Stories

Packed GP waiting rooms might need to find space for hundreds of thousands more patients each year under an analysis of new vape rules. But as the number of e-cigarette users hits 1.3 million, one state minister says stemming the tide of an emerging health crisis is essential. Under a national crackdown introduced in January, access to e-cigarettes for therapeutic purposes requires a prescription from a medical or nurse practitioner.

People who vape in the United Kingdom are expected to be hit with a substantial new tax. Tobacco harm reduction advocates see it as a backward step, reducing the incentive to purchase safer products instead of cigarettes, in a country known for years of progressive vape policies. Vaping is a key part of the national smoking cessation strategy. In April 2023, the UK’s governing Conservative Party pledged to give free vape starter kits to 1 million people who smoke. But later in the year, the government divided opinion with “smoke-free generation” plans including not only a ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after 2008, but a raft of potential vape restrictions, subject to a public consultation.

With the rise of vaping continuing to increase, electronic (e-) hookahs have been advertised as a safer tobacco alternative, but it’s not all it seems. A recent study funded by the University of California, Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program studied the immediate effects of e-hookah vaping on vascular health and has revealed that e-hookah’s may not be a safer alternative to tobacco. The research focused on determining the role of nicotine, a common component found in vaping products, on endothelial function and the crucial regulation of blood vessel health.

A U.S. federal appeals court issues a scathing rebuke of FDA’s authorization process for flavored nicotine vaping products, reversing marketing denial orders for two mid-sized vape manufacturers and ordering the regulator to take a fresh look at their PMTA applications.

YouGov put out a poll [...] which showed an appalling lack of public understanding about the relative risks of vaping and smoking. Only 24 per cent of respondents knew that smoking is much worse for your health than vaping. 52 per cent reckoned vaping is as bad or worse than smoking. Surveys from the USA show that public ignorance among Americans is even worse, with a mere 2.6 per cent of them able to give the correct answer.

Where’s the parade for all the people who quit smoking thanks to nicotine vapes? This is the question Janine Timmons wants tobacco control bureaucrats to answer when they gather next month in Panama for the World health Organization’s COP10 conference. She’s afraid attendees will continue to dig for the worst possible excuse to ban vaping, when they should be celebrating its success in helping smokers to quit.

It’s a relentless campaign by those advocating for alternative tobacco products following a new study in which they are arguing that vapes are effective in helping smokers to quit their deadly habit. And now it will be up to the Ministry of Health to decide between allowing these new tobacco products or heed another persistent campaign by anti-tobacco crusaders to ban all types of cigarettes altogether.

Consumer demand for nicotine products has fluctuated due to inflation and rising cigarette prices over the past 13-19 months. However, the Neilsen report covering the four-week period ending Dec. 30 shows that market shares are holding steady for both next-generation and traditional tobacco brands. The market share of R.J. Reynolds’ top-selling Vuse e-cigarette remained flat at 42 percent in December at convenience stores, according to the report. While Vuse’s market share was unchanged, No. 2 Juul dropped from 24.3 percent to 24.2 percent for the report covering the four-week period ending Dec. 30.

Nicotine use is recognized to be harmful on multiple levels, including brain and heart toxicity. A new study published in JAMA Network Open explores the risk for smoking presented by childhood trauma with subsequent failure of emotional regulation and the neural measures that reflect these risk factors. Not much is known about what drives long-term smokers to continue the habit. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a tool to assess brain function in relation to tobacco use. While many studies have focused on the functional state of the brain at rest, dynamic-state measures could help understand how brain areas coordinate over time or with changing circumstances.

January is a popular time for people to try to stop smoking. Many try to quit alone without supports and therapies that can give the best chance of quitting, such as stop smoking medications. The HSE is here to help you quit by providing free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) along with other tried and tested supports. Dr Paul Kavanagh, HSE Public Health Medicine Consultant Lead with the Tobacco Free Ireland Programme, explains how NRT is safe and effective: “NRT are tightly regulated medicinal products which are overseen by the Health Products Regulatory Agency (HPRA) in Ireland.