Category: Vaping News

“The city of San Francisco is dealing with many pressing problems, such as skyrocketing homelessness, a surge in crime and poverty, a tourism industry in free fall, etc. Yet, amidst all of these troubling issues, the City Board of Supervisors is busy playing nanny state, following suit of California politics. Recently, San Francisco’s City Board of Supervisors voted to advance an invasive piece of legislation that would ban smoking inside private dwellings located in an apartment with three or more units. The bill, filed on November 12, applies to smoking tobacco, vaping, and cannabis products. Not only would this overreaching legislation apply to private dwellings, but it would also include private patios and balconies.”

ARTICLE LINK:

San Francisco: Nanny State Ground Zero

“Samrat Chowdhery, president of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO), spoke at the launch of “Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) 2020”, a publication released by UK-based public health agency Knowledge Action Change. Despite the influence being exerted by billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s cash, he sees a positive direction of travel in the global approach to vaping legislation. Chowdhery said that Bloomberg’s influence had warped the views of legislators and, “there is also an element of corruption aided by the Bloomberg NGOs, who are co-opting tobacco policy through the sheer force of money. The legislators in Philippines recently questioned the conflict of interest in their FDA receiving funds from these NGOs while pushing anti-vaping policy.” But, Chowdhery concluded, there is hope: “Since the last edition of the GSTHR report in 2018, four countries have banned THR alternatives while 22 nations from various regions of the world have either reversed bans or put in place formal regulations allowing their use. The tide is turning, and I hope this trend continues in years to come.””

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Chowdhery Sees The Positive

“Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, in his maiden Budget speech on November 6, proposed imposing excise duty on electronic, non-electronic cigarette devices and vape liquids beginning January 2021. He said the government will impose excise duty at a rate of 10 per cent on all types of electronic and non-electronic cigarette devices, as well as 40 sen per ml (millimetre) when it comes to the sale of vape liquids. All nicotine products fall under the purview of the Poisons Act 1952, and no licence has been issued by the health ministry for vaping products in the country. Mohd Hiekal bin Rosli, owner of Molek Vape Store on Jalan Ipoh, said “An Act should be put in place first and they should streamline the issuing of licences for vapes and all its related products. Right now, the health ministry doesn’t even issue licenses. How can you impose tax for something that people cannot get a licence to sell in the first place?” he questioned. Hiekal added that while the 10 per cent excise duty on e-cigarettes and vaping devices is fair, the 40 sen per ml on vape liquids is a bit much. “Forty sen per ml is actually quite high. Most vape juices I sell come either in 10ml, 30ml or 60ml boxes; imagine one 60ml bottle costs an average RM40, and at 40 sen per ml, that brings the total price to an additional RM24 on top of the price of the juice itself.””

ARTICLE LINK:

Vape shop operators: A tax on our products amid Covid-19 pandemic will kill business

“Smoking and vaping could soon be banned “in the majority of public spaces” in Melbourne’s CBD under a council proposal. The City of Melbourne released their “Towards Smoke-free” draft policy on Thursday, detailing the planned expansion of existing no-smoking areas throughout the CBD by 2025. Consultation on the proposal to ban smoking in Bourke Street Mall in 2019 showed that 83 per cent of individuals and 83 per cent of businesses supported the move. The council said it was going to set about expanding existing smoke-free areas, banning and monitoring the sale of tobacco products to minors, and establish new no-smoking areas over the coming five years.”

NOTE: Australia continues to deceive the public by conflating vaping with smoking

ARTICLE LINK:

Council proposes ban on smoking, vaping throughout Melbourne CBD

“Vapor companies that want to place an e-cigarette on the U.K. market will have to send their notifications through different routes after Jan. 1 due to Brexit. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will remain the competent authority for the notification scheme for e-cigarettes and refill containers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From January 2021 producers of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes and refill containers will be required to: Submit notifications for Great Britain using the MHRA Submission Portal – Submit notifications for Northern Ireland using the European Common Entry Gate (EUCEG). Retailers do not need to submit information for any products they sell unless they also qualify as a producer.”

