But not in the way one would assume it did!
“The last five marketing scams in the 2025 Firebreak Filthy Fifteen look at how marketing opportunists get involved in campaigns for systemic change, trying to get ahead of the curve on the transitions to what is promised to be a better, more sustainable world.”
My heart sank when I saw that #13 is “Non-Tobacco Nicotine Products.” I braced for more of the same O, same O. We know the drill…addicting the next generation, gateway, kid-appealing flavors, ingredients used in antifreeze and paint thinner, brain damage, EVALI, chemicals & metals, stigmatizing users, popcorn lung, and evil industry plots…
You know what they say about assuming! ASS-U-Me.
The author dove right in, and by the middle of the first paragraph, I was screaming for somebody to please pass the crow sauce, because I was wrong and it was time to eat a little crow.
“The impact would be far greater if activists, regulators, foundations and the media would stop spreading false claims about the risks of these novel products. Here the scam is in how these groups are doing everything they can to stop the consumer-led transition to reduced harm products.”
There is no usual rhetoric in the whole section about THR products. The author calls it as they see it, and I heartily recommend that you check out what they have to say.
It was a refreshing sight to see.
Until next time…
P.S.: I have kept a journal since I was old enough to scrawl my thoughts in a notebook. I find it a very therapeutic process. I used to compose songs, too, but like my journals, I kept my words to myself. It feels “safe” to write things one has no intention of sharing with others. In 2022, I started writing an occasional op-ed while working at TPA. That was something very outside my comfort zone.
I have been doing newsletters and op-eds since then. Since early 2024, as a “freelance writer.” The hard part about publishing outside my blog is having to “pitch” my work to someone else. It is horribly uncomfortable for me to do so. I have found a “home” for my words, a place that aligns with my thoughts. I always pitch to Filter first. Will Godfrey, the editor at Filter, is the best person on earth to work with.
Will is kind, thoughtful, and respectful. Some publications will edit a writer’s work and not OK the edits with the writer before publication. That never happens with Will. Another thing I like about working with Will is that I am never told what to say or how to say things. He’ll help me stay on point (I struggle with wandering off into the weeds), and he’ll ask if I have considered an interesting perspective. He’ll help me put things in an order that will make the piece flow for the reader (a skill I struggle with), and we end up with a piece that is me, not someone else with my name on it.
Funding seems to be a hot topic in 2025. Anyone who watches the news has heard about cuts everywhere. We’re going to see many institutions and organizations struggle. I fear some may go under in the next year or two. From time to time, I hope to point out some of them to raise awareness of worthy places to donate to. I have chosen Filter as my first non-profit to endorse. If you’d like to help Filter continue to amplify voices like mine, please consider them the next time you are moved to support an organization.
Note to those reading this via email: If the newsletter appears truncated, please click the "View entire message" at the bottom of your email.
More - thinking about what is right and what we can do better: The world conference on tobacco control – mixed perspectives and controversies. (Click on the “PDF” option to view the commentary.) “For groups experiencing disparities, what are the consequences of our ambiguity as a field? If we do not agree on what ‘harms’ we are addressing, how can we best serve these populations at greatest risk of the most severe harms – death and disease. If our ‘endgame’ policies aim to eradicate all nicotine, where does this leave populations that are already dependent on nicotine, but are trying their very best to use it in less harmful ways than smoking? And if we do not fully and transparently declare all sources of funding and critically reflect on inherent conflicts of interest, then can we be certain that the work we do is truly serving the best interests of the most marginalised and vulnerable populations?”
More - media fixing what they didn’t get right: “Clarification: An earlier version of this column suggested that Philip Morris International, the manufacturer of ZYN, hired people to promote its nicotine pouch product on social media. According to a spokesperson for PMI, the company has not hired or paid for social media influencers to promote the product.”
More - acknowledging and explaining: Follow-Up to My Exposé on the American Lung Association. “In a subsequent comment on X, Jukka Kelovuori observed that the Clive Bates article is about ‘EVALI,’ not ‘popcorn lung.’ I stand corrected, sort of…”
When Tyndall and Beaumont Took the Stage. “Tyndall reminded the audience that the history of harm reduction has always been controversial, not because its strategies are weak, but because the bodies it aims to protect are the very ones the system is most willing to discard. And when those bodies smoke, use drugs, fall ill, or resist, they become easier to blame than to care for. It is far simpler to stigmatize them than to confront the structural inequality that shapes their suffering…But there, at the center of that stage, two physicians — with experienced hands and even more awakened eyes — dared to remind us that medicine, when practiced with courage, is more than applied science: it is confrontation. A confrontation with inequality as a persistent determinant of disease, with marginalization as state policy, with indifference as public health doctrine.”
