Category: Science

  • Keeping an open mind

    Keeping an open mind

    The Philippines House of Representatives is urging that vaping be included in the country’s tobacco control strategy, according to a story by Jim McDonald at vaping360.com.
    The legislative body has issued a resolution asking the health department to promote tobacco harm reduction.
    The resolution, authored by Representatives Anthony Bravo and Jose Tejada, references the experience in the UK, where public health authorities have promoted vaping as a safer alternative for cigarette smokers.
    McDonald said that, according to the Manila Standard, the lawmakers specifically cited the landmark reports from Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians.
    He added that a resolution did not amount to a law and wasn’t binding on the regulators. It was a recommendation by the legislature that the department of health regulate vapes without banning them.
    The Vapers Philippines president Peter Paul Dator reportedly told the Standard that his organization thanked the legislators for keeping an open mind to the growing body of scientific evidence supporting e-cigarettes as a significantly less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. “We urge the [Department of Health] to do the same and help save lives,” he added.

  • When ultra-fine is not fine

    When ultra-fine is not fine

    The European Commission has said that it is carrying out a fitness check of its two EU Ambient Air Quality directives to determine by next year whether they are ‘fit for purpose’.
    The Commission was responding to a question From a French member of the European Parliament inspired by reports of poor air quality at Étang de Berre, which is in the south of France and which comprises one of the largest industrial areas in Europe, with more than 200 factories.
    ‘It turns out that, in 2010, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance highlighted an excessive number of hospitalizations for cardiovascular conditions and for multiple illnesses west of Étang de Berre,’ Mélin said in a preamble to her question.
    ‘In January 2017, new information emerged from the community-based participatory environmental health survey (CBPEH), which noted the high likelihood of a link “between the illnesses and industrial pollution”.
    ‘However, in 2011, the Eco-citizen Institute launched campaigns to measure the air quality, which resulted in it noting that the air around the industrial area “was made up of 80 percent ultra-fine particulate matter and [that] the chemical composition of the air pollutants was extremely complex”.
    ‘Ultra-fine particulate matter is the most dangerous for our health because it gets deep into our bodies.
    ‘However, if Air Paca [a non-profit association that manages the air quality survey network in south-eastern France’s Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region] does not measure it, it is because European legislation does not require member states to measure the levels of ultra-fine particulate matter.
    ‘Therefore, we would like to know whether the Commission wishes to encourage member states to measure the levels of ultra-fine particulate matter in order to assess toxicity of the air in industrial areas in more detail.’
    In response, the Commission said that when the World Health Organization published its latest Air Quality Guidelines in 2006, it had concluded that, while there was considerable toxicological evidence of potential detrimental effects of ultra-fine (UF) particles on human health, the existing body of epidemiological evidence was insufficient to reach a conclusion on the exposure–response relationship of UF particles. ‘Therefore, no recommendations were provided at that time as to guideline concentrations of UF particles,’ the Commission said in its written reply.
    ‘The Ambient Air Quality directives, which were last revised in 2008, do not require the assessment of air quality with respect to ultrafine particles.
    ‘The Commission is carrying out a fitness check of the two EU Ambient Air Quality directives, which will evaluate whether these two complementary directives are “fit for purpose” by assessing the overall performance of this regulatory framework with respect to its policy objectives.
    ‘The fitness check covers all provisions of the two EU Ambient Air Quality directives. In particular, it will include an assessment of the extent to which the directives continue addressing the most pressing air pollutants and set meaningful air quality standards to protect human health and ecosystems in accordance with the evolving scientific understanding.
    ‘The findings of the fitness check will be used to inform further reflections on whether the directives continue to provide the appropriate legislative framework to ensure protection from adverse impacts on, and risks to, human health and the environment.
    ‘The Commission expects to conclude this fitness check in 2019.’

