Covid-19 Survey Of Vapers

Are you UK based? Professor Riccardo Polosa has put together a quick survey on vaping habits during the lockdown period that will help his team form important future research on vaping. It will take you just a moment to complete, and will provide researchers with much needed data as they begin to consider how our society is dealing with the ‘new normal'. If you can spare 2 minutes please take the survey and share! Survey - Cuts Ice  

IL – Public Meeting 09.23.19 – Mental Health Committee to Discuss a Response to “The Vaping Crisis” - CASAA

The Illinois General Assembly’s Mental Health Committee will hold a hearing on the subject of “Addressing the Vaping Crisis” on

Monday, September 23, 2019
2:00 PM
Michael A. Bilandic Building

C-600, 6th Floor

160 N LaSalle St

Chicago, IL 60601

(notice)

The likely outcome of this meeting might be a recommendation that flavors other than tobacco be banned.

While this is a public meeting, many of the speakers are being selected in advance. If there is time left over, speaking will be limited to 2 – 3 minutes. Please be respectful and have your remarks prepared.

A witness slip is required whether you plan to speak or not, please submit a witness slip, here .

If you plan to speak, the witness slip is the only “sign up sheet” available.

Fill out the form with your contact information; under section III, select “Addressing the Vaping Crisis” from the drop down menu and click the “Opponent” radio dial; and specify written or oral testimony (Section IV).

Click Here to Send a Witness Slip
If you would like to have written testimony delivered to the committee, please send it to board@sfacoil.org.

Even if you do not plan to speak, your presence is important as it demonstrates the large numbers of people affected by this issue.

In addition to participating in this meeting, Illinois residents who vape and are not “sick from vaping” are being asked to fill out this survey from the IL Dept. of Public Health (IDPH). THIS SURVEY IS FOR ILLINOIS RESIDENTS ONLY! Do not encourage people outside of Illinois to participate by misrepresenting where they live.

Click Here to Take the IDPH Anonymous Survey
_________________________

I will be there - hope to tell my story.
Illinois - ONLY - residents - if you haven't yet Please take the survey.
Can't make it or don't want to speak? Please send a witness slip.
Let's pack this place!  

This year's survey is up! I took it the day I got their email about it, have you taken it yet? Link is in the yellow banner up top or http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/surveylink.php They have prizes, don't be shy.  

I was just watching MSNBC and they said (paraphrased) that a study from Belgium has noted that people who smoke seem to be much less likely to get COVID, and they believe it may be because both nicotine and COVID bind to the same cell receptors (or some thing like that - I'm not a medical person lol), so they think nicotine might block COVID from being able to attach to the cell. They're looking into the connection, but say it's waaayyyy too soon to know anything for sure yet. Meanwhile, in the interim, as I refill my vape...

Here's a link to an article (there were actually several articles on google about this): Smokers 'four times less likely' to contract Covid-19, prompting nicotine patch trials on patients  

Heard a brief mention of this on the radio this morning.

Marijuana use for college students at 35-year high, University of Michigan study shows
By Martin Slagter | mslagter@mlive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI - Marijuana use among college students reached a 35-year high in 2018, according to the University of Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future national survey.
...
The study also indicated a significant increase in vaping marijuana between 2017 - increasing from 10.7% in 2017 to 20.2% in 2018. The 9.4% increase was among the greatest one-year increases for any substance since the Monitoring the Future Panel began more than 40 years ago.

There also was a significant increase in the 30-day prevalence of vaping marijuana among college students, which increased from 5.2% to 10.9% from 2017 to 2018, representing one of the largest one-year proportional increases for any substance over the past four decades.

Vaping nicotine also increased significantly across all ages groups, as well, from 2017 to 2018. The 30-day prevalence of vaping was up among eighth graders (3.5% to 6.1%); 10th graders (8.2% to 16.1%); 11% to 20.9% for 12th graders; 6.1% to 15.5% for college students and 6.5% to 10.6% for all young adults.

The increase among college students was among the greatest one-year increases the survey has seen in the past 40 years.

The full report is available here.
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol2_2018.pdf  

What was the best vaping item you bought in 2020? What was a game changer for you? Sock it to 2020 as only vapers can, by showing off your gear

For me it was my first SBS mod, an Aspire Mixx. I was a 24/7 squonkaholic, as I love low profile setups. The Mixx, along with a bulletproof Dvarw DL gives me that and has reintroduced RTAs into my daily setups.

I'm now a 12/7 squonkaholic and 12/7 Mixxaholic
 

I read e.g. this article:
To Fight Vaping, New York City Bans Nearly All Flavored E-Cigarettes
Now I am a little confused.
I am visiting NYC in July 2020 and now I don't know if I can bring my flavoured e-liquid for personal use (perhaps 50ml with 2mg nic). Will vaping flavours in the streets of NYC be banned in July 2020? Is there already a final decision on this topic? I just want to make sure in advance. I'd take a tabacco flavour or unflavored liquid instead of mango when there will be a flavour ban.
Is here someone who knows more about the flavor ban in NY, perhaps also in Washingtin D.C. and Boston, where plan to travel for a daytrip?  

Here's an interesting read... and their analysis of the data the FDA used makes sense.
In the new study, University College London health psychologist Martin Jarvis and his co-authors argue that a closer look at the survey data suggests the FDA exaggerated the threat posed by adolescent e-cigarette use.
Click to expand...

