Daily Archives: September 22, 2021

Two countries divided by a common language is a common saying misattributed to George Bernard Shaw. US and UK vocabulary differences are of perennial amusement: elevator, lift; sidewalk, pavement; gas, petrol; soccer, football. Brits say pants to mean underwear; Americans say it to mean what we call trousers.

A ubiquitous British slang word for a cigarette is also an offensive slur in the States. But if social media is anything to go by, the nicotine taboos run deeper than vocabulary.

Specifically, Ive noticed regular tweets from US-based accounts which express surprise, amusement or even disgust about older people vaping. Examples include: Seeing old people vaping will never not be funny to me, Anyone else cringe x 10 when they see old people vaping? and Old people vaping is just as shocking as babies smoking cigarettes.

British adults over 55 have a higher vaping rate than the youngest adults.

These are strange tweets indeed, considering the millions of lives, in every adult age group, that have been saved by these products. What could be going on in the US to make some people believe that vaping is only for the young?

In the UK, at any rate, weve welcomed vaping with open arms and lungs. Currently, 3.6 million of us vapeover 7 percent of the adult population. Two-thirds are ex-smokers, while under 5 percent have never smoked (the rest combine vaping and smoking, likely on a path to smoking less or quitting). And these numbers emphatically include those of us with a bit more life experience.

The latest survey of e-cigarette use amongst adults by the influential UK anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and health (ASH) finds that the peak ages for current e-cigarette use in 2021 are among 35-44 year olds (10.1%) followed by 45-54 year olds (8.6%), and then 25-34 year olds (8.1%). The lowest vaping rates by age are 5% for young adults aged 18-24.

Adults over 55, the oldest age group, have a higher vaping rate (5.4 percent) than the youngest adults.

As for use by minors, ASH reports that more than 88 percent of 1117-year-olds have never tried or are unaware of e-cigarettes. Only 1.2 percent vape more than weekly. And only 0.7 percent of those who regularly vape were not former smokers.

Looking across the Pond, Brits see a panic-stricken and oppressive environment for vape shops and vapers.

Regulation of e-cigarettes is very liberal in the UK. The National Health Service hosts vape shops in its hospitals, runs a pilot program giving free vapes to smokers in emergency rooms, and recommends e-cigarettes for smokers who find them helpful during pregnancy. Vape shops freely do business in every High Street (translation: Main Street). And vaping products and accompanying liquids are sold in the health aisle in some supermarkets, alongside corn plasters and vitamin pills.

By contrast, looking across the Pond, Brits see a panic-stricken and oppressive environment for vape shops and vapers. Americans are bombarded with media telling them that there is an epidemic of youth vaping in their country. This conviction appears so entrenched that the Food and Drug Administration is currently in the process of regulating just about every flavored vaping product out of existence on the basis of protecting kids.

In truth, evidence shows that frequent youth use is about as rare in the US as it is in the UK. Yet it seems to serve the anti-vaping organizations agenda to prolong the mythwhile engaging in bizarre efforts to terrify kids that frequently end up backfiring.

In August, a seismic report by 15 world-renowned public health professors was sharply critical of the kind of public messaging that has dominated in the United States. They called anti-vaping messaging harmful, and worried that as public health groups, the media, policymakers, and the general public focus on youth vaping, vapings potential to help adults quit smoking too often gets lost.

It is surely this youth-obsessed outcry that prompts those shocked American reactions to older people vaping. And thats a real shame. Because older smokers deserve the chance to protect their health by switching as much as anyone else. They definitely dont deserve to be stigmatized and ridiculed for doing so.

From this side of the Atlantic, were baffled as to why US authorities, NGOs, media and others seem so willing to perpetuate such a counterproductive public health strategy, wrongly telling their public that youth vaping is the only game in town. Were lucky enough to have experienced an approach that embraces vaping in a calm, orderly, and government-approved mannerperhaps just the way to attract older smokers without unduly intriguing youth.

Photograph by Sarah Johnson (Knighthoodstudio.com) via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0

See more here:

The US Obsession With Youth Vaping Looks Odd From Across the Atlantic - Filter

US brand JD Nova Group is the company that submitted the most applications, at 4.68m submissions.

US brand JD Nova Group is the company that submitted the most applications, at 4.68m submissions. ECigIntelligence revealed that the companys president Jack Blaisdells LinkedIn profile, lists four subsidiaries for the company, including Vapolocity, a vape shop located in El Paso, Texas.

The second company that topped the list is the Texas-based Matrix Minds, with a total of 336,272 submissions. Owner Char Owen said that she has helped approximately 180 small companies file PMTAs by creating standard files that just had to be filled by the different companies. For small manufacturers that had no information technology staff, this was an impossible task, said Owen who has a background as a computer engineer.

