Vape News In Brief – August 29th Edition

 

If you've been following along with us here at the Breazy blogs for any length of time, you're aware that we like to put together a weekly roundup of what's going on in the news every Sunday (or sometimes Monday). This is that.

This editorial rightly rebukes the oft-repeated (but inaccurate) connections between youth who begin experimenting with vaping and end up smoking. Money quote: "Vaping is not a gateway to smoking, and there is no evidence to suggest that it is. If it were, then smoking rates among both young people and adults in countries where vape products are widely available, including Ireland, would be increasing, not decreasing."

This is quite possibly the perfect testimonial for smokers considering making the switch to vaping. It addresses everything a noob needs to know – money savings, health risks, battery safety, device selection (and upgrades), flavors…this nails it. We hope it reaches a broad audience in its native New Zealand, which longtime readers will know is making huge advances toward becoming the most vape-friendly nation on the planet.

Filed under: shaking our heads in disappointment. This guy (who we can only hope is old enough to even possess a vape) struck some sort of "hardcore urban kid" pose making what appears to be a mock gang sign (maybe "V" for "Vape?") in front of what he apparently believed was a Lawrence, Kansas (population 87,620) police vehicle. (Un)fortunately his act of defiance seems to have been misplaced – the town's police department responded to his Twitter post to let him know he was actually mocking the local water department.

We hope we don't have to tell you this, but keep your vape gear away from your pets.

We've covered this before, but the piece here might serve as a nice refresher on why e-cigs don't explode, and what you can do to make sure your batteries, whether they're in a vape or a mobile phone or anything else (and hopefully never, ever in your pocket or purse), are handled safely.

Here's a worthwhile semi-longread in which a longtime federal employee on the frontlines of tobacco control gets wholeheartedly behind the push by new FDA chief Scott Gottlieb to rein in e-cig regulations while cutting the nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to the point they're no longer addictive. A smoke-free future is coming, regardless of whether those on either side of the tobacco debates want it or not.

Science! A new study from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, in conjunction with the Rutgers School of Public Health, finds that 52 percent of daily vapers have quit smoking in the last five years. That's compared to just 28 percent of adult non-vaping smokers. As always, the data needs to be tempered – "frequent" vapers tend to be more successful in their quit attempts, while occasional users tend to "dual use," supplementing their smoking and never enjoying the health benefits of quitting.

Signs of the demise: Philip Morris International is cheering the FDA announcement regarding the near-elimination of nicotine in combustible tobacco products. Of course, they're heavily invested by now in alternatives including their Mark Ten cigalikes and "heat-not-burn" technology that's caught on in other countries but has yet to be licensed stateside. Still, a Big Tobacco behemoth cheering the end of cigarettes as we know them is nothing to sneeze at.

Can't make this stuff up: the federal government is poised to spend $200,000 monitoring the tweets and reddit posts of vapers, analyzing their hashtags and "follower-friend connections" in a year-long attempt at " fine-grained surveillance of specific themes, factors influencing message popularity, and demographic variations." Translation: researchers at the University of Kentucky hope to find ways to propagate anti-vaping messages that will resonate with vapers or those considering using e-cigarettes.

Ignoring suggestively-placed quotation marks, this story is about as fair a shake as one could expect to receive on major TV news regarding the FDA's new direction as it pertains to tobacco regulation.

More science – according to an University of St. Andrews study, most e-liquids release carcinogens when burned at a rate of less than 1% of comparable tobacco smoke.

That's what we have for you this week – but fear not, because something new and/or exciting is always around the corner, and we'll be here to find it and tell you about it a few days later…