Tag: e-cigarettes

Study Suggests Teen Vapers Would have Been Smokers
A new study has concluded that teens who use e-cigarettes would have likely become combustible cigarette smokers if vaping products did not exist. Published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, researchers found that “vaping is largely concentrated among non-smoking youth who would likely have smoked prior to the introduction of e-cigarettes, and the introduction of e-cigarettes has coincided with an acceleration in the decline in youth smoking rates.”
Credit: Krystian Graba
Dr. Natasha Sokol, a fellow at Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, and Dr. Justin Feldman, a fellow at Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, wanted to find whether there was any truth to the so-called “gateway” theory: the idea that vaping, for teenagers, is a path toward smoking. The results they found is that e-cigarettes may be an important tool for population-level harm reduction, even considering their impact on youth.
Sokol and Feldman ran a regression analysis of 12th-graders with data culled from the “Monitoring the Future” report, a survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) that measures different forms of drug use by adolescents nationwide. The researcher’s modeling examined variables including age, race and ethnicity, geographic region of residency, grade point average, alcohol consumption and parents’ educational attainment, among several others. The end goal was to determine whether youth who used vaping products between 2014 and 2018 would have become smokers.
“Our model predicted smoking prevalence quite accurately prior to the availability of e-cigarettes,” Sokol told Filter. “But once e-cigarettes became available in a widespread way, it increasingly overestimated the prevalence [of smoking]. So the prevalence was decreasing, but our model based on a pre-e-cigarette era was predicting a decrease but not as steep. [The youth] who had a low propensity to smoke after e-cigarettes were available were exceedingly unlikely to use e-cigarettes.”
The researchers concluded that the youth who do vape are generally those who would have been smoking were vapes unavailable. “The decline in youth smoking,” Sokol continued, “really accelerated after the availability of e-cigarettes.”
“There are two bits of good news in this,” Clive Bates, a tobacco control expert and former director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), told Filter. “The first is that young smokers will be diverted into vaping and probably spared a life of smoking. The second is that most of the vaping among kids who never would have been smokers will be pretty transient and likely not persist after a period of experimentation.”
May 20, 2021
Philippines Set to Change, Lessen Vapor Regulations
The Philippines House of Representatives passed today on second reading a bill that would lower the minimum age to buy and use e-cigarettes and other vapor products from 21 to 18 years old. This is after the country’s Congress previously passed Republic Act No. 11467, which imposed taxes on vapes and e-cigarettes and set the age to purchase at 21. Less than two years ago, the country banned vaping entirely.
Credit: Carsten Reisinger
The previously passed law also banned the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes to nonsmokers and prohibited flavorings, according to philstar.com. The new proposal, which is just a step away from clearing the House, largely loosens the restrictions put in place by the current law. While all but tobacco flavorings are currently banned, the new bill allows for “plain fruit flavors, nuts, coffee, tea, vanilla, caramel, tobacco, menthol and mint.”
The latest bill would also take away from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate e-cigarettes and vapor products and transfers it to the Department of Trade and Industry, as proponents argued that these are not health products. The bill also allows the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes online, provided that the website will restrict access to those below 18 years old and will display signages required by the proposal.
The latest bill also includes language to allow the advertisement of vapes and e-cigarettes in retail establishments, through direct marketing and on the internet, although it qualified that these ads must not be targeted to minors, must not undermine quit-smoking messages and should not encourage non-smokers to use them.
The new measure also prohibits the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes within 100 meters from a school, playground or other facility frequented by minors and bans the use of vapor products and e-cigarettes in all enclosed public places except in designated vaping areas.
May 19, 2021
FDA Issues 103rd PMTA Warning to Custom Vapes
Since Jan. 1, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a total of 103 warning letters to firms selling or distributing over 904,000 unauthorized vaping products and who did not submit premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) by the Sept. 9 deadline.
