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As 2020 approaches we can look back at what the NNA has been up to in the last 12 months. It has been a difficult year, but we expect an even more difficult one to come and we will need all your support to get through it. Please share our posts, make a financial donation, but most of all in 2020, be prepared to get active as there are momentous challenges ahead. To learn how to donate to the NNA and support our work, please see the bottom of this page. In the meantime, here are highlights from 2019.
JANUARY
The year began quietly but NNA Trustees were active, nonetheless. A significant report by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) was released for which our Vice Chair, Louise Ross, had helped with recruiting subjects. The study found that vaping doubles a smoker’s chances of quitting, when compared with NRT, and gathered a lot of national media interest as well as being cited regularly throughout the year at conferences and in news articles. You can read the report here.
Louise co-authored a separate report released in January alongside our former Chair, Sarah Jakes, and produced in partnership with Caitlin Notley of the University of East Anglia and Sharon Cox of South Bank University. It concluded that academics should be involving vapers in their investigations or else they will come up with unrealistic or incorrect results. The report is available to read here.
January also saw the release of a film by PHE comparing the effect of emissions from cigarettes and e-cigarettes on cotton wool in two bell jars. The film is available at the BBC website here and you can read our reaction to it on our blog here.
FEBRUARY
NNA Trustee Louise Ross joined Professor Peter Hajek and Dr Katie Myers Smith of Queen Mary University, Martin Dockrell of Public Health England and other public health influencers on a tour of London, Birmingham and York to discuss the conclusions of January’s revealing QMUL study.
Louise also wrote a guest article at Clive Bates’s Counterfactual site to explain her role in the E-cigarettes Priority Setting Partnership which we highlighted on our blog in January here. Meanwhile, Jessica Harding attended the APPG on vaping meeting at the House of Commons, arranged for MPs to discuss the industry’s role in preventing youth uptake of vaping products. She reported that, although this was a meeting to take evidence from industry only, MPs on the day made a very good effort at putting the consumer case and seem to have taken the NNA’s previous contributions on board.
MARCH
March began with ominous signs from the EU that they intend to crack down on vaping in the next iteration of the Tobacco Products Directive. The outgoing EU Health Commissioner had described to Euractiv how he wishes to see medicalisation of the products and his second in command had described vaping as “poison”. As we warned just last week, heading off these threats is going to be a priority in 2020, you can read why we take that view on our blog here.
Also in March, the NNA’s Gerry Stimson, Kevin Molloy and Jessica Harding took part in a trip to Malawi and Kenya to spread the message of harm reduction in Africa, meeting with representatives of the Campaign for Safer Alternatives in Africa and THR Malawi while there, while Louise Ross was filmed by Filter giving her thoughts about the real-life practicalities of harm reduction via vaping, and how she had changed her mind from being initially against but now very much in favour of e-cigarettes. You can watch the video on YouTube.
APRIL
We got off to a flying start in April by writing a “Switch on to vaping plan” which you can read and download here. This was to coincide with the second annual UKVIA VApril campaign which launched on the 1st. Our Chair, Martin Cullip, spoke at the launch alongside TV’s Doctor Christian Jessen, and we wrote about why the campaign should be supported on our blog here.
Louise Ross was again seconding her thoughts to external websites by writing of how stop smoking services should be receptive to e-cigarettes to make harm reduction a success for their clients at the widely-read Ashtray Blog here, while also writing in support of e-cigarettes being sold in pharmacies in a debate-style piece for the Pharmaceutical Journal which you can read here.
In Hong Kong, the government conducted a consultation in April on whether to ban e-cigarettes outright. The NNA submitted a response warning that a significant proportion of the 570k UK tourists that visit Hong Kong every year might be at risk of jail simply for following advice from health organisations in the UK. You can read our full submission here.
As if that isn’t enough, Andy Morrison was also in attendance at the 5th annual Glasgow School of Vape and a delegation from the NNA went to Vape Jam at London’s Excel where Martin Cullip took part in an eventful panel debate on the main stage about responsible marketing.
MAY
The UKVIA’s second yearly Forum took place in May, addressed by Dr Christian Jessen and attended by two MPs – Labour’s Sir Kevin Barron and Conservative Mark Pawsey. NNA Chair Martin Cullip represented consumers on a panel entitled “Has the UK become vape unfriendly?”. Where he defended the use of e-cigarette use in private venues and raised the issue of poor advice on workplace policies on the Acas website, more on that later. We reported on the event on our blog here.
NNA Associate Terry Walker also blogged this month about his efforts at changing misguided vaping bans and how he has managed to engage with his local NHS Trust on educating them about how to treat e-cigarette use in line with government advice, which you can read here.
JUNE
As usual, June was a busy month with many NNA Trustees, associates and supporters prominent at the sixth staging of the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) in Warsaw.
