Category: Research

RELX Registers its Clinical Research on Vaping in China

Photo: RELX
RELX has initiated China’s first clinical research on vaping safety. The company is studying the acute effects of traditional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes on the human respiratory system and cardiovascular system. This month, RELX registered its clinical research with the China Clinical Trial Registry, a primary registry in the World Health Organization Registry Network.
In a press release, REXL took the opportunity to highlight its commitment to cross-disciplinary fundamental research into atomization mechanisms, so as to explore the long-term health effects of vaping.
In March 2021, RELX conducted clinical research on the metabolism and kinetics of nicotine. In both clinical studies, RELX used the vaping devices made by its strategic partner Smoore.
Moreover, in September 2021, RELX and Smoore took the lead in drafting two industry standards “General Technical Specifications for Electronic Atomization Devices” and “Safety Technical Specifications for E-liquid”, led by the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of China Electronic Chamber of Commerce.
In October 2020, the National Natural Science Foundation of China approved a research program on vaping harm reduction jointly conducted by Smoore and Tongji University. Over the next few years, Smoore and Tongji University will continue to conduct a series of studies on the health effects of vaping.
In January, Smoore launched the world’s thinnest ceramic coil vape pod solution—FEELM Air—in London. Compared with last generation, FEELM Air boasts an overall harm reduction performance improvement of 80 percent.
On Dec. 2, 2021, China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued the draft rules governing e-cigarettes following the regulator’s release of the exposure draft of national standards of e-cigarettes on Nov. 30, 2021.
As China’s national standards of e-cigarettes come into effective, RELX said it will continue to increase its R&D investment and examine the harm reduction of vaping via scientific substantiation.
February 13, 2022
Study Claims Patches Better Than Vapes as Quit Aids
Credit: kues1
A new study claims that those using e-cigarettes to quit smoking found them to be less helpful than more traditional smoking cessations aids such as patches and gum.
The study, published Monday in the journal BMJ, analyzed the latest 2017 to 2019 data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, which follows tobacco use among Americans over time.
“This is the first time we found e-cigarettes to be less popular than FDA-approved pharmaceutical aids, such as medications or the use of patches, gum, or lozenges,” said John Pierce, the director for population sciences at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, according to CNN.
A three-month randomized trial in the United Kingdom, published in 2019, found e-cigarettes, along with behavioral interventions, did help smokers quit tobacco cigarettes. In guidance published in late 2021, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence decided to recommend that smokers use e-cigarettes to help them quit.
Another recent study, published in JAMA Network Open, found adult smokers with no plans to quit are more likely to stop smoking if they switch to daily vaping, according to new research led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Roswell Park study also used data collected from 2014 to 2019 as part of the PATH study.
February 9, 2022
German Scientists Propose Cocaine E-cigs to Curb Abuse
In order to help cocaine addicts curb their addiction, a pair of German researchers have proposed a solution that surely has every nicotine vaping advocate rolling their eyes. The duo has designed a device that allows problematic crack users to administer the drug in a safer manner that, for instance, reduces lung damage and lowers the risk of overdose. It’s essentially a vape for crack.
Credit: Nomad Soul
According to ZME Science, Fabian Steinmetz and Heino Stöver, both members of Schildower Kreis — a network of German experts on drug policy reform — have not proposed drug decriminalization in their most recent study. Instead, writing in the journal Drug Science, Policy and Law, they presented a device that assists in inhaling crack cocaine in a manner that is safer to users.
The design of the device is nothing revolutionary. Like conventional e-cigarettes, it consists of a liquid container, an atomizer with a heater, and a battery. Except that instead of nicotine, you put a solution made of crack cocaine and propylene glycol, which the user inhales as vapor free of the fine particles and toxic combustion products that result from smoking.
“There are some risks that a vape pen for crack could pose, though. It is very likely that crack vape pens, if they are ever manufactured, will end up on the illicit market and could potentially encourage people to start using crack or use more of it if they are already a user,” the story states. “The only way to answer these concerns is to run well-designed randomized trials. For now, a cocaine e-cig seems like a very distant prospect but its harm reduction potential shouldn’t be overlooked.”
January 19, 2022
BAT Launches Virtual R&D Visitor Experience

