Thinking 'bout THR News & Views
January 11-20, 2025
Greetings!
This newsletter is already very long, as it has been a long time since the last edition of News & Views. I will skip including my personal message and save it for next time.
Until next time…
PS: Please send heat. It was -21F this morning. It is now a balmy -12F.
The Safer Nicotine Wiki team has updated its page on VLNCs. If other data sources should be added, please let me know.
The beauty of freshly fallen snow lying peacefully on the branches of the trees.
It was -21F this morning when I drove to work. That makes me grateful that it’s one day closer to spring!
Cheryl K. Olson - Commenting on FDA’s proposed rule for low nicotine combustible products - “That is, if future nicotine use involves products not lit on fire, the health risks may be minimal. And more people taking them up should not worry us that much.” Joe Gitchell - Replying to Cheryl - “The challenge is that tobacco-attributable mortality is not the only currency in this transaction.... But maybe we can make it relatively more valuable than other drivers? I think one way to make progress, as I had noted in my remarks at the 2018 Global Forum on Nicotine, is that we need to set priorities and confront tradeoffs before debating policy.”
Sharon Cox - “The SRNT-E Conference Debate will be back! You do not need to be attending the conference to submit an idea. I will be requesting ideas soon, so take this as a warning to get your thinking caps on!”
Michael F. Pesko - “Excited to accept a term on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics. I plan to use the position to advocate for thoughtful ways to protect and expand data access for the research community.”
Jeffrey Willett - “Quitting smoking entirely is one of the most important steps you can take to improve your health, and FDA-authorized smoke-free nicotine products, including Zyn and certain e-cigarettes, will expose you to much less risk than continued smoking…”
Jeffrey Weiss - “Prior to passage of the Tobacco Control Act, one of the fundamental arguments in support of FDA regulation and premarket review in the tobacco area was that there would be a uniform, national framework for the entry of potential reduced harm products to the market…Thus, the TCA makes it crystal clear that only FDA can make premarket review decisions and set product standards. This means that any state/local efforts that would contradict those are preempted and invalid…”
VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCE: FDA’s Proposed Rule on Reducing Nicotine Levels – 1/15/2024. Featuring: FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., Brian King, Ph.D., MPH, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products
How Sweden Quit Smoking” - A We Are Innovation Documentary. “Journey into the heart of Sweden's transformation into a smoke-free nation through this documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Tomasz Agencki. The film features the final public appearance of Prof. Curt Enzell, the pioneering inventor of portion snus, alongside an exceptional roster of experts including Dr. Karl Fagerström, creator of the renowned Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence, and Dr. Anders Milton, former Chair of the World Medical Association.”
Addressing the Harmful Effects of Tobacco-Related Stigma. “Presenter: Derek Bowen, MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence Stigma is the public’s effect of marking disgrace of a certain quality within a targeted community. People who use tobacco are faced with stigma and the challenges it brings day by day, and it leaves a great impact on the individual’s quality of life, mental health, and likeliness to stop using tobacco further down the road. Within the webinar, we will discuss different types of stigmas, the effects of stigma, and ways to reduce and prevent stigma when it comes to individuals who use tobacco.”
Burn It Down | Can Vaping Be Saved Under Trump’s FDA? “In this episode of RegWatch, Brent Stafford interviews Clive Bates, renowned tobacco control policy expert, to unpack what’s at stake for millions of American vapers.”
Sarah Jakes. From the 2017 E-cigarette Summit UK. Please listen to this with your heart. #SeeUsHearUs #SupportNotStigma.
Across the Pond: Exploring Tobacco Harm Reduction in LMICs with Samrat Chowdhery. “The conversation dives into the unique obstacles LMICs face in adopting harm reduction strategies, such as limited resources, regulatory hurdles, and cultural perceptions around smoking and alternatives.”
GFN News #130 | THERAPEUTIC NICOTINE EXPLAINED Pt.1 | Featuring Michael Kariuki. “Joining us today is Michael Kariuki, a consultant pediatrician and epidemiologist from Kenya, to discuss the therapeutic applications of nicotine and the vital role of safer nicotine products in aiding smoking cessation.”
