Renewed calls are being made for the term ‘electronic cigarette’ to be replaced by ‘vaporiser; or another word or phrase that emphasises ‘vaping’ rather than ‘cigarette’.
According to a story by Diane Caruana at vapingpost.com, a piece published by New Nicotine Alliance Australia (NNA AU) describes how, during a meeting with tobacco harm reduction advocates, one of the topics raised was the use of the word e-cigarette, the term most commonly used to describe a device that has helped millions successfully quit combustible cigarettes.
Studies have indicated that these products are significantly less risky to use than are combustible cigarettes, and yet a large portion of the public remains confused and misinformed about their relative safety.
Some harm reduction experts believe that the ‘cigarette’ name adds fuel to this confusion.
“So, I ask all to drop the word e-cigarette, and start using vape or vaporiser, as it really seems to be the most logical alternative,” the NNA’s Charles Yates was quoted as saying
Meanwhile, the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA) in October posted a blog on the same idea. ‘It is time to consider replacing the terms “e-cigarette” and “electronic cigarette” with something more appropriate,’ the ATHRA was quoted as saying. ‘These labels link a low-risk life-saving technology to a toxic and deadly product and are muddying the already murky waters of the tobacco harm reduction debate.’
It is interesting to note in this respect that an all-party parliamentary group in the UK, this year changed its name from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for E-Cigarettes to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping.
This debate, along with that questioning whether the nicotine industry should be associated with the tobacco industry, has been going on since electronic cigarettes first appeared on the scene.
That it has not been resolved is an indication that not everyone agrees that the ‘cigarette’ association is entirely negative. Some people suggest, for instance, that the word ‘cigarette’ within the term ‘electronic cigarette’ helps smokers realize that electronic cigarettes are aimed at them and are the sort of product that they might switch to easily.
Category: Harm Reduction
What's in a name?
Scholarships on offer
Knowledge•Action•Change (KAC), the organization behind the Global Nicotine Forum (GNF) held annually in Poland, has launched its 2nd Global Scholarship program focused on tobacco harm reduction.
The program is said to be aimed at building research capacity in the field of tobacco harm reduction; developing and promoting the evidence base; raising awareness of research and its implications for public health policy; enabling consumers to make more informed personal health choices; and improving the implementation and understanding of tobacco harm reduction.
In a note posted on its website, KAC said that recent years had seen advances in the scientific understanding of products used for tobacco harm reduction, including laboratory-based and clinical studies of their effects and safety, behavioural studies of how and why they are used in different populations and contexts, epidemiological studies into patterns of use, and the relationship between the use of these products and changes in tobacco smoking. ‘There is an increasing understanding of the range of appropriate and effective evidence-based regulation and standards for harm reduction products, and of harm reduction strategies and policies,’ the note said.
‘However, on a global basis scientific capacity for research on tobacco harm reduction and related products is not evenly distributed, and there is considerable variation in the use of evidence to establish effective and appropriate public health policies.
‘In addition, despite there being strong evidence for the effectiveness of a tobacco harm reduction approach, public understanding of the evidence base and its implications for both policy and personal health choices is limited.
‘This scholarship program aims to redress this imbalance. We expect proposals to be modest but achievable: they will be assessed for their potential significance in advancing the field.’
KAC said it wanted people to learn from GFN and to have the opportunity to implement this learning in their home countries.
‘There will be 20 scholarships for the year, with funds available to support agreed projects up to the value of $10,000.
‘The scholarships are a K•A•C initiative funded by a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW).
‘The programme was independently designed by and is run by K•A•C.
‘Some projects may be included in future versions of the KAC publication The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction.’
The 2018 report, No Fire, No Smoke: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, is due to be launched in the UK at the House of Commons on December 18.Vaping's double benefit
Vaping is being promoted in Malaysia as an aid to weight loss, according to a story in The Star.
The principal investigator of the National E-cigarette Survey (NECS) 2016, associate professor Dr. Mohamad Haniki Nik Mohamed, was quoted as saying that vaping was being touted as an appetite suppressant.
