Every week I hear someone speaking about vaping in a negative way, be it in person or in the media, and quite often by being sent a link to a 5 year old article on Facebook. Some days it can be exhausting giving people the accurate information about why they are being idiots.

What you need is the perfect quote, a handy one liner not necessarily funny but will maybe get them to stop and think for a second and as usual you don’t always have this available the second you need them.

Until I came across an online blog post that I thought quite useful and has come in very handy since I found it so I thought I’d share a few of the good quotes, you never know when you might need them.

Starting with one of my favourites, Elaine Keller, Vaping advocate:

“Why is your concern about my “addiction” to nicotine more important than MY concern about getting lung cancer?”

I’ve used this one twice already this week.

Duncan Selbie, Public Health England:

“E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes”

A classic and good for all responses.

Dr. Michael Siegel, Boston University:

“Electronic cigarettes are a potential lifeboat. No, they have not been tested and approved by the FDA. But if you were in a sinking ship, would you remain in the ship because the lifeboats had not been FDA tested and approved?”

He has a very good point; I’d be in that lifeboat faster than they could lower it.

Dr. Siegel again:

“I do not understand why there seems to be such a need for health agencies and anti-tobacco groups to lie about electronic cigarettes”

I don’t get it either Dr. Siegel.

Prof. John Britton, Royal College of Physicians:

“If all the smokers in Britain stopped smoking cigarettes and started smoking e-cigarettes we would save 5 million deaths in people who are alive today. It’s a massive public health prize.”

5 million lives saved says it all for me.

Dr. Siegel is good with these quotes:

“In a political climate that is full of dishonesty, I think the last place we need more of it is in public health.”

Why do they seem to find it hard to tell us the truth?

One from Deborah Arnott, Director of Action on Smoking and Health UK (ASH UK):

“in comparison to tobacco products they are safer by several orders of magnitude”

I think that’s the only thing I’ve ever agreed with her on.

Chris Snowden, Velvet glove Iron Fist blog:

“once e-cigarette use hits critical mass, the revolution will become unstoppable”

Viva la Revolution.

Dr. Michael Russell:

”People smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar”

David Sweanor, Former advisor to the WHO on Tobacco Control:

“Rather than the unattainable standard of “safe” we should be thinking in terms of “safer”. Despite the risks associated with football, I would, for instance, prefer my children play football rather than play with live hand grenades”

So would I.

And finally from Dr. Paul Aveyard on the reason more people take to vaping than any other NRT out there:

“Vaping is like nicotine replacement therapy, but in posh clothes. Clothes that people want to wear”.

There’s no way anyone will remember all of these when they need them but if you could remember a variation of one or two then you will always have something in your arsenal to throw back when the idiots start approaching!

The 15th of June 2017 saw the latest release of the Statistical Bulletin: Adult smoking habits in the UK 2016. Published by the office of national statistics in partnership with Public Health England, the bulletin aims to show the amount of smokers currently in the UK and now it also covers those who have made the switch to an ecig. The survey covers the entire UK and also shows the different results for those 4 nations individually as well as the whole.

The highest percentage of smokers live in Northern Ireland 18.1%, Scotland is at 17.7%, Wales 16.9% and England has just 15.5%. Which makes an average percentage total of 15.8% across all 4 countries, the lowest it has ever been since 2010. Scotland however had the largest decline over all, a massive 7%.

Gender makes a difference too with more men likely to smoke than women but age also plays a part as well. According to the results the younger you are the more likely you are to smoke. However don’t judge young people just yet as they also showed the age range with the highest reduction in smoking around 6% in total since 2010. The 18-24 range also showed that they were the most likely to try an ecig and with the huge drop shown in the that age range with tobacco, this is possibly the early signs of the gateway effect we were all warned about, but, the gateway is away from tobacco and not towards it as some experts feared.

As the smoking rates drop it’s highly possible a lot of the former smokers have moved away from cigarettes and towards ecigs, the percentage of down swing for tobacco roughly matches the percentage of upswing towards ecigs. 5.6% of respondents said they were current ecig users, which equates to about 2.9 million people throughout the UK. Again men were more likely to have tried an ecig than women. While those aged around 35-49 were the most likely to be a current ecig user.

More results and in-depth breakdown is available on the Office of National Statics website.

The ecig results have only been available since 2014 so the full trends aren’t yet totally visible but it’s a good show of which way the tide is turning, and that’s away from tobacco and towards ecigs!

Every 2 years the European Commission publishes its Eurobarometer results. This is a survey taken across all nation states and can cover just one subject or a multitude. The most recent survey included tobacco and vaping; the survey questioned nearly 28,000 people. The results have just been released and it covers some good and bad news for vapers. It should also show the impact (if any) on the new laws covered in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), however as the TPD has only been in place for a year the results of the survey wont yet show the full impact either positive or negative until the next survey expected in 2019/20.

One of the questions asked was if people thought ecigs were harmful to the health of those that use them.

It is worth noting that the wording of the question may have caused some confusion. Do you think they are harmful or not to the health of those who use them isn’t necessarily a yes or no question. Italy seems to come out the best here, the UK sadly lacking in 7th place. In the Netherlands 85% of people asked thought they were harmful. The UK has tried to implement the TPD in the softest way possible and attempted to encourage people to switch to ecigs rather than stay smokers, but there are still regular scare stories in the press about the danger levels of ecigs, imagine what the press in the Netherlands must be like.

The commission doesn’t seem to think that vaping has helped many smokers quit tobacco; the survey reports that only 14% stopped smoking entirely with an ecig, 10% managed to stop but started again and 17% managed to reduce their tobacco usage but not stop smoking totally. Dramatically different figures compared to the UK which has embraced vaping.

The socio-demographic differences from respondents that have at least tried an ecig are:

Men (17%) are more likely to say they have tried an ecig compared to women (12%). More young people (aged under 40) have tried an ecig than those aged over 40. Those who stayed in education longer are more likely to try one than those who left at 15 or younger. Those who find themselves struggling to pay bills are also more likely to have tried an ecig than those who never struggle. 47% of people who have tried to quit smoking have tried an ecig to do it and those who have smoked for longer are less likely to even try an ecig.

The types of flavour people enjoy the most was also covered on the survey, the results are very similar to what I would have expected.

I would like to know what spontaneous tastes like and how do 1% of the people asked not know what flavours they like? Considering the most popular flavours are fruits this does give a strong argument to the case of not banning certain flavours.

The question that caused me the most concern is the question about banning ecigs in public places. 63% of respondents thought ecigs should be banned in the same places as tobacco with just 26% against it. 40% think ecigs should be covered in shops like tobacco (Ireland was as high as 80%). The ban on flavours is a slightly more positive result roughly 48% are against it while about 37% support the option. As expected those who were vapers answered the flavour ban question as 84% against 9% for. Why 9% of vapers would want to ban a flavour is beyond me though.

As I said earlier the new rules have only been in place for a year and have only been enforced properly for a few weeks now (a year’s grace was given to get everything in order) so no big impact can yet been seen in these results compared to previous surveys, the interesting ones will be the next survey in 2019/20. Then we will start to find out if the TPD was the huge success story of the decade. Or was it the huge disaster the vaping advocates claimed it would be.

But strangely staff and patients are still allowed to vape as much as they like. It seems this isn’t for health reasons its more about how it looks.

Staff are still allowed to use traditional quit aids such as sprays, patches or gum but not an ecig, if they wish to use their ecig they must leave the hospital grounds.

If any staff member is caught breaking the ban they will face disciplinary action.

The trusts smoke free policy states:

• Smoking by workers, patients and visitors is strictly prohibited in all of its premises, which includes buildings, vehicles and grounds
• Patients and visitors are permitted to use e-cigarettes within Trust grounds ONLY. The charging of e-cigarettes using the Trust’s electrical system is strictly prohibited
• Workers (whether direct employees or agency staff, contractors etc.) are NOT permitted to vape on Trust premises or grounds. Staff who do not adhere to this policy will be subject to disciplinary action

Staff are largely in agreement with the ban on smoking within the grounds but are feeling angered by the rules on vaping, given that patients and visitors can still use them within the grounds quite freely.

The trust has said that:

“E-cigarettes are not currently covered by smoke-free legislation and a review by Public Health England in 2015 estimated that they are 95 per cent safer than smoking tobacco. Therefore the Trust has taken the decision that patients and visitors are permitted to use e-cigarettes within Trust grounds only”

While the trust claims it has based its decision on the advice from Public Health England (I think they got it wrong a little, especially as PHE said to support and encourage your staff to switch to ecigs) it seems to go against NHS advice. The NHS website states that “Evidence indicates that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, with similar or better results than nicotine replacement therapies such as patches or gum” and it also contains lots of information on the benefits of ecigs and how to make the switch over to them.

When the NHS believes that ecigs are safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes and a much better chance of quitting than the gums or patches why remove that option from your own NHS staff? It could only be because they don’t like how vaping looks. Personally I’d much rather see a friendly group of vapers than hear someone chewing or stand in discarded gum, call me biased if you want to but, gum, yuck!

I also think it would be a great advert for them, showing that those wanting to use an ecig to quit smoking are welcomed by the hospital and staff. If they can support their staff to do it imagine how much they could help you too.

I was going to write a bit last week about the last few days of madness before the TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) took its full effect on the 20th of May but I thought it would be covered a lot in the press already. So instead I thought I’d ask you this week how was it for you? Did you even notice the new regulations taking place? Did you hear the whooshing noise as the deadline flew past?

So far it’s all been a little quiet on the news front, no one has gone mad with lack of nicotine and I could only find one story about a company getting into trouble with its advertising (In a local newspaper, there was a picture of the shop in the article which had a visible nicotine containing product name on display).

I do find one or two things about the TPD annoying (10ml bottle size for example) but they are easy enough to live with. Compared to some countries we have it easy. The Philippines plans to forbid smoking and vaping in all public places, including out on the street, jail time is an option for those caught. Bit harder to deal with than a 10ml bottle.

Now the new rules are in force a lot of people are worried about the amount of vapers on high nicotine that may end up back on the ciggys. Vapers now total 2.9 million in the UK and some of them are/were on products with more than the allowed 20 mg of nicotine and vaping advocates fear that for some it may mean going back to tobacco. If this sounds like the situation you find yourself in then maybe think about upgrading your equipment. Something with a harder hit could provide that extra bit of oomph that you need to be able to keep up your good work on an 18mg liquid. Please don’t be tempted to get your 24mg from somewhere else either, that guy on Facebook might be offering a great deal but do you know what else is in the liquid? Has it been tested?

If you find that you are struggling under these new regulations then please don’t struggle alone, come and talk to us in any of our stores and we might just have a solution for you!

Yes it’s a real thing, and with the holiday season approaching it could help all you vapers out there to review any planned European break destination. The index covers food, drink, smoking and ecigs, by scoring each country in Europe in all 4 categories it attempts to work out which country is the best and worst for nanny stateism.

Scoring for each category is out of 100 points , with 100 being the worst but the requirements change for each section, sugar tax in the food category for example would not be relevant in the tobacco category. So let’s see if you can guess the best and worst for each category.

Starting with food, the areas covered are: Taxation, Advertising restrictions, Ingredient limits, Energy drinks, Vending machines. Which of the 28 European Countries are the best and worst? There’s a clear loser in this one and it’s Hungary scoring 28 points out of 100. The next worst is France with 11 points. The best has no clear winner with 10 countries scoring 0 points, those are: Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. The UK comes in joint 3rd with 10 points scoring worst in the advertising section.

Drink next and the areas covered for this are: Taxation, Advertising and Other (which covers areas such as retail monopoly, closing times, drink drive limits and bans on promotions). The worst place to get a drink in Europe is Finland with 87.1 out of 100 closely followed by Sweden with 74. The best is Spain with 8.3 out of 100 with Germany on its heels with 11.1. The UK is in 4th nannyist position with 48.6 points.

Smoking is next on the list and this covers: Taxation, Advertising, Smoking ban and Other (which covers plain packaging, retail display ban, snus ban and vending machine ban). Again we have a clear front runner for the worst in this category and it’s the UK coming in with a huge 91 points out of 100. Ireland finds its self in second place with 75.2 points. The best is the Czech Republic with 26.9 points and Luxembourg right behind with 30.2 points.

The best category now and that’s ecigs, the areas covered in this section are: Product bans, Advertising, Taxation and Vaping bans. Finland are the worst in this category, scoring high in all the areas they come out with 59.4 out of 100 and are the least ecig friendly country in Europe. Only 0.8 behind them are Hungary with 58.6 points. But which are the most ecig friendly countries in Europe? As an avid vaper your top 6 European holiday destinations are: Sweden with the lowest of all the countries with 10 points out of 100. All scoring 16 points were: The UK, Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, and Czech Republic.

Working out those 4 categories together the UK finished in second worst position with 37.4 points, the worst was Finland at 51.6. Finishing the best over all were Czech Republic with only 11.5 points, Germany with 15.9 points and Slovakia with 16.2 points.

If vaping is a part of your decision when you plan your getaways then Sweden ranks as the most ecig friendly but you might struggle to get a drink. Maybe split the difference and go for an all rounder

like Czech Republic, Germany or Slovakia this year. Don’t forget my postcard though and a picture of you vaping on holiday of course!

You can check out the Nanny State Index 2017 for yourself here.

Last week we found out that second-hand vapour is about as hazardous to you as normal air, this week we find out it might actually be good for the air around you and those in the air around you. The ingredient that is having this surprising effect is propylene glycol (PG) which is in all eliquids, some have it in smaller quantities but it’s still there. Back in 1945 a scientist called Dr. Theodore Puck along with his team discovered that vaporised propylene glycol provided some very significant health benefits.

The study his team conducted is titled “The Bactericidal action of propylene glycol vapor on microorganisms suspended in air” and is still published on the NLB-NIH website to this day.

Their original study discovered that:

“Data are presented showing the minimum glycol concentration necessary for effective bactericidal action on various microorganisms. Pneumococci were killed by amounts of propylene glycol as low as 1 gm. in 20 million cc. of air. Concentrations of 1 to 5 million to 1 to 10 million were required to produce the same degree of killing of streptococci and staphylococci. The observations here reported add further support to the previously proposed conception of the mechanism of the lethal action of propylene glycol vapor, namely, that a bactericidal concentration of the glycol accumulates in the bacterial droplet as a result of contact with and absorption of glycol molecules from the surrounding atmosphere. Pneumococci were killed by amounts of propylene glycol as low as 1 gm. in 20 million cc. of air. Concentrations of 1 to 5 million to 1 to 10 million were required to produce the same degree of killing of streptococci and staphylococci”

What does that actually mean? Pneumococci, streptococci, staphylococci are the bacteria responsible for illness such as pneumonia, strep throat, food poisoning, impetigo, cellulitis and many more. These are all scary, serious illnesses but as a vaper you carry a secret weapon. The PG from your ecig kills them off. These effects happen in parts per million, you don’t need neat PG for it to happen. So depending on the quantities in the air around the vaper you might be inadvertently cleansing the air around you of these bacteria.

Why am I bringing you 70 year old news? Well, research never stops and now the bacterium that causes meningitis can also be added to the list of bacteria that are running scared from your ecig and PG. The PG in your vapour doesn’t just protect you; it protects those near to you as well. So next time someone tells you vaping is bad for your health just think of Dr. Puck’s research, walk away and leave them to enjoy their potentially devastating bacteria.