How Different Types of Evidence Effect Public Policy Support: Learning from UK Citizens. “While facts and figures are important, they may not be enough to change public opinion. Emotional storytelling often connects with people more effectively. However, data can still act as a protective barrier, helping to counter the effect of negative anecdotes.”
Reducing maternal smoking using Indigenous knowledge, practices, and online technologies. “This study supports the potential for traditional knowledge and healing methods alongside contemporary communication tools such as mobile apps and augmented reality to increase the attractiveness and reach of smoking cessation programs for pregnant Indigenous women, even if delivered online.”
Jamie Tam. “Our Tobacco 21 project was years in the making…"
Sarah Jackson. “New paper examines the prevalence and real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids in England…”
It continues to travel:
Gene Mason - “One drop of nicotine can kill a horse.” Hypnosis - 90% success rate for helping people stop vaping.
The dangerous impact vaping can have on your lungs. “Research is still in the early stages of how vaping affects lungs – but worrying conditions, like ‘popcorn lung’, are on the rise.”
New Research: Smoking and Vaping Alters Key Lung Cells, Increasing Disease Risks. (Note: The study is about smoking, not vaping. E-cigarettes are mentioned once as having some of the same flavoring chemicals as cigarettes, but the study is clearly about cigarette smoke.)
Putting on the brakes:
American Lung Association Claims that Nicotine Pouches are No Safer than Cigarettes. “The basis of the American Lung Association's claim that nicotine pouch use is no safer than smoking is this 2022 study which indeed detected tobacco-specific nitrosamines (carcinogens) in 26 of 44 nicotine pouches studied. However, what the American Lung Association is not informing the public is that the levels of nitrosamines detected in nicotine pouches were extremely low -- essentially trace levels -- and that these levels are two orders of magnitude lower than the nitrosamine levels in some brands of nicotine gum, which the American Lung Association heavily endorses.”
METACOMMENTARY: Why Meta’s move to community notes is good. “Meta’s changes are not the death of speaking from authority; it just means the authority will have to be cited by someone sitting as a co-equal voice in a system that doesn’t censor based on the all-too-frequently imperfect perspective of an insular group — which, like all of us, is subject to its own biases and blind spots. A censor being wrong about something is much, much worse than any of us individually being wrong. Getting rid of that moderation is a step in the right direction, because it means we can at least hear each other out, however wrong we individually might be.”
Update - Tweet(s) now displaying a community note:
Cernovich - “Vaping causes popcorn lung. This FDA rule to cut nicotine levels is cigarettes is almost certainly due to bribery from th vape industry.”
Fixing the broken and lawless American tobacco and nicotine market. “Fixing the broken tobacco and nicotine market requires a radical overhaul of the authorisation process for smoke-free products, lowering barriers to entry and pushing back a giant illicit market.”
Uzbekistan launching effort to ban electronic cigarettes. “Uzbekistan’s parliament has taken the first step to prohibit e-cigarettes in the country, following Kyrgyzstan, which adopted a ban in late 2024….“Electronic cigarettes, in addition to nicotine, contain 80 different carcinogenic and toxic chemical compounds and heavy metals that cause serious harm to human health and the environment,” the report stated. E-cigarette marketing often targets children, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an advocacy group.”
In praise of ‘dual users’. “We need to treat dual users the same way as we already treat “dual drivers,” flexitarian eaters and “dual drinkers”. We should celebrate when they do the right thing – every cigarette not smoked is a good thing – while exploring what is preventing them from transitioning completely to a better alternative.”
The Trump administration FDA could save millions of lives. Here’s how. “This time, as the new administration takes power in Washington, a major victory for public health is within reach. The FDA under Trump and, yes, the unpredictable Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could at long last throw it support behind tobacco harm reduction by making the life-saving benefits of electronic cigarettes readily available to about 28 million American adults who smoke.”
Another Study on Flavored Vaping Products the FDA Can Ignore. “Although only a small percentage of participants exclusively selected tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, the convergence of findings across multiple outcomes in this study suggest that non-tobacco flavors may be more appealing than tobacco flavors, and may better promote uptake and reduce cigarette smoking among adults who smoke.”
