Don’t mirror your enemy too closely lest you become him

We slap industry very hard every time we find them acting in a completely unacceptable manner, just like we do to Tobacco Control. The last decade it has been a 1:10 ratio of unacceptable behaviour by TC, not industry.

With 100% credit to Dave Cross and Planet of the Vapes

Original date of publishing Nov 30 2020

The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) has criticised the British Medical Journal’s (BMJ) “Tobacco Control” for publishing a study that smears consumer advocates and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) for promoting it. Last week’s research paper analysed tweets and insulted harm reduction advocates, accusing them of being part of Philip Morris International or one of its “allies”.

Planet of the Vapes covered the Bloomberg/CRUK-funded study last week [link].

Responding to the publication, the NNA said: “It is disappointing to see the BMJ publishing a research paper which smears consumer advocates for tobacco harm reduction by attempting to link consumer activity on social media with the tobacco industry. One can only conclude that the goal was to devalue the opinions of former smokers who have found safer nicotine products to have been beneficial to their lives.”

Responding on behalf of its supporters, the NNA added: “The attempt to paint consumers as part of some mythical tobacco industry plot is offensive to individuals and organisations promoting tobacco harm reduction. We and our supporters, along with many other vapers, are systematically excluded from the FCTC conferences and yet have a strong stake in the outcomes of the meeting. Social media is one of the few opportunities we have to get our views across. Consumers of safer nicotine products have been acutely aware of an increasing warfare against the products which have helped them to stop smoking.”

Britain’s leading consumer charity continued: “In reality the article shows how successful THR consumer advocates are in dominating the Twittersphere around COP, and rightly so, because it is they are who are most affected by the outcome of COP meetings. Instead of attempting to denigrate these opinions, an altruistic approach would be to welcome the fact that consumers are engaging with the process and studying how consumer experience can help enhance public health outcomes. Sadly, this has not been considered by the authors of this report.”

The NNA has also expressed its deep disappointment directly to CRUK over its tweet celebrating the paper. The CRUK Policy Unit tweeted: “During what would have been the 9th Conference of Parties, we’re excited to share new research with [Bath University’s Tobacco Control Research Group] showing the tobacco industry’s use of social media to amplify its interests during COP8.”

It began by reminding CRUK of its independence: “The NNA is a registered educational charity in the UK, which has the objective of promoting public health by means of tobacco harm reduction. The NNA was established to reflect the interests of those who have switched, or might switch in the future, from smoking tobacco to using safer alternatives. Many of our Trustees, Associates and Supporters are ex-smokers who have quit with the help of safer nicotine products, including e-cigarettes. We have collaborated on initiatives with public health organisations such as Public Health England and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, as well as giving evidence to UK government committees and All-Party Parliamentary Groups. We take no funding from any industry actors and have no conflicts of interest.”

The letter expresses “deep disappointment” over the fact “that CRUK are ‘excited’ about a report which trawled personal citizen Twitter accounts and concluded that they were part of some mythical tobacco industry plot”. The NNA called CRUK’s position “deeply offensive” and “McCarthyist in nature and application”.

In 2018, there were “clear threats” being expressed by the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control in advance of the eighth Conference Of Parties (COP). The NNA contends that vaping consumers “value highly” the products “for helping them to quit smoking.”

Due to the same threats being espoused in the lead up to the ninth COP, the NNA says it is quite reasonable that vapers would be concerned and keen to object to them again.

“It should be accepted that consumers of these products would be extremely worried at the thought of the products being prohibited by clearly conflicted and opaque institutions like the FCTC. Instead, however, this report that CRUK has celebrated – and shamefully part-funded – seeks to further marginalise the consumer voice which is already ignored far too often.”

The letter continues, reminding CRUK that, “the report was primarily funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies; an organisation set up to distribute funds from an American multi-billionaire with little understanding of the THR debate and also little care for the consequences of his actions. We would also note that the lead author of the report you refer to has a proven history of manufacturing falsities against harm reduction options.”

The NNA expresses confusion over this conflict between CRUK’s stated aims and its actions. While the cancer organisation has supported vaping in the past and argues for harm reduction approaches, the consumer charity says CRUK’s response to the report exhibits “behaviour which is the exact opposite” of its aims.

The NNA goes on to add that it has been contacted by supporters who have donated to CRUK in the past but are questioning future contributions if funds are being directed to ventures besmirching nicotine users: “Consumers would not recognise smear articles like this as befitting CRUK’s criteria for funding research.”

CRUK has not responded to the New Nicotine Alliance or acknowledged the receipt of the letter.

