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Sweden Beats World For THR Win and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

Sweden Beats World For THR Win, 2022 eCigIntelligence Vaping Survey, Ohio Flavor Bans blocked by state lawmakers, Another ‘Nobel Experiment’, Experts Call Out US Government Misinformation, FDA Leadership Ethics In Question, RJR Loses CA Flavor Ban Block Supreme Court, Vaping Reduced Smoking in UK, Reviewing Vape Research and more!

Scroll to the bottom of this post for a link to the audio/video versions of this post!


CALL TO ACTION UPDATE // Columbus, Ohio

In a surprisingly quick move less than 2 days after the city of Columbus passed a flavor ban, the state legislature passed a bill that’s already on the governor’s desk that would prevent cities from adopting tobacco/vaping laws stricter than the state’s.

Governor Mike DeWine told a Columbus TV station he may veto the bill, saying he doesn’t oppose the ban passed by the Columbus City Council.

READ MORE:  Ohio Governor Hints He May Veto Preemption Bill

TAKE ACTION: Columbus Ohio: Stop a Flavor Ban!


ADVOCACY // 2022 eCigIntelligence Consumer Survey

Please take the 2022 survey!

The data collected from this 10-15 minute, anonymous survey will help inform regulators, advocates, and commentators as we all work to build policies that benefit consumers!

SURVEY LINK: USA – Vape Consumer Survey 2022

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION // Sweden Beats World For THR Win

Smoking in Sweden fell to 5.6%, making it the only European nation close to reaching the EU smoke-free goal 18 yrs ahead of the 2040 target. Sweden has a pro-THR model clearly distinct from prohibitionist policies proposed by international health orgs.

READ MORE: Sweden Achieves the Lowest Smoking Rate in Europe and is on Track to Become Officially Smoke-Free – The EU Must Take Note

TOBACCO CONTROLL // Fact Checking Dr. David Ensz in Sioux City

1) Nicotine vaping is still AT LEAST 95% less harmful despite the fact they can contain nicotine.

2) It’s safer than smoking. No one claims it’s 100% safe.

3) Vitamin E acetate was an issue with illicit THC vapes, not e-cigarettes!

4) Vapor isn’t “hot in the lungs.”

READ MORE: Local health experts issue warning on vaping and e-cigarette dangers

TOBACCO CONTROL // Another ‘Nobel Experiment’

New Zealand has just passed prohibitionist tobacco/nicotine laws that are essentially a country-wide social and health experiment–mostly affecting people of color, people with mental health challenges, people of low income and in the LGBTQ+ community.

https://twitter.com/llisjak/status/1602694305117765632

READ MORE: New Zealand passes world-first tobacco law to ban smoking for next generation

TOBACCO CONTROL // ACS Opposes Reducing Cancer Risk?

American Cancer Society is “concerned” about something that does not cause cancer. (And no, smoke-free nicotine use is not a proven “gateway” to smoking.) Shouldn’t the American Cancer Society be supporting products that eliminate exposure to cancer-causing toxins?

READ MORE: Cancer Society Concerned About Nicotine Pouches

TOBACCO CONTROL // Experts Call Out Government Misinformation

The surgeon general himself says that health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. Through various reports and website content, the surgeon general and CDC have been contributing to health misinformation by over-emphasizing the dangers of safer tobacco products like e-cigarettes. Now that we have pointed this out, we hope they will put words into action and fix these problems to encourage people to make healthier decisions about tobacco product use.”

~ Michael Pesko, the lead author

READ MORE: End Vape Misinformation, Tobacco Control Experts Urge Surgeon General

FDA // Leadership Ethics In Question

Bombshell memos strongly suggest that FDA-higher ups, seemingly favoring political favor over facts, pressured their own scientists to ignore the scientific evidence they’d reviewed and reverse their recommendation to authorize a menthol vapor product.

READ MORE: Memos Show FDA Overruled Science-Office Call to OK Menthol Vapes

LEGISLATION // RJR Loses California Flavor Ban Block Supreme Court

On Monday, December 12th, the Supreme Court DENIED a request from tobacco company R.J. Reynolds to challenge a California law that bans the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products. The unscientific and likely harmful ban is set to go into effect December 21.

READ MORE: Supreme Court declines to block California’s ban on flavored cigarettes

RESEARCH // Vaping Reduced Smoking in UK

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) found around 13.3% of people aged 18+ smoked in 2021, down from 14.0% in 2020. ONS also said that vaping devices such as e-cigarettes had played a “major role” in reducing the numbers of smoking across the UK.

