles Fagan, Ph.D., a former member of the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.
Dr. Orloff responded to my letter: “I should say I feel very embarrassed. Indeed this was sloppy on our side and we will fix and connect with the Editors in Chief on how to move forward.”
Still, the mess wasn’t immediately resolved.
World Health Organisation slammed in open letter for 'anti-vape' stance contributing to 'millions' of deaths, Dominica Funnel, Sky News
Professor Nutt highlighted there were now smoke-free alternatives to cigarettes for which there is "no real scientific doubt" that they are safer smoking. “And yet the World Health Organisation has dug in against vaping and the other alternatives and is throwing every possible obstacle in the way. WHO continues to insist that smokers should just stop, even though we know millions of smokers will not do that and millions will continue to take up the habit."
Global experts call on World Health Organisation to ditch ‘prohibitionist’ anti-vaping stance, Frank Chung, News.com.au
More than 100 global experts have slammed the World Health Organisation for a stubborn anti-vaping stance that is contributing to “millions” of avoidable smoking-related deaths.
In an open letter ahead of a global tobacco control meeting next month, the group of independent experts in nicotine science and policy have blasted the WHO for being “dismissive of the potential to transform the tobacco market from high-risk to low-risk products”.
Wrong Tax Base Leads to Multiple Issues for Federal Nicotine Tax Proposal, Ulrik Boeson, Tax Foundation
In an effort to raise revenue, House Democrats have proposed increasing federal tobacco taxes and creating a new tax on other nicotine products in the Build Back Better Act. While the proposed increase on cigarettes is dramatic, it is relatively simple: an additional dollar per pack of 20 cigarettes. On the other hand, simplicity is not a good descriptor for the nicotine tax, which would be imposed at a rate of $100.66 per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine—it is deeply flawed, highly complex, and non-neutral.
One Hundred Tobacco Control Experts Urge WHO to Adopt Harm Reduction, Alex Norcia, Filter
Vocal THR supporters, consumers and drug-war critics have frequently criticized the WHO for pushing prohibition or draconian regulations that would hinder smokers from switching to safer nicotine products, like vapes or forms of smokeless tobacco. They’ve warned of the philanthropic influence of billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, the WHO’s global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and injuries and a funder of the agency, who has used the power of his nonprofit to push for vape bans—particularly in lower- and middle-income countries, where governments are more susceptible to outside financial interference and where the majority of tobacco users live. They’ve also pointed out that the WHO’s definition of “tobacco control” includes incorporating harm reduction into its policy.
FDA’s Negligence Led to Youth E-Cigarette Use, Worse for Adult Smokers, Lindsey Stroud, Townhall
It is overwhelmingly clear that both the CDC and FDA are intent on blocking adult access to tobacco harm reduction products under the guise of protecting the children. In their own actions – or lack of – the FDA has allowed youth e-cigarette use to remain by not enforcing prior regulations. If lawmakers truly wanted to address youth use of any age-restricted product, they should start by requiring federal agencies to follow their own regulations.
FDA’s Authorization Of Vuse Solo Is A Bittersweet Victory For Vapers, Maria Chaplia, Independent Women’s Forum
The FDA made the historic e-cigarettes marketing approval process all about resources, while it should have been about smokers and harm reduction. E-cigarettes are safe, and now that the FDA recognized it in the case of one company, the trend should get replicated across the board, regardless of size and standing.
One hundred specialists call for WHO to change its hostile stance on tobacco harm reduction - new letter to FCTC delegates published, Clive Bates, The Counterfactual
100 specialists in nicotine science, policy and practice have come together to call on the 182 parties (countries) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to take a more positive stance on tobacco harm reduction. The letter pushes back against WHO’s misguided and unscientific drive for prohibition or excessive regulation and taxation of vaping products, heated and smokeless tobacco products, and novel oral nicotine products, such as pouches.