Voices of Harm Reduction Pt 8: Arielle Selya. “Academics are sometimes discouraged from talking to people outside of academia, and there was no real dissent within it. So it’s easy to live in a bubble and not question received wisdom.”
Australia’s war on nicotine is failing. A smarter strategy is needed. “Australia can no longer afford to ignore these lessons. Harm Reduction Australia — to which both of us are advisors — has a recent policy brief that outlines a roadmap for reform. It recommends establishing a regulated legal market for lower-risk nicotine products, reducing tobacco excise to undercut the illicit trade, and involving people who smoke or vape in the policymaking process.”
Open Letter to the Executive Director of the Canadian Public Health Association. “Your upcoming event, the 2025 Canadian Conference on Tobacco and Nicotine (CCTN25), is being pitched as a space for “dialogue” and “collaboration.” But this is no public health conference. It’s an echo chamber for abstinence-only ideologues who are clinging to outdated, disproven narratives about nicotine and tobacco harm reduction.”
The pieces below don’t apply specifically to nicotine, but I think they make valid points that apply to this space. ~ Skip
Making health messages matter: Reaching Americans amid information overload. Figure 5: Nearly 9 in 10 respondents have never been asked for input on public health, yet almost half want to share their concerns with agencies across federal, state, and local levels.
Obesity Advocacy: Your Voice Matters Whenever You Speak Up. “Sara Bramblette, OAC’s Senior Advocacy Manager, has made a career out of something that started as a simple matter of sticking up for herself. She offers three basic rules that we can all live by.
IF you don’t go after what you want, you will never get it.
IF you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.
And IF you don’t step forward, you will always be in the same place.
So, go, ask, and step forward. Your voice matters more than you will ever know.”
UW research group studying nicotine pouches as alternative to smoking. “We’re not saying nicotine pouches are safe, but if it can get somebody from smoking a combusted cigarette which has 7,000 chemicals, 70 of which cause cancer, to using a different product that doesn’t have any tobacco in it per say, it just has nicotine,” Piper said. “We think that might actually result in some improvement in public health.”
A full guide to vape aerosols: Post 8, environmental aerosols (part 1). “This is the 8th Substack post, the first of a series of 3 posts describing the environmental vaping aerosols that users release to the surrounding air when they exhale. Since exhaled vape aerosols expose bystanders and non-users, it is important to understand and analyze their properties, to compare with inhaled aerosol, environmental tobacco smoke and other pollutants.”
Environmental Impact of Vaping Devices: A Global Approach to Sustainability. “This document investigates the environmental impact of vaping devices, focusing on the waste they generate, such as plastics, lithium batteries, and electronic components, and their inadequate management. It analyses the adverse effects of this waste on the environment and public health, and presents recycling approaches with examples from different parts of the world.”
Brinda Adhikari - “Alert! Why Should I Trust You? wants to do a recurring segment on our show called I Was Just About To...and call out some really cool sh*t people were working on when their research grants got cut. Were you working on nutrition or chronic disease? Toxic exposure in kids? Cancer research? Shoot us a note and finish the statement "I was just about to", and we want to call this out on our show. We would need your name, your institution or however you were working and what the grant was and what you hoped it would do.
We have some pretty amazing listeners on our show spanning the political and ideological spectrum and we want them to know about you and your work and the story -- not just the number or line item -- of what you were working on. No guarantee we will pick all that is sent but we definitely want you to send it for our consideration! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net”
SMC - expert reaction to observational study looking at rates of depression and anxiety in teens who smoke and vape. “An observational study published in PLOS Mental Health looks at mental health outcomes in teens who smoke or use e-cigarettes.”
SMC - expert reaction to an observational study comparing teen smoking rates and vaping use across three UK birth cohorts over 50 years. “An observational study published in Tobacco Control looks at teen smoking rates in three UK birth cohorts before and after vape use.”
Errors in Science: Self-Correcting, or Self-Propagating? “We recently published an article proposing that there are different categories of errors in science, and that some categories are more likely to lead a field of study down the wrong path.”
Washington Post Attack on E-Cigarettes Deserves Emergency Room Treatment. “While dual use is a transition period for many smokers, dual use has another, more ominous driver: misinformation from federal agencies and major medical organizations.”
Study reveals stark divide in how Democrats and Republicans cite science. “There are substantial differences in the amount, content and characteristics of research papers that Democratic and Republican congressional committees and right- or left-leaning think tanks cite in their policy documents, demonstrating that neither party is taking a full account of scientific evidence on various issues, according to a study published in the journal Science in April.”
