1 - Winter 2024 Round-up

Confusion

"Incoming passengers may be screened for e-vaporisers and their components at the arrival halls, and those found with e-vaporisers or their components will be fined," the authorities Singapore’s Changi airport stated.

The Singapore Government has also pledged to carry out random searches in the business district, shopping centres, parks, smoking areas, bars and clubs – creating a climate of fear and confusion and summing up how world leaders would like us to think about tobacco harm reduction in 2024.

Singapore still hasn’t clarified if this applies to transit passengers, simply stating that passengers should dispose of vapes in the Red Channel, thereby avoiding being subjected to strict penalties.

And what would a New Year be without the World Health Organization having a pop at vaping?

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “Kids are being recruited and trapped at an early age to use e-cigarettes and may get hooked to nicotine. I urge countries to implement strict measures to prevent uptake to protect their citizens, especially their children and young people.”

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) described the announcement as an ‘attack on vaping’, based on discredited research, and would lead to ‘disastrous consequences around the world’.

UKVIA Director General John Dunne said: “The WHO’s attack on vaping is both inaccurate and misleading and will further discourage smokers from making the life-changing decision to quit. Vapes are 95% less harmful than cigarettes and are responsible for an accelerated drop in smoking in the UK in the past decade.”

The UK’s other trade body, the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA), launched its Industry Code of Conduct, “backed by major players from across the UK vape sector”.

The Code sought, “to directly address recent concerns around the increase in youth access and experimentation with vapes, which have been reported to be, in large part, associated with the increased availability of single use vapes.”

It set out how disposables “should not disproportionally appeal to children and makes clear that those involved in the sale of vapes must ensure compliance with their recycling obligations and have a duty to encourage vape customers to recycle their product responsibly.”

With the anti-vape legislative horse now galloping across the gardens outside Parliament, it was always likely that it was far too late to close the barn door.

Despite this, Chair of the IBVTA Marcus Saxton commented: “I am delighted that the Code of Conduct will cover 50% of the single use vape products on the UK market, a figure that will increase over the coming weeks and months as more companies sign up. It shows that the vaping sector is willing and able to address recent concerns, including around those under 18 accessing vapes, and the need for increased recycling of used vape products.”

The IBVTA wasn’t on its own, the UKVIA was also working on a way for the industry to be seen as proactive and responsible, with its ‘Be Vape Vigilant’ national initiative.

UKVIA said the campaign was supported by Trading Standards, the Association of Convenience Stores and the wider retail sector. Its aim was to cut off youth sales and the supply of illegal products at source by reporting those retailers and wholesalers believed to be flouting the law.

The Conservative ‘ban everything’ horse was now halfway to Brighton.

Sadly, this came at a time when the responsible retail sector was reporting sales figures of legal products outstripping inflation; leading retailer VPZ said: “The 12 per cent rise in vape sales figures across the industry is no surprise due to its effectiveness as a smoking cessation tool.”

The Government’s pitiful pony was now on a ferry to France.

Facts of Life

Research paper production lines are now at full steam these days, with independent academics maintaining an output lending credibility to vaping as a smoking cessation tool and tobacco harm reduction techniques. Of course, the volume is far outstripped by the junk science steaming out of the centres largely based in the USA, India, Australia and the Far East.

The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project published a paper documenting how tobacco harm reduction and vapes offered huge potential for people experiencing homelessness.

David MacKintosh, a Director of K·A·C, which runs the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project, commented: “Homeless populations have long been disproportionately impacted by smoking, and therefore stand to gain enormously from effective and pragmatic harm reduction routes to quitting tobacco. The sustainability of this type of intervention must be approached carefully, but there is real potential here and it should be explored. On average, homeless people in the UK live half a life compared to the general population. Reducing their high rates of smoking is one way to start addressing this tragedy.”

University College London published a paper showing how the decline of smoking had now stalled.

Professor Caitlin Notley, Professor of Addiction Sciences, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, said: “This is a concern. In this generation we have seen cuts in funding to public health anti-smoking campaigns, but intense media focus on other nicotine containing products such as e-cigarettes, and some alarmist reporting. Unfortunately, this may be contributing to inaccurate harm perceptions, such that approximately half of people who continue to smoke incorrectly believe vaping is at least as harmful as smoking. Young people may incorrectly believe smoking and vaping to be equivalent in harm.

“The Government’s smokefree ambition is stalling,” commented IBVTA’s Marcus Saxton.

Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole spoke about positive trends following an ASH Year 10 survey. It found regular youth vaping “has decreased for the second year in a row, and daily smoking remains very low.”

Great news and probably cause for a complete Government rethink of any future plans, but the bad law horse was galloping into a French lay-by to tuck into some coq-au-vin. 

Meanwhile, the University of Buffalo discovered more pregnant adolescents have switched from smoking to vaping. 

The Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group produced its fourth national report demanding the government, “ensure pregnant women struggling to quit smoking can access vape products as an alternative while addressing increases in youth vaping and vaping among never smokers.”

The Group went on to warn: “Efforts to maximise the use of nicotine to support quitting among pregnant women have been undermined by widespread misconceptions among professionals and service users that nicotine is responsible for the health harms of smoking.”

Oh, and Queen Mary University confirmed that vapes help pregnant quitters. Should the Government listen?

Professor Caitlin Notley said: “This paper presents high quality evidence, as a secondary analysis of data from the first UK trial of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation during pregnancy…Helping people to stop smoking completely, as quickly as possible, is the best way to improve pregnancy outcomes.”