Related:

• New Nicotine Alliance – [link]

IMAGE OF MICHAEL BLOOMBERG EDITED FROM AFGE, CC BY 2.0 <HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/2.0>, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS [LINK]. NOT EDITED IN ANY WAY THAT SUGGESTS THE LICENSOR ENDORSES ME/OUR USE

15 Years of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – Sept 30 – Oct 1 online panels with Q&A I’m going to be there and participate – the less you agree with me the more I want you to participate – We Simply Have Got To Start Talking To Each Other

FCTC and Tobacco Harm Reduction panels

No fee

 License allows a few more participants to join

Wednesday and Thursday September 30 and October 1, 12.00-13.30 CET

https://www.15yearsconference.net

Recently a special compilation of papers was published in the Drugs and Alcohol Today journal (https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1745-9265/vol/20/iss/3 ) that reviewed tobacco control and FCTC’s 15 years from the lens of diversity, development and Tobacco Harm Reduction. This special issue was unique in putting a spotlight on:  left-behind populations, gender bias in tobacco control, the global south and LMICs, the innovation gap and policy-practice gap in cessation support, and nicotine illiteracy. All no doubt key challenges in accelerating the global implementation of the FCTC and reducing harms from tobacco globally!

The editors of the special issue, with more than 15 years of editing the Journal  have now brought the authors together at a newly created platform: the 15 Years Conference. There will be two online panels

1. On diversity and development, this Wednesday (Sept 30) from 12-13:30 UK time, (7-8:30 am EST), and

• On Tobacco harm reduction, Policy and Practice this Thursday (October 1) from 12-13:30 UK time (7-8:30 am EST). 

In depth video interviews of the authors are already on the site and linked to the articles: https://www.15yearsconference.net/articles

It is a free event, supported by the Foundation for a Smokefree World, and open to all. 

More info and register at: https://www.15yearsconference.net

This image is a personal reflection and has no connection to the conference or those arranging it.

Farsalinos interview replies to EU4Snus on Nicotine and Covid-19, also in relation the EU Ban on snus

Carried on from Facebook 8 minute excerpt from Bengt Wiberg’s interview with Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos on Nicotine and Covid-19, also in relation to snus and how he feels about the snus ban in the EU.

One further absolutely base and terrible argument to keep the snus ban was presented by the Norwegian State Advocate during the trial in ECJ in Luxembourg. It was that nicotine is more addictive than heroin!

The Norwegian guy knew it was a lie.

The Swedish lead advocate lady for the commission who argued paternal leave also knows that she was arguing flat out lies.

The Danish Advocate General with the ECJ (!) who wrote the hack-job opinion with recommendations to the court must also have known his recommendations were lies. Especially given the one earlier AG opinion on the subject by AG Geelhoed 2004 where he notes that while the ban is legal, the law itself is probably not as it is inhumane, stupid, counterproductive and unfit for purpose so should be changed immediately. 

The scandal that Dr Farsalinos is referring to here is a very long standing one with history all the way back to at least 1989. It is also widely and wildly more dangerous than most appreciate and perhaps even more dangerous than Dr Farsalinos himself appreciates, because it enables total self-denial and disregard for law and human rights and even to a collectively self reinforcing pressured mass-psychosis against a selected issue or group. Group think and peer pressure acting as levers on the whole situation precisely as described in the Danish fairy tale ”The Emperor’s new clothes” but minus any hopes of a happy ending. The subject of nicotine has become so controversial that even high level jurists are forced to flat out lie, and then of course to defend the lies that they know are lies, lest they be branded as having spines of jelly and no integrity whatsoever, perhaps corrupt even. This in my mind is in itself the very essence of corruption as legal minds working for Government are the one class of professionals who must, must, must treat the law as almost holy and sacrosanct, here the difference is that the corruptor and the corruptee are one and the same so even more difficult to prove or shine a light on, in the very group also considered almost by necessity incorrupbtible.

This is a very unfortunate but logical consequence of forcing an expert to lie also in any other chosen field, they have to (with the experts’ status, gravitas, and credibility) defend their own forced or chosen lie and thereby bizarrely and perversely only adding credibility to the lie.

There should be little to none doubt that even remotely truthful information and updates on health effects from snus use by Swedish Public Health would have within a few short years made it abundantly clear that harm reduction from snus use compared to smoking is well above 98% and thereby proving the case for THR as a strategy to be universally applied as fast as possible.

 – This in turn would have made the current snus ban a non issue. This in turn would have allowed for sensible marketing on tobacco harm reduction to the EU population of which 100 million smoke.