The harm reduction approach should apply to tobacco, too. “…the embrace of myths and conspiracy theories – vaping is as dangerous as smoking because e-liquids are poison…”
UNFORGIVING LOGIC | The Crusade That Forgot Its Cause | RegWatch (Public Statement). “In this RegWatch public statement, we expose the divide between tobacco harm reduction and the ideology driving tobacco control. Moral absolutism rooted in resentment, not science, has shaped a global war on safer nicotine products that smears vaping, discredits researchers, and marginalizes anyone who refuses to walk the path of abstinence.”
Riccardo Polosa, Public Hearings, Portfolio Committee on Health, Republic of South Africa. “During the virtual session on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, Prof. Polosa presented scientific insights on tobacco harm reduction strategies and the role of combustion-free nicotine delivery systems in public health.”
US HHS Secretary Kennedy on tobacco products. (Illicit vapes, fast-tracking vapes, when vaping among children went up youth smoking went down, nicotine doesn’t cause cancer-might have health benefits-addictive, vaping is preferential to smoking, nicotine pouches are probably the safest way to consume nicotine, need to get people away from smoking)
Gal Cohen - “New preprint - analysis of the recent American Cancer Society paper on dual-use (DU). DU was highly bi-modal. 55% were using EC daily or near-daily, and appear to have cut their tobacco-related toxicants in half (this doesn't include those who were able to completely stop smoking with EC). The remaining 45% were using EC one day per week and did not see a benefit. Note this dose-response is true for NRT as well in the literature, so shouldn't be a surprise. Caveats: the paper didn't measure baseline CC use, so there is a need for a replication study to accurately measure pre/post effects of EC use. Implication: this study is being reported inaccurately in the press, for instance recent Wash Post article.”
Doug Levy - “Out today in JAMA Network Open, the next in our series of papers on e-cigarette policy: an evaluation of how restrictions on sales of flavored e-cigarettes affect e-cigarette and cigarette use. We find flavor bans reduce e-cig use, but slow declines in combustible cigarette use. However, results vary by state. (Thanks to co-authors David Cheng, Boram Lee, Abra J., Maeve Stover, Lindsay Kephart, Ginny Chadwick, MPH, MA, Gina Kruse, Eden Evins, and Nancy Rigotti.)”
Jeffrey Willett - “More than 1,000 public health, medical, civic and religious organizations supported the passage of the Tobacco Control Act…In addition, the leading U.S. tobacco control groups, including the American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, and Public Health Law Center, fought hard for the FDA to have regulatory authority over e-cigarettes through the Deeming Rule.
And yet today, many of these same organizations are openly criticizing the FDA’s authorization of JUUL e-cigarettes; a decision made under the very framework they championed.”
Ziauddin Islam - “Bangladesh’s ban on e-cigarettes (ENDS), while allowing combustible cigarettes—killing 161,000 annually (WHO, 2020)—is a public health disaster. Cigarettes cause 8 million global deaths yearly, yet the government, a 9% shareholder in British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB), bans safer alternatives like vaping, shown to be 95% less harmful (Public Health England, 2015). This echoes India’s ban, influenced by Bloomberg Philanthropies anti-tobacco agenda, dismissing evidence-based harm reduction.”
John Oyston - “Health organizations should be encouraging this switch by providing people who smoke with accurate information and encouragement. Instead, perhaps because they believe that enjoying any form of nicotine is somehow immoral…”
Doug Levy - “Are you kidding me, NYT? NYT's repeated insistence on making smoking cool is baffling and disturbing. It's only after 11 paragraphs blathering on about what it means to be "real" that we get this: "Against all of this, though, is the incontrovertible fact that cigarettes can kill you. Lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema are certainly less aesthetically pleasing than an artfully arranged spread of loosies and lighters at a fashion industry party." SMH.”
Public Health Theater. “She wasn’t the only one. A friend of mine, a physician at the Salt Lake VA Hospital, recently told me she’s been stunned by how many of her patients are going back to smoking now that their vape supply is running out. Older veterans. People with complex medical histories. Many had switched to flavored vapes. Now, she said, they’re lighting up again. She was shocked. I wasn’t. I’ve been watching it happen in real time.”
The EU’s War on Harm Reduction – A Public Health Calamity. “Under the guise of protecting public health, the Commission is proposing punitive taxes on vaping products, nicotine pouches, and other safer nicotine alternatives that are helping millions of people quit smoking. If adopted, these measures will turn harm reduction on its head and risk locking in and potentially increasing smoking rates across the continent for another generation.”