We hosted a press briefing on the importance of flavours in vaping liquids at the conference, our press release from which you can read here. A panel representing academia, industry and consumers emphasised how vital flavours are in ensuring vapers do not relapse to smoking once they have found a set-up that works for them. On the Thursday NNA Chair Martin Cullip also oversaw a marathon half day consumer alignment meeting comprised of several panels on issues of interest to those who use safer nicotine products. The meeting began with a star-studded panel on what good consumer advocacy should look like in advance of the World Health Organisation’s COP9 in The Hague next year which attracted so much interest that it was standing room only. Associate Andy Morrison also spoke, delivering his thoughts on bad policy on vaping from regulators and industry as part of the At the front line - what do consumers need? panel, featuring consumers from North America, Europe and Asia. And to top all that off, we also presented a poster at the event describing our input to the VApril campaign earlier in the year.
Consumer meeting at the Global Forum on Nicotine
There was also good news in June that Acas had agreed to change their website advice about workplace vaping as a result of our highlighting the issue in May; Action on Smoking and Health released new data on the subject of underage vaping in the UK - which you can read here – and Martin Cullip delivered a presentation to the ENDS Conference in London where he expressed criticism of some approaches to policy currently being undertaken by vape businesses.
JULY
We were disappointed in July at some of the regulatory noises coming from both the WHO and the UK government.
The seventh “report on the global tobacco epidemic” from the World Health Organisation was released in this month and its only mention of harm reduction was to dismiss it as a concept fabricated by the tobacco industry. We issued a press release criticising the report’s adherence to myths and innuendo, suggesting that the WHO are taking an unhelpful ideological stance rather than one which could contribute to the outcomes they claim to want to achieve. You can read our valid critique of the WHO’s pitiful claims here.
Also in July, a government green paper containing recommendations towards vaping products was released. We felt that it was hastily drawn-up and described it as a “regulatory bull in a china shop approach” in our newsletter. We described on our blog here why the suggested proposals could “instantly remove the allure of safer products for many smokers.”.
AUGUST
We were heartened in August to find out that the Indiana University School of Public Health agrees with our regular assertion that bans on vaping in public spaces are a very bad idea. We blogged about this evidence-based confirmation of what we vapers have always known, saying “No amount of stressing the safer nature of vaping from public health groups will ever be as powerful an opinion-former to the general public as a prohibitive and dramatic “no vaping” sign or announcement on a public tannoy”. You can read our article on the subject here.
August also saw our Vice Chair Louise Ross travel to Rio de Janeiro to talk about how vape-friendly stop smoking services in the UK have been a success and that it’s not a bad idea to replicate the approach. Louise reported that there was some opposition but “the audience when I talked about the UK experience were quietly encouraging”, which is a good reaction in a country where vaping is currently banned.
SEPTEMBER
September was a pivotal month in 2019 as the cacophony of misinformation on what was causing an outbreak of respiratory illnesses in the US reached mainstream media in the UK. We wrote on our blog that “illegal oil-based THC liquids bought from unregulated vendors in America” were to blame and that UK smokers, vapers and their relatives should take the hysterical scare stories with a pinch of salt. The situation is entirely different in the UK as we explained in a blog entitled “nothing to see here”, click here to read it.
In September, we also announced that we were now founder partners of a new Europe-wide consumer advocacy organisation called European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA). It was launched on 26th September with the goal of joining forces with regional consumer groups to amplify the voice of the many millions of safer nicotine users in Europe. Since that day, ETHRA has been actively spreading the message of harm reduction in our region and now boasts 20 partner organisations across the continent. You can read the launch briefing – including a quote from the NNA – at this link.
The end of the month saw the release of this year’s ASH report on e-cigarette use in the UK. It revealed yet another rise in the numbers of vapers to 3.6 million, up from 3.2 million last year, 1.9 million of whom have switched entirely from smoking. We were encouraged by these figures and wrote about the report in our news section here.
Towards the end of the month, NNA representatives Andy Morrison, Dave Cross and Louise Ross debated with workshop attendees at the final Priorities Setting Partnership for e-cigarette research, and Martin Cullip took part in a panel debate at Labour Party Conference in Brighton alongside Sir Kevin Barron MP on the subject of “Does Brexit present new opportunities for the vaping industry?”.
OCTOBER
October saw more party conference activity as NNA Associate Andy Morrison attended the Scottish National Party Conference in Aberdeen to comment on “Where next for vaping in Scotland” as part of a panel comprising two Members of the Scottish Parliament and a board member of the independent Vaporized vape shop chain.
Andy Morrison at the SNP conference
Some much-needed common sense from the USA on the harm reduction front was announced in this month too. The Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) issued a judgement that eight snus smokeless tobacco products can be marketed with the claim that they are less harmful than smoking. NNA Trustee, Mark Oates, explained why this is an encouraging development which should shame the EU into following suit in our press release which you can read here.
NNA Trustees were also active spreading the word in other countries with NNA Trustee Sarah Jakes taking part in a round-table discussion by Turkish broadcaster TRT World which tackled many of the recent misleading stories about vaping, and which you can view in full here.
