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15.6 million Vietnamese spend $1.4bn on smoking: survey

About 15.6 million adults in Vietnam consumed tobacco last year, the Ministry of Health announced Tuesday, citing findings of a global survey.

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/36908/156-million-vietnamese-spend-14bn-on-smoking-survey

Vietnamese smokers spent VND31 trillion (US$1.39 billion) on cigarettes, or VND2.7 million ($121) per person per year, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2015.

The GATS, a World Health Organization-backed initiative, was conducted last year in Vietnam by the Hanoi Medical University and the General Statistics Office.

The survey found that besides traditional cigarettes, there is an increase in using e-cigarettes, sisha, and chewing tobacco among adults in the country, the health ministry confirmed at a conference to announce its results in Hanoi.

The percentage of adults smoking e-cigarettes has risen to 0.4 percent in men and 0.1 percent in women. About 0.1 percent of adults also consume sisha, while 1.4 percent of the population use chewing tobacco, according to the survey.

The good news is that only 45.3 percent of men aged 15 and above smoked in 2015, compared to 47.4 percent a year earlier.

The smoking rate among men in urban areas also decreased from 45 percent in 2010 to 38.7 percent last year.

The survey also said that raising tobacco taxes proved to be an effective solution in reducing smoking.

The Ministry of Health’s spokesperson said that many countries had banned e-cigarettes due to the density of nicotine stored in the devices, which is more harmful than traditional cigarettes.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) is a nationally representative household survey launched in February 2007 as a new component of the ongoing Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS), the WHO said on its website.

The GATS enables countries to collect data on adult tobacco use and key tobacco control measures.

Topics covered in GATS include the prevalence of tobacco use, knowledge, attitudes as well as perceptions, economics, and more.

E Cigarettes & Vapourizer Market to Reach $28.57 billion with 21.1% CAGR to 2022

E Cigarettes & Vapourizer Market 2016 Global Trends, Market Share, Industry Size, Growth, Opportunities, and Market Forecast to 2020

http://www.einnews.com/pr_news/334281145/e-cigarettes-vapourizer-market-to-reach-28-57-billion-with-21-1-cagr-to-2022

PUNE, INDIA, July 7, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ — According to researcher, the Global E-Cigarettes & Vapourizer Market accounted for $7.47 billion in 2015 and is anticipated to reach $28.57 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 21.1% from 2015 to 2022. Growing demand for distribution channels of e-cigarettes and accessories is the primary factor favouring the market growth. Furthermore, increasing number of brands, innovative product launches and product customizations are some of the drivers favouring the market growth. However, uncertain regulatory framework, increasing incidents of e-liquid poisoning and compatibility issues are some of the restraints hampering the market growth. New taxes on e-cigs in cities like Washington, D.C., are damping sales, as are new regulations, like measures passed this year in Indiana that require manufacturers to secure permits and list ingredients. The industry also is awaiting final rules from the Food and Drug Administration, which could require federal approval for nearly all flavored liquid nicotine juices and e-cig devices.

Complete report details @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/e-cigarettes-vapourizer-global-market-outlook-2015

Disposable E-Cigarette segment commanded the largest share in 2015, while Rechargeable E-Cigarettes is growing at the highest CAGR durig the forecast period. North America is expected to witness highest growth rate over the forecast period. Europe being one of the largest markets in the e-cigarette industry it is hub to provide conflicting regulatory regimes.
Some of the key players in this market include Japan Tobacco, Inc., First Union, International Vapor Group, Inc., Marlboro, Lorillard, Inc., Pacific Smoke International, British American Tobacco Plc (Bat), Cloudcig, Steamlite, Smokefree, Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corporation, Altria Group, Inc., Reynolds American Inc., Puff Ecig, Bull Smoke, Feellife Bioscience International Co. Ltd, Fontem Ventures, Philip Morris International, Inc., Ballantyne Brands, Llc and Nice Vapor.