  • Harm reduction within reach

    Harm reduction within reach

    Members of parliament have warned the UK Government that misconceptions about electronic cigarettes mean that it is missing an opportunity to tackle a major cause of death.
    In a press note issued today alongside its report, E-cigarettes, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee said that these products, estimated to be 95 percent less harmful than conventional cigarettes, were too often being overlooked as a stop-smoking tool by the National Health Service (NHS).
    ‘Regulations should be relaxed relating to e-cigarettes’ licensing, prescribing and advertising of their health benefits,’ the note said. ‘Their level of taxation and use in public places must be reconsidered.’
    In what will be seen by many as one of its most important interventions, the Committee said that it believed the risk for smokers of continuing to use conventional cigarettes was greater than the uncertainty over the long-term use of e-cigarettes. ‘To gather independent health-related evidence on e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products, the Committee is calling on the Government to support a long-term research programme overseen by Public Health England and the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment,’ the note said. ‘The Government should make its research available to the public and to health professionals.’
    The chair of the Committee, Norman Lamb MP (pictured in 2017), said smoking remained a national health crisis and the Government should be considering innovative ways of reducing the smoking rate. “E-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, but current policy and regulations do not sufficiently reflect this and businesses, transport providers and public places should stop viewing conventional and e-cigarettes as one and the same,” he said. “There is no public health rationale for doing so.
    “Concerns that e-cigarettes could be a gateway to conventional smoking, including for young non-smokers, have not materialised. If used correctly, e-cigarettes could be a key weapon in the NHS’s stop smoking arsenal.”
    The Committee is recommending that:

    • ‘The Government, the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and the e-cigarette industry should review how approval systems for stop smoking therapies could be streamlined should e-cigarette manufacturers put forward a product for medical licensing.
    • ‘There should be a wider debate on how e-cigarettes are to be dealt with in our public places, to help arrive at a solution which at least starts from the evidence rather than misconceptions about their health impacts.
    • ‘The Government should continue to annually review the evidence on the health effects of e-cigarettes and extend that review to heat-not-burn products. Further it should support a long-term research programme overseen by Public Health England and the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment with an online hub making evidence available to the public and health professionals.
    • ‘The limit on the strength of refills should be reviewed as heavy smokers may be put off persisting with them — and the restriction on tank size does not appear to be founded on scientific evidence and should therefore urgently be reviewed.
    • ‘The prohibition on making claims for the relative health benefits of stopping smoking and using e-cigarettes instead has prevented manufacturers informing smokers of the potential benefits and should be reviewed to identify scope for change post-Brexit.
    • ‘There should be a shift to a more risk-proportionate regulatory environment; where regulations, advertising rules and tax duties reflect the evidence of the relative harms of the various e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn and tobacco products available.
    • ‘NHS England should set a policy of mental health facilities allowing e-cigarette use by patients unless trusts can demonstrate evidence-based reasons for not doing so.
    • ‘The Government should review the evidence supporting the current ban on snus as part of a wider move towards a more risk aware regulatory framework for tobacco and nicotine products.’

    In welcoming the report, the UK’s New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) said that it contained several evidence-based policy proposals that would positively transform the way vaping was viewed by businesses, institutions and the public alike.
    It said that it ‘warmly welcomes this report for its clear and unequivocal message that e-cigarettes and other alternative nicotine products are far safer than combustible tobacco and should be treated as such’.
    “E-cigarettes are a proven safer alternative to smoking and the UK boasts 1.5 million former smokers who have converted from combustible tobacco to exclusively vaping instead,” said Sarah Jakes, the NNA chair. “The Science and Technology Committee has wisely recognised that misconceptions about e-cigarettes are threatening further progress in encouraging their use by smokers who choose to quit.
    “We welcome the Committee’s call for a root and branch review of how risk-reduced products are treated by businesses, institutions and government itself. The report is a beacon of enlightenment in an area of public health which is often burdened by dogma and outdated thinking towards the use of nicotine…”
    Jakes said also that there was a lot of confusion about e-cigarettes among the public, health institutions and businesses; so the report was timely and could have hugely positive implications for public health if its recommendations were implemented in full.
    “Sir Norman’s Committee has done an excellent job of peering through the mist of misunderstanding surrounding e-cigarettes and its policy proposals can go a long way to dispel the – often deliberately fabricated – misconceptions that are deterring many thousands of smokers from switching,” she said. “We would urge the government to read the Committee’s findings carefully and act on them without delay”
    Commenting on the report, the Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said that, following an extensive inquiry into e-cigarettes, the Committee had concluded that the government was missing significant opportunities to tackle UK smoking rates.
    The UKVIA highlighted that the Committee had urged the government to consider tax breaks for vaping products; to allow wider use of vaping in public places; and to create a streamlined route to medically licenced vaping products.
    It pointed out too that the report called on the government to reconsider the regulations around e-cigarette packaging and advertising. ‘Advertising rules currently prevent the industry from making health claims comparing vaping to smoking,’ said the UKVIA. ‘The Committee believes this is stopping UK smokers (almost seven million), from making informed decisions about switching to vaping …’
    The report said also that restrictions on nicotine strength, tank size and bottles was not founded on scientific evidence and should be urgently reviewed.
    “The Science and Technology Committee report is a ringing endorsement of vaping’s public health potential,” said John Dunne, who appeared before the Committee on behalf of the UKVIA.
    “They are absolutely right that advertising restrictions are preventing smokers from hearing the truth. More and more people wrongly believe vaping to be more harmful or as harmful as smoking. This is a direct consequence of advertising restrictions that prevent the industry from telling smokers that vaping is 95 percent less harmful. If health bodies can say it, why can’t we?
    “The industry is pleased to see the Committee recognise the nonsensical packaging and nicotine strength regulations, that only hamper vaping’s potential appeal to smokers looking for an alternative.”