The Californian Department of Public Health thought they could add another weapon to their “vaping is bad” arsenal this week when they conducted a study on the air quality in vape shops.

I think they hoped to show that the air quality would be badly affected and it would therefore help with their vaping ban in public places. It didn’t quite go to plan.

Many vape shops around the state were tested and the results from one of those shops tested was released as a representative sample.

The sampling was conducted under very adverse conditions, which included many of the employees vaping throughout the testing and 13 customers vaping in the shop too. There was no active ventilation system in place and clouds of vapour were visible at times. All this seems to suggest that the results would show a high level of exposure to none vapers.

So given all that how did the results read:

• Nicotine: Not detected
• Glycidol: Not detected
• Formaldehyde: 7.2 ppb
• Diacetyl: Not detected using standard method
• 2,3-Pentanedione: Not detected using standard method
• Acetyl butyryl: Not detected using standard method
• Acetoin: Not detected using standard method
• Acetone: Not detected
• Ethyl benzene: Not detected
• m,p-Xylene: Not detected
• o-Xylene: Not detected
• Toluene: Not detected
• Acetaldehyde: Not detected
• Acetonitrile: Not detected
• alpha-pinene: Not detected
• Benzene: Not detected
• Chloroform: Not detected
• d-Limonene: Not detected
• Methylene chloride: Not detected
• Methyl methacrylate: Not detected
• n-Hexane: Not detected
• Styrene: Not detected

The only thing that was detected was formaldehyde; however, the level of formaldehyde they detected is consistent with normal indoor and outdoor air levels under baseline conditions.

So they had a small non-ventilated shop with many staff and customers’ vaping and visible clouds of vapour and not one of the results of the air tests showed any levels that were even remotely hazardous either to the vapers or none-vapers health. Even the formaldehyde was no different than normal levels. They really couldn’t have tested a more extreme environment and they still got no negative results.

Many of the vaping experts including Dr. Michael Siegel, Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, had an opinion on this study. Dr. Siegel said that:

“Based on the current scientific evidence, I fail to see the justification for banning vaping in most public places. I just don’t see any reasonable evidence at this time that it poses any significant health hazard to bystanders”

This is something we should be shouting from the roof tops every time someone brings up the vaping indoors ban.

June 23rd 2016 was a day that changed lives forever, not just in the UK but around the world. It was the day the British public got their chance to speak, the day we voted for Brexit.

Millions of us turned out to give our opinion; some of the highest turn out figures ever recorded were on that day. It was something that affected us all then, now and in future decades to come. Now we are closing in on another general election, and for some ecigs are still an issue that needs to be discussed before we all head to the polls.

For the last few years a registered charity called New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) has been doing wonderful work behind the scenes trying to educate those in power all about ecigs. Working alongside Public Health England they have attended conferences, briefed the media and spoken in UK, European and International Parliaments all to highlight ecigs and the good they can do. Now they want each of us to pick up the mantel and speak to our local candidates.

The NNA have written to all the major UK political parties to urge them to include in their election manifesto this statement:

“We will help Britain’s 9 million smokers switch to healthier alternatives by removing unnecessary restrictions on e-cigarette advertising, tank and refill sizes, strength of liquids, and by ending the ban on snus as soon as we have left the EU.”

They also said that:

“The parties need to know that vapers are voters who are unhappy with the TPD.”

As always I’m not going to suggest you vote one way or the other, that’s not my place but I will suggest you do as the NNA have requested and contact the candidates standing in your area and ask them their thoughts on the issue. You can contact your local MP via the write to them website and many of the other candidates will have email addresses on their election leaflets. If you want to know more about the NNA their website is here.

We voted for Brexit so we could make a change to how this country is run; don’t let this opportunity pass you by, if you have an opinion let them know.

I don’t normally bring you research conducted by tobacco companies but I thought this one was quite interesting.

Do you remember those quit smoking TV and print adverts from 2012/13? They showed a tumour forming on a ciggy every time the guy took a drag in an attempt to highlight the effect smoking had on your genes. You must have seen them; they were everywhere and kinda gross.

British American Tobacco has been conducting research to see if the same amount of mutations can happen to human tissue when you use an ecig instead of a ciggy.

The human genome has tens of thousands of genes and the profile of genes that are switched on or off after exposure to an aerosol is used to see if the exposure has had a toxic effect on the cell. Using human epithelial cells gathered from the airway the researchers exposed one sample of cells to cigarette smoke and 2 samples to vapour, they then checked the exposed cells’ genome to see if the cell genes had been switched on or off. The first sample that had vapour tested against it used an equivalent amount of vapour for a straight comparison to a cigarette, the second sample had the amount of vapour doubled. All 3 samples were exposed for 1 hour. 24 hours after exposure the researchers checked the genes for on and off changes and they checked them again after 48 hours.

The tissue that was exposed to the smoke had 873 of the genes affected after 24 hours and 205 after 48 hours. However, only 3 genes were affected after 24 hours using ecig vapour and only 1 gene after 48 hours. Further examination of the genes revealed that some of the 873 changes from the smoke exposed sample were the genes involved in the development of lung cancer, inflammation, and fibrosis. While the minor changes in the vapour tested samples were the genes involved with metabolism and oxidative stress.

Dr James Murphy, Head of Reduced Risk Substantiation at British American Tobacco, said that:

“even at equivalent or higher dose of nicotine, acute exposure to the test e-cigarette vapour has very limited impact on gene expression compared to cigarette smoke exposure–it’s a striking difference”

It definitely is a striking difference, 870 genes worth of difference to be exact. As great as this research sounds, bear in mind it is from a tobacco company (we all know their track record). If it is genuine it’s another fantastic result for vaping.

I think “Be less mutant – Vape” should be this year’s catchphrase.

Making headlines this week we had an undercover operation carried out by RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health). The operation consisted of none/never smokers (all aged over 18) going into vape shops and asking to buy equipment. 87% of the 100 vape shops they went into sold them what they asked for. Why did this make headline news I hear you ask. Because of one bit of bad wording.

Vaping as an adult aged over 18 is an entirely legal thing to do in the UK. Nowhere in the vaping laws does it state that you must be a current or previous smoker. It seems the drama all stems from a small Vape Association named IBVTA (Independent British Vape Trade Association) and their 3rd rule which states that:

“Vape products are for current or former smokers and existing users of vaping devices, therefore never knowingly sell to anyone who is not a current or former smoker or a current vaper” (emphasis mine)

IBVTA currently has around 50 members and the RSPH suggest in their press release that this rule is an industry wide standard and they don’t make it clear at all if those shops they went into were members of IBVTA or not. If the 100 shops were all members of the IBVTA I can understand the concern that they may not be abiding by the guidelines they signed up to but is that really front page news?

Good ecig shops will always ask if you smoke and how many you smoke, just as a basis for working out the right device for you and research has proved time and time again that less than 1% of all vapers are people who have never smoked. Should every vape shop in the country refuse to serve someone if they say they have never vaped or smoked before agreeing to sell them a legal product? What if they want it so they don’t try a cigarette, can they buy it then?

IBVTA made a statement about their part in the situation and that dastardly 3rd rule; they said that:

“With hindsight, the use of the word “sell” was not appropriate when “market” would have been. The Board has therefore unanimously agreed to amend point three of the IBVTA code of conduct so that it now reads: Never knowingly market to anyone who is not a current or former smoker or a current vaper.”

Much better and makes far more sense. Member of IBVTA or not I’ve never seen any vape shop market products to none smokers/vapers.

Seeing a vaper in the wild was a rarity only a few short years ago but now we seem to be everywhere. There’s now so many of us that the world leader in etiquette, Debretts, has issued their guide to polite vaping. Likening an ecig to your mobile phone, the main advice seems to be if it’s rude to use your mobile there then it’s rude to use your ecig.

The most serious breach of etiquette is considered to be vaping in a confined space such as a lift or a small space like a waiting room. If it’s just me in the lift I admit I do this sometimes, never clouds though and I probably have sneaked a couple of vapes in waiting rooms too.

Second worst on the list of vaping crime is vaping in restaurants or where food is being served. Debretts advise that if you find yourself in a bar or restaurant and there is no clear policy on display then you should always ask. I may also have vaped in a restaurant, and every pub I go into.

Coming in with third place of the most annoying places to vape are queues. Oh dear I’m a terrible person!

Ah-ha, this one I nail! Vaping in cars. Debretts remind us that as a passenger you are a guest in someone else’s vehicle and permission should be sought. Their car their rules. I always ask if the driver minds if I vape, most of them say that it’s fine and just to open the window a little crack. Public transport however is a huge no unless you can locate a designated smoking area.

Home visits. Always ask if you’re in someone else’s home, even if they are a close friend and were happy for you to vape last time don’t assume it’s still ok. When you’re the host, its still good manners to ask if anyone objects. I’m 50/50 on this one, if it’s someone else’s house then I always check first and always offer to go outside, in my own however I vape as I choose unless I know someone has a reaction to it, then I offer to go outside.

In the office. Many workplaces have banned vaping completely except for designated areas but if you’re lucky enough to be allowed Debretts advise you try to keep your vaping to moderate levels around your work area. Away from your work area like in kitchens or meeting rooms then it’s a no from Debretts. Or, if you can’t manage that come work for an ecig company!

Out on a date. If you’re with a fellow vaper then relax and enjoy yourself but if you’re with a non-vaper (5 times more non-vapers would date a vaper than a smoker so it’s possible) it’s polite to check they are ok with it and check with the venue too of course. I score high on this one too, I’m married so he doesn’t get a choice!

Cloud chasing. If you’re not at home on your own Debretts suggest you separate yourself from the group if you wish to do this, many non-vapers see a huge cloud as an invasion of personal space. You should also work on your apology skills too, if vapour accidently goes into someone’s face it’s a huge breach of good manners. If I spot the vapour going towards someone I do normally apologise for it, I don’t do clouds so I’m safe on that one too.

Stealth vaping advice. Don’t do it because you will probably be caught and it goes against what the proprietor allows on the premises. I know I shouldn’t stealth vape but sometimes I hide under my hair to do it (I have long hair, not detachable hair).

Strongly scented juices. Don’t do it in public, all strongly scented aromas are a personal taste, like perfumes for example. Keep them to yourself especially if food is around as it can spoil the enjoyment and tastes for others. I’m safe on this one; most people say they can’t smell my juice.

Be open to non-vaper questions and answer them honestly and nicely while trying to dispel any possible myths they may have.

If you want to try another person’s ecig or let them try yours don’t be offended if someone removes their drip tip, ecigs are not usually disposable items and they may not want their tip to be communally used. I usually carry a spare tip in my bag for just these occasions

Turns out I’m not as bad a vaper as I thought at the start and now you know my biggest vaping faux pas’ it’s your turn to confess. How many of these do you do?

And remember the advice from Debretts “Just because you are allowed to vape, it doesn’t mean you should”

One of the biggest and most passionate debates about ecigs has been the gateway effect, for years this argument has continued. Those on one side of the gate argue that ecigs will lead young people towards tobacco later in life and the other side that it will lead them away.

Almost all the research done in this field has proved that the gateway either does not exist at all or it does in fact lead young people away from tobacco. Back and forth the argument goes, year after year, study after study.

Someone finally asked the young people what they actually thought about it all. Interviewing 50 vapers aged between 16 and 26 provided some interesting information. The results were published in the peer reviewed journal Drugs Education Prevention and Policy, and they seem to show that yet again young people see ecigs as a way out of tobacco and that ecigs may actually be contributing to negative perceptions of tobacco in young people.

The group comprised of 28 current smokers, 19 former smokers and 3 who had never smoked at all. And the results show that the majority of young people think ecigs are substantially less harmful compared to cigarettes and they don’t believe that vaping is going to increase their chances of smoking in the future. The lead author of the study Dr. Neil McKeganey, Director of the Centre for Substance Use Research (CSUR) said that:

“Young people are rationalizing that, because a much less harmful alternative exists, then logically it makes even less sense to consume tobacco.”

Dr. Mckeganey also said that:

“What we know is that all vapers are overwhelmingly current and former smokers. We also know that as e-cigarette devices have evolved, vaping and smoking have become visually quite distinctive from one another. While some young people we interviewed drew obvious comparisons between the two—namely, inhalation and nicotine consumption—it is clear that, for the most part, they perceive e-cigarettes as vastly different from smoking. More importantly, there was overwhelming consensus amongst our participants that vaping is not making smoking more socially acceptable and that, if anything, it is making cigarettes seem even less acceptable.”

Instead of trying to always “think of the children” or deciding adults know what is best for young people how about we just ask them in future? It would save so much time, trouble and nearly 10 years of arguing.

John Goodenough is a name you have probably never heard of, I hadn’t either until recently. If I told you he was 94 would that help? No, course it wouldn’t. But if I said all vapers use something he developed every single day, even when they take a drag on their ecig then that might narrow it down a bit. He was in fact the co-creator of the Lithium-ion battery.

The Lithium-ion battery is used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars and ecigs. They are the best we have right now but it wouldn’t be a week of vaping if there wasn’t a story in the press about an ecig going bang.

We have covered it once or twice in this blog too; battery safety is something that should never be taken lightly. Well things could be about to get a whole lot safer.

Working with a team of engineers Prof. Goodenough from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas has developed the first all-solid-state battery. The battery is low cost, non-combustible and has a long battery life it is also capable of much higher energy density and faster charge/discharge rates.

The batteries we currently use are liquid electrolytes which transport the lithium-ions between the positive and negative, if the battery is charged to quickly or drained to quickly the liquid electrolytes can get damaged and create dendrites (shards of electrolytes) if the dendrite joins the positive to negative end that’s what can create the short circuit and the resulting bang.

This new battery uses glass electrolytes which removes the formation of the dendrites. They can then use other ingredients to increase the amount of power the battery can store such as sodium or potassium instead of the lithium which will make the battery much more environmentally friendly too.

With up to 3 times more power able to be stored in one battery that’s a massive achievement by this team. The test batteries have also demonstrated more than 1,200 charge cycles before energy levels start to drop. They are also able to operate at a much higher range of temperature, possibly all the way down to -60 degrees Celsius. Designed initially for electric cars there’s no reason this can’t be moved across to all the other things that use lithium-ion batteries like phones, laptop and ecigs.

This battery is not something that’s going to be available in the next few months but it is a huge step forward in safer, better battery design. Lithium-ion batteries are Goodenough (sorry I couldn’t resist, it’s a great name) for now, but sometime soon they are about to get even better.

Did you know the more you use your ecig the more satisfying it is? Yes really, it’s true, the research proves it.

An American study published in the journal Science Direct has the evidence; they also found out that those who used their ecigs more and found them more satisfying were using something more advanced than a cig-alike.

Astonishing isn’t it! (Sorry I’m getting a little bit sarcastic but sometimes it does annoy me a little that what we vapers have been saying since we started vaping takes research for people to believe it.)

The researchers wanted to know if the more satisfying the ecig was compared to cigarettes did people use it more? The study used US Army Reserve/National Guard Soldiers and their partners and asked them a series of questions about their opinions of ecigs, usage and satisfaction levels. Given the recent articles about the dangers of ecigs from the US Surgeon General amongst others the researchers also took the chance to ask about how people felt about the dangers of ecigs.

Using the SAFETY Study (Soldiers And Families Excelling Through the Years which is a survey completed by all serving personnel in the US and their Families) participants filled in the survey online over a 2 year period. 105 adults were surveyed (53 male, 52 Female). The usual question was asked “Do you use an ecig?” those that said yes they do or have tried one were directed to more questions such as “How often do you use an ecig?” They were then asked how satisfying it was and how dangerous to their health they thought it was. Respondents were also asked what their favourite set up was.

Divided into 3 categories named triers (occasional use but not often), not daily (once or twice a week) and daily (every day), the results from the satisfying question showed that the triers found ecigs the least satisfying, the not dailys were in the middle of scale and the dailys found them the most satisfying. The results were very similar in the question about how dangerous people thought an ecig was, with the triers thought they were more dangerous, the non dailys in the middle and the dailys thought ecigs were less dangerous than tobacco.

The question about which device they were using fielded interesting responses too, the triers all seemed to be using something akin to a cigalike, the non dailys were either on cigalikes or basic kits and the dailys had all moved onto something much more sophisticated.

The researchers came to the conclusion that the more you use your ecig the more satisfying it is compared to cigarettes, and the less dangerous you believe it to be compared to cigarettes. Also the better device you have the more likely the satisfaction level goes up and danger perception reduces even more. In other words, the more you vape on better equipment the more likely you are to stick with it, go in half hearted for something that doesn’t work properly and you set yourself up to fail!

When you think of a typical vaper what image springs to mind?

With all the news coverage vaping gets a stereotypical vaper in your mind might be a 20 something male, possibly with a beard maybe a piercing and tattoos, blowing a huge cloud behind him as he goes.

An online survey has been collecting information about the typical vaper who buys online in the UK and the results aren’t quite as you might expect.

The most common age bracket for someone purchasing online is aged over 40 years old at 66% but the over 50’s aren’t too far behind at 39%. Over 75% of you are male (come on ladies, are we really going to let the men beat us at shopping!) and a huge 83% of you have totally quit smoking. So it seems the typical vaper doesn’t necessarily look how we might expect. Admittedly this survey is about people who already vape but for those of you looking to make the switch a study funded by Cancer Research UK published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence might be interesting reading.

The researchers wanted to find out if smoking at the same time as vaping made any difference to motivation levels of those who continued their use of an ecig to quit smoking. 1489 adults in the UK were surveyed online. Taking into account age, gender, amount smoked, frequency of ecig use and social grade the researchers worked out that those people who stuck with their ecig had more chance than those who didn’t. Dual users were less dependent on tobacco cigarettes and more likely to use an ecig to help cut down on the amount of tobacco smoked. Those who gave up on the ecig for reasons such as “doesn’t feel like smoking” or “didn’t help with cravings” were more likely to go back to full tobacco use. Those who stuck with their ecig also had a heightened motivation to stop smoking all together.

So now you know very few vapers are “stereotypical vapers”, that vaping is something for everyone no matter your age, gender or reasons for wanting to try vaping, it can help if you’re struggling to move away from traditional tobacco, why not give it a try. I’m not a typical vaper and you don’t need to be either!

Before you read this week’s blog you’re going to need a couple of things, first you need a cup of tea (or other beverage of your choice), second you should have some biscuits handy and third you might want to practice looking smug in the mirror for a minute or two. Because this is the week you get to look into the eyes of anyone who told you “ecigs are worse than smoking” or similar, put your smug face on and laugh at them for being so, so wrong.

In case you missed the big news published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on the 7th of February, Cancer Research UK has been funding a study into the potential risks of the long term use of ecigs. The researchers split a group of 181 people into 5 smaller groups. The first group were cigarette smokers only, the second were former smokers who only used an ecig (for more than 6months), third there were the NRT only users (user for more than 6 months), then group four had those who used both cigarettes and NRT, and the fifth had users of cigarette and ecigs. Each group had 36 – 37 people per group. The participants were asked to provide urine and saliva samples and were analysed for biomarkers of nicotine, tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

(Drum roll) And the results are… Ecig only users showed significantly lower levels (up to 97% lower) of all the TSNAs and VOCs on par with the NRT only users, although the ecig users were lower on all the TSNAs and VOCs all groups were around similar levels on the amount of nicotine they had in their systems. This means that “Long-term NRT-only and e-cigarette–only use, but not dual use of NRTs or e-cigarettes with combustible cigarettes, is associated with substantially reduced levels of measured carcinogens and toxins relative to smoking only combustible cigarettes.” The best way to achieve these results is a complete switch to vaping or NRT, duel fuelling (using both ecig and tobacco) doesn’t seem to be effective at lowering your levels.

This study was also covered widely in the press, The Mirror, The Sun and ITV News all ran articles about it that you can show to your friends. One of my favourite quotes is on the ITV page from the lead author Dr. Lion Shabab:

“Our study adds to existing evidence showing that e-cigarettes and NRT are far safer than smoking, and suggests that there is a very low risk associated with their long-term use.”

Well done all you switchers, it’s time to look smug.

This time they are in the firing line from Public Health Wales (PHW). After failing to ban ecigs in public places last year in the Welsh Assembly, PHW seem to be determined that if you do vape you’re not going to enjoy it. PHW published the latest updates to their ecig policy on January the 26th 2017 in which they said that:

“confectionary-like flavours of e-liquid should not be permitted, in order to reduce the appeal of vaping to children and young people.”

Ashley Gould from PHW took it one step further when she said:

“You can buy bubblegum, candy floss, jam doughnut flavour e-cigarettes and they are only aimed at one audience – and that’s about recruiting children.”

Does she mean that only children like sweet flavours and vaping companies who sell sweet flavours are deliberately targeting children? It seems she might really think that no adult has ever enjoyed the flavour of a nice piece of fruit or a doughnut. Not only is that madness it also goes against every piece of evidence available at the moment.

If Wales does decide to ban a massive proportion of the flavours available is that going to make ecigs less attractive to adults too? Or just children? Of course it will affect the adults more, they are the ones using ecigs daily not the children. PHW says it takes this stance because it fears that ecigs will lead to a rise in tobacco use amongst children and the lack of enjoyable flavours will stop them from trying an ecig at all but all recent research suggests the total opposite, tobacco use in children is declining and they aren’t moving towards ecigs.

ASH said as much back in October 2016:

“ASH finds no evidence that children are being recruited to smoking through their use of electronic cigarettes.” And that “more young people are now aware of, and have tried e-cigarettes but regular use is still rare and confined largely to those who currently smoke or have previously smoked.”

Cancer Research UK backs this statement as well saying that rates of young people smoking are at their lowest since the 1980’s.

Come on PHW don’t ruin vaping for everyone in Wales just because you “fear” something that there is no evidence for. Speak to Public Health England; they can give you a few tips on policy that’s not based on fear.

Most of us are familiar with the phrase “sin tax” usually it’s added onto items that the government deem not good for us like cigarettes or sugar but do ecigs also fall into that category?

I don’t think they do. When so many reputable scientific organisations are coming out and saying that vaping is 95% safer than smoking, and even the UK government has said they have no intention of imposing anything more than VAT onto ecigs.

Should the EU be suggesting we apply a further tax on ecigs? I say no, but thanks for the offer.

Until Brexit takes full affect and we leave the union what happens in Europe still affects you. Running until the 16th of February 2017 the EU government is holding a public consultation on the taxation of ecigs. The consultation is available here. Clive Bates and the New Nicotine Alliance have already given their thoughts on the consultation and why it’s not a good idea, now it’s your chance.

At first sight this might seem a daunting, complicated task it is a government website after all but you can whip through it in about 5 minutes if you follow these easy steps.

1. Open this link, scroll down to “how to submit your contribution” and click the link highlighted in blue to begin
2. Background information on the consultation, just click next
3. A couple of personal questions and your country. Next.
4. First important question, “In your opinion, should electronic cigarettes and refill containers be subject to excise duties?” Click No!
5. You’re now asked about tax levels, should ecigs be at similar levels to other tobacco products. I clicked much lower for all of these.
6. Ignore the green text; you are probably more of an expert than most people replying to this. “In your opinion what have been so far the impact of the introduction of excise duties on electronic cigarettes and refill containers in some Member States? Please indicate the perceived magnitude of the following impacts” Just answer how you think the tax will impact on people’s decision to vape.
7. The next question is easy “Please express your agreement / disagreement with the following possible approaches for the harmonisation of tax treatment for electronic cigarettes and refill containers.” I went with fully disagree for the first two answers
8. For “In your opinion, what are the likely effects of an EU-wide harmonisation of the tax regime for electronic cigarettes and refill containers on the functioning of the EU internal market?”! I chose very unlikely for all 3.
9. For the next question, “Assuming a hypothetical (tax-induced) price increase of 20% for refill liquids used in electronic cigarettes what would the likely reaction of the ‘typical’ user of electronic cigarettes?” just give your opinion on what you think the reaction would be.
10. “Assuming a hypothetical (tax-induced) price increase of 50% for refill liquids used in electronic cigarettes what would the likely reaction of the ‘typical’ user of electronic cigarettes?” Same again for this question.
11. Heat not burn products, answer as you will or skip
12. Cigarillos, fine-cut, raw and water pipe sections can all be skipped if you don’t wish to offer an opinion.
13. MED (Minimum Excise Duty) mostly relates to traditional cigarettes, answer if you wish too.
14. I skipped the Customs page questions as I don’t know the codes.
15. Final remarks, again answer if you wish too. You can also at this point upload a document outlining your arguments or raising more specific points if you wish to do so.
16. Click Submit!
17. And you’re done; now go and enjoy a nice cuppa and a vape with your feet up knowing you have done your bit.

ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) has got together with the LFB (London Fire Brigade), CAPT (Child Accident prevention Trust) and the CFOA (Chief Fire Officers Association) to produce a short document giving guidance to parents on ecig usage in the home.

PHE (Public Health England were also consulted in the making of this document. Available here, it’s very easy to read and makes its point well.

Covering 3 areas, the advice starts with the risks of smoking in the home:

Health harm – frequent exposure to other people’s smoke can increase risks of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. Second-hand smoke is dangerous for anyone exposed to it, but children are especially vulnerable. Children’s exposure to second-hand smoke results in 300,000 UK GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions a year.

Copying grown-ups – restrictions on where smoking is allowed influences the way children view tobacco and the likelihood that they will start smoking. In homes where smoking is not allowed indoors, children are less likely to start smoking themselves.

Fire risk – fires caused by smoking materials including cigarettes, roll-ups, cigars and pipe tobacco, and their associated lighters and matches, are responsible for the greatest number of deaths from house fires.

They then go on to talk about these areas of concern in relation to ecigs. Health harm is up first again and this time they say that:

“there’s no evidence so far of harm to bystanders from exposure to e-cigarette vapour. The many harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke are either not contained in e-cigarette vapour at all, or are usually found at much lower levels”.

Obviously it’s your home and your choice if you allow people to vape in it but if you do allow it, any risk to you or your children is likely to be extremely low.

Onto copying grown-ups and the advice is:

“Younger children watch and copy adults and if vaping takes place in front of them, there is a chance they will want to mimic an adult by playing with an e-cigarette or trying to blow clouds of vapour. To remove these risks, e-cigarettes should be kept out of the reach of children.”

That’s really quite important, children should never be able to access your vaping gear, and it should always be kept out of reach or removed to a safe location when you aren’t around.

Fire risk is next and again its good advice:

“Poorly made or counterfeit chargers for e-cigarettes have caused house fires but this is a much smaller number than cigarettes (about 2700 per year for smoking related fires, resulting in around 82 deaths) and there are things you can do to manage these risks. Only buy e-cigarettes from reputable outlets, use the correct charger for the device, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and don’t leave an e-cigarette charging unattended or overnight.”

ROSPA have included a final section here on the risk of poisoning and swallowing:

“As with medicines and cleaning products, e-cigarettes and e-liquids should be kept out of the reach of children. After swallowing nicotine fluids symptoms are usually mild and include nausea and vomiting, but serious poisoning can happen after swallowing larger amounts, especially by small children. If e-liquid is swallowed, contact your GP or call NHS 111. In an emergency dial 999.”

Small children are inquisitive and put everything in their mouths. Keep your liquids away from small children and babies at all times (and your pets too).

Follow the great advice from ROSPA and there’s no reason you can’t keep your children and home happier and safer while keeping yourself off the tobacco.

Did everyone have a good Christmas and New Year? Mine was great and I managed to take it easy on the Baileys this year too, go me!

Ecig news and research is usually a little light over the festive period, with most talk being of quitting and switching as a New Year Resolution, there was a good article in The Guardian though. Written by Professor Linda Bauld from the University of Sterling.

The article summarises the huge amount of research that went on during 2016, the fantastic results of the research and asks the question, why do people still think vaping is as bad as or worse than smoking?

I started off reading this article feeling really positive but the more I read the sadder I got because Prof. Bauld is right. In the last year we have had positive press releases from the NHS, ASH UK, Cancer Research, and Royal College of Physicians all about ecigs. Then if we include all the research by individual groups on subjects such as dental health, post op recovery, general sickness levels, that has been published. Why isn’t the message getting out there? Why aren’t people hearing about these things? Why do some people still think ecigs are as bad as or worse than smoking?

Prof. Bauld believes the answer to that question maybe be something to do with the press. I do have to agree with her on this. It seems sometimes very little of the good stuff ends up on the front page of the papers, but anything that can be skewed to seem bad has pride of place. Sometimes it was just bad science creating bad headlines, but then why aren’t the peer review results published to prove why it was bad science? Readers are left just knowing the badly done research rather than the adjusted results. Other times the press completely forgets to compare the results with cigarettes, compared to fresh air the results may not look the best, but compared to a ciggy they couldn’t look any more positive. Positive news doesn’t really sell I suppose.

The UK seems to lead the way in setting standards for ecigs whether it be research or policy. What will 2017 bring for ecigs? Who knows but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s published. This year my resolution will be the same as last year and the year before, this year I’m going to try and keep it positive, to keep writing about the bad science and why it’s bad and to keep bringing you guys the best of the ecig news. Keep spreading that ecigs are positive message and just try to do my little bit to convert some of those negatives.

Happy New Year Everyone!

The North East of England (where I live) has one of the highest smoking rates in the whole of the UK and along with it one of the highest fatality and illness rates too. No matter where you live in the country most people find the traditional methods of quitting smoking the hardest, that’s why every year people try and fail and try and fail and feel as if stopping tobacco is something they will never manage. Yet every year it’s one of the most made (and broken) New Year resolutions. Far too many people start the New Year feeling like a failure and that’s not right.

So why do it to yourself?

Why struggle every year when there’s something on your local high street that could help you? It’s not a miracle; it still takes some will power. It’s not a pill or a patch it’s an ecig. Something that can still give you all the things you enjoy about smoking but at a quarter of the price. Time to take back control.

I could list all the health benefits of giving up smoking but most of you know them already, and if you found this blog then an ecig is probably something you’re thinking about trying out already. Let’s talk about cold hard cash this year instead.

