Sovape’s Nathalie Dunand has given a very interesting interview to Blogs of Bainbridge. In it, she opens up about her journey to advocacy and the issues facing France today. “The Health Minister remains overly cautious and has difficulty recognizing the role of vaping,” she tells readers, but “I think things will change. The facts are stubborn and for the first time we have indisputable data that demonstrate the role and potential of vaping in smoking cessation.”
It seems the challenges are similar to those faced in many other nations: “We are seeing some progress as a growing number of physicians are encouraging their patients to switch to vaping. On the other hand, we also sometimes have maddening feedback from doctors who are totally opposed to vaping and are poorly informed or misinformed.”
The research abstract “Second-hand aerosol from tobacco and electronic cigarettes”, by a team of researchers in Italy and India, claims to have conducted an experimental campaign “to evaluate the exposure to second-hand aerosol from conventional and electronic cigarettes and to estimate the consequent dose received by passive smokers/vapers and the related lung cancer risk.”
It focuses on “estimated doses”, and states that second-hand vape is 15 better when compared to smoke – leading to a safer environment by “five orders of magnitude”.
Finnish harm reduction advocate Jukka Kelovuori (Twitter: @jkelovuori) points out: “So, if the risk of getting lung cancer from passive smoking is 0.005 and the risk of getting it from passive vaping is 5 magnitudes of order smaller, that would mean the risk of getting lung cancer from passive vaping would be 0.00000005?”
So, with this information being published, the University of Regina is saving its employees and students from nothing with its newly announced ban on vaping – even if the vaper sits in their own car. Of course, they have a valid reason for this nonsense: “Other universities are doing it the same way.” Oh, and while vaping is banned, people can still use medicinal cannabis and burn tobacco for smudging and pipe ceremonies.
‘Well done’ goes out to The Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association as it managed to get a proposed 80% wholesale tax on all vape products dropped from the Rhode Island budget bill. The great result was mainly due to the influence put to bear by the number of SAFTA’s member store who attended the hearings.
Finally, another 'well done' goes to Well Pharmacy, the UK's largest independent pharmacy, for promoting vaping as a harm reduction product. Leaflets explaining the facts about vaping are now available in stores.
Hayley Swift, speaking to POTV on behalf of Well, said: “As a responsible healthcare provider, we currently offer a smoking cessation service in the majority of our stores. The evidence-base on e-cigarettes is growing, acknowledging that e-cigarettes are considerably safer than smoking cigarettes, and therefore our NRT offering in-store includes ‘electronic cigarettes’.”
“Taking into consideration both public health and regulatory views, on balance we believe it is better to provide our customers with options to buy high quality e-cigarettes as part of our smoking cessation offer, rather than them buying products from other retailers without any form of health promotion support.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
Join the discussion
Parliament Fears Two
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs faced questions from a Conservative MP and, oddly, a member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
-
by Dave Cross
Harm Reduction For The Rich
The United Kingdom risks becoming a harm reduction country only for the wealthy, according to Michael Landl of the World Vapers’ Alliance
-
by Dave Cross
Sacrificing Health For 2p Cut
Tory Government alienates vaping voters with its mission to cut tax by an unaffordable 2p to attract voters by placing a tax on vape products in the forthcoming budget
-
by Dave Cross
Scotland Announces Single-Use Vape Action
A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland is due to come into effect on 1 April 2025, under proposed legislation published today
-
by Dave Cross