  • Weight-gain secondary

    Weight-gain secondary

    Writing for HealthDay News, Dennis Thompson said yesterday there was good news and bad news for smokers who worried about packing on extra pounds when they tried to quit.
    According to a new study, quitters who gained a lot of weight faced a higher short-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
    But the health benefits of quitting were so potent among the former smokers who took part in the study that they all experienced a substantial decrease in their risk of early death, no matter how much weight they gained.
    People who gained more than 22 pounds after quitting had a 59 percent increased risk of developing diabetes, according to the report published on August 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
    But quitters who gained that much weight also experienced a 50 percent decline in their overall risk of early death and a 67 percent drop in their risk of dying from heart disease.
    But smokers who kept their weight gain to a minimum while quitting were best off, said senior researcher Dr. Qi Sun, an associate professor of nutrition with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
    Meanwhile, Dr. Steven Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study, said the results showed just how devastating smoking was to a person’s health.
    “The damage from smoking is so overwhelming that it just beats everything else,” he said. “Nothing comes close to being so good for your health as stopping smoking.”

  • Newsletter published

    Newsletter published

    The CORESTA (Co-operation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) Secretariat has advised that the organization’s latest newsletter has been published and is available for download at the CORESTA website.
    Issue 51 of the newsletter includes:

    • Information on the October 2018 CORESTA Congress in Kunming, China, including details about the venue, the program, the General Assembly and elections, and a special meeting on heated-tobacco products.
    • Descriptions of the five workshops to be held during the Congress.
    • Reports by the organization’s sub-Groups on Physical Test Methods and Cigar Smoking Methods.
    • Outlines of CORESTA presentations at external events.
    • A report on a visit to the Zimbabwe Tobacco Research Board’s Kutsaga Research Station.
    • Details on the launch of a new CORESTA project on sustainability
    • A report on the most recent CORESTA Scientific Commission and Board meetings held in June.
    • A list of recently-published CORESTA technical reports, guides and new projects launched.
    • Dates of upcoming CORESTA meetings.
  • Risk communication vital

    Comparative risk communication might encourage smokers to switch to lower-harm tobacco products, according to the results of a study by US researchers at the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
    The researchers found also that comparative risk messages with more negative anti-smoking elements in the design might be particularly effective, because they led to ‘higher self-efficacy to quit smoking’.
    They concluded that regulatory agencies might want to consider using comparative risk messages with more negative anti-smoking elements ‘to educate the public about lower risk of e-cigarettes’.
    An abstract of the Tobacco Control study is available on the BMJ Journals website.

  • Vaping myth debunked

    Vaping myth debunked

    The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that electronic-cigarette vapor contains no more formaldehyde than the level present in the average US home, according to a story by Matt Rowland for vapes.com.
    The CDC recently published the results of an air-quality study entitled Evaluation of Chemical Exposures at a Vape Shop, which was published on the CDC website.
    In addition to testing the quality of the air inside the vape shop, the CDC swabbed countertops, storage systems, and commonly-touched surfaces located in the back of the store.  They swabbed the fingers and hands of several employees.
    The air quality testing did not produce measurable concentrations of formaldehyde or other toxins. Area sampling results showed that background formaldehyde concentrations were similar to the personal sampling results, the CDC said.
    ‘Low concentrations of formaldehyde exist in many indoor environments because of off-gassing from furnishings, clothing, and other materials,’ it pointed out.

