Study shows vaping reduces cancer risk
A new study shows that smokers who switch to vaping reduce their exposure to chemicals known to cause cancer. This isn’t exactly news, but it does add yet more evidence in favour of e-cigarettes as a much safer alternative to smoking.
The study was presented to the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco at their annual meeting last Saturday. Based on tests on 90 adult smokers, the researchers looked for biomarkers associated with cancer-causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke. They found that smokers who’d switched to vaping had far lower levels of these biomarkers than those who continued to smoke. In fact there was no significant difference between vapers and those who neither smoke nor vape.
The experiment used a control group who abstained from nicotine products completely, a group who smoked normally, and four groups who used different flavours of JUUL pod system. Compared to the smokers, the abstainers showed an 85.3% reduction in carcinogen biomarkers; the four JUUL groups averaged an 85% reduction. In other words, vaping is 99.6% as effective at reducing cancer risk as abstention.
Hong Kong threatens vape shops with prison
Hong Kong has attracted controversy recently with its plans to introduce a complete ban on vapour products. The region’s far-left government, a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party (which owns a lucrative monopoly on tobacco sales), has already introduced some of the world’s most draconian anti-harm reduction laws; now they’ve announced plans that would let them jail anyone who makes, imports or sells e-cigarettes inside the territory.
The vaping ban was formally introduced to the region’s Legislative Council on Wednesday, and it’s expected to be rubber-stamped with no dissent. The aim is simply to wipe out vaping in Hong Kong by totally shutting off supplies. Under the new law the manufacture, import, sale or promotion of vapour products will bring a maximum penalty of a $6,400 fine or six months in prison. As well as e-cigarettes the law also applies to heat not burn products; it seems the Hong Kong regime is determined to make nicotine users stick to traditional cigarettes.
Canadian doctors label teen vaping a “crisis”
US hysteria over teen vaping seems to be spreading to Canada, as doctors in Quebec start to speak up about the alleged menace posed by reduced-harm nicotine products. Some wild claims are being made, based on the same manipulations of the data we’ve already seen in the USA and other countries. For example it’s being said that one on four Canadian teens have tried vaping. This is almost certainly true, but evidence from other countries suggests that the vast majority will have tried it once or twice, while only a tiny percentage – most of them current or former smokers – go on to vape regularly.
Doctors are also repeating misleading US claims that e-cigs contain very high levels of nicotine compared to smoking. This usually takes the form of claiming that a JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a whole pack of cigarettes. It does – because a JUUL pod replaces a whole pack of cigarettes. However, harm reduction opponents usually portray a pod as being equivalent to a single cigarette.
EU Commission slammed over e-cig claims
Leading scientists have criticised the EU Commission over misleading claims on e-cigarettes, saying the unelected bureaucrats are ignoring the science on safer nicotine products. The researchers, including cardiologist Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos, were reacting to claims by an EU official that e-cigarettes are “poison”.
On 30 January Arūnas Vinčiūnas, “chief of cabinet” to the EU’s health commissioner, claimed that vapour products “might be less harmful” than smoking “according to some reports”, but are still “poison”. Vinčiūnas, a Bulgarian economist, seems to have either ignored or completely misinterpreted the vast body of evidence showing that e-cigarettes are at least 95% safer than smoking. The EU has consistently opposed tobacco harm reduction, first with a ban on Swedish snus and now with the infamous Tobacco Products Directive, which places draconian limits on what vapour products can be sold.
Utah criticised for proposed vape tax
A think tank has condemned Utah legislators who’re trying to push through a punitive vape tax. The Heartland Institute says the proposed 86.5% tax would “snuff out harm reduction” in the state. By almost doubling the price of reduced-harm alternatives, they say, it will make switching far less attractive to smokers – including the teenagers the law is supposed to protect.
