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More Lazy Journalism on Vaping and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

July 14, 2024 Tobacco Harm Reduction News

More lazy journalism on vaping – this time from the AP. Brazil’s vaping ban backfires. Study shows second-hand vapor exposures very low. RJR introduces zero-nicotine vapes in U.S. and more!

Scroll to the bottom of this post for a link to the audio/video versions of this post!

CALLS TO ACTION

CALLS TO ACTION:  GET INVOLVED: Calls to Action By State

AROUND THE WORLD

WHO Wants E-cigarettes Banned in High-Smoking Vietnam

With a smoking rate of 24.8% (2020) for ages 15+ in Vietnam, @WHO rep Dr. Nguyen Tuan Lam wants the country to ban low risk #vaping products, because use had “surged” in that group to 3.6% (2020.)

Tobacco control’s obsession with the futile attempt to end all nicotine use (regardless of low risks) has become an addiction that will end up deadly for the public.

READ MORE: E-cigarette use rises among Vietnamese teenagers, WHO representative wants a ban

 

Brazil’s Vaping Ban Backfires

Brazil banned the sale, manufacture and importation of vaping devices in 2009.

“Despite stringent vaping laws, Brazil has seen an increase in vaping rates over the past couple of years. Some Brazilian states have seen over 100% increase in vape usage between 2022 and 2023. Approximately 4 million Brazilians vape regularly. There has been an approximate 600% increase in e-cigarette consumption since 2018.

Brazil has made attempts to ramp up enforcement of vaping laws, but it has done little to dampen the burgeoning black market for e-cigarettes. E-cigarette sales have increased “fourfold” between 2018 and 2022.”

READ MORE: The Wrong Answer

 

INDUSTRY NEWS

R.J. Reynolds Introducing Nicotine-free Disposable Vapes

The products, already available overseas, are branded as “SENSA.” The company believes the products fall outside FDA jurisdiction, because the agency has admitted in the past that a sealed, nicotine-free device—like a disposable or pod—probably wouldn’t fall under the agency’s authority.

CASAA director Jim McDonald reporting for Vaping360.

READ MORE: Reynolds Launches Nicotine-Free Flavored Disposable Line

 

MEDIA MISINFORMATION

More Lazy Journalism on Vaping – This Time From the AP

The reporter tells readers how the FDA says e-cigarettes pose a “serious, well-documented risk of enticing more young people to pick up a nicotine habit” and how “in 2020, nearly 20% of high school students and almost 5% of middle-school students used e-cigarettes.”

However, just a little more digging would have revealed that those rates dropped to 10% and 4.6% respectively in 2023, despite the continuing availability of “the sweet flavored e-liquids.”

Additionally, since 2020, cigarette smoking for both groups has dropped to just 1.6% and all tobacco use has dropped from 16.2% to just 10% (this is including vaping.)

Where is this “well-documented” evidence that non-tobacco flavors have enticed more young people to pick up a nicotine habit?

 

READ MORE: Supreme Court to weigh whether regulators were heavy handed with flavored e-cigarette products

 

LEGISLATION

Gov. Cooper Signs H900 Switcheroo Bill

Governor Roy Cooper (North Carolina) has signed H900, which started out as a bill regarding the Board of Education and had Big Tobacco Protection Act (PMTA registry) language thrown in later.

This is disappointing news for the 1.2 million adults in NC who still smoke and the nearly half a million adults who had switched to vaping — all of whom could be using these products to keep from smoking.

READ MORE: New vaping regulations signed by NC Gov. Cooper

 

TOBACCO CONTROL

Despite Reporting, LGBT+ Smoking Disparity Has Reduced

While the disparities in the LGBT+ community absolutely need to be highlighted and addressed, treating the rise of low-risk nicotine #vaping as though it’s as equally problematic as smoking does a disservice to the public. Even the FDA acknowledges that completely swapping smoking for vaping is a benefit to public health!

Truth’s info-graph shows that current LGBT+ cigarette smoking–while still higher than non-LGBT+ rate–is down to just 8%! (Note: this is for “young people,” which Truth classifies as ages 15 to 31 years old).

The good news is that LGBT+ folks who smoke appear to be swapping deadly smoking for low-risk vaping!

According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), current cigarette smoking in LGBT+ adults (18+) dropped a whopping 8.5 points from 23.8% in 2016 to 15.3% in 2021. (Heterosexual smoking dropped 5.9 points in the same period.)

Notably, the cigarette smoking gap with non-LGBT+ adults also reduced significantly, dropping from 6.5 points higher than non-LGBT+ adults in 2016 to only 3.9 points higher in 2021.

Meanwhile, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data shows that adult (18+) lesbian/gay vaping only increased by 3.5 points and bisexual vaping by 1.2 points between 2016 and 2021.

How can anyone look at this graph and not acknowledge what’s really happening here? Dare we say why?

READ MORE: LGBT+ young people smoke and vape at a higher prevalence than non-LGBT+ peers

 

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

The Biggest Hurdle to Overcome the Smoking Epidemic? Misinformation

 

“In an environment in which individuals who smoke and their health care providers believe that the only acceptable way to stop smoking is to go cold turkey or use FDA-approved cessation medications, many people don’t even try, or give up after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully.”

“Our field must work directly with people who smoke to correct misinformation about nicotine and help them quit, using whatever tools work best for the individual. Putting the individual’s experience first will not only help them achieve their goals of quitting, but it will also help repair their tattered faith in the health care systems that have failed to support them previously.” 

