Vaping Studies Debunked, New CASAA Graphs and More! Tobacco Harm Reduction News

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION // Iceland

Vaping has contributed to adult smoking dropping in Iceland from 14% in 2018 to 7% today. Youth smoking is under 2%. Yet lawmakers inexplicably claim vaping is somehow a threat to youth, and seek to make it less appealing and less effective for adults.

Iceland: "While the architects of the new law may have good intentions, they need a better grasp of these realities … As it stands, the legislation risks counteracting years of Icelandic progress.", via @Filtermag_org https://t.co/ys2GcBQ5TH

— Martin C (@NannyFreeState) March 21, 2022

READ MORE: Iceland the Latest Country to Plan Counterproductive Nicotine Law

RESEARCH // Gateway Theory Study

Did this study find that vaping is a “gateway” to cannabis use for youth with a particular mental health status? No, it did not. The data from a longitudinal survey cannot determine a causal effect and “common liability” can’t be ruled out.

Not being highlighted is how researchers were surprised their theory that youth with more severe IMH problems who vaped nicotine would be more likely to later use to cannabis, but they were actually LESS likely to use cannabis than those with low severity IMH. Is it possibly even preventative??

A new study led by @PHGSU researchers has found that mental health status significantly affects whether adolescents who use e-cigarettes will begin using cannabis: https://t.co/N1j4v0aGPB pic.twitter.com/lzEPDeq922

— Georgia State University (@GeorgiaStateU) March 22, 2022

READ MORE: Are E-Cigarettes a “Gateway” to Cannabis Use Among Adolescents? It Depends on Mental Health Status

COMMENTARY // Flavor Bans

As elsewhere, Connecticut legislators insist flavors are the root cause of the spike in teen vaping, even naming the campaign to prohibit their sale ‘Flavors Hook Kids.’ Research suggests otherwise….”

 

These bans may even worsen health outcomes…”
~ Sarah Wall

READ MORE: Opinion: Flavor ban is well-intentioned, ill-considered 

CASAA IN ACTION // Latest Smoking & Vaping Data

Using the latest CDC NYTS & NHIS data, CASAA has created these graphs for advocates showing that not only is the claim there’s a “new generation being hooked on nicotine” patently false, but for every one teen who vapes regularly nearly FIVE adults quit smoking.

Don’t miss CASAA President Danielle Jones with Grimm Green, discussing the data, the new charts, how advocates can use them and more!

COMMENTARY // Dysfunctional FDA

Supporters of the measure hail it as necessary to close a “loophole” that e-cigarette companies can use to evade federal regulation because the FDA’s authority over e-cigarettes was previously limited to nicotine derived from tobacco. The reality, however, is that this measure would have been unnecessary, and this loophole never used, if the FDA had only provided the e-cigarette industry with a realistic way to earn FDA approval and bring products to market legally….

 

In response to this development, many anti-smoking advocates abandoned the goal of reducing the death and disease caused by smoking and instead began to focus on nicotine. Despite the fact that nicotine—divorced from combustion—poses an insignificant public health risk, they set their sights on ending all recreational nicotine use at any cost, even if it meant eliminating life-saving smoking alternatives, exacerbating the problem of over-policing, or even protecting once-scorned cigarette businesses.”
~ Michelle Minton

READ MORE: FDA’s Dysfunctional Regulation of E-cigs Created the Synthetic Nicotine Problem

RESEARCH // Expert Rebuttal to Anti-Vaping Study

This study–being misrepresented as showing vaping doesn’t help people quit smoking–not only does NOT support that claim, it doesn’t really tell us ANYTHING, and ignores record low teen smoking rates (ie. SUCCESSFUL quit attempts.)