At Least 28 Vape Companies Have Challenged MDOs in Court, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
We have created a list of manufacturers that have filed petitions for review of MDOs, and in some cases motions for a stay of FDA enforcement. They’re listed alphabetically, and next to the company name is the date of the legal action, the circuit court hearing the petition, and other applicable information. If we have covered the case in an article, the most recent coverage is linked. (For those companies whose names are known only from a list created by the Public Health Law Center—three of them—we have no filing dates.)
Survey finds students are using vaping as quit smoking aid, recommends ban, Saqid Sarker, Dhaka Tribune
Vaping helps smokers quit cigarette smoking and as a result save them from the long term harms of it. Vaping is 95% safer than smoking. There is no carcinogen, tar and so on. This is a worthy tradeoff. We have to understand that this is harm reduction,” said Schumann Zaman, president of Bangladesh Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Traders Association (BENDSTA).
Responding to the survey, Zaman said that the recommendation for banning stands at odds with findings by internationally recognized and highly respected organizations like the Public Health of England, and the Royal College of Physicians in the UK.
Kenya must step up bid to help smokers quit the killer habit, Dr. Okanga Nashon, The Standard Kenya
Laboratory studies have shown that exposure to carcinogens and other toxicants present in cigarette smoke is greatly reduced in smokers who switch completely to harm reduction products. But Kenya seems to be moving in the opposite direction and is slapping massive taxes on vapes which puts them out of reach of majority of smokers and shifting positions on nicotine pouches. Some activists are going as far as calling for an outright ban and propagating misinformation on the risks of the products.
US sketches out tough regime for e-cigarettes with first authorisation, Jamie Smyth, Financial Times
The authorisation of the first e-cigarette by US regulators this week was described by industry experts as a historic moment for the $5bn sector, which has been operating under a cloud since a crackdown on a teen vaping “epidemic” in 2018. But the US Food and Drug Administration’s choice of product for its first ever green light — an unpopular device shaped like a real cigarette made by a subsidiary of British American Tobacco — puzzled some observers.
Experts Challenge WHO Position on Safer Nicotine, Tobacco Reporter
“We’re gravely concerned by the WHO’s continued rejection of tobacco harm reduction,” said Stimson. “It already accepts harm reduction as a valid, evidence-based public health intervention for drug use and HIV/AIDS. Harm reduction is explicitly named as one of three tobacco control strategies in the opening lines of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Adoption could hasten the end of the public health crisis caused by smoking.
I work in a vape shop. Customer outbursts are the new normal, and no one is paid enough to put up with this. Elle Hardy, Business Insider
The US Food and Drug Administration recently brought in Premarket Tobacco Product Application regulations. This means that pretty much all the juice, hardware, and battery manufacturers had to pay and do testing and submit applications to the FDA to be able to sell their products. This has been causing problems with the supply chain, and customers are getting really frustrated that they might suddenly not be able to buy or get support for the product they want. I tell them that it's completely out of my hands because it's an FDA matter, but because I'm the face they see working in the store, I'm the person they lash out at.
A very British coup- how public health took control of UK vaping advocacy, Simon Clark, Taking Liberties
In my opinion they are driven by a determination to eradicate smoking and, far from being a recreational product in its own right, e-cigarettes are seen as nothing more than a quit smoking aid and therefore a means to an end. Once that end has been achieved I suspect that future e-cigarette conferences will be devoted to vaping cessation with speakers invited to address nicotine addiction, the need for further restrictions on all nicotine devices, and how Big Bad Tobacco is immorally making billions from the vaping 'epidemic'.
Confusion clouds FDA’s approach to e-cigarettes, Katherine Ellen Foley, Politico
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision this week to authorize the sale of an electronic cigarette was a landmark for the vaping industry — but it may only deepen confusion about the sector’s future. More than a month after a court-ordered deadline to determine which e-cigs could stay on the market, FDA has yet to act on applications from some of the industry’s biggest players, including Juul.