 – This in turn would have made the current flavor debacle impossible also, the current debacle where both Netherlands and Denmark, the most sensible pragmatic countries in the entire EU, have lost the Public Health plot completely and read Human Rights upside down; they are believe it or not in the process of banning all relevant flavors in e-cig (nicotine vaping products). This is likely to then be harmonised EU wide by clueless and captured politicians in Brussels – all vying for reelection and in fairness probably not caring too much about the health of stinky and icky smokers anyway.

Made even easier I suppose by Finland and another country in the Baltics having banned flavors in ecig liquid, meaning not only the required 3 countries for harmonisation, but the infinitely more compelling and attractive total of 4 countries (or riders of the Apocalypse if you will – alcohol is high on the agenda to come next – then sugar and sugary tasting sweet additives in things we eat – then not doing enough exercise every week – then salt and fat – then it is established that this is a great way of doing things so then come like predictable clockwork turning the sky dark:  religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political orientation, liking the color orange…..)

BTW 1: The heroin analogy is just awful and awfully stupid. It is a long standing misunderstanding of the facts usually reserved for new persons entering the debate on the anti-nicotine prohibitionist side after having been spoonfed a version by prohibitionist NGOs. A version of that is lethal and unfit for purpose.

BTW 2: The UK ban from 1989 of SKOAL that also gave snus ban down the line was also the first example of EU harmonisation where the wrong policy is imposed on the entire Union. EU harmonisation works by 3 EU countries individually take singularly stupid steps that then get harmonised so all other nations have to do it also, this is done collectively in Parliament in Brussels.

 

BTW 3: Sweden’s derogation was used to simultaneously ensure permanence of the ban on even marketing or placing on the market of snus in the EU ever, seems to be a deliberate agreement text version of a “covert op” by the EU lawyers. This was accomplished when drafting and presenting the acquis in 1992 and the amended one after it became clear that the referendum to join the EU would get a solid NO! vote unless there was a derogation from the snus/oral tobacco ban for Sweden. In the final processes the ban on snus ever being allowed was discretely put into the marketing section of the first TPD, so while the actual derogation looked fine to the Swedish lawyers (because they didnt check the other parts) it killed tobacco harm reduction an extra few decades for all europeans and the entire rest of the world most likely. This has never been protested or even discussed by Swedish Government visavi the union counterparts in Brussels. Details in this last bit may be off, but the gist and essence of what happened is right. Elo

 

Occam shaving while not smoking

It took roughly 30-35 years of intuitive mathematics and word of mouth in Sweden, for snus to become the obvious choice for quitting candidates not finding what they were looking for in NRT or Champix also for women, younger smokers and white collar professionals. Thats how long it took smoking women with higher education to “know” snus isn’t a health issue to any really measurable extent, A total non issue if a successful route to never smoking again, despite the Public Health Agency, the National Board of Health and Welfare, the relevant Ministry and a clicque of tax funded sockpuppet NGO’s bullhorning dire snus warnings at them, warnings of untold horrors reverberating around the entire globe. Looking around, the average Swede knows and knows of, many who are sick or dead from smoking, but oddly never a single one either dead or sick from snus use. As this odd fact holds pretty much absolutely true for an entire ten million population, then chances are pretty good that the living healthy ones who made the switch were right on the button and just follow them. Implicit in that to a switching lay-woman is that the official version obviously must be totally wrong. To any health professional peering successfully through the mist it must mean that many of the Swedish dead and sick people from smoking, are in fact dead or sick because they tried to be good and follow health advice, only the advice they followed was the opposite of true and quite lethal. On a global scale these are very few with about 10-12 k per year. That is very low even by Swedish standards, in Denmark with a ban the figures are twice what Sweden has, per 100k random tobacco users. Swedish fatalities are very few as the grapevine worked very well and the history long. successful switching instead of failed cessation grew slowly at first but then a hockey stick knick in the curve changed that to very fast and very well indeed.

No such luck and no such real world examples to be had anywhere outside Sweden, apart from Norway but they aren’t EU. Norway also don’t have the 250 years of epidemiology that we do in Sweden, granted only the last 115 years are modern records meticulously kept, us being second only to the Germans in faiblesse for keeping books.

Nope, not outside Sweden, outside Sweden we are known as gold standard in health and we award the Nobel Prize in Medicine or physiology, so what we say really really counts. We say snus is very dangerous, lacks necessary science, heaven will fall out of the sky and all the children will become polytobacco users and pot-toting smackfiends raving in the woods E’d out of their wits and surely stuffing magic mushrooms in the rectum.