  • Israel looks to ban Juul

    Israel looks to ban Juul

    The Israeli Ministry of Health has come out in favor of banning the marketing of the e-cigarette Juul, according to a story by Adrian Filut and Lilach Baumer for Calcalist, quoting officials at the ministry.
    The decision about whether such a ban is introduced now hinges on its receiving a stamp of approval from the country’s attorney general.
    A report in the Ha’aretz newspaper, meanwhile, suggested that the ban would apply to ‘nicotine-rich electronic cigarettes like [presumably meaning such as] the popular Juul’.
    The Calcalist story said that sales of Juul, which was launched initially in the US in 2015, had gained momentum during the past 12 months. ‘According to a CNBC article citing data by market research firm Nielsen published Saturday, Juul’s sales have shot up almost 800 percent over the past year and the company now controls around 71 percent of the US e-cigarette market,’ it said.
    Juul was launched in Israel in May and in the UK in July. The product’s consumable pods sold in Israel are rated at 5 percent nicotine, while those sold in the UK are rated at 1.7 percent, to comply with European regulations.
    Grant Winterton, Juul Labs’ president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Reuters last month that the UK had been chosen as Juul’s third market after the US and Israel, partly because it had the world’s “most supportive government” when it came to encouraging smokers to vape. Also on the radar were said to be France, Germany and Italy.
    Israel, on the other hand, seems opposed to reduced-risk products in general. In March, the Knesset’s Finance Committee approved a measure to tax heated-tobacco products such as Philip Morris International’s IQOS at 65 percent of the retail price, in line with the tax on cigarettes.

  • Registration deadline looms

    Registration deadline looms

    ‘Early Bird’ registration for the 2018 CORESTA (Co-operation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) Congress in China is due to close at midnight local time on August 15, according to a note issued by the organization’s Secretariat.
    Registration is available through www.corestakunming2018.com, but online registration is due to close on October 7.
    Twenty years after the first Congress to be held in China was hosted by the China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) in 1988 in Guangzhou, and 10 years after the 2008 Congress was held in Shanghai, CORESTA has again turned to China and the ‘world capital city of tobacco’, Kunming.
    Kunming, which is the capital of Yunnan Province, is known also as the City of Eternal Spring – a reference to its year-long mild, sunny climate.
    The Congress is due to be hosted by the CNTC and held on October 22-26 at the recently-built Intercontinental Hotel.
    The theme of the 2018 Congress is Science and Innovation: addressing the needs.
    According to a previous CORESTA press note; in line with this theme, CORESTA’s Scientific Commission wants the event to be an opportunity for delegates to share their experience with the broad scientific community, within and beyond the tobacco perspective.
    ‘Workshops will be arranged to foster open dialogue on crop protection, biotechnologies, product risk assessment and biomarkers,’ the note said.
    ‘This approach will provide valuable information to all stakeholders in the increasingly challenging regulatory environment.
    ‘Latest updates and scientific achievements and findings will be presented to the benefit of both experienced and new scientists.’
    CORESTA is an association whose purpose is to promote international co-operation in scientific research relative to tobacco and its derived products.
    The association organizes yearly conferences (congresses are held every two years) where hundreds of tobacco breeders, agronomists, biologists and plant experts on the one hand, and physicists, chemists, analysts, toxicologists, finished-product-related experts, regulators and authorities on the other hand, meet to present, share and discuss studies and findings.
    CORESTA activities cover all aspects of tobacco, from the crop to the usage of the derived products.
    During the sessions, CORESTA working groups also present reports on their work, achievements and projects.

  • Spain to host THR summit

    Spain to host THR summit

    What is being billed as Spain’s first tobacco harm reduction scientific congress is due to be held in Barcelona, on September 19.
    The congress, which already has 13 expert speakers lined up, is being organized by
    ANESVAP (the Spanish Association of Users of Personal Vaporisers) and MOVE (the Medical Organization Supporting Vaping and Electronic Cigarettes).
    In a press note, these organizations said they had been fighting hard during the past years to present the latest scientific evidence on the use of personal vaporisers to health and medical professionals in Spain, and to the wider society.
    Some had listened, they said, and a few had accepted that tobacco harm reduction (THR) policies could be helpful in respect of public health.
    Nevertheless, those supporting THR in Spain were still very few.
    ANESVAP and MOVE said that they were therefore organising the first ever conference on THR in Spain.
    Presentations from leading international experts in the field, would provide evidence about the place of THR in reducing smoking and its consequences, they added.
    Registration for the Tobacco Harm Reduction Summit Spain is available at: http://thrsummitspain.org/.