Author: Bill Tarling

“On Monday, the Riigikogu passed a law that allows the sale of novel heated and smokeless tobacco products. In addition, the law allows the addition of menthol flavor in e-cigarettes. A government-initiated bill amending the Tobacco Act and the Alcohol, Tobacco, Fuel and Electricity Excise Duty Act passed the final vote in the Estonian parliament. The amendments enable adding the taste and smell of menthol to electronic cigarettes as well as annulling the general ban on the sale of smokeless tobacco products, and permit the handling of novel smokeless tobacco products. The bill was passed with 74 votes for, 12 against and no abstentions.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Ban on smokeless tobacco products lifted by Riigikogu

“Public Health England (PHE) released its evidence update on vaping just over a month ago, providing a warning that misinformation is causing a problem and preventing smokers from switching to vaping. The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has amplified the call for honesty when discussion tobacco harm reduction. PHE launched the evidence update by stating its advice remained the same: that smokers should switch to e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking, but non-smokers should not take up vaping.”

ARTICLE LINK:

UKVIA Calls For An End To Misinformation

“Juul is preparing to leave five European countries within the year. The e-cigarette maker is reportedly planning to pull out of Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Spain in July followed by France at the end of the year. Austria’s, Belgium’s and Portugal’s markets are apparently too small in the first place. Juul enjoys relatively high sales in Spain and France compared to the rest of the continent, but not high enough to justify the costs of running a business there and the trouble of dealing with regulators. The European Union has stringent requirements when it comes to e-cigarette products, as the publication notes, requiring companies to stick to a nicotine limit of 20 milligrams per milliliter of fluid. Meanwhile, a single Juul pod can contain up to 59 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter in the US.”

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Juul may exit France, Spain and other European markets

“Censured anti-vaping mouthpiece Stanton Glantz has called for open system vape products to be banned and says that only regulated pod systems should remain on sale in the United States. After continuous attacks on the pod industry sector, this represents a 180-degree shift for the disgraced studies-for-cash zealot. Unable to claim that vaping caused the black-market THC lung outbreak last year, Glantz now blames the industry for allowing it to happen instead: “A lack of oversight of e-cigarette manufacturing and the ease of product manipulation by retailers and users.””

ARTICLE LINK:

180 by Glantz

“Anti-vaping activist groups continue to use the coronavirus crisis to advance their goal of restricting — or even completely banning — the use of vapor products. They argue that vapers are at higher risk of harm from COVID-19. However, the available evidence indicates the opposite: If they had worked to convince more smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, there might be fewer coronavirus-related deaths today. That’s the view of Dr. Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Experts: Call for Vape Bans Made Covid-19 Worse

“By exploiting fear and confusion, e-cigarette opponents amassed support among the public and lawmakers for restrictions on e-cigarettes. Cities and states instituted onerous new rules, including banning all e-cigarette sales (but not traditional cigarettes), prohibiting flavored e-cigarettes, restricting sales to in-person transactions, and criminalizing possession of certain e-cigarettes. Last week, the FDA submitted a request to delay the PMTA deadline by four months, but even if granted, this would merely push the inevitable end of the e-cigarette industry to September 2020. In the meantime, anti-nicotine advocates are still trying to spread misinformation, slip state-wide vaping bans around the normal legislative process, and, ludicrously, link COVID-19 deaths to e-cigarette use—for which there is zero evidence.”

BILL TARLING — Reminder that a lot of the services and labs that are needed in order to do the required testing (which can take months with the backlog), which must be filed with the PMTA submission, are still closed too or not operating at full capacity given their huge backlog — so even with just a 4 month extension, most PMTA submissions cannot be met [except for BT products since they have their own in-house testing labs]

ARTICLE LINK:

Four-Month FDA Extension Not Sufficient

“Records show the public health agency sent warning letters to 54 different smoke shops. The biggest violator in the group were Smoker Friendly stores. Nine of its stores were given warning letters which threatened legal action for failure to comply. Licensed medical and retail dispensaries are classified as critical businesses, according the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), but smoke shops and vape shops were not considered essential.”

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Tri-County Health sent warning letters to 54 vape shops for violating stay-at-home-order

“I have called on the FDA to commit to pausing the sale of all e-cigarettes by announcing that it will prioritize enforcement against them during this pandemic. As our heroic doctors and nurses risk their lives to defeat this deadly virus, the last thing they need is to have their efforts complicated by the added effects of vaping on its victims. The federal government already has the tools it needs to take e-cigarettes off the market.”

NOTE: Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, is chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.

ARTICLE LINK:

FDA can boost the coronavirus battle by pausing the sale of e-cigarettes

“Juul Labs Inc. is preparing to cut 25 per cent to 40 per cent of its workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest round of layoffs at the e-cigarette company. The San Francisco-based company currently employs about 3,000 people after slashing about 650 jobs late last year. It could cut between 800 to 950 people in the latest round, the person said. Juul is downsizing amid scrutiny from regulators and shrinking sales. The company stopped selling its sweet flavours, including mint and mango, last year. Public-health groups and regulators have blamed Juul for fueling a teen vaping crisis. The company has said it never targeted minors in its marketing or promotions.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Juul said to cut up to 40% of workforce in new round of reductions

“Using e-cigarettes damages the arteries and blood vessel function much like smoking traditional cigarettes, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association, and funded through the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science of the American Heart Association.”

𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘: Of 400+ people, the “study” only used “36 e-cigarette users and 52 dual users who smoke combustible cigarettes and use e-cigarettes”. All the e-cigarette users were also previously smokers: “Combustible cigarette smokers and dual users were older than non-smokers and e-cigarette users, while e-cigarette users were more likely to be younger, male and white. All e-cigarette users were former smokers of traditional cigarettes.” (i.e. smoking likely already caused the damaged before they switched to vaping — yet the study attributes vaping to be the cause). The entire study bases their headline conclusion on 36 vapers (who previously smoked), out of 400 people (of which over 75% are or were smokers). They didn’t use any vapers that were not previously smokers when reaching their conclusions.

ARTICLE LINK:

E-cigarette users experience vascular damage similar to that of smokers of combustible cigarettes