Meanwhile, Louise Ross travelled to Paris to share the perspective of vape-friendly Stop Smoking Services, and the people who use them, at the third Sovape Sommet de la Vape conference. Her comments even earned an airing in renowned French socialite magazine Paris Match which you can read here.
NOVEMBER
In November, we wrote an open letter to London mayor Sadiq Khan after he spoke at the London General Assembly about reviewing rules on vape adverts on the London Underground system which you can read here. We highlighted that “vaping advertising is already prevalent on London buses, so it would seem consistent to also allow the same messages to be presented to travellers on tube trains too” and highlighting that the review should take into account that the Tobacco Control Plan for England recognised the benefits of smokers switching to e-cigarette.
We also found out in this month that Acas had, indeed, updated its advice on vaping in the workplace after our intervention at the UKVIA Forum in May. It is in no way perfect, but far better than it was previously. You can read the updated web page here.
Trustees were again active with NNA Trustee Mark Oates travelling to Sweden to address an event attended by a number of Swedish politicians on the subject “Politicians wouldn’t ban motorcycle helmets, so why do they ban safer nicotine products, such as snus?” You can read about Mark's talk in Snusforumnet, here and view the video here.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Vice Chair, Louise Ross, addressed the 7th E-cigarette Summit and gave a presentation entitled “I had given up giving up’ – how smokers have reacted to a new gateway out of smoking” which is available to view here, and also wrote a letter to the Guardian rejecting ill-informed assertions from a selection of misguided paediatric professionals which had been published previously. Martin Cullip also took part in a panel discussion at Vaper Expo in Birmingham on the threats to vaping which could result from the panic emanating from the US. The stage debate can be viewed in full at this link.
DECEMBER
The last month of 2019 was taken up with the general election and – with government dissolved and civil servants stifled by purdah – opportunities to advocate were non-existent. It is clear, though, that we face some major threats in the coming year, and we will be needing your help. Please read our article explaining why “this is no time for complacency, there are real threats coming and we are going to need you to put yourselves out to protect your right to choose safer nicotine products” which you can visit at this link.
The same theme was conveyed by our three Trustees who contributed to the Ashtray Blog’s annual December predictions article for the coming year which you can read here. Martin Cullip warned “don’t ever be complacent enough to think the battle is won here. Be prepared to do your bit if rumoured threats become real.”, Louise Ross predicted that “vast amounts of time will be spent fire-fighting – in health arenas, in politics, in the media and directly with consumers.”, and Dave Cross said that “it is inevitable that we will face further coordinated demands to restrict flavours here.”.
2019 has been a sinister year but there are further threats to come, we need to be on our guard, and we will be needing a concerted effort from consumers everywhere in 2020. Please enjoy your New Year celebrations and come back refreshed and ready to fight for what we know is right.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Please remember that NNA trustees give their time for free, and we rely on your generous donations to continue to ensure consumer voices are heard. Please keep your donations coming in via the donate button below, and if you can commit to a standing order or regular PayPal payment it would be gratefully received.
There is an option to get Amazon to donate to the NNA if you shop via the Amazon Smile page and select NNA as your charity. You can support New Nicotine Alliance (UK) by starting your shopping from this link.
You can also donate to the NNA via eBay, as we are registered as an eBay charity. You can add a donation when you buy something and you can also auction your own items and choose to donate part or all the proceeds to us. We are always open to donated items which we can sell to raise funds too, all items would be gratefully received.
Sign up as a NNA Supporter and encourage your friends and family to sign up too, by clicking here.
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NNA NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2019
With a general election imminent, we are all awaiting what landscape harm reduction in the UK may face under a new administration. Options for engaging with policymakers have been sparse but the NNA has been engaging where we can, nonetheless. 2020 could present some major challenges for which we will have to be ready so please keep watching our website and social media for news very soon, we will be asking for your help.
For now, though, Christmas is almost upon us and the weather is getting chilly, so stay warm inside and read a round-up of what the NNA has been up to in November.
ACAS ACTION
Firstly, a good news update from our June newsletter where we reported that – after being contacted by Mark Pawsey MP – Acas had pledged to change their advice on vaping in the workplace that we had highlighted as being “desperately out-of-date” and containing “dubious – and often inaccurate – advice for employers”.
Chief Executive of Acas, Susan Clews, accepted at the time that “there is indeed grounds for improving Acas guidance on vaping” and promised to amend the terminology used on the site as well as providing “more up to date links to commentators and advice on the issue of vaping”.
Their advice has since been updated and – while in no way perfect – is far better than it was prior to our input. Like all who are involved with human resources matters, Acas are very risk averse, but their guidance now cites sources such as Public Health England and the NHS and, crucially, makes a clear distinction between smoking and vaping which it had not done adequately before. We obviously welcome this and hope it leads to more sensible policies in both public and private sector workplaces in the future.
You can read Acas’s updated web page on e-cigarettes in the workplace here.
