Analysis of critical issues and trending industry topics

The life of a harm reduction advocate in a land where e-cigarettes are banned

Written by Aidan Semmens | 18th August 2022

It can be hard to be in a minority, with no apparent way of persuading others to your point of view – such as being a harm reduction advocate in a country where e-cigarettes are...

20,000 authors of published research on vaping – but who and where are they?

Written by Barnaby Page | 10th August 2022

Research into e-cigarettes is dominated by American scientists and a few names emerge as clear leaders in the field, despite the involvement of thousands of scholars over the last decade ...

The demise of the cigarette – the good bad news they don’t want you to hear

Written by Aidan Semmens | 4th August 2022

This week’s financial report from Japan Tobacco International tells a tale that should make bedroom and boardroom reading for government officials, public health departments and regulators everywhere ...

The news on e-cigarette research may seem relentlessly bad – but do you buy it?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 21st July 2022

Bad news is like sex – it sells. And not every scientist is as rigorous as they might be – those who write their press releases even less so. Which leaves the question of who...

Mere possession of an e-cig 'won't mean jail' – but retailers had better watch out

Written by Aidan Semmens | 13th July 2022

Trust a politician to come up with a memorable soundbite, a catchy slogan or a simple statement that leaps out at you from the headlines. Top prize this week to Malaysia’s health minister Khairy Jamaluddin...

An innovative and unexpected scheme to put 'disposable' e-cig batteries to new use

Written by Aidan Semmens | 9th July 2022

One of the major points in favour of lithium batteries is rechargeability – which ought to be a good thing from the green perspective – but that benefit is literally thrown away in the case...

We know the UK is vape-friendly – but can Khan influence the rest of the world?

Written by Barnaby Page | 7th July 2022

Could the UK's Khan review of tobacco policy have lessons for the rest of the world in its enthusiastic endorsement of vaping, even for countries where there is far more hostility toward novel tobacco products?...

Which side is the e-cig science really on – does it support your tribe or mine?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 24th June 2022

As far as we can tell, God has no opinion on the subject of vaping. Science, almost equally unhelpfully, has plenty of opinions – and they don’t all agree ...

The smouldering nicotine question that is suddenly back on the political agenda

Written by Barnaby Page | 16th June 2022

Questions are sure to arise as to how any mandatory reduction in nicotine in combustibles might affect e-cigarettes too, either in the form of increased (or reduced) competition or possible parallel regulation ...

US FDA bends to external pressures and lobbying over following science, says VTA

Written by Lorraine Mullaney | 8th June 2022

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actions in the name of public health threaten to have the opposite effect by leaving the vaping sector in the hands of big tobacco, a vaping association claims ...

Harm-reduction strategies: how much action lies behind the talk?

Written by Barnaby Page | 1st June 2022

Most tobacco companies are keen to be seen supporting the concept of harm reduction, especially through reduced-risk products like e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn and pouches. But how far is their support for the idea actually having an...

Are worries over novel products distracting from the real problem?

Written by Barnaby Page | 19th May 2022

Speaking at the launch of the seventh edition of the Atlas, US public health scholar Jeffrey Drope suggested that new nicotine technologies are “a huge distraction” which have “confused governments, the public health community and...

Is PMI shifting focus from vaping to other smoke-free alternatives?

Written by Barnaby Page | 12th May 2022

The $16bn takeover of Swedish Match by Philip Morris International (PMI) suggests that PMI may be moving further away from vaping as part of its smoke-free portfolio and goals ...

Will FDA meet triumph or disaster over menthol – and how will it affect e-cigs?

Written by Barnaby Page | 9th May 2022

What are the implications of the FDA’s menthol plan for novel nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco? ...

Blue sky thinking brings a breath of fresh air to the question of quitting vaping

Written by Aidan Semmens | 5th May 2022

E-cigs are meant to be an aid to quitting smoking: now, perhaps inevitably, comes a device that promises to help people quit vaping. But is it all it's cracked up to be? ...

Is the current peer-review system really giving us the best possible e-cig science?

Written by Barnaby Page | 20th April 2022

Is the present system of peer-reviewed journal publication of scientific papers the best way to get the best science – particularly in the vaping world? There are those who think it may not be ...