E-cigarettes could be toxic to the mouth: Vaping ‘kills cells in the oral cavity – raising the risk of disease’

Vapours contain toxic substances and particles which damage skin cells
Exposure reduced body’s natural defences of the antioxidant glutathione
Scientists say it could lead to increased risk of oral disease like cancer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3663839/E-cigarettes-toxic-mouth-Vaping-kills-cells-oral-cavity-raising-risk-disease.html

Smoking e-cigarettes may not be much safer than tobacco when it comes to oral health, a new study suggests.

Researchers found e-cigarettes contain toxic substances and nanoparticles that could kill the top layer of skin cells in the oral cavity – behind teeth and gums.

Scientists from UCLA, who was conducted the investigations on cultured cells, believe the same results could happen in a human study – increasing people’s risk of oral disease including cancer.

The latest findings add to a growing body of evidence linking the stop-smoking aids to health risks.

Just yesterday, researchers in North Carolina reported using the devices increases the risk of infection because it damages hundreds of genes in the immune system.

It follows a rapid rise in the use of e-cigarettes in recent years, especially among smokers trying to cut down or quit.

The gadgets deliver a nicotine hit by heating a nicotine-containing propylene glycol (e-liquid) to create an aerosol (usually called ‘vapour’), which is inhaled.

The Centers for Disease Control found that 2.4 million middle school and high school students were using e-cigarettes in 2014.

Nearly one in six people in the UK have now used the devices – 15.5 per cent, up from 8.9 per cent two years earlier.

Doctors back e-cigarettes as an effective method of quitting smoking, with the NHS cleared this year to prescribe the devices for the first time.

But while the effects of conventional cigarette smoke on human health have been well documented, research into e-cigarettes is still in its infancy.

This is especially true when it comes to their effect on the oral cavity, they say.

The research team, led by Dr Shen Hu took cell cultures from the outermost layer of the oral cavity and exposed the cells to two different brands of e-cigarette vapour for 24 hours.

The vapour, containing varying amounts of nicotine or menthol, was generated by a machine built to ‘smoke’ cigarettes like a human would.

The researchers then measured the particle concentration and size distribution of the simulated vapours.

They found the vapours, which contain nanoparticles of metal, silica and carbon, varied in concentration depending on the e-cigarette brand and flavour.

Laboratory tests on cultured cell lines showed e-cigarette vapours may significantly weaken the oral cavity’s natural defence mechanism by decreasing the levels of an antioxidant called glutathione.

This caused roughly 85 per cent of the tested cells to die.

Dr Hu, an associate professor of oral biology at the school of dentistry, said they were now looking to conduct the test on people.

‘A small but significant portion of dental patients at UCLA Dental Clinics have used e-cigarettes, which will provide sufficient patient resources for our planned studies,’ he said.

‘Our hope is to develop a screening model to help predict toxicity levels of e-cigarette products, so that consumers are better informed.’

Researchers suggest health care providers should do more to raise public awareness of the products’ potential health risks.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS One.

E.U. Survey Finds E-Cigarettes Helped 15 Million Smokers Quit or Cut Back

There was little evidence that vaping leads to smoking.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/06/27/eu-survey-finds-e-cigarettes-helped-mill

A large survey of Europeans indicates that more than 6 million have quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes, while more than 9 million have cut back, according to a study recently published by the journal Addiction. “These are probably the highest rates of smoking cessation and reduction ever observed in such a large population study,” says the lead researcher, Konstantinos Farsalinos, a cardiologist at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens. “The European Union data show that the use of electronic cigarettes seems to have a positive impact on public health for two main reasons: 1) High smoking cessation and reduction rates are observed, and 2) electronic cigarette use is largely confined to smokers (current and former), with minimal use by nonsmokers.”