Credit: Marcus Krauss
In April alone, the regulatory agency issued a total of 24 warning letters to companies that manufacture and sell unauthorized e-liquids, advising them that selling products which lack premarket authorization is illegal and therefore they cannot be sold or distributed in the U.S. While each of these 24 warning letters cites specific products as examples of tobacco products that lack the required premarket authorization, collectively these firms have listed a combined total of more than 154,000 products with the FDA, according to an FDA statement.
The 103rd warning letter was issued on March 6 and posted to the FDA’s website on the same day. The 103rd letter was received Mississippi-based Custom Vapes. The FDA states that the company did “manufacture, sell, and/or distribute to customers in the United States Custom Vapes Amaretto 3MG 3ML 70VG/30PG e-liquid product without a marketing authorization order.” The company is a registered manufacturer with over 2,300 products listed with the regulatory agency.
Unfortunately, the FDA often only lists a product or two that a company is selling as illegal. It then states that there may be more, but it is impossible to know if the warnings encompass all the company’s registered products.
Companies that receive warning letters from the FDA have to submit a written response to the letter within 15 working days from the date of receipt describing the company’s corrective actions, including the dates on which it discontinued the violative sale, and/or distribution of the products. They also require the company’s plan for maintaining compliance with the FD&C Act in the future.
May 7, 2021
Group Says South Africa Needs ENDS for Harm Reduction
For years, anti-tobacco lobbyists have summarily and very aggressively painted electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) with the same brush they use to condemn combustible cigarettes, turning an intentional blind eye to the important role that ENDS play in tobacco harm reduction. According to Asanda Gcoyi, CEO of the Vapour Products Association of South Africa (VPASA), this is in spite of the fact that highly reputable agencies such as the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England have published evidence that ENDS are 95 percent less harmful than smoking.
“This unscientific one-size-fits-all rhetoric by anti-smoking lobbyists has influenced certain governments around the world to pass legislation restricting the marketing and distribution of [ENDS] under the exact same legislation that applies to normal cigarettes,” Gcoyi said. “In South Africa, with the debate currently open around the impending Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Bill (2018), we need to ensure that we do not head the same way.”
In an editorial for IOL, Gcoyi states that, besides the damage this myopic approach does to the adult smoker who is trying desperately to find a less harmful alternative (or, at the very least, cut down) by using vaping devices, the broad-brush approach creates highly contradictory misunderstandings around possible underage users. “What our organization aims to do is to bridge the gap between government and the vapor products industry. To this end, we educate and engage the former, set standards for the latter, and collaborate with both,” said Gcoyi.
This collaboration is currently specifically aimed at developing legal regulations that will ensure adult consumers continue to enjoy access to vapour products in order to use them for the purpose for which they were invented: as a harm reduction tool that may ultimately enable them to give up smoking altogether.
“This means ensuring that EVPs are recognised for what they are, and the important role they have to play in terms of adult smokers. However, where we definitely don’t have a difference of opinion with the legislators is when it comes to restricting their access to the youth.”
As a result, while waiting for the Bill to play out, VPASA launched its own youth access prevention campaign in March 2021, to institute self-regulation in the meantime. An important part of the campaign lies in training EVP retailers about the restriction of sales to young people. This also means combating the misinformation being distributed by anti-smoking lobbyists in terms of young users.
“It is alarming enough that anti-smoking lobbyists purposely draw false parallels between combustible cigarettes and vaping products,” said Gcoyi. “But even more concerning is the misinformation around vaping products and youth. It can completely obliterate what organizations such as ours are doing in trying to ensure adult access, while also restricting sales to youth.”
May 6, 2021
Paul Hardman Joins Broughton as Head of Scientific Affairs
Broughton Nicotine Services has appointed Paul Hardman as head of scientific affairs, the latest in a series of senior level appointments, as it continues to expand its services.
The business, which has helps electronic nicotine device companies bring noncombustible products to market, is currently expanding its full-service regulatory consultancy into modern oral nicotine products, heated tobacco products and Cannabidiol products.

