Thinking 'bout THR Newsletter

May 22 - 24, 2024

May 24, 2024

World Vape Day is May 30. The hashtags for the global event are #WVD and #WVD2024.

This special day was started by consumers to raise awareness about tobacco harm reduction and to celebrate their quit smoking journeys. The first one was held in March 2012 and was originally called “World Vaping Day.”

Years later, due to the massive amounts of misinformation about vaping spread on World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), World Vape Day was moved to the day before WNTD. (See the special section below, “Misinformation Highway,”)

World No Tobacco Day is May 31. While this day was originally intended to encourage people to try to go 24 hours without smoking and to hopefully quit smoking, the focus has shifted in recent years and often talks about vaping (which doesn’t contain tobacco) more than it does smoking.

Watch Filter Magazine for more on these two observance days on May 30.

If you know of any World Vape Day events, please bring them to my attention so I may add them to the event calendar! My email is skipscorner (@) gmail (.) (com) or you can find me (more than I should be!) on X (Twitter) @imaracingmom.

FYI - it’s like this every week, year after year… a caravan of harm.

Versions of some of the headlines (and other sources of misinformation) are given on other outlets, but for the sake of time, I will list each example of “get your clicks on Route 66” (pun intended) once. These are all from a Google search with the time frame set for the last seven days.

And this is how a day dedicated to consumers celebrating they quit smoking and making an effort into helping others quit, has had it’s date changed and turned into an anti-propoganda campaign against World No Tobacco Day. Tragic that there is now so much less focus on smoking while millions of people continue to die from smoking.

I’ll get off my soap box now. Can somebody please hand me a tissue? When I think of all the people suffering from horrible things like cancer and COPD and headed to an early grave, I can’t help but cry.

I wasn’t expecting to need a square on my Bingo card for this one: A Case of Vaping-Associated Candida and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Co-infection Causing Esophagitis in an Immunocompetent Patient.
This week’s addition to my “We don’t know BUT… anything is possible” Bingo card square: Will Vaping Attract Bears to My Campsite? “Bears are attracted to smells, and vapes can smell like cotton candy or different types of food, so it’s possible that they’d be attracted to that.”
Added to the “I told you so” square on my bingo card: Sales of vaping products to kids is common on TikTok. A couple of years ago, I belonged to a group that searched for these types of sales and reported them to the websites. We also submitted some of them to the FDA. While some websites pulled a few of the sales, we have no knowledge of the FDA taking action. From the article: “Nearly half (45%) of the videos posted about selling vaping products specifically advertised that they did not require age verification of the buyer, results show. None of the videos indicated customers needed to provide ID to purchase vaping products or accept a mailed package.”

Influence of quitting smoking on diabetes-related complications: A scoping review with a systematic search strategy. “Suggesting the switch to substantially less harmful nicotine alternatives, like oral nicotine pouches or electronic nicotine delivery systems (e.g., e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products), may offer a viable solution.”
Trends in vaping and smoking following the rise of disposable e-cigarettes: a repeat cross-sectional study in England between 2016 and 2023. See Twitter/X thread by one of the authors here.

Sudden UK Election Shelves Contentious Tobacco and Vapes Bill. “Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill has gone up in smoke after his surprise announcement, on May 22, of a snap election in the United Kingdom.”
Elon Musk’s Community Notes Feature on X Is Working. “Crowdsourced fact-checking is better at curtailing misinformation than content moderation.” (The Musk article is not about nicotine but is interesting.) To tie that to nicotine, see: Twitter, X, whatever you know it as, introduced a means of correcting misleading posts and harm reduction advocates are now making full use of it. “The Community Notes feature is having such a profound impact that even national newspapers are reporting when large organisations like the World Health Organization are being publicly corrected”
Interview with Australian Tobacco Control Expert: Prescription-Only Policy Fuels Black Market, Vapes Should be Accessible as Cigarettes. “The prescription-only model for e-cigarettes in Australia has largely failed. Vapers are required to obtain a nicotine prescription from a doctor and purchase e-liquids and vaping hardware from pharmacies. However, 90% of vapers have rejected this legal pathway, with few doctors willing to write prescriptions. Smokers do not view themselves as needing medical attention, and pharmacies offer a limited range of products at higher costs, further deterring legal purchases.”
Claims of “Passive Vaping Danger” Irritate Scientists. “I am truly concerned that the media is disseminating scaremongering stories about passive vaping, despite the lack of scientific evidence supporting such claims.”
Vaping in schools: Ontario’s $30 million for surveillance and security won’t address student needs. “The province says the budget signals a huge investment in education, but the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives notes it cumulatively reflects funds for 4,900 fewer educators in classrooms. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation says there’s a cut to funding per student by almost 10 percent since 2018.”
Panama Vape Ban Ruled Unconstitutional. “The court found that Law 315 violated parliamentary procedures spelled out in Article 170 of the Panamanian constitution, according to Panama America.”

For global coverage of calls to action, please click here: Advocating For Tobacco Harm Reduction.

Tobacco harm reduction means different things to different people. Some may wish to achieve a nicotine-free society. Others may wish to squash the tobacco industry. Some prefer that people who choose to use nicotine use it in a form that has less risk than smoking tobacco. What we all have in common is a desire to reduce/eliminate smoking-related diseases and premature deaths. The events listed below focus on nicotine. Some events may not be supportive of reduced-risk products. Some have covered nicotine in the past but may not cover that topic every year.

