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- Category: October 2021
The US Food and Drug Administration finally approved the sale of three types of e-cigarettes last week, leaving business to ask what this means for the Egyptian market? The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population recently warned against using e-cigarettes, saying that vaping contains nicotine and toxic substances that harm the smoker and those around them. [...] Fawzi Al-Hwaiti, a tobacco seller in central Cairo, is at the sharp end of the e-cigarette business in Egypt.
He stresses that only three types of vapes are authorized in Egypt, adding that he does not know whether the products he brings from dealers are legal or not. [...]
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- Category: October 2021
On October 18, 100 tobacco control experts called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to accept the reality of safer nicotine alternatives. “There are many experts who feel strongly about these issues and believe in sound science and good policy,” said Clive Bates, the former director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), who published the letter on his blog. [...] Vocal THR supporters, consumers and drug-war critics have frequently criticized the WHO for pushing prohibition or draconian regulations that would hinder smokers from switching to safer nicotine products, like vapes or forms of smokeless tobacco.
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- Category: October 2021
The Asia Pacific region has been split in two as to how to best deal with vaping. No bigger is the contrast than between Australia and New Zealand. While the two countries are close cousins, they’re miles apart when it comes to adopting Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) policies that work for their citizens.
Last year, New Zealand legalised and regulated vaping. Meanwhile, across the Tasman, Australia has passed regulations for nicotine to only be available via a prescription model. This not only significantly impacts the 500,000 vapers in the country but further limits access to the 2.3 million daily smokers to safer nicotine products. [...]
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- Category: October 2021
More than a third of New Zealand high school students have tried vaping, with 10 percent vaping regularly and six percent vaping weekly or more often, researchers have found. The study [...] reflects the situation before the Government banned the sale of vaping products to under 18-year-olds and prohibited e-cigarette marketing late last year.
Researcher Dr. Jude Ball, from the University of Otago, Wellington, says the study highlights the importance of getting the balance right between making it easy for adult smokers to switch to less harmful vaping, while protecting young non-smokers.
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- Category: October 2021
Tobacco is an issue that the general population thinks is important but rarely focuses on. It’s easily overlooked due to the assumed lack of urgency. In reality, the issue impacts everyone. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Minnesota, the United States and even globally. Yearly, tobacco causes approximately 480,000 deaths in the United States — and affects thousands more lives. It’s nearly impossible to explain how detrimental tobacco use is on families and loved ones.
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- Category: October 2021
All millennial’s and Gen-Zs must by now be familiar with hookah bars and lounges. They must have first or second-hand experience of Vaping e-liquids or tried out e-cigs, at least socially. All of the above activities enjoy great popularity with the younger section of the western populace. Still, there are fundamental differences between the three. So, let’s begin by examining what the three (Hookah, Vape and E-cig) mean exactly — starting with the hookah: [...]
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- Category: October 2021
Using a combination of nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline may be more effective as first-line therapy for smoking cessation than varenicline alone, according to data presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting.
“Nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline are both effective in helping smokers quit,” Akesh Thomas, MD, internal medicine resident [...] “There is growing interest in combining these two treatment methods for better outcomes, but none of the available first-line pharmacological therapies to treat tobacco dependence have been labeled for use in combination with other therapies.”
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- Category: October 2021
The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR), a Knowledge·Action·Change (KAC) project, launches a new series of briefing papers ahead of the publication of its latest report, Fighting The Last War: The WHO and International Tobacco Control on 27 October.
The suite of new GSTHR publications aim to draw attention to, and challenge the direction of travel of, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties 9 (COP9), a major global meeting on tackling smoking. [...]
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- Category: October 2021
A game-changing move to make cigarettes non-addictive will be a decisive nail in the coffin of smoking harm in New Zealand, write professors of public health Richard Edwards and Chris Bullen.
Big tobacco has long known it is in the nicotine delivery business. The addictive substance grabs new customers and ensures they get trapped in a purchasing loop even as ill-health takes hold.
Associate minister of health Ayesha Verrall’s Smokefree Action Plan sets to change that by making New Zealand the first country to slash nicotine levels in cigarettes.
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- Category: October 2021
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the sale of e-cigarette products for the first time ever. The American Lung Association expressed displeasure, saying they are “dismayed” by the authorization.