A scientist with extensive experience in inhaled product development across pharmaceutical and consumer products, Hardman will have the task of growing the scientific affairs team to enable the business to grow and offer a premium consultancy experience for clients in the industry.
“We’re delighted to have welcomed someone of his caliber into this new role,” said Nveed Chaudhary, chief regulatory officer of Broughton Nicotine Services. “His addition to the Broughton team will strengthen the business further as we look to expand our full-service regulatory consultancy. Paul will take responsibility for delivering product development and optimization activities, drawing on his years of industry leadership and experience.”
Prior to joining Broughton, Hardman was scientific lead with Imperial Brands, where he was responsible for designing the testing strategy for the chemistry of inhaled and oral next-generation nicotine products, from assessing a variety of prototypes at the early stages of development through to characterization of products for submission through the U.S. Premarket Tobacco Product Application process.
He began his career working at a specialist pharmaceutical company where he gained experience of dry powder and metered dose inhaler development, including for the treatment of local lung conditions and systemic absorption. Hardman also has experience leading the quality control department in a multinational pharmaceutical company involved in the production of generic nicotine lozenges.
Paul’s addition to the Broughton team will strengthen the business further as we look to expand our full-service regulatory consultancy.
Nveed Chaudhary, chief regulatory officer, BNS
He began his career working at a specialist pharmaceutical company where he gained experience of dry powder and metered dose inhaler development, including for the treatment of local lung conditions and systemic absorption. Hardman also has experience leading the quality control department in a multinational pharmaceutical company involved in the production of generic nicotine lozenges.
“I am passionate about the opportunity to work with multiple clients and really get to the heart of their products so that Broughton Nicotine Services can best serve these businesses by championing those points in their regulatory submissions,” said Hardman.
“My role will involve growing the team to enable us to deliver a highly effective offering as Broughton moves into new areas, and I am eager to build on the success the business has already achieved.”
May 5, 2021
Stroud: UK Could Lead World in Tobacco Harm Reduction

If a nation’s public health policy succeeded in making its citizens healthier, wouldn’t you expect intergovernmental health organizations to examine that policy, embrace it, perhaps see if it could be applied to other countries?
Common sense, right?
Unfortunately, the taxpayer-funded World Health Organization (WHO) is doing the opposite when it comes to tobacco harm reduction products, states Lindsey Stroud, an analyst for the Taxpayer’s Protection Alliance (TPA), in an editorial for Inside Sources.
The United Kingdom is a world leader in e-cigarette use among current and former adult smokers. In 2015, Public Health England (PHE) released a landmark report that found e-cigarettes 95 percent safer than smoking. In 2018, the agency would reiterate this finding in an additional examination of the evidence.
Moreover, UK public health agencies actively campaign for the use of e-cigarettes as a substitute for smoking. PHE’s “Stoptober” campaign (launched in 2012) endorsed e-cigarettes and has advocated for “the use of e-cigarettes to help quit smoking.” The strategy appears to be working. In 2019, there were more than 4 million ex-smokers in the UK that had tried vapor products, with 2.2 million of them no longer smoking.
Now that the UK is no longer a member of the European Union, members of parliament have sought to redefine the country’s relationship with WHO. In particular, parliament is reviewing the provisions set forth in the organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which the UK is a signatory member. Under the FCTC, members must adhere to a plethora of adopted guidelines including price and taxing measures to control – and ideally reduce – demand for tobacco products, as well as other policies to help protect public health and reduce cigarette consumption.
Unfortunately, the FCTC (and WHO) ignore the vast evidence regarding tobacco harm reduction products. Instead, they are steadfast in refusing to allow tobacco companies to provide safer alternatives to smoking.
Regularly, the members of the FCTC meet at a Convention of Parties (COP) to “review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts.” Since 2008, the organization has consistently pushed its members to “prohibit or restrict” smoking alternatives like vaping.