~ Cliff Douglas

 

READ MORE: SPONSORED CONTENT Health Affairs Branded Post The biggest hurdle to overcome the smoking epidemic? Misinformation

CASAA IN ACTION

CASAA Live

On our last episode, CASAA CEO Alex Clark spoke about the unexpected ineffectiveness of flavor bans for many vapers, and the unfortunate effect of lagging FDA authorizations and the illicit market on advocacy.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/tEtiJDmS0wo

 

RESEARCH

Study Finds Vapers Less Likely to get Lung Cancer Screening

According to the CDC, within 10-15 years after you quit smoking, your risk of lung cancer drops by half. There’s no evidence that isn’t still true if you’ve quit smoking and completely switched to #vaping.

The authors are not wrong that vaping doesn’t reverse any existing damage caused by years of smoking and people should still get screened, but this article falsely implies that vaping is also a proven risk for lung cancer (no evidence to support this.)

READ MORE: Former smokers who vape now still need to be screened for lung cancer. Many of them aren’t

 

These Arguments Sound Eerily Familiar

“I think there is a risk that these could be an entry product…”

While he “agrees that kids should not be drinking these products, he doesn’t think governments need to get involved…”

“We don’t want any regulation that’s going to have an impact on accessibility…”

“…the widening availability of zero-proof adult drinks helps people who are trying to cut back on alcohol for their health.”

“…they’re usually near the alcoholic beverages and [offered] as alternatives. It’s very clear who they’re marketed to and who they’re for.”

If makers & sellers of these non-alcoholic beverages don’t want excessive regulation and taxation, they should learn from what the tobacco harm reduction community has experienced with these types of prohibitionists. Concerns about the gateway theory and “normalization” for youth is just the beginning.

Misrepresenting Statistics

The irony here is that people (including youth) use tobacco harm reduction products because the majority of the products still contain the chemical that they want – nicotine – without the same risks. The idea that youth would want to use non-alcoholic beverages simply because of the taste and branding (without the effects of the alcohol) is naive at best. Teens would be far more likely to go out of their way to get the real thing.

While the article admits that there’s “no evidence so far that the boom in zero-proof beverages has led kids in the U.S. to drink alcohol,” Molly Bowdring (of Stanford Prevention Research Center, co-author of an opinion piece in JAMA Pediatrics on the topic) looks to the recent example of e-cigarettes as a cautionary tale,” claiming that “Tobacco use was really declining among more recent generations. And then there’s this huge marketing push for vaping, and then it led to an uptick.”

This claim is somewhat disingenuous. In fact, that “uptick” of “tobacco” use (which included e-cigarette use) was at the height of the teen vaping fad, was extremely brief and the decline in overall tobacco use then accelerated dramatically.

Also, as the chart shows, the decline in high school tobacco use had already flattened out considerably prior to the widespread availability of e-cigarettes popular with teens (such as Juul) in the US.

Between 2000 to 2009, when e-cigarettes came to the market in the US, overall high school tobacco use declined an average of 1.18 percentage points per year, dropping from 34.5% to 23.9%.

In the 4 years since the peak of the teen vaping fad in 2019, overall high school tobacco use has dropped an average of 4.65 points per year and is now at an all-time low of 12.6%.

READ MORE: ID please. Should kids be able to buy nonalcoholic beer, wine and mocktails?

 

Study Shows Second-hand Vapor Exposure Very Low Compared to Second-hand Smoke

“The researchers said that second-hand exposure to harmful substances in e-cigarettes would likely be much lower still, as e-cigarettes deliver similar levels of nicotine to tobacco but contain only a fraction of the toxicants and carcinogens.”

Lead author Dr. Harry Tattan-Birch, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said the study used “data from the real world rather than an artificial lab setting.”

In an expert reaction comment, Prof Peter Hajek, Professor of Clinical Psychology, and Director of the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London, stated, “The study confirms that, as expected, the amount of nicotine exhaled by vapers, that children and other bystanders are exposed to, is negligible. ‘Passive vaping’ is unlikely to pose any health risks, but vapers should of course respect that others may dislike the smell or the sight of the aerosol from their devices.”

READ MORE: Study shows second-hand vaping exposure very low compared to second-hand smoking

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

On this week’s episode, join Alex and Logan as they discuss hot topics in Tobacco Harm Reduction, including the recent authorization of menthol vaping products, the Supreme Court Chevron decision and the anti-nicotine “end game.”

CASAA Live will return this fall!

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

Have you joined your CASAA State Facebook group yet? Check it out now! Click the link below, click on your state on the map, then click the “Join Now” button to go to your state’s group page. It’s as easy as that to stay updated on local happenings, meet local advocates and never miss a Call to Action in your state!

Don’t forget to also follow our official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CASAAmedia

FIND YOUR GROUP: CASAA State Locator

CASAA STORE // Apparel and More

Show your support by shopping our store! Our president (and brilliant website/swag designer) Danielle has added some awesome new designs to CASAA’s apparel shop!

VISIT: CASAA Apparel and Swag Store

CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

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CASAA MEDIA // Podcast

Catch up on past tobacco harm reduction news with Alex and Logan on the CASAA podcasts on SoundCloud every Monday and now live on YouTube and Facebook every Saturday at 3:30 PM.

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