Vaping News Headlines:
JUUL Dragged Into FDA Again – India To Ban E-Cigs Online – Women’s Group Says FDA MUST Promote Vaping – Jail For Vaping In Hong Kong – Canada Wants Total Ban On Vape Adverts – Stop Smoking Experts Too “Snooty”! – CDC Enters War Against Vaping – #VAPRIL Want Your Vape Videos and That ‘Dual JUUL’ Meme 😉
Women’s Group Says NOT Promoting E-Cigs is the REAL Public Health Crisis
Given many female smokers don’t respond well to nicotine patches a powerful woman’s group says the ‘war on vaping’ is sentencing many of them to death and smoking related illness.
Julie Gunlock from the Independent Women’s Forum calls out FDA boss Scott Gottlieb on his stance against vaping and points to fresh evidence out of the UK showing vaping is more effective than ‘traditional’ nicotine replacement therapies NRTs.
That research shows e-cigarettes are twice as likely to help people quit smoking than patches – sprays and gums which Julie told the FDA last year were not as effective for women trying to quit smoking.
She’s calling for the FDA to end the war and begin promoting e-cigarettes adding:
Gottlieb claims he cares for the plight of smokers trying to quit. I’m sure he does, but if he really wanted to help this demographic of Americans, he’d do more to correct misperceptions about e-cigarette safety, instead of stoking fears. And most importantly, he’d make these products more widely available.Right now, Gottlieb and the FDA are standing in the way of millions of people switching to safer products that might actually work to help them stop a deadly habit. That’s a public health crisis worth addressing.
It’s a great post and well worth a read.
JUUL Ordered To meet With FDA Again
The management of JUUL and Big Tobacco company Altria that owns 35% of the pod company hase been ordered to another meeting with FDA supremo Scott Gottlieb.
He believes JUUL is not following through on its promises to ‘curb teen vaping’ in America.
This despite the company pulling 99.9999% of its social media presence and removing flavoured JUUL pods from both vape shops and convenience stores.
Gottlieb says the promises he was made that JUUL would help stem what he claims to be an ‘epidemic of teen vaping’ have not been followed through:
I want to understand what’s changed from a public health standpoint that their posture has changed.
He’s referring to JUUL’s plans to roll out its brand to another 230,000 stores across America.
An Altria spokesman said:
Both Altria and Juul have taken significant steps that exceed what others in the industry have done.
Couldn’t agree more – however if a company that has literally bent over backwards to appease Gottlieb is getting shafted – the writing’s on the wall for those that may dare to stand up to who is fast becoming despotic…certainly in his hard guy attitude towards all things vape.
Another day and another attack on the state of the vape in the USA.
India Set To Ban Online Sales Of E-Cigarettes
As I’ve reported in the past the Indian Government is yet another engaging in a war on vapingIndian Government is yet another engaging in a war on vaping despite the shocking death toll on its populace from smoking related diseases.
There’s 267million current smokers in the country which represents a staggering 11.2% of the world’s lit tobacco users however this hasn’t stopped the country’s rulers refusing to accept vaping is 95% safer. Instead they continue to ban all things vape in states with a move to ban it countrywide.
Back in December the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had bought in temporary laws that would remove any content deemed to ‘threaten public health and safety’ – an obvious stop gap targeting vaping.
Last week JUUL stepped into the fray fearing their plans to enter the Indian market would be thwarted. The company used data from Public Health England to argue that vaping was at least 95% safer than smoking and may even have long term health benefits.
Public consultation on the new rules closed on February 4th – and I’ll let you know if indeed India pulls the plug on online e-cigarette activity.
You Can Now Be Jailed For Vaping In Hong Kong
Anyone caught vaping in Hong Kong could end up with a huge fine and 6 months in jail…yes really.
Not just the act of vaping either but also importing – manufacturing – selling – distributing or promoting anything vape related!
Despite China being the powerhouse of the vaping industry the new law is draconian and quite strange to say the least!
Last year the government had considered simply adding layers of legislation to e-cigarettes and this outright ban and criminalization is a massive u-turn to say the least.
As an aside Hong Kong has around 620,000 smokers of lit tobacco and just 5,700 vapers – and despite a ban on smoking in some public spaces there seems to be no plans to tackle that…
Justifying the ban Deputy Secretary for Food and Health Amy Yuen Wai-yin said:
We hope these alternative products won’t be so easily accessible in the market before they get really popular.
We worry that young people, who may not be users of conventional tobacco at the moment, will be attracted by the cool-looking alternative products and become smokers through vaping. We want to nip the problem in the bud.
Not so much nipping in the bud more like sledgehammer to a well cooked pea!
More lunacy from a Government that really should no better….or how about Hong Kong Phooey…ouch…
Canada Could Ban E-Cigarette Adverts Where ‘Kids Might See Them’
I wrote a while back the Canadian Government was mulling over calls for the outright ban on all advertising around vaping and now a major cancer charity has upped the ante’.
Health Canada had called for the restrictions last December citing the supposed ‘teen vape epidemic’ in America and the rise of Canadian kids at least trying a e-cig at one time or another. And now Canadian Cancer Society has welcomed calls for even more restrictions.