Understandably regulators and politicians representing the 7,790,000,000 people who don’t live in Sweden do not want any of those things going on in their countries…. Not an election winner in any way, to suggest this would be the “best buy” to beat smoking related disease.. That in comparison, makes tobacco related disease seem quite attractive as an option and also is a good argument for letting smoking just fizzle itself out of existence without introducing any alternative products

This is the easiest and most logical functional explanation for the current situation, a truly bizarre and almost unbelievable result of following the Occam’s razor mindset. Yet still this seems to be the only working perspective and if so, it has critically and negatively impacted the time it took to develop other functional products for Tobacco Harm Reduction and leaving these new products as sitting ducks for massive efforts to demonise them. Its much easier to argue toxicity in flat Belon oysters if it is already established common knowledge that the more bowled fin de Claires oysters are very toxic, so toxic and generally dangerous to humanity that they are banned everywhere except for the coastal areas on both sides of the English Channel.

– Banned, as opposed to fin de claires being fabulous with champagne, Muscadet sur lie, Porter, Stout even, Danish black rye bread (moistened drywall basically), Eschalotted vinegar and @TabascoFreeKids – as a delicacy, as a food, as a great conversation piece, and as a mild aphrodisiac.

Etter on eternal sin (it seems)

 

Professor Jean-Francois Etter, University of Geneva: The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

Full credit to Ashtray for this piece, thank you. Crucial topic that as a historical milestone marker just simply has “too big to fail” riding on it, for both poles, and that is unusual.

Etter was taking a look at a charity set up by Philip Morris, The Foundation for a Smoke Free World (FSFW), to provide grants for both harm reduction projects and charities.

There has been plenty of scepticism around a tobacco company setting up a foundation, from both tobacco control and media. This had been anticipated, and Derek Yach, the Director of the Foundation, insisted on complete independence from PMI. However, as Etter pointed out, if they do have complete independence, this has its own problems. With complete independence, where is the accountability?

Could the real goal be to create divisions in THR? Etter pointed out there have been divisions, although this might have been unintended. Researchers who have accepted grants have been harassed, bullied and defamed, and cut off from other sources of funding. The fault for this, though, lies with bias on both sides of the debate.

What about transparency? Etter thought more information should be available on a number of areas from the names of the grantees to the minutes of the board meeting. However, this may have been limited to protect people involved from harassment.

Etter also looked at how the money has been spent. So far in 2019 32 million dollars has been spent on grants, 4 million on communication and 20 million on expenses. Etter felt the proportion spent on grants was low, although the foundation argues this is usual in the early days of setting up a large foundation.

Throughout its history 156 million dollars has been approved for 90 grants and 15 researchers, although because of that previously mentioned harassment FSFW has struggled to recruit mainstream THR researchers. Still, that might bring new people into the field.

Swedish scientist: Nicotine causes psychiatric disorders and epigenetic changes that are passed on to offspring – whopdidoo!

 

 

http://www.tobaksfakta.se/nikotinet-bygger-om-hjarnan/

 

New research suggests that the highly addictive substance nicotine can exacerbate psychiatric diagnoses, have effects over the generations and increase the risk of becoming addicted to alcohol.

 

Louise Adermark, University of Gothenburg, researches how nicotine affects the brain. Photo: Maj-Lis Koivisto

 

Nicotine rewires the brain

New research indicates that the very addictive substance nicotine can exacerbate psychiatric conditions, has effects over generations and increases the risk of alcohol addiction.

 

“It is extremely important to keep tobacco consumption down in society, there are many gains to be had,” says Louise Adermark, associate professor at the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at the University of Gothenburg, who researches how nicotine affects the brain.

 

That nicotine is so addictive depends on the nicotine receptors. They are the body’s “reception centers” for nicotine and are found in many places in the body. Repeated exposure to nicotine by, for example smoking or snus, increases the number of nicotine receptors, which can affect many functions in the body.

 

Nicotine affects the body’s reward system by releasing dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel good and feel awake, happy and present.

 

–The reward system is important for survival. In addition to making us feel good, we need it for memory and learning, says Louise Adermark.

 

But dopamine is also a “rewire the brain” molecule. Nicotine changes the communication in the brain and affects how the tobacco user acts and thinks in the longer term.

 

– Since almost all cells in the brain’s reward system have nicotine receptors, this system changes with repeated nicotine use. This in turn makes it easy to become addicted. Not only to nicotine, but also of other substances, such as alcohol, she says.

 

Exacerbates anxiety and apprehension

 

The nicotine also affects feelings such as anxiety and apprehension. Initially, you feel better with nicotine, but in the long term the feelings of anxiety and apprehensiveness are exacerbated.

 

–There is a high proportion of smokers among people with psychiatric diagnoses. Previously cigarettes have been regarded as a kind of self-medication, but new research suggests that the nicotine may increase the risk of developing a diagnosis. Human research is supported by studies done on animals. These studies show that nicotine slowly “rebuilds” the brain, which leads to changes in how the animals behave, even when they do not have nicotine in the body, says Louise Adermark.

