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.