Heads Up for vape taxes, flavor bans and in-home use bans in Washington D.C., Crescent City, California and Baltimore, Maryland! New research on vaping: one vaping study finds no significant link between vaping & bronchitis, coughing & phlegm among teenage users, while another finds vapor products are not a “gateway to smoking.” Meanwhile, an ANTZ study misrepresents risk and research of significantly reduced exposure Heat-Not-Burn products. Filter Mag highlights how biased research and one-sided reporting are having severe real-world consequences. Michelle Minton is back to expose the negative impact of vaping prohibitionist policies.
HEADS UP // Washington, D.C.
The ANTZ are again spreading their lies, trying to get flavors banned in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, they ignore the facts that both teen vaping and teen smoking are DOWN; the vast majority of teens have never vaped; those who do vape report that they were already smoking before vaping and it’s already illegal for anyone under the age of 21 years old to purchase vapor products! This means that the only people legally affected by the flavor ban are adults, many of whom are trying to quit smoking!
READ MORE: Campaign pushes to ban the sale of tobacco-flavored products to teens in DC
DO MORE: If you live in DC, join the CASAA Washington D.C. Facebook Group
HEADS UP // Baltimore, Maryland
In order to “boost revenue,” using the pretense that it will get people to quit smoking, City Council President recommends a 30% sin tax on vapor products that are proven to HELP PEOPLE QUIT SMOKING!? Studies have shown that tax increases don’t encourage adults who smoke to quit. They only switch to cheaper brands, buy from out-of-state or on the black market.
Taxing vapor products like combustible cigarettes for example is a move in the wrong direction,” said Alex Clark, CEO of consumer organization The Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association. “Increasing the cost of these products is likely to discourage people from switching to a smoke free alternative.”
Call this what it is – a money grab to make up for overspending your tax dollars!
READ MORE: City leaders want to impose a 30% tax on the distribution of E-cigarettes
HEADS UP // Crescent City, California
Affluent, white folks living in single-family units can vape or smoke in their homes, but folks in multifamily units (nearly 66% of whom are minorities & nearly 50% are low income or below poverty) must go outside.
Crescent City has a crime rate of 41 per 100,000 residents, one of the highest crime rates in the US. It’s misleading for lawmakers to suggest that they are making their residents “safer” by prohibiting low risk vaping in multifamily units. Not only does it unfairly target minorities and the poor, it potentially exposes them to opportunistic criminals as they stand outside it turns neighbor against neighbor and potentially increases police interactions with residents that could needlessly escalate. Just as significantly, indoor vaping bans discourage adults who smoke from switching to safer alternatives.
RESEARCH // Teen Vaping & Lung Disease
New research on vaping shows no significant link between vaping & bronchitis, coughing & phlegm among teenage users. All association with vaping disappeared when factoring in household and teen smoking. It’s rare to see smoking variables actually considered & reported in vaping studies. Typically, researchers ignore the possibility that teens who vape are also smoking – either cigarettes or cannabis – that could be the true cause of adverse effects.
READ MORE: Vaping and Lung Damage in Teens: What’s the Real Link?
RESEARCH // Vaping “Gateway” to Smoking
Vaping Looks Like a Gateway Out of—Not Into—Smoking
In the United States, federal agencies and private organizations have pushed the narrative that the use of e-cigarettes threatens to get more people “hooked” on combustible products, leading to laws that have reduced the availability of non-smoke alternatives….
READ MORE: Study: Vaping Looks Like a Gateway Out of—Not Into—Smoking
RESEARCH // Exposing ANTZ Bias
Heat-Not-Burn (IQOS) has been approved by FDA as a modified exposure product – only allowed if SHOWN to be true. As with vaping, removing the SMOKE removes nearly all of the risks. Same old ANTZ lies (gateway, dose doesn’t matter, etc.)
For example, the authors cite a paper that found 45% of Italian “users” of IQOS were never-smokers. However, review of that study found that the survey only asked participants if they ever tried IQOS (not about regular use) and the never-smokers who had tried IQOS made up 1% of the participants, which translates to about 20 people out of 2009 who answered that question. Hardly a conclusive representation of the population as a whole! Meanwhile, 3 times as many who had tried IQOS were current smokers.
READ MORE: HnB carries similar health risks as vaping, cigarettes studies show
RESEARCH // ANTZ Bias & Media Misconduct
Filter Magazine once again highlights how “bias and bad science has found its way into the debate on tobacco harm reduction” and “…misrepresenting the relative harm of vaping compared to smoking—in general, and in the context of the COVID-19—has severe real-world consequences.
Because it is contributing to misinformed vapers switching back to smoking—potentially represented by increases in cigarettes sales, but not e-cigarette sales, during the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, the media assists in distorting the picture with one-sided stories featuring only vaping prohibitionists and “experts” who focus on studies showing potential risks, rather than the substantial benefits of moving away from combustible cigarettes illustrated in some of the new research on vaping.
READ MORE: COVID and Vaping: A Perfect Storm of Misleading Science and Media
COMMENTARY // Michelle Minton, CEI
Even if there is not a dramatic rise in smoking, restricting, heavily taxing, and banning e-cigarettes appears to slow declines in smoking, as Australia, which functionally prohibits nicotine vapor products, recently discovered.”
READ MORE: How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking