There’s always something, isn’t there? Last year, back in March, there was a “bit of a kerfuffle” in the vaping community which led to a lot of name calling and general unpleasantness. So much so that this post was needed. As was this one. Sadly, nothing seems to have changed as it has all kicked off, once again. The only saving grace is that it doesn’t appear to have been as widespread.

When Theresa May became Prime Minister it was thought that the downward spiral of anti-lifestyle policies wouldn’t accelerate. Fast forward three years and we now have this: Smoking must be stamped out in the UK within 11 years, according to timeline set out in ambitious new Government plan Daily Mail headline July 8th 2019 The release of this plan was delayed, for various reasons, but is now published as Mrs May’s lasting “legacy”.

In paper bought to my attention via Frank Baeyens, it comes as no surprise that, once again, tobacco control ‘research’ hasn’t got the faintest idea. The paper, paywalled of course, grandly claims that users of Sub-Ohm Devices (SODs) are daily exposed to similar amounts of carbon monoxide as cigarette smokers. Yes, you read that right. Depending on use patterns and device operation, users of SOD devices may be exposed daily to similar levels of CO as are cigarette smokers.

It has been a quiet time on these pages, not through lack of things to write about, but more a lack of time to actually put finger to key. Y’see, this campaign was released a few days ago - just in time for the typical “New Year Resolution” shenanigans - and of course, the accompanying video received rather a lot of attention. The imagery above, and the accompanying video, bring back stark memories of the “black lung” propaganda; images of which can still be seen on cigarette packs as part of the gore-porn that adorns them.

As is the norm, things have been super-hectic here at Facts Towers so I have, unfortunately, missed an awful lot of stuff going on. I’ve also been absent from social media; mostly for good reason - it bloody annoys me. Those of you that remember, The Freedom Association published some very interesting information about the various local authorities and their current smoking/vaping policies. Most of the councils are backwards looking, ignoramuses.

An interesting blog post dropped into my inbox this week that got me thinking. This particular post came in response to a mini Twitter thread (which I have seen, and somewhat agree with). I’m not going to link to either as I’d prefer this post to stand alone rather than be seen as a response to either, although it could be considered a response. As noted in the blog post, the upshot of the mini-thread was thus:

For those of you most familiar with the modus operandi of the EU institutions, this won’t come as much of a surprise. Back in March 2017, the Commission published the results of a public consultation on whether or not e-cigs should be subject to a tobacco-style excise. Naturally, the overwhelming answer was no. With the largest group of respondents being individuals. Naturally, being the EU, they weren’t particularly satisfied with such a response and all went quiet.

With the recent announcement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb talking about the possibility of curtailing the marketing and selling of flavoured vapour products, it is timely that the Centre for Substance Use Research should have recently published a paper on the topic. The CSUR came under fire when it published the Pleasure of Smoking report because, among other things, CSUR receives some funding from (you guessed it) the tobacco industry. Notably British American Tobacco and PMI.

Yesterday demonstrated the effects of a coordinated effort to discredit one of the most disruptive technologies that has several groups within “public health” worried. Not only for their funding source, which is neither here nor there, but also for the steadily decreasing relevance. Naturally, the media headlines don"t really get to the bottom of the issue: FDA puts e-cig makers on notice: Fix “epidemic” teen use or products may be pulled from market

As both Snowdon and Puddlecote reported today, the EU - along with 167 other signatories to the WHO FCTC - are set to travel to Geneva for the Conference Of the Parties session 8 (COP8), whereby they’ll completely ignore the founding principles of the Protocol - as I discussed recently. As with any gathering of the soulless anti-smoking extremists, there’s always going to be something that is a step too far.