Vape Advocate Denied Oxygen Update – Nicotine Patches Vs Covid-19 – Kids Get E-cigs From Friends NOT Shops – NY Flavour Ban – Menthol Tobacco Ban “Not Enough” and Ignore the WHO!

Ray Yeates – Still Denied ‘FREE’ Oxygen

Another update to the developing story of Ray Yeates, the Canadian vape advocate denied oxygen by the Nova Scotia health service – despite needing it to stay alive.

Social media has exploded across the globe with outrage over Ray’s plight, and is demanding his oxygen tanks continue to be supplied free of charge.

If you haven’t heard this shocking story yet, then checkout the two articles I’ve written for more background:

• Death Sentence For A Vape Advocate Refused Oxygen Because He Vapes
• Ray Yeates the Vaper Refused Oxygen Classed As Drug Addict For Using CBD

Fellow vape advocate Maria Papaioannoy-Duic has been in contact with the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness.

However the response does not bode well:

Smoking and using e-cigarettes in the same room as oxygen equipment can pose a significant safety hazard to the user and anyone else in the room.

There have been several reported incidents of burn accidents in e-cigarette smokers receiving home oxygen therapy.

Health Canada has released a warning of fire risk to oxygen therapy patients from the use of e-cigarettes.

Interestingly enough, a research paper actually looked at incidents of oxygen tanks exploding and burning vapers…and found NO OFFICIAL accounts!

The study’s entitled: E-cigarette use in patients receiving home oxygen therapy – included the line from the researchers:

…we could not retrieve any case report of burn accident in e-cigarette smokers on home oxygen in a Medline search. However, a quick ‘Google’ search was sufficient to identify several reports of such accidents in the lay press

Jesus H Christ…if it’s in the newspapers it MUST be true…

FFS – I despair.

The spokesman from the Nova Scotia Health department says he cannot comment on individuals due to privacy rules and adds:

…all clients must be smoke-free when receiving home oxygen services and must sign a non-smoking agreement when funded for this service by the Department of Health and Wellness.

Vapers ARE smoke-free for goodness sake!

And a case of health and wellness unless you’re a former smoker using a known safer alternative to smoking…as ridiculous as it is shocking.

I thought good health was a human right, and the medical profession was meant to save lives…imagine my shock…

Support For Ray Yeates Continues To Grow

The legislation around this ban comes from Health Canada and dates back to 2014.

It states:

Consumers should not use or charge electronic cigarettes near oxygen sources, such as pressurized containers used for oxygen therapy.

Consumers should also refrain from using or charging electrical devices in proximity to oxygen sources, such as pressurized containers used for oxygen therapy.

“Consumers” NOT patients…that’s what it boils down to…money.

I’ve heard this ‘rule’ may be altered on June 1st – even if that is the case, Ray and I’m sure many more like him are still suffering and without a shadow of a doubt could die, joining over 100 smokers a day that die in Canada from tobacco related disease.

The very thing Ray has been tirelessly campaigning against for years, despite his own failing health.

The Nova Scotia health department needs to act NOW in order to save Ray’s life but seem to be stalling which is simply not good enough when a man’s life is at risk.

Ray’s plight as I’ve already stated, has been picked up on social media – especially Twitter, with vapers, advocates, doctors, health experts and others demanding the Nova Scotia health department lets Ray keep his free oxygen…

Pro vaping doctor and researcher Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos is as shocked as the rest of us over Ray’s situation and has offered to help should the matter go to court:

He was joined by Vancouver based Dr Mark Tyndall – a Professor of Medicine, UBC School of Population & Public Health who tweeted:

To keep up to date with what’s happening to Ray Yeates, follow the hashtag: #SaveRayYeates on Twitter and also follow:

• Ray Yeates THRA.ca
• Maria Papaioannoy-Duic
• INNCO
• @THRA_CANADA

Ray’s supporters are also urging everyone to contact Nova Scotia health services to register their complaints or thoughts – here’s a list of contacts.

Nicotine Patches To Fight COVID-19?

We already have the human trials of a nicotine based vaccine in the fight against COVID-19 and now doctors in Wales are calling for research into the effectiveness of patches.

Doctors from the The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales have written to the lofty British Medical Journal and say nicotine patches should be trialed as soon as possible:

In this new disease smokers seem to have particularly poor outcomes.

We postulate that at least in chronic smokers, the disruption of the normal Renin Angiotensin System is exacerbated by nicotine withdrawal leading to exacerbation of acute lung injury.

We suggest that the simple use of Nicotine patches should be urgently considered and discussed.

The use of nicotine products to fight the virus are currently being tested in France.

Such was the interest, the French Government limited the sale of patches, gums and sprays.

Wales based trauma consultant Jonathan Davies told the BBC:

The physiology is immensely complicated but basically nicotine and Covid are involved with very similar pathways.

The thought is that the virus binds to receptors in your upper airways and we know that nicotine binds to the same receptors. So can nicotine block the virus from the attack, so to speak?

So nicotine replacement products may have a role in preventing infection by blocking the receptor in the airways which the virus binds to – but this is speculative.

I’m sure anti-vaping czar ‘Mini Mike Bloomberg’ is choking on his coffee over this one lol.

Speaking of Bloomberg…if you haven’t read it yet, take a look at a Bloomberg backed website calling out myself and EcigClick – among others, of spreading ‘misinformation’ about vaping and COVID-19 😉

Infamy! I guess we must be doing something right lol.

Incidentally, the wonderful Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos has just published initial findings on why it seems nicotine ‘attacks’ COVID-19 – checkout the link above.

Kids Buy Vape Gear From Friends NOT Shops

A US Government backed study shows kids get their hands on vape gear from friends and ‘informal sources’ and not shops.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] ran the research following the tragic EVALI outbreak in the US.