Illegal Vape Products Seized in New Waterford, Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services news release
On October 6 in New Waterford, a 36-year-old man was apprehended and found in possession of 733 bottles of flavoured e-juice totalling over 54,000 millilitres (54 litres) and valued at $34,500. He was arrested and the illegal products seized.
FDA Responds in Court to Triton Appeal + Other MDO News, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
After yesterday’s news that the FDA has authorized one vaping product to be sold—and only in a tobacco flavor—the independent industry’s efforts to challenge the agency on legal grounds become more important. As of today, there are some updates to report.
US approves E-cigarette marketing as Kenya debates approach, Tracy Mutinda, The Star (Kenya)
CASA chairman Joseph Magero said: "This landmark ruling in the US is due recognition of the scientific evidence that harm reduction products can save millions of lives by helping smokers to quit." “Countries worldwide are seeing and feeling their benefits, yet authorities in Kenya still seek to deny our three million desperate smokers access to these innovative products, which might provide their only hope of moving away from lethal cigarettes.
Health Canada Is Poised to Take a Disastrous Wrong Turn on Vaping, Martin Cullip, Filter
Most damning of all, the Health Canada justifies its proposed policies in part with the contention that businesses which sell vaping products will benefit from an increase in tobacco sales instead as a result. This may be correct, but how can it be what any responsible government wants to achieve?
FDA Issues First Authorization for a Vaping Product, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The Vuse Solo is a so-called cigalike—a small stick battery that uses prefilled, disposable cartomizers. The product resembles a cigarette, although the Solo battery is silver in color, and the cartridges are black. The cartridges are only available in 4.8 percent (48 mg/mL) nicotine strength.
FDA Permits Marketing of E-Cigarette Products, Marking First Authorization of Its Kind by the Agency, FDA news release, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The agency will continue to issue decisions on applications, as appropriate, and is committed to working to transition the current marketplace to one in which all ENDS products available for sale have demonstrated that marketing of the product is “appropriate for the protection of the public health.”
Consumer Voices Will Not Be Silenced, Consumers’ Association of Canada, Cision Newswire
"It is unacceptable that Health Canada, or any government agency, would overtly exclude consumer voices from a consultation that directly impacts consumers. This is a dangerous precedent that we do not take lightly," stated CAC President Bruce Cran.
Michigan Gov. Whitmer Drops Proposed Flavor Prohibition, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The news was a surprise, and came the day before a scheduled meeting of the Michigan legislature’s committee that approves rules proposed by executive agencies. MDHHS last month sent the final rule to the Michigan state legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) for approval. The meeting was cancelled after the rule was withdrawn.
Dear Congress, Federal Health Agencies Don't Need More Funding for E-Cigarette Alarmism, Lindsey Stroud, Townhall
While Democratic lawmakers publicly laud the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for denying more than 1 million applications for vape products, they continue to be frustrated that the FDA is dragging its feet on deciding the fate of some of the more high-profile applications. Now, instead of waiting for the FDA to conclude their review process, some members of Congress have decided to introduce even more vaping-related legislation in a misguided attempt to put a stop to a supposed youth vaping epidemic.
Scientists push for tobacco harm reduction policies, Business Reporter, The Sunday Mail
Scientists believe that policymakers, especially in African countries such as Zimbabwe, could be better served by interventions that focus on making harm-reducing alternatives to combustible cigarettes cheap and readily available, instead of disproportionally focusing on the WHO’s recommendations that emphasise on banning tobacco. “WHO was more about prohibition,” said Dr. Letlape, adding, “Banning does not work!”
