Taken from E-CIGARETTE POLICY BRIEF: Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know - The Vapor Ninja :
E-CIGARETTE POLICY BRIEF: Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know
All references are hyperlinked to official WHO and government reports, and peer-reviewed studies
The death toll from smoking is enormous
→ tobacco smoking is, by far, the world’s leading cause of preventable cancer, heart and lung disease
Harm reduction can reduce that death toll
Safer nicotine alternatives help smokers quit
Teen vaping is undesirable, but not a crisis
Proposed policy “cures” are worse than the “disease”
Unintended consequences and logical inconsistencies
→ Definitions differ: adult current use = daily or regular use; teen current use = past 30-day ever-use
Full context of adult products that teens use, but should not use
E-CIGARETTE POLICY BRIEF: Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know
All references are hyperlinked to official WHO and government reports, and peer-reviewed studies
The death toll from smoking is enormous
- 8 million people die every year from smoking-related diseases (WHO), including 480,000 in the USA (CDC)
- 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide (WHO), including 34 million in the USA (CDC)
- In the USA, smoking is now concentrated among low-income and LGBTQ people, people living with mental
→ tobacco smoking is, by far, the world’s leading cause of preventable cancer, heart and lung disease
Harm reduction can reduce that death toll
- There is growing independent consensus that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking (35+ official public statements)
- There is strong evidence that smokers who switch to e-cigarettes have lower risk of cancer, heart & lung disease
- When not in tobacco smoke, nicotine itself does not cause cancer, heart or lung disease (CDC and IARC/WHO)
Safer nicotine alternatives help smokers quit
- Big pharma nicotine patches & gum (NRTs) cause neither addiction nor cancer, heart or lung disease (FDA; CDC)
- NRTs increase quit success from 5% (cold turkey) to 9% (on average, smokers try and fail 30 times before quitting)
- E-cigarettes are two times more effective than NRTs (Cochrane review of 50 peer-reviewed studies worldwide)
- Many adult vapers “quit by accident” with e-cigarettes (online survey); NRTs only benefit those who want to quit
- 92% of US all vapers are ADULTS; 4.3 million US adults have quit smoking completely with nicotine vapes (CDC)
- The adult cessation total may be 5.4 million because 26% of those who quit with e-cigarettes later quit vaping
- 2.1 million UK smokers (UK government) and 7.5 million EU smokers (Eurobarometer) have quit with e-cigarettes
- ‘Flavors’ are up to 2.3 times more effective for smoking cessation than tobacco flavor (Yale study) (UK study)
- 80% of US adult vapers prefer fruit, dessert or candy flavors that don’t remind them of smoking (FDA submission)
Teen vaping is undesirable, but not a crisis
- In the UK, which promotes nicotine vaping for adult smokers, teen “current use” by never-smokers is just 1%
- US high school “current use” of vaping products dropped 29% between 2019 and March 2020 (CDC/NYTS)
- By March 2020, only 1 in 20 US high school students vaped daily (4.4%, but 53% of that may be THC not nicotine)
- US youth & young adult vaping dropped another 32% during the pandemic (JAMA survey up to November 2020)
- If both surveys are combined, just 1 in 10 US high school-age teens are now “current users” (13%)
Proposed policy “cures” are worse than the “disease”
- Proposed policies to reduce teen vaping include higher taxes, ‘flavor’ bans, online sales bans and shipping bans
- E-cigarette taxes have caused cigarette sales to increase in 8 US states (National Bureau of Economic Research)
- E-cigarette taxes “increase prenatal smoking and lower smoking cessation during pregnancy” in female smokers
- Ecig flavor bans increased cigarette sales in San Francisco; Washington; Rhode Island; New York; and Nova Scotia
- Online sales and mail shipment bans reduce adult access, so are also very likely to strengthen cigarette sales
Unintended consequences and logical inconsistencies
- Probable outcome of ‘flavor’ bans: Teen vapers will switch to THC vaping or to cigarette smoking; many adult
- The same organizations that claim teen vaping is a gateway to tobacco smoking, also claim tobacco-flavored
→ Definitions differ: adult current use = daily or regular use; teen current use = past 30-day ever-use
Full context of adult products that teens use, but should not use
- US teens are more likely to smoke pot or use illegal drugs than to be “current users” of e-cigarettes (NIDA MTF)
- US teens are 2X more likely to binge drink than vape “frequently”; 3X more likely to binge drink than vape daily
- US teen binge drinking causes 3,500 deaths and 119,000 ER visits/year (CDC); US policy response? Age-checks
- US teen “current smoking” rates dropped 3X faster than historical trends after 2012 (NIDA MTF)
