CASAA

Teen Vaping Far Lower Than 2014 Rate and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 23:22:07 +0000

High school vaping falls to just 7.8%. ZYN factory expanding to meet demand. American Lung Association spouts facts while hiding the truth. Public Health worries more about vaping than smoking in Ohio and Kentucky and much more!

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

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RESEARCH

New Data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey

The first report from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) has been released and it’s not looking good for the “youth vaping epidemic,” “vaping threatens to undo years of work by public health” and “nicotine pouches are the new e-cigarettes” narratives.

Middle and high school current vaping (even one puff in the past 30 days) has DRAMATICALLY dropped from 2.13 million (10%) in 2023 to 1.63 million (5.9%) and fewer than 1.6% of youth vape daily.

Regarding nicotine pouches, the report states “no significant changes occurred in current nicotine pouch use among middle and high school students overall despite rising sales of nicotine pouches.” Maybe because it’s mostly ADULTS buying them?

Should nicotine pouch use rise as vaping continues to fall due to “crackdowns,” it would considerably lessen the weight of their arguments that kids were only attracted to vaping because of the “kid-friendly” flavors and marketing. The 2024 survey showed that basic mint was the most popular flavor by far and the most popular brands (ZYN and ON!) don’t use kid-friendly marketing.

It will be interesting to see what happened to youth SMOKING in the past year, but we must wait patiently to hear those results. Tobacco Harm Reduction advocate Skip Murray posted a thought provoking blog post on the latest teen vaping data:

Youth vaping down! How many are smoking tobacco? The CDC/FDA didn’t mention that today! The latest newsletter is out, packed with information. Enjoy!https://t.co/P4OugwjMEO
Thinking ’bout THR Newsletter Sep 3-5, 2024 pic.twitter.com/UYoWYKuWhl

— Skip’s Corner (@Skips_Corner) September 5, 2024

Questions for Upcoming Research on ‘Gateway’ Theory

This study “focuses on young adults who only vape nicotine and whether exposure to new and emerging nicotine and cannabis products, such as those with new flavors or product designs, leads to other tobacco or cannabis product use.” It sounds as though it will essentially be a “gateway theory” study, which could be interesting…if done without bias.

We look forward to seeing if researchers look for answers to deeper questions regarding use beyond advertising, flavors and designs, such as:

Do/did your parents, siblings or friends smoke or use other tobacco products?
Do you have any mental health conditions, whether professionally or self-diagnosed, such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism, etc.?
Do you take medication for a mental health condition or do you use nicotine/cannabis to “self medicate?”
Do you identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community?
Do you believe you would have likely smoked cigarettes if vapor products had never been available?

In order to support the gateway theory, researchers must consider and exclude “common liability” as a possibility. Otherwise, deterring young adults from vaping may just lead to more of them smoking instead.

VAPING AND THE GATEWAY MYTH @ConsumerChoiceC https://t.co/TTVrcvv3ph

— Allison (@alli_vapes) November 21, 2023

Small Study Focuses Ignores Harm Reduction Potential for Asthmatics

This small study of 50 people who smoke concluded only that “there is a direct association between airway inflammation and respiratory mechanics in patients with asthma after the use of an e-cigarette.”

Is it possible that vaping has a significantly lower impact on those with asthma than SMOKING did? Unfortunately, we don’t know from this study, because the researchers didn’t bother to seek an answer to that question. That’s a shame, because several hundred people who had asthma have reported to CASAA’s Testimonial Project that their symptoms had either significantly decreased or even disappeared completely after switching from smoking to vaping.

For example, Liana from Nevada wrote:

“I smoked for 34 years. I suffered from chronic bronchitis, asthma, and the beginnings of COPD. I tried nicotine gum and patches, counseling, etc. to quit, but nothing kept me from smoking long term. When I finally tried vaping, it worked! Within a couple months of vaping, all my respiratory problems disappeared. Vaping saved my life from the harmful effects of smoking. Every adult deserves access to safer alternatives to smoking, especially vaping.”

Interestingly, they didn’t find ANY significant effects after vaping in the people who smoked and didn’t have asthma, but that seemed to have no significance to them whatsoever. All they apparently wanted to find was “e-cigarettes bad.”

pic.twitter.com/KYlxPKutpW

— Prickles (@GhostofPrickles) August 30, 2024

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

ZYN Factory Expanding to Meet Demand

The Kentucky factory that manufactures Zyn is expanding to help meet demand for the safer, smoke-free alternatives to smoking.

“We are accelerating our mission toward a smoke-free future, working with our U.S. affiliates to move adults away from cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products by providing better alternatives,” said Stacey Kennedy, CEO of PMI’s U.S. business.

“When a company announces it’s building a $600 million manufacturing plant that will create hundreds of high-wage jobs and generate millions in tax revenue, it’s usually greeted as good news.”https://t.co/vuvmbd8U0R #copolitics #Zyn

— InsideSources (@InsideSourcesDC) September 5, 2024

Youth “Epidemic” or Tobacco Harm Reduction?

In 21 years, high school smoking dropped from 22.9% to 1.9% and ALL tobacco/nicotine use (which includes e-cigarettes) dropped from 28.4% to 12.6%.

In the 5 years before the CDC started reporting on high school vaping (at just 1.5% in 2011,) high school smoking had declined just 4 percentage points. In the following 5 years, it dropped a whopping 7.8 points.

What changed between 2011 and 2016? Certainly not the cigarette flavor ban. That was passed back in 2009. Certainly not Tobacco 21. That was passed at the end of 2021. Hmmm…..

Despite the dramatic rise (and equally dramatic fall) in high school #vaping and the more recent (tiny) rise in the use of nicotine pouches, smoking rates continued to decline dramatically through 2023.

So this is a very important question that public health officials have been avoiding for too long:

TOBACCO CONTROL

Misleading “facts” from American Lung Association

We often see the claim that young people moving to tobacco harm reduction products, such as vaping and nicotine pouches, “threatens to undo years of public health efforts that had led to a decline in nicotine use” and are “creating a new generation addicted to nicotine.”

This graph is a representation of the trends in past 30 day use for high school youth and young adults 18 – 24 years old (ie. the “new generation.”) The 2021 cigarette smoking and nicotine vaping groups combined aren’t even as high as just cigarette smoking was in 2002 – and high school vaping declined even more in 2023. It’s quite clear that far fewer young people are using nicotine products than ever before. THR products are “creating a new generation addicted to nicotine?”

Their math just isn’t mathing, folks.

This Lund Report article is a perfect example and worse. Here the American Lung Association uses misdirection, a sly use of the common understanding of certain definitions and the purposeful omission of facts in an attempt to convince an unwitting public that youth vaping is an “epidemic.”

We’re going to break it down so you can learn to spot this type of obfuscation for yourself in the future!

“New research found that teenage vaping threatens to undo years of work by public health officials to cut down on tobacco use.”

This statement omits any evidence to back it up. (Note how vaping is called “tobacco use” here. That will come up later.) As our previous post pointed out, not only has smoking declined dramatically for teens and young adults over the past 20 years, but the decline was greater in the past 10 years than it was in the previous decade.

“The National Youth Tobacco survey of more than 22,000 students nationwide in 2023 found that 10% of U.S. secondary students vape nicotine, which is more than those who use all other tobacco combined.”

This is a sly use of what the public would understand as “tobacco.” Remember how they called vaping “tobacco use” earlier?

Yes, 1.56 million high school youth reported current vaping (remember, that means “even one puff in the past 30 days”) vs. the 1.21 million who used other “tobacco.” However, if you include nicotine pouches and “other” oral nicotine products (regulated as “tobacco products” by the FDA,) that number rises to 1.65 million using tobacco and nicotine products other than e-cigarettes.

Funny how certain nicotine products are only referred to as “tobacco” when it fits the narrative.

The misdirection comes into play in that previous statement by not telling you that just 12.6% of high school youth used ANY tobacco or nicotine product in 2023. Compare this to 28.4% a little over 20 years ago in 2002.

Additionally, cigarette smoking — arguably the most harmful form of tobacco/nicotine use — has dropped from 22.9% in 2002 to just 1.9% in 2023. The number of youth using tobacco AND nicotine products (including e-cigarettes) today is about HALF the number of youth who were smoking 20 years ago!

The ALA spokesperson, Erica Heartquist, “told the Capital Chronicle that 75% of 11th graders who use tobacco consume flavored products. But that appeal wanes with age: Two-thirds of adults in Oregon aged 18 to 24 reported consuming flavored nicotine products, while half that of those 25 to 34 did and only 13% of adults at least 35 years old used flavored products.”

More misdirection and omission of facts. The insinuation here is that adults have no interest in flavors, so flavors MUST only exist to attract youth.

What they don’t tell you is that the adults over the age of 35 using “tobacco or nicotine products” are far more likely to still be SMOKING (partly due to anti-vaping scaremongering). Of course adults over age 35 aren’t using flavored products, because most of them are smoking cigarettes and flavored cigarettes have been banned for about 15 years!

In Oregon, 12.6% of adults were smoking in 2021 and only 6.9% were using e-cigarettes. Most of the adults using e-cigarettes in 2021 were under the age of 35. Conversely, 10.8% of 11th graders were vaping in 2022 and smoking had dropped to just 3.2% (down from 19.9% in 2002.) Furthermore, vaping in that group was down SIGNIFICANTLY from the high of 23.4% in 2019.

The graph above illustrates how more vaping in these age groups corresponds with more flavor use, while more smoking corresponds with less flavor use.

However, when you survey adults who exclusively use smoke-free nicotine products, they prefer non-tobacco flavors, as well. One study found that “among current vapers, the percentage of those who used flavored e-cigarettes was higher for adults aged 18-24 years (89.6%), 25-34 years (86.7%), and 35-44 years (76.0%) than for adults aged 45 years and older (60.4%),” but note how even the 45 years and older group of vapers was not much lower than the 75% for 11th graders.

And that, dear readers, is how they are able to mislead the public with “facts” while still hiding the truth. Now you know.

ALA Shift from Strategy of Misinformation to Disinformation

“The real smokescreen here is that tobacco control advocates like the ALA have shifted from a strategy of misinformation to one of disinformation; that is, intentionally spreading false information to influence public opinion….

“Moreover, by using “the children” to fearmonger, the ALA continues a long-standing national tradition of promoting “abstinence for all” over solutions that can save lives….

“Rather than finding new ways to help smokers kick the habit, the ALA is hell-bent on toppling Big Tobacco to meet its strategic imperative to create a tobacco-free future (which apparently now includes nicotine), though there is not a single precedent for full abstinence from any substance across the history of humankind.”

~ Mazen Saleh and Jeffrey S. Smith, R Street Institute

Public Health More Worried About Vaping Than Smoking

What this article doesn’t tell you is that high school SMOKING is also still much higher in Ohio (3.3%) and Kentucky (4.4%) than the national average (1.9%), as well.