YES, YOU KHAN
At the start of the month we noted that London’s mayor – Sadiq Khan – had been asked about vaping advertising on the London Underground system in his weekly Mayor’s questions session. He replied that such adverts were currently banned but that there was to be a review.
The NNA wrote an open letter to Mr Khan, observing that “vaping advertising is already prevalent on London buses, so it would seem consistent to also allow the same messages to be presented to travellers on tube trains too” and highlighting that the review should take into account that the Tobacco Control Plan for England recognised the benefits of smokers switching to e-cigarettes.
We received an acknowledgement and a promise to reply within 21 working days, which is imminent. Sadly, this hasn’t materialised at time of writing, but we will report back next month. You can read our open letter to the mayor here.
SUMMIT TO SAY
Stepping in at short notice, our Vice Chair, Louise Ross, addressed the 7th E-cigarette Summit and gave a presentation entitled “I had given up giving up’ – how smokers have reacted to a new gateway out of smoking”.
She updated attendees as to the continuing success of vaping in her area, while also addressing the touchy subject of vaping in pregnancy; differing perceptions to reduced risk products in different classes; accidental quitters and the damaging effect of hostile opinions from both the media and health professionals themselves.
She finished on an upbeat note of what she would like to see in the future, all customarily sensible, of course.
You can watch Louise’s presentation to the Summit at this link.
SENSE IN SWEDEN
While Louise was in London preaching the good word to delegates at the Summit, NNA Trustee Mark Oates was in Sweden at a consumer and trade event attended by a number of Swedish politicians to give a talk entitled “Politicians wouldn’t ban motorcycle helmets, so why do they ban safer nicotine products, such as snus?”.
In a frank and entertaining presentation, Mark pointed out that tobacco harm reduction reduces risk vastly more than measures in other policy areas which are accepted worldwide. As a political researcher, he also explored why politicians are so resistant to innovative nicotine products, insisting that harm reduction should be a cross-party issue and that – with snus particularly – there is already a culture of snus use as a replacement to smoking in the UK which should be encouraged, not prohibited.
He also spoke about how the upcoming election could shape a more welcoming approach to snus and vaping, not just in the UK but elsewhere too, which is eminently relevant right now and therefore well worth a watch. You can see his presentation in full here.
LETTER BOXING
Our Vice Chair Louise Ross also sprang into action after an appalling letter by a selection of misguided paediatric professionals was published in the Guardian declaring that “we cannot sit back and accept a blanket message from Public Health England that vaping is 95% less harmful than tobacco smoking”.
Louise wrote a response stating that the original letter was “an argument based on error and supposition” and that it would be more helpful to “consider the positive effect of parents who smoked switching to vaping”. You can read her response in full here.
Louise has also been meeting stop smoking service providers this month to encourage them to be more confident about including vaping in their offer to smokers who choose to stop. Recently, she has visited Derbyshire, Greater Manchester and the Medway area to reach those who would like to embrace vaping but have still to shake off the myth of the “scourge of nicotine addiction”. All this from someone who describes herself as retired!
LET'S GO EXPO
Lastly, the NNA’s Martin Cullip, Jessica Harding, Andy Morrison and Sue Wilson attended the Vaper Expo at the NEC in Birmingham at the turn of the month. It was when the threat of flavour vaping bans was at its height and Martin was invited to take part in a panel discussion alongside John Dunne of the UKVIA and Dan Marchant of VapeBase and VapeClub. The event was filmed and you can watch it here.
TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY
The Ashtray blog’s annual predictions for the new year have become a seasonal regular at this time of year and our Chair, Martin Cullip, has already sent his submission for 2020 which, to the surprise of no-one, had to take into account the shameful misleading scare stories coming out of the US. Most predictions from last year’s offerings – including Martin’s – were derailed by the shocking behaviour of American politicians and other vested interests across the Atlantic. You can read what was predicted last year from 17 vaping voices at this link.
Apart from that, as things wind down into the Christmas season there is not a great deal coming up, suffice to say that we should all prepare for a momentous year in 2020 where there will be a great deal for consumers to get involved with, both here and abroad. We hope you enjoy the holiday period and get refreshed for more battles ahead. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our supporters.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Please remember that NNA trustees give their time for free, and we rely on your generous donations to continue to ensure consumer voices are heard. Please keep your donations coming in via the donate button below, and if you can commit to a standing order or regular PayPal payment it would be gratefully received.
There is an option to get Amazon to donate to the NNA if you shop via the Amazon Smile page and select NNA as your charity. You can support New Nicotine Alliance (UK) by starting your shopping from this link
You can also donate to the NNA via eBay, as we are registered as an eBay charity. You can add a donation when you buy something and you can also auction something and choose to donate part or all the proceeds to us. We are always open to donated items which we can sell to raise funds too, all items would be gratefully received.
Sign up as a NNA Supporter and encourage your friends and family to sign up too, by clicking here.