 

It is also not a coincidence that cigarettes and alcohol are connected. Smokers consume twice as much alcohol as non-smokers. Most alcoholics are smokers. Louise Adermark explains about animal experiments where animals were offered to choose between drinking water and drinking alcohol.

 

–When giving the animals nicotine, all animals began to drink more alcohol, she says, and says that there is a connection between the age of the nicotine debut and the abuse of alcohol and other drugs later in life.

 

Another thing that has been shown by animal testing is that the nicotine can have effects that extend over generations.

 

– Genetic studies in rats and mice indicate that nicotine changes genetics and behaviour for several generations. It may involve increased risk of asthma, increased intake of addictive substances, hyperactivity, and more. The results apply regardless of whether it is the male or female who has been exposed to nicotine, says Louise Adermark.

 

 

PLEASE FIND BELOW HER CITED WORK AT THE U OF GOTHENBURG WEBSITE – ON PUBMED ONLY 6 CITATIONS AND NONE ABOUT NICOTINE

 

2018

Progressive modulation of accumbal neurotransmission and anxiety-like behavior following protracted nicotine withdrawal
Julia Morud, Joakim Strandberg, Anna Andrén, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm et al.
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2018
Journal article

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Complex Control of Striatal Neurotransmission by Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors via Excitatory Inputs onto Medium Spiny Neurons
Valentina Licheri, Oona Lagström, Amir Lotfi, X. H. Patton, Holger Wigström et al.
Journal of Neuroscience, Journal article 2018
Journal article

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Acute and chronic modulation of striatal endocannabinoid-mediated plasticity by nicotine.
Louise Adermark, Julia Morud Lekholm, Amir Lotfi Moghaddam, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Addiction biology, Journal article 2018
Journal article

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A molecular mechanism for choosing alcohol over an alternative reward
E. Barbier, R. S. Dulman, Valentina Licheri, G. Augier, E. Domi et al.
Science, Journal article 2018
Journal article

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2017

Minor adaptations of ethanol-induced release of taurine following chronic ethanol intake in the rat
Mia Ericson, Lisa Ulenius, Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Springer, Conference paper 2017
Conference paper

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Ethanol-induced taurine elevation in the rat dorsal striatum
Lisa Ulenius, Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm, Mia Ericson
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Journal article 2017
Journal article

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2016

Temporal Rewiring of Striatal Circuits Initiated by Nicotine
Louise Adermark, Julia Morud, Amir Lotfi, Klara Danielsson, Lisa Ulenius et al.
Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal article 2016
Journal article

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Disentangling the Role of Astrocytes in Alcohol Use Disorder
Louise Adermark, M. S. Bowers
Alcoholism-Clinical and Experimental Research, Journal article 2016
Journal article

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Nicotine produces chronic behavioral sensitization with changes in accumbal neurotransmission and increased sensitivity to re-exposure
Julia Morud, Louise Adermark, Marta Perez-Alcazar, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Addiction Biology, Journal article 2016
Journal article

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2015

Involvement of Inhibitory Receptors in Modulating Dopamine Signaling and Synaptic Activity Following Acute Ethanol Exposure in Striatal Subregions
Rhona B. C. Clarke, Bo Söderpalm, Amir Lotfi, Mia Ericson, Louise Adermark
Alcoholism-Clinical and Experimental Research, Journal article 2015
Journal article

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Age-contingent influence over accumbal neurotransmission and the locomotor stimulatory response to acute and repeated administration of nicotine in Wistar rats
Louise Adermark, Julia Morud, Amir Lotfi, Susanne Jonsson, Bo Söderpalm et al.
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2015
Journal article

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Alterations in ethanol-induced accumbal transmission after acute and long-term zinc depletion
Julia Morud, Louise Adermark, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Addiction Biology, Journal article 2015
Journal article

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Astrocyte Function in Alcohol Reward and Addiction
Louise Adermark
Journal of Alcoholism & Drug Dependence , Magazine article 2015
Magazine article

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Dopaminergic Regulation of Striatal Interneurons in Reward and Addiction: Focus on Alcohol
Rhona B. C. Clarke, Louise Adermark
Neural Plasticity, Review article 2015
Review article

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2014

Increase in Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Levels Following Local Ethanol Administration Is Not Mediated by Acetaldehyde
Rhona B. C. Clarke, Louise Adermark, Pei Pei Chau, Bo Söderpalm, Mia Ericson
Alcohol and Alcoholism, Journal article 2014
Journal article

