How vaping studies cherry-picked and misinformed. Oregon flavor ban dies in legislation. WHO should be ashamed. Grassroots THR orgs struggle. CASAA Live this week. Tobacco Control pretends “never smoked” vapers would have never smoked and more!
Scroll to the bottom of this post for a link to the audio/video versions of this post!
CALL TO ACTION // Stop A Federal Tax!
Comparing “oranges to oranges” (in this case milligrams of nicotine in vapes vs cigarettes,) if HR 5715 is enacted, vapes would be taxed at a rate approximately 5X higher than cigarettes! Vaping consumers will be paying up to 6¢/mg of nicotine compared to 1.1¢/mg in cigarettes.
The tax hike is just as bad, if not worse, for nicotine pouches, snus, and moist snuff — all reduced risk products compared to cigarettes!
TAKE ACTION: Fight a National Vapor Tax!
CALL TO ACTION // Pennsylvania: Stop a Flavor Ban!
HB 1161 would ban tobacco and nicotine products in any flavor other than tobacco.
TAKE ACTION: Pennsylvania: Fight a Flavor Ban!
CALL TO ACTION // Evanston, IL: Stop A Flavor Ban!
Ordinance 74-O-23, which would ban tobacco and nicotine products in any flavor other than tobacco, is moving toward final consideration on Monday, November 13, 2023 at 6PM!
TAKE ACTION: Evantson, Illinois: Stop A Flavor Ban!
CALL TO ACTION UPDATE // Oregon Flavor Ban
The deadline has passed to introduce a statewide flavor ban in Oregon, and “there’s no sign of a renewed effort to pass” the legislation. In truth, lawmakers call it a flavored “tobacco” ban as a smokescreen to ban low risk vaping and nicotine products.
While this ban is in limbo for now, it could resurface at any time, so we urge Oregon residents to still contact their representatives and urge them to oppose the ban!
Excellent article from @Filtermag_org on the Oregon flavor ban proposal.https://t.co/txnsBR5RPT #ORpol
— Gregory Conley (@GregTHR) April 25, 2023
CALL TO ACTION: Oregon: Stop a Flavor Ban!
READ MORE: Statewide Flavored Tobacco Ban Won’t Happen Next Year
CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA LIVE
TOMORROW at 4:30 PM ET/3:30 PM CT Alex Clark and Kristin Noll-Marsh will be talking with Lindsey Stroud, Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Consumer Center, about how the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey data debunks the “youth vaping epidemic” myth and more!
ADVOCACY // The Struggle of Grassroots THR Organizations
“The ultimate goal of tobacco harm reduction consumer advocacy organisations is to ensure continued access for themselves and others to the safer nicotine products that have helped them quit smoking. They are fragile grassroots groups that are overstretched and under-resourced but have huge potential.”
Have you joined CASAA?
Our latest Briefing Paper shows how grassroots #THR #consumeradvocacy groups aim to ensure #SNP are available as alternatives for all those who use high-risk #tobacco products, including 1.1bn people who #smoke. They manage this despite very limited fundshttps://t.co/5nhQkqXAwK pic.twitter.com/hwbFVOe5xD
— The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (@GlobalStateTHR) November 13, 2023
READ MORE: Briefing Paper: Tobacco harm reduction consumer advocacy organisations
JOIN CASAA: Get Involved: Join CASAA
TOBACCO CONTROL // Naive at Best, Disingenuous at Worst
“I will never be happy that there are…‘never smokers’ who are now vaping.” ~ Dr. Sanford
🛑Just stop!
To suggest that all of those “never smoker” vapers wouldn’t have smoked cigarettes if vaping hadn’t been available is naive at best, disingenuous at worst.
From 2001 to 2011, adult smoking dropped an average of 0.38 percentage points per year. Had that trend continued at that rate (without the introduction of vaping,) the adult smoking rate would have been around 15.2% by 2021. Instead, from 2011 to 2021 (as adult vaping increased 3.2 percentage points from 1.3% to 4.5%,) adult smoking dropped an average of 0.75 percentage points per year (nearly double the rate of the previous decade,) resulting in adult smoking rates dropping from 19% in 2011 to 11.5% in 2021.
The point being that not only would the number of adults who smoke be much higher today if vaping had never been introduced, but it could be argued that the “never smoker” vapers today are the reason that adult smoking rates are at 11.5% instead of that estimated 15.2%.