They urge parents to “to talk to their kids about the dangers of vaping,” but more adults — many of them parents — are also smoking more in Ohio (17.1%) and Kentucky (17.4%) than the national average (11.5%). Children of parents who smoke are far more likely to start smoking.

The good news is that adults seem to be moving towards safer e-cigarettes in Ohio (8.7%) and Kentucky (10.3%) at a higher rate than the national average (4.5% in 2021), as well. It may be that the children of parents who smoke/vape are actually vaping instead of smoking, but it seems no one wants to bother to look into that possibility.

Why does Public Health seem more worried about youth in Ohio and Kentucky vaping low risk e-cigarettes at a higher rate than the national average than the youth AND adults smoking deadly cigarettes at a higher rate than the national average?

Kentucky Cardiologist More Wrong Than Right

Oh boy, they’re keeping us busy this week! This article from the North Kentucky Tribune featuring cardiologist Damodhar Suresh from St. Elizabeth Healthcare is a doozy. There’s so much WRONG to unpack here, but here are some highlights.

“Vaping (using e-cigarettes) is actually no safer than smoking.”

WRONG.

The FDA has authorized several e-cigarette products that met the threshold of being “appropriate for the protection of the public health” and “provided a benefit for adults who smoke cigarettes…that is sufficient to outweigh the risks of the product…”

That means vaping those products IS scientifically proven to be SAFER than smoking.

“Unlike cigarette smoke, e-cigarette vapor absorbs directly into the bloodstream.”

WRONG.

Studies show that, unlike cigarette smoke, non-salt e-cigarette vapor is mostly absorbed in the mouth/upper respiratory tract, where it moves into the bloodstream more slowly than cigarette smoke.

E-cigarette “salt” formulas can absorb directly from the lungs into the bloodstream (but without the deadly combustion, of course.) The few studies that compared smoking to vaping found that, while vaping nicotine salts in high doses may be a close second, smoking was still the most efficient for delivering nicotine to the brain.

“Nicotine is the most powerful vasoconstricting agent ever studied,” says St. Elizabeth Healthcare cardiologist Damodhar Suresh, MD. “That means, each time you vape, your arteries get smaller and smaller to the point where they are so diseased, you’re going to have a heart attack or stroke.”

WRONG.

This is a ridiculous claim. This isn’t even true with smoking. If it was true about vaping, then nicotine gums, patches and lozenges wouldn’t be touted as “safe and effective.” The effect of nicotine on arteries has mostly been studied with SMOKING, which exposes the user to far more than just nicotine, such as carbon monoxide. Studies of nicotine use without smoking (ie. NRT, snus) haven’t found increased risk of heart disease.

“According to the American College of Cardiology, if you vape, you’re 56% more likely to have a heart attack and 30% more likely to have a stroke.”

WRONG.

This has been debunked. Researchers admitted that the limitations of their study included that the “study design doesn’t allow researchers to establish causation” and that they were “unable to determine whether these outcomes may have occurred prior to using e-cigarettes.” Meaning, the reported heart attacks and strokes could have happened BEFORE the subjects even started vaping.

SIDE NOTE

This same source debunks the claim that vaping is no safer than smoking:

“Cigarette smoking carries a much higher probability of heart attack and stroke than e-cigarettes…”

These reporters need to do better!

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544:

Without access to the vaping options that worked for her—such as pleasant flavors and non-nicotine liquids—Patricia would likely still be smoking today. Adults who smoke depend on these products. What happens if those products are then banned?

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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.”

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CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Teen Vaping Far Lower Than 2014 Rate and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Blatant Lies in Pennsylvania Anti Vaping Video and More! – Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 22:08:13 +0000

Blatant lies in PA anti vaping video. Article uses 2015 youth data. Aitkin County, MN drops flavor ban. San Antonio wants a public use ban EVERYWHERE & 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

TOBACCO CONTROL

Blatant Lies in Pennsylvania Anti Vaping Video

We’ve seen a lot of bad videos about vaping and nicotine, but this one from Michael Fiorelli of Adagio Health in Pennsylvania is particularly bad — full of misinformation and even outright lies from beginning to end, including:

“You’ve got issues with oral cancers and throat cancers” with vaping;

“Diacetyl…causes what’s called EVALI;”

“We see people who are developing what’s called popcorn lung” (ironic that he says earlier that diacetyl causes EVALI,)

and that lung transplants are “coming about more and more as time goes on with vaping.”

While videos such as these are unlikely to keep youth from trying vaping, they can be quite effective in scaring at-risk adults who smoke away from switching to far safer alternatives. Nice going, Adagio Health.

EVALI wasn’t from diacetyl. “Popcorn Lung” is. You don’t even understand the topic you spend most of your time discussing.

— Matt Culley (@MattFromSMM) April 11, 2024

WATCH: Vaping as dangerous as smoking says Mike Fiorelli of Adagio Health

IN THE MEDIA

Telling the Truth About EVALI

After that last bit of EVALI misinformation, it’s refreshing to read a mainstream media article about EVALI that tells the truth about vitamin E acetate in (mostly illicit) cannabis vapes and doesn’t still try to implicate nicotine vaping products. Kudos to the writer, Emily Earlenbaugh!

This is a good one to share with people who are still pushing that false narrative.

The wackiest part of the Australian vape laws and EVALI, is that our useless lot have banned flower vapes and used it as the cover story. As usual, no local media are across the very important differences. https://t.co/NNhoq0JeIC

— Marijuana (@marijuanacomau) August 21, 2024

Anti-Vaping Propaganda Piece Uses 2015 Data

This article claims vaping has “become a big problem in Wyoming” and has a video filled with unverified, misleading and false claims. But is there evidence to support the claim that vaping has recently become a “big problem” in Wyoming?

The reporter uses the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) as their source. However, the high school vaping rate shown on the CTFK Wyoming page is data from nearly a decade ago, because Wyoming hasn’t participated in the CDC Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBSS) since 2015.

(See: https://wysac.uwyo.edu/wyomingtobacco/2019/09/20/youth-tobacco-use/)

“With Wyoming following the national tobacco/nicotine use trends in the past, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that the Wyoming vaping rates have declined similarly to the national rate.”

Additionally, that 29.6% of “current users” mentioned in the article is actually counting youth who vaped “even one puff in the past 30 days.” In 2015, youth curiosity of vaping was growing fast because it was something new. Most teens may have just happened to have tried it once or twice in the month before the survey. This is supported by the fact that the “frequent use” rate (vaped on 20 or more days in the past month) was just 5.1% and the “daily” rate was just 3.4%.

In 2015, the YRBSS reported that the national “past 30 day” high school vaping rate was 24.1%, which dropped to 18% in 2021 (the most recent year available on the CDC website.) The 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 16% of high school youth had tried vaping in the past 30 days. In 2023 that had dropped to 10%.

According to the above linked article:

“Between 2001 and 2015, the smoking rates for Wyoming and U.S. students declined. The trend among Wyoming high school students is similar to the national trend.”

With Wyoming following the national tobacco/nicotine use trends in the past, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that the Wyoming vaping rates have declined similarly to the national rate.

And let’s not forget that — despite the claim made in the video that “vaping makes it much more likely that kids will smoke real cigarettes later” — the surveys show that, as vaping has risen, youth smoking has declined. In 2015, the national high school cigarette smoking rate was 9.3% and that dropped to 1.6% by 2023 (NYTS). The YRBSS also shows a decline, from 10.8% in 2015 to 3.8% in 2021.

LEGISLATION

Slippery Slope of Public Use Bans

As drafted, State Senator Joe Gruters’ (R – District 22) bill would prohibit smoking of any kind (and vaping) in all areas open to the public, including streets, sidewalks and parks.

“I’m not a big fan of smoking of any kind anywhere,” he said. “I think it infringes on my quiet enjoyment of when I’m out in the public.”

He knows that there’s no evidence of health risks from tobacco smoke outside (and definitely no evidence of risk from vapor,) so it’s all about his own “quiet enjoyment.” But other things can impact “quiet enjoyment” in public, too. What about heavy perfume? Body odor? Cooking smells? Vehicle exhaust?

Clearly this is not just about disliking things that smell. It’s more likely about disliking people who smoke and vape.

At this rate, with more and more rules and laws banning indoor smoking and vaping in private residences such as rentals, condos and assisted living units, pretty soon adults who smoke or vape won’t have ANY place that they can have quiet enjoyment of their preferred product.

Funny how, decades ago, they told us that claims of a “slippery slope” to a full ban of smoking was “just a conspiracy theory.”

Floridians will vote in November on an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana use in the state. Now Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters wants to ban smoking in public if the amendment passes. So much for the GOP being the party for personal freedoms. https://t.co/uzC5ajUiCk

— Ray Loewe (@rloewe65) August 16, 2024

Flavor Ban Dropped in Aitkin County

The Aitkin County Board (MN) unanimously passed an amended tobacco ordinance at its Aug. 13 meeting without the proposed prohibition of selling any flavored tobacco or vaping products.

“I’m not a fan of tobacco, but I am a fan of adults’ right to choose.”
~ Commissioner Travis Leiviska.

After learning that some businesses selling the products did not receive a letter of notification and discovering the financial impact on many businesses, the ban was removed from the amended ordinance.

Pushing Public Use Bans with Lies

The lies about “health risks” used to support indoor vaping bans — and the bans themselves — discourage adults who smoke from switching to these far safer alternatives. How is people continuing to smoke better for public health?

This proposed indoor (and outdoor) ban in San Antonio is pulling out all of the classics from the misinformation bag.

The City Council’s Community Health Committee voted on August 19th to bring the proposed ban to the full council next month.

Members of the committee “needed zero convincing” after Claude Jacob, health director for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, apparently misled them by stating that “the concentration of toxicants in these aerosols poses an increased risk to the health of bystanders.”

In truth, there’s no convincing evidence that exhaled vapor poses a reasonable risk to bystanders.

And it’s still stupid.

— PⒸг (@bloodless_coup) August 22, 2024

RESEARCH

Scientists Should Be Able to Admit When They’re Wrong

“I had the impression that my whole world was crumbling. I tried desperately to reject this new evidence. But then he did what all good scientists should do: he set aside his bruised ego (presumably after polishing off that drink) and got back to work.”

Tobacco Control scientists and researchers should take heed of this advice when it comes to their knee-jerk resistance to tobacco harm reduction.

Egos resist change, even when evidence demands it. Medical pros and politicians struggle to admit mistakes—especially on vaping. Honest reflection is key for progress and combatting misinformation. #Vaping #HarmReduction https://t.co/34sl0A4YjE

— Timothy Vermillion (@Dr_Vermillion) August 23, 2024

Ignoring the Good News

What articles like these don’t seem to want the public to know is how past-30-day high school smoking in West Virginia had dramatically and unexpectedly dropped 12 percentage points from 19.6% in 2013 to 7.6% in 2021 (YRBSS). Compare that to the previous 8 year time period when smoking dropped by only 5.7 points from 25.3% in 2005 to 19.6% in 2013.

