Category: News This Week

Study: E-Cigs Aid Cessation Only in Clinical Settings

Photo: Vchalup | Dreamstime
In the form of mass-marketed consumer products, e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit cigarettes, according to a new study published Dec. 22, 2020, in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the University of California San Francisco.
The authors examined both observational studies, which question people “in the wild” without specific guidance to quit, and clinical trials, in which smokers trying to quit were given free cigarettes under medical supervision.
While e-cigarettes led to more quitting than some other therapies in clinical trial settings, the authors noted no such effect in observational studies.
Richard Wang
“It’s important to recognize that in clinical trials, when certain e-cigarette devices are treated more like medicine, there may actually be an effect on quitting smoking,” said study leader Richard Wang.
“But that needs to be balanced against the risks of using these devices. Also, only seven e-cigarette devices were studied in the clinical trials. Whether the effect observed with these seven devices is the same or different than that of the thousands of different e-cigarette products available for sale is unknown.”
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act charges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with allowing e-cigarettes on the market only when manufacturers can prove their tobacco-based products are “appropriate for the protection of public health.” The FDA is currently evaluating thousands of applications to sell e-cigarettes.
“If e-cigarette consumer product use is not associated with more smoking cessation, there is no population-level health benefit for allowing them to be marketed to adults who smoke, regardless of the relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with conventional cigarettes,” said Wang.
“Moreover, to the extent that people who smoke simply add e-cigarettes to their cigarette smoking—becoming so-called dual users—their risk of heart disease, lung disease, and cancer could increase compared with smoking alone.”
December 23, 2020
Trump Pardons ‘Vaping Congressman’ Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter has been pardoned by President Donald Trump. The vaping industry knows Hunter as the ‘vaping congressman’ after becoming the first person to openly vape on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2017, Hunter introduced a bill aimed at curtailing U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ability to regulate vapor products.
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter
Hunter, a former U.S. Representative of California was sentenced in March to 11 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a single count of unlawfully using more than $250,000 in campaign funds, just one of 60 counts he and his wife, Margaret, faced at the time.
Court documents stated the former Marine and his wife racked up more than $37,700 in overdraft fees and stole the money to cover basic living expenses — including their childrens’ schooling, groceries and pet food for the family rabbits. They then splurged on big ticket items, including luxury hotels, airline tickets, and dinners.
Hunter’s 11-month prison sentence had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and was set to begin in January. Trump’s full pardon means he will serve no time.
December 23, 2020
Digital Tax Stamps for ENDS Starts Jan. 1 in UAE
Electronic cigarettes cannot be sold in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) unless they bear the digital tax stamp (DTS) beginning January 1, according to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA).
Credit: Jan Vasek
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products cannot be sold, transported, stored or possessed without the tax stamp. The DTS system helps the FTA “improve its ability to collect excise tax charged” on such products on being imported or manufactured locally. It also enables “stakeholders to analyse the supply chain to better control illicit tobacco products,” according to a story in the Khaleej Times.
In addition, the DTS system allows for the implementation of compliance standards. The FTA explained that the DTS system “facilitates inspection and control at customs outlets and local markets”.
The digital stamps will be placed on the packages of vapor, shisha and other tobacco products and registered in the FTA database. The DTS contains data that can be read with a special device to make sure all taxes due have been paid.
“When orders are made for these stamps, they are sent to factories to be placed individually. This will ensure each package is tracked to the port of entry of each country, with the supplier submitting the permit form and the fees for the digital stamps … This will ensure all digital stamps are registered and tracked through a central database,” the FTA said.
December 22, 2020
China: Vapor Market Booming Despite Online Sales Ban

Photo: Timothy Donahue
China’s vapor market has mushroomed offline after the country banned online sales of e-cigarettes about a year ago, reports Bloomberg. Not even the coronavirus has stopped the expansion.
RELX Technology, the country’s largest player, opened more than 1,000 stores in the first half of 2020, and said in January it planned to add 10,000 outlets within the next three years. Its rival, Yooz, has also boosted the number of stores.
Shares in Smoore International Holdings, the world’s largest maker of vaping devices and components for brands, have more than quadrupled in value since the company’s July debut, making it one of Hong Kong’s best-performing initial public offerings of the year. RELX and Yooz are both clients of Smoore.