20 ciggys a day 7 days a week at around £8.50 a pack is costing you £60 a week. A starter kit will cost you around £24 that’s everything to get you going and if you smoke 20 a day is about 3 days’ worth of ciggys. Then depending on how much you use it and what kind of kit you start with your looking at about £10 – £15 a week to maintain it. An average week is going to save you £45 compared to smoking.

That’s £180 a month. £2340 a year. What could you do with an extra 2 thousand pounds a year? Take the family on 2 weeks holiday; put it towards your child’s university education, new furniture or a deposit on a new car, dinner out every week, living long enough to be able to do it all. So many options out there waiting for you and all you have to do is switch.

If this is your year for making it happen we can help you, we are available to help you with every step of your journey. If you need advice on how to get started, or have already made the leap and just need a pep talk, or want to move up to the next level we have something for you.

Make 2017 the year your proud of yourself, Make it the year of you!

As smokers, how many times have we heard the phrase “it’s like kissing an ashtray”?

Getting caught under the Christmas mistletoe could be a heart stopping time for many reasons, self-conscious about the possible ashtray scent putting off that person of your dreams could be one of them.

A small pilot study published in the BDJ (British Dental Journal) could mean no more mistletoe/ashtray mouth nightmares for you.

The researchers had been paying attention to the stories in the press around vaping and wanted to examine the effects of vaping on the gingiva and inflammatory biomarkers. They recruited 18 people to help with the study in which they required them all to undergo a gingival health examination before and after switching to vaping for 2 weeks. Unfortunately 4 people had to drop out as they couldn’t manage to completely quit smoking (they did manage to cut down to 5 or less during the two weeks). The researchers were expecting a much higher dropout rate than just 4 and they agree with the Royal college of Physicians that ecigs could be an effective tool for smokers wanting to quit.

During the examination after the 2 weeks of vaping the researchers noted an increase on bleeding from the gums when probed and an increase in gingival crevicular fluid levels. Completely contradicting the previous claims that the nicotine was to blame for gingival vasoconstriction and it must be some other feature of smoking. In English that means after giving up smoking and switching to vaping the blood flow started to come back to the gums and mouth and improved the levels of health and bacteria in the mouth. Which the researchers note is a very similar effect to what they would have expected with complete smoking cessation.

Well now you’re not a smoker anymore, you’re a vaper and according to this study a vaper with a much healthier, less smelly mouth and this is code for a better kisser. Sorry, I said that wrong, this means your loved one is no longer kissing an ashtray, which is better for them and maybe you will get a little more practice which is better for you both.

Happy Christmas from Everyone at Phoenix!

Last week I brought you news of the US Surgeon General’s (USSG) report about ecigs. I said that this was a story that would rumble on for a few weeks and it seems I’m right. Experts have been voicing their opinions from both sides of the fence about the rights and wrongs of the report.

The focus of the USSG report was on youth vaping, stating that ecigs were dangerous to young people and that more and more young people were taking up the vaping habit which would lead them to traditional tobacco (the gateway effect).

I want to take a closer look at the whole idea of young people vaping and the gateway effect that featured heavily in the USSG report. Every year Michigan University publish their Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) and their 2016 results were published this week. The MTF report reveals that smoking is at its lowest ever rate among 8th to 12th graders (14 – 18yr olds) 14yr olds being the lowest at 2.6% this year from 3.6% in 2015 and 18yr olds coming down from 11.4% last year to 10.5% this year. Is the reduction because they are now all vaping?

No, Vaping numbers are also falling; teenagers are now neither smoking nor vaping. The MTF report has only tracked vaping for the last three years, 2014 and 2015 both showed a rise in vaping while showing a reduction of smoking. This year however they showed a reduction in vaping as well as smoking.

If the gateway effect were a thing that happens then all that would be the other way round wouldn’t it? If it was as the USSG claimed vaping numbers would continue to rise slowly and smoking numbers would too as everyone moved from vaping to smoking. From looking at the numbers it seems it’s not happening. It seems as if they were using vaping to get off traditional tobacco and then stopped vaping as well. Isn’t that it a good thing that smoking is being de-normalised and not re-normalised (because of vaping) as the USSG report claims? This doesn’t mean that young people vaping should be promoted by any means but it does seem to show the claims of the USSG are not quite standing up to scrutiny.

Back in 1962 the UK Royal College of Physicians published its ground-breaking report Smoking and Health; the US Surgeon General (USSG) report was released 2 years later and replicated the same findings.

So after Public Health England and The Royal College of Physicians released their research on ecigs earlier this year most people were expecting something similar again from the USSG. Not this time though.

The US report was released on the 8th of December and is titled “E-Cigarette Use among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General” and it has shocked many UK ecig advocates. As the title suggests the report focuses totally on the effects of ecigs on young people but many vaping advocates claim that it cherry picks the research to prove points that are irrelevant and scare potential users (young and old) away from ecigs.

As an example the report claims that only 1% of girls and 2% of boys in High School in 2011 had used an ecig but in 2015 13% of girls and 19% of boys are users. That’s the whole fact and when you first hear that it does sound like a dramatic increase but back in 2011 vaping was relatively unheard of, I started around that time and most people had never heard of such a thing, I think I was the 1% in my whole town (and well over High School age too, unfortunately); there wasn’t even a local vape shop. Secondly they fail to mention that those using an ecig in 2015 are no longer smoking.

Isn’t the fact that 12% of girls and 17% of boys are no longer slowly killing themselves the better point to make? The report makes no reference to tobacco statistics V vaping statistics in that age group or any of the nicotine containing prescription options such as patches that can be given to children as young as 12. We don’t live in a perfect world; if we did no one (of any age) would be a smoker, but isn’t trying to provide a successful route out of tobacco more important than scare tactics? It seems not!

The UK seems to have a little more common sense about vaping so what did our experts have to say about the report?

ASH UK said that:

“ASH is puzzled by the level of concern being expressed about e-cigarettes by the Surgeon-General. In the US as in the UK, young people are experimenting with e-cigarettes but vaping has not been associated with an increase in smoking, a point which is not made sufficiently clear in the report.”

Clive Bates has written 3 articles on his website The Counterfactual one of which he has titled “Bad science, poor insights and likely to do harm – rapid reaction to the Surgeon General’s terrible e-cigarette report” I think we get the idea on what his opinion may be, but just in case:

“It is truly terrible – a heady mix of emotive propaganda and a completely warped and one-sided account of the science built on a lack of insight into youth behaviours and no knowledge of the tobacco and nicotine market and its consumers.”

Prof Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England was outspoken about the report too saying that:

“Our review of the evidence found e-cigarette use carries a fraction of the risk of smoking, a conclusion reiterated by the Royal College of Physicians earlier this year. No new evidence has been published to contradict this; however we are closely monitoring any emerging evidence”

Prof Peter Hajek, Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London had an opinion too:

“The new US report’s conclusions do not tally with what the actual data show. It is simply not true that e-cigarettes are a tobacco product or that vaping lures children to smoking or that it creates dependence in non-smokers. The prevalence of smoking among young people is at all time low and regular use of nicotine containing e-cigarettes among never-smokers is extremely rare.”

Prof Linda Bauld, Professor of Health Policy at the University of Stirling referenced the reports claims about vaping during pregnancy and the effects on foetal development:

“This report mentions the issue of e-cigarette use in pregnancy, stating that nicotine delivered by e-cigarettes can affect foetal and post-natal development. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the evidence. We know Nicotine Replacement Therapy is safe – a recent study from the University of Nottingham found no adverse impact on the children of mothers who used it in pregnancy and followed up these infants until they were two years old.”

The list of people speaking out about this report is endless. Researchers and activists on both sides of the argument are voicing their opinions loudly and I’m expecting this story to run for a while. In 1962 the reports from the UK and US agreed, smoking is bad. In 2016 the opinions are opposing, Harm reduction V Scare tactics, which side got it right this time? (We did obviously)

Available on YouTube there is also a handy video to go along with the USSG report, if you weren’t scared enough from the report already.

Last week we spoke about the responses to the Freedom of Information request submitted that asked local councils about their vaping policies. This week news has reached me that Hertfordshire County Council could very possibly be leading the way on local ecig legislation.

On Thursday November the 24th the 4th item on the Council agenda was “TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION: A POLICY STATEMENT ON ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES” with the purpose of the report being “To ask the Panel to consider and comment upon a draft Policy Statement on the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to reduce the harm from tobacco in Hertfordshire.”

They seem to have taken the information from Public Health England, and the Royal College of Physicians (both documents they have also linked to in the report) very much to heart and paid attention to the details too, especially the science bits. The whole document is pages long but summarised very nicely towards the end in a handy little chart.

If you live in Herefordshire what can you expect? Well as long as you have a licensed or CE marked product, a lot more flexibility than other councils. If you work outdoors the rules are that vaping is allowed anywhere in the grounds but not in council vehicles just like food and drink for road safety reasons. If you work indoors on council property, if none of your colleagues object and your vapour is minimal you might be able to vape at your desk, if there’s quite a few vapers they suggest an indoor area maybe allocated for use on breaks. You probably won’t be able to charge your device or batteries in the building though.

For community sites within the council area such as hospitals the policy could be to allow vaping anywhere in the grounds as long as there are no child play areas. They do stress the point that vapers should not be required to stand with smokers in a smoking shelter or restricted area provided for smokers. Acute hospitals maybe providing communal areas for the patients to vape and the staff could have the same. For Mental health units they simply use the word “Allow”. Maternity areas/units should also consider internal vaping areas. For prisons and custody areas again it’s just a straight forward “Allow”

Moving into the wider community council areas such as play parks and places of learning for children the advice is to consider “adult only” indoor areas for the staff where the children are not allowed to enter. For adult residential areas bedroom and communal area use is allowed however charging in an oxygen rich environment is not acceptable. Public transport like buses and trains are enclosed areas and the suggestion is that in the enclosed areas it’s not allowed but it is in the open areas. They do admit on this section though that it would be “difficult to monitor”. The hospitality industry is the last section and the advice there is that:

“Permit in all open spaces. Permit vaping areas in restaurants, pubs and hotels subject to considering nonvaping areas and ensuring the amount of vapour and smell is not intrusive to others”

This is just draft form and hasn’t yet been brought into the rules but doesn’t all that sound like it’s been considered and well thought out? It seems they may be the first council to have some common sense about ecigs and have definitely read the information at hand rather than headed straight to panic mode. Maybe all the local councils should be taking a look at what Hertfordshire is trying to achieve and getting some basic common sense rules in place. I think I’ll forward this information to my local council, try to show them how it should be done!

P.S. It’s nearly Christmas and if you want to buy the vaper that has everything something different Doctor Farsalinos (huge vaping advocate, I’ve referenced his work on this blog many times) has just co-authored a book. Available on Amazon and all other online bookstores it’s titled “Analytical Assessment of e-cigarettes: From contents to chemical and particle exposure profiles” Admittedly it’s not quite coffee table browsing but they might still like it.

Have you ever been made to stand in the smoking shelter by your employer while you vape? It seems that could be a little bit naughty of them.

A report has been commissioned by Freedom to Vape, by using the freedom of information act they contacted every council in the UK to ask about their vaping policy.

In total 386 councils responded, a response rate of over 92.5%.

The results of request are that:

• 112 councils (29 per cent of those who responded) require vapers to use designated smoking areas in all or some circumstances, despite the fact that vapers are not smokers – indeed the vast majority of those who vape do so as a means of quitting combustible tobacco or to reduce the amount of tobacco they consume. Two included in the list required vapers to vape in close proximity to designated smoking areas.
• 335 councils (87 per cent of those who responded) have the same (or effectively the same) policy on vaping as they do on smoking.
• Just one council – the London Borough of Enfield – allows vaping indoors and actively encourages staff to vape instead of smoking combustible tobacco, in line with recommendations from Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians.
• Three other councils (Belfast, Chiltern and South Bucks) allow vaping at desks; however, they do so because currently there isn’t a policy in place.

Huge pat on the back for The London Borough of Enfield (also Belfast, Chiltern and South Bucks, keep it that way too please) but where does that leave the rest of us? Out in the cold apparently. Considering Public Health England’s (PHE) published guidelines about vaping, which are:

1. Make clear the distinction between vaping and smoking.
2. Ensure policies are informed by the evidence on health risks to bystanders.
3. Identify and manage risks of uptake by children and young people.
4. Support smokers to stop smoking and stay smoke-free.
5. Support compliance with smoke-free law and policies.

Most councils seem to fall far short of the recommendations. With very few of them recognising a difference between vaping and smoking and not making policies based on evidence. What’s worse is asking someone who no longer smokes to stand in the one place they have chosen not to be – the smoking shelter. Is asking non smokers to go to the smoking shelter complying with smoke free laws? I don’t claim to be psychic but I do sense a legal case coming soon!

If you want to see how your local council responded all the information is on the Freedom to Vape website (My local council couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge the request) and if you want to voice your own opinion you can do so using the write to them website.

Since the start of this blog we have regularly referenced and discussed research published in many of the large medical journals, did you know some of them also have a section for articles?

Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) the article is titled “E-cigarette use in public places: striking the right balance” and tries to dispel the myths and fear mongering surrounding ecigs and the recent new laws. The authors are all names you will recognise if you read this blog often, Linda Bauld, Ann McNeill, Peter Hajek, John Britton, and Martin Dockrell, and are all very much respected in their fields of expertise.

They cover 3 areas of concern in the article (all with very long answers so I’ll summarise), starting with:

Firstly “Is e-cigarette vapour harmful to bystanders?” in short the answer is no. The report by the Royal College of Physicians titled “Nicotine without smoke: tobacco harm reduction” summarised many of the recent studies to reach its conclusion that there was no evidence that passive exposure was likely to cause significant harm to bystanders. Although exhaled nicotine can be deposited on surfaces, it is at extremely low levels and no mechanism has been proposed by which these deposits could be ingested in doses that could cause physical harm. So even licking the window all day you couldn’t ingest enough nicotine from deposits to cause you harm, other things maybe but not the nicotine.

The second section is “How could a ban on e-cigarettes in indoor places affect smoking?” Again they don’t see this as a good idea. For Children or young adults they reference the studies that researched the “gateway effect” showing that ecigs do not normalise smoking or encourage none smokers to take up the habit of traditional tobacco or ecigs. Adult smokers are finding ecigs more useful as a smoking cessation tool than pharmaceutical options but the misconceptions that ecigs are as bad as cigarettes seems to be growing. Banning ecigs in places smoking is banned would promote that misconception and deter potential switchers away from trying.

Thirdly “What are the views of stakeholders?” believe it or not but stakeholders aren’t the users of ecigs (who has the biggest stake if it’s not the vaper?) but employers and those who set the guidelines for employment. In this section they talk about the recommendation from Public Health England who decided that national legislation was not acceptable in this area as there were too many variables so a set of guidelines were suggested instead. These are: make a clear distinction between vaping and smoking; ensure policies are based on evidence of harm to bystanders; identify and manage risks of uptake by children and young people; support smokers to stop smoking and stay smoke free; and support compliance with smoke-free laws and policies. This would allow a builders merchant to make more relevant rules about its vaping policy compared to the school down the road.

They close the article with the conclusion that the evidence to date does not support a policy to stop e-cigarette use in enclosed public places and such policies could have significant consequences by sustaining the use of smoked tobacco. In addition, if and when vapour products with a medicinal license become available, it will be important to allow their use indoors, just as any other medication can be used indoors.