Image: BAT
BAT has created a virtual R&D visitor experience, an online tour of its global research and development hub in Southampton, U.K., that allows people to explore its cutting-edge science and innovation.
BAT says the experience builds on the company’s open and transparent approach to the science underpinning its reduced-risk product portfolio and beyond nicotine activities. The company regularly welcomes visitors in person to its global R&D hub, with more than 3,500 people viewing the facilities firsthand since 2011. However, with travel significantly reduced, the virtual experience allows people from across the globe to access and understand BAT’s scientific research and tobacco harm reduction activities and gain perspectives and insights from experts.
“At BAT, R&D is fundamental to what we do,” said David O’Reilly, director of scientific research at BAT, in a statement. “Our focus on science and research has enabled us to make significant progress in developing and evolving our New Category products, which are rigorously tested and scientifically substantiated as reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes. Our R&D is based around consumer preferences as well as applying evolving science and innovation to our products. This allows us to offer a range of enjoyable reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes while ensuring we maintain very high safety and quality standards.
“Our new R&D virtual visitor experience demonstrates the breadth of science we are undertaking and the robust scientific framework we use to evaluate and support the role our products play in delivering tobacco harm reduction.”
With 360-degree lab tours, animations, videos, scientist profiles, podcasts and more, the R&D virtual visitor experience is the one-stop hub for those looking to find out about BAT’s science. The tour illuminates BAT’s purpose to build “A Better Tomorrow” and mission to reduce the health impact of its business. BAT invests almost £350 million [$477.18 million] a year to find innovative ways to reduce its effects on public health and aims to have 50 million consumers of its noncombustible products by 2030.
January 19, 2022
Vapor Industry Overregulation Bad for Public Health
A new report from the American Consumer Institute (ACI) highlights the dangers of overregulating e-cigarettes and vaping products. Co-authored by Steve Pociask and Liam Sigaud entitled “How Regulations Endanger the Public Health: A Review of the Evidence on E-Cigarette Risks and Benefits, and Policy Missteps”, the report investigates the empirical evidence surrounding the consumer risks and benefits of using e-cigarettes and vaping products compared to using combustible tobacco products.
Credit: iQoncept
The report finds that::

E-cigarettes and vaping products, while not totally safe, are significantly safer than smoking – 95% safer by some estimates;

Studies also show these products are twice as effective in getting smokers to quit than other nicotine-based smoking cessation treatments;

Excessive regulation of e-cigarettes and vapes not only ignores the prevailing scientific consensus on health risks, but they deter cigarette smokers from switching to safer alternatives and push vapers back to the pack; and

Therefore, overregulating these proven harm reduction products will have serious health consequences for millions of American consumers who smoke.
“The overwhelming empirical research is clear and shows that federal, state, and local governments are in a misguided pursuit that eliminates a safer choice for smokers,” a release states. “This report provides much-needed clarity on an issue of profound importance for public health. As the authors note ‘informed by rigorous research, the U.S. can better chart a responsible course that encourages smokers to seek safer substitutes and quit, while protecting our youth from the dangers of tobacco products.’”
January 14, 2022
Scholar: Study Shows ‘No Link’ Between Vapor, Eye Damage
The new study by the University of California found that vaping could cause some eyesight impairments. The study included 1,173,646 adults in the US aged between 18 and 50, according to the The Telegraph. At least one researcher, however, says the study doesn’t correlate vaping and eyesight damage.
Current vapers were 34 percent more likely to suffer from visual impairments compared to those who had never tried it, and former vapers 14 percent more likely to suffer impairments, according to the study.
Credit: Stasique
Participants were asked if they ever have smoked or vaped and asked if they had suffered visual impairment. The findings, published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, found that vaping may also promote oxidative stress, a key factor in the development of chronic diseases as well as cataracts and glaucoma.
Simon Capewell, a professor and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Liverpool, said the latest California study did not prove a link between vaping and eye damage. But he said there are “many nasty toxins” in e-cigarette vapor.
“But it is important to note that at this point, it’s unclear whether those risks are connected to vaping or something else,” the story states.
The eyesight study follows a recent study that found that vaping caused erectile disfunction. That study was also found to be flawed.
A major issue with the ED study is that participants were classified as current someday (“i.e., not every day or occasional”) or daily vapers, or smokers if they consumed cigarettes “every day or some days.” Beyond this self-reported information, the researchers didn’t know how much or which e-liquids the vapers in their study used, nor did they know how many cigarettes each smoker consumed.

