Smoking versus Vaping, Public Health England video

 Smoking v Vaping (2.41 minutes) video posted on December 28, 2018 by Public Health England comparing residues from one-month smoking and vaping.
On the BBC
In October 2016, the Canadian program The Fifth Estate aired an episode devoted to e-cigs that started with a similar experience.
Meanwhile, in the US, the misperception of comparative risks is still very high.

The lies of The Truth campaign

As exposed by Michael Siegel.

We don't have a teen vaping crisis in the US

We don't have a teen vaping crisis in the US, is the title of this post by Hank Campbell. I don't know him or his Science 2.0 blog and therefore I am not sure I share all his analyses but I certainly share this one. Unfortunately, that's not the dominant story.

Better smoking cessation strategies needed for COPD patients

This article shows low cessation rates. I wonder how vaping improves (or not) cessation outcomes for COPD patients. Despite alarmist studies, it looks like vaping can help COPD patients. 

E-cigs and teens in France

From the blog of Jean-Yves Nau (in French) 

Altria buys 35% of JUUL for $12.8 Billion

Altria buys 35% of JUUL for $12.8 Billion! In Vaping 360

"Health warnings" required by Washington State for marijuana products

WAC 314-55-105 Packaging and labeling requirements
Can you try to read them on the ad below? I could hardly read them with a magnifying glass. OK, my eyes are not what they used to be. See for yourself. 

First ever "Switch to Vaping" campaign launched in Australia

From the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, their first Switch 2 Vaping campaign. They include two videos with vapers telling their story of switching: Michael and Dianne. 
I thought it was illegal to vape in Australia and it is if you don't have a prescription. ATHRA is a new group since it was created in October 2017 by 4 health professionals. Here is their Board of Directors: congratulations and all our best wishes.

In the NYT again, teens addicted to vaped nicotine (by the millions?)

Two new articles by Jan Hoffman in the New York Times about Addicted to vaped nicotine, teenagers have no clear path to quitting, and How to stop vaping. They make the addiction seem prevalent among US teens when the detailed data (not provided) do not corroborate such a presentation.

How credible is Surgeon General Jerome Adams?

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued today an 'advisory' about e-cigarette use among youth that is a resume of all the fallacies that abound about vaping. That's a sad moment for public health, for Jerome Adams and for all the media/journalists (here USA Today) that blindly disseminate this propaganda without any doublecheck. Fortunately, youth don't care about such messaging and unfortunately, it will probably even act as an incentive for more youth to give a try to something adults so much want them not to use (without any serious argument). You'd rather read about Teen who vape who are they? 
Thank you Charlotte for this report. Many more are needed to debunk the vaping epidemy myth(s).

US teens using vaping devices in 'record numbers"?

This is how the NIH's National Institute of Drug Abuse presents the "findings come from the 2018 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of a nationally representative sample of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in schools nationwide, funded by a government grant to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor":
"America’s teens report a dramatic increase in their use of vaping devices in just a single year, with 37.3 percent of 12th graders reporting “any vaping” in the past 12 months, compared to just 27.8 percent in 2017."
The 37.3 percent dramatic number refers to "any vaping in the past 12 months" aggregating together the once a year 'use" with the daily use.
Interestingly, when resuming tobacco smoking, we are told the following:
"This year’s survey shows regular tobacco is still at its lowest point in the survey since it began measuring it, with only 3.6 percent of high school seniors smoking daily, compared to 22.4 percent two decades ago." How come the measure used here is daily smoking instead of "any smoking in the past 12 months"?

Juul bans vaping in ts offices

As reported by the Daily Mail. Could not find anything about it in their own newsroom, but there is very little there anyway. Still... you'd think it would deserve an explanation. More details in the business insider that refers to the original source: the Wall Street Journal.

The story of a teen who got addicted to juul (in the NYT)

The story is by Jan Hoffman, in the NYT.
Apparently she did not try to reach Juul for comment. From the previous story in Colorado, it looks like they don't reply to such requests. I think they should and they should support the creation of a quit line for people in this situation. How many? 

Teen vaping in Colorado: 27% or 5.9%?

