B.C. Vapers Call for Balanced Regs

Vapers, vape shop owners, and harm reduction advocates in British Columbia attended two rallies on Saturday—one in Victoria and the other in Vancouver—to call on the B.C. provincial government to protect the rights of vapers and adult smokers to choose a less harmful alternative to smoking. RegWatch caught the Vancouver rally and grabbed great interviews with Dr. Mark Tyndall, Saadiq Daya, and more. Here’s our report hot off the presses.

2020-02-17
regulatorwatch.com

Nicotine Science and Policy Q&A

The primary public health policy goal should be the reduction of disease: trying to stop people dying in agony of cancer, collapsing with heart attacks and living in misery with COPD. In practice, this means concentrating on the goal of smoking cessation, especially among middle-aged adults – the population most at risk. Article (..) consists of about 60 questions and builds on a brief Q&A that I submitted to a consultation, a critique of an absurd anti-vaping Q&A by the WHO and my critique of numerous false and misleading claims made by Professor Stanton Glantz. It mostly focusses on nicotine vaping as an alternative to smoking, but most of the argument also applies to heated tobacco products, modern smokeless tobacco and new oral nicotine products.

2020-02-17
clivebates.com

Thank You, Taxpayers, for Smoking

As Australians have weaned themselves off tobacco, one part of the country has become more addicted to cigarettes and smoking. The federal budget. So addicted is the budget to the revenues gleaned from smokers that if this year the government delivers a surplus, it will be solely due to the nation's smokers. Two specific measures, announced in the 2016-17 and 2018-19 budgets, are pivotal to the government's surplus pledge. And both measures depend on smokers and their habits. In the 2016-17 budget, handed down by then treasurer Scott Morrison, the government unveiled its plan to sharply lift the excise on tobacco. Every September for the next four years (...)

2020-02-17
smh.com.au

Virus Hammers Vape Producers – and Taxes Boost Smoking

Vapers in the USA – and potentially around the world – are facing the threat of shortages as the coronavirus epidemic continues to paralyse swathes of the Chinese economy. Meanwhile a new study of US sales data shows that high taxes on vapour products are pushing ex-smokers back to harmful tobacco – just as harm reduction advocates have warned for years. This doesn’t seem to matter to lawmakers, though, as they continue to push for taxes and bans using ever more dishonest methods.

2020-02-17
vapingpost.com

Local Vaping Groups Slam WHO for ‘Erroneous’ Data on E-Cigarettes

Local vaping groups criticized the World Health Organization for publishing “an atrociously erroneous” question and answer page on electronic cigarettes. “The Q&A has nine questions and every answer the WHO provides is filled with false, misleading or simplistic information,” said Peter Paul Dator, president of The Vapers Philippines. “Stubbornly clinging to their myopic belief that the only way to reduce smoking is for smokers to ‘quit or die,’ the WHO conveniently ignores the science supporting e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes and shamelessly stoops to the level of falsity, propaganda, and fear mongering,” Dator said.

2020-02-17
manilastandard.net

Vapers Show Chemical Changes in Their DNA That Are Linked to Cancer

This is the latest study from a Keck School of Medicine of USC research team to show e-cigarette users develop cancer-related molecular changes similar to smokers. Biologically important changes in DNA seen in smokers are also being found in people who vape, according to a new study published in the journal Epigenetics. A team of scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have found people who vape (...)

2020-02-17
scitechdaily.com