January 12, 2022
Study: 9 of 10 Filipinos Support Proposed Vape Bill
A consumer study shows that 9 out of 10 smokers in the Philippines support the enactment of the proposed vaping bill. The study’s respondants believe that the government should enact policies to encourage adult smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes while also ensuring these products are not used by minors.
Credit: Carsten Reisinger
The Senate and House of Representatives approved in 2021 their respective versions of the measure, according to the Manila Times. The House of Representatives on May 25, 2021 approved its own version of the measure — House Bill (HB) 9007 or the “Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems Regulation Act.”
SB 2239 and HB 9007 will be reconciled by a bicameral conference committee and ratified by the two chambers when sessions resume after the holidays. The reconciled bill will then be submitted to the President for his approval and signature. If Duterte signs the bill into law, the Vaporized Nicotine Products Bill will regulate e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs) and other vaporized nicotine products while ensuring that they contribute to government revenues.
The study was conducted by Acorn Marketing and Research Consultants and commissioned by consumer advocacy group Vapers PH in August 2021. Acorn is the largest independent Asian research network with offices in 11 Asian countries including the Philippines. The survey had a sample size of 2,000 legal-age smokers. Results of the survey showed that 90 percent of the respondents believe that the government should come up with new ways to reduce the harm caused by smoking cigarettes.
Intended to help adult smokers quit cigarettes, the bill has strong measures intended to protect minors from accessing and consuming the device.
January 9, 2022
Vaping Boosts Quit Rate in Smokers Not Aiming to Quit

Photo: pioneer111
Adult smokers with no plans to quit are more likely to stop smoking if they switch to daily vaping, according to new research led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the Roswell Park study used data collected from 2014 to 2019 as part of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH). When the researchers focused their analysis on a select group of 1,600 smokers who initially had no plans to quit and were not using e-cigarettes when the study began, they found that those who subsequently vaped daily experienced eightfold higher odds of quitting traditional cigarettes compared to those who didn’t use e-cigarettes at all.
“These findings are paradigm-shifting, because the data suggest that vaping may actually help people who are not actively trying to quit smoking,” says Andrew Hyland, chair of health behavior at Roswell Park and scientific lead on the PATH study, in a statement. “Most other studies focus exclusively on people who are actively trying to quit smoking, but this study suggests that we may be missing effects of e-cigarettes by not considering this group of smokers with limited intention to stop smoking—a group that is often at the highest risk for poor health outcomes from cigarette smoking.”
Overall, only about 6 percent of all smokers included in the Roswell Park study quit smoking combustible cigarettes completely, but the rates of quitting were significantly higher among those who took up daily e-cigarette use—28 percent of smokers quit when they started vaping daily. The association between vaping and cigarette quitting held up even after adjusting for underlying characteristics such as educational background, income, gender, ethnicity and the number of cigarettes smoked per day at the beginning of the study.
December 29, 2021
Industry up in Arms Over Anti-Vaping Report

Photo: deagreez
The U.K. Vaping Industry Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has labeled an anti-vaping report in The Lancet “incredulous, laughable, untrue and extremely worrying.”
The authors of The Lancet article contest the suggestion that e-cigarettes are safer than conventional cigarettes. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency recently announced plans to allow healthcare providers to prescribe medicinally licensed e-cigarettes for smoking cessation, they write, could prove as harmful as the endorsement of tobacco by physicians between 1920 and 1950.
“We have the greatest respect for the medical profession but for one of its leading journals to carry an article which states that there is no robust evidence to show that vaping has accelerated smoking cessation is quite unbelievable and completely untrue,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statement.
“Worryingly this isn’t just an article questioning the clinical evidence basis for vaping as a harm reduction tool. Everything about it smacks of anti-vaping propaganda starting with the suggestion that the market is all the making of tobacco companies to line their pockets. This is an insult to all the independent companies across the U.K. and globally who make up the vast majority of the players in the sector and who have not just contributed positively to public health by helping 2.4 million former smokers in the U.K. completely quit their habits but have created huge numbers of jobs at the same time and one of the fastest growing industry’s this century, thereby making a massive contribution to our economy. Our membership is testament to this—out of our nearly 100 members, some 95 percent have no affiliation to tobacco companies.
“Such a highly respected journal as The Lancet should know better when running articles and look at all the evidence that is available and opinions across the healthcare spectrum. Instead, the report which is carried completely ignores research which has clearly shown on more than one occasion vaping to have a hugely positive impact on smoking cessation, and significantly more so than NRTs.

