Vape News In Brief March 21 2017

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Let's take a look at what's been making headlines in the vape world over the last week or so…

A new British study projecting smoking rates through the year 2050 under a variety of scenarios predicts that continued availability of vapor products is likely to create the biggest decline in smoking and result in the lowest possible number of preventable deaths. Regardless of whether the vaping trend continues smoking is expected to continue to fall out of favor, though in coming decades smoking rates in Britain could fall as low as 9.7% (from 27% in 2000 and 20.3% in 2010) with vaping, though a ban on vapor products would place the expected smoking rate closer to 12.4%. An interesting note is that the study was funded by British American Tobacco who, despite the findings predicting the demise of their core business, went ahead and made the results public.

That could be because the company is already finding success and growing demand for its alternative products. While the big tobacco companies have long dabbled with limited success in the vape market, 'heat not burn' technology, in which users stick PG-soaked cigarettes into a device that vaporizes actual tobacco, have caught on big in Japan. We're not sure how this new alternative to vaping and smoking will catch on because it's not available in the US yet, but it could be a bridge to quitting for smokers who haven't been able to commit to vaping.

Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos is back in the news accusing critics who attack vaping research solely based on the source of its funding of 'academic McCarthyism.' Farsalinos, perhaps the most prominent researcher to defend the benefits of vaping, notes that fellow researchers have received hostile mail from US-based anti-smoking groups attempting to pressure them into avoiding conferences or reviewing work funded by tobacco companies. We'll admit that Big Tobacco hasn't exactly been the most forthcoming with information related to its scientific research in the past, but it seems odd to refuse to even review their findings when they're essentially damning the tobacco industry as it exists to the dustbin of history.

Washington state is the latest to consider increasing taxation on its vaping residents. Under a series of proposals, vapor products in the state could see tax rates as high as 60 percent, even higher than Pennsylvania taxes that crippled the local vaping industry and caused the loss of thousands of jobs there (that state is currently considering backing off a 40 percent tax rate). Bill sponsor Gerry Pollet, reportedly a public health professor at the University of Washington, showed a particularly alarming lack of understanding of the issue he's trying to regulate. 'Unlike cigarettes that destroy your lungs slowly vapor products and e-cigarettes can contain diacetyl, which is a chemical that acts rapidly and destroys the inside of peoples’ lungs,' Pollet told a reporter – while it's true that e-liquid CAN contain diacetyl (primarily in certain creamy/buttery flavors), traditional cigarettes DO contain diacetyl, at levels much higher than even the worst e-liquids.

Did you know that even if you've used vaping to kick a cigarette habit completely, your insurer still considers you a smoker? In order to qualify as a non-smoker (and access cheaper rates on health and life insurance), most companies will require you to abstain from all nicotine consumption for a full year. The article doesn't mention it, but we have heard stories of insurers and even workplaces in the US testing employees for nicotine as a means of denying insurance coverage, so it may not be a bad idea to know what your insurer's policy is before you run into problems.

Did you know that you can invest in vape stocks? Of course, right now there are only a few publicly-traded US companies (and they've got some pretty wild track records), so unless you're comfortable betting on Big Tobacco's achieving a transformation to become Big Vapor this might not be a market to dabble in.

Finally, a New Jersey man is suing his local vape shop, claiming it's their fault his vape caught fire in his pocket and that the shop knowingly sold him a faulty device. The story, like most of its nature, doesn't include any details that might allow one to conclude what happened, but we'll say this again – ALWAYS make sure your mod is powered down/locked before you pocket it, and NEVER carry batteries of any kind in your pocket unless they're in a sealed protective case.The local vape shop in question could not be reached for comment.