Lindsey Stroud
By 2019, any hope that the FCTC would even acknowledge the role of tobacco harm reduction products (including e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, smokeless and snus) as a way for smokers to quit, was essentially snuffed out. In September 2019, Head Convention Secretariat Dr. Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva blasted e-cigarettes, calling vaping “a treacherous and flavored camouflage of a health disaster.”
But the UK may be preparing to push back. In a March 2021 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Vaping, the group reported that at the upcoming FCTC/COP9, the UK is in a unique position to “champion its … domestic policies on tobacco harm reduction.” In prior COPs, the UK delegation was “obligated to adhere to the consensus view within the European Union, post-Brexit.” At FCTC/COP9, the delegation is permitted to defend their own domestic regulation of e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction products, but also emerge “on the world stage as a leader pragmatic and effective health regulation.”
The APPG for Vaping has denounced WHO’s position on tobacco harm reduction products. Their report notes two papers leaked from WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, which “suggest that the WHO is exploring whether to advocate that reduced-risk products are treated in the same manner as cigarettes or to ban them outright.” As a result, the APPG report recommends the UK delegation to COP9 should oppose “any decision proposed … that would equate vaping products with combustible cigarettes.”
It’s an utter shame the UK must still defend its tobacco control policies, as it was one of the very first countries to examine cigarette use and cancer incidence. In 1962, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) published its landmark report on “Smoking and health” which “made a strong epidemiological case for the harm done by smoking,” and urged the government to introduce public health measures to reduce smoking.
By comparison, it would take two additional years for the United States to publish the 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking.
The RCP has also endorsed the use of e-cigarettes as a method to quit smoking, reporting in 2016 that the use of vapor products is “unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the risk of harm from smoking tobacco.”
The UK should not have to defend its tobacco harm reduction products to WHO, a taxpayer-funded organization that purports to protect global health, but staunchly disregards novel tobacco products. At the publication of the APPG for Vaping report, MP Mark Pawsey – and chair of the APPG Vaping group – declared that with “WHO taking an increasingly hostile stance on vaping, it is more important than ever that the UK be guided by the science.”
May 4, 2021
Indiana Governor Signs Budget Bill With New Vapor Taxes
Indiana’s $44 billion budget for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, signed by the governor, contains new taxes on electronic cigarettes. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed H.B. 1001 Thursday. The bill adopts new taxes on open and closed cartridges of e-cigarettes. The tax is 25 percent wholesale on closed systems like vaping pods and 15 percent retail on open systems like refillables.
Credit: DedMitay
The Senate had originally planned on a flat 10 percent tax at retailers, but that was highly criticized as being too low, according to WTHR.com .
“We are very pleased that the state legislature has recognized the importance of implementing a meaningful tax on vaping and e-liquids. We pushed back on the original Senate amount because it was not nearly enough to have an effect on discouraging Hoosier youth from taking up vaping, which too frequently leads to cigarette smoking for this group,” said Kevin Brinegar, president and CEO Indiana Chamber of Commerce. “Ultimately, Senate leadership recognized this as well and, working with House leaders, has put forth a strong tax system on vaping and e-liquids. Now, all of those products will be taxed on par with traditional tobacco ones, as they should be.”
The Senate rejected a 50-cents-per-pack increase in the state’s cigarette tax. The state’s 99.5-cents-per-pack rate was last raised in 2007. A group of health industry and other business representatives had been pushing for a $2-per-pack increase to tamper down on the state’s 21.1 percent smoking rate for adults.
“While the Indiana Chamber is still disappointed that there was very little interest in raising the cigarette tax this session, imposing the state’s first vaping and e-cigarette tax is a big step and will positively impact the health of many young Hoosiers in particular,” Brinegar said.
May 3, 2021
WVA: SHEER Report is ‘Based on Weak Data’

Photo: Parilov
The EU Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) final report on e-cigarettes is a step backwards for Europe, according to the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA). Based on weak data, it ignores crucial scientific evidence, experience from consumers and the expert opinions received in the consultation period, the advocacy group said in a statement.