Daily smoking (thought by many experts to be a better indication of actual dependency) dropped from 6.7% to 1.2% between 2013 and 2021. Past-30-day #vaping has also declined from 31.2% in 2015 to 27.5% in 2021.

Nationally, past-30-day high school smoking has dropped from 18.1% in 2011 to 3.8% in 2021 and vaping has declined from 24.1% in 2015 to 18% in 2021(YRBSS).

If the CDC believes there is “the urgent need for more effort to reduce smoking, especially in adolescents,” then maybe the fact that “teenagers are adopting vaping without prior cigarette smoking experience” should be good news rather than “troubling?” Of course, no one wants teens to use any kind of drug or alcohol, but the evidence so far suggests that those teens who otherwise would be starting smoking today are at least choosing low risk vaping instead – and not going on to smoke cigarettes.

A new report from the American Lung Association reveals West Virginia has the worst rates of smoking in the nation for adults and high school students.https://t.co/JRTVESHnqR

— Emily Rice (@EmilyRiceWVPB) January 24, 2024

Youth Tobacco/Nicotine Use Continues to Decline

“These results are particularly relevant as Maryland lawmakers have recently considered banning the sale of flavored tobacco and vapor products. While such measures aim to prevent youth access to age-restricted products, they may also inadvertently restrict adult access to safer alternatives to smoking.”

~ Lindsey Stroud (@lmstroud89)

Debunking the Gateway Theory
“The original gateway hypothesis, [Dr. Arielle Selya] noted, described use of legal substances (like tobacco and alcohol) leading to illicit substances, often starting with cannabis and then progressing to “harder” drugs. Concerns about cannabis being a “gateway drug” influenced marijuana policy for decades.

That original gateway hypothesis has been “debunked,” Dr. Selya pointed out, but the version applied to vapes is very much alive—despite exhibiting similar flaws.”

~ Kiran Sidhu, Filter Magazine

This says a lot, and so does the rest of the article. Read it.

Thank you @ArielleSelya & @KiranSidhu41 & @Filtermag_org

Can the Theory of Youth Vaping as “Gateway” to Smoking Be Put to Bed?https://t.co/7rM81InaUR pic.twitter.com/oZ4h3qUGY1

— Phil (@phil_w888) August 20, 2024

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544:

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CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

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.

SoundCloud:

CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Blatant Lies in Pennsylvania Anti Vaping Video and More! – Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Vaping Product Bill is Just Political Theater and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 16:18:05 +0000

Politicians scaremongering over “school supply” vapes. Smoking rates are still low despite the rise in vaping. “Stop & Swap” program in UK helps nurse switch to vaping. Supreme Court mulling FDA lawsuit and more!

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

CALLS TO ACTION

UPDATE

There was already a committee meeting on July 31st, so please contact your lawmakers ASAP!

Vapor products are currently taxed at a rate of just 5¢ per milliliter for products with less than 3 mL of liquid, and wholesalers pay only 10% of the purchase price for products containing over 3 mL of liquid. LB 1 would raise the tax on ALL vapor products to 30% of the wholesale cost! To put this in perspective, a 3 mL vape that once cost a consumer just 15¢ in tax could now have a wholesale tax of $3 or more added onto the purchase price.

TAKE ACTION: Nebraska: Stop a Tax Hike on Vaping!

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

LEGISLATION

Vaping Product Bill is Just Political Theater

Illinois Senate Bill 2662 will “prohibit the advertising, marketing or promoting of an electronic cigarette in a manner that is likely to cause a person to mistake it for an object that is anything other than what it is, a tobacco product.”

As if the unethical businesses that would sell that kind of thing would care about yet another law? Also, the reporter apparently couldn’t find #vaping products collected by school officials that actually “look like school supplies such as highlighters, erasers and pencil sharpeners” to photograph for the article. Why would that be?

Bills (and news articles) like this popping up around the US seem more like political theater designed to get votes and scare parents and teachers.

Right. That’s wonderful. But no one has ever seen these evil and sinister “vapes that resemble highlighters” that are now being used by #HarmReduction denialist zealots to *push* draconian prohibitions that will, literally, kill millions of American adults.

— Charles A. Gardner, PhD (@ChaunceyGardner) August 15, 2024

TOBACCO CONTROL

They Can’t See the Forest Through the Trees

So why are some companies turning to nicotine analogs with appealing flavors? Because FDA’s authorization of vaping products has been “arbitrary and capricious,” failing to authorize any of the non-tobacco or menthol products that most consumers prefer.

Bottom Line: If Public Health wants consumers to only buy regulated products, then the FDA has to authorize products that consumers actually want to buy.

Nicotine Analogs – Hey, Brian King / CTP, your ridiculous PMTA process is causing manufacturers to use other chemicals that may be more harmful. Who could’ve seen that coming? https://t.co/n1JNAvC7tv

— Vape Truth (@Vape_Truth) August 15, 2024

RESEARCH

Smoking Still Low Despite Rise in Vaping

According to Gallup polling, in 2003, 35% of adults under 30 smoked. Today, 18% of that age group vapes and only 6% smoke.

In 2003, 28% of adults 30 – 49 years old smoked. Today, only 8% of that age group vapes and 13% still smoke.

It’s interesting how public health officials and tobacco control groups can look at those facts and still claim vaping has nothing to do with the reduction of adult smoking rates.

It’s also funny how the article states, “While vaping presents fewer health risks than tobacco smoking, public health officials would still prefer that U.S. adults not do either.”

Well, adults who vape would prefer that public health officials would mind their own business about what we as adults choose to do, but we’re not holding our breath.

Sticking to ‘Gateway Theory’ Despite Evidence

Yet another study using the “gateway theory” to blame vaping for causing smoking and drug use without considering “common liability to addiction” as a possibility.

The gateway theory relies on the observation that people will use one substance and then go on to use other substances, but the catch is that the order can often be swapped. For example, researchers often cite tobacco use as leading to marijuana and alcohol use, but it’s also been observed that people who use marijuana or alcohol are more likely to later start smoking tobacco. Proponents claim that tobacco, alcohol and marijuana are all gateway substances, yet they can offer no explanation for why someone would go from using one substance to the other.

On the other hand, common liability to addiction looks at overall risk of substance use in the individual. For decades — long before vaping existed — we’ve known that some demographics are at greater risk for smoking, alcohol and drug addiction. This includes being a veteran, low income, LGBT+ and having mental health disorders. The substance use is thought by many experts to be a form of “self medicating.” This would better explain why people who use one substance would be far more likely than non-users to try other substances.

The bad news for these gateway proponents is that we have clear evidence contradicting a causal link between vaping and the initiation of smoking. If vaping was leading to smoking, then it would be reasonable to expect to see smoking rates rise as vaping rates rose. One look at this chart shows that simply hasn’t happened even in the highest smoking risk age groups.

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

‘Swap & Stop’ Program Helped Nurse Quit

UK senior research nurse on taking part in a hospital project called “Swap and Stop” and switching to #vaping after smoking for 30+ years:

“I feel tons better and healthier within myself, as for the last 10-15 years, I had concurrent chest infections of bronchitis, and colds, but for the last two years, I’ve had no issues with this.

“In terms of trying to stop before, it has always been the negative language around wanting to quit.

“You were sort of doomed to fail before you started, because it was hard, you were going to get cravings, it would be horrible and you were just not going to succeed.

“This time I felt the language was all changed, so I felt this is more about preparing you to change to healthier habits and options, so I was doing everything I would do with a cigarette, but without the added toxicity that comes with smoking.”

Ever wonder why you never see articles like this in the American news media? So do we.
Yesterday, in the UK’s largest news outlet:https://t.co/mjjKf6rWwJ

— American Vapor Manufacturers (@VaporAmerican) August 14, 2024

FDA

Much is Riding on Supreme Court PMTA Decision

CASAA director Jim McDonald explains in this article for Vaping360 just how much is riding on the Supreme Court ruling next year in the FDA’s challenge to the Triton decision:

“The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear the FDA’s venue petition. If it does not accept the case—or if it rules against the FDA—the Fifth Circuit could conceivably continue to accept MDO appeals from manufacturers across the country.

“If the high court finds the FDA improperly denied hundreds of thousands of premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs), FDA regulation of vaping products might have to go back to square one—or even be completely revamped. And if the Supreme Court justices rule the FDA’s PMTA review practices were proper, finding a venue for appeal will be the least of the vaping industry’s problems.”

Here we go – in America, it all circles back.

In 2009, FDA was sued when it blocked a shipment of e-cigarettes (ironically, they’re FDA-authorized now)

And in 2024, FDA will now face the Supreme Court after being sued by manufacturers for denial orders for their AMERICAN e-cigs pic.twitter.com/q4K2Hg06dO

— Lindsey Stroud (@lmstroud89) July 2, 2024

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544:

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CASAA MEDIA // Podcast

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CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Vaping Product Bill is Just Political Theater and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Tobacco Control Has Another Bad Idea and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 00:33:40 +0000

Tobacco Control thinks safer nicotine products should need a prescription. Tobacco company pretends to care about public health. Two new studies falsely claim to find evidence of harm. Vape companies prevail in lawsuit against FDA and more!

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

CALLS TO ACTION

UPDATE

There was already a committee meeting on July 31st, so please contact your lawmakers ASAP!

TAKE ACTION: Nebraska: Stop a Tax Hike on Vaping!

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

TOBACCO CONTROL

Tobacco Control Has Another Bad Idea: Safer Products Should Require Prescription

“Doctors, tobacco researchers and political leaders warn that Zyn’s marketing — which shows the brand in smoke-free environments like at work and in transportation — may perpetuate nicotine addiction among existing users or introduce nicotine to younger people.”

“A better strategy from a public health approach, says Pamela Ling, the director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco, “would be to tailor nicotine pouch availability to prescriptions, smoking cessation clinics, quit lines and other programs to help consumers with tobacco and nicotine addiction.”

Meanwhile, the most deadly tobacco product–cigarettes–would still be easy to buy just about everywhere. Good plan.

Every single adult who currently smokes was once a younger person who didn’t smoke. The idea that making safer alternatives to smoking more difficult to purchase than cigarettes will keep young people from ever smoking (or encourage adults to quit nicotine use) is delusional.

Furthermore, adults who are existing nicotine consumers may be more concerned about the far greater health effects of smoking than the extremely low risks from smoke-free nicotine products. Either way, whether or not they want to continue using nicotine is not any one else’s business.

Common sense dictates that safer nicotine products should be sold right next to the deadly products they replace, not locked up behind a pharmacy counter!