The Flavor of Harm Reduction: Vapes in a Hostile US. “Michael Siegel, a professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine, similarly said that flavor bans had led to increased smoking rates in both adults and youth.”
Uzbekistan Causing Unnecessary Deaths. “Uzbekistan has imposed a ban on nicotine pouches and is considering similar restrictions on vapes, e-liquids and heated tobacco products. Its 20.4% male smoking rate been virtually unchanged for more than a decade, and Uzbeks have easy access to deadly cigarettes and toxic nasvay (a type of chewing tobacco).”
Pouches Close Sweden’s Tobacco Harm Reduction Gender Gap. “Like During, Althoff also named convenience and discretion as big benefits of pouches. “I honestly don’t see myself going back to smoking, unless pouches were no longer available,” she said.”
“Infantile” UK Plan Would Fine People Who Vape at Bus Stops. “This equating of the two in public spaces could send a damaging message, when most Brits who smoke don’t know that switching to vaping would be far better for their health.”
Media Watch: Fredrik Nystrom in the Washington Post. “Follow public health logic, and that means we should ban all marathons to “protect the hearts”. Back on planet earth, we can accept that everything comes with some pros and cons, life is messy and nuanced, and sometimes the primary voice you should listen to is yourself. If it works for you, do it. Life is for living.”
Vape shops voice concerns over phased rollout of Tennessee's new compliance laws. “Some local business are confused about how a new Tennessee law on vape products is being implemented.”
What’s So Bad About Nicotine? “For the better part of the past century, the case against nicotine was simple: Smoking a cigarette might feel nice, but it will eventually kill you…But in 2025, nicotine isn’t so straightforward…All of this has nicotine in a strange place. Before the advent of newer products, the field of public health was united in its stance that no one should be using cigarettes, and thus nicotine. Now the message is more muddled than ever.”
Prepare for Vaping Products Duty and the Vaping Duty Stamps Scheme (UK). “From 1 April 2026 if you make or intend to make vaping products in the UK, you must apply for approval for Vaping Products Duty and the Vaping Duty Stamps Scheme. It can take up to 45 working days for HMRC to complete their checks. You should apply as early as possible to make sure you have the necessary approval before 1 October 2026.”
How Do the “Academic Advisors” Get Away With Their Ideology? (AU). “Their past contributions to tobacco control, while real, now function as armour. Question them and you’re accused of attacking public health itself. This makes it politically and socially risky for younger academics, clinicians, or policymakers to dissent even as the evidence mounts against their current strategies.”
Open Letter to the Executive Director of the Canadian Public Health Association. “Your upcoming event, the 2025 Canadian Conference on Tobacco and Nicotine (CCTN25), is being pitched as a space for “dialogue” and “collaboration.” But this is no public health conference. It’s an echo chamber for abstinence-only ideologues who are clinging to outdated, disproven narratives about nicotine and tobacco harm reduction. CCTN25 explicitly bans participation from anyone with ties to tobacco or vaping product entities. This includes researchers, advocates, clinicians, and consumers who support non-pharmaceutical nicotine products, the very tools many marginalized people use to reduce harm and improve their health.”
Hiding the Vaping Habit. “With over 5.6 million vapers in the UK, have you wondered how many still hide their habit from their families? New data from Vape Superstore, which surveyed 1,400 of its customers, reveals Britain's secret vaping habits. Amazingly, a third of parents don’t know their adult children vape.”
States Look to Levy Sin Taxes on Nicotine Pouches. “Several state legislatures are considering a massive tax hike on consumers who indulge in certain tobacco products. The Washington state legislature is attempting to expand its taxing power to encompass nicotine products. The Rhode Island General Assembly is considering an 80 percent increase in its excise tax on nicotine pouches. And Illinois’ new tax increase on tobacco products went into effect on the first day of July, pushing the tax up from 15 percent to 45 percent.”
More News:
A Big Milestone in a Long (and Ongoing) Journey. “I am hopeful because the framework for FDA regulation of tobacco and nicotine products - that imagined structure which I was tasked with working on three decades ago - now exists and is beginning to demonstrate its ability to function as intended. In doing so, it can end the false choice that suggests we can either have a regulated market or one that gives Americans compelling smoke free alternatives - but not both. In fact, we can and must have both.”
FDA chief talks staffing, abortion drug and tobacco. “The FDA official called combustible cigarettes “the most dangerous product of the nicotine products that are commonly consumed,” saying there are less harmful products that contain nicotine that doctors can transition smokers to.”