The study, based on responses from 27,460 participants in the Eurobarometer survey, found that 48.5 million citizens of E.U. countries have tried e-cigarettes, while 7.5 million are current vapers. Within the latter group, 35 percent reported that e-cigarettes helped them quit smoking, while 32 percent said they were smoking less thanks to e-cigarettes. Such self-reports are not conclusive, since the study did not independently verify smoking status, smokers who try to quit by vaping are probably different from those who don’t, and it’s possible these outcomes could have been achieved without e-cigarettes. But policy makers and regulators should not lightly dismiss the experiences of millions who say e-cigarettes helped them make changes that dramatically reduced the health hazards they face.

Critics of vaping say the risk that it will lead to smoking in people who otherwise never would have used tobacco products must be weighed against the success stories of people who believe they’d still be smoking if it weren’t for e-cigarettes. But this study found very little evidence of such a risk. Just 0.8 percent of respondents who had ever tried tobacco products said they had tried e-cigarettes first (which does not necessarily mean that the latter led to the former). Only 1.3 percent of never-smokers reported using e-cigarettes with nicotine-containing liquids, and only 0.09 percent did so every day. “In nonsmokers we observed some experimentation with electronic cigarettes, but regular use is minimal,” says one of Farsalinos’ collaborators, Jacques Le Houezec, a neuroscientist at the French National Research Institute for Health and Medical Research. “The concern that electronic cigarettes can be a gateway to smoking is largely rejected by our findings.”

Study finds e-cigarettes caused one of the biggest drops in smoking rates

Where the government failed, the private sector succeeded.

http://economiccollapsenews.com/2016/06/27/study-finds-e-cigarettes-caused-one-of-the-biggest-drops-in-smoking-rates/

A new study suggests that e-cigarettes have helped cause one of the biggest drops in smoking rates ever recorded in Europe.

Published in the journal Addiction, more than six million Europeans have quit smoking and an additional nine million have reduced their cigarette consumption thanks to e-cigarettes.

Researchers say 48.5 million Europeans have tried an e-cigarette and 7.5 million are currently using the product. Of the millions using e-cigarettes, more than one-third (35.1 percent) have quit smoking and nearly one-third (32.2 percent) have slashed their smoking intake.

“These are probably the highest rates of smoking cessation and reduction ever observed in such a large population study,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, in a statement. “The European Union data show that the use of electronic cigarettes seems to have a positive impact on public health for two main reasons: 1. High smoking cessation and reduction rates are observed, and 2. Electronic cigarette use is largely confined to smokers (current and former), with minimal use by non-smokers.”

Despite the positive results, governments everywhere are trying to either regulate it the same as tobacco cigarettes or prohibiting e-cigs from hitting the marketplace.

E-cigarette use in Britain holds steady

Smoking data for World No Tobacco Day

http://uk.kantar.com/business/health/2016/cigarette-and-ecigarette-usage-data/

britain-e-cig-use

Data from Kantar Media TGI shows the number of British people smoking e-cigarettes is holding steady at 6.93%. This compares to the 2014 figure of 6.77% and is still significantly higher than France (2.89%), Germany (2.47%) and Spain (2.66%).

In August 2015, Public Health England published a review about e-cigarettes, saying that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than cigarettes and are an effective quitting aid. It is expected that e-cigarettes will be regulated as medical products in 2016, so they could be made available by the NHS on prescription.

When we compare e-cigarette usage with regular cigarette usage, it still far less popular. The percentage of people who say they smoke regular cigarettes in the UK stands at 16.5%, down from 17.4% in 2014, 21.1% in 2013 and 22.3% in 2011.

Every year, The World Health Organisation (WHO) marks World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), to “highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.” This year the day is on the 31st May 2016, and WHO is calling on countries to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products. Read more on the WHO website.

Use of e-cigarettes stalls in the US, as more Americans believe they’re not healthier than conventional cigarettes

About 10 percent of the 9,766 adults surveyed use the device
This year a growing percentage expressed negative attitudes
47 percent of respondents said vaping was not healthier than smoking

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3606523/POLL-U-S-e-cigarette-use-stalls-health-concerns-grow.html

Use of electronic cigarettesand other vaping devices has stalled in the United States asmore Americans question their safety, according to a new onlineReuters/Ipsos poll.