Flair 1, Rigour 0 – how The Conversation turned against the benefits of vaping

Written by Aidan Semmens | 18th April 2022

An article in an international news magazine describes what it calls "A damning review of e-cigarettes" – a description that doesn't do justice to a major piece of academic work that is much more balanced...

Change at the top – but expect no change of direction at US CTP under Mital

Written by Antonia Di Lorenzo | 13th April 2022

What will Michele Mital’s reign as acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) mean in terms of policy? ...

What will changes at the US CTP and CDC mean for the e-cigarette industry?

Written by Barnaby Page | 8th April 2022

Michele Mital’s appointment as acting head of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) is not bad news for the industry, even if it’s not quite good news. And there may be bigger change at the...

Anti-vape lawmakers find themselves caught in a web of their own devising

Written by Aidan Semmens | 6th April 2022

A no-doubt well-meaning ballot measure enthusiastically taken up by voters just 18 months ago now has General Assembly members in the US state of Colorado tied up in a knot of their own making ...

A hard but vital sell – convincing poorer countries of the value of harm reduction

Written by Barnaby Page | 31st March 2022

A new report confronts the issues involved in broadening the appeal of tobacco harm reduction products in low- and middle-income countries, where smoking cessation arguably matters even more than it does elsewhere ...

Trouble in paradise: accusations fly in Hawaiian battle over flavour ban plan

Written by Aidan Semmens | 28th March 2022

There’s some dissension in the state of Hawaii, with some fairly heavy accusations flying around in the public debate over a proposed bill to ban e-cigarette flavours ...

Flavour restrictions 'have little impact', while 'pods may beat mods' for cessation

Written by Barnaby Page | 24th March 2022

The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) has published a number of papers which will be of particular interest to the e-cigarette sector. Here are some of the highlights ...

It's hard to unpick, but there's good news lurking in the detail of CDC vaping report

Written by Barnaby Page | 17th March 2022

The headline conclusions of the CDC are not surprising: tobacco products remain a menace to America’s kids, e-cigarettes particularly, flavoured ones most of all. But that is not the whole story ...

Could very-low-nicotine cigarettes become new competition for vapour?

Written by Barnaby Page | 10th March 2022

The news reported on our sister site TobaccoIntelligence that 22nd Century Group is looking to launch its very-low-nicotine cigarettes (VLNCs) in Chicago and South Korea seems on the surface to have little to do with...

The science and non-science of vaping – and a heart-stopper just for the boys

Written by Aidan Semmens | 2nd March 2022

We hear a lot these days, especially from politicians, about “following the science” – which must be a lot better, surely, than merely following the politicians. But it’s not unproblematic ...

Do sin taxes work – or do they just encourage people to be more sinful?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 17th February 2022

Whatever the motives behind it, punitive or would-be persuasive taxation has many of the same drawbacks as prohibition ...

Only in California: the all-pure cannabis vape pod from the inventors of Juul

Written by Aidan Semmens | 9th February 2022

The latest offering from the company that first devised the Juul e-cigarette looks sure to be a new Californian craze – even if it's not exactly “made solely from pure cannabis” ...

Tie me up, tie me down! Why a bit of red tape can be good for the vape business

Written by Aidan Semmens | 2nd February 2022

Freedom from regulation isn’t necessarily a desirable thing – as one vape store owner in Trinidad will tell you ...

How will the Covid-19 pandemic change the e-cigarette business in the long term?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 19th January 2022

ECigIntelligence will be drawing together much of the evidence for an in-depth examination of how Covid has affected and will continue to affect the vapour business. Meanwhile, certain trends are clear ...

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic caught in an old nicotine delusion

Written by Aidan Semmens | 13th January 2022

Is nicotine really the big baddie when it comes to tobacco products and their alternatives? Some people in positions of authority – people you might think ought to know better – still seem to think...

How smokers with no plans to quit may hold the key to e-cigs' future regulation

Written by Aidan Semmens | 5th January 2022

An original and potentially highly significant piece of peer-reviewed research published last week could – and should – have an impact on the way e-cigarettes are regarded and regulated in the US ...

A dying habit? New Zealand backs vaping in bold plan to kill off smoking for good

Written by Aidan Semmens | 22nd December 2021

New Zealand has designated a cohort of young people – those who will be 14 or younger when the government’s proposed law comes into effect – who will never be old enough to smoke ...