Young adult vaping is increasing BUT
“#ecigs are deflecting young people who would otherwise smoke to something much less risky”
“If populations are replacing smoking with #vaping, the net public health gain is substantial.”via @SMC_London
More ⤵️https://t.co/jkL19w38UI pic.twitter.com/EvkphZIH6Q— Dr Colin Mendelsohn (@ColinMendelsohn) November 14, 2023
READ MORE: National survey indicates more young adults begin tobacco use with vaping, not cigarettes
TOBACCO CONTROL // The World Health Organization Should Be Ashamed
“Tobacco companies successfully lobbied for the end of bans on e-cigarettes, [Heated Tobacco Products] and/or nicotine pouches in Egypt, Kenya and Uruguay.” ~ The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) should be ashamed that it was tobacco companies that had to fight to save millions of lives with those harm reduction products and not the WHO.
You’re welcome! 😂 Also, fixed a word you forgot to add…
“efforts to protect [BAD] health policy from increased tobacco industry interference have deteriorated around the world.”https://t.co/rrOzguCJVV
— StefanDidak (@StefanDidak) November 16, 2023
READ MORE: New WHO campaign highlights tobacco industry tactics to influence public health policies
RESEARCH // Cherry-Picked and Contorted
You could try to read Glantz’s cherry-picked, contorted analysis — trying to fool the public into believing there’s no correlation between nicotine #vaping and an ACCELERATED smoking decline — or you can look at this simple graph and decide for yourself:
Continuing from the *other* thread (IFKYK) https://t.co/xIpPShr86P
*Deep breath*
1) Main claim is from finding non-significant correlation btw cigs & e-cigs during e-cig “surge” (2017-19). But paper itself finds smoking’s unexpected decline had started years prior (2013+).
— Arielle Selya (@ArielleSelya) November 16, 2023
READ MORE: Drop in smoking not correlated with increased youth vaping
RESEARCH // Misinformation About Misinformation
Researchers repeat misinformation about #vaping (seizures, brain damage, lung injuries, youth vaping epidemic, etc,) then claim it’s mainly THR advocates using Twitter just to shut down “opposing views” rather than counter what is truly misinformation.🤦♂️
You’d think that the authors might have learned something. Instead they just wrote a paper to badmouth people who said things they didn’t like.
— Phil (@phil_w888) November 10, 2023
READ MORE: The spread of misinformation on Twitter regarding vaping
INDUSTRY // Very Low Nicotine Cigarettes Failing to Catch On
The company that manufactures very low nicotine cigarettes (offering all the danger of smoke without the low risk nicotine,) and received premarket authorization from the FDA to market it as “modified risk,” isn’t doing so well with investors or consumers (again.)
Huh. Doesn’t seem to be catching on.https://t.co/90Q6CPGE0H
— VapingIT, SPE, EEI (@Vapingit) November 16, 2023
READ MORE: 22nd Century faces another Nasdaq share price listing warning
CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live
Watch Alex, Logan and Lt. Diane Goldstein of The Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) as they discuss the FDA’s looming ban on menthol, illicit markets for tobacco/nicotine products (including vaping products,) and if harm reduction can help solve issues between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Catch the next show LIVE this Saturday, November 8th at 4:30PM ET/3:30PM CT!
TAKE ACTION // CASAA State Facebook Groups
Have you joined your CASAA State Facebook group yet? Check it out now! Click the link below, click on your state on the map, then click the “Join Now” button to go to your state’s group page. It’s as easy as that to stay updated on local happenings, meet local advocates and never miss a Call to Action in your state!
Don’t forget to also follow our official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CASAAmedia
FIND YOUR GROUP: CASAA State Locator
CASAA STORE // Apparel and More
Show your support by shopping our store! Our president (and brilliant website/swag designer) Danielle has added some awesome new designs to CASAA’s apparel shop!
VISIT: CASAA Apparel and Swag Store
CASAA MEDIA // Spotify
CASAA’s podcast is on Spotify! Please give us a follow here:
CASAA IN ACTION // Twitter Spaces
The week we recap the Reagan-Udall sessions with Amanda Wheeler, Tim Andrews and CASAA CEO Alex Clark, who all presented to the panel about FDA’s issues regulating reduced-harm products. What grade would you give FDA? Also available on CASAA’s Spotify channel (above.)
— CASAA (@CASAAmedia) October 26, 2022
CASAA MEDIA // Podcast
Catch up on past tobacco harm reduction news with Alex and Logan on the CASAA podcasts on SoundCloud every Monday and now live on YouTube and Facebook every Saturday at 3:30 PM.