About 10 percent of the 9,766 adults surveyed between April19 and May 16 use the devices, the same percentage as in asimilar Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, 2015. This year, however, agrowing percentage of participants expressed negative attitudestoward e-cigarettes.

Forty-seven per cent of respondents saidvaping was not healthier than smoking conventional cigarettescompared with 38 percent who felt that way a year ago.

Forty-three percent said they did not believe vaping couldhelp people quit smoking compared with 39 percent who held thatview in 2015. A majority of participants – 66 percent – say thatvaping can be addictive compared with 61 percent in 2015.

Additionally, 49 percent said this year that it could have asimilar effect to that of second-hand tobacco smoke comparedwith 42 percent last year.

Use of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices has stalled in the United States as more Americans question their safety, according to a new online poll

Use of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices has stalled in the United States as more Americans question their safety, according to a new online poll

The growing concerns about the devices could hit theiralready slowing sales, especially for smaller e-cigarette andvaping companies. Many of these brands have lost market share tobig tobacco companies, such as Altria and ReynoldsAmerican Inc. Some do not expect to survive with newU.S. rules to regulate the e-cigarette market.

‘In some ways, a move away from e-cigarettes is actuallypositive for Altria and Reynolds,’ said Morningstar analyst AdamFleck, pointing out it may help sustain sales of conventionalcigarettes, whose margins are much higher.

Sharra Morris, 42, a mental health counselor in Moore,Oklahoma, started using e-cigarettes in February despite somemisgivings about their safety. She tried vaping to help her quitsmoking regular cigarettes.

‘The question now is: are they really safe?’ said Morris,who likes to vape using liquids flavored to taste like FruitLoops cereal and Snickerdoodle cookies. ‘What will they tell usin 20 years?’

E-cigarettes are metal tubes that heat liquids typicallylaced with nicotine and deliver vapor when inhaled. The liquidscome in thousands of flavors, from cotton candy to pizza.

Use of the devices has grown quickly in the last decade,with U.S. sales expected to reach $4.1 billion in 2016,according to Wells Fargo Securities. Sales were down 6 percentin the first quarter of 2016, however.

The healthcare community remains deeply divided over thedevices. Some healthcare experts are concerned about how littleis known about the potential health risks. They are especiallyworried about rising teen e-cigarette use, and fear that may geta new generation hooked on nicotine.

Some support them as a safer alternative to tobacco smokefor smokers who have been unable to quit.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston UniversitySchool of Public Health, has advocated vaping as a way to weansmokers off conventional cigarettes. He blames negativepublicity for the growing concerns about the devices, andbelieves most are unwarranted.

‘There have been public health scares, and they areworking,’ said Siegel. ‘They are dissuading a lot of people fromtrying these products.’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its first rulesregulating e-cigarettes earlier this month, banning their saleand advertising to minors and requiring that manufacturerssubmit their products for approval.

At least one lawsuit has been filed in response to the newrules and more are expected. Many smaller companies say thetesting requirement is too burdensome because it will costhundreds of thousands of dollars per product, and they oftenmanufacture dozens. They say the rules favor the large players,such as Altria and Reynolds.

Companies selling in the United States are banned frommarketing the products as smoking cessation devices. Aboutthree-quarters of people who switch between e-cigarettes andtraditional cigarettes said in the Reuters/Ipsos survey theytried them to quit conventional cigarettes, but still smoketobacco ‘on occasion.’

Many are like Michael Whittaker, a 47-year-old deliverydriver from Halifax, Massachusetts, who took up vaping a fewmonths ago. ‘I figured it might be better for me and I mightsmell better.’

Now he is trying to cut back on both, which is common fordual users.