NPR reporter John Daley wonders why Colorado is having a high prevalence of teens who vape. What is newly elected Governor Jared Polis take on the issue? He has supported the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Hopefully, he is less prohibitionist than his predecessor, who launched a vape-free November campaign! As usual, the prevalence numbers that are presented aggregate all types of use, from once a month to every day: average cigarette use 7%, average e-cig use 27%! I have filled a request for data. We'll see what answer I get. I just received it: 
"5.9% of students used electronic vape products 20 or more days in the past month." 
Strangely there is no testimony from any teen vaper. It would have been interesting but it seems that's an impossible task for journalists reporting about teen vaping. It was the same in the recent article by CBC journalist Kelly Crowe about teen vaping in Canada.
I also wonder if John Hanley ever checked what happened to Julien Lavandier who was hooked to Juul. Is it still the case?
PS: I very quickly got an answer from Healthy Kids Colorado Survey that I inserted above within the post:
5.9% of students used electronic vape products 20 or more days in the past month (see the complete table below)
My main question remains: why not use a detailed breakdown of prevalence instead of an aggregate on very different uses? To make the situation much worse than it is? What else?

Results: SAS Output

Table of How many days used electronic vapor product
How many days used	Frequency	Percent	95% Confidence Limits
electronic vapor product			for Percent
0 days	31991	72.9937	71.7148	74.2726
1 or 2 days	4846	9.9563	9.5338	10.3787
3 to 5 days	2238	4.5337	4.2276	4.8398
6 to 9 days	1505	3.1054	2.8594	3.3513
10 to 19 days	1702	3.5578	3.2953	3.8204
20 to 29 days	1009	2.097	1.8431	2.3509
All 30 days	2094	3.7562	3.2865	4.2259
Total	45385	100

Is Surgeon General Jerome Adams refusing to engage on twitter with Clive Bates?

The story is posted on Planet of the Vapes: On his personal twitter account (not the official one), Surgeon General Jerome Adams posts on December 9 that he visited a few vape shops and tried to learn more about vaping

That's a good idea. Better a bit late than never. When visiting the thread I saw that a few vapers joined in. Considering the importance of the issues, maybe they deserve a bigger forum than twitter although I would encourage all vapers who care to let the Surgeon General they appreciate his interest and wish he agrees to more exchanges. As for Clive being banned to comment, that would not be the best way to converse. Is that the reality?

Being around vapers

Being around vapers does not undermine the desire to quit smoking.

A very interesting new study. Sarah Jackson, Researcher at University College London, who wrote this post, just joined the Nicotine Policy Group. Have you? Why not?

Index of posts for December 2018

December 14: Story of a teen addicted to Juul in the NYT    USA
December 13:  Teen vaping in Colorado USA
December 12: UK Government endorses e-cigs report   UK
December 11: Cycles for cigarettes in Turkey , The Guardian,  Turkey
December 10: Helen Redmond's article in Filter about mental health and vaping USA
December 9: Surgeon General Jerome Adams on twitter and Clive Bates . USA
December 8: Teen vaping in Canada has taken a "worrisome" turn   Canada
December 7:
December 6: Opinion, protect teens or save lives  Maine, USA
December 5: Australian researchers oppose funding from FSFW  Australia
December 5: How to tackle lung cancer in the EU  EU
December 4: Arizona students vape more (but no detailed data provided and alcohol use still higher) USA
December 3: Fatwa against e-cigs (and shisha) in Jordan
December 3: Interview of Carmine Canino by Philippe Poirson about positive changes in Italy (in French)     Italy
December 1: About the new tobacco law project in Switzerland, by Philippe Poirson (in French)   Switzerland

How to tackle lung cancer in the EU? Any role for tobacco harm reduction?

Unfortunately, vaping and snusing seem completely dismissed (see below) during the European Cancer Forum that took place in Brussels on December 4  (program PDF):
Although it has only 9% of the global population, Europe accounts for 23.4% of the global cancer cases and 20.3% of the cancer deaths in general. Regarding lung cancer, in particular, IARC estimates that approximately 387,000 will die in 2018...

According to the findings of the study, which was funded by MSD, the Netherlands tops the list when it comes to the highest number of new lung cancer cases, contrary to Sweden, which has the lowest number.

As for the number of deaths caused by lung cancer, Poland comes first followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Greece. 
Now see how vaping was dismissed, with only Konstantinos on the defense:

E-Cigarettes

According to Economist Intelligence Unit’s Alan Lovess, who presented the guidelines of the study, there is a need of a new tobacco control strategy or at least a strategy to prevent or control e-cigarettes, that are making “smoking increasingly cool among young people.”

“I think this is like a wolf in sheep clothing,” the President of Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology Ioannis Boukovinas said. He also referred to a recent survey suggesting there was a 78% increase of e-cigarettes in high schools between 2017 and 2018 in Greece.