Big Tobacco Company Pretends to Care About Public Health

Imperial Tobacco Canada (a subsidiary of British American Tobacco,) which sells 10 brands of cigarettes in Canada, has the audacity to say the availability of “illegal” smoke-free nicotine products is the “serious public health issue” that the Canadian government needs to address.

We live in a truly bizarro world.

More than a little convenient that this appeared shortly before Imperial Tobacco Canada’s call for more enforcement.

I learned that Centre antipoison du Québec received only 2 calls in 6 months about pouches. I already knew Nicholas Chadi lies a lot.https://t.co/6e1fnkAsV0

— Phil (@phil_w888) July 31, 2024

FDA NEWS

Kentucky PMTA Lawsuit

A Kentucky judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the state’s new PMTA registry law. The new law will ban the sale in Kentucky of all vape products except those that have either have received FDA authorization, are still undergoing review by the FDA, are currently undergoing appeal, or have had an FDA marketing denial order (MDO) stayed or reversed by the FDA or a court.

Attorney Greg Troutman told The Kentucky Lantern earlier that his clients would appeal the decision.

“Keep doing what you’re doing.” Attorney Greg Troutman shares words of encouragement for tobacco harm reduction advocates on @lmstroud89 and @nannyfreestate‘s #AcrossthePond podcast. Check it out at the link below!https://t.co/fBprsHiv7R pic.twitter.com/6Xbtb5ubyn

— Taxpayers Protection Alliance (@Protectaxpayers) August 4, 2024

Vape Companies Prevail in FDA Lawsuit

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that five more #vaping product companies may continue to sell their products until the FDA conducts new scientific reviews of their applications (PMTAs.) The court found that those five petitions posed the same issues as an earlier case ruling involving Triton Distribution.

The FDA appealed the Triton ruling in the Supreme Court, which is expected to be decided in the spring and could have a profound effect on the agency’s vaping product regulatory practices.

Are a few judges actually getting educated about what the evidence actually shows?

— Charles A. Gardner, PhD (@ChaunceyGardner) August 5, 2024

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

Commentary: THR Advocates Have a Huge Obstacle to Overcome

“Nicotine was not only that generally sinister thing, a “chemical,” but it was one you could become addicted to. Again, it’s understandable that people who weren’t specialists in addiction science wouldn’t realize that the concept itself was a much-debated thing, and people who had grown up in a War on Drugs era when “drug addicts” were seen as an undifferentiated group of miserable, ruined junkies naturally saw addiction itself—regardless of the addictive substance concerned—as a terrible condition.

Again, of course, there are those who ought to know better who use the concept to spread distrust; it amused me a few years ago when the then U.S. surgeon general, Jerome Adams, said that nicotine was “as addictive as heroin.” Leaving aside the whole issue of how you assess comparative addictiveness, the logical corollary here was that heroin is no more addictive than nicotine, but I doubt he would have wanted to spread that as a public health message.”

In any case, some definitions of addiction or dependency now stipulate that it must be harmful, and it’s highly questionable whether nicotine—once separated from cigarette smoking—falls into that category. So there’s even a case to be made that nicotine addiction doesn’t exist as a problem in the first place. But the bottom line is that it is widely perceived to be harmful and addictive.

And that is a huge obstacle for THR to overcome.”

~ Barnaby Page, @ECigIntel

READ MORE: The Case for Nicotine

RESEARCH

Despite Bold Claim, Study Fails to Show Evidence

“This study presents clear evidence showing that vaping in addition to smoking can increase your risk for lung cancer.”

~ Marisa Bittoni, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

No, it really doesn’t.

Here is the study link: Vaping, Smoking and Lung Cancer Risk

Researchers compared people who smoked and vaped at the time of their lung cancer diagnosis to people with lung cancer who smoked but didn’t vape; people with lung cancer who neither smoked nor vaped, and people without cancer who smoked and/or vaped.

A quick review shows that they did not:

Determine whether or not the person vaped at all before being diagnosed with cancer.
Determine how long each person vaped before being diagnosed with cancer.
Determine how often, how much or what the person vaped in addition to smoking.
Compare cancer rates for people who both smoked and vaped with people who had quit smoking and just vaped.
Compare cancer rates for people who both smoked and vaped with people who had never smoked and only ever vaped.
Adjust for people who smoked more than 1 pack of cigarettes per day.
Have “consistent information on duration of smoking cessation or the levels of continued cigarette smoking among those who reported vaping.”

Therefore, they cannot establish that it was the vaping that increased the risk of cancer. It could be that those people smoked more heavily than those who didn’t vape and just so happened to have started vaping as a means to quit just before their diagnosis.

The researchers are missing way too much information to conclude that vaping was the cause of the increased risk.

No Evidence Here Vaping Causes Myocardial Infarction

Imagine that you’re doing a study on weight gain. You survey people who are overweight and ask them if they drink diet soda. You don’t know if they were drinking diet soda before they became overweight or for how long they’ve been drinking diet soda. However, because you found that people who drink diet soda were more likely to be overweight, you conclude that means diet soda “probably” causes weight gain.

Of course, you wouldn’t do something so silly, but that’s pretty much what they did with this study — except with myocardial infarction and e-cigarette use. They didn’t ask the subjects if they were even vaping before they were diagnosed with myocardial infarction, yet go on to say that there’s still “probably” an association.

This is in spite of their own admission that:

“In the absence of information about the type or extent of myocardial infarction or the order of presentation between MI/CHD and the use of e-cigarettes, we cannot assess whether the exposure occurred before or after the outcome; therefore, we cannot determine the temporal association between them.”

Translation: We don’t know which came first, the myocardial infarction or the e-cigarette use, so we don’t actually have any evidence that e-cigarettes played a part in causing the myocardial infarction. ‍

Unsurprisingly, past studies that attempted to link vaping with myocardial infarction suffered from the nearly identical fatal “chicken or the egg” flaw.

PubPeer – Electronic Cigarette Use and Myocardial Infarction

This is an unavoidably nerdy demolition of a shockingly bad academic paper purporting to show that #vaping increases the risk of heart attacks. How does such “science” get past peer review? https://t.co/aXU0s35WZ0

— MarcGunther (@MarcGunther) January 18, 2024

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544:

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CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

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CASAA MEDIA // Podcast

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CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Tobacco Control Has Another Bad Idea and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Media Claims Vaping Causes ‘Vape Face’ and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 00:30:50 +0000

Media claims vaping causes ‘vape face.’ More evidence vaping is helping drive smoking decline. PMTA report may mean bad news for small companies. Will SCOTUS protect people or profits? ALA’s non sequitur on menthol 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

MEDIA MISINFORMATION

Media Claims Vaping Causes ‘Vape Face’

Millions of adults who say they’ve quit smoking and have experienced remarkable health improvements are dismissed as “anecdotes,” yet when a few people say they think vaping caused them to have something now dubbed “vape face,” it’s breathlessly reported as a “side effect.” ‍

Of course, no anti-vaping article would be complete without the standard misleading information such as “we don’t have the long term effects,” false claims such as vaping leads youth “to start smoking regular cigarettes,” and the baseless claims of health effects of vaping such as “Popcorn Lung” and lipoid pneumonia. ‍

No studies quoted, no links, quotes refer to effects on *smokers*, where causation of derm damage is documented. Just more clickbait attacking the way MOST smokers are having success quitting. Panic attack.

— neutrinomoon (@neutrinomoon) June 3, 2024

RESEARCH

More Evidence Vaping Is Helping Drive Smoking Declines

This analysis found that “population-level data continue to suggest that smoking prevalence has declined at an accelerated rate in the last decade in ways correlated with increased uptake of e-cigarette use.”

Put simply – the data continues to support the theory that vaping is helping to decrease smoking.

FDA

Will SCOTUS Protect People or Profits?

“Continuing to push for regulation, such as flavor bans and extensive approvals, allows large producers to secure profits without innovating. Innovation is a strength of the independent producers, as they are more in touch with vapers. Frequently, they are individuals looking to quit smoking or vape themselves, allowing them to foresee the needs of the consumer by being able to empathize with them….”
~ Peter Clark for American Institute for Economic Research

FDA Appropriations Bills Demand Harsh Vape Enforcement

“Both bills would protect the legacy tobacco industry, although no member from either committee would probably admit it. Both bills would make it harder for people who currently smoke to find attractive and effective nicotine alternatives. Neither bill would stop youth vaping.”

CASAA director Jim McDonald (@whycherrywhy) reporting for Vaping360.

“FDA Appropriations Bills Demand Harsh Vape Enforcement”
“If the FDA doesn’t meet the demands laid out in the bill, the agency would be denied about $25 million in funding budgeted for salaries and expenses.”https://t.co/6KPUv0Tw2e

— Lance Churchill (@LanceChurchill) July 17, 2024

PMTA Report May Mean Bad News for Small Companies

In its new progress report to the court, the agency brags that it has issued “over 18 million refuse-to-accept decisions, over 67,000 refuse-to-file decisions, and approximately 46,000 marketing denial orders.” Most of those 46,000 MDOs were for bottled e-liquid made by small- to medium-sized manufacturers—including many tiny businesses with no retail footprint outside their own cities.

CASAA director Jim McDonald (@whycherrywhy) reporting for Vaping360.

What an absolute disgrace. Meanwhile, thousands of combustible tobacco products sailed through this sham process, on their way to killing hundreds of thousands a year.

— VaporHawk (@VaporHawk1) July 26, 2024

TOBACCO CONTROL

Nicotine ‘Chicken or the Egg”

The persistent claim that “nicotine harms the adolescent brain” is based on studies that “indicate that smoking during adolescence increases the risk of developing psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in later life. In addition, adolescents who smoke suffer from attention deficits.” Much of this claim is also based on studies of rats, not humans.

However, it’s important to note that the studies were of adolescent and adult cigarette smoking, which obviously exposes a person to many chemicals that are far more problematic than nicotine. For example, smoke-free nicotine products don’t expose users to carbon monoxide (created by combustion,) which can deprive cells and tissues — including the brain — of oxygen.

Any shelter that cares about the unhoused MUST allow them to smoke or vape at minimum outside the building. Nicotine is helpful to the brain and a lot of people’s mental health is so fragile that it depends on it for stability. In our experience nearly all unhoused adults smoke. https://t.co/FLGQZdqopD

— Lifeline Aid Group | lifelineaidgroup.bsky.social (@LifelineAidGrp) July 25, 2024

That said, there’s no evidence demonstrating that there was a higher number of adults with psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment as a result of the past smoking rates that were nearly quadruple what they are today. That older adults who smoke were diagnosed later in life with these conditions could just as well be because they finally got the help they needed after years of coping by self-medication.

Tobacco Control is keen on giving the public the impression that nicotine use causes mental health issues, when it’s really an “association.” There’s a “chicken or the egg” problem of not knowing which came first — the mental health issue or the nicotine use.