A report published in Joule demonstrated that alternative approaches to an outright disposables ban was feasible. The batteries are capable of multiple recharge cycles - 90% capacity retention following over 700 cycles - and product development could eliminate the environmental impact.

And Cochrane, forever with its reliance on facts and evidence, produced another paper detailing that e-cigarettes lead to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional NRT.

Dr Delon Human, leader of the Smoke Free Sweden initiative and former Health Advisor to three WHO Directors-General, said: “This research further underscores the importance of providing smokers with access to less harmful alternatives”.

World Shut Your Mouth

The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the presidential decree banning the sale of electronic cigarettes was unconstitutional. The response? Mexico has changed the constitution.

Argie-bargy kicked off in South America when Argentinian vapers demanded the repeal of the ANMAT administrative provision banning the commercialisation of e-cigarettes. The Argentine government maintains its opposition to harm reduction and saving smokers’ lives.

The European Parliament endorsed vaping as a smoking cessation tool via its Subcommittee on Public Health – which was immediately ignored by the EU Commission.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, stated: “The EU Commission's current stance on harm reduction is not just out of touch; it's a blatant disregard for consumer opinions and scientific evidence. It's high time the Commission responds to the reality that harm-reduction products are not the enemy but a vital ally in the fight against smoking.”

Then, gearing up for a mini ‘end of days’ re-enactment, Australia banned disposable vapes. The ensuing chaos has seen criminal gangs fighting over territory to sell illegal disposables, causing hundreds of firebombs and committing multiple murders.

Die For The Government

Hopeless Andrea Leadsom began the year by stating: “The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years and one in five children having now used a vape.” 

As we’ve seen, the evidence from ASH informs us the rate has fallen for two consecutive years. She lied. The Department of Health received 25,000 responses to its vape consultation and promptly ignored any from industry, experts and vapers.

The government’s new Health Minister is worryingly out of touch said the UK Vaping Industry Association’s Director General. During a debate, both sides of the house demonstrated an utter failure to distinguish between vaping and smoking.

John Dunne, UK Vaping Industry Association Director General, said: “If Health Minister Andrea Leadsom really believes that ‘nicotine consumption…kills up to two thirds of its long-term users and causes 70% of lung cancer deaths’, as she said yesterday, then she completely misunderstands the public health potential of vapes to save lives.

“It is cigarettes that kill over 200 people every day in the UK, not vapes. There is no evidence of nicotine vapes killing anyone in the UK, as Cancer Research UK have concluded ‘nicotine does not cause cancer’.

It mattered not, the stupid horse was now on a beach in Spain with a cocktail. As Planet of the Vapes had been predicting, the intention to implement strong anti-vape legislation was now being leaked in a bid to shore up flagging popular support for a failing Tory administration.

The Government’s smoke-free ambition was stalling, and Professor Caitlin Notley believes the only way to address this is for the government to invest in “public health campaigns to inform people accurately that vaping is an effective smoking cessation aid and substantially less harmful than smoking tobacco.”

The Mighty Fall When Votes Are Called – Ban Ban

And lo, Sunak pledged to destroy vaping.

ASH rejoiced, Bloomberg’s minions at the University of Bath celebrated, Trading Standards rubbed its hands at a £30 million windfall, and the Local Government Association repeated its demand for a complete disposable vapes ban to eliminate single-use products across the whole of the United Kingdom.

Dr Sarah Jackson said: “An estimated 1.2 million adults who currently smoke and a further 744,000 who previously smoked currently use disposable vapes. A ban could have substantial unintended consequences for these groups, such as discouraging people who smoke from switching completely to vaping, which is much less harmful, or triggering relapse among those who have recently quit smoking using disposables.”

She went on to warn that current and ex-smokers who use disposables will need support to switch to other types of vapes rather than going back to smoking, and that ex-smokers with a history of mental health conditions will require targeted support to help them avoid relapse.

The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) consumer charity said it was “extremely disappointed”, adding that a ban will not meet its objectives as “over 50% of sales of disposable devices are already counterfeit, non-compliant, or illegal.”

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World’s President and CEO Cliff Douglas added that the Conservative Government should focus on “stringently enforcing the minimum-age law, appropriately restricting marketing, and incentivising the development of eco-friendly product designs to achieve these dual objectives, without abandoning the needs of adults who smoke.”

The NNA added that “banning these products would equate vaping with smoking in the minds of many people. This will deter many smokers from switching to a far safer alternative and some former smokers who currently vape will return to smoking.”

The UKVIA was “dismayed” and the IBVTA was “concerned”.

“Big tobacco will be rubbing its hands with glee in anticipation of possible vape bans and increasing their sales,” said Marcu Saxton.

UKVIA wrote a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to 'express profound dismay and disappointment' that the government has decided to proceed with a ban on disposable vapes.

Thank You For The Music

As well as offering up a glorious opportunity to use song-based sub-titles in this summation of the first quarter of 2024, the first three months also allowed me to take a chance on using a song title for the best POTV headline of 2024: Nick Me Baby, One More Crime. I make no apologies – you have to entertain yourself when surrounded by such grim news every day! 

Sadly missed forum member Crewella would always play spot the lyric and message me when she found them buried in articles – our thoughts remain with her family and friends.

Photo Credit:

• Xmas berries photo by John Price 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.