Smoore founder Chen Zhiping’s net worth has surged to $14.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
While the coronavirus outbreak affected Smoore’s production and operations in the first quarter of the year, it still managed to post a 19 percent increase in revenue to CNY3.9 billion ($592 million) for the first six months, with more than half of its sales coming from mainland China and Hong Kong.
Smoore held one-sixth of the global market share for vaping products by revenue last year, and that pie is poised to grow further, according to Frost & Sullivan data it cited in its prospectus. The $36.7 billion global e-cigarette market will reach $111.5 billion by 2024, increasing at an annual compound rate of 25 percent, projections show.
Mounting restrictions on vapor products globally, including a ban on certain e-cigarette flavor in the world’s largest vapor market, the United States, haven’t scared off investors. Stocks linked to China’s consumer sector have been particularly popular this year as the nation has been among the first to emerge from the pandemic.
December 22, 2020
U.S. Congress Bans USPS From Mailing ENDS Products
The U.S. Congress has banned all electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products from being mailed by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The rule change was lumped into the Covid-19/ omnibus budget bill passed yesterday. The proposal, collectively called the Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2021, now awaits a signature from President Trump to become law. Trump is expected to sign the bill later today.
Credit: Motion Studios
The updated provision redefines the word “cigarette” under the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act), which is part of the federal Jenkins Act, to include ENDS products.
By including ENDS products within the PACT Act, manufacturers and retailers will be banned from shipping vaping products to consumers using the USPS within the next 120 days. All orders of vaping products will be required to ship using an alternate (and considerably more expensive) service that verifies the recipient of a package is at least 21 years old.
Beginning 90 days after enactment, all online retailers also will be required to file monthly reports with native, state and local governments disclosing the identity, address and product received for all customers, as well as remit any excise taxes owed.
Many vaping industry advocates are angered by the text of the proposal because legislators used an expansive definition of what qualifies as an “electronic nicotine delivery system” that seems to include products that may not contain nicotine. The term “means any electronic device that, through an aerosolized solution, delivers nicotine, flavor, or any other substance to the user inhaling from the device,” the legislation states.
Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said that despite the inclusion of the word “nicotine,” the definition used in the bill is so broad that it appears to capture vaping liquids containing CBD and standalone devices intended for vaping THC or other substances.
“The sponsors of this legislation repeatedly refused to consider common sense amendments that would have protected youth, while also not needlessly shutting down small businesses. Thanks to their intransigence, the language included in the omnibus is so sloppily drafted that it will also ban the USPS from shipping CBD liquids intended to be vaporized, as well as devices intended for use with THC or other non-nicotine substances,” said Conley. “There are still 36 million American adults smoking combustible cigarettes and over 400,000 will die from smoking-related illnesses this year alone. The American people should start questioning why their government is so intent on making it harder for adults to quit smoking.”
According to its website, UPS prohibits the shipment of all cigarettes and little cigars to consumers, regardless of destination state. Other tobacco product shipments must be made using the “UPS Delivery Confirmation Adult Signature Required service, requiring the signature of an adult 21 years of age or older upon delivery.”
Trump has the authority to use a line item veto on the provision and still pass the larger bill, though that is not expected.
December 22, 2020
Australia Tightens Rules for Nicotine E-Liquid Imports

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Australians importing liquid nicotine for e-cigarettes will need to have a prescription from Oct. 1, reports The Sydney Morning Herald, citing the country’s medical watchdog.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said its decision balanced consumer demand for the product as a smoking cessation aid and the potential for nicotine e-cigarettes to lead to addiction.
“A patient’s doctor is uniquely placed to give the support required for long-lasting smoking cessation,” the agency said, adding that it had not yet approved any vapor product as a smoking-cessation aid.
In response to the TGA’s decision, the government will scrap contentious customs regulations, which included a fine of up to $200,000 for those illegally importing nicotine. The regulation was opposed by a large group of backbenchers, and due to kick in from the start of next year.
The possession of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes is illegal without a prescription in every state and territory, besides South Australia.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said it was important to note that any doctor could prescribe nicotine-based e-cigarettes.
“This is not widely understood, and it is an important matter of public information that over 30,000 GPs may currently, and in the future, prescribe nicotine-based e-cigarettes for smoking cessation,” he said.