UCSF Center for Tobacco Research and Education Supports Near Complete Ban on E-Cigarettes but Only Minor Restrictions on Sale of Real Ones. “Thus, a flourishing flavored e-cigarette market is a huge threat to the profits of cigarette companies. Eliminating this alternative market removes the bulk of the competition from cigarettes, which bolsters cigarette sales.”
2025 Tobacco Legislative & Regulatory Outlook. “NATO’s David Spross breaks down the federal, state and local predictions for tobacco legislation in 2025.”
The Trump FDA Has an Opportunity to Lead on Illicit Vapes. “The FDA can work with responsible manufacturers to help shape a responsible market in real-time using its powers of post-market surveillance and enforcement to ensure they are sold and marketed only to adults. Let’s have the courage to try something that works to reduce the death and disease caused by smoking and, in the process, protect the wins we’ve achieved in reducing youth use. We have little to lose and so much to gain.”
‘Real Vapers’ Required. “The government is making plans for vapers without consulting us or the consumer-driven industry that we created, and the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) wants to do something about it. The trade body has expressed its ‘disappointed’ at the lack of industry and consumer representation at Tobacco and Vapes Bill hearings and has put out a call for real vapers to share how vaping helped them cut down on or stop smoking.”
Largely Ignored Study Shows that Switching from Smoking to E-Cigarettes Reduces Carcinogenic Exposures to the Same Extent as Complete Nicotine Abstinence. “This is a very important study but it has been largely, if not completely ignored by most tobacco control and health groups. These groups continue to claim that vaping is just as harmful as smoking…”
Media Watch: Bloomberg News Excitedly Speculates About “Nicotine Pouches’ Downfall” “Another thing I realised while reading the Bloomberg article is that as smoking rates plummet around the world, it seems like people are forgetting about just how bad cigarettes are for health. Perhaps this is a consequence of anti-smoking groups losing sight of their objectives and instead placing excessive focus on vapes and pouches, to the point that the perception of risk between the products has been effectively dissolved.”
Reasoned approach to vaping needed. “Public health campaigns have long encouraged harm-reduction strategies, yet vaping faces regulatory and cultural stigmatization that undermines its potential as a smoking cessation tool.”
My journey into support for harm reduction. “2010 is when I started thinking of passing on the gift of vaping to those who couldn’t or wouldn’t stop burning tobacco. It was also the year my father died. I also advocate in his memory, vaping was too late for him, and he died of cancer from a 20/day habit. He was a fireman who lived to save lives and help folks, saving people from burning buildings. I aim to save some lives in his memory, too; it seems fitting.”
Latvia brings in raft of tough new vape restrictions. “From January 1, vape flavours are banned in the Baltic country, with the exception of tobacco. Pouches also have a limit on the level of nicotine they can contain. All tobacco products, vapes and nicotine pouches cannot now be legally sold to people aged under 20. Anyone caught breaking the new law will face a hefty fine ranging from €280 to €700 for an individual and €700 to €7,100 euros for a business.”
More news: Vapers Digest January 15, January 20. AVM Newsletter January 20.
FDA Proposes Significant Step Toward Reducing Nicotine to Minimally or Nonaddictive Level in Cigarettes and Certain Other Combusted Tobacco Products. (FDA News Release)
FDA Authorizes Marketing of 20 ZYN Nicotine Pouch Products after Extensive Scientific Review. (FDA News Release)
A Year in Review: FDA’s Progress on Tobacco Product Regulation in 2024. By Brian King, Director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
Federal judge blocks FDA from enforcing graphic cigarette label rule. (See Also: Ruling)
Attorney General Ellison sues e-cigarette manufacturer, launches investigation of another.
Motion for Stay - Johnny Copper vs FDA
Notes:
I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups I do volunteer work with. I receive no financial compensation for my efforts to create these newsletters.
My blog, Skip's Corner, has an X/Twitter account. My personal accounts are on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).
Outstanding resource, Skip!