Additionally, it’s long been established that people with mental health issues are also much more likely to use other substances to “self-medicate,” so it’s disingenuous of Tobacco Control to attempt to paint nicotine use as somehow different than other substance use — that for nicotine alone it’s a cause rather than a symptom of mental health challenges.

Imagine blaming aspirin for causing headaches because so many people with headaches use aspirin.

A ‘Non Sequitur’ Indeed

While the American Lung Association is not wrong about the urgent need to “improve access to quit smoking resources and ensure that quit smoking resources are culturally appropriate” (Black Americans who smoke are more likely to smoke menthol, and are less likely to vape or receive adequate healthcare, including smoking cessation assistance,) there’s no evidence that banning things lead to people quitting those things. Indeed, bans on drugs haven’t led to less drug use and instead have led to far more deadly products (such as fentanyl) appearing on the illicit market. So there’s really no reason to believe a ban on menthol would lead to less smoking and a safer public.

Non sequitur of the day, from @LungAssociation: pic.twitter.com/yRoDD2PK2Q

— Jeff Stier (@JeffaStier) July 26, 2024

Furthermore, having “an interest” in quitting doesn’t translate to actual quit attempts nor does it increase the success rate of quit attempts. Tobacco Control has long been saying “nearly 70% of people who smoke want to quit” and in 2022, 67.7% did still say they wanted to quit (down from an estimated 70% in 2000,) but only 53.3% made at least one quit attempt in the past year (down from 56% in 2020,) and only 8.8% of adults who smoked had successfully quit smoking for more than 6 months in the past year. However, there’s no way to know how many started smoking again after participating in the NHI survey. Some studies have shown that about 65% to 75% would relapse within a year.

Studies of menthol bans in other countries found that “while 50% of menthol smokers switched to smoking non-menthol cigarettes, almost a quarter (24%) of menthol cigarette smokers quit smoking altogether,” and “around 12% switched to other flavored tobacco products, and 24% continued smoking menthols.”

Tobacco Control likes to focus on the 24% who quit smoking altogether and pretty much ignores how around 75% either switched to non-menthol cigarettes or somehow just kept smoking menthol cigarettes (either buying on the illicit market or adding menthol to regular cigarettes.)

It should be noted that the follow-up for those who said they quit altogether after a ban is pretty dismal, with most surveys not extending beyond 6 months post-ban. In some cases, researchers even excluded from the analysis an undisclosed number of people who they followed up with who “refused” to answer or answered “don’t know,” which could skew the percentage of people who kept smoking or relapsed. As previously mentioned, it’s not uncommon for people to quit smoking for months or years and later relapse, so a 6 month follow-up is insufficient to determine the efficacy of menthol bans.

The studies also frequently use Canadian data after that country banned menthol, but 2 significant limitations to using that comparison are that 1) the black population of Canada is about 1/3 the size of the US population and 2) there was a relatively small market for menthol cigarettes prior to bans in Canada.

There is a lack of data on how many people in Canada switched to vaping, snus or nicotine pouches when they quit smoking. Canada was initially open to tobacco harm reduction, but the tide turned against these products shortly after the so-called “youth vaping epidemic,” leading to the belief by many people who smoke that vaping wasn’t any safer than smoking and that “vaping isn’t quitting” (which could affect their answers on surveys as to whether they’d actually “quit.”)

It should also be noted that after the FDA recently authorized a few menthol-flavored vapor products, the ALA released a statement that it “condemns” the authorization as “highly questionable and deeply troubling.” The ALA also significantly downplays the far lower risks of using products such as snus and nicotine pouches, while pushing people to keep trying (and failing with) nicotine gum, patches, inhalers, nasal spray and lozenges.

According to the CDC, “smoking rates have been declining for Black Americans, from 19.4% in 2011 to 14.4% in 2020” without having a menthol ban and about 81% of black Americans who smoke use menthol cigarettes. With the availability of smoke-free menthol products, such as vapes, snus and nicotine pouches, the smoking decline in that population could go even faster.

If the menthol ban has the same “success” as seen in Canada, around 75% of people who smoke menthol in the U.S. would continue to smoke and, if the ALA had its way, they wouldn’t have the option to switch to far lower risk menthol products.

If the ALA truly wanted to “improve access to quit smoking resources,” it wouldn’t be supporting banning smoke-free menthol products along with cigarettes and cigars.

READ FULL ALA STATEMENT: New CDC Study Shows More People Who Smoke Menthol Cigarettes Want to Quit, But Too Many Aren’t Getting Help

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544:

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CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

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.

SoundCloud:

CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Media Claims Vaping Causes ‘Vape Face’ and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Dubious Claims About Vaping and Throat Cancer and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 21:40:24 +0000

Roswell Park makes dubious claims about vaping and throat cancer. FDA authorizes more tobacco-flavored vaping products. What’s behind the ZYN shortage 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

TOBACCO CONTROL

Does Vaping Cause Throat Cancer?

This article from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center seems to just be more scaremongering – this time about the risk of throat cancer from vaping.

What they don’t tell you:

The only people who claim vaping is supposed to be 100% safe are those trying to ban it. Advocates and the industry never claim vaping is safe — only vastly SAFER than smoking.
Mr. Hyland claims vaping has “been around for only about 10 years.” In truth, vaping has been around for 21 years (introduced in 2003,) and (as the article even states earlier) has been available in the US since 2007 (17 years.)
Throat cancer risk is already very low. For example, the American Cancer Society estimates that around 299,010 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2024, while just 10,030 will be diagnosed with laryngeal cancer (the most common type of throat cancer caused by tobacco use.)So the conjecture that vaping — with significantly lower exposures of far fewer toxins — would be a significant risk for throat cancer is illogical.
While it’s true that it “took decades of epidemiological evidence to show that cigarette smoking caused cancer,” what scientists learned over those decades allows them to apply that knowledge to analysis of vapor products.
The claim that “formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are known carcinogens found in many e-cigarette products” has been soundly debunked, yet they keep repeating this myth.
There’s no evidence that the “tobacco-specific nitrosamines, heavy metals like lead, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as carcinogens” identified in some products are at levels that cause cancer.
Dr. Hyland advises to “stop using all tobacco and vaping products right away.” If it was that easy, wouldn’t people have already quit? ‍ That is the reason there is a need for safer alternatives!

me searching up on reddit if i have throat cancer from vaping (i had a cold) https://t.co/zHTZruI5rX

— em (@hoonstargirl) August 24, 2023

READ MORE: Does Vaping Cause Throat Cancer?

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

Nicotine Isn’t the Enemy

This is a nice article about how tobacco harm reduction is working in Sweden by Kiran Sidhu at Filter magazine.

“About one in four Swedes use nicotine products, which is comparable to the rest of Europe. But Sweden sees 44 percent fewer tobacco-related deaths per capita, according to a recent report. The difference, say the authors of “No Smoke Less Harm,” is that Sweden has embraced snus and nicotine pouches, both of which are smoke-free products that are far less harmful than cigarettes.”

~ 1:4 Swedes use nicotine products, comparable to rest of Europe. But Sweden sees 44% fewer tobacco-related deaths per capita. The difference .. is Sweden embraced snus & nicotine pouches, both smoke-free products, far less harmful than cigarettes https://t.co/g0yA8oeW7z

— Alex Wodak AM (@AlexWodak) July 17, 2024

Partnering Drug with Tobacco Harm Reduction

“SACHR’s motto is: “Lead with Empathy, Practice Mercy, and Provide Safety.” In keeping with that mission, the organization demonstrated that its pioneering spirit lives on, when it invited me to facilitate a vaping group there for participants who smoke.

Offering tobacco harm reduction services at “drug” harm reduction locations is vital, because smoking rates among people who use banned drugs are extremely high.

Access to safer nicotine products must be seen as part of people’s right to health, and harm reduction organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to integrate this into their other critical work.”

~ Helen Redmond, Filter

https://t.co/vXq12N9fXW No doubt you will get the “vaping bounce” so switch now! Thanks to @sachr_nyc for partnering with me to make this vape group happen. Access to safer nicotine products for people who use drugs is the right to health @HarmReduction #tobaccoharmreduction

— Helen Redmond © (@aftariak) July 18, 2024

Real people. Real Stories.

“Anecdote” #13,544: Without access to the vaping options that worked for her—such as pleasant flavors and non-nicotine liquids—Patricia would likely still be smoking today. Adults who smoke depend on these products. What happens if those products are then banned?

SHARE YOUR STORY: CASAA Testimonial Project

FDA

Limiting Vaping Flavors Is Bad for Public Health

The FDA authorizes tobacco-flavored vapor products because:

A) They “would be appropriate for the protection of the public health” for adults who smoke; and
B) tobacco control pushes the narrative that youth mainly vape because of the non-tobacco flavors, so tobacco-flavors will reduce youth use.

However, before e-cigarettes even existed, millions of youth started with tobacco and/or menthol tobacco “flavored” cigarettes. They didn’t care about the taste.

Alarmingly, FDA doesn’t appear to consider the possibility that, in the absence of non-tobacco flavored vapes, youth who would have otherwise vaped may just smoke actual tobacco instead — just as youth of previous generations did. While it’s arguably best if they use neither, do we really want to risk pushing them towards the worst possible option for public health?

Additionally, surveys show that adults also prefer non-tobacco vape flavors, so only authorizing tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes will likely dissuade adults who smoke from switching or lead them back to smoking.

The agency has authorized 3 menthol products, but nearly 70% of the people who smoke don’t even like menthol. Many who switched to vaping say the non-tobacco flavors were better, because they didn’t remind them of smoking.

More Big Tobacco products receive a Marketing Order.
Who would have thought it.https://t.co/UW48zpwle5

— Lance Churchill (@LanceChurchill) July 18, 2024

How well can vapor products protect public health if people who smoke don’t use them because of the taste? This is also something the pharmaceutical companies faced with the original nicotine gum flavor, eventually leading the FDA to approve “kid-friendly” flavors like mint, cinnamon, orange, spearmint and fruit chill.

FFDA must stop making assumptions, start looking at the real world and start authorizing appealing flavors!

INDUSTRY

Behind ZYN Nicotine Pouch Shortage

Retail stores are experiencing shortages of ZYN nicotine pouches, disrupting the fastest-growing nicotine product market segment. But despite rumors about the source of the supply issues, ZYN manufacturer Swedish Match North America says it’s simply a matter of demand for the popular nicotine pouches growing too rapidly.

CASAA director Jim McDonald reporting for Vaping360.

>Zyn becomes insanely popular and has a shortage
>Zyn sales are halted by the government due to a probe
1776 will commence again. The spirit of humanity will rise pic.twitter.com/YbZjquFoIn

— Mads Capital (@MadsCapital) June 18, 2024

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

CASAA Live will return this fall!

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

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

CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

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.