About 80 percent of people who switch between e-cigarettesand traditional cigarettes said they vape ‘in places whereregular cigarettes are prohibited,’ such as public buildings, or ‘when I’m near people who don’t like tobacco smoke.’

About half of those who currently vape or said they usede-cigarettes in the past said friends and family encouraged themto try the devices. The Reuters/Ipsos poll has a credibilityinterval, a measure of its accuracy, of plus or minus 1.1percentage point for all respondents and 5.6 percentage pointsfor questions asked of people who switch between conventionaland e-cigarettes.

A concern for healthcare professionals is that while 29percent of those who stopped vaping said in the poll they ‘quitall nicotine products,’ almost half returned to conventionalcigarettes.

Of those who went back to traditional tobacco products, 57percent said they returned to conventional cigarettes becausevaping was not satisfying, and 10 percent said it was notconvenient enough. U.S.-approved smoking cessation products andstrategies include medications, patches and counseling, many ofwhich are now covered by insurance.

‘We think there are certainly more and better ways to helpsmokers to quit,’ said Erika Sward of the American LungAssociation. ‘When you’re going to e-cigarettes, you’re notquitting, you’re switching,’ she said.

Number of people using e-cigarettes DOUBLES in just two years with 1 in 10 Europeans saying they’ve tried one

Proportion of people who have tried on in UK increased from 8.9 – 15.5%
Country with highest use was France while Portugal had lowest uptake
Debate over health risks with some worrying it acts as ‘gateway’ drug
Authors and charities say it should be promoted as smoking substitute

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3607153/Number-people-using-e-cigarettes-DOUBLES-just-two-years-1-10-Europeans-saying-ve-tried-one.html

The number of people who have tried e-cigarettes almost doubled in two years, a major study has found.

Nearly one in six people in the UK have now used the devices – 15.5 per cent, up from 8.9 per cent two years earlier.

Doctors back e-cigarettes as an effective method of quitting smoking, with the NHS cleared this year to prescribe the devices for the first time.

But researchers at Imperial College London are worried that many of the people who try ‘vaping’ are non-smokers.

Although experts agree that e-cigarettes are far safer than smoking tobacco, some are concerned that they are also used as a fashionable ‘lifestyle’ habit for people who have never smoked.

They warn that these devices may even lead some people to take up smoking cigarettes – the so-called ‘gateway’ effect.

And they are concerned that we do not yet know enough about the long-term dangers of using the devices.

Lead author Dr Filippos Filippidis from the School of Public Health at Imperial said: ‘This research shows e-cigarettes are becoming very popular across Europe – with more than one in ten people in Europe now having tried one of the devices.

However there is debate about the risks and benefits associated with e-cigarettes.

‘For instance we don’t know whether we may start to see diseases emerge in 10 to 20 years’ time associated with some of the ingredients.

‘We urgently need more research into the devices so that we can answer these questions.’

His team examined the use of the devices across the European Union between 2012 and 2014.

The team, whose work is published in the medical journal Tobacco Control, found that in the UK the proportion of people who had tried an electronic cigarette was higher than the European average.

In Britain in 2012 the rate was 8.9 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the rest of the EU. By 2014 it had increased to 15.5 per cent in Britain, compared to 11.6 per cent elsewhere.

Dr Filippidis added: ‘Although this data shows most of the people who use e-cigarettes are current or former smokers – which suggests the devices may be helping some of them quit smoking – it is worrying that some people who have never smoked are using them.

‘This raises the question of whether they could be a “gateway” to smoking conventional cigarettes.’

Television and radio adverts for e-cigarettes were last week banned, in a bid to cut down the degree to which they are used by non-smokers.

The EU directive warned that e-cigarettes ‘mimic’ and ‘normalise’ the act of smoking, adding: ‘For this reason, it is appropriate to adopt a restrictive approach to advertising electronic cigarettes and refill containers.’

The new study used data from 53,000 people in the EU. They found that the country with the highest e-cigarette use was France, with one in five people saying they had tried them.