Vaping devices were being promoted as inhalation weight management aids and were clearly targeted at women and young girls, he said.
The Star said that a Google search had shown that online stores were promoting electronic cigarettes with fruit, green tea, and plant extracts, purportedly containing vitamin and weight control properties.
Meanwhile, a member of the Universiti Malaya’s Nicotine Addiction Research & Collaboration Group (NARCC), Dr. Nur Amani Natasha Ahmad Tajuddin, said the amount of these “supposedly beneficial” extracts were too little to be of use.
“What’s the percentage of green tea extract in the liquid?
“How much green tea does your body need for it to have an impact?
“These liquids [presumably e-liquids] contain more harmful chemicals than anything,” she said, adding that vaping nicotine killed taste buds and suppressed appetite but that there was no proof that it was safe.
Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge behavior and health research unit director Professor Dame Theresa Marteau said some flavors and marketing strategies were aimed at those with weight issues.
“If someone’s smoking because of weight concerns, and they want to stop, they’d be better off vaping,” she said.
“If vaping is attracting them because it’s highlighting the fact that you can smoke chocolate rather than eat chocolate, that may not be a bad thing although I wouldn’t recommend it.”
According to an article in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research Journal last year, vapers were claiming that vaping helped them to control weight gain after they stopped smoking.Expanding vapor
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said on Friday that it was expanding its membership after another successful year representing the industry.
In a press note, the UKVIA, which has been in operation for three years, said it was being joined by UK-based ECig-Direct and Oxford Vapours, and its first overseas-based members, SMOK, Innokin and FlavorIQ.
Founded in 2008, ECig-Direct is a UK supplier of vaping devices and e-liquids, while Oxford Vapours offers e-liquids, vaping devices and spares to customers in the UK and Scandinavia through its retail stores and online service.
SMOK and Innokin, which are the first China-based members to join the UKVIA, are expected to bring an extensive knowledge of the global vaping market to the Association.
Formed in 2010, SMOK is a leading brand of e-cigarette manufacturer Shenzhen IVPS Technology, which is said to sell to its 80 million customers in 50 countries its e-liquids and vaping devices.
Innokin is said to have designed and manufactured several internationally-recognised vaping products at its base in China. Its products are available in more than 5,000 Vape shops in the US, which are serviced from its customer headquarters in California.
FlavorIQ, which is said to be one of Europe’s leading e-liquid suppliers, is joining the UKVIA as an associate member. The German manufacturer started in 2014 as a branch of Hertz Flavours, a key producer of tobacco flavors. Through this partnership, FlavorIQ can call on 60 years of experience in flavor design and brings this expertise to the e-cigarette market.
“As the leading trade body for the UK vaping market, we are delighted to welcome some of the most renowned vaping brands as members to the Association,” a UKVIA spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“The UKVIA has been working on the public health and policy frontlines for the industry with fantastic progress.
“We now look forward to working with new national and international members to achieve a real impact in harm reduction for smokers in the UK and worldwide.”Okay, just a puff
While vapers may suffer the occasional smoking lapse, they don’t necessarily see such a lapse as ‘game over’ for their quit attempt, and it doesn’t have to lead to a full relapse, according to a story at medicalxpress.com describing new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.
The research findings, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, suggest that vaping encourages not just smoking cessation, but long-term relapse prevention.
Lead researcher, Dr. Caitlin Notley, of the UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said electronic cigarettes were the most popular aid to quitting smoking in the UK, and that her research team had wanted to discover what happened when people who had switched to vaping lapsed back into smoking.
“In the past, a brief smoking lapse would almost always lead to a full relapse, and people would usually feel like a failure for slipping up,” said Notley. “But this was before people started switching to vaping.
“The difference is that, for some vapers, the odd cigarette was thought of as being ‘allowed’. For others, an unintentional cigarette made them even more determined to maintain abstinence in future.
“Either way, it didn’t necessarily lead to a full relapse back into smoking…
“Because vaping is a more pleasurable alternative, our research found that a full relapse into smoking isn’t inevitable when people find themselves having the odd cigarette.