UK GOV GUIDANCE: Placing an e-cigarette on the market from 1 January 2021

ARTICLE LINK: New U.K. Market Placement Rules on Jan. 1

“Nancy Loucas, Executive Director for CAPHRA, says the University of Bath TCRG’s own website confirms it has received significant funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies. “This is sadly a blatant attempt to rob consumers of their voice so that the Bloomberg network, which the authors belong to, can keep influencing governments to impose bans on lower-risk alternatives which could have helped address the tobacco-related health crisis,” says Ms Loucas. “Michael Bloomberg is on record saying vaping should be banned, and the major recipients of his money fail to distinguish between products based on relative risks and thus end up protecting cigarettes by attacking low-risk alternatives.””

ARTICLE LINK:

Kiwi Vaping Advocate Fights Bloomberg-funded ‘attack’

“Missoula has become Montana’s first city to pass an ordinance prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarette and vape products. On a vote of 8 to 4 the Missoula City Council Monday night passed the ordinance banning the sale of all flavored vaping products within city limits, extending five miles out into the county. It also requires retailers to keep all tobacco products behind the counter and away from underage minors. The move comes three months after the state health department, facing pushback from legislators, withdrew a proposal to enact a permanent statewide ban on the sale and marketing of flavored e-cigarettes. Missoula’s ban on flavored vape products takes effect on January 25th. Both supporters and critics of the ordinance expect a legal challenge to the rule.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Missoula Bans Sale of Flavored Vape Products; Lawsuit Threatened

“A Randomized Clinical Trial from researchers at California State University, University of Kansas, Brown University, and (amazingly) the University of California San Francisco has shown that vaping “did not increase nicotine exposure and led to short-term reduction in the major pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL, compared with continued smoking.””

BILL TARLING — NOTE: JAMA is a Pay-To-Publish service, and not an actual Scientifically Peer Reviewed publication — so, as with all the anti-vaping reports that get quickly published on that service without scientific verification, we must take into account these Clinical Trial findings are also published on the JAMA Pay-To-Publish service rather than a professional Scientific Publication

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RCT Shows Vaping Reduces Harm

“Researchers in Mexico, New Zealand and Italy have conducted a modeling study suggesting that the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) being transmitted via indoor vaping is not significantly higher than the risk associated with other types of expiration. Compared with exposure to regular breathing (without vaping) within the indoor environment, exposure to low-intensity expirations from an infectious vaper only increased the risk of transmission by an additional 1%. This risk must be kept in perspective with respect to the risk posed by other expiratory activities. The evolution of bioaerosols transmitting disease via respiratory droplets has already been widely studied.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Vaping does not appear to pose any significant additional risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

“Soon after California passed the flavor ban legislation, on October 9, 2020, a group of tobacco manufacturers and retailers (Plaintiffs) sued the State in federal court seeking to invalidate the law. They will be irreparably harmed because the California law is unconstitutional and will cause them substantial financial losses. On November 12, 2020, the California Attorney General (AG) responded with a brief in opposition to Plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction. The AG argued, in part, that: The balance of equities does not support the extraordinary remedy of issuing a preliminary injunction because, in part, nothing in the new California law prevents Plaintiffs from making or marketing their products in other jurisdictions or from selling non-flavored products. Given that we have seen permanent, state level flavor bans or restrictions in only five states, early litigation in states like California could provide a roadmap for Attorneys General in states that may take similar action in the future.”

ARTICLE LINK:

California Attorney General Continues Fight to Ban Flavored Tobacco Products

“A coalition representing the tobacco industry said Tuesday it has turned in more than 1 million signatures as it seeks to qualify a referendum for the November 2022 ballot aimed at overturning a law banning the retail sale of flavored tobacco products in California. If the Secretary of State’s office determines there is a sufficient number of signatures to qualify the referendum, the new law, which was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, would be suspended until the voters act on the ballot measure in November 2022.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Tobacco industry submits signatures on California referendum to block ban on flavored products sales