Author: Bill Tarling

“Vaping nicotine is a popular exit strategy for smokers who are unable to quit using current treatments. It is more effective than nicotine patches and gums and for many it is a safer long-term replacement to prevent relapse to smoking. Successful harm reductions have taken a bottom-up approach. Vaping is similarly a bottom-up approach, and therefore likely to succeed. Vaping is a disruptive innovation that has significantly undermined the cigarette industry. In the past few years since vaping and other harm-reduction options began to eat into the lucrative cigarette market, the market capitalisation of tobacco companies has fallen steeply. Last Friday, minutes after Parliament rose for a six-week winter recess, the Health Minister Greg Hunt announced draconian new restrictions for Australia’s 300,000 vapers’ capacity to obtain nicotine liquid. Greg Hunt, the Australian health establishment and the World Health Organisation are deeply entrenched in their positions against tobacco harm reduction and this disruptive innovation.”

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Why Australia should make it as easy as possible for smokers to switch to vaping

“A consumer advocacy group has asked the government of Thailand to follow the lead of Hong Kong in looking at scientific studies as the basis for ending the ban on smoke-free nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn tobacco products (HTPs) and snus. Asa Ace Saligupta, who runs consumer group ENDS Cigarette Smoke Thailand, said his group will petition the Thai government to also set up a committee to study e-cigarettes and find suitable control channels that will enable adult Thai cigarette smokers to find safer alternatives. “Instead of using electronic cigarettes as a tool to create fear by creating a discourse on children and youth or Covid-19, we want to call on the Thai government to set up an independent committee to seriously study the science, commercial aspects, and regulatory framework for electronic cigarettes like Hong Kong and many other countries,” he said.”

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Thailand asked to consider scientific studies on vaping

“There has been global debate about the beneficial effects or otherwise of nicotine towards the chances of contracting Coronavirus and ensuing severity of outcomes once infected. Dr Farsalinos is one of the first in the world to analyze the mounting data and produce research suggesting that nicotine may have protective properties. What exactly does the evidence tell us so far? Why are we seeing such wildly conflicting and confusing messages on the subject? What should we make of the nascent studies being undertaken in several countries to figure out the role of nicotine as a potential preventative force against Covid-19 and what should consumers make of it all?”

“Coalition MPs including George Christensen have revolted against Greg Hunt’s unilateral decision to ban the personal importation of liquid nicotine for vaping from 1 July. The decision, made by the health minister on Friday after parliament rose for a six-week adjournment, delighted doctors groups but has outraged Liberal and National backbenchers who favour legalisation of vaping. “This was all done without any consultation with the public or many government MPs including myself,” he said on Facebook. The Liberal senator James Paterson told Guardian Australia his views “remain unchanged”. “Vaping is a safer alternative to smoking,” he said. “We should be making it easier for smokers to quit, not harder. We should safely regulate vaping like virtually every other developed nation has done.” The Nationals senator Matt Canavan described as “overkill” the move to impose fines “for importing what is in most countries a legal product”.”

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Coalition MPs revolt against ban on people importing liquid nicotine for vaping

“The Dutch government is to extend current legislation on smoking to cover electronic cigarettes from July 1, and is also planning an outright ban on flavoured tobacco products for e-cigarettes. ‘These new insights confirm that the smoke-free generation we are working towards must also be an e-cigarette free generation,’ junior health minister Paul Blokhuis said in the briefing. ‘There is no place for all these tempting, exotic flavours.’ E-cigarettes with tobacco taste will remain on sale as an ‘ultimate aid’ to help hardened smokers stop, Blokhuis said. A health ministry spokesman told DutchNews.nl that the ban on flavoured c-cigarette products would be achieved via new legislation, with spring 2021 as a target date. Rules are also to be introduced for the IQOS, a type of e-cigarette which heats tobacco. It will fall under the same rules as apply to other tobacco products, with an age limit and advertising ban.”

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Dutch extend smoking rules to cover e-cigarettes, plan to ban flavours

“WA’s vapers are going on the attack over a looming ban on the importation of e-cigarettes containing vaporiser nicotine and nicotine refills into Australia. A petition and a fighting fund have both been launched to challenge the decision by the Therapeutic Goods Administration that takes effect from July 1. Members of Facebook group Perth Vaping United have tried to rally support to get the prohibition overturned, urging followers to “dig deep” to donate to Legalise Vaping Australia’s fighting fund. The fund aims to raise $1.5m to mount a legal challenge to stop the “senseless” ban from being implemented. “There has never been a more important time to come together as a community than there is right now. All donations go towards legal fees for the fight,” Stuart Bowerman wrote. “We don’t have much time to raise the funds, but I know as the strong community that we are we can reach this goal and get it done.” As of 12pm on Tuesday, a little over $8500 had been raised.”

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Vapers launch fighting fund to challenge Therapeutic Goods Administration’s ban on nicotine e-cigarettes

“A group of Alberta physicians is urging the provincial government to include additional measures in its pending legislation that would make vaping products less addictive and less attractive to children and youth. In a letter sent to Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro on Monday, the doctors argue that Bill 19 should go a lot further. The doctors say the bill should reduce the allowable nicotine concentration levels from 66 mg/ml to 20 mg/ml, noting it would align Alberta with Nova Scotia and the European Union. The physicians also want government to ban all flavours but tobacco. “

BILL TARLING — Note that the doctors refuse to acknowledge any scientific based studies or reports proving vaping has a higher success rate, and instead use deceptively false claims from a junk science pseudo study as their basis to claim vaping harms smoking cessation.

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Doctors urge Alberta government to do more to keep kids from vaping

“The town of Bethlehem could adopt stringent new regulations over the sale of tobacco that would require retail stores to purchase a license and banning vaping shops within 1,000 feet of a school. The town board has plans to vote on adopting the new regulations, which are opposed by convenience stores and gas stations but have broad support from local residents. The vote would take place by Zoom during the town board’s remote meeting Wednesday night at 6 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast live through the town’s web site.”

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“Big Tobacco and its legion of lobbyists, which for years fought efforts to raise the legal age to buy smoking and vaping products, mysteriously changed their tune in statehouses this year, instead arguing the age should be upped from 18 to 21. Big Tobacco and its legislative allies say they’re following the lead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in trying to fight dramatic increases in youth vaping. But public health groups, which first pushed for 21, claim the latest effort is a cynical ploy from an old tobacco playbook — playing the good guy and supporting weak statewide legislation that adds multiple exemptions, nullifies tougher local rules and ensures ineffective enforcement. It’s important to get it right, health advocates say, because once legislators update their state’s tobacco law they are unlikely to go back and change it anytime soon. One 2013 study published in the American Journal of Public Health showed it can take 17 years for states to update a weak tobacco law once passed.”

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BIG TOBACCO’S SURPRISING NEW CAMPAIGN TO RAISE THE SMOKING AGE

“The Neighborhood Market Association claims San Diego County has unconstitutionally banned the sale and distribution of flavored smoking products and electronic smoking devices for one year.”

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