It’s a great article and should have been broadcast widely but it hasn’t been so in some regards it’s a shame this article is in the BMJ, it means most people and policymakers won’t get to see it unless they go looking for it. Or we tell them about it.

Welcome aboard the vape train all you new Stoptober vapers, how’s it going so far? Well I hope? If you are struggling at all feel free to pop into one of our shops for a chat or a confidence boost if you need it. But remember you’re awesome and you’re doing well!

If you are one of those types of folks who doesn’t believe in diets (bit like me but it’s because I love my choccy to much) then this won’t be good news for you, however if putting on weight from quitting smoking was one of the reasons you had delayed switching to vaping for so long then this will make your day. Vaping can help you lose weight.

Anecdotally most vapers have been making this claim for quite some time but the claims covered various reasons, was it because you still had something in your hands? Because you still had the hand to mouth action? Because you could get flavours that compensated for your sweet tooth? Or maybe it was all of the above. The first research looking at this phenomenon was published at the start of 2016 (Our blog post on it is here) although no conclusive reason was decided upon the trial they conducted seem to agree with vapers claims.

Taking what was learnt in the original study this new team of researchers wondered if it could be the lack of nicotine in those giving up having an effect on the brain causing them to eat more and given the global epidemic in obesity at the moment they thought it would be worth pursuing. So can you get the weight balancing benefits of smoking by using an ecig? It seems yes is the answer.

The team realised the nicotine in the ecig was having exactly the same effect on the brain as it does in tobacco cigarettes, causing the switchers to eat less and therefore mitigate the weight gain effects of quitting traditional tobacco. Coupled with the other benefits of having something to do with your hands and tastes you enjoy plus the familiar hand to mouth action they all added together to make vaping as successful as smoking for keeping the weight off. Just like the vapers claimed, it’s all of the above, a whole body and mind amalgamation.

The team did stress that it wasn’t a good idea for non-smokers to take up vaping as a diet plan it was just a happy side effect of the process of switching. This one is just for vapers, so hands off non- smokers get your own method. For those of you just joining us on the vape train, welcome to a happier healthier and maybe skinnier new you, we hope you enjoy the ride.

For those of you who have switched to vaping already I have another reason for you to feel a little better about the decision you made to switch away from tobacco cigarettes, for those of you that are still thinking about making the jump this might help to make your mind up. Every smoker, non smoker, and those somewhere in between has heard about the ailments and illnesses that lead from smoking.

Sometimes the press has even tried to manoeuvre ecigs into that bracket as well and recent public surveys have shown that ecigs are starting to have a bad public perception.

Some research that was released this week shows the opposite side of that argument. Published on the National Center for Biotechnology website which is part of the United States National Library of Medicine, the article was titled “Electronic Cigarette: Role in the Primary Prevention of Oral Cavity Cancer”. The researchers wanted to find out if using ecigs had the same effect on the chances of oral cancer as smoking did, or would it be the same as a non smoker?

They took 65 people who were split into 3 groups, non smokers, smokers, and ecig users. The genders and ages were divided equally between the 3 groups and all 65 subjects were required to be either a non smoker, smoker, or ecig user for at least 6 months before the study. The subjects also had to meet other criteria such as no oral disease in the last 6 months, no alcoholism, and no previous history of malignancy. The researchers then took samples from the inside of their mouths and analysed these under a microscope. They were looking for the exposure to carcinogens creating a presence of micronucleus and therefore signs of a cancer risk.

After all that prodding, scraping, and analysing, did they find anything to compare ecigs with tobacco cigarettes? Well, no they didn’t. In fact the researchers said that:

“Our results show that e-cigarettes cause no harm in the oral cavity and, therefore, should be suggested as a reliable aid to smoking cessation compared to alternative methods.”

Yet another reason to smile, go on, show off those great tobacco free pearly whites and know you have made the right decision to switch to vaping!

More and more people are moving onto bigger and better ecigs these days so occasionally I like to do a gentle reminder about battery safety. You don’t need to be a fully qualified electrician to vape safely but you do need a little bit of common sense. Follow these tips and you should be vaping safely for years.

• Those devices with an inbuilt battery are probably the easiest to take care of. They will usually come complete with a charging cable and instructions. Although you may have similar looking cables, some cables have circuits that tailor the power output so it is highly advised that only the cable that was supplied should be used.
• Don’t leave your device or batteries charging unattended or overnight. In the unlikely event the batteries should vent it could cause a fire.

• If you are using a USB plug to power your charge cable check the output of the plug is compatible with your battery’s charge tolerance, too high an output and even the right cable might not be able to protect you.
• When your device isn’t in use turn it off! In your pocket or handbag also counts as not being in use. If you have removable batteries then you will need a battery box to transport them when they aren’t in your device. You can buy these for just a pound or two from any vape shop. Never put a loose battery directly into your pocket as small change or keys will cause them to short and possibly explode.
• Batteries are not fans of extreme temperatures; don’t let them get too hot or too cold. Keep them out of direct sun and heat; don’t leave them outside in winter (overnight in the car for example).
• Batteries also don’t like water; if your device or batteries get wet allow them to dry out completely and check for any visible damage. If in doubt seek the advice from your local vape shop.
• Inspection of device and batteries should be undertaken regularly for signs of damage. Batteries should be checked for signs of corrosion or leakage as well as nicks or cuts to their wrapping and use should be stopped immediately and advice sought from your local vape shop.
• If your device takes replaceable batteries then only quality batteries should be used, with special attention given to the correct amperage rating. Most devices with electronics built in will not fire if you try to exceed your battery limit. However this safeguard should not be relied upon and a competent understanding of the correct coil resistance range should be known. Once again this information will be available in the instructions or from your local vape shop.
• Mechanical devices, those that don’t contain electronics pose the highest risk of shorting and over stressing the batteries. Therefore should only be used by advanced and competent vapers.
• Only use a reputable vendor, someone who knows what they are talking about and won’t sell you something totally unsuitable for your needs. If you are in any doubt just ask, even if you didn’t buy it from us we can still offer advice and guidance. All our stores are open 7 days a week; we want you to be able to enjoy your vaping safely.

What’s more important to you the nicotine or the flavour of your vape? For a long time scientists have believed it’s all about the nicotine but new research published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) this week throws a cat amongst the pigeons on that theory.

The idea behind the research was to see if flavour had any effect on how people liked or disliked their ecig.

Yeah, I know, every vaper already knows this but research makes it official. They recruited 31 participants (13 female/18 male) 12 were ecig only users and 19 were using both the ecig and traditional tobacco. They each tried out 6 commercially available 12mg liquids and firstly rated them how much they liked/disliked the juice overall and then rated each of them for the perceived sweetness, bitterness, coolness and harshness of each individual juice.

The results were almost as shocking as finding out leaves are green. The juices that were perceived the sweetest were the ones that were ranked higher on the like scores. This was closely followed by the juices that scored high on coolness. Bitterness and harshness brought up the rear. Which led the research team to conclude that:

“Bitterness and harshness have negative impacts on the liking of e-cigarettes, but the addition of flavourants that elicit sweetness or coolness generally improves liking. The results suggest that flavours play an important role in e-cigarette preference and most likely use.”

I find a lot of new vapers start off with the tobacco and menthol flavours and after a few weeks when your taste buds start to come back to life again that’s when many then switch over to something a little more fruity and flavoursome. This isn’t the standard for everyone though, quite a few people stick with the tobaccos and menthols for their entire vaping career and I’m one of those people. Over five years vaping now and I still prefer a tobacco flavour more than a fruity one. I guess yet again it just shows we are all different when it comes to flavour and what works for one won’t always work for another.

This research also shows that flavour is just as important to vapers as the nicotine is. Getting the right flavour makes vaping more enjoyable which means you are more likely to use your ecig, it also goes to show that it’s not the kids the sweet flavours are aimed at, the adults enjoy them just as much. Next time someone says to you that the ecig didn’t work for them, suggest they try another flavour.

September has been a fantastic month for ecig research, so we are still playing a little bit of catch up trying to get through it all. At the start of the month a little study was released that didn’t pick up much press attention either side of the pond.

Published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine the study refutes the hypothesis that e-cigarettes serve as a gateway to smoking among non-smoking youth.

Dr. Kenneth Warner from the University of Michigan analysed data from the 2015 Monitoring the Future survey. He took things one step further than other studies though, while previous youth smoking studies only ever asked the question “Have you used an e-cigarette in the last month?” Dr. Warner asked what the frequency was in the last month, there’s a huge difference between once in 30 days and several times a day.

He noticed that although the results showed that 6.5% of never smoker 18 year olds had used an ecig in the last month only 0.7% of them reported vaping on 20 or more days in the past month. The main pattern of e-cigarette use among non-smoking youth was vaping about once a week or even less. The study concluded that:

“Never smokers were highly unlikely to have used e-cigarettes, and of those who did, the majority used e-cigarettes only 1-2 days.”

Does 0.7% count as a gateway? When teen smoking rates are at the lowest they have ever been 0.7% is even lower than “normal” so I don’t think it does represent a gateway (Unless they mean a really tiny gateway, one made out of lolly sticks for little tiny people like fairies or pixies.) and neither does Dr. Michael Siegel. On his Tobacco Analysis Website he says that:

“These findings provide no support for the theory that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking, these findings refute the gateway hypothesis and show that the claims being made by many anti-smoking groups and agencies, including the CDC, are false.”

Strong words from Dr. Siegel indeed.

It’s that time of year again; the great NHS Stoptober campaign is gaining speed and signing people up across the UK. If you have never heard of Stoptober it’s an NHS campaign with celebrity endorsements to get you to quit smoking. You sign up via your local Stop Smoking Service (SSS) or through the NHS website and make the 1st of October your start date.

The idea is if you can go smoke free for 28 days then you are 5 times more likely to quit for good. The NHS will send you supportive emails or texts there’s also an app and even a Facebook bot that can message you practical support.

Is this your year to try? Or do you think that yet again you will try your hardest but after a day or two the lives of your nearest and dearest may be in danger if they offer you one more word of encouragement? Maybe this time around it might be time to give ecigs a go. Don’t think of it as quitting or stopping, quitting anything is hard, think of it as switching. I’m calling it Switchtober.

The NHS are quite happy for ecigs to be your chosen method to quit tobacco cigarettes and will still offer you all the additional support you can get if your using a more traditional method of quitting. The NHS Stoptober website says that:

“E-cigarettes are particularly effective when combined with support from local stop smoking services – people who choose this route have some of the highest quitting success rates.”

If you’re thinking of giving Stoptober a try this year and using ecigs to do it then pop into one of our shops and have a chat with the team, try a device and see if it’s something you think might be able to work for you. We have all been where you are now, and want you to have the help that we had when we made the big jump. Our team here at Phoenix are happy to offer as much encouragement as you need and we also have many practical tips and tricks to help you get the most from your ecig.

It’s no secret that stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do to improve your health for yourself and those who love you. What have you got to lose? This could finally be your Switchtober!

I’m not just making that up either, there’s evidence to back it up. A study recently published in The BMJ (The British Medical Journal) has made headlines on the BBC website and in The Guardian.

The study titled “Association between electronic cigarette use and changes in quit attempts, success of quit attempts, use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy, and use of stop smoking services in England: time series analysis of population trends” wanted to know if ecigs had played any part in helping people quit smoking, and if so what was it?

From the results they published it seems that quit attempts did not really change once ecigs came onto the market. Quit attempts did however become much more successful using an ecig, about 18,000 people were more successful last year than they would have been due to the ecig. The team also believes that use of ecigs has caused a reduction of traditional NRT and ecigs are seen by those wishing to use them as the best chance of quitting tobacco. The team collected their data between 2006 and 2015 using the Smoking Toolkit Study and the national behavioural support programme (NHS Stop Smoking Service to you and me). During this period over 8 million quit dates were set.

At the same time as The BMJ study, the Cochrane Review also released their 2nd data study. The Cochrane Review is seen as the gold standard in research groups. They added to the findings of The BMJ study saying that “In the short- to medium-term we didn’t find any evidence that they were associated with any serious side-effects” as always more research is needed longer term. This is very similar to the findings of the 1st Cochrane Review back in 2014. They believe that ecigs will keep going from strength to strength and that “In the next few years hopefully there will be more evidence out there to strengthen our conclusions.”

What’s your vaping story? Did you try traditional NRT first or just skip it and go straight to your ecig?

Scotland’s history with the ecig has been a touch erratic over the last few years. There could be a turning point on the horizon however; an article published on the Herald Scotland website claims the world’s first study examining the safety of ecigs for pregnant women will take place there next year.

Professor Linda Bauld of the University of Sterling will be one of the team leading the study. She said:

“We will be recruiting several hundred pregnant smokers and randomising them to use NRT and behavioural support, or an e-cigarette and behavioural support and then we will see how they get on,”

The researchers plan to answer 3 questions; does it help them stop smoking? Do they like it? And is it safe?

The latest research in Scotland suggests that nearly 10,000 pregnant women in Scotland are current smokers at their first health visit. New guidance for midwives states only NRT should be recommended but no one should be discouraged from using ecigs if it helps you quit. Janet Fyle, policy advisor with the Royal College of Midwives said:

“We have to say the jury is still out on e-cigarettes. We do not know what the harm is if any, so we have to be cautious and say to (pregnant) women this is the perfect opportunity to give up smoking, improve your health and stay smoke-free”

This is huge news and a potential game changer for attitudes towards ecigs.

It seems Bradford Council maybe trying to do their part for ecigs too. According to an article in the Telegraph and Argus newspaper, Bradford Council are being urged to become “vape friendly”. The paper published by Public Health England last August, stating the ecigs are 95% safer than tobacco is at the center of the new debate. Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservative Group on Bradford Council has called on the council to bring its self into line with the published guidance.

Mr Cooke said “Despite this evidence, the Council and many other bodies persist with policies that ban vaping and it is time this changed.” And that “It is wrong to treat these people (Vapers) in the same way as smokers and, worse, these bans act to discourage people from switching to safer vaping. I think it’s time the Council permitted staff to use e-cigarettes, and allowed the public to vape in Council premises such as the markets and leisure facilities.”

Mr Cooke didn’t stop there though; he would also like to see the bans lifted across all private buildings and believes the council could lead the way in this, all in the name of public health. Surprisingly the council didn’t just laugh at him and call him a looney, they are taking this proposal seriously and are “currently reviewing our HR policy in relation to e-cigarettes and their use on council premises to ensure a sensible policy”

Come on Bradford Council, get this right and you could lead the way for the rest of the country. It only takes one to start the ball rolling!

After a couple of weeks of great research the scary headlines are back in full flow again. The most prominent one was featured on the front page of The Sun Newspaper. Titled “Vaping as bad as fags: e-cigs seriously damage heart” That is a fairly strong scare headline right on the front page. Yet the first line of the article includes the word “could” so it’s not a definite like the headline suggests and that’s just the first line.

The article is based on a study published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology in which the authors claim that Vaping for 30 minutes has the same effect on the arteries as smoking for 5 minutes. The result they observed is called arterial stiffening.

Let’s break this down a little; firstly Arterial Hardening is a thing. Secondly, you would have to vape six times longer than you smoke for in one session to get the same effect. They also fail to mention the temporary hardening disappeared after 30 minutes unlike smoking which was 60 minutes and they also failed to show the comparison to NRT in the article.