The nation with lowest number of people who had tried an e-cigarette was Portugal.

The research also showed the proportion of people across the EU who considered e-cigarettes dangerous had also nearly doubled, from 27 per cent to 51 per cent.

The authors wrote: ‘This analysis of the most up-to-date data from the whole of the EU shows that although perceptions that e-cigarettes are harmful are increasing, levels of those who ever use them are also increasing.’

Scientists and health policy experts are divided over e-cigarettes.

A recent report by the Royal College of Physicians concluded that e-cigarettes are likely to benefit the health of the nation.

The report’s authors suggested that e-cigarettes should be widely promoted as a substitute for smoking.

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: ‘We know that many people are using e-cigarettes to help them quit the much more harmful practice of smoking, including people with lung conditions.

‘For them, quitting tobacco is often the single most important thing they can do to turn their health around.

‘We therefore support calls for more research into vaping, we need to be clear on whether e-cigarettes are a safe way of helping them quit.’

This Statistic About Vaping is Going to Shock You

E-cigarette use is skyrocketing.

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/vaping-tobacco-popularity

The good news is that cigarettes are out these days. The bad news is that tobacco in general is still in.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, millions of kids are now smoking e-cigarettes, leaving the more traditional tobacco products behind. In 2015, around 3 million middle and high school kids used e-cigarettes. That number has grown significantly, according to the CDC, since 2011.

In 2015, about 4.7 million middle and high school students had used tobacco products in the 30 days prior to the National Youth Tobacco Survey studied by the CDC. E-cigarettes were by far the most popular tobacco product with 3 million users, while 1.6 million students reported using traditional cigarettes. Around 1.4 million students had used cigars, 1.2 million used hookahs and 1.1 million used smokeless tobacco.

The number of high schoolers who smoke e-cigarettes has increased from 1.5% in 2011 to 16% in 2015. In 2014, though, e-cigarettes were also the most popular method of using tobacco, which means they’ve been pretty popular for at least a few years.

But, more kids smoking e-cigarettes doesn’t mean more kids overall are using tobacco. According to the CDC reports, there has been no significant change in the amount of students overall who report using tobacco. What’s interesting here is the CDC says educational campaigns about the risks of tobacco use are likely to thank for a reduction in cigarette smoking between 2011 and 2015, but e-cigarettes are probably the reason the number of kids consuming tobacco is still the same.

The CDC pays so much attention to the number of kids using tobacco because those early years are when addictions form.

“Nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical period for brain development, can cause addiction, might harm brain development, and could lead to sustained tobacco product use among youths,” the CDC reports. In fact, they say 80% of adult smokers first tried smoking by age 18.

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, according to the CDC, which is why you shouldn’t try smoking in any form. Smoking can cause cancer, is bad for your skin and can cause a whole bunch of other nasty side effects. Studies have come back with mixed reports on whether or not e-cigarettes are any safer than regular ones, but the fact is that nicotine is still addictive no matter how you get it.

Your best bet is to avoid tobacco all together because no way of consuming it is totally safe.

Electronic cigarette marketing tactics in mainland China

http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2016/04/12/tobaccocontrol-2015-052824.short?g=w_tobaccocontrol_ahead_tab

China produces 41% and consumes >38% of the world’s cigarettes.1 It is also a global production and export centre of the electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) industry. Around 95% of the world’s e-cigarettes are manufactured in China, mainly in the southeastern metropolis of Shenzhen,2 but the market share of e-cigarettes is tiny within the country.2 According to the most recent data of the International Tobacco Control Survey, only 2% of adult current or former smokers in China had ever used e-cigarettes in 2009.3 However, e-cigarette use has become increasingly popular, particularly among young people.4 The large smoker population and the hardening tobacco control measures (many cities have enacted local smoke-free laws,5 and a nationwide smoke-free law has been drafted6) create a huge potential for the e-cigarette market in the country…