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Locus of onset and subpopulation specificity of in vivo ethanol effect in the reciprocal ventral tegmental area-nucleus accumbens circuit
J. M. Burkhardt, Louise Adermark
Neurochemistry International, Journal article 2014
Journal article

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Brain region specific modulation of ethanol-induced depression of GABAergic neurons in the brain reward system by the nicotine receptor antagonist mecamylamine
Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm, J. M. Burkhardt
Alcohol, Journal article 2014
Journal article

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The involvement of accumbal glycine receptors in the dopamine-elevating effects of addictive drugs
Susanne Jonsson, Louise Adermark, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2014
Journal article

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2013

Rising taurine and ethanol concentrations in nucleus accumbens interact to produce the dopamine-activating effects of alcohol
Mia Ericson, Pei Pei Chau, Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Journal article 2013
Journal article

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Region-specific depression of striatal activity in Wistar rat by modest ethanol consumption over a ten-month period
Louise Adermark, Susanne Jonsson, Bo Söderpalm, Matts Eriksson
Alcohol, Journal article 2013
Journal article

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2012

Changes in glycine receptor subunit expression in forebrain regions of the Wistar rat over development.
Susanne Jonsson, Julia Morud, Christopher Pickering, Louise Adermark, Mia Ericson et al.
Brain research, Journal article 2012
Journal article

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Reduced alcohol intake and reward associated with impaired endocannabinoid signaling in mice with a deletion of the glutamate transporter GLAST.
Rose-Marie Karlsson, Louise Adermark, Anna Molander, Stephanie Perreau-Lenz, Erick Singley et al.
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2012
Journal article

2011

Modulation of endocannabinoid-mediated long-lasting disinhibition of striatal output by cholinergic interneurons.
Louise Adermark
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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Intermittent ethanol consumption depresses endocannabinoid-signaling in the dorsolateral striatum of rat.
Louise Adermark, Susanne Jonsson, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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Implications for glycine receptors and astrocytes in ethanol-induced elevation of dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens.
Louise Adermark, Rhona B. C. Clarke, Torsten Olsson, Elisabeth Hansson, Bo Söderpalm et al.
Addiction biology, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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Subregion-Specific Modulation of Excitatory Input and Dopaminergic Output in the Striatum by Tonically Activated Glycine and GABA(A) Receptors.
Louise Adermark, Rhona B. C. Clarke, Mia Ericson, Bo Söderpalm
Frontiers in systems neuroscience, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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Rising taurine and ethanol concentrations in nucleus accumbens interact to produce dopamine release after ethanol administration.
Mia Ericson, Pei Pei Chau, Rhona B. C. Clarke, Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm
Addiction biology, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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Ethanol-induced modulation of synaptic output from the dorsolateral striatum in rat is regulated by cholinergic interneurons.
Louise Adermark, Rhona B. C. Clarke, Bo Söderpalm, Mia Ericson
Neurochemistry international, Journal article 2011
Journal article

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2010

beta-alanine elevates dopamine levels in the rat nucleus accumbens: antagonism by strychnine.
Mia Ericson, Pei Pei Chau, Rhona B. C. Clarke, Louise Adermark, Bo Söderpalm
Amino acids, Journal article 2010
Journal article

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2009

Lactate contributes to ammonia-mediated astroglial dysfunction during hyperammonemia.
Anna Andersson, Louise Adermark, Mikael Persson, Anna Westerlund, Torsten Olsson et al.
Neurochemical research, Journal article 2009
Journal article

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Acute ethanol treatment prevents endocannabinoid-mediated long-lasting disinhibition of striatal output.
Rhona B. C. Clarke, Louise Adermark
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2009
Journal article

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Endocannabinoid-dependent plasticity at GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses in the striatum is regulated by synaptic activity.
Louise Adermark, Giuseppe Talani, David M Lovinger
The European journal of neuroscience, Journal article 2009
Journal article

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Frequency-dependent inversion of net striatal output by endocannabinoid-dependent plasticity at different synaptic inputs.
Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Journal article 2009
Journal article

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2008

Electrophysiological properties and gap junction coupling of striatal astrocytes.
Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
Neurochemistry international, Journal article 2008
Journal article

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Neurotensin reduces glutamatergic transmission in the dorsolateral striatum via retrograde endocannabinoid signaling.
Henry H Yin, Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2008
Journal article

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2007

Retrograde endocannabinoid signaling at striatal synapses requires a regulated postsynaptic release step.
Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal article 2007
Journal article

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Combined activation of L-type Ca2+ channels and synaptic transmission is sufficient to induce striatal long-term depression.
Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Journal article 2007
Journal article