“There has been a lot of theorising around the process of smoking relapse after quit attempts. But all of these date back to pre-vaping times. This fresh evidence makes us question the usefulness of that understanding now that so many people are choosing to switch to vaping.
“For ex-smokers, vaping offers a pleasurable, social and psychological substitute to cigarettes – and it powerfully alters the threat of relapse. The old ‘not a puff’ advice may need revisiting.”Altria and JUUL in talks
The Altria Group is in talks to take a minority stake of 20-40 percent in the electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs, according to a Reuters story by Harry Brumpton and Chris Kirkham, quoting ‘people familiar with the matter’.
The companies were said to have declined to comment.
Big tobacco companies, including Altria, have been investing in e-cigarettes as US smoking rates have declined, but their products have lost significant market share during the past year as Juul’s popularity has surged.
The sources said the talks had been ongoing during the past few months, and that the size of the stake could change.
Additionally, one source said the talks could still fall apart because of the many shareholders and regulators involved.
But such a deal was said to provide the opportunity for Juul to continue to grow with reduced risk, and without losing control of the company.
Meanwhile, Bonnie Herzog, MD Equity Research at Wells Fargo Securities said she viewed the rumors that Altria was looking to take a significant minority stake in JUUL very positively.
But Matthew L. Myers, president, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement that the possible Juul-Atria partnership underscored the need for effective Food and Drug Administration regulation of e-cigarettes and all tobacco products to stop tobacco companies from reversing decades of progress and addicting another generation of kids.Smoking rate rise in Canada
Health Canada is looking for outside experts to review its tobacco control strategy – a federal program that seems to have hit a wall after years of helping to drive down smoking rates, according to a story by John Paul Tasker for CBC News.
Statistics Canada data show that 16 per cent of Canadians aged 25 and older smoked tobacco in 2017, up from 13 percent in 2016.
Tasker reported that, according to a posting on Merx, a website used by Ottawa to list outstanding government tenders, Health Canada is asking contractors to prepare a report on the ‘value for money’ of the longstanding, multi-million-dollar program that has sought to reduce the number of smokers in Canada. The review would look back at how well the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy (FTCS) performed between 2001 and 2017.
But David Hammond of the University of Waterloo, one of Canada’s foremost experts on tobacco controls, said the proposed historical review should take a backseat to an urgently needed, fundamental “rethink” of the current tobacco control program.
Hammond said there had been some substantial changes in the nicotine market since the FTCS was launched, with the recent legalization of electronic cigarettes and the introduction of more sophisticated vaping devices.
The federal government, Hammond said, could go beyond the standardized tobacco-packaging regulations it was set to introduce and pursue more restrictions on where cigarettes could be sold.
And Ottawa was urged to pursue new regulatory controls over cigarettes. “Where we’ve struggled is on the product side,” said Hammond. “We’re really good at telling people not to smoke. We’re pretty good at telling them where not to smoke.
“We’re not great at actually helping them to quit.
Where we’ve really dropped the ball is in dealing with the product. We’ve done nothing to make cigarettes less harmful or addictive.”
He suggested Ottawa could do more to “incentivize people to get off smoke” by championing e-cigarettes and vaping products as safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes. “We have to get off smoke.”Winking in the dark
Philip Morris International believes that South Africa’s proposed tobacco regulations will create an impediment to its plan to phase out its cigarettes in favor of less risky alternative products, according to a story by Nick Hedley at businesslive.co.za.
PMI has said that, ultimately, it wants to replace all its cigarettes with smoke-free alternative products such as electronic cigarettes and heat not burn tobacco products.
However, the company said if the proposed Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill went ahead in its current form, it would restrict the communication and marketing of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and products such as IQOS.
The bill includes also provisions that would require tobacco products to be sold in standardized packaging and that would ban point-of-sale advertising and displays.
Marcelo Nico, Philip Morris’s MD for Southern Africa, was quoted as saying that the bill’s provisions could mean that consumers never got to know about new-generation products such as IQOS, which produce “90 percent less of the dangerous components” produced by traditional, combustible cigarettes.