Stand up to EU! Boris urged to use Brexit freedoms to end e-cigarette ban fears, David Maddox, Daily Express
Mr Jones said: “The WHO has launched an anti-scientific crusade against vaping, which has been shown time and time again to help smokers quit. The organisation consistently praises nations who undertake ever more draconian measures against vaping.‘’ “These decisions cost lives, and the UK must take a stand. Just like the EU, the WHO is a bureaucratic body, unaccountable to the British people, and is aiming to control domestic health policy, to satisfy its own prejudices. ‘’
Medical Journal of Australia censors debate on vaping harms, Colin Mendelsohn
Australian medical journals need to be willing to present both sides of a controversial issue based on the evidence without political, ideological or other considerations. False and biased information about nicotine vaping will reduce the uptake of vaping and lead to unnecessary deaths.
Michigan drops plans for permanent ban on flavored vaping, seeks new fix, Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News
The department said it pulled back the proposal on Wednesday because it's working on an alternative legislative solution to address youth vaping, one that so far appears to be significantly scaled back from the department's full ban.
Should Tax Policy Play a Role in Tobacco Harm Reduction? Ulrik Boeson, Tax Foundation
To answer the question posed in the headline of this post: yes, tax policy should play a role in tobacco harm reduction—but inadvertently. The tax code should remain as neutral as possible, and it should not pick winners and losers. That being said, the nature of excise taxes is such that a well-designed tax scheme should encourage consumers to switch from cigarettes. Because harm associated with consumption of other nicotine products (vapor products, nicotine pouches) is much lower, the tax rate should be much lower. Since lower rates translate to lower retail prices, it allows the consumers to navigate the market and helps them switch to less harmful products.
Vuse closing in on Juul for top U.S. electronic cigarette market share, Richard Craver, Winston Salem Journal
What happens to the rate of substitution between traditional cigarettes and vaping will soon be shaped by FDA decisions on vaping products. Electronic-cigarette manufacturers had to submit by Sept. 9, 2020, their premarket tobacco market applications in order to stay in the marketplace for at least another 12 months. The FDA did not meet a federal court-ordered deadline of Sept. 9, 2021, to decide whether to grant those applications for e-cigarettes. Anti-tobacco and public-health advocacy groups are strongly urging the FDA to ban all non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors.
Respecting the Agency of Smokers: the Liberalism of Harms Reduction and the Illiberalism of Prohibitionism, Jacob Grier, Liberal Currents
For alcohol and increasingly marijuana, America’s libertarian tendency to view adults as entitled to consume what they prefer consistently wins out over concerns about those products’ appeal to youth. In contrast, the idea of an adult nicotine consumer whose rights are entitled to respect has been erased from the conversation.
Four reasons to reject a federal tobacco tax increase, Guy Bentley, Reason Foundation
These sweeping tax hikes would break the Biden administration’s campaign pledge that it would not raise taxes on low and middle-income Americans. The tax increases also contradict the FDA’s smoking reduction strategy, would undermine public health efforts, and cause job losses across the country.
New Survey Reveals WHO At Odds With Kiwi Vapers, Scoop, New Zealand Taxpayers Union
Union spokesman and vaper Louis Houlbrooke says, “First, the WHO pressured countries like New Zealand into adopting sky-high tobacco taxes. Now, the same organisation is expressing unfounded hostility to vaping – a tool that in New Zealand has been shown to help smokers quit cigarettes, saving on tax and reducing harms to health.” New Zealand’s own Ministry of Health has endorsed vaping as a quit aide and the Union is calling on the Ministry’s delegates at COP9 to promote this position internationally.
FDA Warns 20 Vape Companies for Selling MDO Products, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The FDA has stated that products remaining on the market after receiving MDOs are among the agency’s highest enforcement priorities. Receiving a warning letter is the first step of FDA enforcement, and can be followed with more severe sanctions, including fines and seizures of products. The agency also announced additional warning letters to companies marketing products without first submitting Premarket Tobacco Applications (PMTAs).
Differences in Switching Away From Smoking Among Adult Smokers Using JUUL Products in Regions With Different Maximum Nicotine Concentrations: North America and the United Kingdom, Nicholas I Goldenson, Yu Ding, et al., Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Oct 7;23(11):1821-1830. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab062. PMID: 34002223.