Critics say Australia’s prescription-only policy is hampered by the reluctance of many general practitioners to prescribe liquid nicotine and by a requirement to seek a special exemption for each patient.
December 21, 2020
CTFK Funding Under Fire in Colorado City’s Flavor Fight
By Timothy S. Donahue
The truth is trickling out on Campaign for Tobacco -Free Kids (CTFK). In the documentary You Don’t Know Nicotine,one source exclaims that CTFK is a “dark money organization” that is “just about as greedy as Big Tobacco.” The organization is accused of using its massive amounts of funding to shutter small businesses by using false rhetoric and bad science about e-cigarettes and other vapor products. This has helped create a “regulatory environment where only the wealthiest people will be able to play.”
Credit: Ryan McGuire
During a Dec. 8 city council meeting in Loveland, Colorado, that centered on banning flavored e-cigarettes, the accusations levied against CTFK in the film played out in reality. Jodi Radke, the regional advocacy director for CTFK for the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains area, was accused of making false and misleading statements about several Loveland council members in a local newspaper ad and in several social media posts.
She accused the council members of being in cahoots with major tobacco companies. Those members took great offense to the accusations. Radke admitted to not having attended the meeting her social media posts referenced and had received her information anecdotally. She also said she did not validate what was being told to her with any of the council members she accused.
“How do you assume I’m pro-tobacco?” council member Don Overcash asked. Overcash said he did not smoke cigarettes, vape or have any tobacco industry affiliations. When asked how she garnered the information for her organization’s ad and social media posts since she did not attend the referenced meeting, Radke replied, “I don’t feel it is a question that should be directed towards me.” Radke would not directly answer other questions from named council members concerning the ad or posts. She said all CTFK actions and policy “are based on science and evidence.”
Several council members also questioned CTFK’s funding and its sources. Radke said she did not know anything about CTFK funding other than that it came from several major donors, including billionaire anti-tobacco activist Michael Bloomberg. Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, told council members that CTFK had $109 million in its coffers as of 2020 and received an additional $50 million to $60 million per year from Bloomberg (on top of the billionaire’s regular CTFK funding) to help enact flavor bans at the local level. “[At CTFK], science is constantly ignored,” Conley said. “Studies show that flavor bans actually increase the use of [combustible] cigarettes.”
Radke was also asked by council member John Fogle if the CTFK had ever considered using some of its “hundreds of millions” in funding to help the small businesses affected by CTFK’s agenda. After saying she couldn’t answer the question several times, Radke finally replied that she couldn’t answer the question because CTFK had data that showed “small businesses don’t lose money” because of CTFK policies.
After several hours of debate, the potential vote was postponed to a meeting in February. For vapor advocates, it was just another day fighting well-funded misinformation campaigns around the globe.
December 21, 2020
Bangkok Authorities Seize $335,000 in Illegal E-Cigarettes
Four people have been arrested and 10 million baht worth of e-cigarettes and related items seized in Bangkok following an investigation into illegal online sales of the banned products.
Credit Jim Moylan

The arrests followed a raid by police from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of a warehouse in Kheha Rom Klao Soi 27 in the Rat Phattana area of Saphan Sung district on Friday, according to the Bangkok Post.
The officers seized 50,000 bottles of refill liquid for e-cigarettes, 10,000 refill pods, 1,500 e-cigarettes and 80 boxes of related products worth a total of at least 10 million baht ($335,814), CIB commissioner Police Lt. Gen. Torsak Sukwimol said during a briefing on Saturday.
One woman and three men were arrested. All were charged with colluding in the sale of banned products in violation of the Consumer Protection Act.
Torsak said the CIB had received complaints that e-cigarettes and refill products of various brands were being sold via Facebook. Administrators of the page claimed that their products were made from dried fruits and posed no harm to users.
CIB investigators found that the Facebook page had been active for three years. Female presenters or “pretties” were hired to promote the products, which drew many purchase orders, said Torsak.
The investigators then sought a warrant from the Criminal Court to search the warehouse that led to the seizure of the products, which were imported from China.
Authorities said they would also call the product presenters in for questioning.
