Vaping news thread

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

I've been meaning to start this for a while - a thread where we can collate news, politics, science etc. on ecigs and vaping.

Here are stories I've spotted this week ...

Totaly Wicked have won leave to appeal article 20 of the EU Tobacco Products Directive in the European Court of Justice. This is very exciting news and is probably our best hope for the future of vaping in Europe. TW are asking for supporting signatures here. If you've missed what the TPD will do when it comes in next year, read the OP here (don't bother trying to sign the citizen's initiative on that post though - it failed to get enough sigs in time )

EFVI (European Free Vapers Initiative) have set up a thing called MOVE (Medical Organisations supporting Vaping and Electronic cigarettes). It's a generally useful media statement to combat the dreadful propaganda on ecigs. They are asking for all pro-vaping HCP's to sign in support and have lots of good names already. You can support by signing yourself if you work in health (any HCP can sign, you don't need to be a doctor), passing it on to any HCPs you know or by signing up to the Thunderclap if you're on Twitter, FB or Tumblr (ends Feb 19th).

WHO have released some truly dreadful 'guidance' on ecigs here.

CRUK have released a very sensible blog post. They have been extremely negative about ecigs in the past so it's great news that their position is shifting.

Clive Bates has produced an excellent Briefing Document on the science and policy of ecigs and vaping. It's designed for policy makers but is an easy and very informative read for everyone and deserves to be shared far and wide.

Another good resource for research is Dr Farsalinos' new site HERE.

plenty.

Will be reading all those links tomorrow.

Yes Dr F is fantastic and is doing some seriously good research to make vaping even safer

Meanwhile, here's the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, telling a blatant lie about vaping on the BBC (in the video). To be clear:

• nobody has ever developed chronic lung disease from vaping anything
• butterscotch flavours are still widely available
• one batch of one brand of butterscotch eliquid was once withdrawn from sale as a precautionary measure

If this pisses you off a bit you can complain to the BBC here and / or the DoH here.

I complained to the bbc. I got this response.

^Thank you for sharing your concerns about an interview with the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, broadcast on the BBC News Channel.

The main point of the interview was to get Dame Sally's views on the upcoming ban on smoking in cars with children. At one point presenter Gavin Esler asked if the ban also covered 'vaping'. Dame Sally explained that it would not and she went on to express her concerns about the potential health impact of e-cigarettes:

"They put in flavourings - we don't know the impact of those. Butterscotch had to be withdrawn because people got chronic lung disease."

This was seemingly in reference to a story broadcast by the BBC last year, where we found that an e-cigarette liquid manufacturer had included a potentially dangerous butterscotch flavouring in one of its products. Experts said that the flavouring, diacetyl, had been shown to cause very serious lung conditions in the past.

So Dame Sally was correct in that there had been a case of butterscotch flavouring being withdrawn over health concerns, although we appreciate that you feel this point could have been explored further. During a live interview it’s not possible to question a guest over every point they raise and, in this case, the main point of discussion was the upcoming ban on traditional cigarettes.

Once again, thank you getting in touch.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints^

It appears everybody who complained got that exact letter, sent from a noreply email address The CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER FFS lies on national BBC TV and the beeb don't appear to care.

If you still have the energy the next thing to do is complain here, with your case number:

BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Darlington, DL3 0UR.

Yes - Tobacco cigarettes smoke contains both compounds, at levels 100 times higher for diacetyl and 10 times higher for acetyl propionyl compared to e-cigarette average daily exposure.

It amazes me that Dr F's diacetyl study hasn't been widely picked up by the media, given that it highlights a genuine (but easily avoidable) health risk from vaping. The reason can only be that vapers trust him, therefore this is political.

Two bits of dismal news and one funny:

EU debating a 57% excise tax on all electronic cigarettes Full story in the FT if you have a subscription. It's not happening yet as the EC have more pressing issues but they are prepared to look at it again if pressed by member states.

All but one Scottish health boards are banning ecigs by April as part of their new 'smokefree' regulations. You know you've fucked up when ASH and Forest are in agreement:

e-cigarette policies should not be so restrictive that they discourage smokers from trying an alternative that might help them to move away from tobacco (ASH)

Banning them is counter-productive because if both products are prohibited there will be no incentive to switch to e-cigarettes. (Forest)

And finally ... Kick the Vaping Habit Today with 'Cigarettes'!

