2016

When I was doing (part) of my write up of the Global Forum on Nicotine conference, I mentioned that I might have had something special coming up. As most of you should know by now, A Billion Lives - directed by Aaron Biebert - has premiered in New Zealand, Australia and of course Poland. Now, on August 6th A Billion Lives is coming home.

The film has garnered some well deserved accolades, a lot of attention, and has been reviewed by numerous critics and been called “A wake up call”. I had the honour of meeting Aaron, albeit briefly, at the Poland premiere, and like many others who have seen the film have been mightily impressed with how Aaron has directed the film, and I truly wish I could get across to the US to see it again at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.

I mentioned in a previous post that a certain Canadian MD - none other than Matthew Stanbrook, by far the most ideological and idiotic anti-vaper “researcher” there is, who claims that “e-cigarettes are a gateway that must be shut” - has had an opinion piece published, alongside a certain study, which is now getting some media attention. Hardly surprising really. Most notably (so far) is his mention in a Medscape article.

I’ve touched on this briefly a few times before (here, here and most recently here) and it’s all about smoking/vaping in the workplace in particular, and anywhere else in public in general. As many readers will know Public Health England recently released some guidance on the “Use of e-cigarettes in public places and workplaces”.

Before I go much further, let me remind you of a comment that had been left on one of my posts about this particularly thorny subject:

“Teenagers smoke e-cigarettes because they deem them ‘cool and fun’, alarming report claims” - makes for an interesting, click bait type headline doesn’t it? So what is all the fuss about? Well as you would expect a new “study” from Canada has been released - with an accompanying op-ed from none other than Matthew Stanbrook, by far the most ideological and idiotic anti-vaper “researcher” there is, who claims that “e-cigarettes are a gateway that must be shut”. More on that later in the post.

I’ve been mulling this over in my head ever since the first vaping bans were imposed by businesses such as Wetherspoons. I kept thinking to myself why? Was it down to simply banning something that “looks like smoking” - after all there is a comprehensive policy in place across the UK in that smoking is not allowed/prohibited/banned in work places, public places (bars/pubs/clubs/public buildings etc), smoking is now prohibited in cars with kids in (not that it’s being enforced - after all, the police have far better things to do). There’s even calls for smoking bans (inclusive of e-cigarettes) in parks - the US, and New York in particular are fond of their smoke-free parks, completely ignoring the fumes from the multitude of internal combustion engines.

You will of course remember a ridiculous “study” from last year (covered neatly by Clive Bates here) that spread far and wide about alcohol being related to e-cig use. That one of course came from up north - Liverpool to be exact, and who do we know in Liverpool that doesn’t like e-cigarettes?

Well it would seem some researchers over in Texas don’t like e-cigarettes much either (to be fair, not many researchers in the US like them, but that’s by the by). Strangely enough, this particular study made it to the journal around the same time as the one from Liverpool. Coincidence? I think not. What is strange is why it is only now getting press-time. By press time I mean an article in the Daily Fail (where else?).

Well, colour me surprised. Yet another “gateway” study from the US. A study that of course generates ridiculous headlines such as - E-cigarettes ’encourage teenagers to try tobacco’: Warning that vaping is a ‘gateway’ after growing numbers try who have never smoked before. Now of course, it is entirely feasible that a never smoker tries e-cigs and then moves on to smoking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all kiddiwinkles that try vaping are going to do the same.

In a break from the norm, and mostly because I’ve been busy with homey type things, the following post is a collaborative effort between Rhydian Mann and myself. Do read on.

It came to my attention today, from Irish vaping advocate and IVVA administrator (amongst other things), Gillian Golden, that the Republic of Ireland has gone a bit “nuts”.

She was referring to a recently published NewsTalk.com piece in relation to a report on the compliance with new legislation called the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015.

The following post is from Rhydian Mann, these are his thoughts on the “Red Button” debacle. There is no commentary from me.

It has been 2 weeks since a West Wales health board called Hywel Dda implemented what I can only describe as one of the most extreme forms of ridiculous “Tobacco Control” measures in the history of looking after the health of people in Wales. For those who want the background, please check out this trumpet blowing.

Moving on from my previous post in this multi-part series of my coverage of the 3rd Global Forum on Nicotine, the conference proper started with the Michael Russell Oration, presented by Marewa Glover.

Entitled “Pioneering with Compassion” (Marewa’s slides are available from here) Marewa highlighted several key points, the biggest of which:

While there is low overall smoking prevalence, there is large disparity in sub-population groups

A point made early in the presentation with 42% of Mãori women and 34% of men - which when averaged give a total of 38% compared to the overall population of New Zealand total of 15%. Consider how many “sub-cultures” there are in any number of countries, then consider how many of that sub-culture smoke then look at the “overall” prevalence figures. It’s a terrifying disparity, and it is, unfortunately made worse mostly through the actions of tobacco control.