“This report is a tragedy for public health and will have dire consequences for smokers and vapers alike,” said Michael Landl, director of the WVA. “SCHEER ignores a large amount of scientific evidence on vaping, all of which was provided by experts and consumers to SCHEER during their consultation earlier this year. They chose to ignore it. This is a slap in the face of vapers and of common sense.”
According to the WVA, the report does not consider crucial independent evidence from Public Health England, which shows that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than smoking and recently found that vaping is the most used means to quit smoking.
“Countries like the U.K. and France are actively encouraging smokers to use vaping and switch to this less harmful alternative,” said Landl. “If the EU really wants to tackle smoking-related illnesses, it needs to look very carefully at all of the evidence. Unfortunately, the SCHEER report is biased against vaping, and its recommendations, if transposed into legislation, will damage public health.”
This report is a tragedy for public health and will have dire consequences for smokers and vapers alike.
Michael Landl, director, WVA
The next few months will see further legislation updates in the EU as outlined in Europe’s Beating Cancer plan, including updates to the Tobacco Products Directive and the Tobacco Excise Directive. In this context, the findings of the SCHEER committee may ultimately be detrimental to the health of Europe’s citizens.
“It seems like the main objective has been overlooked: reducing the number of smokers and tackling smoking-induced illnesses,” said Landl. “Vaping is not smoking and must not be treated the same. Regulation must be drafted in a way that encourages current smokers to switch. The EU needs to focus on practical solutions to reduce harm and this major point is missing from the SCHEER analysis. Vaping can help smokers quit, but this report ignores that and compares vaping to non-smoking. So it is unsurprising that the results don’t echo reality.”
The full SCHEER is here.
April 29, 2021
Florida Bill Banning Local Vape Laws Goes to Governor
The governor of Florida is expected to sign a bill that would ban local communities from enacting laws regulating e-cigarettes. The Florida House on Wednesday gave its final approval with a 103-13 and sent the bill (SB 1080) to Governor Rick DeSantis for a signature. The bill passed the Senate on Monday.
Credit: Aleksandr Kondratov
House sponsor Jackie Toledo told the Tallahassee Democrat that the bill is aimed at preventing minors from using electronic cigarettes. “This bill is necessary to stop youth vaping,” Toledo said.
The bill would raises the state’s legal age to smoke and vape to 21, a threshold already established in federal law. It also would create a state regulatory framework for the sale of vapor products. The bill would ban vaping or smoking tobacco within 1,000 feet of a school and makes it illegal for local communities to create any regulations impacting the “marketing, sale, or delivery of, tobacco products.” It would also require retailers to obtain a “tobacco” permit.
“Years of continued inaction by the state to regulate tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, demands strong, local laws that truly protect our children from a lifetime of addiction,” the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said in a statement this week. “Florida kids deserve effective protections, not to be left even more vulnerable to the industry and its predatory practices. And our localities have the right, freedom and responsibility to protect them, especially when the state won’t.”
Backers of the proposals, however, have said they would help with enforcement of tobacco and vaping laws and that preemption of local regulations is needed because retailers could have multiple stores in different areas, which would make it hard to follow varying regulations and do business.
April 29, 2021
Altria, Juul Likely to Face Suit Over $13 Billion Deal

Photo: jessica45 | Pixabay
Altria Group and Juul Labs will likely face a proposed antitrust action seeking to unwind a $12.8 billion deal that gave the tobacco giant a 35 percent stake in the vapor company, reports Bloomberg Law, citing a “tentative” ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco.
Judge William H. Orrick indicated Wednesday that he’s inclined to let most of the lawsuit move forward in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where it was consolidated after dozens of antitrust plaintiffs sued over deal clauses calling for Altria’s exit from the vaping market.
The Federal Trade Commission has also sued over the Altria-Juul transaction.
April 23, 2021