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The nights are drawing in but the NNA has been active in trying to share enlightenment in October, despite fevered negativity from many quarters and a collective media eager to promote scurrilous headlines.
This month saw developments, good and bad, which could decide the future of harm reduction, not just here in the UK, and NNA Trustees were making themselves heard.
GRANITE NITTY-GRITTY
Last month we attended the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (see last newsletter) and this month we were represented 600 miles further north at the Scottish National Party Conference in Aberdeen. NNA Associate Andy Morrison tackled the question “Where next for vaping in Scotland” on a panel alongside two Members of the Scottish Parliament and a board member of the independent Vaporized vape shop chain.
Andy Morrison at the Scottish National Party conference
Drawing on our concerns about the Scottish Tobacco Control Plan published on our blog in July last year where we observed that “mildly promising changes are undermined by a prevailing caution towards e-cigarettes which borders on paranoia”, Andy highlighted the advances that have been made north of the border while strongly condemning the SNP’s proposed ban on all advertising of vape products.
He agreed that restrictions on marketing to children and IP theft are valid areas of concern, but that there is already adequate monitoring and prevention through UK-wide regulations, and that Scotland should be looking to promote the at least 95% less harmful message via responsible advertising in order to allay doubt in the products.
MSPs on the panel arrived armed with the well-publicised myths and scare stories about vaping but Andy did his best to debunk them and they left with a better understanding of the importance of publicising safer nicotine products. The SNP delegates stressed that there will be a consultation on the proposals in due course and we will be ready to respond to that when it materialises. We hope that many of you will also do the same, so watch our social media for alerts.
LOU LA LA!
NNA Vice Chair Louise Ross took the Eurostar to Paris mid-October to share the perspective of vape-friendly Stop Smoking Services and the people who use them. At the third Sovape Sommet de la Vape conference, these insights added an extra consumer-focussed element to the science and research presented by many eminent speakers, including Prof David Levy, Dr Lion Shahab and Dr Leonie Brose.
The event was covered by renowned socialite magazine Paris Match and Louise was quoted in the piece (use translate, we did).
At the breaks, Louise reports that French medics were keen to find out how the UK has encouraged vaping as a means to help smokers who choose to quit and asked for resources such as those from the Challenge Group on the use of e-cigarettes among pregnant women. One doctor reportedly told Louise “Ah, that is what we do, I just needed to check we were right to say that”. Despite the prevailing dogma and suspicion on vaping products, it is good to know many are seeing through the smokescreen.
You can read more about the Sovape event in Paris, and their research on public attitudes towards e-cigarettes in France, at this link from European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) of which we are a founding partner.
REBORN IN THE USA
October also saw some much-needed common sense from the USA on the harm reduction front. The Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) issued a judgement that eight snus smokeless tobacco products can be marketed with the – quite obvious - claim that they are less harmful than smoking. While the messages to be included on the products are not perfect, it is encouraging that recognition of reduced risk products has been accepted in this instance by the FDA.
Of course, snus is still banned in the EU which prompted NNA Trustee and snus expert – Mark Oates – to comment on the regulatory disparity between the two Unions. “This decision is a welcome game-changer as it acknowledges, quite rightly, that safer nicotine products can offer great potential for smokers who wish to switch from smoking to a safer alternative”, he said, “there is simply no valid reason for snus to be prohibited in the EU, it is a shameful dereliction of duty which should be overturned at the first opportunity.”
You can read why we believe the EU should follow the lead of the US in our news section here.
TURKISH DELIGHT
NNA Trustee Sarah Jakes took part in a round-table discussion by Turkish broadcaster TRT World – imaginatively entitled Roundtable – this month. The half hour show tackled many of the recent misleading stories about vaping, with Sarah emphasising the benefits that consumers can derive from safer nicotine products. You can watch the whole show at this link.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Lastly, we reported last month on the formation of our new sister organisation, NNA Ireland. We are pleased to see that they have been quick to join the fray by condemning proposals to ban flavoured e-liquids by Irish political party Fine Gael – and specifically, prospective TD James Reilly - reported by The Journal news website.
"It's disappointing to see vaping being used as an election gambit, especially from a doctor who should know better. Tobacco harm reduction is a growing movement which is driving fast reduction of smoking rates in countries which implement sensible regulation”, NNA Ireland co-founder Tom Gleeson is quoted as saying. We couldn’t agree more.
It is great to see a new voice for consumers in Ireland up and running, you can read their inaugural article here and follow their activities on Twitter here.
TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY
Once again, the NNA will be represented at The E-Cigarette Summit on 14th November with Louise Ross a panellist and Jessica Harding in attendance to report on proceedings. Louise will be advocating for “people who have switched from smoking to vaping to tell their healthcare worker too, to change resistant mindsets and undo the harm that professional prejudice can cause.”. There is far too much resistance to harm reduction amongst public health and many myths to dispel, so we hope that her message is well-received and understood on the day.
