Study finds vaping flavors helps adults quit smoking. Calls to Action for US and Pennsylvania. Heads up for Evanston, Illinois. Honolulu officials lie to justify a flavor ban. Australia has firebombs and shooting over tobacco and vapes. Center for Black Equity says Tobacco Harm Reduction will save black LGBTQ+ lives 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!
HEADS UP! // Evanston, Illinois Flavor Ban!
Seventh Ward Council Member Eleanor Revelle reintroduced a total flavor ban and City Council voted 6-3 in favor of introducing the proposal.
The council is expected to vote on November 13th!
Studies show flavor bans increase smoking!
READ MORE: Ban on all flavored tobacco products gets initial council backing
RESEARCH // Adults Who Quit Smoking Prefer Vaping Flavors
A vaping study with a sample of nearly 70,000 adult vapers in the U.S. found that the most utilized flavors to quit smoking in the U.S. are those of fruit, baked goods and chocolate.
READ MORE: Researchers Identify Flavors Used to Quit
RESEARCH // Smokeless Tobacco In India Is Different Than In the US
Before this starts gaining traction with the US media, it’s important to know the most popular “smokeless tobacco” products in India contain or are used with slaked lime, betel leaf and areca nut – all of which are linked to liver damage and/or cancer. Smokeless tobacco in the US isn’t comparable.
READ MORE: Smokeless Tobacco Use Linked to Increased Risk of Kidney Disease, Anemia
LEGISLATION // When You Have to Lie to Pass a Law…
Honolulu officials lie to justify a flavor ban, claiming “1 in 3” high school students are vaping. In fact, they are citing data that shows that 32.4% ever vaped, but just 14.8% vaped even 1 puff in the past month and only 6.4% reported frequent use. They also ignore that current youth SMOKING was down to 3% in 2021!
They also lied in other articles that tobacco makers “lure kids with candy-like flavors like bubble gum, POG and gummy bear,” when no vape product sold by tobacco companies sell those types of flavors.
At this point, the flavor ban is just symbolic as it cannot take effect until the state law nullifying county ordinances that regulate the sale of tobacco is reversed.
“Despite widespread efforts this year to ban adult access to flavored tobacco and vapor products, youth vaping has decreased significantly in Hawaii in recent years, and youth traditional tobacco use is at record lows.”
Read more from @lmstroud89 👇https://t.co/ztEDDgFQIu
— Independent Women’s Forum (@IWF) April 5, 2023
READ MORE: Honolulu Mayor Signs Bill To Ban Flavored Tobacco
TOBACCO CONTROL // Bans Create Illicit Markets
The San Diego city attorney’s office sued 2 retail chains, claiming they “sold flavored electronic cigarettes to undercover investigators, violating state and local bans.”
We told them Bans 👏Don’t👏Work!👏 They’re looking right in the face at the proof that bans just create unregulated, illicit markets.
City Attorney alleges San Diego retailers violated flavored-tobacco banshttps://t.co/kWu8NpSBRK pic.twitter.com/8UoxenFkRQ
— Allison (@alli_vapes) August 23, 2023
READ MORE: Sale of flavored tobacco is illegal, but enforcement is slim, San Diego leaders say
TOBACCO CONTROL // Not “Kool” to Misrepresent the Facts
It’s reprehensible for this K-State Research and Extension News article to include Donna Gerstner of Live Well Finney County in Garden City, KS stating “So you see that it’s really scary that youth are using vapes because it causes suicidal behavior (our emphasis.)”
It’s not “kool” to misrepresent the facts, either!
It’s long been known that people with mental health disorders have higher rates of substance use than the general population. It’s generally understood to be a form of “self-medication” not that the substance use causes the mental disorders!
To hammer home the point, an article from the Child Mind Institute, which states “If they’re not treated, almost half of kids with mental health disorders will end up (our emphasis) having a substance use disorder.”
Don’t even get us started on Ms. Gerstner’s ridiculous “third-hand smoke” claim about vapor. Studies of actual third-hand smoke have only shown that the chemicals found may be a health risk – not yet knowing real-world effects – and vapor has only a tiny fraction of some of the chemicals found in smoke!🤦♂️
TOBACCO CONTROL // Keep Perspective on Nicotine Exposures
Adult products (tobacco, nicotine, alcohol, medications, drugs, cleaning supplies, etc.) should ALWAYS be kept out of reach of children.