The FDA Plans To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes Based on a Nonexistent 'Epidemic' of Adolescent Nicotine Addiction  

Got this from the world wide web and wanted to share it here.

Apologies if it's already been shared. It's a handy list for reference as well as informative.

E-CIGARETTE POLICY BRIEF: Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know

All references are hyperlinked to official WHO and government reports, and peer-reviewed studies

The death toll from smoking is enormous

8 million people die every year from smoking-related diseases (WHO), including 480,000 in the USA (CDC) 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide (WHO), including 34 million in the USA (CDC) In the USA, smoking is now concentrated among low-income and LGBTQ people, people living with mental illnesses, and indigenous peoples (American Lung Association)

→ Tobacco smoking is, by far, the world’s leading cause of preventable cancer, heart and lung disease

Harm reduction can reduce that death toll

There is growing independent consensus that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking (35+ official public statements) There is strong evidence that smokers who switch to e-cigarettes have lower risk of cancer, heart & lung disease When not in tobacco smoke, nicotine itself does not cause cancer, heart or lung disease (CDC and IARC/WHO) → Other examples of harm reduction include seat belts, bicycle helmets, parachutes, methadone and condoms

Safer nicotine alternatives help smokers quit

Big pharma nicotine patches & gum (NRTs) cause neither addiction nor cancer, heart or lung disease (FDA; CDC) NRTs increase quit success from 5% (cold turkey) to 9% (on average, smokers try and fail 30 times before quitting) E-cigarettes are two times more effective than NRTs (Cochrane review of 50 peer-reviewed studies worldwide) Many adult vapers “quit by accident” with e-cigarettes (online survey); NRTs only benefit those who want to quit 92% of US all vapers are ADULTS; 4.3 million US adults have quit smoking completely with nicotine vapes (CDC) The adult cessation total may be 5.4 million because 26% of those who quit with e-cigarettes later quit vaping 2.1 million UK smokers (UK government) and 7.5 million EU smokers (Eurobarometer) have quit with e-cigarettes ‘Flavors’ are up to 2.3 times more effective for smoking cessation than tobacco flavor (Yale study) (UK study) 80% of US adult vapers prefer fruit, dessert or candy flavors that don’t remind them of smoking (FDA submission) → Forcing ex-smokers to vape tobacco flavor is like forcing recovering alcoholics to drink rum-flavored club soda

Teen vaping is undesirable, but not a crisis

In the UK, which promotes nicotine vaping for adult smokers, teen “current use” by never-smokers is just 1% US high school “current use” of vaping products dropped 29% between 2019 and March 2020 (CDC/NYTS) By March 2020, only 1 in 20 US high school students vaped daily (4.4%, but 53% of that may be THC not nicotine) US youth & young adult vaping dropped another 32% during the pandemic (JAMA survey up to November 2020) If both surveys are combined, just 1 in 10 US high school-age teens are now “current users” (13%) → If this assumption is correct, then US teen past 30-day ever-use is now lower than it was in 2015 (6 years ago)

Proposed policy “cures” are worse than the “disease”

Proposed policies to reduce teen vaping include higher taxes, ‘flavor’ bans, online sales bans and shipping bans E-cigarette taxes have caused cigarette sales to increase in 8 US states (National Bureau of Economic Research) E-cigarette taxes “increase prenatal smoking and lower smoking cessation during pregnancy” in female smokers Ecig flavor bans increased cigarette sales in San Francisco; Washington; Rhode Island; New York; and Nova Scotia Online sales and mail shipment bans reduce adult access, so are also very likely to strengthen cigarette sales → Higher taxes, ‘flavor’ bans, and online/mail bans protect big tobacco’s main cash cow: deadly cigarettes

Unintended consequences and logical inconsistencies

Probable outcome of ‘flavor’ bans: Teen vapers will switch to THC vaping or to cigarette smoking; many adult vapers will relapse to smoking; fewer smokers will quit; an illicit market (with no age-checks) will arise

The same organizations that claim teen vaping is a gateway to tobacco smoking, also claim tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes repel teens (i.e., banning ‘flavored’ nicotine vapes will reduce teen vaping)

→ Definitions differ: adult current use = daily or regular use; teen current use = past 30-day ever-use

Full context of adult products that teens use, but should not use

US teens are more likely to smoke pot or use illegal drugs than to be “current users” of e-cigarettes (NIDA MTF) US teens are 2X more likely to binge drink than vape “frequently”; 3X more likely to binge drink than vape daily US teen binge drinking causes 3,500 deaths and 119,000 ER visits/year (CDC); US policy response? Age-checks US teen “current smoking” rates dropped 3X faster than historical trends after 2012 (NIDA MTF) → Teens should not vape, smoke, drink or use cannabis (and adults should try to avoid irrational moral panics)  

With so many debates about public vaping raging here, I started to wonder how many people around us are stealthy vapers?

People who vape at home and in their cars, but not out in public.
People that vape with a stealthy setup indoors - around the corner, in the rest room.
People that go outside and vape with the smokers.
People that use small devices with less vapor.

It was common to see posts here about people never having seen another vaper out and about only a short time ago. Now that vaping is much more mainstream and available, I wonder how many people around us are stealth vapers, getting their nic fix right under our noses? Thousands of ego and evod setups are being sold every day, yet very rarely do I see another vaper, unless I'm in a vape shop.

My guess is that stealthy vapers make up more than 75% of all vapers. They just go unnoticed. They might be standing right next to you.

The Invisible Majority?