SoundCloud:

CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post Dubious Claims About Vaping and Throat Cancer and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

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

KNoll-Marsh — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 18:23:09 +0000

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.

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

Full report: https://t.co/I1ZJS0aqIH pic.twitter.com/Px1oMgUCbL

— Tuoi Tre News (@VietNewsGateway) July 7, 2024

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.”

Why didn’t they (or you) mention the booming illegal market there?https://t.co/kjjs9kkWv4

Or this? pic.twitter.com/2wsu794xBv

— Phil (@phil_w888) July 2, 2024

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.

Very interesting move for a lot of reasons.

Predictably, despite containing zero nicotine or tobacco, the new head of Tobacco-Free Kids is opposed to these products.
https://t.co/0kxvxO0otb pic.twitter.com/A3mFsSQSR0

— Gregory Conley (@GregTHR) June 30, 2024

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?

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.

On Wed, NC Gov Cooper (D) signed HB900 into law, banning vaping products that are not approved for marketing by the @US_FDA . Becomes effective 01 Dec 24.

Hopefully NC does not spend too much taxpayer money on this, considering SCOTUS is about to take the FDA / CTP to task.

— Vape Truth (@Vape_Truth) July 5, 2024

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?

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

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.)

Why might “Vapers May Be Less Likely to Undergo Lung Cancer Screening?” | a recent study poses questions that we pondered in ⁦@medpagetoday⁩ https://t.co/rzZ6wqVWKe

— Ashley Prosper, MD (@AshleyEProsper) July 13, 2024

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%.

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.”

“children absorb much more nicotine from 2ndhand smoke >>2ndhand vapor; switching from smoking vaping indoors may substantially children’s 2ndhand exposure to nicotine & other noxious substances .. smoke & vapor children’s absorption vs no exposure” https://t.co/wPs8J8FV79

— Alex Wodak AM (@AlexWodak) July 12, 2024

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

CASAA Live will return this fall!

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

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

CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

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.

SoundCloud:

CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post More Lazy Journalism on Vaping and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

FDA Arbitrarily Authorizes Menthol Vaping Products and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

KNoll-Marsh — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 00:15:36 +0000

FDA arbitrarily authorizes a menthol vape, but muddles the message on reduced risk. How Supreme Court ruling on Chevron could impact vaping. Research studies show flavor bans increase smoking/cigarette sales. UK B-lister claims vaping caused his health problems and more!

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

CALLS TO ACTION

NORTH CAROLINA

H900 is now in the hands of Governor Cooper!

If enacted, this law would put independent vape shops out of business, hundreds of workers out of jobs, and thousands of people at risk of returning to smoking, or delaying attempts at quitting.

Please take a minute to send an email to the governor urging him to VETO H900!

TAKE ACTION: North Carolina: Tell Gov. Cooper to VETO H900!

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

FDA

Agency Arbitrarily Authorizes Menthol Vape

The FDA has finally authorized non-tobacco flavored, nicotine vaping product. Both menthol products — the pod-based Ace and the “cig-a-like” Daily — are manufactured by NJoy (purchased by tobacco giant Altria in 2023.) Hopefully, this is a sign of more to come, but we’re not holding our breath.

FDA claims this move is “data driven,” yet the agency offers no data demonstrating why these “flavored” products are “appropriate for the protection of public health” when other non-tobacco flavors are not.

FDA has previously claimed mint and menthol also “appeal to youth” and continues to ignore surveys and studies that show flavors are critical for adults who don’t want to smoke. The agency also doesn’t explain how or why, even with thousands of illicit, “kid-friendly” flavored disposables being sold, youth vaping continues to decline.

This is amazing news! @FDATobacco is following through with the science and permitting the sale of menthol flavored alternatives to cigarettes to adults who smoke (approximately 1/3 of adults in America smoke).https://t.co/YgiWlVdWTf

— Lindsey Stroud (@lmstroud89) June 21, 2024

Additionally, despite FDAs recently proclaimed commitment to “timely and evidence-based public health education” about relative risk, the press release continues to muddle the message by stating the authorization “does not mean these tobacco products are safe nor are they “FDA approved.” All tobacco products are harmful and potentially addictive.” There’s no clear message of how the products “provided a benefit for adults who smoke cigarettes.”

The FDA claims to be protecting public health by authorizing 3 harm reduction brands only in cigarette flavors that can remind adults of smoking, yet between 2018 – 2022 it authorized nearly 900 deadly cigarette products.

The math isn’t mathing.

No Legal Formula to Weigh Benefits vs Risks

How does the FDA weigh the benefits of adults (and teens) not smoking against the alleged risks of teens vaping? As Jacob Sullum explains:

“There is no legal formula for weighing the benefit of increased smoking cessation among adults, which entails a dramatic reduction in health hazards, against the risk of underage vaping, which entails a relatively modest increase in health hazards compared to complete nicotine abstinence.

And the FDA refuses to consider the benefit of replacing smoking with vaping among teenagers, since it deems any ENDS use by minors unacceptable, even when the long-term effect might be a reduction in tobacco-related morbidity and mortality.’

The agency is supposed to take into account ‘the risks and benefits to the population as a whole, including users and nonusers.'”

But the “FDA’s dubious understanding of its statutory mission is just part of the problem.”

A must read!

“The agency’s inscrutable approach to harm-reducing nicotine products sacrifices consumer choice and public health on the altar of youth protection.” https://t.co/aEFBMSAzFm via @reason

— Jeffrey A. Singer (@dr4liberty) June 25, 2024

Working to Educate Adults?

Allegedly “working to educate adults who smoke about the relative risks of tobacco products,” but the recent announcement about authorizing just 2 menthol #vaping products tells adults who smoke that “it does not mean these tobacco products are safe” and “all tobacco products are harmful and potentially addictive.”

FDA also said “the strength of evidence of benefits to adult smokers from completely switching to a less harmful product was sufficient to outweigh the risks to youth.”

Exactly which part of those statements educates adults who smoke about the relative risks of tobacco products and convinces them of the benefits of switching?

In addition to preventing youth initiation and promoting cessation among people who use tobacco products, CTP is working to educate adults who smoke about the relative risks of tobacco products.

Learn more: https://t.co/lpEthUDImz pic.twitter.com/5TWyI79fWA

— FDA Tobacco (@FDATobacco) June 25, 2024

FDA Shuts Down Small U.S. E-liquid Company

FDA continues its assault on US businesses that have attempted to follow impossible regulatory rules, effectively clearing the market of US-made products for unregulated disposable vapes that have been flooding the market from overseas.

Colorado-based Boosted LLC, which at one time employed more than a dozen people and has manufactured e-liquids for at least a decade, has been forced to shut down.

MEDIA MISINFORMATION

UK Celeb Blames Vaping for Health Issue

It’s been widely reported that this 45 year old UK celebrity, Paul Danan, spent over 20 years smoking, excessively drinking and inhaling cocaine. According to one article, he “was told his lung age is 46” when he was just 21 years old.

To his credit, he’s now been sober for 3 years and even quit smoking by switching to e-cigarettes 3 years ago, as well! However, last month he collapsed due to respiratory failure and then contracted pneumonia while in the ICU.

Logically, the poor lung health and compromised immune system of this middle-aged man would be attributed to over 2 decades of smoking, alcoholism and inhaling drugs. So, of course he’s warning young people to avoid those things, right?

Of course not! Instead he says “it’s the vaping which has done me in” and he’s “worried about the kids today,” because “all you see is kids with vapes.” And it’s no surprise that the media is happy to run with that claim without consulting with any actual experts.‍

RESEARCH

New Jersey Flavor Ban Increased Cigarette Sales

Using biweekly retailer scanner sales in NJ convenience stores for e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and cigars in the 36 weeks before and 36 weeks after a statewide ban on flavored vaping products, researchers found sales of unflavored e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes “significantly increased.”

The Impact of New Jersey’s 2020 E-Cigarette Flavor Ban on E-Cigarette, Cigarette, and Cigar Sales in NJ

“The effect of the state law, in the short-term, was decreased sales of flavored e-cigarettes and increased sales of unflavored e-cigarettes.”https://t.co/sGd8nbN6dZ

— Nicotine and Tobacco Research Journal (@NTR_Journal) June 28, 2024

Vaping Less Detrimental to Periodontal Tissues

Researchers found that e-cigs “caused the least harm to these tissues” and that overall, vapers “did not show significant differences to non-smokers in many outcomes.”

That’s great news!

However, it was disappointing to see one of the study authors state that part of the popularity of smoke-free alternatives is “due to the false notion of being less harmful than traditional cigarettes.”

It’s not a “false notion.”

Even if smoke-free tobacco (they didn’t state what kind was used) had a more detrimental effect on periodontal tissues, western smoke-free tobacco still has far lower risks for deadly smoking-related diseases–including oral and lung cancers–which makes it decidedly less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

Among nicotine-containing products, smokeless tobacco harms dental implants the most, a new study by @semmelweishu finds.
Read more:https://t.co/fLncQdnQrz pic.twitter.com/3l5PAQqRug

— Semmelweis University (@semmelweishu) June 12, 2024

Two Studies Find Flavor Bans Lead to More Smoking

Two separate studies from the National Bureau of Economic Research support the findings from earlier studies that banning flavors in nicotine vapor products can lead to more smoking in youth and young adults.

These studies should serve as a wakeup call for those public health officials who are seriously interested in improving public health rather than simply waging a crusade against Big Tobacco.

More Real World Results, Proving That FORCED Abstinence NEVER, EVER Works .. & Instead, Backfires (as always!) @GovMurphy @NJSenTurner @herbconaway @sendems. In 1 breath, U say R’s R taking away Rights of adultsn but @POTUS , U R doin t/Same w/nicotine https://t.co/yj1bJhVYtv

— DMarie (@DMarie0240) June 24, 2024

Vaping As Effective as Chantix

A study conducted in Finland by researchers at Lapland Central Hospital found that e-cigarettes were about as effective at helping people who wanted to quit smoking as varenicline (Chantix).

Vaping worked for me better than Wellbutrin — I haven’t had a cigarette in over a decade.

Vaping is just as good as Chantix at helping people quit cigarettes, new study findshttps://t.co/QPWBuFq1Wx

— Liz Highleyman (@LizHighleyman) June 17, 2024

While some limitations were mentioned about vaping long-term, one major advantage of e-cigarettes over varenicline wasn’t mentioned:

Someone who has no intention of quitting smoking never picks up varenicline at the convenience store just to give it a try and then “accidentally” quits smoking.