We spoke with pulmonologists at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital, who said this decision from the FDA is alarming.
“This has been a disappointing decision mainly due to its effect on the youth,” said Dr. Ghassan Kamel.
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- Category: October 2021
New data suggests teen vaping has returned to pre-pandemic levels in Canada, raising concerns that a new generation is becoming addicted to nicotine and Health Canada is not acting quickly enough to curb it.
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- Category: October 2021
100 experts have come together to publish a joint letter expressing grave concerns about the approach taken by the World Health Organisation to tobacco science and policy. We believe WHO is on the wrong track. In this post, several of those signing the letter provides their own perspective in their own words.
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- Category: October 2021
Using e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to keep from relapsing to cigarettes doesn't appear to be effective, according to a new longitudinal study of nearly 13,000 smokers in the United States. "This is the first study to report on whether cigarette smokers can switch to e-cigarettes without relapsing to cigarette smoking," said study author John Pierce, [...] "Quitting is the most important thing a smoker can do to improve their health," he said in a statement attached to the study, "but the evidence indicates that switching to e-cigarettes made it less likely, not more likely, to stay off of cigarettes."
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- Category: October 2021
More than 100 global experts have slammed the World Health Organisation for a stubborn anti-vaping stance that is contributing to “millions” of avoidable smoking-related deaths.
In an open letter ahead of a global tobacco control meeting next month, the group of independent experts in nicotine science and policy have blasted the WHO for being “dismissive of the potential to transform the tobacco market from high-risk to low-risk products”.
“WHO is rejecting a public health strategy that could avoid millions of smoking-related deaths,” they write.
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- Category: October 2021
Despite ample evidence that snus and new nicotine products can save lives by helping people quit smoking, harm reduction advocates and industry experts fear that European policymakers are less informed about nicotine regulation today than they were a decade ago.
Part of the problem, says Swedish MP Joar Forssell of the Liberal Party, is that tobacco control “policy entrepreneurs” are unable to accept that people are making healthier choices.
In Sweden, where smoking rates are already among the lowest in Europe, tobacco control groups have instead focused on demonising all forms of nicotine. [...]
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- Category: October 2021
100 specialists in nicotine science, policy and practice have come together to call on the 182 parties (countries) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to take a more positive stance on tobacco harm reduction. The letter pushes back against WHO’s misguided and unscientific drive for prohibition or excessive regulation and taxation of vaping products, heated and smokeless tobacco products, and novel oral nicotine products, such as pouches. The letter makes seven main points relevant to FCTC parties and then six recommendations. The letter text must speak for itself.
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- Category: October 2021
Most students in the age group of 13-15 years smoke or use tobacco products in schools in the state, according to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4) released on Monday. After school (93.8%), students prefer homes of friends (2.4%), own homes (1.1%), social events (1%), public places (0.9%) and others (0.7%) for smoking, the survey shows.
IIPS professor Murli Dharan said the survey was conducted in 34 schools which have 2,735 students. Around 90% of the children said that they developed the habit of tobacco consumption from schools.
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- Category: October 2021
A small-scale focus group study by Dhaka Ahsania Mission found that many of the participants took up vaping to help them quit cigarette smoking and most of the survey participants were not aware of “potential health risks” of vapes, also known as e-cigarettes.
The findings of the survey were published in a press event held earlier this month. Carried out between January and February of 2020, the survey consisted of three focus group discussions with two university students - Dhaka University and North South University. The participants were daily vape users.
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- Category: October 2021
Individual cigarettes could have “smoking kills” printed on them under a raft of tough measures proposed by MPs to encourage more people to quit the deadly habit.
MPs have submitted an amendment to the health and care bill going through parliament which would allow the health secretary to make graphic health warnings mandatory.
“We know that cigarettes are cancer sticks and kill half the people who use them. So I hope that health warnings on cigarettes would deter people from being tempted to smoke in the first place, especially young people,” said Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP behind the move.
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- Category: October 2021
The FDA took a huge step on Wednesday when, for the first time, it approved three electronic cigarettes for sale, saying the help they could provide to people trying to quit traditional cigarettes outweighs their risk.
But experts complain that teen vapers who want to quit aren’t getting the help they need. Regulators haven’t authorized any tools to help young people stop vaping, despite a growing public health crisis.