Back in January last year I scribbled about the EU and its ideologically founded belief that all forms of tobacco are a “bad thing”. Since then, the New Nicotine Alliance asked for, and received, permission to join the legal action brought about by Swedish Match in July 2016 in the UK.
As with any legal challenge, I expected a slew of articles to push a certain agenda - i.e. in favour of the status quo.
On Monday, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World released the findings of a global survey about smokers. Most surveys claim to seek a “better understanding” of the target audience - in this case, smokers - and this one is no different.
Arguably, the methodology behind this particular survey; the “Worldwide State of Smoking Survey”, appears to be very robust in its approach by researching existing surveys such as the Eurobarometer, the Global Audit Tobacco Survey and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, among others.
Ever since I tried an early heat-not-burn device when I attended the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) I have tried to keep an eye on the developing technology. At the end of the day, it’s really a simplistic concept. Instead of setting fire to loose-leaf tobacco wrapped in a slow-burning paper, it’s simply heated in a not too dissimilar way that an e-cig heats e-liquid.
As with the now popular e-cigarette, heat-not-burn didn’t exactly get off to a rip-roaring start.
Following on from the “Evidence Update” in September 2015, Public Health England has done it again. In fact, they have gone as far as repeating the same mistakes as last time, by mentioning the word “prescription”, and/or “NHS” in the press release.
Via the BBC:
E-cigarettes should be available on prescription, according to Public Health England (PHE).
The agency wants them to be prescribed on the NHS within the next few years because of how successful they have been in helping people give up smoking.
I noticed this piece in The Conversation yesterday (it also popped up on another, unrelated news site), and unlike the usual vaping related articles, it wasn’t penned by the illustrious Simon Chapman.
Of course, just because it wasn’t written by Chapman doesn’t mean it’s going to be a positive article. After all, The Conversation is his own playground.
I’ve written about regulations and standards before, and my views haven’t changed. The BSI PAS was in response to the TPD and thus had to operate within the confines of that Directive, which as we know is very limiting in what can and can’t be done.
“Big Vape is copying Big Tobacco’s playbook” says Liza Gross in her recent article on The Verge. This isn’t the first time, nor I suspect will it be the last time, that a media outlet tries to conjure up images of a faceless, and evil industry by conflating the tobacco and vaping industries.
Even if a representative of the vaping industry is interviewed (which is rare), the journalistic hack tries to subtly (or not so subtle in some cases) taint the piece with the usual “shill” claims.
Well. This is it. Today is the last day of the transition period. Tomorrow, May 20th, is the day when any non-notified vaping product can no longer be legally sold. Tomorrow is when the new legislation will really start to bite.
What will happen? There isn’t a straightforward answer to that.
Let’s look at what we, as a community of consumers have been able to enjoy.
Over the years, we have been able to enjoy tank sizes of up to a whopping 7-8ml.
This is one of those topics that you just know. One of those that you yourself understand, but find it somewhat tricky to put into some semblance of coherent speech. We all, to varying degrees, know what pleasure is. We all know what we enjoy, and we can all express; to an extent, why we enjoy something.
This is also one of those posts that’s taken far too long to write.
It’s rare I have a guest blog but in this case, it’s worth it. Below is an open letter to Ruth Malone, Editor of the Tobacco Control Journal from Shannon.
Dearest Nurse Malone,
The majority of vapers on Twitter are *very* upset with you. Again.
If you think this is getting old, you’re right. But it’s not our fault, ya see. And this is where it gets awkward, because you simply refuse to see it.
You may have noticed that I’ve been talking about Snus a bit recently. It appears that I’m not the only one. Now, if you do a search on Aunty Beeb for mention of Snus, you won’t find very much from the last twelve months. In fact before the most recent (junk) article, the last time Aunty Beeb mentions Snus in an article dates back to May 2015 when there was quite a bit of a to do about a certain EU official and a teeny bit of bribery.