Implications: Switching rates were lower among smokers who purchased the JUUL System ("JUUL") in the UK, where regulations limit nicotine concentration to 20 mg/mL versus N.Am. (United States and Canada), where higher concentrations are available-before and after controlling for differences in smoking and ENDS use characteristics. These results suggest availability of ENDS in nicotine concentrations greater than 20 mg/mL may be associated with increased switching among adult smokers. Between-country differences may be affected by unmeasured factors; future research should consider these factors and the extent to which regulatory policy environments may explain differences in switching among adult smokers.
Chaiwut mulls legalising e-cigarettes amid fierce opposition, Post Reporter, Bangkok Post
At least 67 countries have approved e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative to smoking while Thailand still refuses to accept them, he said. The minister said he believed vaping could be a safer choice for those struggling to quit smoking, adding there were at least 10 million smokers in the country.
CDC Releases 2020 Adult Smoking & Vaping Data, Brad Rodu, Tobacco Truth
The fact that young adult vaping rates are half of those among high schoolers falsifies federal officials’ claims that vaping is enslaving a whole generation of teens to nicotine. Previously the claim was just an exaggeration. Now the claim is being used by the FDA to eradicate a whole generation of life-saving e-cigarette and vaping businesses.
Will the ‘Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ be another arm of the nanny state? Jason Reed, The Article
Currently, Britain has some of the most liberal, positive, forward-looking laws in the world around vaping and tobacco harm reduction. We are reaping the rewards of that, as people quit smoking in their droves. But our progress could come to a sudden halt – and even start going in the opposite direction – if the nanny statists at the WHO and the OHID get their way by beginning to close in on tobacco harm reduction.
Smoke and Mirrors: Orwellian Echoes of 1984, Charles A. Gardner, PhD, INNCO.org on Medium
FCTC leader’s worldview is a strange mental pretzel that might be appropriate in Oceania, in 1984, but will be lethal in the real world. Safer nicotine alternatives compete directly with Big Tobacco’s main cash cow: Cigarettes. So, ironically, the FCTC Secretariat’s Doublespeak recommendations protect cigarette sales. And cigarettes kill. And that’s bad. Very bad.
Biden Promised To Follow the Science; So, Why Isn’t He Doing So on Vaping? Dave Morris, Inside Sources
Biden earned my vote with a single promise. It turned out to be a promise that he not only didn’t keep but sprinted in the opposite direction.
How Can We Integrate Nicotine Into Harm Reduction Programs? Kevin Garcia, Filter
Vaping and forms of smokeless tobacco have gained popularity as harm reduction options for millions of ex-smokers around the world. Evidence shows that such products are both vastly safer than cigarettes and effective ways of quitting them. But in the last few years, we have simultaneously seen a dramatic increase in fear-mongering around these options, led by national and local governments, well funded nonprofits and the World Health Organization.
Lies, damn lies and (vaping) statistics, Marc Gunther, The Great Vape Debate
You wouldn’t know it by reading press releases from the FDA or CDC or by listening to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids or the Truth Initiative, but the US government released encouraging news last week about youth vaping. The headline from the latest National Youth Tobacco Survey should have been this: Teen vaping has fallen by 60 percent in the last two years.
More Vape Manufacturers Challenge PMTA Denials, Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The agency changed the timeline for PMTA submission several times, and waffled about the evidence that must be included in a PMTA. In fact, the FDA never offered a clear picture of what a successful PMTA for a vaping product might look like.
British MPs Call WHO Stance on HnBs ‘Short-Sighted’ And ‘Out of Date’, Diane Caruana, Vaping Post
Earlier this year, the MPs called onto the UK government to stop funding the WHO unless it stops acting with hostility with regards to vaping. They highlighted that the WHO’s inaccurate insistence that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, despite the scientific data indicating the contrary, is unacceptable. In fact, to date there are countless peer reviewed scientific studies indicating the effectiveness of such products as harm reduction and/or smoking cessation tools.