Thirdly (and most importantly) the result was an expected one; all stimulants have the same effect on the arteries, this includes caffeine, stress, an exciting movie, (sorry about this one) sex, exercise, rock music and lifting your head up to name but a few, the list is quite extensive. Yet none of those are ever stated to be “as bad as smoking”. Just because a stimulant causes a change to some measurable property of the body, it cannot be assumed (as they appear to have done here) that this will lead to harm in the long term.

Several people were quoted in the article arguing against the claim. Deborah Arnott from ASH UK was one of them; she “insisted e-cigs were much safer than tobacco.” Also Rosanna O’Connor, director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at Public Health England, agreed, saying:

“Vaping carries a fraction of the risk of smoking.”

Prof. Peter Hajek and Prof. Michael Siegel even went so far as to create web pages to show their own reasons why the article was incorrect. Both are very good reads.

If you were dashing past the newsstand on your way to work and saw The Suns front page headline then the damage is probably already done. But what should the headline really of said? Maybe something like “Vaping not as bad as fags: ecigs don’t seriously damage heart” or maybe “Study does not show that Vaping causes heart disease and stroke” defiantly not front page material though is it?

A study published recently in the Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy suggests that Vapers get less airway infections than smokers.

The study took the form of a survey on two of the largest German vaping forums E-Rauchen-Forum and Dampfertreff-Forum.

The opening post on the forum thread commented on an article that suggested vaping could increase rates of common cold and respiratory infections, the post starter claimed that he had had the opposite experience and wanted to find out what everyone else had experienced.

He asked people to respond honestly and reminded them that this was just about infections such as the common cold and not asthma or COPD. He also asked that only people who had vaped exclusively or those who had cut down by at least 95% and vaped for at least 2 months to respond.

The question they were then asked to answer was:

Since switching to e-cigarettes, the frequency of any airways infections I get has:

a) decreased;
b) not markedly changed;
c) increased.

Responders could also provide extra comments if they wished to.

The survey ran from the 24th of September 2014 until the 31st December 2015. The results were then run through a piece of software that identified those who had responded more than once to remove multiple entries from the gathered data. The results were that 941 individual responders had completed the survey and of those 29% noticed no change in respiratory symptoms, 5% reported a worsening of symptoms and 66% reported an improvement.

Now I know what you’re thinking, this is all anecdotal; they could just be claiming to feel better to portray vaping in a good light. The researchers were also having these thoughts. They said that:

“The survey has several limitations. The reports were subjective and there is a possibility that vapers were trying to portray vaping in a positive light to counteract the general anti-vaping ethos of public health and media coverage of vaping. The survey pleaded for honesty, but it is possible that some responders reported improvements in infection resistance even when the actual change was small or none.”

However the results showing such a huge positive result were along the lines of what the researchers were expecting. They went onto say that:

“The finding of an improvement in respiratory health in people who quit smoking is not surprising because smoking causes increased susceptibility to respiratory infections. In addition to this however, there is also a possibility that inhaled propylene glycol may further magnify this effect. This is because this key ingredient of most e-liquids has antimicrobial effects. Vaping may provide a degree of antimicrobial protection, but experimental evidence is needed to confirm whether such an effect exists. In summary, the switch from smoking to vaping seems associated with a reduced incidence of airway infections, but further studies using objective measures are needed.”

I very much look forward to the next phase of this study and the possible results that could come from it. But while we wait for that I’ll just ask, has vaping made any difference to the amount of colds you get?

Anecdotal evidence about feeling better once you switch from smoking to vaping has been rife amongst vapers for years but now the research appears to be catching up. A Study led by Roswell Park Cancer Institute in America has been published in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research Journal and has shown significant evidence supporting vapers’ claims that they feel better once they are no longer inhaling all the rubbish included in tobacco smoke. The study wanted to find out if the vapers claims that you get the nicotine with none of the rubbish where anywhere near true.

The researchers took a group of 20 current smokers, who had smoked for an average of 12 years and had a desire to quit, and tested their urine samples (ewww, who said research is boring?) for seven nicotine metabolites and 17 tobacco smoke exposure biomarkers. They then gave each of the smokers a 1st generation ecig (slightly bigger than a lookalike type but not as good as the more common devices available today) to use for 2 weeks and tested them again after 1 weeks use and again at the 2 week end date.

In total 45% of the participants were able to just use their ecig with no tobacco at all after the 2 week period, with 55% continuing with their tobacco cigarettes. After the 1st week with the ecig the biomarkers the researchers were looking for had significantly decreased in those just using the ecig and the nicotine levels had remained similar. And then they reduced even further after the second weeks testing. This led the team to the conclusion that:

“The decline in toxicant levels was similar to the decline seen among tobacco users who quit smoking. Nicotine metabolites remained unchanged among the majority of study participants, confirming findings from earlier laboratory studies showing that e-cigarettes effectively deliver nicotine to the blood.”

The researchers believe this was the first study of its kind and demonstrates that switching from smoking to vaping may reduce the exposure of numerous toxicants and carcinogens present in tobacco and that the data they gathered in the study will help in the evaluation of ecigs as a harm reduction device. Lead author Maciej Goniewicz, PhD, PharmD said that:

“This study suggests that smokers who completely switch to e-cigarettes and stop smoking tobacco cigarettes may significantly reduce their exposure to many cancer-causing chemicals.”

It seems the scientific evidence supporting vapers anecdotal evidence may finally be beginning to arrive. This study was originally conducted between March and June 2011, I have no idea why it has taken this long to publish the results but some suggest it’s a little late now that the Tobacco Products Directive is in effect across Europe and the FDA regulations across America, however I think that every bit of good research helps with public opinion and will hopefully help to build confidence in those nervous about switching to ecigs, especially when the results are this positive.

When the government introduces legislation it does keep track of the effect the legislation has after introduction. Back in January 2014 the government was aware that it would be introducing ecig legislation soon and produced a preliminary report on the effect it thought would happen, most of the report focused on the scale of use, safety and quality and are they useful as a stop smoking device.

The government have now published an update, which they call a POSTnote. The update looks at all the same points as the original and also determines if the recent legislation has had any effect.

The updated document is available here and is 4 pages long; page 5 is a list of links where information and research was referenced in the document. The document starts with a brief overview; I’ve chosen a few highlights:

• Nearly 3m people in the UK use ecigarettes. The market is growing rapidly.
• A growing body of evidence shows that ecigarettes are much less harmful than tobacco.
• There is evidence showing that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit tobacco.
• Current evidence suggests that e-cigarettes do not encourage tobacco smoking among non-smokers or children.

After the overview the document gets much more in-depth, starting with a little bit of background and data about tobacco smoking in the UK. One interesting fact from this section is about the income to the Treasury from smokers. £9.5bn not including VAT was made by the Treasury in 2015/16 and the estimate is that £2bn is spent by the NHS on treating smoking related illnesses. There is then a section about the basics of ecigs, the parts, how they work etc. Followed by some information about the patterns of use of ecigs, such as: 98% of users are ex-smokers and use trebled between 2012 and 2014 but has slowed down since. Vaping is also more popular with women and those of a higher socio-economic group.

The section on the public perception of harm is also quite interesting. According to this document 25% of the UK public think that ecigs are similar in harm to tobacco, up from 7% in 2013. However 69% of vapers think the harm is less than tobacco which has risen from 55% in 2015. If you are a smoker who doesn’t vape then only 29% think vaping is better which has come down from 40% in 2015. And the majority of 11-16 year olds think ecigs are harmful but tobacco flavour is worse than a fruit one.

Health effects on vapers and bystanders is the next section covered and a few highlights from this are: research has improved since 2014 and the consensus is that long term health risks to vapers require monitoring but are unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm of tobacco. Health risks to bystanders are smaller still; current evidence shows that levels are negligible. On technical safety and quality the report concludes that although a few fires have been reported from ecigs these are “comparable to similar electrical goods”

We move onto the value of ecigs as a stop smoking tool, ecigs have given traditional NRT a bit of a kicking in the market place in recent years so has it been worth it? It seems to depend on how you intend to quit, is it with help or are you going to go solo. The document says that:

• 50% more effective than unsupported attempts, including over-the-counter NRT used without professional support
• Of similar effectiveness as prescribed NRT or drugs
• Less effective than NRT or drugs used with regular face-to-face support from NHS Stop Smoking Services.

The document does also say that the evidence is limited as a stop smoking tool as there is such a low number of randomised controlled trials and that previous trials have used less effective types of ecigs. There is currently an ongoing trial using much more advanced devices and the results are due in 2018. The evidence so far is suggesting using more advanced devices within the stop smoking support framework should be at least as successful as other NRT.

The document comes to a close with information about the recent Tobacco Products Directive and the current regulations surrounding ecigs. Are the recent restrictions on ecigs imposed by the Tobacco Products Directive relevant and useful? This question is still very much a hot topic of debate and both sides of the argument are given in the document.

What did you get up to this weekend? Did you have a good time?

I did, I made my way down to Shrewsbury to attend the biggest vaping festival in the UK and it was fantastic. Thousands of people attended again this year and the atmosphere was amongst the best yet.

The Saturday started off with a frantic dash to get the stuff my manager wanted (he couldn’t attend but gave me a shopping list). Once I had his list done it was my chance to grab the bits I wanted and then it was time to take the pace down a little and actually have a look at who was there and what they brought. There were a few new VapeFest releases of juices and atty’s but most vendors had brought the usual Brands with a special VapeFest price tag attached. VapeFest isn’t really known for the free samples but the prices are always very attractive on the day, although I did manage a few freebie juices.

The food wagons were there again this year, except for the vegetarian one which was a little disappointing for some folks. But my chip buttie was lovely and I bumped into Phoenix’s head of flavour development Dan Gordon.

I did say I would Photoshop the beer out of the picky but oops I forgot. He was working hard though, making his way round the stalls talking to vendors about EL-Science.

Vapers in Power had a marquee again this year with a couple of talks going on over both days of VapeFest, very interesting stuff about the future of vaping with the Tobacco Products Directive now in effect.

Then it was time for the raffle. With at least 60 prizes everyone in the crowd was hopeful; I know there were at least 60 prizes because I won one of them! I can’t bring you any pictures of that yet though as it hasn’t been delivered yet, but I can tell you it’s a special edition Rude Oil BBQ.

The grounds cleared out fairly quickly after the raffle as the evening’s festivities began. Those who stayed behind got to enjoy the live band and the beer wagons. I headed back to the hotel as happy hour began at 6PM. That was day 1.

Sunday last year was much more of a social day and the same happened this year, a lot more of the vendors stayed for the Sunday this year and it was nowhere near as manic as Saturday. Plenty of opportunity to try the juices and devices in a more relaxed atmosphere. Lunchtime saw a couple more talks from Vapers in Power and I spent my time after that catching up with VapeFest friends new and old. By 6pm most of the vendors had packed up and VapeFest 2016 came to a close. What a weekend, fantastic weather and all. I hope I see you there next year!

It’s Nearly Time… For UK VapeFest 2016! We are now just days away from the UK’s biggest vaping event.

Saturday the 6th of August and Sunday the 7th are the dates for your diary and the location for your Satnav is the West Midlands Showground, Shrewsbury SY1 2PF.

Every year VapeFest gets bigger and better as the vaping community grows and last year was a great weekend out so it could be hard to top this time around but I believe it will be the best yet.

Gates open at 10am on Saturday and will stay open until 10pm. Sunday will be a 10am start again but closing at 8pm. Admission has always been and will continue to be free again this year. There is a small charge of £10 per adult this year for camping which must be booked and paid for in advance*. But that charge gives you the chance of extra tickets in the raffle and a secondary raffle for campers only with at least 1 prize being worth over £500. If camping isn’t for you there are many great hotels locally and usually a couple of pub crawls to join in with on the Friday and Saturday night.

The next important thing to mention is the Raffle. Always a huge part of the event, tickets cost £2 each last year so I expect this year’s price to be the same and maximum of 5 tickets per person. The money raised from the raffle goes towards the event nominated charity and this year that will be Tiny Hearts based at Barnsley Hospital. Tickets are only available on the day and by those attending in person; you also have to be there to claim the prize. The prizes are always well worth winning with everything in there from litres of juice to attys to mods and squonkers, very often all in one prize pack. The raffle will take place at 4pm on the Saturday and with at least 50 prizes to give away it can take a while, get a drink to bring with you while you wait to win.

Most of the 75+ vendors will be offering some great VapeFest only deals so if there is something specific you have been wanting get in there early as it can get a little manic and most of them will start closing down between 5 and 6pm on the Saturday. The shopping may be over but the party is just starting, at 6pm the Rock band “Hedgehog” is due on stage covering classics from Prince, Metallica and Queen amongst many others. The Food and Drink vans will be open until closing at 10pm or if you would rather you can head on into town. Sunday last year was much more of a social day with more chatting going on rather than shopping, there will still be things to spend your cash on but not quite as much.

Disabled access is available as much as is possible and the access to the toilets is on the radar system. The one building with a lip to the entrance will have ramps available but do bear in mind that the event is held in a field so the Great British weather may have other alternatives in mind, brollies and wellies might be needed. Children and dogs are also welcome but again please remember that vaping is an over 18 hobby so there will not be any entertainment for the kids and they must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

If you see the organisers Ukric, Fiona, Funkybunch, itsmeitis, wyrm1973 or Cerby wandering round in their official lanyards feel free to say Hi and Thank you as they do this for free every year so we can have a great day out. If you want to look at the finer details of what to expect on the day you can have a look at the official VapeFest website here. See you there!

*At time of writing camping tickets were still available but have since closed.

Public Health England is getting involved in vaping again, and again it’s on a positive note. Now they have written and published advice for employers on how to treat vapers at work.

The advice is contained in 3 documents, the first is titled “Use of e-cigarettes in public places and workplaces: advice to inform evidence-based policy making” the second is “Report of PHE stakeholder ‘conversation’ on use of e-cigarettes in enclosed public places and workplaces” and thirdly we have “E-cigarettes in public places and workplaces: a 5-point guide to policy making”.

The most interesting to me is the third document (it’s also the shortest) and it’s the one I’ll talk about, but all 3 are available for your perusal here. The other two documents expand on the 5 points laid out and summarise the way they came to these conclusions.

This page is very simply laid out with just a 5 point bulleted list:-

1.  Make a clear distinction between vaping and smoking
   E-cigarette use does not meet the legal or clinical definitions of smoking. Furthermore, international peer-reviewed evidence suggests that e-cigarettes carry a fraction of the risk of cigarettes and have the potential to help drive down smoking rates, denormalise smoking, and improve public health. So policies need to be clear on the differences between vaping and smoking.
2. Ensure policies are based on evidence of harm to bystanders
   The evidence of harm from secondhand smoke is conclusive and provides the basis for UK smokefree laws. In contrast, international peer-reviewed evidence indicates that the risk to the health of bystanders from secondhand e-cigarette vapour is extremely low and insufficient to justify prohibiting e-cigarettes. This evidence should inform risk assessments.
3. Identify and manage risks of uptake by children and young people
   E-cigarette use is not recommended for young people and this is reflected in the UK’s age of sale and advertising restrictions. However, because adult smokers use e-cigarettes to quit smoking and stay smokefree, the products can help reduce children’s and young people’s exposure to secondhand smoke and smoking role models. In developing policies for child and youth settings, guarding against potential youth uptake should be balanced with fostering an environment where it is easier for adults not to smoke.
4. Support smokers to stop smoking and stay smokefree
   E-cigarettes are used almost exclusively by smokers and ex-smokers and are now the most popular stop-smoking aid in England. To help smokers to stop smoking and stay smokefree, a more enabling approach to vaping may be appropriate to make it an easier choice than smoking. In particular, vapers should not be required to use the same space as smokers, as this could undermine their ability to quit and stay smokefree.
5. Support compliance with smokefree law and policies
   Maintain and support compliance with smokefree requirements by emphasising a clear distinction between smoking and vaping. Indicate accurately where vaping is permitted or prohibited, and communicate the policy clearly to everyone it affects.