AAP names Dr. Brian Williams to tobacco section. “The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has named UW-CTRI Researcher and Pediatrician Dr. Brian Williams to the AAP Section on Nicotine and Tobacco Prevention and Treatment.”
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION. “On December 3, 2024, Vapor Lab filed this lawsuit against HHS, the Secretary of HHS, the FDA, and the FDA Commissioner (collectively, “FDA”). Vapor Lab’s Complaint alleges that “[u]nder the Supreme Court’s ruling in SEC v. Jarkesy, . . . Defendants’ administrative proceeding violates Plaintiff’s right to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment.” (I think the plaintiff won, but I’m not sure. There is nothing more confusing on earth to me than legal jargon. ~Skip)
Altria Q2 2025 slides: EPS growth accelerates as on! nicotine pouches gain momentum. “Regarding its e-vapor business, Altria provided an update on NJOY, noting that in June, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board did not agree with the company’s argument to invalidate JUUL’s patent. However, Altria has completed the product design of a modified NJOY ACE solution that it believes addresses all four disputed patents. The company is also actively building out a broader vapor portfolio with products that align with evolving consumer expectations.”
Jeffrey Weiss - “Given the stakes for adults who smoke and who can ill afford continued loss of access to one of only two authorized, menthol-flavored, pod mod products, I hope the two companies will find a way to bring this dispute to a close.”
COP11 Agenda Reveals Deep Bias Against Harm Reduction. “This language is not neutral. By referring to harm reduction as part of the “tobacco industry’s narrative”, with quotation marks that cast doubt on its legitimacy, the FCTC Secretariat is pre-framing the entire discussion as defensive and adversarial. It implies that harm reduction itself is a deceptive strategy, rather than a widely recognised and effective public health principle…”
Regulatory Void Fuels Illicit Markets And Public Health Risks, Warns CAPHRA. “In response to a recent Bangkok Post article highlighting the dangers of "zombie vapes," the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) warns that the absence of clear, proportionate, and enforceable regulations is creating illicit markets that undermine public safety, encourage criminal enterprise, and expose consumers to heightened health risks. These hazardous products, which contain the powerful anaesthetic etomidate—a scheduled drug typically used in hospital settings—have been circulating in the Asia Pacific region since 2023.”
Despite FDA Authorization, the Damage of the Juul Frenzy Lingers. “The juggernaut of the Juul teen-vaping frenzy changed the trajectory of the market. Instead of regulating, promoting, and making them legally available in a national network of community-based vape shops or other outlets, the US is filled with unregulated, disposable, flavored vapes, as consumers circumvent bans. It’s estimated that the illicit market sells 60 percent of all vapes in the US.”
Study finds flavor bans cut youth vaping but slow decline in cigarette smoking. “We're trying to solve the problem of youth vaping, but we need to carefully consider the impacts of more harmful combustible cigarette use."
FDA Seeks Nominations for the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee - Summer 2025. “FDA is requesting nominations by Aug. 25, 2025, for voting members to serve on the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC). Individuals may self-nominate or be nominated by any interested person or organization.”
Nicotine is Getting the Rebrand of A Lifetime. “Interest in nicotine as a supposed health enhancer is soaring in 2025, driven by a mix of conspiracy theories, pseudoscientific claims, culture, and aggressive commercial marketing.”
Final thoughts…
People who say the hard things out loud. For example…
I want to thank The Firebreak for saying out loud the part that frustrates me and breaks my heart:
“…millions will suffer and die needlessly by the inflexibility of the activists’ dogmatic fundamentalism. That is more than a scam; that is a well-funded tragedy.”
I also want to thank Jim Coleman for being brave enough to say hard things out loud. He’s an academic who has entered the phased retirement stage in his life and is pondering “what’s next?” As he reflects on his life, he talks about some of the difficult parts of being autistic and all the things that can be a part of autism. This part of his essay spoke to me:
“I am grateful, though, for having been one of the luckiest people on earth, even though there were times I most definitely was not grateful (and there a few people I won't ever forgive), and times where suicide seemed like a decent option.
Don't be shocked by the suicide comment. In 1993, after an SSRI brought me out of a very dark place, I promised to always be honest about my mental health challenges to destigmatize them. And it turns out that being genuine and vulnerable about my challenges with depression and anxiety has allowed me to help many students find support.”
Notes:
I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups with which I volunteer. I receive no financial compensation for my efforts to create these newsletters. Thank you to those who have offered to fund this project and compensate me for my time. This is my gift to people who are interested in nicotine. Community service is important to me. Volunteering is something I have done since I was a child.
My blog, Skip's Corner, has an X/Twitter account.
My personal accounts are on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).