More news on future developments will be shared, as usual, the moment we receive them.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Please remember that NNA trustees give their time for free, and we rely on your generous donations to continue to ensure consumer voices are heard. Please keep your donations coming in via the donate button below, and if you can commit to a standing order or regular PayPal payment it would be gratefully received.
There is an option to get Amazon to donate to the NNA if you shop via the Amazon Smile page and select NNA as your charity. You can support New Nicotine Alliance (UK) by starting your shopping from this link
You can also encourage your supportive friends and family to sign up to updates about our work by clicking here.
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August is generally recognised as ‘silly season’ where the absence of any concrete political news sees media puff out their content with barely newsworthy articles. There was little going on for NNA last month either so we let the August newsletter slide in favour of a summer and autumn one covering September too, not that we were entirely redundant during the school holidays, as this round-up of our activities will show. It’s been a couple of months of exciting new initiatives coupled with fighting the relentless anti-harm reduction zombie arguments emanating from the public health community.
ALTOG-ETHRA NOW
We start this newsletter by proudly announcing that we are founder partners of a new Europe-wide consumer advocacy organisation called European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA). It was launched on 26th September with the goal of joining forces with regional consumer groups to amplify the voice of the many millions of safer nicotine users in Europe.
In less than a week, ETHRA already boasts 14 European partners and we are proud that the NNA is one of them. As a region, Europe is generally blessed with sensible regulation compared with some of the wacky and ignorant approaches being taken in many jurisdictions worldwide, but it is important to stay vigilant. There are still many threats posed by enemies of harm reduction which can interfere with the world-leading regulation employed here and throw us back to the dark ages where reactionary puritans would have us exist.
The press release announcing the birth of ETHRA immediately pricked up the ears of the Politico news aggregator in Brussels who described it as the “new vape voice on the bloc”. The NNA was one of six European consumer groups to be quoted in the initial announcement – which you can read here - and you can read further coverage in UK vaping media here and here. Articles in French, Italian and Norwegian also greeted the launch and we described why it is important on our website too, which you can read by clicking here. You can view – and bookmark - ETHRA’s new website at ethra.co and follow @europethra on Twitter.
PLUCK OF THE IRISH
We are also very pleased that this month sees the launch of a new NNA sister organisation in the form of NNA Ireland. Shepherded into existence by long-term advocates Damian Sweeney and Tom Gleeson, we wish them every success in tackling the general mistrust of reduced risk products currently prevalent across the Irish Sea. It couldn’t have come at a better time considering there have been suggestions this week that Ireland should follow the lead of other gullible nations and ban flavours in e-cigarettes based on nothing but scare stories and deliberate deceit.
The NNA Ireland website will be launched very soon, but until then do follow them on Twitter here.
INDIAN VAPE TRICK
It’s not just Ireland rowing in behind disingenuous scare stories to pass astonishingly bad laws about vaping. India has been gagging to ban safer products for years and seized on misinformation from the USA to implement a comprehensive ban on production, import, sale and use. There are 120 million smokers in India, yet the government there thinks that restricting safer products is a good idea. For info, the Indian tobacco industry is partly state-owned, but we are certain this had nothing to do with their decision whatsoever.
At the start of September, the NNA wrote to the Indian Prime Minister to urge a better appreciation of harm reduction, sadly in vain. You can read our correspondence here.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON VAPING
Of course, much of the news lately – and the vehicle that Irish THR-wreckers and others are using to confuse the public and introduce bans - has focussed on developments in the USA where illegal oil-based liquids are being consumed and causing all manner of health problems.
Image credit: National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT)
On our blog, we explained why British vapers who have been urged by their friends and family to immediately quit e-cigarette use should not be alarmed and provided a number of sources to illustrate that the recent media stories are classic panic-fostering which consumers can produce when faced with non-vapers who are sucked in by the hysteria. We pointed out that “The e-cigarette market in the UK is tightly regulated under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations Act 2016 so you, your friends and family should have nothing to worry about. Keep calm, educate them, and carry on vaping.”
You can read why we say there is ‘nothing to see here’ in full at this link.
LABOURING THE POINT
NNA'S Martin Cullip and Jessica Harding travelled to Brighton for the start of the Labour Party Conference on the 23rd where Martin spoke on a Prospect Magazine panel entitled “Does Brexit present new opportunities for the vaping industry?”. This was on the same day that BBC News was reporting that Labour would be deciding their Brexit stance in the main auditorium at the Brighton Centre, so it couldn’t be more apt a conversation. Sir Kevin Barron MP – an enthusiastic supporter of harm reduction – was also on the panel and both our representatives reported that the reception from delegates in the room was largely positive towards e-cigarettes. In the past, the Labour Party has been reticent to back risk reduced products but, in the UK, we now seem to have a cross-party belief in their efficacy which is very encouraging. Long may that continue.