The way I read those 5 suggestions is that PHE are very much taking a common sense, evidence based approach and suggest that employers do too.

1. Don’t demonise your vaping employees, they are trying to do something good for their health, you should learn the difference between smoking and vaping and help them.
2. Don’t panic that the cloud of vapour is going to mean instant death, look at the evidence before you over-react.
3. Don’t ban them totally because a child may see someone using them but provide a discreet place the vaper can go, after all you wouldn’t ask someone to remove their Nicotine patch while working at their desk would you?
4. Don’t send your vaping staff out to the same shelter as the smokers; it’s not a nice place for a non-smoker and it may make it harder for them to stay off the ciggies.
5. Don’t blanket ban the vapers, put some signs up to show where vaping is acceptable and where it isn’t, just like you do for smoking, perhaps even provide a vaping room nearby.

Common sense!

If you have trouble vaping at work then maybe show the PHE information to your boss and it might help, you could also show him this article from the Nottingham Post, back in May they decided to overturn the blanket ban on vaping on the hospital grounds, saying that:

“We have a duty to help our patients and staff make healthy life choices, and can’t ignore the potential benefits of electronic cigarettes as a nicotine replacement therapy. We’re now allowing e-cigarettes on our grounds to give our patients, staff and visitors more choice in how they quit smoking.”

Much better idea than the Big Red Panic Button and it was all down to advice and recommendations from PHE.

June 23rd 2016 saw the historical referendum vote by the people of the UK. The referendum saw a massive 72% turnout and 16.8 million votes needed for the winning side, with 308 of the 382 areas declaring their results.A t 4:39 am on the 24th of June 2016, David Dimbleby and the BBC announced that the people had spoken and decided 52% to 48% to leave the EU. There is now a lot of uncertainty ahead for every member of our society and the coming days will involve a lot of bickering, discussion, and decision making. All of that will be covered by the mainstream press endlessly I’m sure; we are here to find out how it affects vapers.

The answer is (I’ve been waiting weeks to say this): we just don’t know! Sorry- I couldn’t resist, but it’s true. It could take years to extract or repeal all the EU directives currently affecting our lives including the recent Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Right now, it’s all guesswork. David Cameron has always supported ecigs but now he’s on the verge of resignation. The front runner for the conservative leadership seems to be Boris Johnson and we don’t know his opinion on ecigs yet, but I’m sure he will be only too happy to tell us. And then there’s the House of Lords Regret motion still waiting to be discussed (recently postponed to the 4th of July). While we are still waiting for the waters to settle, let’s take a look the question:

“Did vapers affect the vote?”

Like all good media, the polls are the place to look for answers. Through forums, Twitter and Facebook vapers have been getting surveyed, along with the rest of the UK population. Vaper surveys were a little more specific though. Most of the questions were aimed towards vapers who had followed the TPD through the EU Parliament and one survey asked:

“As a vaper, would you be voting to leave the EU?”

151 vapers responded and 90% voted yes to leaving. Translating that to a national level, it would mean 2.6 million vapers voting out. If that number is accurate and the difference between the referendum leave and remain votes is 1,269,501, could this difference have affected the whole referendum outcome? Could it be that half of those 2.6 million vapers may have voted remain if it were not for the TPD?

Now I’m not saying the leave vote was all because of vapers, because everyone had their own reasons for voting how they did, but vapers have shown their determination and passion on many occasions recently and they come from all walks of life. Whatever the reasons for the leave vote, the decision has now been made, so it’s time to go forward and see what the future holds for us all. Just keep remembering: vaper power!

After 11 hours of referendum watching I’m now off to bed. Night night.

Back in March, I covered the failure of the Welsh Government to bring in their own unique ban on vaping in the great Welsh fresh air all because of a badly timed joke- bad for them, but not for vapers, and the ban was dropped. I found out this week that even after all that stupidity, people still haven’t been put off from demonising vapers in Wales.

An article appeared on the BBC website concerning four Welsh hospitals and their big red buttons. The hospitals involved are Bronglais, Glangwili, Prince Philip and Withybush, and the big red buttons will be located near the main entrances.

I hear you asking; is the big button for security? Entry to the hospital? Emergency help? Nope, no and non. It’s to humiliate smokers and vapers into stopping doing either on hospital grounds.

From now, on upon seeing a smoker or vaper, the panic stricken hospital visitors will be able to furiously smack the big red button, and a message recorded by children will play from the PA system. Click here to hear a sample of the message recorded both in Welsh as well as English (mp3). I’ve visited hospitals many times and they all state “Smoke Free Site” on their signage- no one could really miss it. Yes, there are usually a couple of smokers hanging out by the exits or sitting on a wall if the weather is nice, or a few patients wheeled out by the staff for a quick ciggy- do they all deserve this sort of humiliation? Or will the staff wheel them all the way to the main road so they can partake?

Teresa Owen from the Welsh health board said:

“While the majority of staff, patients and visitors to our sites respect this policy, some people continue to smoke on-site. Everyone has the right to breathe fresh air, especially when visiting a health care facility and we regularly receive complaints about people smoking on our sites.”

I would have thought that they received more complaints about the bad food, parking, lack of appointments and waiting time in A&E than someone outside having a crafty ciggy or a vape. It seems that I am wrong. Although only in Wales at the moment, I’m left wondering how long it will be until other hospitals around the UK are trying something similar themselves- all in the name of fresh air of course.

This week I was hoping to be able to bring you some happy news about Lord Callanan’s Fatal Motion for the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in the House of Lords, but it seems that a change to his plan has in fact occurred. No one believed it possible, but Lord Callanan has changed his fatal motion to remove the TPD from UK law to a simple regret motion. This means that nothing will change, the House can regret as much as they like with a 100% vote of support, but nothing will change in law.

The change was noticed a few days ago by some eagle eyed vapers on the House of Lords debate schedule. The notice has now become:

Lord Callanan to move that this House regrets that the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 place restrictions on product choice and advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling many people to quit smoking, run counter to advice from the Royal College of Physicians to promote vaping and are so severe that they could force vapers back to smoking and create a black market with harmful products; and calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to withdraw them (SI 2015/507).

Lord Callanan is not the only member of The Lords feeling regretful about the TPD though; Baroness Walmsley has put forward her own Regret motion concerning the advertising ban:

Baroness Walmsley to move that, in the light of the prohibition of commercial advertising of vaping devices in the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the proven public health benefit to former smokers of switching to vaping devices, confirmed by the advice from the Royal College of Physicians that vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking tobacco, and that half of all tobacco smokers die from smoking-related causes, this House regrets that the advertising ban would hinder e-cigarettes from being promoted as a way of assisting smokers to stop smoking tobacco, and that concerns regarding the restriction of the nicotine concentration of the vapour have not been properly addressed (SI 2015/507).

And Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Regret has put his concerns about the impact of the TPD and any negative effect it will have on those choosing to vape rather than smoke:
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath to move that, in the light of the concerns about the impact of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 on the use of electronic cigarettes, this House regrets that there is not a monitoring mechanism in place to measure whether the Regulations will have a negative impact on the number of smokers using electronic cigarettes to give up smoking; that the Regulations are not to be accompanied by a public information campaign to reassure smokers that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than normal smoking; that smoking cessation services are being cut back at the same time as the Regulations are being introduced; and that the Regulations are due for implementation before the Government has published their tobacco strategy (SI 2015/507).

Lord Callanan hasn’t yet said openly the reasons for his change of motion from Fatal to Regret, but it is believed that it was because he didn’t have enough support from amongst the Labour Lords. The Regret debates are expected on or before the 15th of June.

I very rarely bring you information on what’s happening across the pond in the US, but sometimes the news is so unbelievable that I just have to mention it. A few days ago, an article appeared on the Reuters website- at first it seemed like the usual stuff about people being put off vaping and ecigs by all the scare stories in the media. Then I spotted the closing paragraph:

“We think there are certainly more and better ways to help smokers to quit,” said Erika Sward of the American Lung Association. “When you’re going to e-cigarettes, you’re not quitting, you’re switching.”

Sorry, what? Giving up smoking isn’t enough; we need to do it in the way you tell us? Giving up smoking, switching, quitting whatever you want to call it, is the single biggest thing any smoker can do to improve their health, but it seems like the American Lung Association (ALA) is saying that the benefit is only if you do it their way. Maybe it’s the fact that vapers are still enjoying nicotine that they don’t agree with? Isn’t the fact that we are no longer inhaling all those life draining toxic cigarette chemicals several times a day enough?

I say it is enough, more than enough in fact, and so does Dr. Michael Siegel from Boston University School of Public Health, with over 25 years of experience in the field of tobacco control- he’s a man who should know what is best. Dr. Siegel has had a few things to say about the ALA previously on his long running blog Tobacco Analysis, and he has a few thoughts about this article too:

“The American Lung Association would rather see all these millions of people smoking rather than vaping because the idea that literally millions of people might be benefiting from the use of a product that contains nicotine is simply too hard to bear.”

He also says that:

“Vapers are people who should be congratulated for having finally succeeded in quitting smoking – something that they were unable or unwilling to do using the methods that the American Lung Association recommends”

Dr. Siegel says this next bit way better than I ever could:

“There is no right or wrong way to quit smoking. What matters for your health is that you quit. The body doesn’t know how you quit; what it knows is that you are no longer inhaling tobacco smoke with its tens of thousands of chemicals and more than 60 known human carcinogens. Whether you quit using a nicotine patch, a pill, hypnosis, vaping, acupuncture, or natural magick, you have successfully quit smoking, are no longer inhaling toxic tobacco smoke, have essentially saved your life, and I congratulate you for having accomplished the single most important – and most difficult – thing you can do to protect your health.”

In the UK we have Public Health England, and The Royal College of Physicians saying ecigs are 95% safer than smoking and backing ecigs as a way to get off tobacco, and the US has the American Lung Association. I know which side of the pond I would much rather be on right now. Whichever way you decide to quit tobacco, be it cold turkey, patches, gums or ecigs, do it the way that you think will work for you; it’s the not smoking bit that’s the important part.

The BBC broadcast one of its most important programmes ever shown on TV last week. OK, so maybe that’s a little over the top, but if you’re a vaper, it’s a huge deal. A whole hour’s air time all about ecigs on one of the most respected networks in the world is a huge turn of events.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch it, it’s still available on BBC iPlayer, or if it’s not, next month YouTube has a few versions too. With sections covering scientific facts and opinion pieces, it was very interesting to watch but I have to admit that there was a couple of little niggles in the programme for me.

Dr. Mosley presented the programme and used himself as a human guinea pig; he carried out a month’s trial as a vaper, even though he has never smoked in his life. He did try his first ever tobacco cigarette for the cameras and after he coughed himself senseless (he had a bucket on hand just in case) he was asked how it was. His response was that now the buzz had kicked in, he could understand why people smoked. Horizon set Dr. Mosley up with a variable voltage/wattage device with a nautilus tank on top, quite a standard bit of kit for the cigarette replacement experience but in clips showing general public vapers, most (not all) of them were sporting sub tanks and blowing large clouds. Fair enough- the vapour might show up better for the cameras this way, but not everyone vapes like this; in fact, the majority of vapers don’t vape like this, so apart from Dr. Mosley, where are all those vapers? Dr. Mosley finished his month’s vaping and had no trouble at all walking away from his ecig, so that helps rule out the ‘addictive as cigarettes’ argument a bit doesn’t it?

In another section of the programme, there was the air quality control test or passive vaping test, previously performed with vapers, with smokers and with fresh air. Lots of little sensors would read any changes in the air and report these to the computer. They sent two guys with sub tanks into the room and the sensors went mad from the first exhale. Well, of course they would with two people vaping at 100+ watts in a room the size of an elevator. In previous experiments, the levels released by vapers were far lower- those vapers were possibly on the “pen style” devices which are much more common. However, the actual results from the sensors showed no matter how cloudy the room got, the sensors were picking up 99% less toxins than they did with tobacco cigarettes and nothing that would be worrying to public health.

There was also a quit test set up as well. 26 smokers were separated into groups, one group went cold turkey, one went with NRT and one had ecigs, while the fourth group carried on smoking as a control group. The cold turkey group failed miserably and NRT and ecigs managed 7 out of 8 quitters. All had tests done before they started which included lung function and heart tests. All the quitters showed improvements at the end of the trial with NRT and ecigs being comparable at 4 weeks, however Horizon are expected to do a follow up episode in about 4 months to see if those involved in the quit trial are still quitters or if they have gone back to tobacco.

The cell damage section was extremely interesting as well. 3 sets of human cells were used in the experiment. The first had just fresh air, the second set of cells had ecig vapour and the third had tobacco smoke blown across them. The fresh air and ecig cells repaired in approximately the same amount of time but the cigarette cells showed little if any improvement in repair, and the wound they were representing was barely healing at all. The test showed that “the vapour of ecigs doesn’t impair the ability of cells to repair themselves”.

Did they prove if ecigs are a miracle or menace? I think they proved the miracle; if it’s a choice between smoking and vaping, vaping is the way to go.

The 10th of May saw a possibly historic debate take place in the House of Lords. The debate was led by Viscount Ridley (who has been a staunch supporter of ecigs since the beginning), and it focused on the implementation of the TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) which was officially introduced on the 20th of May.

The Lords are not fans of the inclusion of ecigs into the TPD, and the debate saw many of the Lords speaking up positively for ecigs, with a couple of them admitting they actually used ecigs themselves. The entire debate is available on YouTube; it’s 1 hour 13 mins long, but well worth the watch- but if that’s not an option, the transcript is available too.

Since the debate, Lord Callanan has tabled a fatal motion, known as a Prayer Motion. A little background on Lord Callanan first though; he was an MEP when the TPD was going through the EU Parliament and fought incredibly hard to get the best deal for ecigs. Along with vapers, he helped to convert many of the other MEP’s to the benefits of ecigs, which resulted in the vote that all ecigs should be medical devices being beaten. He also chaired the meeting between the MEP’s and the Council of EU Ministers and fought for ecigs again- this time not quite as successfully, and we ended up with the TPD as it is today. Ever since then he feels that he has let us and ecigs down. That’s one of the reasons behind his fatal motion.