As far as alarm recently being raised (again) over exposures to vaping products, it’s important to have some perspective…
Prior to the existence of vapor products, children under the age of 5 years old were exposed to tobacco leaf products (and still are – don’t forget that cigarette sales still outnumber e-cigs by far.) Between 2001 – 2016, exposure to cigarettes far outnumbered e-cig exposures.
As a growing number of adults switch from deadly cigarettes to low risk vapor products (see CASAA graph below,) it makes sense that more homes will have vapor products in them, increasing potential exposures to vapor products and decreasing exposure to cigarettes. But is it a 1-to-1 trade-off?
The CDC reported over 6,000 vape exposures of children under the age of 5 in 2022-23, but 61% were inhalation (including just one whiff) and 40% were the more serious concern of ingestion, with 0.6% hospital admissions. Compare this to cigarettes 2001-16, with 98.9% ingestion and 3.8% hospital admissions.
More data is definitely needed, but it could be that the switch to vapor products is actually reducing risks of accidental nicotine ingestion by children under the age of 5 overall, while also significantly reducing health risks for adults who smoke. Let’s find out before creating a panic and passing knee-jerk laws?
READ MORE: More children are being poisoned by e-cigarette liquids. Here’s what parents need to know
WORLD NEWS // Australia’s Illegal Tobacco Trade Is Booming
“Australian police have made some of the biggest illegal tobacco, cigarette and vape seizures on record this month.
A surge in firebombings and shootings that are suspected to be linked to Australia’s underground tobacco trade.”
Why is there even an “underground” tobacco trade? Excessive taxation, oppressive regulations and prohibition (ie. bans.) Period.
— Gregory Conley (@GregTHR) October 27, 2023
READ MORE: Australia’s Illegal Tobacco Trade Is Booming
FDA // A Political Agenda Against Flavored Vapes?
In 2022 Filter broke the story that leadership at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) had PRESSURED CTP scientists to REVERSE their initial recommendation to AUTHORIZE menthol vaping products (manufactured, in that instance, by Logic, a company owned by Japan Tobacco International). This, together with the pattern of PMTA denials and authorizations, suggests a POLITICAL AGENDA against flavored vapes at the FDA.”
~ Kiran Sidhu, Filter Magazine
READ MORE: FDA’s Rejections of Menthol Vapes Could “Backfire,” Scientists Say
INDUSTRY // Creating a Shift to a Black Market
“Should Reynolds succeed at the ITC, the market for flavored vaping products that people like could fully shift from a gray market (products sold in legal retail stores; taxes paid) to an underground black market (fully illegal and unreported)….
Included among the companies named in the complaint are several well-known U.S. wholesale and retail sellers…”
~CASAA director Jim McDonald reporting for Vaping360.
R.J. Reynolds Asks ITC to Ban Disposable Vape Imports
The action is the latest in Reynolds’ campaign to eliminate growing competition from disposable vapes in the convenience store/gas station segment of the vaping products market.https://t.co/LTF0PhOEuQ— Allison (@alli_vapes) October 18, 2023
READ MORE: R.J. Reynolds Asks ITC to Ban Disposable Vape Imports
TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION // Saving Black LGBTQ+ Lives
When Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr., the President, CEO and Founder of the Center for Black Equity (a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of Black LGBTQ+ people worldwide) says vaping products will save Black and LGBTQ+ lives, maybe tobacco/nicotine policymakers should LISTEN?!
“The Center for Black Equity (CBE) called on the FDA/CTP to grant broad approval to a full range of nicotine e-cigarettes in a major step toward closing the significant harm-reduction and health equity gaps perpetuated by current FDA tobacco policies.”https://t.co/sqb8ta9Zbq
— Lance Churchill (@LanceChurchill) October 5, 2023
READ MORE: To achieve the Biden Cancer Moonshot, e-cigarettes must be widely approved
TESTIMONIALS // Real people. Real Stories.
Anecdote #13,532:
Thirty-eight year old James had smoked for 22 years and his health was rapidly declining. Just 2 months after ending up in the hospital, vaping changed his life for the better.
SUBMIT YOUR STORY: Submit Your Success Story to the CASAA Testimonial Project!
CASAA IN ACTION // CASAA Live
Join CASAA CEO Alex Clark and vice president Logan Evans as they view Alex’s recent discussion with scientist and harm reduction advocate Annie Kleykamp about her efforts to make sure older people who smoke aren’t left behind in THR.
Catch the show LIVE every-other Saturday 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.