The plan is to remove all advertising where young people might see them such as shopping malls – public transport and billboards and indeed anywhere else they deem kids might view them! Not only that the censor happy anti-vape brigade are also calling for a complete ban on line and within stores…never mind this might stop adults looking to quit the cancer sticks from finding out more about the benefits of vaping compared to smoking…
Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society was positively gleeful at forbidding anyone from even getting a sniff of anything vape related literally anywhere adding:
It’s a significant development. We strongly support the further restrictions on e-cigarette advertising.
We think they can be strengthened further and we’ve got some recommendations on that, and important that we adopt it as soon as possible.
I could be a cynic here [me naw lol] and say that a HUGE charity such has the Canadian Cancer Society has more than a vested interest in NOT cutting down on smoking related cancers…it would of course cut off most of their lucrative funding…but that would make me a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist…probably… 😉
Too Much “Snootiness” Among Stop Smoking Experts!
A prominent Irish doctor has called on the country to embrace vaping as a substitute to smoking.
In a no holes barred attack on stop smoking advocates and writing in the Irish Times Dr Muiris Houston – a health journalist and analyst – says in Ireland there’s been a ‘deafening silence‘ from groups such as Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Heart Foundation and the HSE Quit team.
The latter is a website set up to help folks quit lit tobacco however under the Vaping and E-Cigarettes section it falls way way short:
E-cigarettes are still fairly new, so we don’t yet know how safe they are or if they help people stop smoking. Because of this, we don’t recommend e-cigarettes to help you quit smoking.
It is better to use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). NRT is safe and doubles your chance of quitting successfully.
*Bangs Head On Desk* I’m going to have to start wearing a bloody crash helmet!
We know that’s completely bollox and it’s backed up by the recent study carried out by Public Health England that shows vaping is TWICE as likely to help you quit than traditional patches – gums and sprays.
Quoting the study Dr Houston slams his country’s current stand on all things vape adding:
Amazingly on this side of the Irish Sea, at the time of writing, there has been a deafening silence from bodies such as the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Heart Foundation and the HSE Quit team. It seems that despite a favourable health technology assessment by Hiqa in 2017, a certain “snootiness” persists among advocacy groups here when it comes to vaping.
Well, in my opinion, the fact that many former heavy smokers who quit carried on vaping is a good thing. And so by continuing on their high horses, advocacy bodies are actually contributing to the kind of stigma described recently in a feature on lung cancer in The Irish Times’ Health and Family supplement.
It’s time for Ivory Tower residents to climb down and inhale real life in the smoking trenches.
Nicely put Doc and a great article.
CDC Labels E-Cigarettes As Tobacco
You’d expect better from a world renowned health organization such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] however they too are blinded by the bile being spouted in America’s war on vaping!
Despite tackling the most deadliest diseases known to mankind they appear to have a blind spot when it comes to vaping consistently referring to it as tobacco.
The organization’s latest ‘campaign’ is titled:
Tobacco Use By Youth Is Rising – E-cigarettes are the main reason
They also claim that:
- E-cigarettes are still the most commonly used tobacco product, ahead of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah, and pipes.
- E-cigarettes are the most commonly used product in combination with other tobacco products.
All easily disputed of course but one wonders how a group of scientists and experts more used to combating deadly diseases can get a key argument quite so wrong.
Repeat after me folks – “vaping is not tobacco!”
Writing on the American Council on Science and Health Dr. Alex Berezow lambasts the group for not only entering the attack on vaping – but for getting its key argument wrong:
The CDC has also gone on a bizarre crusade against e-cigarettes. True, vaping is not completely safe, and it should only be used by smokers as a quitting device. Recreational use should be discouraged, and policies should be in place to prevent them from falling into the hands of teenagers. But the exaggerated hype and fear surrounding e-cigarettes runs the very real risk of undermining a valuable public health tool.
Yet another great pro-vaping argument and another doctor speaking sense…we need more of them!
#Vapril Needs You!
It’s not long until this years pro-vape campaign VAPRIL kicks off and the organizers are calling for vapers to send in short videos of their personal quit smoking stories.
If chosen the films will be featured in the UK Vaping Industry Association [UKVIA] campaign launched as the title suggests this coming April.
The organization tweeted:
Has #vaping helped you?
If you’re an ex-smoker turned vaper – we want to hear your story! 👇
To help others make the life-changing switch this #VApril – we’re asking you to share your vaping experience in a short video clip & send to: vapril@jbp.co.uk #vapingsaveslives
Get those cameras out – you could be famous 😉
and finally…Is There really A Dual Juul???
I know I said I wouldn’t pay much attention to sell out ‘vape’ company JUUL after they threw vaping under the bus…
However this meme did make me chuckle.
I was hoping some idiotic ‘tobacco control expert’ may have picked up on it as a viable vape product…I’m still hoping lol…
I reckon a mock up should be made just to piss them off…maybe 😉
*Shuffles Papers*
Note: More Midweek Vape News on Wednesday 😉
