3 - Summer 2024 Round-up

Mad World

“History is repeating itself,” wrote the World Health Organization’s Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He was correct – but he should have been referring to the WHO’s nonsensical stance on vaping. His comments accompanied a new report from the organisation, one met gleefully by Action on Smoking and Health – summing up how far the organisation has slipped when it comes to harm reduction.

Dr Sarah Jackson, Principal Research Fellow at the University College London (UCL) Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group (TARG), added a badly needed evidence-based perspective: “This report, and the accompanying press release, make claims that do not accurately reflect current evidence on e-cigarettes.

ASH Scotland mirrored its English cousin’s woeful stance by going cancel crazy – pushing the Scottish Government to ignore the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) and the Scottish Grocer’s Federation.

UKVIA’s John Dunne said: “Just before I gave evidence to a Scottish Parliamentary Committee, ASH Scotland tried to have me cancelled. Despite vaping being the most effective way to quit cigarettes, by some margin, ASH Scotland find their commitment to getting rid of cigarettes conflicted by Sheila Duffy’s irrational dislike of vapes.”

The World Health Organization continued its mischief on World No Tobacco Day by spreading even more misinformation.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers Alliance, commented: "World No Tobacco Day is a crucial opportunity to combat misinformation and promote effective harm reduction strategies. Instead of blindly fighting against safer nicotine alternatives, the WHO should be championing them as the key to a smoke-free future.

“The WHO is missing the mark by targeting vaping and other safer nicotine products instead of focusing on the real threat – smoking. By fighting those products, they are keeping smokers from making the switch. This is not just misguided, it's dangerous."

The World Vapers’ Alliance swiftly turned its attention to the Netherlands when the country announced it was applying plain packaging requirements to vaping products.

“Placing vaping products in the same regulatory category as combustible tobacco products, including plain packaging requirements, risks misleading current smokers about the significant harm reduction benefits of switching to vaping. Research shows that vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking cigarettes,” the organisation said.

“While the intent to prevent youth vaping is understandable, it is vital to balance this with the need to facilitate smoking cessation among adults. Effective youth protection is achieved through comprehensive education and supportive environments, not by conflating vaping with smoking through uniform packaging laws.”

As the months rolled by, Dutch vaper group ACVODA slammed the country for the online sales and flavour ban which had now backfired. The consumer group highlighted how such bans will always fail:

• Research among adult Dutch e-cigarette users shows that the flavour ban has not changed the consumption pattern of vapers in practice.
• 80% of consumers circumvent the flavour ban: 50% go abroad and 30% of respondents still order online and via social media, thanks to the lack of controls.
• Only 2% of users have switched to the tobacco flavour that is mandatory in the Netherlands. Almost 10% of e-cigarette users have returned to smoking.

Further afield, we marvelled at the stupidity of banning vaping while still allowing tobacco and cannabis to be smoked as the Thai Weed Club was raided.

The futile operation involved several layers of administration passing the buck and landed the prize of over a thousand drip-tips and 25 vapes, costing an undisclosed amount in manpower while real crimes went unsolved for the duration.

The Thai bust is the kind of thing that comes from politicians listening too much to the likes of Stanton Glantz – his latest research receiving an absolute pounding from experts who can spot his sham science a mile off.

They said his work contained “serious methodologic flaws”, accusing him of “selective reporting” and damned the paper as “low grade”.

A Land Down Under

Dr Colin Mendelsohn slammed “Australia’s [failing] de facto prohibition vaping policy” and said that with new amendments it remained “fatally flawed”.

Given that the move to make pharmacies be the sole source of vape product sales was met by The Pharmacy Guild of Australia saying it “strongly opposes this proposal”!

Dr Mendelsohn continued: “It is patently unfair that legitimate vape shops that have followed the law, never selling nicotine or selling to underage youth are going out of business without compensation. Owners, staff, and vapers are angry! Vape shops provide expert advice and support and have helped hundreds of thousands of Australian smokers quit. Their loss is a disaster at many levels.”

A surreal twist was the addition of a measure that can now see any Australian in possession of 14 or more vapes imprisoned for SEVEN YEARS for every offence – that’s seven years in jail for every vape. The word ‘insane’ is bandied about liberally these days, but it seems wholly apt in Australia’s case.

This is Deutsch

Latest figures from Germany showed that the vilification of vaping has resulted in smoking rates increasing. Federal Drug Commissioner Burkhard Blienert attacked reduced harm products by stating, "flavours and flavourings increase the appeal of the products and mask the dangers," and linked this to vaping, calling for even tighter restrictions to be applied.

The World Vapers’ Alliance took an innovative approach to advocacy in response, “to underline the importance of vaping flavours during the traditional ‘Vorwärts Sommerfest’ organised by SPD in Berlin. 

“We brought in a cocktail mobile, offering both flavoured and unflavoured cocktails to the guests and speakers. Unsurprisingly, attendees chose the flavoured cocktail options, while the unflavoured variety was left largely untouched. Through this demonstration, we aimed to emphasise that flavours hold significance not just in vapes but in all aspects of our lives, including our drinks.”

Scary Politicians

Vaping was seen as a political football in the lead up to the general election, and the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald lambasted Blackburn Rovers for having the temerity to be promoting harm reduction to adult smokers.

She praised measures that would ensure people’s “favourite football team or sports star cannot advertise vapes, as they cannot with cigarettes.”

Oswald said nothing about the dodgy, unregulated, foreign crypto-gambling sites emblazoned on the shirts the length and breadth of the UK.