Vapers not accepted as adoptive or foster parents in over 13 councils - Daily Mail but actually quite a good balanced article.

Terrible article in the Guardian and really good response by Prof. Linda Bauld.

Update to the DM story - BAAF are revising their guidance -

At the next meeting of our Health Group Advisory Committee (HGAC), we will be recommending that agencies now consider e-cigarettes as different to tobacco cigarettes. Agencies should therefore recognise the low risk to children and not see the use of e-cigarettes as a reason to preclude foster carers or adopters purely on this basis.

Oh and I forgot this one - a brilliant article by the former head of Tobacco Control at WHO.

Public health experts talking sense about e-cigarettes and vaping

Bloody excellent set of videos. Anybody who's still a bit about vaping should watch these.

This is important:
Denmark has proposed legislation to implement the Tobacco Products Directive which amounts to a de facto ban on vaping:

No tanks >2ml
Completely leak free
Filling mechanism that ensures that leaks cannot occur.
Childsafe tanks/e-cigs.

As far as we can tell – this would entail that almost 100% of all equipment currently on the market becomes illegal.

All products (individually) must be registered 6 months before they are sold. Registration starts in November (when the law goes into effect), there is no grandfathering for existing products.

Product registration is for each subpart sold, and will cost ~30.000 dkk (~4.000€) per product for the first year, then~10,000 dkk (~1.300€) for each subsequent year it is marketed – and products will need re-registration if “major” changes are done – for e-liquids this could be changing from one producer of aniseed aroma to another. Any kind of innovation on the parts used for vaping (be it equipment or liquids) will be stifled, and any incentive for product development will be stopped effectively

as the law stands all e-cig hardware will be illegal for 6 months after the law goes into effect, since no products are registered, and registration must be 6 months before sale.

Other highlights include a ban on sales from outside Denmark unless the company also complies with this bollocks (bye bye fasttech) and inclusion of vaping in smoke-free laws.

This could happen here next
The UK government plans to implement the TPD in early 2016. It could either be bad or very, very bad.

Things you can do:

• Support Totally Wicked's legal challenge (see OP). This is still our best hope.

• write to your 2015 election candidates. Make use of this brief window when politicians are schmoozing us in the run-up to the election. Tell your story, ask them to commit to finding out what's what with ecigs if they get elected - before they vote on shit policy.

Point them at Mark Pawsey's APPG on ecigs, Clive Bates's briefing doc for policy makers and positive statements from Public Health England, ASH and any other proper sources you find.

I've had a reply from DoH about Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies' comments on the BBC - the same reply everyone got, it seems. It came as a PDF called 'Response to Butterscotch Emails' which suggests they got a few!

Apparently she didn't lie, she 'truncated information'. (I am going to use that euphemism lots!)

If you haven't seen the video, basically she said that butterscotch eliquid had been withdrawn because users got chronic lung disease. This is a blatant 'truncation'.

Dear Sir/Madam,
The Department has received a number of queries concerning the recent BBC interview that Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England (CMO), gave on ‘smoking in cars’. In the interview the CMO truncated information with regard to a withdrawal of a butterscotch flavoured e-liquid Responsible e-liquid manufacturers, such as VIP, who voluntarily withdrew their product, recognise the chemical diacetyl should not be present in e-liquids. This is because it has been strongly associated with the lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans when inhaled over time by workers in the food industry.

It is right, because of the potential of this chemical to cause disease, that a precautionary approach should be taken and that steps should be taken to remove this chemical from e-liquids. The Department is aware of the evidence that tobacco cigarette smoke can also contain diacetyl at significantly higher levels than the amounts found in e-cigarettes, but that does not mean that the safety of e-cigarettes cannot be improved by removing this chemical, which is why the CMO supports strong regulation of this sector to ensure that smokers canproperly benefit from their potential to help them quit smoking.

There is evidence of variable quality and the lack of data on the long term safety or e-cigarettes that concerns the CMO and is the basis for her conclusion that, without authorisation under the medicinal licensing regime they cannot be recommended for use.