RIO ROSS
As reported in our July newsletter, our Vice Chair Louise Ross travelled to Rio de Janeiro in August to talk about how vape-friendly stop smoking services in the UK have been a success and that it’s not a bad idea to replicate the approach. Louise reports that there was some opposition but “the audience when I talked about the UK experience were quietly encouraging”. She also said that some medical professionals were “advising patients to switch to vaping, but because e-cigarettes are banned in Brazil, they have to buy expensive illegal imports. Sensible regulation could sort this out, but who has the ear of the Ministry of Health?”. Who indeed?
Vaping is banned in Brazil so the fact that Louise met doctors there who have seen through the wall of misleading information is very encouraging.
UNTYING NOTTS
A year of work came to a conclusion on Friday 20 September, as NNA representatives Andy Morrison, Dave Cross and Louise Ross debated with workshop attendees at the final Priorities Setting Partnership for e-cigarette research.
Imagine a colander, containing almost 2,000 potential research questions, the contents being filtered down into a sieve with smaller holes, and then finally put through a tea-strainer, until we ended up with a consensus-led decision about which the top 10 most important items for research are, according to consumers, healthcare workers, vapers, smokers, non- and ex-smokers and anyone else with an interest in the subject.
Top of the list throughout was Long Term Effects, and the current doubts being sown make this even more relevant. Also important were vaping in pregnancy, mental health, secondhand vape and efficacy in smoking cessation.
The PSP was a fantastic opportunity to gather the views of consumers, as well as others who occupy this space, and to influence the future trends around how research funding awards are made. The New Nicotine Alliance made a significant contribution, on equal terms with healthcare representatives, to a promising new raft of research.
E-Cigarettes Priority Setting Partnership infographic, also viewable here
VAPING BANS ARE BAD M'KAY
We were heartened in August to find out that the Indiana University School of Public Health agrees with our regular assertion that bans on vaping in public spaces are a very bad idea. Their research found that “Adults living in the states with an aerosol-free policy (including vaping in legislative smoking bans) were less likely to use ENDS (e-cigarettes) compared with those living in the states without an aerosol-free policy”. Obviously, to encourage smokers to use reduced risk products instead of smoking, there should be some kind of incentive and vaping bans are the very opposite of that.
We blogged about this evidence-based confirmation of what we vapers have always known, saying “No amount of stressing the safer nature of vaping from public health groups will ever be as powerful an opinion-former to the general public as a prohibitive and dramatic “no vaping” sign or announcement on a public tannoy”. You can read our article on the subject here.
WE BAND OF VAPERS
The end of September saw the release of this year’s ASH report on e-cigarette use in the UK. It revealed yet another rise in the numbers of vapers to 3.6 million, up from 3.2 million last year, 1.9 million of whom have switched entirely from smoking. We were encouraged by these figures in light of recent scare stories and commented that “it is heartening to see that there is still a significant rise in consumers seeing through the noise and choosing to vape instead. It suggests that there is a culture in the UK of smokers and vapers engaging with each other to share experiences and information”. You can read our full article on the ASH survey in our news section here.
TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY
NNA Associate Andy Morrison is venturing up to the Scottish National Party Conference in Aberdeen in October to discuss “Where next for vaping in Scotland?”. We wrote about the Scottish Tobacco Control Plan and the flaws it contains back in July last year which you can read here. Nothing much has changed in the interim and the SNP is now ill-advisedly suggesting following through with a draconian and misjudged ban on advertising for e-cigarettes. We hope Andy will be able to persuade SNP delegates of the benefits of harm reduction and that vaping in Scotland – and their smoking rates – will be going absolutely nowhere if faced with the alarmism that is currently proposed.
A delegation from the NNA is also scheduled to meet a very prominent government grandee from the Philippines in October. The country is deeply set against harm reduction, but we hope to leave them with some positive messages before they head back to Manila from London.
Lastly, trustee Sarah Jakes was invited to speak on Turkish TV about vaping and the show has been recorded for broadcast very soon. At time of publication it was not available, but we will update you in the next newsletter. Watch this space.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
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July 2019 may have been declared the warmest month on record globally, but we at the NNA will remember it as a month in which we gave a cool reception to several regulatory suggestions; some well-meaning, some not so. Here is a round-up of this month’s NNA activities.
MADNESS IN THEIR METHOD
The biggest – and most disappointing – story of July was the release of the seventh “report on the global tobacco epidemic” from the World Health Organisation. Despite tobacco harm reduction being a platform of the WHO FCTC’s founding articles, the report’s only mention of the term was to dismiss it as a concept fabricated by the tobacco industry.
The report perpetuated the myth that vaping has not been proven to help smokers quit, as well as talking up e-cigarettes as a gateway into smoking amongst youths. The report completely ignores credible third-party scientific evidence disproving their wild assertions and led to much negative media such as “WHO says e-cigarettes, 'smoke-free' products do not help reduce cancer” from Reuters.