May 25, 2024, (Virtual) 12:00 PM GMT (Virtual) - Global Youth Voices' Virtual Summit.
*NEW* May 29, 2024, Bruxelles, Belgium 10:30 AM - 12:45 PM CEST (In-person and virtual) - Advancing innovation: Solutions for a smoke-free future.
*NEW* May 30, 2024 - (Virtual) 9 PM IST (10:30 AM CST) - AVI on World Vape Day: Impact of vape ban on end users.
May 30, 2024 - (Virtual) 3:00-4:00 PM - CAsToR A Conversation about the Use of Computational Models in Tobacco Regulation.
May 30-31, 2024 - Brisbane, AU - 2024 SRNT-Oceania Chapter Conference (30th) and Tobacco Endgame Centre of Research Excellence Annual Symposium (31st) Online Registration Link (for both)
*NEW* May 31, 2024, (In person & Virtual) 3:00 PM ET, Los Angeles, CA, US - USC TCORS & IAS Joint Speaker Series - Dr. Brian King. Talk Title: Regulation of the Evolving Market of Tobacco Products to Protect Youth and Young Adults.
Jun 4-5, 2024, Portland, ME, US - Tobacco Treatment and Prevention Conference
*NEW* June 12-14, 2024, Dubai, UAE - Global Vape Forum.
Jun 13-15, 2024, Warsaw, Poland - GFN - Global Forum on Nicotine - Registration open! (Pre-Conference activities Jun 12)
Jun 15, 2024, CASAA fundraiser - details coming soon!
Jun 16-19, 2024, San Diego, CA, US - 2024 ASHEcon Conference (Health Economists).
Jun 19-20, 2024, Miami, FL, US - Next Generation Nicotine Delivery USA
*NEW* Jun 21, 2024, (Virtual) 6:00 AM CT - BR-UK: Using ontologies to advance behavioural research.
Jun 26, 2024, Silver Spring, MD, US (Virtual and In-person) 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM EST - The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee meeting (TPSAC). Topic MRTP
Jun 27-28, 2024, Minneapolis, MN, US - National Tribal Tobacco Conference
Jul 4-5, 2024, Opatija, Croatia - 13th Workshop on the Economics of Risky Behavior. Program here.
Jul 21-23, 2024, San Marcos, TX, US - Texas Tobacco-Free Conference
Aug 18-21, 2024, Mobile, AL, US - Federation of Tax Administrators - 2024 Tobacco Annual Meeting
Sep 7-10, 2024, San Diego, CA, US (In-person & Virtual) World Conference on Lung Cancer. Early Bird registration ends June 7, 2024
Sep 8-11, 2024, Atlanta, GA, US - 77TH TOBACCO SCIENCE RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Sep 16-17, 2024 (Virtual) - 7th Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction by SCOHRE
Sep 23, 2024, NYC, NY, US - New Approaches Conference
Sep 24-25, 2024, Athens, Greece - GTNF (Event link not yet available)
Oct 13-17, 2024, Edinburgh, Scotland - CORESTA Congress 2024
Oct 23-25, 2024, Lisbon, Portugal - LISBON ADDICTIONS European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies.
Oct 23-25, 2024, Broadbeach, Australia - Oceania Tobacco Control Conference 2024. Early bird registration ends June 30, 2024. Note: not THR-friendly. See list of Conflict of Interest Principles
Oct 24-25, Washington DC? US (In-person and Virtual) - FDLI Tobacco and Nicotine Products Regulation and Policy Conference. (Registration opening soon)
Oct 27-30, 2024, Minneapolis, MN, US - 2024 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo (Public Health). Registration opens in June.
Oct 28-29, 2024, Charleston, SC, US (Virtual and In-Person) 2024 NICOTINE AND TOBACCO SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Nov 14-15, 2024, UK - SSA Annual Conference. Early bird discounts until September 9, 2024
Nov 14-16, 2024, Chicago, IL, US—AMERSA Conference—Registration opens in June. Note: We won't know until the agenda is announced if nicotine will be part of this year's conference.
December 5, 2024, UK (Virtual and In-person), E-Cigarette Summit UK

Check out the public Google calendar of THR-related events created and maintained by Clive Bates. Also, check out the event calendar from Ecig Intelligence. Their listings include consumer/trade shows and expos that I don't include in this newsletter.

Call for Papers

Tobacco Online Policy Seminar (TOPS) Is Calling for Papers and Presenters. The submission deadline is May 28, 2024. NOTE: Certain individuals are not allowed to reply—see guidelines.
A 10-year Update on Nicotine and Tobacco Research Related to Sex/Gender. The submission deadline is July 31, 2024.

Service Opportunities…

Nomination Call for New SRNT-E Board Members (President-Elect and Secretary. Nominations are due by June 15, 2024.

Wanted: Conference Submissions…

Sep 16-17, 2024 - 7th Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction by SCOHRE. Call for abstracts for short oral or poster presentations. The submission deadline for abstracts is July 12, 2024.
Call for speakers. The Society for the Study of Addiction is now accepting applications for speakers at the PhD Symposium. Application deadline is July 3, 2024
Nov 14-15, 2024, UK - SSA Annual Conference. Submissions for posters and oral presentations are due by July 3, 2024

Petitions…

Some are listed on this Safer Nicotine Wiki advocacy page.

Jan 15-19, 2025 Seattle, WA, US - Society for Social Work and Research.
Mar 12-15, 2025 New Orleans, LA, US - SRNT 31st Annual Meeting
Aug 26-28, 2025 Chicago, IL, US - The National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) (Link is to the announcement, not event info)
Sep 10-12, 2025 Romania - SRNT-E Conference

Mar 4-6, 2026 Baltimore, MD, US - SRNT 32nd Annual Meeting

Notes:

Deadlines are in bold type. Additions to the seeking participants and events sections since the last edition will be denoted by "*NEW*"
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 believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table. If you’re interested in nicotine with a focus on THR, this newsletter is for you.

Until next time,

Skip “#BeKind” Murray