“It seems to be less harmful, but it’s not proven. The long-life side effects are unknown and we have to do research,” he said, highlighting the need for an intervention at the political level since these students could be lung cancer patients in the future.

Andriukaitis: E-cigarettes under thorough scrutiny, and not the way to stop smoking

Electronic cigarettes are currently known for being “less damaging” than traditional smoking but they still cause harm and people should not use them to cut smoking, EU health chief told EURACTIV.com.

Both the WHO and EU are skeptical toward electronic cigarettes. Particularly, the EU executive says there are other ways to stop smoking and in any case “it’s not a cool thing”, according to Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

On the other hand, advocates of the so-called “next generation products” insist they are much less harmful than smoking. They also refer to studies saying that these products can help smokers kick the habit completely.

For Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos, a research fellow at Onassis Cardiac Surgery in Greece, e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products could be an alternative to quit smoking, especially for people who are fully addicted.

“I think health professionals should have as a main goal for their patients, to quit smoking. Of course, the ideal option is to quit on your own; but the second best option is to quit with some help,” he noted.

“But the primary goal is to quit and for those smokers, who are unfortunately the majority, who cannot follow those options or they don’t want to be prescribed any medication, the physicians and healthcare professionals should recommend alternative nicotine products like electronic cigarettes,” Dr Farsalinos told EURACTIV at the E-cigarettes summit in London last month.

Juul introduces the Switch Network

On Monday December 3rd at 1.25 pm I received the email below. Did you? What do you think of it? How many people will join? To do what?
A brief visit to Juul's newsroom did not bring any additional info. Maybe their community page is a bit bigger but no word there either about this initiative. But just returning to the site I was directed to this page with a different link:
www.theswitchnetwork.com and bingo, see the screenshot above. Many unasked (yet) questions. Juul meets grassroots advocacy? Visiting their very long list of job openings did not bring any additional info. Maybe I missed the clues. 

INTRODUCING THE SWITCH NETWORK At JUUL Labs, we are on a mission to end cigarettes, the world’s #1 cause of preventable death. Today, we are proud to announce a new grassroots network to support this mission and invite adult smokers who have made the switch to access exclusive information and resources, advocate for responsible policies, and encourage friends to join them. Together we can improve lives of the world’s one billion adult smokers. Over a million adult smokers have already made the switch. Become a part of the grassroots network that will help ensure millions more can do the same.

Picture of lung cancer surgery scar as warning on packs in France in 2018 and a picture used in 1994 in an advocacy campaign

Above is one of the pictorial warnings now posted on cigarette packs. I discovered this one on a pack that had been left on the pavement. It immediately brought me back 24 years, in 1994: look below at the picture of the surgery scar of a lung cancer patient I used while leading the French National Committee for Tobacco Control in April 1994 in a campaign to defend the Loi Evin, the 1991 Tobacco Control Act that was then under attack. I also posted the text that was a the back of this card (all in French of course). The scars are not on the same side of the back and the 1994 one is more personal showing the face of the patient (who had agreed for us to use it). Haunting. I spoke with a few smokers. They know of all the pictorial warnings and they avoid some they find especially disturbing (about mouth cancer, about an amputated leg) but often they hide them under a cover. When I bought the pack, the tobacconist offered to sell me one.

Women in France during the mois sans tabac: trying in higher number to quit

It's in French. This video posted on Facebook by Je ne fume plus and Addictaide, with as guest the professor Albert Hirsch. Don't click on the arrow on the image below. Use the link above in red. The problem is the official site Tabac Info Service does not even mention vaping!! What gives?

Project unthinkable, a book by Derek Yach is now available

Derek Yach is the guy who made a deal with the devil (aka Philip Morris International): they would fund his Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, $80 million per year for 12 years, to promote safer nicotine delivery products than the traditional combustible cigarettes. Of course, any type of deal involving Philip Morris is unthinkable and unacceptable for the people and main organizations devoted to tobacco control. Read the book for details. Never mind that millions of ex-smokers say they have been able to quit thanks to e-cigarettes. They are only "anecdotal evidence", no proof at all there is anything interesting for public health in vaping. Better demonize those nicotine addicts and eventually prohibit everything e-cig but for the good old cigarettes. Derek admits he did not show much empathy for smokers in the first phase of his career as a tobacco control advocate: neither did I. But at the time there was very little available to help smokers to quit and we did demonize nicotine. The nicotine patches, gums, sprays did not help much while e-cigs (and snus) have convinced many, I have not yet figured why there is so much resistance and anger from people who should rejoice that smokers switch to a less dangerous habit. They immediately decided to ostracize the new Foundation instead of joining its board and being able that way to check what is done and influence how the millions PMI made from the smokers are used to help smokers quit. Is there a chance they'll have a change of heart before hell freezes? Meanwhile, I am definitely on the side of the ex-smokers who vape.