With 120,399 submissions, Oklahomas Perfect Vape, holds the third position, while the forth and fifth down the list are Big Time Vapes and Imperial Vapors, with 96,950 and 65,382 submissions respectively.

Meanwhile the industry is growing concerned about the number of rejected applications. The first batch of rejections came in early August 2021, when the FDA announced that it would not even review the 4.5 million applications from the same company, JD Nova, on grounds that they did not include an adequate Environmental Assessment.

At the end of the same month, the agency issued marketing denial orders, or MDOs, for applications related to flavoured vaping products (55,000 from one company and 800 from another), saying that these failed to provide product-specific scientific evidence to demonstrate enough of a benefit to adult smokers that would overcome the risk posed to youth.

A recent blog on Competitive Enterprise Institutes website highlighted that the amount of applications received by the agency was way over the 25 applications a year the FDA initially expected. Perhaps that explains why the FDA now seems intent on coming up with excuses to issue sweeping denials and whittle that number down to a size it can handle, reads the blog.

However, it added, these rejections came as a shock to say the least, as over the last six years, the FDA has approved new tobacco products from three companies, for which it was happy to accept more general evidence about the product categorys appeal to adults and youth, as well as their general risks to public health. These approvals included eight varieties of Swedish Match North Americas snus, the heated tobacco product, IQOS, made by Philip Morris, and combustible cigarettes with reduced nicotine made by 22nd Century Group.

FDA Issues Warnings to Vape Brands Lacking PMTA

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ECigIntelligence: The Vape Brands Submitting The Highest Numbers of PMTAs ECigIntelligence: The Vape Brands Submitting The Highest Numbers of PMTAs -...

The campaign, created by independent agency Mojo Supermarket, is part of the long-running anti-tobacco campaign Truth, and involved the creation of a brand identity, packaging and advertising to sell Depression Stick!, a new brand in the style of other products such as Juul, Vuse, blu, Logic and Njoy, the leading e-cigarette brands popular among young people.

The intention is to highlight how nicotine can contribute to mental health issues, and via a set of ads airing across the US, including on a Times Square billboard in New York, be the first e-cigarette company to honestly admit vaping nicotine can amplify feelings of depression and anxiety.

As well as the branding and ads, the campaign includes a series of documentary-style films where Craig, the fictional VP of marketing at Depression Stick!, tries to convince influencers, ad agencies and the manager of a gas station store to sell Depression Stick!

UK readers may be reminded of Chris Morris spoof drugs story Cake on Brass Eye, where figures from light entertainment including Noel Edmonds and Bernard Manning were shown in the hyperbolic news report. Here no influencers or ad creatives were fooled however, and instead they reject working on marketing the supposed new vape brand.

While the campaign and branding may be witty, the Truth Initiatives campaign contains a serious message and arrives with the release of a white paper from the organisation on the affects of nicotine use on mental health in young people.

Depression Stick! boldly highlights the marketing tactics Big Tobacco uses to lure young customers into life-long addiction and mess with their heads, said Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative. The multi-platform campaign places the necessary spotlight on nicotines role in potentially heightening symptoms of depression and anxiety to give young people the facts they deserve to make informed decisions to live their best and healthiest lives.

Vaping has become so normalised in pop culture and many young people dont even see it as an issue, continues Mo Said, founder and CCO of Mojo Supermarket. With everything happening in the world young peoples number one concern is their mental health. We believe that if we could show the connection between vaping nicotine and anxiety and depression, theyd never look at a vape the same way again.

Credits:Creative Company: Mojo SupermarketProduction Company: division7Editorial: Mackcut

Read more from the original source:

Truth Initiative launches spoof vape brand to raise awareness of the dangers of vaping - Creative Review

The Laguna Beach City Council will revisit the conversation pertaining to a ban on the sale of tobacco and vaping products in the city when it meets on Tuesday.

Councilman George Weiss has brought an agenda bill that will lead to a discussion about the possibility of such a prohibition.

The council will be considering whether to have city staff bring an ordinance prohibiting the sale of those products in Laguna Beach and to provide an analysis of the potential impact.

Laguna Beach has looked at similar restrictions in the past. Smoking and vaping are already illegal in all public areas within the city limits, but the council looked at expanding those restrictions to include a stoppage in sales two years ago.

According to reporting by the Daily Pilot, the council was particularly concerned with the usage of flavored tobacco and vaping by school-aged children.