READ MORE: https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/17/vaping-chantix-compared-quit-smoking-study

LEGAL BRIEF

SCOTUS Overturns Chevron Ruling

“Critics have long complained that Chevron deference allowed bureaucrats to usurp a judicial function and systematically disadvantaged “the little guy” in disputes with an overweening administrative state. The Supreme Court endorsed that critique by a 6–3 vote today.”
~ Jacob Sullum

How Chevron Decision Could Impact Vaping

“Today’s decision could affect current and future legal challenges to the FDA’s interpretation of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), which granted the agency broad powers to regulate nicotine and tobacco products. The TCA did not specifically make reference to vaping products, which had not reached the U.S. market when the law was being crafted.”

The FDA, however, used a provision in the TCA to issue its 2016 Deeming Rule, which granted the agency regulatory authority over vapes”

~ CASAA Director Jim McDonald (@whycherrywhy) reporting for Vaping360

Supreme Court Chevron Ruling Could Impact FDA Vaping Rules

The Supreme Court’s rejection of Chevron deference could affect pending vape industry challenges to FDA regulation, and may even lead to changes in the FDA’s regulatory approach.https://t.co/SpPgSCDWqa

— Vaping360 (@Vaping360) June 28, 2024

AROUND THE WORLD

Complete Tobacco Control Delusion in Canada

Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada wants governments to take over the cigarette industry and run it as a non-profit, with its own disappearance as a planned goal.

Essentially, the plan is to:

– Have the government sell cigarettes as a non-profit and hope the politicians and bureaucrats don’t get greedy (have they seen what happened in China?)

Hope no teens start smoking
Hope everyone who currently smokes quits (even though Canadian policies have been increasingly hostile towards low-risk alternatives to smoking)
Hope those who don’t quit just die (quit or die has long been their preferred policy)
Hope criminals don’t see the opportunity to make billions off of black market cigarettes
Hope the mostly poor people who smoke won’t get poorer from excessive cigarette taxes
Hope that the public doesn’t figure out that this is the worst…idea…ever.

Activists argue against settlement with tobacco industry, call for planned shutdown instead https://t.co/pRtmeydDtf

— TheTrillium.ca (@Thetrilliumca) June 10, 2024

READ MORE: https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/health/activists-argue-against-settlement-with-tobacco-industry-call-for-planned-shutdown-instead-8764322

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

On Saturday, June 15th we had a full day (12 hours!) of engaging conversations with notable guests, including our friends Clive Bates, Annie Kleykamp, Colin Mendelsohn, Jim McDonald, Greg Conley, Matt Culley, Allison Boughner, Lindsey Stroud, Charles Gardner, Skip Murray, and Joe Gitchell!

CASAA is currently facing significant funding challenges that may force us to cut back to only the most essential activities. Without enough monthly commitments from our members, CASAA’s ability to effectively represent and connect consumers with lawmakers will be severely impacted. This fundraiser is vital to maintaining our operations and keeping your voices heard by officials!

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

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

CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

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.

SoundCloud:

CASAA Media · Monday, March 1, 2021

The post FDA Arbitrarily Authorizes Menthol Vaping Products and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News appeared first on CASAA.

Debunking Senator Durbin’s Claims About Vaping

KNoll-Marsh — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 23:26:51 +0000

This past Wednesday, June 12, Senator Dick Durbin led yet another anti-vaping committee hearing in the Senate. There are more than two hours of testimony, but Durbin’s opening statement is filled with so much misinformation and misdirection that it deserves a significant response. We’ve broken his statement down into sections followed by our response to his claim.

Durbin: “Cigarettes are responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year. These deaths touch virtually every family in this country, including my own. This hearing is part of my continued effort in Congress to stop these needless deaths — particularly the addiction of children.”

The irony here is palpable considering that, if promoted appropriately, e-cigarettes have the potential to prevent many of those 480,000 deaths, yet Durbin wants to ban them.

Durbin: “We have made progress and the tobacco giants have fought back. That’s why we’re here today. In the year 2000, 28% of high school students smoked cigarettes. Thanks to the efforts of Congress and the public health community, that number has declined to only 2%.”

The idea that tobacco control efforts alone are responsible for lowering youth smoking to 2% is laughable.

Between 2014 and 2018, smoking among high school-aged youth declined from 9.2% to 8.1% But in the 4 years between 2018 (which many note as the beginning of the so-called “youth vaping epidemic”) and 2022, high school-aged youth smoking dropped 6 points to 2%. According to recent national survey data from 2023, smoking among young people is down to 1.9%.

What is the anti-tobacco crusade claiming THEY did differently in 2018 to suddenly cause so many high school students to not smoke?

They might try to argue that the Federal Tobacco 21 law caused the accelerated decline, but that wasn’t passed until December 2019 (after high school rates had already dropped 2.3 points,) and as of January 2021, twenty states still hadn’t enacted the law.

Durbin: “But anyone who thought Big Tobacco would accept this trend and dissipate like a cloud of smoke was mistaken. Instead they rebranded and introduced new products known as “e-cigarettes.” And they followed the same playbook, the exact same playbook they successfully used to drive sales of Marlboro and Camel cigarettes in earlier years — target kids. Thanks to the addictive nature of nicotine, these companies knew — they’ve known a long time — if they could just hook a child at a young age, they had a customer for life.”

Big Tobacco didn’t “introduce” e-cigarettes. The first e-cigarettes were sold in the US in 2007. They looked like cigarettes and were exclusively marketed to adults who smoked. Over the next two to three years, small- to medium-sized e-liquid manufacturers that listened to requests from consumers started creating non-tobacco flavors. Cigarette companies like RJ Reynolds and Altria didn’t start selling their own e-cigarettes until 2013.

A few years later, e-liquid manufacturers responded to requests from those adults to create non-tobacco flavors. The tobacco industry didn’t start selling e-cigarettes until 2013, when RJ Reynolds launched the Vuse.

Durbin: It started with Juul. Backed by a $13 billion dollars from tobacco giant Altria, in a partnership which the American Heart Association mischaracterized as “a match made in tobacco heaven” — I would say “tobacco hell” — the company introduced flashy devices, kid-friendly flavors and advertisements featuring young, attractive people.

As stated above, it didn’t start with Juul and Senator Durbin was already vilifying e-cigarette flavors in 2014, before Juul hit the market.

E-cigarettes had been on the market in the US for 8 years by the time Juul launched in June of 2015, prior to Altria taking a 35% stake in the company. Altria originally had its own product, the Mark 10, that launched in 2014. That product didn’t sell well, so Altria scrapped the line, but didn’t invest in Juul until December of 2018.

Calling Juul a “flashy device” and its flavors “kid-friendly” is a stretch. The devices were a dark gray/black rectangle. The only colors were on the pod caps, which were removed when used. They were designed for adults to be discrete. The so-called “kid-friendly flavors” Juul sold were mint, mango, cucumber, and crème, not chocolate, bubble gum or fruit loops, as Senator Durbin claimed.

Durbin: “That unleashed a wave of nicotine addiction that then-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb described in 2018 as an ‘epidemic,’ with more than five million teens reporting that they were using e-cigarettes.”

Saying there was a “wave of nicotine addiction” in 2018 is misleading. Those “five million teens” (20.8%) only stated that they’d tried vaping at least once in the past 30 days, not that they were “addicted.” In 2021 only 11% of young adults 18 – 24 were vaping, indicating that nearly half of those high school graduates who were vaping in 2018 weren’t still vaping after they graduated. Additionally, smoking reached a record low for both groups, so they were clearly not “addicted.”

Durbin: “The FDA and the Justice Department has (sic) the tools to prevent this epidemic. They have failed to use them. The Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act requires e-cigarette companies to get FDA authorization before — before — bringing products to market. Authorization can only be granted if the companies making the product first prove that their products are, quote, appropriate for the protection of public health, end quote. But for years, under both democratic and republican administrations, FDA ignored its responsibilities — until public health groups actually had to sue the agency to force it to do its job and protect our kids.”

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Act of 2009 only required the FDA to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco. In order to regulate all other products (made or derived from tobacco), the agency needed to issue and finalize a rule that “deems” those products to be within the FDA’s authority.

By the time the FDA realized that e-cigarettes were catching on with adults who smoked, millions of products were already on the market. The FDA didn’t deem e-cigarettes to be “tobacco products” until 2016 and it took another three years before guidelines for submitting premarket applications (PMTA) were published. Under the original deadline for PMTAs, 2018, vapor companies were given only two years to complete and submit their applications — without useful guidance from FDA about what an acceptable application would look like. In fact, several studies that manufacturers expected FDA to require could not be done in less than three years. Unlike several members of congress, the FDA acknowledged the consequences of mass removal of e-cigarettes from the market (potentially millions of people returning to smoking — and, in 2017, delayed the PMTA deadline to 2022.

Durbin: “. . . the US district court in Maryland found that the FDA was, in fact, violating the tobacco control act and ordered the agency to complete its review of e-cigarette applications by September the 9th, 2021. That was 33 months ago, almost three years. FDA still has not completed its review. Almost three years later, still has not completed its review.”

This ruling came in May 2019, but FDA didn’t “finalize” the PMTA guidance until June 2019. When the court made its decision, manufacturers had no way of knowing what FDA was looking for in a robust and acceptable application. Both FDA and the courts continued underestimating the number of applications that would be submitted and once manufacturers received guidance on what to file, FDA was flooded with millions of PMTAs. It was clear that completing their review in just two years was impossible.

Durbin also ignores the fact that, according to rulings in the 5th circuit court, FDA had “arbitrarily and capriciously” denied hundreds of thousands of applications for products in flavors other than tobacco, triggering lawsuits from the industry.

Durbin: “After the court-ordered deadline passed on September 9th, 2021, FDA could have ordered every single unauthorized e-cigarette off the market — and that’s what it should have done — and as the law clearly intends.”

This is what Senator Durbin and others have always wanted – FDA to order every single e-cigarette off the market. He doesn’t care that millions of adults rely on these products to quit or keep from smoking and continues ignoring testimony from the now former Center for Tobacco Products Director, Mitch Zeller, that such a mass removal risked dire consequences for public health.

Senator Durbin is wrong about the “intent” of the Tobacco Act. Congress tasked FDA with doing what was “appropriate for the protection of public health” and FDA knows that e-cigarettes are improving health outcomes for millions of adults who smoke. Clearing the market of low risk products while deadly cigarettes are available on every street corner clearly wouldn’t be what’s best for public health.

Durbin: “Instead, thousands of unauthorized e-cigarettes flooded the market.”

Prior to 2016, there were already millions of “unauthorized” e-cigarettes on the market by the time FDA deemed them to be “tobacco products.”

If Durbin is referring to Chinese disposables, he can take some credit for that. By pressuring the FDA to preemptively deny authorization for hundreds of thousands of products — before the science was reviewed — and urging the Trump administration to ban ALL pod and cartridge products, which resulted in the closure of thousands of US businesses, opened the market to those “thousands of unauthorized e-cigarettes.”

Durbin: “Flavors like blue razz ice, strawberry watermelon bubble gum and cotton candy, designed and effectively addicting millions of children of America.”