“Unfortunately this study is seriously flawed and tells us very little. It does not provide any good evidence that e-cigarettes make quitting smoking harder…”
~Professor Lion Shahab

“This paper demonstrates that users of nicotine, an addictive drug, find it difficult to stop using it. However the relevance of the study to actually quitting either smoking or e-cigarette use is unclear…”
~ Professor John Britton

“This brief research letter does not add usefully to our understanding of the public health impact of adolescent nicotine vaping. It provides some information on quit attempts that failed but does not compare these with quit attempts that worked, so it’s not that clear what we learn from this…”
~Professor Martin Jarvis

READ MORE: Expert reaction to research letter about US adolescents attempting to quit smoking or vaping

COMMENTARY // Bloomberg & the “So-called Science”

The issue of vaping has become so intensely politicized that the so-called science swirling around it is nothing more than a pool of harmful disinformation….”

 

Like so many that went before it, the new Johns Hopkins study alleging a connection between vaping and diabetes bears the name of Michael Bloomberg. Vaping alarmism is unscientific and transparently political, and Bloomberg is the man behind a great deal of it.”

READ MORE: Anti-Vaping Study with Bloomberg’s Name On It

REGULATION // FDA PMTA Authorizations

FDA has authorized 3 more vapor products (2 cig-a-likes & a 1.5 mL sealed tank device in 🚬 flavors only.) While the company’s menthol products remain under review, FDA also issued marketing denial orders (likely banning the company’s non-tobacco flavors.)

"Most study subjects decreased the number of combusted cigarettes they smoked each day by greater than 80%… the products produce fewer or lower levels of some toxins… and the products’ abuse liability… was lower than combusted cigarettes."https://t.co/c1pzNwmvNo

— Danielle Jones (@DanielleTHR) March 24, 2022

READ MORE: FDA Issues Decisions on Additional E-Cigarette Products

RESEARCH // Debunking a Anti-Vaping Study

The lead author claims “Flavored tobacco products appeal to kids, lead to more adolescent tobacco use and addiction, and increase the odds of using other tobacco products like cigarettes.” Yet youth vaping/smoking in Oakland dropped from 2015 to 2017. Hmmm…

If flavors lead to a lifetime of smoking/nicotine addiction, how was youth current vaping in Oakland down from 11.2% (2017) to 8% (2019) and smoking down from 4.4% to 2.4%? Why didn’t the flavor ban stop daily vaping rising from 0.54% (2017) to the so-called “epidemic level” of 1.1%?

Additionally, current vaping was 16.16% in 2015 and dropped to 11.2% in 2017 BEFORE the flavor ban took effect in 2018, and current smoking dropped from 5.76% to 4.4%. The pre-ban drop in vaping was nearly 1.76 percentage points greater than the post ban decline.

Also the larger drop in current smoking from 4.4% to 2.4% (2017-19) coincided with an increase of daily vaping to 1.1% (2019), and daily smoking had a much larger drop from 0.93% to 0.39% (2015-17) compared to 0.39% to 0.3% in 2019 post flavor ban. Unsurprisingly, ALL of this is ignored by the study’s authors.

The so-called “weakness” of the San Francisco study is that the ban was “effective” in July 2018 (same as Oakland) but not “enforced” until January 2019. It’s a disingenuous argument that assumes most stores didn’t comply with the law until the city started issuing fines.

Finally, unlike San Francisco’s TOTAL ban, Oakland exempted adult-only stores–a “loophole” not closed until 2020. Put simply, this flavor ban study has a major weakness–the conclusions are based on data from a city that still legally allowed sales of flavored products.

READ MORE: Does youth tobacco use drop after cities ban flavored tobacco sales?

REASEARCH // And Yet Another Study Debunked

Clive Bates’ epic takedown of a recent study falsely claiming vaping “could be a third as harmful to health as smoking.”

Oh dear… our harsh but fair review of a paper erroneously claiming that vaping is one third as risky as smoking.

Solid case for retraction. Authors’ response will be welcome. https://t.co/x9daZHk7zP

— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) March 24, 2022

READ MORE: Review of: Improving on estimates of the potential relative harm to health from using modern ENDS (vaping) compared to tobacco smoking

CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live