Read the full text
on a web page

Ethanol reverses the direction of long-term synaptic plasticity in the dorsomedial striatum.
Henry H Yin, Brian S Park, Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
The European journal of neuroscience, Journal article 2007
Journal article

Read the full text
on a web page

2006

Ethanol effects on electrophysiological properties of astrocytes in striatal brain slices.
Louise Adermark, David M Lovinger
Neuropharmacology, Journal article 2006
Journal article

Read the full text
on a web page

2004

Ethanol acutely decreases astroglial gap junction permeability in primary cultures from defined brain regions
Louise Adermark, Torsten Olsson, Elisabeth Hansson
Neurochemistry International, Journal article 2004
Journal article

Read the full text
on a web page

2003

Ethanol-mediated effects on astroglial cells in primary culture. With a focus on acute changes in intracellular Ca2+, cell volume, actin filaments, and gap junction coupling
Louise Adermark
Doctoral thesis 2003
Doctoral thesis

Faktaruta till DN Replik 3 januari 2019

Fakta och observationsruta med underliggande observationer kring olika typer av intressekonflikter. Ett av de allvarligaste problemen inom folkhälsoforskning och folkhälsoarbete är att motviljan mot andras intressekonflikter effektivt minskar förmågan att nyktert utvärdera egna förutfattade meningar, intressekonflikter och kognitiv dissonans inför besvärliga målkonflikter.

Normalläget är att alltid anklaga förespråkare för skademinimering för grova intressekonflikter och att vara lakejer åt den onda tobaksindustrin. Vi tänkte återgälda vänligheten enligt nedan:

“Rökning” är rökning genom förbränning och inget annat, punkt. Att författarna hänvisar till att e-cig ånga är rök 38 gånger i sin artikel medan e-cigarettånga eller liknande inte används en enda gång, är bedrägligt och missvisande.

Att inte ha med en analys av de data från CAN och Folkhälsomyndigheten som publicerades den 12 december är oärligt och ovärdigt, särskilt med tanke på den forskargärning som Arnetz och Arnetz har i sina CVn.

Att Nilsson och Wiklund väljer att gömma sig bakom andra jobbtitlar som inte klargör att de har djupa personliga och organisatoriska intressekonflikter mot skademinimering i och med både jobb och forskning och kopplingar till kärnorganisationerna som står bakom initiativet Tobacco Endgame, är anmärkningsvärt och klandervärt.

Vi är också mycket förvånad över slutsatser i artikeln som är dragits från den svenska studien i artikeln, eftersom studien indikerar att vattenpipsrökning är associerad med traditionell rökning med maffiga (raka odds) OR 7,69 och för snusanvändning OR  5,0 men för e-cig-användning är OR 1,01 vilket betyder ingen skillnad alls – det är vad författarna borde ha rapporterat, ingen skillnad alls.

Bengt Arnetz publika CV visar framgångsrikt att han varit involverad i forskning och projekt som säkerställt minst 71 miljoner dollar i olika forskningsanslag sedan 1990, inklusive ett 8,5 miljoner dollar i anslag från Vetenskapsrådet och som matchades med 8,5 miljoner dollar från Uppsala universitet för perioden 2008-2017. Väl inom tidsramen för aktuella intressekonflikter. Självklart påstår vi inte styrning eller oegentligheter på något vis, men samtidigt biter de flesta vettiga människor ogärna den uppsättning händer som föder en. Kanske särskilt inte efter avsevärd del i en dryg halv miljard kronor i totala anslag….

Folkhälsomyndighetens forskningsanslag som nämns i artikeln var på 525 000 $ (SEK 4,069,988 enl redovisning hos Folkhälsomyndigheten) och involverade alla fyra författarna och flera universitet. Anslaget var avsedd till att mäta förekomsten av, samt utveckla skolbaserade interventionsprogram mot, vattenpipsanvändning. Vi kan inte hitta de skolbaserade interventionsprogrammen mot ökad användning av vattenpipa som var en av de två delarna i projektet. Vi ifrågasätter dessutom syftet med och om det är etiskt att turbotrimma en del av gjord forskning och återanvända på detta sätt. Artikeln i originalpublicerades redan i september 2016, men har som gubben i lådan fått nytt liv genom att återpubliceras 2018 och nu även i pappersform, med nytt syfte och kopplat till en tveksam debattartikel i samband med lobbyarbetet för att trixa igenom och försvara lagstiftning som både skapar och dödar rökare.