Kids read propaganda against flavors in vaping products

It is in Marin county (California) as recorded and posted on twitter by Stefan Didak. The kids belong to the group Children for change. From the speech:
"Vaping can lead to other drugs or alcohol addictions such as cigarette smoking, heroine and more. Vaping can lead to poor decisions such as going homeless, dropping out of school, child abuse, going broke, and more."
What is the adequate response?

A TC podcast with Stanford's Robert Jackler about/against Juul and a pro-nicotine video

A TC podcast from BMJ Talk medicine
In this 15 minute podcast Becky Freeman, new media editor for Tobacco Control journal, talks to Robert K. Jackler, MD, from Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising at Stanford University. They discuss his recently published paper "JUUL and Other Stealth Vaporizers: Hiding the Habit from Parents and Teachers".

Read the full article on the Tobacco Control website:
tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early…l-2018-054455

See the pro-nicotine video by Brent Stafford of RegulatorWatch and Helen Redmond 

Cancer warning on every cigarette? Canada is considering it.

Click here for details.

Should Juul comment when contacted by a Bloomberg's journalist?

In this article published by Boomberg on November 1, the journalist reports that Juul's founders 'declined to comment". Is this the right strategy? Someone thought it could be they want to keep a low profile while the FDA investigation is underway. But they did take part not long ago in a TV segment aired October 3 on NBC News. True on October 29, the editorial board of Bloomberg published an opinion titled The FDA wakes up to the danger of e-cigarettes that was extremely negative, very much in tune with Mike Bloomberg's personal position. What about the adults who sue Juul products? Shouldn't they have a say? I don't recall that they were asked for comments.

They quit smoking using flavored vapor: great pictures that say it all

The Californian vaping advocacy group Not Blowing Smoke has collected a bunch of pictures of vapers for its campaign "We quit smoking using flavored vapor". Even if the pictures are self-explanatory, why they did it deserves to be quoted in full:
Millions of Americans have successfully quit the deadly habit of smoking by switching to electronic cigarettes and vapor products, which have been scientifically proven to be at least 95% less harmful. Tobacco control ideology and its activists will have you believe millions of people are merely “anecdotal evidence”. These former smokers are your parents, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, even your adult offspring. Yet government officials, ranging from the Senate and Congress all the way down to your local city council members and county supervisors along with extremely well big pharma funded tobacco control organizations are working around the clock to deny access to this life saving technology. Do they even realize that they are condemning all these people back into a deadly habit?

Lately, I have been brainstorming about the type of images that should be created to illustrate and support Tobacco Harm Reduction: I think those self-portraits would be a great way to start.

Is the notion of "current use" relevant?

Let us have a look at the way the results of the 2017 Youth Tobacco Survey in Connecticut are presented. First the article in the Hartford Business Journal of October 17:

"Under the latest survey, about 10 percent of freshmen and 20 percent of seniors said they currently use vapes. More than half of respondents said they used their devices for substances other than nicotine, including marijuana, hash oil, THC or THC wax."

Here is the table that aggregates the results under the notion of "current use":  "Note: Current use is defined as having used a product on 1 or more of the past 30 days."

This means putting together (as if it was the same behavior) having tried once or doing it several times everyday. Does that make sense? Why present the data that way when the questionnaire is much more detailed  (see here in pdf) 

Best sources of information

A work in progress

Latest news from Vapers.Org.UK you can subscribe to regularly (not always daily) receive a selection of news directly into your email box.  Produced by the New Nicotine Alliance.

Nicotine Science and Policy, Daily News Digest, by Harry Shapiro,

In French (you can use a translating tool)

Vapolitique, excellent blog by Philippe Poirson, based in Switzerland. Often reports about countries not covered in the English speaking news

Journalisme et santé publique, blog of Jean-Yves Nau where he often writes about e-cigs

What is The Truth?

I have just seen this message  (below) from The truth :(

that refers to this 'study" about initiation of traditional cigarette smoking after e-cig use... 