We issued a press release criticising the report’s claims, suggesting that the WHO are taking an unhelpful ideological stance rather than one which could contribute to the outcomes they claim to want to achieve. We concluded that “If the WHO truly wants to drive down smoking rates, it must consider the growing body of evidence that vaping is an effective way to help people to quit. The WHO and the tobacco control lobby seem to have abandoned health altogether in favour of just attacking industry.”. You can read what we had to say about it in full here.
GREEN PAPER PALAVER
This month also saw the release of a government green paper containing recommendations towards vaping products. It was hastily rushed out as one of the last acts of the May administration and it showed, with some of the proposals resembling a regulatory bull in a china shop approach, suggesting that prohibition of smoking by 2030 can be achieved by demanding industry force smokers onto vaping instead.
While we were encouraged that government has placed great faith in reduced risk products in such a short space of time since they were contemplating banning them, we blogged that this is not the right approach to take.
“One reason that e-cigarettes have been successful since they went mainstream about seven years ago is that they are not seen as coercive. Smokers feel they are making their own choice rather than being forced into it. If politicians want to see increased uptake of safer nicotine substitutes for smoking, they should do so by optimising the choice of alternatives such as e-cigarettes, snus and heat not burn products, not by the blunt tool of coercion and prohibition”. We went on to say that “A policy like that suggested in the Green Paper would instantly remove the allure of safer products for many smokers.”.
You can read the full blog article here
"DEBATING" DAME SALLY
The latest issue of Vapouround magazine included not one, but two, articles featuring our Chair Martin Cullip. The first was entitled “The Vape Debate” and focussed on comments by Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies recently in which she suggested vaping should be banned in public places.
Dame Sally said that “my personal view is that we should treat e-cigarettes like we do tobacco products, so I would not have them smoked in public places. I hate it when I walk past someone and they waft vapour over me.”. Martin disagreed, of course, starting his rebuttal with “it’s nonsense, I think vaping should be allowed in many more places than it is now”. You can see the double page feature on page 54 here.
The magazine also carried a rundown of Martin’s presentation to the ENDS Conference in June where he urged industry “not to play into the hands of anti-vaping alarmists”. In another double page article, Vapouround writer Patrick Griffin quoted the observation that “we have politicians doing brilliantly for vaping but they’re fighting a losing battle against misinformation and ignorance. Changing this narrative is how we move on and normalise vaping, but we will not do this if we keep playing in the playground of our enemies.”. You can read the whole thing on page 64 of the latest issue here.
DIFFERENT STROKES
This month the NNA decided to leave the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO). We made a short announcement on our website to that effect. We feel that our two organisations have slightly different ideas about how to move forward but we share the end goal of pursuing better regulation for reduced risk products and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
BOARD BULLETIN
It is all change at the NNA with a reshuffling of our board of trustees.
Firstly, we regret to announce that Professor Gerry Stimson – our former Chair – has decided to step down from the board. Gerry is a highly regarded public health professor who has a pedigree in harm reduction initiatives in areas such as drugs and HIV prevention stretching back decades. He was instrumental in helping the NNA in its early years and beyond with advice and guidance for which we are eternally grateful. We wish him the very best for his future projects.
Gerry Stimson at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, for the challenge to the ban on the sale of snus
Gerry speaking at the APPG on vaping, February 2017
Gerry Stimson: A conversation about e-cigarettes, watch the video here
Kevin Molloy has also stepped down as Vice Chair but will stay on as a Trustee, his previous role will now be taken up by Louise Ross, who needs no introduction.
We have also appointed two new trustees in Dave Cross and Mark Oates. Dave is well known to many vapers as chief writer for the Planet of the Vapes website and is comprehensively knowledgeable about all vaping matters. Alongside him, we welcome Mark Oates, a parliamentary researcher in the office of Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski. Mark is a snus user and committed harm reduction advocate who has worked tirelessly towards better evidence-based policy at Westminster and the EU. We are delighted to welcome both on board as trustees.
You can see the new make-up of our Board here.
TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY
Our new Vice Chair Louise Ross is currently in Brazil to provide background on the pioneering work she engaged in towards vape-friendly stop smoking services in the UK. She has been invited by the University of Rio de Janeiro and will be involved in roundtable discussions with the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Louise is a proud grandmother doing a great job spreading the good news story from our country, so keep an eye on our social media and website for further news very soon on Rio Gran’s travels.
Political party conference season is nearly upon us and, once again, NNA representatives have been invited to share our views. Our Chair Martin Cullip is following up last year’s Conservative Party appearance with one at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in September on the subject of “Does Brexit present new opportunities for the vaping industry?”. Meanwhile, in October, NNA Associate Andy Morrison is venturing up to the Scottish National Party Conference in Aberdeen to discuss “Where next for vaping in Scotland?”. Stay tuned to our website for reports on these events when they happen.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Please remember that NNA trustees give their time for free, and we rely on your generous donations to continue to ensure consumer voices are heard. Please keep your donations coming in via the donate button below, and if you can commit to a standing order or regular PayPal payment it would be gratefully received.