The Government is working towards a regulated e-cigarette market where only products that meet requirements set out in the new European Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU) are made available. In addition, the Government will continue to monitor all the emerging evidence on the safety of these products.

Yours sincerely,
The Tobacco Control Team

Wondering who to vote for in May?

If you live in Kingswood constituency in Bristol or in Barnsley East you can now vote for a Vapers In Power candidate

The aim isn't to get elected - they're not daft enough to think that's likely - but rather to raise awareness:

By entering a candidate in the 2015 UK General Election we will raise both political and public awareness about vaping and its benefit to smokers,

Our target of £1500 will be used to pay for the £500 deposit required by law to enter a candidate into the election. The remainder will be used to print leaflets to go to the 39,000 households in Kingswood (General Election candidates are entitled to free postage for a mailout) and other promotional materials to assist us in getting our message across. We will also need to pay heat and lighting bills for our public meeting and travel costs for our candidate to get to interviews. All remaining funds will be redirected to future campaigns such as the 2016 Welsh Assembly Election.

As they are now fielding two candidates instead of one, their target has doubled to £3000. They are currently £420 short of this with 61 hours to go, so if this appeals to you and you have a spare £1 or 5 please do stick it in the pot.

There's a new study out by ASH on young people and ecig use in wales. Nothing we didn't already know. Use amongst never-smoking youth is negligible and the 'gateway' theory is looking ever more flimsy.

Also if anybody has a spare few minutes, ECF are doing their annual vaping survey. There are some really interesting questions in there and there are prizes. The results will hopefully be very useful for advocacy purposes.

Thanks for that link Plenty - I'll do it now so I don't forget

The lib dems have made a supportive statement on ecigs in their manifesto:

We will:

Carefully monitor the growing evidence base around electronic cigarettes, which appear to be a route by which many people are quitting tobacco, and ensure restrictions on marketing and use are proportionate and evidence-based. For example, we support restrictions on advertising which risks promoting tobacco or targets under 18s, such as those introduced in 2014, but would rule out a statutory ban on ‘vaping’ in public places.

My thoughts in no particular order:

• The lib dems voted for article 20 last year. The charitable view is that they didn't understand what they were voting for - the science was misrepresented, after all, and the voting process itself very confused.

• There is nothing in this statement about the actual regulations in the TPD. I think it is worth pressing every lib dem you have access to on what they would do in 2016 to try to prevent the TPD from decimating vaping.

• one of the 2014 ads wasn't bad at all and didn't IMO break the rules. I'll see if I can dig it out tomorrow.

• As far as I'm aware they're the only major party to have made a statement on ecigs in their manifesto (I haven't read UKIP's because green crayon hurts my eyes.)

• Nick Clegg is a vaper, which bodes well.

• They may just have gone back to saying whatever the hell they like, confident in the knowledge they won't have to implement it.

• Ultimately I don't think this is a party political issue - yet. It's still worth contacting all your candidates to ask them to read stuff and support. Cleg isn't going to be PM. The lib dem statement could be useful leverage though - 'If you formed a coalition with lib dems, would you work with them to ensure regulation of ecigs is evidence-based?'

Been poking around on YouTube today doing some research for my mates, and came across BBC video which I think would be a good one to point out to people. Not too long, and seems very balanced.

That is a good video - it's not over-complicated and it's Michael Mosley who lots of people already like and trust. The videos on this page are useful too.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - Europe-wide demo to protest against Article 20 of the TPD -

Friday 29th May, 2pm
UK venues: Parliament Square, London and Castle Square, Swansea

There's a FB link at the bottom of that page. I'm not on FB so can't see what it says but it probably has info on other venues across the EU. I'm going to do my best to make the London demo if anybody fancies meeting up.

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There's a good survey here, with prizes. Some of the questions at the start are a little strange but bear with it, there are lots of comment boxes as you go through so you get to say what you think.

Done

Oops, forgot to attach the image. There's also a PDF poster here.

Yay Allergic We all hate how many poor studies there are on vaping - it's up to us to join in where we can to help with the good studies.

Having just had a farce of a vaping policy implemented by our business I'm just checking in and will review all the attached over the next few days. Thanks OP.