Weiss said that preventing the habit before it starts for Laguna Beachs next generation is also a primary concern for him, but he brought up several points, including fire safety and environmental impact.

I think the environmental side of this, now that weve removed plastics from the equation, for the most part, its time to move to something that is also an environmental issue, Weiss said.

Councilwoman Toni Iseman said she was glad that Weiss brought the subject back to council, and she expressed optimism that now might be a time for action.

Support on the council is one thing, and implementation is another, Iseman said in a phone interview on Saturday. I think its a time when we might be more willing to do something about it, to actually follow through.

Iseman appears to have had a change of heart since the council considered banning e-cigarettes in 2013.

I remember that night going over to the Lumberyard, and there was somebody sitting at the bar vaping, and I watched it, and we were clueless as to exactly what we were doing, Iseman added. This was before it was kind of evident of how bad it is.

Weiss agenda bill cites decreases in the likelihood that teens begin smoking or vaping and in the impact of secondhand smoke on the public as benefits of bringing a prohibition ordinance.

It also makes the claims that there would be less cigarette butts found in the community and contribute to efforts to lower fire risks.

The hybrid format remains in effect for council meetings in Laguna Beach. Members of the public who wish to address the council in person may enter council chambers to speak and then exit immediately.

The regular meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, can also be viewed on Cox cable channel 852 or on Zoom at lagunabeachcity.zoom.us/j/91641723096.

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Laguna Beach to revisit banning sales of tobacco and vape products - Los Angeles Times

Theres a new vape product on the scene andits a real downer.

Depression Sticks are a new vape product that come just as research links vaping to amplified feelings of depression and anxiety. The introduction also follows lastweeks decision by the FDA to postpone ruling on vape products.

Depression Sticks arent realits a fake product invented by truth, the anti-tobacco initiativelaunched in 1998. The new initiative, via Mojo Supermarket, attempts to tell the truth about vaping while giving a salespitch.

National ads boast fruity flavors like Citrus Sadness and Dissapoint-mint and boast that the vapes Feel like anxiety, but TasteLike Cereal. The ads drive viewers to Depressionstick.com.

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One ad presents vaping as Smooth, satisfying, depressing,as upbeat music plays. The ad goes on to explain that Depression Sticks can amplify feelings of depression and anxiety.

The claim is based on research showing a link between vaping and depression. In particular, a 2019study in JAMA Network Open found that e-cigarette users had higher odds of reporting a history of clinical diagnosis of depression compared with participants who never used e-cigarettes.

Later research has also shown that the incidence of anxiety symptoms in late June 2020 was three times as high as those reported in the second quarter of 2019. Depression was four times ashigh.

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Truth's New Vape Product Is Smooth, Satisfying And Depressing 09/22/2021 - MediaPost Communications

Hulu and FX collab The New York Times Presentshas delivered some top-notch documentary content this year; from award-winning investigative installmentThe Killing of Breonna Taylor andheadline-making Framing Britney Spearsto eye-opening examinations likeThe Teenager Who Hacked TwitterandWho Gets to Be An Influencer?, the series has never shied away from diving deep into a variety of subjects.Move Fast & Vape Things, now streaming on Hulu, chronicles the rise and fall of e-cigarette maker Juul.

The Gist: What if there was a way to eradicate cigarettes? To stop losing loved ones to lung cancer caused by smoking? Youd want to be a part of that, right? Thats exactly what James Monsees and Adam Bowen dreamed about when they devised the idea for Juul (then Plume), a compact e-cigarette they hoped would help adult smokers quit combustible cigarettes. What began as a well-intentioned Stanford project soon became a buzzy Silicon Valley startup that reached farther than anyone could have anticipated. With its fruity flavors and sleek design, Juul appealed to not only adult smokers and millennials, but high schoolers and middle schoolers, too. And thats where the trouble begins.

With the help of former employees, FDA officials, journalists, and a young woman whose life was dramatically impacted by getting addicted when she was only a sophomore in high school, Move Fast & Vape Thingstells the story of how a company with good intentions became swallowed up by greed and arrogance. Some 3 million children in the United States use e-cigarettes, and that is largely in part due to the rate Juul spread throughout high school and middle school populations thats a 78% and 48% increase in just a year, respectively. Today, Juul has effectively stepped away from their original mission, one that included standing up to Big Tobacco (Marlboro parent company Altria now owns a large chunk of the company), and some 2,000 lawsuits have been filed against Juul for their role in the youth e-cigarette epidemic.Move Fast & Vape Thingsexamines just how quickly good intentions can be vaporized.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:Move Fast & Vape Thingswill likely remind you of other installments ofThe New York Times Presents, and it may also bring to mind the films of Alex Gibney (includingThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon ValleyandThe Crime of the Century), as well as the Netflix series Dirty Money.

