Vape News In Brief – July 17th, 2017 Edition

 

 

If you've been following along, you know the drill by now – every week we take a look back at the biggest stories to rock the world of vaping from a mainstream media perspective. Let's see what the world has for us today…

File under "things could be worse" – in Thailand, where vaping is banned completely, police recently raided two condominiums and jailed locals who were selling vape hardware and liquid via Facebook.

More from the Hoboken, New Jersey man who operates a "vape van" mobile shop and garnered national attention last month for an anti-immigrant, racist tirade caught on tape – apparently he's also been raided, and now faces criminal charges for alleged drug sales.

Health officials in Illinois are using the widely-debunked claim that vaping encourages non-smokers to begin using tobacco in an effort to encourage retailers including restaurants and bars to impose voluntary vaping bans. While business owners certainly have the right to dictate policies within their own facilities, it might be better to base any full or partial bans on grounds of common courtesy than junk science.

Apparently this guy is famous and he's getting accolades for quitting smoking to improve his health, using vaping as a means to that end. Good for him.

Amy Brady, the chief jailer in Henderson County, Nevada, is pushing against a regulation that would ban vaping in jail. Her argument: most prisoners arrive with some degree of nicotine dependency, and selling prison-specific disposable cigalikes is both a morale booster and a powerful incentive for inmates to behave. The jail system also makes quite a bit of money selling them to inmates.

Remember that British reality TV show we mentioned last week that was getting even more complaints from viewers about rampant smoking than illicit sex scenes? Well, the producers have taken up an offer to ship e-cigs to the cast, and at least a couple seem to be making quit attempts. We'll be watching how this plays out, but it certainly sends a positive message if any of the characters are successful.

Here's a worthwhile, somewhat deep dive into "heat, not burn" technology like Marlboro's IQOS, still unavailable in the US at the moment. There's some positive news from the well-respected Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, but also a key acknowledgement – heat-not-burn still utilizes a product that contains tobacco, while vaping *does not*.

This is interesting – a Dutch organization is handing out grant money to scientists attempting to replicate findings from past studies, including a dubious one that suggests e-cigarette use leads to tobacco consumption. Since this study has been widely debunked through the questioning of its methodology, we're curious to see if scientists can reach the same conclusion in a do-over.

The House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee is moving once again to exempt existing vapor products from retroactive FDA "deeming regulations" that would require most products to undergo cost-prohibitive analysis to remain on the market. The vote unfortunately remains split down party lines, with Republicans seeking to tack on exemptions for cigars and other tobacco products that cause demonstrable harm and Democrats pushing for a complete ban on anything that might contain nicotine that isn't sold by Big Pharma. So, while there is a side of the aisle that's more friendly toward vapers, neither of the ruling parties seems too interested in concrete steps toward tobacco harm reduction.

Here's a good business perspective take on how Altria, makers of Philip Morris products like Marlboro in the US, is changing its profile to make more room for vaping and other alternatives to combustible tobacco as smoking continues its march toward obscurity.

Counterpoint: this one is a nice overview on the evolving vape laws in the UK and Australia, with an eye toward keeping Big Tobacco from cashing in on the wave of customers fleeing tobacco addiction in search of less-harmful alternatives.

This guy claims to have assembled the list of the ten worst-smelling brands of cigarettes in the world. The only problem is that there are more than ten brands of cigarettes currently produced – that, and this blog is irresponsible enough to offer tips to people looking to take up smoking who don't currently use tobacco. On second thought, don't click through unless you want to drop some hatemail about how smoking has worked out for you.

That's what we've got for this week, stay tuned for more each and every Sunday here at Breazy – happy vapor trails!