“With Vermont lawmakers poised to pass legislation this year banning flavored nicotine and vaping products, the tobacco industry is putting its energy and money into opposing just one aspect of the bill: a ban on menthol. Bracing for the legislation, tobacco companies have spent tens of thousands of dollars on lobbyists to prevent the forced removal of menthol cigarettes and e-cigarette products from the market. Since September, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, which also owns the vape brand Vuse, has spent nearly $40,000 on lobbyists in Vermont, according to disclosure forms. The tobacco giant Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, which owns 35% share of the popular e-cigarette company Juul, has spent about $46,000 on lobbyists in the same period. R.J. Reynolds has hired the lobbying firm MMR to represent it in Montpelier. Altria and the lobbying firm it has hired, William Shouldice & Associates, did not respond to requests for comment. Last year, Vermont also took action to restrict vaping use, raising the age to purchase the products to 21, levying a 92% tax on the devices and nicotine “pods” and banning online sales of the products. The tobacco industry spent $200,000 on lobbyists in 2019 — primarily to oppose the online ban and tax measures”

ARTICLE LINK:

Tobacco industry targets Vermont’s proposed ban on menthol products

“The Board of Supervisors today formally approved a one-year moratorium on the sale and distribution of electronic smoking devices in unincorporated areas of San Diego County, along with a ban on the sale of flavored and smokeless tobacco products. The ban also applies to outdoor smoking at restaurants. Regulations and the moratorium will take effect July 1. Hookah tobacco use is exempt from the ordinance for the time being. The board’s vote was 3-2 — with Supervisors Jim Desmond and Kristin Gaspar opposed.”

BILL TARLING – Don’t you love government, where 3 people get to dictate and impose their personal beliefs which must be obeyed by the public

ARTICLE LINK:

County Supervisors approve ban of flavored, smokeless tobacco products

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“The United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC) is “concealing and suppressing information” according to leading harm reduction expert Professor Michael Siegel. The consequence, he contends, is that potential harms are being “overhyped … in order to deceive the public”. “The number one cause of severe, vaping-related health damage to youths is not electronic cigarettes,” says Siegel. “although you would not know that from reading the CDC’s literature on youth vaping.””

ARTICLE LINK:

We CDC You

“The Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health has decided that warning people about vaping during Canada’s National Non-Smoking Week is just the thing to help reduce tobacco related disease. While saying “smoking continues to pose a significant risk”, the council is keen that smokers only quit using traditional approaches that failed to work for millions until the advent of electronic cigarettes. Instead, the council recommends Canada bans “all flavoured vaping products”, regulates “a minimum set of flavours to support smokers” and places a limit on “the nicotine content in vaping products, including pods, to a maximum of 20mg/ml”. It also wants to limit the performance of mods and regulate power delivery and the use of nicotine salts. It wants to see punitive sin taxes applied to vaping products, limit use to over-21s, and carry out enhanced “surveillance and reporting of vaping product use”.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Canada Docs Hate Vaping

“The Aspen City Council gave its support to replace the city’s smoking ordinance during a work session Monday night. An updated law would include e-cigarettes and vaping among the public-smoking restrictions related to other tobacco products in the city’s regulations. Jannette Whitcomb, senior environmental health specialist for the city, will be presenting the actual repeal-and-replace language in a future council meeting. She will also be researching how the potential introduction of marijuana smoking lounges to the city would be affected by the indoor smoking and vaping ban.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Aspen council looks to crack down on vaping

“While youth vaping rates have increased in recent years, most middle and high school students don’t vape or smoke and very few vape or smoke daily, finds a study led by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health. The study, published this month in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, finds that over 80 percent of youth do not use any tobacco and over 86 percent don’t vape–and among the minority who do vape, most are not regular users. In addition, the study reveals that most youth who are vaping are also current or former smokers. “The faster drop in smoking suggests vaping is helping displace youth use of much more deadly smoking–a net harm reduction benefit to the population as a whole,” said David Abrams, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU School of Global Public Health and a study coauthor. The researchers also found that while youth vaping increased from 2017 to 2018, the increase was driven by infrequent e-cigarette use rather than regular use: in 2018, while 13.8 percent of students had vaped in the 30 days, more than half of them vaped five days or fewer.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Most young people do not vape, and even fewer vape regularly

“Anti-tobacco campaigners try ever so hard to be hip. No one tries harder than the Truth Initiative. They employ outdated internet memes, puppets mimicking the Breakfast Club, and zombies harassing innocent store clerks. Their actors can be awkward and theatrical, their messages ham-handed and overwrought. Badly designed ads can indeed have such a rebound effect. Manufacturing a cool image to stop teens from smoking is one thing; broadcasting half-truths to stop them vaping is another. Sadly, the teen vaping rate is rising. But the teen smoking rate is still falling—faster than ever, in fact—and it’s a good, even if not ideal, thing if teens switch from the one vice to the other. “No one knows the long-term effects of Juuling,” warns one ad. True enough, but those long-term effects, whatever they are, will almost certainly be better than the long-term effects of smoking. The Royal College of Physicians has found, for instance, that “the hazard to health arising from long-term vapour inhalation from e‑cigarettes” is “unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Teen Vaping Is Bad. So Are Many Ad Campaigns Against Teen Vaping.

“According to doctors Konstantinos Poulas, George Lagoumintzis and Konstantinos Farsalinos, a new study published in the journal Toxics provides important insight into the recent lung intoxication epidemic referred to as “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury” (EVALI). The trio say the study presents, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of products used by EVALI patients.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Nic Vaping Doesn’t Cause EVALI

“The use of nicotine-based e-cigarettes has been cautiously recommended as a potential second-line aid for people who want to quit smoking. In an updated guide on supporting smokers to stop, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) also said prescribing options for nicotine replacement therapies should be widened. Chairman of the expert advisory group behind the guide Nicholas Zwar said the recommendation that e-cigarettes could help people quit smoking came with many caveats. “The [therapies] that have been tested and been through therapeutic approval would be the first choice, but if you have someone who has not succeeded in quitting using those methods and they are interested in nicotine vaping, there is some evidence of benefit and they could be considered,” he said.”

ARTICLE LINK:

GPs cautiously recommend e-cigarettes to help smokers give up