It studied 2155 EVALI ‘patients’ and also found a direct link to the disease with kids diagnosed with asthma and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD].

Lead author of the study, Susan Hocevar Adkins, MD from the CDC said:

…health care professionals should inform adolescents about the risks of using e-cigarette, or vaping, products, especially those containing tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] obtained from informal sources.

Clinicians can also work with adolescents to provide education and access to services.

Teaching should:
(1) Emphasize the association between THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, product use and EVALI;
(2) Reinforce that there may be other harmful chemicals in these products besides vitamin E acetate, which is strongly associated with EVALI; and
(3) Counsel adolescents that any e-cigarette, or vaping, product use is unsafe.

All sounds OK, however the good doctor STILL felt the need to wrongly link the EVALI outbreak to vaping on nicotine products.

The 2019 EVALI outbreak occurred in the context of an epidemic of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use among US adolescents.

These are two distinct public health issues, but both are critically important to address.

Adolescent and young adult nicotine and THC use can alter neurodevelopment in the long term and may lead to increased risk of substance use disorder and cognitive difficulties.

Both of these issues represent opportunities for public health and clinical communities to prevent and reduce the use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products among adolescent and young adult populations.

Regardless of whether nicotine, THC, or any other substance is used in an e-cigarette, or vaping product, these products are not safe for youth or young adults because of known negative health effects.

Simple question – where’s the science for those claims?

We could be waiting a while for the answer…

New York Flavour Ban In Force

All tobacco and vaping flavours are now illegal in the state of New York.

Yeah crazy – especially as lit tobacco is of course still on sale.

Anyone caught selling the banned products face an initial $100 fine…

If you’re in the area and unsure what it all means – read this from the Vapor Technology Association [VTA]:

Flavored” means “any vapor product intended or reasonably expected to be used with or for the consumption of nicotine, with a distinguishable taste or aroma, other than the taste or aroma of tobacco, imparted either prior to or during consumption of such product or a component part thereof, including but not limited to tastes or aromas relating to any fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, mint, wintergreen, menthol, herb or spice, or any concept flavor that imparts a taste or aroma that is distinguishable from tobacco flavor but may not relate to any particular known flavor.2

Whether a product is flavored may also be presumed by authorities based on a retailer’s, distributor’s or manufacturer’s express or implied statement made to a consumer or the public that the product has a distinguishable taste or aroma, other than the taste or aroma of tobacco.

The sale of flavored products that have received a PMTA market authorization from the FDA will be permitted to be sold and are exempted from the law.

Crazy times we live in…

Just remember the mayor and the governor will be up for re-election in November 2020 – #WeVapeWeVote 😉

The Menthol Tobacco Ban Is Not Enough Say ‘Experts’

The Europe wide menthol flavoured tobacco ban comes into force today but tobacco experts are now gunning for Heat Not Burn products.

IQOS is of course firmly in the sites of researchers who say far from ‘phasing out’ menthol flavours, Big Tobacco has pushed sales until the end and have concentrated on ‘alternatives to menthol tobacco‘ such as HNB and ‘inserts’.

New research released this week from Bath University here in the UK, says the powers that be must:

…eliminate the weaknesses the industry exploited in the UK legislation.

The research lead, Anna Gilmore, Professor and Director, Tobacco Control Research Group, said:

The way tobacco companies are using the ban on menthol cigarettes to promote new menthol tobacco products which are heated rather than burned undermines the very purpose of this ban.

It also flies in the face of tobacco company claims that they wish to reduce the harm from smoking.

They realise the menthol ban will trigger smokers to quit.

Instead they seek to move the smokers onto new tobacco products which independent evidence indicates are as dangerous as smoking and from which they make even more profit.

The research suggests the UK should take a leaf out of Canada’s book where all forms of menthol in tobacco is banned.

I’ve come to learn over the years that prohibitionists are never happy…

BTW, if you’re making the switch from menthol flavoured tobacco to vaping – here’s some of the best menthol vape juice in 2020.

Ignore the WHO On Vaping Says New Zealand Vape Advocates

The World Health Organization is lying about e-cigarettes and should be ignored says a New Zealand based advocacy group.

The Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) is now urging its government to take a different tack when it addresses a huge WHO backed conference in November 2020.

The Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) – and breathe – will be held in the Hague – Holland – and will no doubt feature the usual anti-vaping rhetoric.

The AVCA has written to the health minister urging her to reject the WHO’s current anti-vaping stance, and instead concentrate on the true science that includes vaping is 95% safer than smoking.

Nancy Loucas, the AVCA director says vapers and advocacy groups are not only being ignored by the WHO, but excluded from all relevant conventions, and urged the NZ government to change its tune:

We need you to represent our interests based on pragmatic decisions based on current scientific evidence and verified information on the benefits of the reduced risk products.

There are numerous scientific studies and statistical evidence reports that prove the harms of these products are no more than five percent of the harms of combustible tobacco.

Nicotine is no more addictive than caffeine, and hundreds of thousands of smokers worldwide have been successful switching off combustible tobacco using ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems), HTPs (heated tobacco products) as well as snus.

She was particularly scathing about the WHO’s bias and suggested there was an agenda going on involving money before health:

This vested interest has coloured the information in order to serve the political and financial interests of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Gates Foundation who provide nearly half of all the funding for the WHO-FCTC.

The WHO is lying to you to protect their own financial interests and keep their private donors happy.

They are not objective.

They are not focused on their own mandate under FCTC to promote the health of the people and their right to have information to make informed choices regarding their health.

Absolutely.

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More vape news on Sunday!

A reminder that if you have anything vape related that should be in the vaping news let me know!

Contact: neilh @ ecigclick.co.uk