You may have heard of a fatal motion or Prayer before. The Lords, if they so wish, can hold a debate and vote on any legislation the government wants or has already introduced (within 40 days of introduction). The most recent time this was used was the tax credits debate just a few months ago. So even though the TPD is already law, the Lords still have a chance to remove vaping and ecigs from the legislation. The motion Lord Callanan has introduced is this:

“†Lord Callanan to move that a Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, laid before the House on 22 April, be annulled on the grounds that its restrictions on product choice and advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling many people to quit smoking, run counter to advice from the Royal College of Physicians to promote vaping and are so severe that they could force vapers back to smoking and create a black market with harmful products (SI 2015/507).”

This now starts the process of another debate in the House of Lords and then they vote straight afterwards. They have until the 10th of June to complete this process (that will mark the 40th day of the “praying” time). They can vote to remove all of the TPD until it’s re-written or just the section about ecigs or to leave it as it is. The only thing that can stop this motion going ahead is if Lord Callanan bows to pressure from Downing Street and removes the motion himself. Since he has supported ecigs so valiantly since the beginning, this would be an extremely unexpected turn around.

With nearly 3 million vapers in the UK now, legislators do not want this piece of EU law being used as a debate subject just before the EU referendum, which it is starting to become; the leave.eu site has a whole page about it already. The mood in Britain is that ecigs are a good thing for smokers and the EU opinion seems to be not quite as keen. Having such a passionate, powerful subject up for debate right now could raise some interesting arguments towards the whole “in or out” debate so everyone is expecting this to be taken very seriously indeed.

The history of ecigs is not written just yet. Whatever your thoughts on the EU referendum, this is about ecigs and we have a chance to exploit the political consciousness surrounding the EU to our benefit. If you want to have your say on it you can use the write to them website and send a note to your local representative and you can write to any of the Lords using the site they work for you. There is also a petition you can sign on the Change.org site which will be delivered to David Cameron MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP, over 37 thousand vapers have already signed and it’s only been up a few days. Time on this one is short. Using vaper power we achieved a lot the last time we tried, it’s time to try again!

Since October 2015, vapers across Europe have been waiting for the verdict on the Article 20 legal challenge from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Back in December, the Advocate General made her opinion known when she released her statement that said she thought the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) was legally binding and lawful. Hopes were still high however, as the ECJ Judges still had to announce their decision. The Judges were expected to release this by the end of April, but it has only just been announced in the last few days- and it’s in line with the opinion of the Advocate General. The TPD is lawful and will be implemented across Europe on the 20th of May.

Fraser Cropper, the Managing Director of the company that brought the challenge had this to say:

“Today is a bitterly disappointing end to a battle that has lasted more than two years. At its heart was a fundamental dispute between those who recognise the public health potential vaping offers and therefore wish to see these products and their use flourish under a robust yet proportionate consumer regulatory regime, and those who either do not understand vaping or see it as a threat to established interests and therefore wish to see e-cigarettes subjected to a disproportionate and inappropriate regulatory regime.”

He also said that:

“In time I firmly believe that the European Commission and others who support the TPD will come to realise the terrible mistake they have made or eventually be shown to have used the power of the European legislature for vested and craven self-interest. Our business and informed and justifiably angry vapers across Europe will continue to attempt to hold these organisations and individuals to account”.

There is no confirmation yet if they will appeal this decision or not. Click here to view the full statement.

As it seems that all the legal challenges are over and the TPD is to be fully implemented across Europe in a matter of days, the tax argument has begun. The UK has said for a while they did not intend to tax ecigs at a higher rate like tobacco, but the EU may have a different point of view. An article published in The Guardian a few days ago suggests that taxes are already being discussed and case studies are being prepared. EU Finance Ministers appear to be suggesting a minimum level of tax that may be equal to that of combustible tobacco, which is 57% plus 20% VAT in the UK.

However many other EU officials say that raising vaping duties to the same level as tobacco would “make no sense in terms of health policy”. The UKIP Leader Nigel Farage is one of those speaking out against this suggestion; he said on Twitter that he was “Appalled that EU set to tax e-cigarettes at same levels as tobacco.” It seems to be another case of will they tax? Won’t they tax? I know which way I think it will go!

I wasn’t sure I’d ever see this day but here it is; the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) have also now given ecigs the green light. The subject has been covered widely in The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail– even The New York Times ran a story about it. And that’s just the paper press; Sky News, The BBC, ITV and most of the breakfast news TV shows had an “expert” available to discuss the news. It’s probably been as big a story as the Public Health England (PHE) announcement a few months ago that said that ecigs are 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes. The reason for that is it’s pretty much the same announcement, but this time by the RCP, not the government.

The entire RCP document is available for your perusal, but at 206 pages long, it’s probably more than most of us want to read over a cup of tea and a biccy, so I’ll share some highlights with you. Firstly, what is the RCP? The RCP is a professional body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, founded back in the 1500s. The RCP has worked hard to set international standards in medicine, and in 1962 they published the precursor paper to the American Surgeon General’s paper linking tobacco cigarettes to cancer. Tobacco and NRT has been on the RCP radar for quite some time; ecigs are a recent addition but they learn fast at the RCP, and can see the benefits of them already.

Secondly, the authors, are a quality mix of experts in the tobacco and harm reduction field, some with names you will have heard from me before- Prof. Linda Bauld, Deborah Arnott (ASH UK), Prof. John Britton, Martin Dockrell, Prof. Peter Hajek, Prof. Ann McNeill and Prof. Robert West are just a handful of the people involved in this report. Sifting through years worth of research on ecigs, the RCP comes to the same conclusion as PHE; ecigs are only 5% as harmful as tobacco. They also say that:

“There are concerns that e-cigarettes will increase tobacco smoking by renormalising the act of smoking, acting as a gateway to smoking in young people, and being used for temporary, not permanent, abstinence from smoking. To date, there is no evidence that any of these processes is occurring to any significant degree in the UK. Rather, the available evidence to date indicates that e-cigarettes are being used almost exclusively as safer alternatives to smoked tobacco, by confirmed smokers who are trying to reduce harm to themselves or others from smoking, or to quit smoking completely.”

This makes another well respected organisation that states there is no evidence of a “gateway effect”.

The RCP also say that regulation is needed to ensure the products are as safe as possible, but that:

“regulation should not be allowed significantly to inhibit the development and use of harm-reduction products by smokers.” As the technology improves “the vision of a society that is free from tobacco and the harm it causes becomes more realistic” and that “technological developments and improved production standards could reduce the long-term hazard of e-cigarettes even further”.

They wrap up the document with the point that:

“in the interests of public health it is important to promote the use of e-cigarettes, NRT, and other non-tobacco nicotine products as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking in the UK.”

Yes, they really did say promote the use of ecigs!

However there are still a few hardliners out there who prefer the quit or die approach to tobacco control and believe that the UK is becoming one big ecig experiment. Stanton Glantz from the University of California is one of those hardliners and he seems to be very anti ecig; he said that:

“They are taking England into a series of policies that five years from now they all will really regret. They are turning England into this giant experiment on behalf of the tobacco industry.”

Fortunately, he seems to be a minority and in 5 years’ time, I hope someone reminds him of this quote so he can eat his words. Right now, I’m glad I live in the UK where they are willing to focus on the evidence we have right in front of us and they aren’t scared to stand up and say 95% safer is good enough when the product they replace is deadly to 50% of users, not the what ifs of the hypothetical, possible, maybe future.

How many times will 95% safer have to be said before people stop trying to claim ecigs are the devil’s work?

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (RCLCF) has announced this week that they will be conducting some research into ecigs. The Foundation has noticed over the years that even when given such a serious diagnosis, only 1 in 3 patients undergoing radiotherapy or chemotherapy manage to stop smoking fully. There is emerging evidence that continuing to smoke while undergoing these types of treatments could compromise the outcome, recovery time and quality of life after treatment has ceased. With the announcement from Public Health England about ecigs being 95% safer than tobacco, the RCLCF wanted to know if ecigs were something that might make a difference to those 2 in 3 patients who couldn’t stop smoking.

Teaming up with Prof. Linda Bauld from the University of Sterling and Dr. Stephen Harrow, a consultant clinical Oncologist at Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Center, the RCLCF hopes to show that switching to ecigs can improve the benefits of the treatments and lead to better outcomes for lung cancer patients. The study aims to determine whether using an ecig after diagnosis is acceptable to patients, is it feasible to use them, and how useful the patients found them. The announcement has only just been made, so the results are still months away- but I’ll be very interested to read them when they are ready.

There’s some news from the Nottinghamshire County Council this week as well. They have become the first council in the UK to ban staff from smoking or using ecigs during working hours. Banning smoking during working hours is not a new idea, but the inclusion of ecigs is a first. The idea was first brought up back in September, and has been voted through at the latest council meeting. It’s now expected to come into force in May. The restrictions will include all employees, whether in uniform or not, during working hours. They will cover all council vehicles too. Employees working offsite are also under the ruling. Also included are visiting contractors. However, employees will still be able to use ecigs on their lunch breaks, providing they are not on council property.

The council are hoping that this move will enable them be seen as a “beacon of health” and emphasise that their reasons behind the ban are supportive, not punitive. Many disagree though; Simon Clark from campaign group Forest says that:

“A lot of smokers are using ecigs to cut down on cigarettes or quit altogether, so it’s barking mad for the council to ban the use of ecigs”.

Questions have also been raised about what will happen when the medical ecig is available on prescription; will these be banned too? If they are, is it fair that you can use over the counter gum or patches, but not a medical device? Only time will tell if the decision is a good one or not (personally, I think not) but it does make me wonder how soon before other councils also want to be “beacons for health” and follow suit.

Instead of scaremongering about ecigs and young people, there is another way to view this result; rather than the shops luring young people (who never intended to pick up an ecig in their lifetime) in with the power of their displays, maybe the young people remembered the advert because they already smoked or vaped. According to Prof. Paul Aveyard of behavioural medicine at the University of Oxford, the study did find this- but The Independent forgot to write that in the story:

“an obvious explanation is that people with no interest in smoking or vaping will tend not to notice them on display, whereas those who do will notice them. We look at what we are interested in and this is the most likely explanation of the study’s findings”

He also says that:

“It is also important to remember what else this study found. The main group of young people that use ecigarettes are those young people that already smoke. The study provides no evidence that point of sale displays are creating a generation of young people who do not smoke but regularly use e-cigarettes.”

Prof. Aveyard isn’t the only person to think this. Prof. Peter Hajek from Queen Mary University London agreed with Prof. Aveyard saying that:

“The study found that vaping appeals primarily to adolescents who smoke. This corresponds to numerous other studies that confirm that e-cigarettes can attract smokers but that they have very little appeal to non-smokers.”

And Prof. Robert West from University College London:

“the conclusions of the study could easily mislead readers. Almost everyone in the sample who used an ecigarette was already smoking, so the study has no bearing on whether point-of-sale advertising of ecigarettes leads young non-smokers to use them, which is the inference most people are likely to draw”

However, with the new advertising rules for e-cigs about to come into force, this whole argument might be null and void. 20th May 2016 is the date the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is due to come into law, and Ofcom and BCAP (Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice) have made their announcements of what will no longer be allowed.

“Advertisements with the aim or direct or indirect effect of promoting unlicensed, nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes and e-liquids will be prohibited on television and radio in the United Kingdom”

That means no adverts on TV or Radio about ecigs that contain nicotine, and if the device is 0 nicotine but may encourage the use of nicotine, that is not allowed either. No sponsorship of events that may be viewed elsewhere in the world and no product placements in TV shows. The prohibitions for the other forms of advertising are still being finalised but are expected to be similar and will cover the internet, e-mail, text message, newspapers and magazines. Scotland is expected to take this a little further and include leaflets, outdoor posters and bus stops, cinemas, fax and direct hard copy. Vendors selling ecigs are also still waiting to hear what they will and won’t be allowed to do on their websites and in-store.

They divided the respondents into 3 subgroups that they wanted to specifically observe- those with 3 years or more vaping experience, previous never users of tobacco products, and those who had no health issues while smoking.

All participants were asked if they were diagnosed with any adverse health events both while smoking and using an ecig, such as asthma, cancer, bronchitis, circulation issues, palpitations and quite a few other illnesses. They were then asked: if they did have any of those conditions, have any of them resolved since they started vaping? Of the 573 participants, 108 of them had been using ecigs for 3 or more years and on average while smoking they had 1.87 acute or chronic health issues between them. Since switching to ecigs, they show an average of 0.7. This represents a 96% reduction in adverse health events for those vaping over 3 years.

On average, all the respondents reported 61.8% improvement in health issues that developed while smoking. 1 person did report a resolution of their diabetes, but that was not related to smoking, and the researchers are assuming it’s to do with a healthier lifestyle once they stopped smoking. The most common reported resolution was shortness of breath, followed by respiratory infections and high blood pressure. In the group of previous never smokers, none of them reported developing any health problems as a result of use. The group of never smokers comprised of 10 people which is less than 1% of the overall total surveyed, and leads the researchers to believe that there are very few users of ecigs who weren’t already smokers.

From this study, the demographics of vapers in America seem to be 90% White/Caucasian and 65% male. The 31 – 35 age range had the most respondents, but the average age of a vaper was 36 years, with those who had been vaping more than 3 years slightly higher than that, at 39. Those vaping the longest tended to have a higher education and a higher income than the other groups. The researchers also asked about previous smoking history of the respondents and with 47% at 1 pack a day and 36% at 2 packs a day, the rest was split between cigar, pipe, social smoking or less than a pack a day. From the results gathered in this survey, the researchers approximate that ecigs have a minimum success rate of 52% at 3 years, 7 to 8 times greater than patches or gums at 6 months.

This is yet another study that suggests once again there is no “gateway effect”. People feel better after switching to ecigs and (we knew this bit already) are cleverer than those who don’t. Maybe a future study will show the longer you vape the higher your IQ goes.

Many other amendments were tabled such as scrapping it altogether and removing the ecig section totally; all of these failed with 31 against and 26 for. During the long debate Clwyd West AM Darren Millar said restricting vaping was “draconian”, adding that there was more evidence of harm from smoke from “burnt toast” than vaping. He also said that:

“If we are not careful the Minister is going to get us onto a slippery slope where we will be seeking to ban air fresheners, the use of deodorant, the use of certain cleaning products, and potentially even opening the window by the roadside because of the potential harm to the air quality in an enclosed public space of the fumes from passing vehicles.”

The vote was set for the 16th of March.

I tried to, but I wasn’t feeling confident about the outcome of this vote. The Welsh Assembly is split 50% Labour and 50% other parties; Labour only needed one vote from any of the opposition party members and it would go through. Not looking good at all. I really didn’t think I’d have one person’s “bad joke” to thank for my later shock and relief. Labour AM Leighton Andrews just happened to make a joke the day before the vote about Plaid Cymru being a “cheap date” (something to do with a previous alliance between the two groups) and they did not take it well at all. Any support Labour may have expected from them dried up quicker than a 1 ml tank.

Plaid Cymru tried to table an amendment again about removal of the ecig section from the bill and a delay of the vote until after Easter; Labour rejected this suggestion and Plaid Cymru decided to use the vote as a “lesson” to Labour. The hour of the vote arrived and the result was 26 for and 26 against- as it was a tie, the presiding officer had to vote in line with the against votes, this made the final vote 26 for and 27 against, and with that result, the vote to ban ecigs in public failed!

For now there will be no banning of ecigs in Wales anywhere that is public; private buildings as always are welcome to make their own decisions either way.