The government passed a law banning the sale of e-cigarettes in 2014. Authorities have said import and use is banned for health reasons and because electronic cigarettes lure young people into becoming smokers.
December 20, 2020
Health Canada Wants Lower Nicotine Limits for E-Cigarettes
Health Canada wants to lower the nicotine limits for e-cigarettes to 20 mg/ml. The current limit is 66 mg/ml.
Minister of Health Patty Hajdu announced a public consultation on Dec. 18, inviting Canadians to share their thoughts on the proposal by March. 4
According to the government, the proposed changes build on existing measures to address the rise in youth vaping, including extensive public education campaigns and banning the advertising of vaping products in public spaces if the ads can be seen or heard by youth.
Health Canada is also considering to further restrict flavors in vaping products. It wants to require the vapor industry to provide more information about its products, including on sales, ingredients and research and development activities.
“Our work to protect Canadians from the harms of vaping products continues. These changes will help reduce the appeal of vaping products to youth,” said Hajdu in a statement.
The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) welcomed the plans. “The proposed regulations requiring a maximum nicotine concentration for vaping products of 20 mg/mL are essential to reduce youth vaping and deserve strong support,” said CCS Senior Policy Analyst Rob Cunningham.
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) urged the government to balance youth protection with adult harm reduction. “It is without question that Canada must act to restrict nicotine concentrations to protect youth, but it should not be an all-or-nothing approach,” the association wrote in a press note.
“Ontario has restricted high nicotine products to age-restricted environments, effectively eliminating all retail access points for youth. This policy has proven effective in mitigating youth use while balancing the needs of adult smokers. The CVA encourages the government of Canada to adopt this policy federally,” said Darryl Tempest, executive director of the CVA.
December 20, 2020
Studies Show Vaping Reduces Smoking Related Illnesses
By Tim Sandle
Three recent studies demonstrate the potential for improved health effects that can come from the use of e-cigarettes, when such vaping products are used on a permanent basis and the use of all tobacco products is halted.
Credit: TTI
The arguments used to promote the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other vaping products is with a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer, and as a strategy to decrease the addiction to conventional cigarettes.
Other smoking related diseases include risk of lung disease, including lung cancer and emphysema. The research areas that support this have been provided by trade site Vapor Solo. In relation to the research, a review commissioned by Public Health England concluded that e-cigarettes were 95 percent less harmful than tobacco.
The first set of research is from the University of Dundee, U.K., drawing on an extensive clinical trial into the cardiovascular effect
CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
The second area of research relates to a trial that found that patients (114 in total) who switched from smoking to vaping experience a 1.5 percentage point improvement with their blood vessel function, as demonstrated across a four week period. This improvement was as measured against conventional cigarette users. Heart health was assessed using a Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) test, to assess how far a blood vessel opens.
Further studies from the research team are underway to measure the effects over a longer time period across which the broader effects of cardiovascular health can be assessed, including the risk of heart attacks. The results are supported by a second study from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, U.S.
This research strand showed that heavy cigarette smokers with at least a 20 pack-year smoking history can reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by 39 percent within five years if they switch to e-cigarettes or quit altogether. In a follow-up letter to The Lancet, the researchers “estimate that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to users than smoking. Or, as we prefer, smoking is estimated to be twenty times more harmful to users than vaping e-cigarettes.”
CANCER DEVELOPMENT
A similar investigation, this time into the risk of developing cancers, was conducted between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, U.S., and the University College London., U.K. This study was slightly larger, taking in 181 smokers in order to assess the long-term effects of vaping.
The smoker group included users of electronic cigarettes and conventional tobacco products. To determine the health variance, those involved in the study volunteered to provide saliva, breath, and urine samples. Qualitative questionnaires were also completed.
The data indicated that levels of carcinogens (including tobacco specific nitrosamines, which are one of the most important carcinogens in tobacco formed from nicotine) taken from former smokers who had switched to e-cigarettes were significantly lower compared with regular users of smoking tobacco products.
People who used both types of products, so-termed ‘combination smokers’ did not experience any significant health improvements. The third study was published in the peer-reviewed journal: Annals of Internal Medicine, titled “Nicotine, Carcinogen, and Toxin Exposure in Long-Term E-Cigarette and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Users: A Cross-sectional Study.”
This article first appeared on Newshour.com.
December 18, 2020