Again, teens saying they’ve tried an e-cigarette at least once in the past month isn’t evidence that they’re “addicted.” Of the 2.13 million (7.7%)youth who said in 2023 that they’d vaped in the past month, only 530,000 (1.9%) used e-cigarettes daily.

Furthermore, surveys have shown that the main reason youth try vaping is because a friend used them and curiosity. Among youth who continue vaping, their most common reasons for using e-cigarettes are they feel anxious, stressed, depressed, or to get a high or buzz from the nicotine. Not flavors!

Durbin: “Let me be clear. Despite claims from Big Tobacco, there is zero evidence that e-cigarettes and their fruity flavors are targeted at adults. None. No evidence.”

There are dozens of studies and surveys showing that adults prefer non-tobacco flavors and that these flavors help people move away from smoking.

Despite Brian King’s testimony that “there are several big tobacco entities that are manufacturing e-cigarettes with flavors that have been documented to appeal to kids,” none of the e-cigarettes sold by cigarette companies are offered in flavors that specifically appeal to youth. We can only guess he’s referring to “mint,” which is universally appealing and found in everything from alcoholic beverages to ice cream. In fact, it was the first flavor that nicotine gum manufacturers used when the unflavored gum proved unpalatable for adults who smoke.

Additionally, the tobacco industry isn’t responsible for the innovation or sale of those e-cigarette flavors. It was adults who had switched from smoking to vaping who began demanding non-tobacco flavors from e-liquid manufacturers back in 2009.

Check out this screenshot (below) of a website selling US-made e-liquids back in 2011, when high school vaping was at 1.5%. Who was buying those flavors if not adults?

Durbin: “In fact, the rate of e-cigarette use is nearly twice as high for middle school students as it is for adults.”

In fact, the exact opposite is true. In 2022, 6% of adults used e-cigarettes while only 3.3% of middle school youth used them at least once in the past month. In 2023, 4.6% (785,000) of middle school youth said they’d used e-cigarettes and the third-quarter CDC data estimated that 7% of adults (17.8 million over the age of 18) used e-cigarettes. So, nearly twenty-two times as many adults currently use e-cigarettes than middle school students.

It is true that high school students used e-cigarettes at more than double the rate of adults in 2022 (14.1% vs 6%) but using rates instead of numbers intentionally hides the fact that 2.1 million high school teens vaping is far less than over 17 million adults vaping.

Durbin: “Today I’m releasing the findings from an NIH-funded Monitoring the Future study, one of the country’s preeminent public health surveys. The researchers there estimate that 2.1 million children have picked up vaping since the Food and Drug Administration missed its September 2021 court-imposed deadline. 2.1 million new children addicted.”

The Monitoring the Future survey asked “When (if ever) did you FIRST do each of the following things?” Students who answered they’d first “vaped an e-liquid with nicotine” are the “2,110,150 estimated number of new nicotine vaping initiates in 8th through 12th grade for the 33 month period spanning September 2021 through May 2024.”

The senator is just assuming that these are “2.1 million new children addicted” without any follow-up to see if they even continued vaping after they first tried it. His assumption is not based in science. Instead, politicians like Senator Durbin are promoting drug war propaganda that misleads people to believe that nicotine and other drugs are instantly “addictive” and have no redeeming value. Messages like this are the basis of abstinence-only drug policy which has been failing around the world for more than 100 years.

Durbin: “To date, only 23, remember that number, 23 e-cigarette brands have been authorized for sale in the United States yet there are more than 6,000 e-cigarette brands on the market today. A trip to any gas station in America, convenience store or vape shop makes the scope of this illegal market clear.”

In fact, only 23 products have been authorized, not 23 brands. Three brands have authorized products: Vuse, NJOY and Logic, only 16 of which actually contain nicotine. Additionally, for some reason they include Logic’s heated tobacco leaf products on their e-cigarette list (but not IQOS).

If Senator Durbin had his way, that number would be zero. He complains about the “the scope of this illegal market” today, yet ignores the fact that everything will be illegally sold should he get his way. We already know that banning marijuana and other drugs has had little effect on reducing the illicit market, or use prevalence.

Durbin: “I simply do not understand how the Food and Drug Administration and our Department of Justice have permitted thousands, thousands of products to remain on store shelves when their manufacturers have not received authorization or, in some cases, even filed for an application.”

Does he really believe that taking them off of store shelves is going to make them go away? Maybe he should ask the same question about the illegal fentanyl that’s “on the market” which, unlike nicotine e-cigarettes, is actually killing teens on a daily basis. In 2022, there was an average of 22 unintended teen overdose deaths EACH WEEK and it’s only gotten worse since then.

Durbin: “While these two agencies sit on their hands, during both the Trump and Biden administrations, e-cigarette companies addicted a new generation of children to nicotine, erasing the hard work so many of us undertook to convince kids not to smoke tobacco cigarettes and ultimately save their lives.”

The 2020 Healthy People goal was hoping to reduce youth smoking to 16%, clearly never expecting it to actually be at 3.3% in 2020. With youth smoking now at just 1.6%, they’ve wildly surpassed their goal. So, how has vaping “erased” the hard work? And with just 7.7% of youth vaping, that’s hardly “a new generation of children addicted to nicotine.”

They also had the goal of getting adult smoking to 12% by 2020. They missed that goal (likely because they convinced adults that vaping was as bad as, if not worse than, smoking and opposed any kind of tobacco harm reduction) but the CDC early release fourth quarter estimates predict adult cigarette smoking was down to 10.5% in 2023.

While that’s good, it’s still approximately 27.4 million people smoking. Maybe it’s time Senator Durbin started thinking about them?

The post Debunking Senator Durbin’s Claims About Vaping appeared first on CASAA.

CASAA Needs Your Help!

Alex Clark — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 23:39:38 +0000

As you may know by now, CASAA has always been shy about fundraising from our membership. It is a strategic consideration acknowledging that most people who smoke may not have extra cash laying around that they can give away easily. As a result, CASAA has relied on the bulk of our donations coming from the industry for several years. This has allowed us to continue our work without pestering our membership for donations, or placing CASAA’s resources behind a paywall.

But while our membership has grown, recurring, sustaining support has remained relatively flat and one-time donations have declined. CASAA is at a point where we must make difficult decisions. The most immediate concern is whether or not we can continue our level of engagement beyond this summer.

But even though industry support has historically come to CASAA with no strings attached, we knew there was always the possibility that our mission to maximize awareness and access to safer nicotine products would conflict with some of the industry’s financial priorities. We have reached that point and because of our position, support from some of the largest companies has dried up. Shareholders are calling the shots and they’re demanding market domination, even if it’s from outdated products that have an artificial foothold supported by broken FDA regulations.

We are looking at this funding crisis as an opportunity. The community that we all have built can seize this moment and fund its consumer organization to the point that we don’t need industry support. If just 4% of CASAA’s members commit to donating $2 per month we can sustain our efforts for as long as it takes. To put this into perspective, when we smoked we used to spend anywhere from $5 to $20 per day on cigarettes. Since we’ve switched to safer alternatives, we save way more than $2 per day. For just six cents per day out of those savings we can keep CASAA alive and representing the needs of consumers who don’t want to smoke anymore!

please donate today!

Questions? Emails us at memberservices@casaa.org

We’ve taken our seat at the table and if we want to protect our access to safer alternatives we have to keep it. Can CASAA count on your support to continue connecting consumers with lawmakers?

Advocate in Style

Pick up some THR advocacy gear and support CASAA at the same time!

A portion of the proceeds go to supporting our efforts!

Your generous support helps fund our work tracking legislation, alerting consumers, educating officials, and bringing you the latest news and research about tobacco harm reduction. Most important, your donations help us connect you directly with your lawmakers when the time is right to ensure your voice is heard!

P.S. We’re aiming higher than just sustaining our current level of service, so every donation counts! Even if your budget is tight, forwarding this message to a friend (or five) may be very helpful.

The post CASAA Needs Your Help! appeared first on CASAA.

CASAA

Teen Vaping Far Lower Than 2014 Rate and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

CALLS TO ACTION

RESEARCH

New Data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey

Questions for Upcoming Research on ‘Gateway’ Theory

Small Study Focuses Ignores Harm Reduction Potential for Asthmatics

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

ZYN Factory Expanding to Meet Demand

Youth “Epidemic” or Tobacco Harm Reduction?

TOBACCO CONTROL

Misleading “facts” from American Lung Association

ALA Shift from Strategy of Misinformation to Disinformation

Public Health More Worried About Vaping Than Smoking

Kentucky Cardiologist More Wrong Than Right

Real people. Real Stories.

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

CASAA STORE // Apparel and More

CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

CASAA MEDIA // Podcast

SoundCloud:

Blatant Lies in Pennsylvania Anti Vaping Video and More! – Tobacco Harm Reduction News

CALLS TO ACTION

TOBACCO CONTROL

Blatant Lies in Pennsylvania Anti Vaping Video

IN THE MEDIA

Telling the Truth About EVALI

Anti-Vaping Propaganda Piece Uses 2015 Data

“With Wyoming following the national tobacco/nicotine use trends in the past, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that the Wyoming vaping rates have declined similarly to the national rate.”

LEGISLATION

Slippery Slope of Public Use Bans

Flavor Ban Dropped in Aitkin County

“I’m not a fan of tobacco, but I am a fan of adults’ right to choose.” ~ Commissioner Travis Leiviska.

Pushing Public Use Bans with Lies

RESEARCH

Scientists Should Be Able to Admit When They’re Wrong

Ignoring the Good News

Youth Tobacco/Nicotine Use Continues to Decline

Real people. Real Stories.

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

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CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

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Vaping Product Bill is Just Political Theater and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

CALLS TO ACTION

LEGISLATION

Vaping Product Bill is Just Political Theater

TOBACCO CONTROL

They Can’t See the Forest Through the Trees

RESEARCH

Smoking Still Low Despite Rise in Vaping

Sticking to ‘Gateway Theory’ Despite Evidence

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

‘Swap & Stop’ Program Helped Nurse Quit

FDA

Much is Riding on Supreme Court PMTA Decision

Real people. Real Stories.

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

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Tobacco Control Has Another Bad Idea and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

CALLS TO ACTION

TOBACCO CONTROL

Tobacco Control Has Another Bad Idea: Safer Products Should Require Prescription

Big Tobacco Company Pretends to Care About Public Health

FDA NEWS

Kentucky PMTA Lawsuit

Vape Companies Prevail in FDA Lawsuit

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION

Commentary: THR Advocates Have a Huge Obstacle to Overcome

RESEARCH

Despite Bold Claim, Study Fails to Show Evidence

No Evidence Here Vaping Causes Myocardial Infarction

Real people. Real Stories.

“I’m not a fan of tobacco, but I am a fan of adults’ right to choose.”
~ Commissioner Travis Leiviska.