For one of its leading journals to carry an article which states that there is no robust evidence to show that vaping has accelerated smoking cessation is quite unbelievable and completely untrue.
John Dunne, director general, UKVIA
“The article’s assertion that the pro-vaping stance of Public Health England contradicts the rest of the world is nothing short of laughable, choosing to ignore the positions of the likes of Cancer Research UK—which says on its website that there is no good evidence that vaping causes cancer—and the Royal College of Physicians who have both publicly recognized the harm reduction opportunity that vaping offers over smoking. The report also ignores large scale research which backs up the public health potential of e-cigarettes, such as the study produced by the British Heart Foundation and the University of Dundee which suggested that vaping may be less harmful to blood vessels than smoking cigarettes.
“It’s these types of one-sided and misleading articles that leave smokers and vapers confused and questioning the health benefits of vaping versus smoking, leading to them either continuing with or returning to smoking. But, whilst we’re not getting data from hospitals and doctors suggesting that we should be worried about the effects of vaping—and, let’s face it, we would have heard by now given vape products have been available in this country for more than a decade, what is undeniable is that smoking kills—some 78,000 people a year to be exact—and the very death toll that vaping is helping to address. Instead, the report in The Lancet blames the U.K. government for its pro-vaping stance and highlights that they are in danger of presiding over what will be the biggest public health disaster in U.K. history.
“As a responsible industry, we’re more than up for continued independent clinical research into the long term impact of vaping, to prove once and for all that vaping is the biggest public health prize seen this century.”
December 23, 2021
Researchers Question Claim That Vaping Alters DNA
Using e-cigarettes has been linked to DNA damage resembling that of smoking, reported a team of scientists. However, researchers Caitlin Notley and Konstantinos Farsalinos, who were not involved in the study, have recently discussed limitations of the study in an article published in The Conversation.
Credit: Creo2
‘The study recruited a relatively small number of people who were not representative of the population. And it did not consider other lifestyle habits that may affect the measurements, such as alcohol use’, wrote the scientists with a background in public health and addiction research.
The DNA research published in Nature Scientific Reports compared gene expression in white blood cells of vapers to that of smokers and people without a history of either vaping or smoking. The scientists from Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California, found the expression of genes involved in cellular respiration and immunity to be dysregulated in both vapers and smokers. However, the number of affected genes was several times higher in smokers, compared to vapers.
‘Our study, for the first time, investigates the biological effects of vaping in adult e-cigarette users, while simultaneously accounting for their past smoking exposure,’ said study lead Professor Ahmad Besaratinia. ‘Our data indicate that vaping, much like smoking, is associated with dysregulation of mitochondrial genes and disruption of molecular pathways involved in immunity and the inflammatory response, which govern health versus disease state.’
Farsalinos and Notley pointed out that although the reported changes in DNA may represent risk factors for disease, the study did not measure any direct effect of vaping on the prevalence of illnesses. They caution this could be misinterpreted by the press and divert from the benefit of using e-cigarettes as a tool to overcome tobacco addiction. ‘It is irresponsible to report sensationalist headlines to the public based on complex studies that in reality do not show any real-world harm. Particularly compared to the immense harms to health of tobacco smoking.’
On the other hand, there is also evidence to suggest that vaping can be an entry to nicotine consumption, particularly among teenagers, according to Besaratinia. “Given the popularity of e-cigarettes among young never-smokers, our findings will be of importance to the regulatory agencies,” he said. “To protect public health, these agencies are in urgent need of scientific evidence to inform the regulation of the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of e-cigarettes.’
December 22, 2021