READ MORE: Number of smokers drops as vaping rises, data shows

RESEARCH // Still Getting It Horribly Wrong

In this study, researchers unbelievably consider nicotine e-cigarettes and THC vapes to be the same thing. They erroneously call both products “e-cigarettes” and associate increased nicotine vaping as a risk for EVALI. The single subject in their study used both nicotine and THC products, but they declare the abnormal lipid homeostasis that they found is from “chronic e-cig use.”

https://twitter.com/GreeneDonal/status/1602582230177554433

READ MORE: How vaping impacts alveolar macrophage lipid content

RESEARCH // Reviewing Vape Research

An analysis of vaping studies reporting associations with health conditions–including but not limited to COPD,  stroke and heart disease–finds researchers didn’t question whether the diseases were diagnosed before or after the subjects began vaping.

https://twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/1603468452336963601

READ MORE: Diseases That Studies Linked to E-Cigarettes Generally Were Diagnosed Before Subjects Began Vaping

MEDIA WATCH // Fact-Checking Research Reporting

There’s much to unpack with this study, so here’s a quick analysis:

Headlines are claiming that researchers found that vaping doesn’t help people quit smoking, but is that a fair assessment of what researches really found?

First, let’s keep in mind that getting people to want to try a product is key to the success of that product, but per CDC only 55.1% try to quit each year, only 31% reported using “proven” cessation products (2015) and only 7.5% successfully quit using traditional methods.

In this study, researchers didn’t even look at the quitting rates of all vapers who had smoked. They only looked at people who reported that they were still smoking while vaping (ie. “dual users”) between in PATH Waves from 2014-2019.

So it’s ridiculous for the headlines to spin this as reflecting overall cessation efficacy for vaping. The only subjects they followed were people who said they both vaped and smoked. They did not include people who had already switched completely from smoking to vaping.

For all we know, 6 of 10 people in the PATH Waves who tried vaping actually quit smoking completely and the researchers only looked at 4 of 10 who were unable to switch completely. That would change the public perception of the true efficacy of vaping, now wouldn’t it?

Did researchers studying the efficacy of nicotine gum not take into consideration all of the subjects who quit successfully and base their conclusion of cessation efficacy solely on the eventual outcome of only those who failed to quit? Doubtful.

What these researchers actually found is that most people who had already failed to quit with vaping were likely to not switch completely. They did NOT find that most people who smoke who try vaping failed to quit.

Significantly, they did find that while most of these folks who struggled with quitting went back to smoking and vaping rates declined between the PATH Waves 1-4, vaping started rebounding by the last Wave. This suggests that many people wanted to give vaping another try.

Also significant is that they found even in this group of vapers who struggled the most with quitting smoking, of those who kept vaping regularly, 7.4% had quit smoking in earlier Waves and 11.2% had quit by the last Wave. That’s a statistic that shouldn’t be taken lightly!

Consider those low quit/attempt rates mentioned earlier with “approved” products. How many attempts using do you think people who struggle the most had to make before it worked? Do public health advocates say it means those products are useless or do they say “Keep trying?”

READ MORE: Vapes DON’T help people quit smoking normal cigarettes, study finds

READ MORE: Science Media Center: Expert Reaction to study of people who vape and smoke (dual users) and quitting smoking

 


CASAA MEDIA // Spotify

CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:

CASAA IN ACTION // Twitter Spaces

The week we recap the Reagan-Udall sessions with Amanda Wheeler, Tim Andrews and CASAA CEO Alex Clark, who all presented to the panel about FDA’s issues regulating reduced-harm products. What grade would you give FDA? Also available on CASAA’s Spotify channel (above.)

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live

If you missed the most recent CASAA Live show, check out the replay now! CASAA Live is on alternating Saturdays at 4:30 PM ET/3:30 PM CT/2:30 PM MT/1:30 PM PT on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter!

If you missed the last CASAA Live episode you can catch up NOW before the next show!

TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups

Have you joined your CASAA State Facebook group yet? Check it out now! Click the link below, click on your state on the map, then click the “Join Now” button to go to your state’s group page. It’s as easy as that to stay updated on local happenings, meet local advocates and never miss a Call to Action in your state!

Don’t forget to also follow our official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CASAAmedia

FIND YOUR GROUP: CASAA State Locator

CASAA STORE // Apparel and More

Show your support by shopping our store! Our president (and brilliant website/swag designer) Danielle has added some awesome new designs to CASAA’s apparel shop!

 

VISIT: CASAA Apparel and Swag Store

CASAA MEDIA // Podcast

Catch up on past tobacco harm reduction news with Alex and Logan on the CASAA podcasts on SoundCloud every Monday and now live on YouTube and Facebook every Saturday at 3:30 PM.

SoundCloud:

 

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