The first impression I get is that young people who used to be non-smokers but started vaping become regular smokers later. BUT the study is in fact about "initiation", did those 'initiated' smokers become regular smokers? It also looks like this study concerned "young adults" ie above 18 years old but the text used by Truth (fact 399!) does not refer to the age. The distortion/manipulation is subtle in that I think the unsuspecting reader will think any young user will become a life long smoker as I guess (maybe I am wrong) that  'start smoking cigarettes' expands to 'smoking regularly' (at least for me). I think the notion of 'initiation' or experimentation is blurry or unknown for many/most non specialists, for me it translates into they become life long smokers. But it does not seem the study corroborates that. I feel a bit upset by this type of messaging and there are many more proudly disseminated by The Truth. I wonder if there are regulations in the US about 'wrongful/lying advertising" (there used to be in France) and if some of those messages fall into that category?  Visiting their twitter account is quite depressing. 

. 

IF YOU VAPE YOU'RE 4X MORE LIKELY TO START SMOKING CIGARETTES

Testimonies of ex-smokers who switched to e-cigs dismissed in favor of prohibition

The Hong Kong government announced the prohibition of e-cigs. This ex-smoker explains how e-cigs helped him quit combustibles. His testimony and I guess many in the same vein were ignored or dismissed by the government. The arguments in favor of prohibition to 'protect the kids", advanced by "public health officials" won the day. How to reverse this?

When the New York Times reports about COP8

Sheila Kaplan wrote for the New York Times a long article about what happened at COP8. She mentions "many delegates interviewed at the convention' but she omits to say that the press (including herself) was evicted from the said convention at the very beginning when a proposal by the Canadian delegation to have the sessions open to the press and interested observers was voted down in favor of a complete closed doors policy, except for two press conferences. Apparently, she took no offense at being evicted that way and did not consider it important enough to be shared with the readers of the NYT. The unintended consequence of this lack of access seems to be that she reported a lot about the events organized by big tobacco companies outside of the conference center. I found regrettable that she did not devote more than a few lines (and no link) to the long document No fire, no smoke, the global state of tobacco harm reduction, to sort of dismiss it right away as some sort of PR production paid by Philip Morris:
"A group of people stood outside the convention hall handing out a glossy report titled “No Fire, No Smoke: Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction.” It was written by Knowledge-Action-Change, an organization that receives funding from the Philip Morris Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. Its message: There is “a third way beyond quit or die.”
I suggest that you watch on YouTube the report given by the vaper advocates of INNCO who were also prevented to attend. They take very seriously the possibility to access e-cigs and other alternate nicotine delivery tools because they do believe, from personal experience, they can improve their health and maybe save their lives by providing them with a way to quit smoking combustibles. 
I have asked Health Canada for the text of the proposal by the Canadian delegation to have the sessions open to the media and the public and the arguments presented to refuse it.
My kudos to them for being the only ones to stand up for transparency and freedom of information, freedom of the press, guaranteed by the article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see the interpretation by UNESCO). The World Health Organization seems to have a very different conception of the right to free information.

A selection of documentaries and videos about e-cigarettes/vaping

I have collected below links to a few of the videos  and films I found the most instructive (still a work in progress)
Last updated January 9, 2019
Thank you for sharing links of videos you think are worth watching

January 9, 2019: Addictions au tabac et à l'alcool, rapport du CESE (4.51 minutes)

January 8, 2019: "Make the switch"  3 videos (60 seconds) for the new ad campaign by Juul

December 28, 2018 Smoking v Vaping (2.41 minutes) video by Public Health England comparing residues from one-month smoking and vaping

October 8, CBS News (10 minutes) Clearing the air: controversy and cautious hope about vaping
link to the text

October 4, 2018, INNCO members discuss COP8 (4 segments on YouTube)
3 are 11 minutes long, the last one is 3 minutes.
INNCO = International Network of Nicotine Consumers Organisations

October 3, 2018  NBC News, THINK program about Juul with Andrew Stern
includes interview of David Abrams

September 23, 2018  Seduction of smoking Are e-cigarettes less harmful  52 minutes, documentary by Peter Taylor who was the reporter in the 1976 classic Death in the West (Link for watching Death in the West).