Is it the end for F1's long tobacco tie-up – or does McLaren's Vuse promo count?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 15th December 2021

It’s the end of an era as tobacco sponsorship of Formula One racing comes to an end – again. Or does it and is it? ...

Could cocaine vapes be a smart new way to crack an old addiction problem?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 8th December 2021

It may have originated as an alternative means of administering nicotine, avoiding the dangers of smoking, but vaping technology has many other potential uses – most notably for the delivery of other kinds of drug...

Survey of MEPs' views provides possible clues to the likely direction of TPD3

Written by Barnaby Page | 2nd December 2021

Sooner or later the EU will have a new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), and one of the big questions will be how it treats new product categories which barely existed at the time of TPD2...

What lies behind Filipino health officials' spat with the country's COP9 delegation?

Written by Antonia Di Lorenzo | 24th November 2021

Conflict between public health concerns and political-economic interests seems to be the main reason behind an internal dispute between the Philippine delegation to COP9 and officials at the country’s Department of Health ...

Will Califf and the Biden administration really heed the science on e-cigarettes?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 18th November 2021

Robert Califf, US president Joe Biden’s choice to take up leadership of the FDA again, has unfinished business with the agency – and with e-cigarettes in particular ...

The influencer and the e-cig – a moral tale for our rapidly changing times

Written by Antonia Di Lorenzo | 10th November 2021

The misleading advertising on social media of tobacco alternatives such as e-cigarettes has become a critical concern of public health groups and some governments around the world ...

While WHO won't even talk about them, UK prepares for e-cigs on prescription

Written by Aidan Semmens | 4th November 2021

The timing, one clear week before the opening of COP9, the latest (virtual) gathering of the parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), was interesting ...

A regulatory gulf is set to open between neighbours Shenzhen and Hong Kong

Written by Aidan Semmens | 28th October 2021

It’s about 19 miles from downtown Shenzhen to the centre of Hong Kong as the crow flies, but in e-cigarette terms the distance between them is huge and about to get bigger ...

An ‘epidemic’ of double-think among the anti-vaping brigade – and not just in US

Written by Aidan Semmens | 21st October 2021

Public handwringing about the alleged “epidemic” of youth vaping has become tantamount to an epidemic itself – and and here’s a striking example from Bangladesh ...

FDA's views on Vuse have potential to change the whole vaping landscape

Written by Aidan Semmens | 14th October 2021

The granting of RJ Reynolds’s PMTAs for its Vuse Solo e-cigarette device and two of its pods is very big news for the US vaping industry, its supporters, its customers, and its opponents ...

A hammer to crack a nut: what the PMTA process reveals about US FDA approach

Written by Barnaby Page | 7th October 2021

Some light is now dawning on some truths long since suspected about the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s evaluation of e-cigarettes ...

Reporting disorder: don’t let the facts get in the way of a good bad-news story

Written by Aidan Semmens | 22nd September 2021

Politicians and all those who lay down the law have become very fond of talking about “following the science”. Which sounds like a good idea, right? Well, yes, as long as it’s good science and...

‘Significant progress’ – but the US FDA’s biggest decisions are still to come

Written by Aidan Semmens | 15th September 2021

The dog didn’t eat all the FDA’s homework – just 7% of it. But there will be those who argue that the missing 7% was the crucial bit all along ...

On California's Animal Farm for former hippies it's cannabis good, e-cigs bad

Written by Aidan Semmens | 10th September 2021

There’s a paradox in supposedly liberal Californian political thinking that shows up most sharply when you compare official attitudes to e-cigarettes and cannabis ...

Into the great unknown as US FDA's deadline to decide on PMTAs arrives

Written by Barnaby Page | 9th September 2021

As the US Food and Drug Administration's deadline to pass or reject e-cigarette premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) arrives, where does it leave the market and the as-yet undetermined applications? ...

The FDA can’t win on PMTAs. But should it really be taking the fight to flavours?

Written by Aidan Semmens | 2nd September 2021

It’s hard to argue against the view that packaging and advertising e-cigarette products in a “kid-friendly” way is irresponsible. But are flavours in themselves innately kid-friendly? ...

State attorneys' knee-jerk interjection is no sound basis for federal regulation

Written by Barnaby Page | 27th August 2021

31 US state attorneys want to ban all non-tobacco flavours, including menthol, from e-cigarettes – but is their plea helpful, appropriate or logical? ...

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