Performance Worth Watching: I was deeply moved by Jackie, the teenager who became addicted to vaping and now is suffering long-term health consequences as a result. Its gutting to watch her recount her story and how the Juul took over her life, consuming her during school hours and dominating her social life. Its impossible not to get misty towards the end of the doc when she says she used to feel bad that her parents had to know her, but now has formed an incredibly close relationship with them since quitting nicotine. Jackie and her mother really bring a lot of heart to Move Fast & Vape Things.

Memorable Dialogue: Ryan Woodring, a former marketing director from Juul, offers some of the best insight in the film. Watching him realize that what hes doing doesnt align with his ethics anymore is one of the standout moments in the doc: Am I dumb? Are we a dumb company? Or even worse, oh, shit, are we an evil company? If those are my options, I dont like either of them.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take:Clocking in at just around an hour long, its pretty breathtaking (no pun intended) just how muchMove Fast & Vape Thingsis able to pack in without things feeling rushed.The New York Times Presentshas been willing to ask all kinds of questions (even the uncomfortable ones) in its various installments thus far, andMove Fast & Vape Thingsis no exception; we get to see who benefited from Juuls rapid rise, who has profound regret about their role in it all, and whose lives have been dramatically impacted by the effects of these e-cigarettes.

By including stories equal parts political, emotional, and ethical,Move Fast & Vape Thingsdoes something uniquely interesting. We get a glimpse of the e-cigarette industry as a whole and the history of devices like these, were able to fully grasp the good intentions of two young men who wanted to see smoking change, and were able to see the more interpersonal picture of what childhood addiction can do to an individual (and to a family). Its great storytelling, one that will likely make you angry and aghast.

The filmmakers have assembled a great cast of talking heads, from the aforementioned Jackie Franklin and her family and former marketing director Ryan Woodring to New York Times journalists and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb. All of these perspectives make for a well-rounded examination of a crisis still in full swing, one that feels unresolved by the end but is wholly compelling all the same. There couldnt be a better time for these kinds of accessible, investigative stories, andThe New York Times Presentscontinues to knock it out of the park with each unique installment.

Our Call:STREAM IT.The New York Times Presentsdelivers another winner withMove Fast & Vape Things, a fascinating examination of how good intentions can go up in smoke (or vapor).

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

StreamMove Fast & Vape Thingson Hulu

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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Move Fast & Vape Things' On Hulu, A Documentary About The Rapid Rise And Collapse of Juul - Decider

Substantial savings on your resistance coil budget

One of the easiest money-saving tips consists of making your own resistance coils. Indeed, the resistance coils that generally go with clearomizers can easily cost between 1$ and 4$ per unit. Given that you need to change your resistance coils regularly when they are clogged up, so as not to affect the taste of your e-cigarette e-liquids, and also to limit the unnecessary production of potentially toxic substances, your vaping budget can soon increase every week. Here is how to make you own resistance coils.

First of all, you need a rebuildable atomizer. Indeed, this type of atomizer allows you to change the resistance coil as you see fit. However, there is a learning curve with this type of gear. Its not complicated by any means, but, using trial and error, you should manage it over time. The principle is based on two parameters: the resistance wire and the wick.

Without going into detail, the most commonly used resistance wire would be Kanthal. Other types of metal can be used, particularly for temperature control. However, we will get back to that in a future article.

To make your resistance coil, you will need some cutting pliers and a shaft of about 2 mm (such as a screwdriver for example, or coilers, which are shafts designed specifically for vaping). By winding the resistance wire around the shaft, you will create a coil consisting of around 3 to 6 windings according to the desired ohm value and the thickness of your wire. The steps are as follows:

For the wick, cotton is mainly used. Take care not to use the cotton that you usually find in makeup removal products. It is preferable to source this cotton in specialist e-cigarette stores. The more absorbent the cotton, the better the vaping experience will be. Once again, you will need to change your resistance coil or your cotton wick quite regularly to obtain consistent vaping quality. You will note that some e-liquids clog resistance coils up more than others. Its up to you to adjust the flavour concentration if you make your own liquids (DIY), or to select products that meet your quality requirements. As a general rule, the sweeter the liquid, the more it will tend to clog up the resistance coil.

You can decide to make your own resistance coils for more than just budget reasons. The enjoyment you get out of making your set-ups allows you to tailor your vaping experience to your exact needs and produce unique sensations.

The choice is yours!

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The perfect way to wick your resistance coil - Vaping Post