Consequently, Rovers lost their shirt sponsor.

The football club’s CEO, Steve Waggott, spoke: “Everyone at the club would like to thank Totally Wicked for all their support over the last few years. To work closely alongside a local business owned by a huge Rovers fan has produced a much-valued and powerful partnership. We are delighted that they will continue to work alongside the club by supporting the fantastic work of our Community Trust, demonstrating the alignment of their social values with ours.”

The industry pressed its case as politicians made theirs to the voting public. The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) published a factsheet to cover the “10 Vaping Truths” and combat the rampant misinformation.

Meanwhile, the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) launched its six-point manifesto “for the benefit of the next government”:

1. Vaping must be treated differently than smoking
2. Potential health benefits must be recognised and embraced
3. Flavours are vitally important to adults
4. Regulation of single-use vapes must align with public health
5. The illicit market can only be challenged with a radical rethink in policy
6. The tax burden on vapes should balance relative harm to smoking

A new Sunak government would deliver "Murder and Mayhem", according to Dr Colin Mendelsohn. “British politicians are clearly not paying attention and have learned nothing from the mayhem unfolding in other parts of the world.”

But Rishi Sunak didn’t win and we got a new government for vaping, repeating its commitment to introduce the Conservative’s "Murder and Mayhem" Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Wes Streeting was appointed the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and has thus far failed to achieve much in the way of support from the vape industry or harm reduction advocates.

He pledged: “Labour will ban the marketing, promotion and the sale of vapes to children.”

By way of a response, Riot Labs sent Boris to Westminster. In a bid to keep it at the top of the in-tray for the new Labour government, they delivered a life-sized Boris Johnson behind protective glass casing to Westminster to get people talking.

The new government began with the King’s Speech, which provoked immediate response – especially as it promised to give the government powers to ban vape flavours.

UKVIA said: “We hope that Health Secretary Wes Streeting will grasp the opportunity this bill presents to improve the health outcomes for millions of smokers by allowing vaping to fulfil its untapped potential to help adult smokers quit.

“This bill, if implemented with thought and care, could be the springboard to getting the country’s smoke-free ambitions back on track, after inaction from the last government caused it to slip backwards by a decade or more.”

It wrote to Streeting, public health minister Andrew Gwynne and Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, asking for a meeting to discuss how vaping can best support the nation’s smokefree ambitions.

UKVIA then released ‘The Future of Vaping Policy to Support a Smokefree Britain’ for MPs to consider alongside the Independent British Vape Trade Association’s ‘Responsible Vaping Manifesto’.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said: “It is already clear that the generational smoking ban won’t work, because prohibitions never work. What makes the plan even worse is the crackdown on less harmful alternatives. Less harmful alternatives like vaping must be key elements of an anti-smoking strategy. Science and real-life examples like Sweden are proof. Harm reduction works, prohibition fails. The UK must not go down this path. Ignoring the evidence and pursuing failed policies will only lead to more harm and higher smoking rates.”

Leading vape company Evapo has conducted an analysis of the pledges, stating that, if carried out, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill would cost the UK economy £2.8 Billion and 18,000 jobs.

Andrej Kuttruf, CEO of Evapo commented: “In light of the proposed disposable vape ban set for April 2025, we face a critical juncture for the vaping industry and the UK economy.”

An industry that was then targeted by opportunists during the riots.

She Blinded Me With Science

Following the Kin’s Speech, Planet of the Vapes looked at the impact of flavour bans:

• Here
• Here
• And here

The UK Vaping Industry Association released its findings from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 45 local authorities and NHS trusts. Almost 70% recorded fruit options as, or amongst, the most popular choice for smokers. Fruit, mint/menthol, and desserts were popular options as part of the government’s swap-to-stop scheme.

Expert reaction was given to the ASH Teen Factsheet. UKVIA welcomed it and issued a warning: “While the new data shows a decrease in current and ever youth vaping, no one under the age of 18 should be using vaping products. The UKVIA firmly believes that a fit-for-purpose vape licensing framework, which would generate upwards of £50 million in annual self-sustaining funding, is the best path forward to arming trading standards with the tools they need to bring the hammer down on rogue retailers and cut the supply of youth vaping off at the source.”

One of many studies this year demonstrated the ongoing success smokers have with using vape products instead of cigarettes.

The team concluded at the end of the study: “In this study, daily e-cigarette use and use of e-cigarettes in 2019 to 2021 were consistently associated with greater cigarette discontinuation rates. 

Even disposables looked good in a study conducted by Cancer Research UK, that found single-use products were “a cheat code to quit smoking”.

News From The Front

In other news, businesses were avoiding fines, according to a report from leading vape company Vape Club.

Dan Marchant, Director, said: “Reputable sellers have safeguards in place to ensure that children can’t buy vaping products. For instance, we conduct full digital age verification on every customer before we allow an order to go out the door.

“We are really encouraged to see that from ASH’s recent report* the uptake in youth vaping has stabilised and we aren’t seeing an upward trend in teenagers trying vapes. What we have identified is the rising number in businesses selling to teens being caught. However, what we want to stress from our findings is that these deterrents and fines are not harsh enough.”

SmokeFree Hull showed 24% of people who successfully stopped smoking with them between April 2023 and March 2024 used a vape to help quit.

John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association, said the British Medical Association (BMA) is “deluded” if it believes that banning flavours will help smokers quit, and the trade body issued a ‘Spice Vapes’ warning.

Photo Credit:

• Photo by Angelo Pantazis on Unsplash

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.