In the Seduction of smoking, see at 15min25 the interview of Dr John Ashcroft MD who opened a vapeshop
Another link  

CNN September 18, 2018
E-cigarette warnings to arrive in high school bathrooms nationwide   (2.34 minutes)
(same school, no interview of students)

August 21, 2018  Video clip from the Health Ministry of Mexico (in spanish)  (30 seconds)
The video claims that “e-cigarettes harm and kill”, that the vapor releases nicotine which affects those surrounding us and causes cancer, strokes and "kills at an early age” just as tobacco.  This video is broadcast in the radio every 15 or 30 minutes, also in national TV. Millions of ordinary Mexicans are watching this

PBS Newshour, July 17, 2018 Educators worry
Jonathan Law High School in CT
(no real interview of students)

July 7, 2018 Mayo Clinic Radio (regular program of 9 minutes) segment about Dangers of e-cigarettes posted on YouTube (see also the one minute format on March 12, 2018)

May 6, 2018, Inspiring inspiring of Dr Mark Tyndall in Vancouver (BC Center for disease control), here (look at 2.30 and then 3.35 where he says people with HIV die from their smoking and 5.25 and 6.15 where he says he congratulates people he sees vaping in the street!) by Brent Stafford of Regulator Watch.com  (here the link to vimeo) producer of Reg Watch

March 12, 2018, Mayo Clinic Minute, Is vaping a gateway to smoking? (An interesting format but bad content)

December 7, 2017 Heart surgeon says vaping is safer, Gopal Bhatnagar is interviewed (20 minutes) by Brent Stafford of Regulator Watch
April 21, 2017 Testimony of Bill Godshall in Hartland WI about FDA regulation of e-cigs
On YouTube (41 minutes)

May 8, 2017 Short (5 minutes) animated video What's wrong with e-cigarettes? narrated by Caroline Kitchens (of R Street) for Prager U. The most viewed (I think) on YouTube. Very well done.

October 21, 2016. E-cigarettes, Welcome Back Big Tobacco (40 minutes), produced by The Fifth Estate, CBC program

September 28, 2016  Beyond the cloud
A documentary about vaping (65 minutes)  (Mostly in French but with English subtitles)

May 11, 2016  A billion lives,
Documentary by Aaron Biebert, $3,49 for rent  (95 minutes)

FCA bulletins from COP8

Find below the links to the daily bulletins produced by FCA during COP8 (pdf format) with a few comments from my part. Thanks a lot to FCA for communicating about what happened.

---

Day 1 - October 1st
I am shocked by the decision to prevent the media to 'observe' the sessions because their presence could relay the influence of the tobacco industry (see page 3 with a headline about... transparency!  ). How could just being present constitute an undue influence? Isn't that Orwellian that sessions closed to the public and the media are qualified as 'open' in the COP vocabulary?
Day 2 - October 2nd
See page 5 a short analysis of tobacco control programs in Africa. I'll keep point 3: "Secure sustainable domestic financing for tobacco control". I remember when the European Bureau of the WHO had suggested that 1% of tobacco taxes be affected to tobacco control. Can you look up what the budgets are? Are those data even collected?
Laurent Huber on page 6 writes about a human right to health. How does he reconcile this position with prohibiting smokers who want to switch from combustibles to electronic cigarettes, the right to do so?
On page 8, a report about how BAT opposes tobacco control legislation in Kenya in court and also by inviting legislators in luxurious hotels although apparently, this was not enough to prevent a majority of them to pass a new law. The article also reminds us that received an award as 'best employer' in Kenya.
Day 3 - October 3rd
This issue starts with the question 'Have you seen this delegate?" It implies that some delegates, in fact, represent the interest of the tobacco industry. Unfortunately, the article does not provide any name of any delegate or any country. Maybe if the media were allowed to report about what is happening they would be able to be a bit more precise? They are a bit on page 8 of the Day 4 Bulletin where the dirty ashtray is awarded to Guatemala and Honduras for attempting to derail the implementation of the FCTC.
On page 4, Mark Hurley of CTFK, presents the creation of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World as 'Big Tobacco latest Trick". In the end, he gives a link to the CTFK's page devoted to the Foundation after having criticized the report Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction. If you have questions about the Foundation or suggestions, why don't you send them to be discussed at the stakeholders meeting planned in London on November 13?
Day 4 - October 4
On page 1, Cassandra Morris presents the debate about Electronic cigarettes as 'inconclusive'. Her recommandation is to stop spending time on this issue. Is that realistic?
"Given that Parties — along with researchers, civil society, and policy makers — have staunchly held but divergent views, we recommend that Parties should refrain from engaging in lengthy and inconclusive discussion."
On page 5, an article about the importance of taking into account gender in tobacco control in Africa (in French). and on page 6, thoughts about how to help tobacco farmers switch to other crops.
Day 5 - October 5
On page 2 a piece about article 14 and offering help to quit. I think it's the only time I see cessation mentioned. Unfortunately "new" alternative to combustibles to deliver nicotine are not mentioned.

On page 8, an article about Africa and tobacco taxes.