In Vaping News this Week

Check the Small Print

Insurance companies are continuing to treat vapers exactly the same way as they do smokers.

A survey by the comparison site Bought by Many found that any ex-smokers that now vape could find their life insurance invalidated if they tick the No Smoking box when applying for cover.

Insurance companies do tend to find loopholes in any claim made – generally lol – but this one may have serious financial consequences in more ways than one including any future claims being
rejected.

The key seems to be that many of the insurers ask about Nicotine consumption rather than the amount of cigarettes a person smokes.

500 vapers took part in the survey with 43% of them not realizing they would still be classed as smokers when it came to taking out life and health insurance.

Other findings included:

• 85% believe that vapers should not pay the same premium as smokers
• 77% say that vaping actively helped them stop smoking
• 61% believe that vaping over smoking has improved their health

Health insurance broker Phil Nash said:

There are 2 main issues to consider when considering Vaping in relation to health insurance.

From an insurer perspective there is a risk that customers answer “smoking” questions incorrectly.

The likelihood is inadvertent, rather than deliberate non-disclosure although the outcome would very likely be the same in terms of non-payment of claim.

From a customer perspective there is clearly a lack of awareness that vaping increases the cost of premiums.

Coupled with the fact that many customers use vaping as a stepping stone toward stopping smoking, there is the likelihood that customers will not only be paying significantly inflated premiums at outset, but that if they do stop smoking (normally for a 12 month period) then they could benefit from much lower non-smoker premiums.

Source

Hope for US Vapers

A well-known tobacco researcher has added his weight to the belief President Trump plans to scrap the FDA anti vaping legislation.

Professor Michael Siegel from Boston University thinks the appointment of Scott Gottlieb as the head of the FDA is good news for US vapers.

Writing in the weighty financial tome Bloomberg he criticized the current ruling that nicotine replacement therapies – patches etc – were deemed safe where e-cigarettes were not:

Let’s be clear. If vaping is a form of tobacco use, then so is nicotine replacement therapy. And if “any form of tobacco use” is dangerous, then people who use nicotine gum and nicotine patches are also at risk.

Obviously, it would be misleading to tell the public that the nicotine patch is a form of tobacco use. But the nicotine in a nicotine patch is derived from the same tobacco as is the nicotine in e-cigarettes.

He points out that if the current legislation goes through it could spell the death knell for both the vaping industry and more worrying give a death sentence to hundreds of thousands of Americans who will die from smoking related diseases:

The rules as they stand lump all nicotine-containing products in the same basket, regardless of what risks they pose, so that electronic cigarettes — which are orders of magnitude safer than tobacco cigarettes — cannot remain on the market unless their makers submit expensive and burdensome applications to the FDA.

Combustible cigarettes, meanwhile, are free to keep killing more than 400,000 Americans a year, no paperwork required.

As a result, 99 percent of electronic cigarettes stand to be removed from the market, unburdening real cigarettes from the need to compete against safer products.

Source: Bloomberg

“Smoke Free” NHS Sites

The NHS is continuing its campaign to make all NHS properties 100% smoke free and suggest vaping may be the answer.

There has been a total ban on smoking within NHS buildings for the past 10 years but smoking is allowed in some outside areas.

Writing in the UK Governments public health blog Chief Executive Duncan Selbie wrote:

We need to get them [patients and visitors] accustomed to not expecting to smoke anywhere on NHS premises.

Hospitals are health promoting environments for all and cannot be a place for a behaviour that leads to the illness and death of so many. Implementing smokefree sites will present differing challenges to different hospital trusts, however the experience of the early adopters shows it can be done.

He says that any strategy needs to be carefully thought out and patients and visitors should be given ‘sufficient advance warning’.

He also suggests that ‘fast acting nicotine replacement therapy’ should be made available for sale from hospital shops but singles out vaping as a ‘healthier’ alternative:

Many smokers find e-cigarettes helpful for quitting and staying smokefree and they carry a fraction of the risk of cigarettes. Allowing vaping in all or part of the hospital grounds can support compliance with the smokefree policy.

His recommendations include:

• Clear communications, so that patients and visitors know in advance of coming to the hospital that they won’t be able to smoke onsite
• Onsite quitting advice and support for all patients and staff who smoke
• A vaping policy that makes it an easier and more convenient choice to vape than to smoke. Our advice on e-cigarette use in public places provides organisations with some key evidence-based principles to follow.

Source: Public Health Matters Blog

Aussie Nicotine Ban Stays

Bad news for vapers down under as the Australian Government upholds its ban on e-liquids containing nicotine.

However – and might I add unbelievably – nicotine found in replacement ‘therapies’ such as patches is still allowed.

The New Nicotine Alliance Australia had challenged the Aussie Government’s ruling in the light of a wealth of evidence proving e-cigarettes are a proven ‘harm reduction’ aid.

However the Government decided to stick with its assumption that nicotine was addictive and claimed there was ‘little evidence’ to support the safety of e-cigarettes.

And yeah it also churned out the tired old line ‘what about the children?’

In this case they refuted the claim that 18+ warnings on e-liquid bottles was enough and said it was concerned about the poisoning of children through “ingestion or skin contact.”

ECigIntelligence website says:

The decision to reject the NNA proposals means that nicotine can continue to be imported into Australia by an individual for use as an “unapproved therapeutic good”.

However, the consumer must have a prescription from a doctor registered in Australia and is limited to a three-month supply as determined by the manufacturer’s product use guidelines.

Source: EcigIntelligence

Vaping on the Increase

Another week and yet another study and once again it’s good news for vaping – despite being conducted by a big tobacco group.

The study claims that by 2050 if ‘e-cigarettes are still widely available’ 32% of UK smokers who may have continued to smoke will have turned to vaping.

Carried out by the so called Reduced Risk Substantiation at British American Tobacco it’s head – Dr James Murphy – said:

Our model shows that when e-cigarettes are available, the effect of ‘normalisation’, through for example, the visibility and familiarisation of e-cigarettes versus the ‘de-normalisation’ of cigarettes, means that fewer people start smoking and there is a higher rate of successful quit attempts–smokers quit earlier and, although many still relapse, there are significantly more former smokers.

I’d like to say put that in your pipe and smoke it Big Tobacco but I won’t.

Source

Fire Brigade says Vaping Far Safer

Despite all those media scare stories it seems even the London Fire Service knows that e-cigarettes are far safer than smoking.

As far as house fires goes that is.

The London fire brigade has released figures showing that the numbers of people dying in smoking related fires has doubled with 21 people losing their lives last year compared to the year before.

There was over 1,000 smoking related fires reported and 108 injuries with the majority of fires starting in bedrooms.

Assistant Commissioner for fire safety Dan Daly still had a warning for vapers:

Even vaping holds a fire risk. If you use the wrong power source to charge an e-cigarette this can also cause a fire.

Quitting smoking is not only good for your health but also makes a devastating fire in your home less likely.