Thought you guys would be interested in this - top UK public health scientists analyze the US data and come to completely different conclusions.
Epidemic of youth nicotine addiction? What does the National Youth Tobacco Survey reveal about high school e-cigarette use in the USA? (Preprint) - Article | Qeios
I'm sure the press will publish it far and wide, not.
And so it begins......
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Wednesday it plans to ban the sale of non-tobacco-flavored electronic cigarettes amid a vaping crisis.
“The Trump Administration is making it clear that we intend to clear the market of flavored e-cigarettes to reverse the deeply concerning epidemic of youth e-cigarette use that is impacting children, families, schools and communities,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “We will not stand idly by as these products become an on-ramp to combustible cigarettes or nicotine addiction for a generation of youth.”
Michigan became the first state to prohibit sales of most flavored e-cigarettes last week in a bold move to curb the underage vaping epidemic. The ban, which will take effect in a few weeks, will cover both online and in-store sales of all e-cigarette flavors except tobacco.
Trump administration plans to ban sale of flavored electronic cigarettes
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.
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The FDA Plans To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes Based on a Nonexistent 'Epidemic' of Adolescent Nicotine Addiction
This is a couple of years old, but I couldn't find it in this forum after a cursory search. It's funny.
Vaping Youth Pastor Fills In For Broken Fog Machine
PORTLAND, OR—After Chainbreaker Church’s fog machine sputtered to a halt in the middle of the second service Sunday morning, youth pastor Bryan “The Vaped Crusader” Foster boldly stepped up to the stage, pulled out his vape, and produced an equivalent quantity of vapor into the darkened sanctuary so that the service could continue.
Vaping Youth Pastor Fills In For Broken Fog Machine
Scientists want probe of UCSF tobacco research
One of the country's best-known tobacco researchers is under fire this week after one of his federally funded vaping studies was retracted and other academics are calling for federal review of some of his other influential anti-vaping research.
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additional Glantz studies deserving of the most scrutiny include two major publications in 2018: A meta analysis of other vaping studies published in the British journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine and one in the journal Pediatrics about teen vaping and smoking.
The Lancet analysis of several studies was based on a "misleading negative correlation between e-cigarettes and smoking cessation"and used studies that had nothing to do with quitting smoking, Abrams said. This violated the basic tenets of medical research review, he added.
"It has had a massive misleading influence in the field to this day because it is cited as the main reference" to show vaping makes it harder to quit smoking, Abrams said.
The other study concluded the "use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among US adolescents." Rodu, who analyzed the claim, found only 11 of 9,000 teens studied vaped before they started smoking and 80% of the kids who smoked hadn't used tobacco product previously.
Using that data, Abrams said the "effect of vaping is not just diminished, it disappears."
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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)
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
3 things you might be getting wrong about the vaping epidemic
Comments?
If you’re from the United States or probably any Western country, you will know how quickly our culture can go from one extreme position to the next on just about any issue. Around 25-30 years ago, nicotine went somewhat suddenly from being a socially acceptable vice that could be done in nearly every public place by almost anyone to a highly stigmatized addiction that turned millions of smokers into second-class citizens. Unfortunately, since the most common delivery of nicotine had been through traditional cigarettes that have been lethal for so many people including both my grandfathers, the stigma behind nicotine has persisted into the era of vaping. And it doesn’t help that the practice “looks like” smoking.
However, in and of itself nicotine is not dangerous. It occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, and does not cause lung cancer. It’s a drug, just like any substance or activity that releases dopamine in the brain. I’m personally much more concerned about the consumption of highly-caffeinated, high-sugar drinks, which are not age restricted, “flavor” restricted, and aren’t taxed to death. I’m also much more concerned about the proliferation of flavored beer and spirits in the last couple decades, which have minimal restriction on advertising and haven’t been scrutinized by the FDA to any degree comparable to JUUL or the e-cigarette industry in general. And while those substances can be very addictive, they are often encouraged in social settings, can be “enjoyed in moderation”, and aren’t considered an epidemic. Without getting too political, I’m entirely convinced that progressives would rather have 400,000 smokers continue to die each year because they didn’t switch to vaping than a new generation take up a significantly less harmful habit.
The Canadian federal government published guidance for the federal flavor ban in their latest Canada Gazette Part I (https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2021/2021-06-19/html/reg2-eng.html)
The federal government is proposing a prohibition on all flavors other than Tobacco, Mint and Menthol.
They define "flavor" as anything that has a sensory attribute in inducing youth to vape - this means that if it smells like strawberries, it's banned. If it smells like cream, it's banned. If it smells like anything other than tobacco, mint or menthol, it is prohibited for sale in all of Canada.
There is still time to act.
Calgary MP Tom Kmiec has introduced a petition - If you are Canadian, please sign it!
You can find the petition at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3362
After you fill in your information, they will send you an email with a confirmation link, you MUST press it for your entry to be entered.
I just came across this article, claiming that even nicotine-free e-liquids contain lung-harming substances like acrolein:
[URL='http://lungcancernewstoday.com/2015/06/08/nicotine-free-e-cigarette-vapor-also-damages-lung-cells/']Nicotine-Free E-Cigarette Vapor Also Damages Lung Cells Lung Cancer News Today[/URL]
What I hate about articles such as these is that they're almost always posted with some scary headline and usually end up saying there isn't a proper research into topic or they're awaiting further investigations.
Anyhow, can anyone comment on what 'acrolein' is? I've heard of formaldehyde being created when vaping on high wattage, but this is the first time I hear of acrolein.