“What we encourage government to do, and it’s in the submissions we made on the draft bill, is to separate the combustion burning of tobacco versus smokeless products like IQOS – they should be treated differently because this is part of the solution.”
The seven-million smokers in SA “should be given an alternative”, Nico told Business Day, adding that “progressive governments” in other countries had focused their regulations on harm reduction rather than blanket bans.Hybrid product launched
South Korean tobacco manufacturer KT&G on Monday unveiled what it described as its new heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco device, Lil Hybrid, the first HNB device that works by heating a liquid cartridge, according to a story in The Korea Herald.
“Our previous HNB tobacco devices – Lil Mini and Lil Plus – had received consumer feedback that the taste needs to be improved,” Lim Wang-seob, chief of the company’s product innovation division, was quoted as saying. “That’s why we came up with our exclusive and new platform called Lil Hybrid.”
Lil Hybrid uses both a detachable liquid cartridge and an HNB-type stick, which has the brand name Miix. The liquid cartridge and Miix are compatible only with Lil Hybrid.
Miix is available in three different tastes, Miix Presso, Miix Mix and Miix Ice, while the liquid cartridges do not contain flavorings.
KT&G said that previous HNB tobacco devices worked by directly heating a tobacco stick to about 315 Celsius, but that Lil Hybrid heated the liquid cartridge to about 160 degrees.
Meanwhile, Lim was quoted as saying that, according to safety and health-risk tests conducted by a third-party organization, the health risks of Lil Hybrid were less than those of the company’s previous models.
In July, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety published the results of tests that it claimed had found HNB tobacco products to be equally, if not more harmful than traditional cigarettes. A court case has been launched to force it to disclose its test methodologies.
The Korean government recently decided to require, from December, that HNB products carry the same graphic warning images as combustible-tobacco products.Monitoring developments
The EU Commission has said it does not undertake educational awareness-raising campaigns on the toxicity of e-liquids and flavourings, and that it does not foresee its undertaking such activities.
The Commission was replying to questions posed by a Spanish member of the EU Parliament.
In a preamble to three questions, José Blanco López said the use of refillable e-cigarettes and the potential exposure to liquids from e-cigarettes that contained high concentrations of nicotine posed risks to public health.
Twenty percent of people aged between 14 and 18 had tried this ‘new system’.
‘The majority of them do not know that it contains nicotine and many others take another type of drug due to the different way that they use e-cigarettes, according to the latest data from the Spanish National Committee for Preventing Tobacco Addiction,’ he said.
‘In accordance with European regulations in this area, namely Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, Directive 2014/40/EU and Report COM (2016) 269 final, can the Commission say:
1) ‘Is it considering the possibility of carrying out a greater number of investigations on certain aspects of e-cigarettes which apply to refillable models, such as emissions checks and studies on the safety level of the flavouring substances and their blends?
2) ‘Does it intend to raise standards for labeling?
3) ‘Does it intend to launch informative and educational awareness-raising campaigns on the toxicity of liquids and flavouring substances?’
In reply, the Commission said it had taken note of the figures from the Spanish National Committee for Preventing Tobacco Addiction presented by the MEP.
‘The Tobacco Products Directive lays down rules for tobacco and related products placed on the EU market,’ it said. ‘Article 20 of the Directive introduces a regulatory framework for electronic cigarettes with a focus on safety, quality, consumer protection and information as well as data collection.
‘The Directive does not however harmonise all aspects of electronic cigarettes or refill containers (e.g. rules on flavours and nicotine-free refill liquids are of national competence).
‘The Commission continuously monitors developments related to e-cigarettes, including emerging scientific evidence. This information will contribute to the implementation report on the Tobacco Products Directive that the Commission is required to submit in 2021, in line with Article 28(1) of the Directive. The Commission facilitates information exchanges and best practices, assessment of data and is working with member states for example in the Expert Group on Tobacco Policy, Subgroup on Electronic Cigarettes and in the context of a Joint Action on Tobacco Control.
‘The Commission does not currently undertake educational awareness-raising campaigns and does not foresee activity in this area.’