Nilsson och Wiklund får utöver jobb och forskargärningar sägas vara mycket tätt knutna till organisationer som under lång tid erhållit minst 6 miljoner kronor om året för att bedriva sin verksamhet som ”fristående” civilsamhälleorganisationer – under 2018 har stödet närmat sig 10 miljoner kronor – inte vad man normalt tycker indikerar varken fristående eller civilsamhälle i någon egentlig mening. Återigen, vi påstår inte någon som helst finansiell intressekonflikt, men finansering för opinionsbildning kan onekligen skapa ganska kraftiga incitament till intellektuella intressekonflikter.

Svenska Myndigheter och Organisationer, amerikanska universitetsvärlden samt Karolinska institutet, Uppsala Universitet och Umeå Universitet är väl kända för en extremt normativ och negativ inställning till skademinimering inom tobak, som resulterar i kraftigt snedvriden och anslagsstyrd och forskningsansats med tydligt politiskt gynnsamma resultat^8,9.

Artikel 5.3 i den globala WHO: s ramkonvention om tobakskontroll syftar till att motverka negativ eller förhalande inblandning från tobaksindustrins i arbetet för att eliminera tobaksrelaterade sjukdomar, dödsfall och samhällskostnader. Självklart står vi fullt ut bakom den principen. Samtidigt måste alla positiva och potentiellt positiva utvecklingar välkomnas och utvärderas på egna meriter oavsett ursprung.

Artikel 1(d) i ramkonventionen blev kirurgiskt felöversatt till svenska⁶2004 på ett sätt som var avsett att eliminera snus från alla diskussioner kring skademinimering i Sverige. Den kirurgiska svenska felöversättningen har med hjälp av felinformation om snus exporterats till i princip hela världen som den korrekta ”tolkningen” och tillåter moralism att styra över vetenskap och pragmatism även global. Det är en folkhälsokatastrof av tidigare ej skådat slag att sabotera möjligheten att rädda upp till 7 miljoner liv om året och i samma veva spara upp till 2 biljoner dollar om året som kan användas till annat – Sverige bär huvudansvaret för detta efter 45 år av snus-idioti och vinklad forskning som fortsätter med ominskad kraft 2019.

PS: Charlotta Pisinger från Danmark publicerade en anti-e-cig artikel i Berlingske Tidende⁷den 27 december som har ett fascinerande likartad ansats och språkbruk som denna debattartikel, nästan för lik för att vara en fullständig slump. Till det kan nämnas att även hon har precis återpublicerat en återanvänd och turbotrimmad studie som publicerades 2014 och bemöttes med mycket kraftig kritik redan då. Kunskapsläget kring e-cigaretter i Skandinavien 2014 jämfört med 2018 kan med fördel jämföras med kyrkans läror om världsalltet före Copernicus jämfört med perioden strax efter Kepler – det finns en hel del kvar att lära. 

* https://skepticalscience.com/docs/Debunking_Handbook_Swedish.pdf

1 https://nnasweden.org/blog/198-graphs-showing-smoking-and-e-cig-in-swedish-youth-2014-2018

2 Tobacco Harm Reduction

3 https://befrits.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/january-1-2019-the-holy-mother-of-all-ethical-train-wrecks-swedish-parliament-december-2018/

4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129320/

5 https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/contentassets/9b0c23490ceb401ba3d0a094a567f6cb/vaccination-av-barn-det-svenska-vaccinationsprogrammet-2008-126-9.pdf

6 https://befrits.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Ove-Bring-PDF-Ramkonventionen-om-tobakskontroll.pdf.pdf

7 https://www.berlingske.dk/laesere/kampen-om-den-afhängig-nikotinforbruger

8 https://openarchive.ki.se/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10616/46371/Thesis_Lukasz_Antoniewicz.pdf

9 http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1191340/FULLTEXT01.pdf

 

JANUARY 1, 2019 – The holy mother of all ethical train wrecks – Swedish Parliament – December 2018

The above clear mistranslation to Swedish in 2004 was deliberate and surgical. It effectively got rid of the snus issue as harm reduction - what it also did was get rid of harm reduction period and that is what Sweden has been exporting since 2005. Vera da Costa and Bloomberg simply could not have done what they are doing - had Sweden gone the honest route and started talking candidly about snus already 13 years ago. Not a chance in hell. Sadly this is proof that Nobel Prize Sweden has a huge mountain of responsibility for the global situation. We always want to be a "Moral Superpower", sure I get that, but at the cost of perhaps hundreds of millions of premature deaths? Wow!

 

Faktaruta till Replik i DN: Fact box on COI in DN article 22 December

Dear all,

I am currently active on multiple levels trying to provide truthful content and relevant commentary on the situation in Sweden. I am over time growing more and more confident that my 2012 analysis holds. An analysis that Sweden has successfully delayed acceptance and universal application of Tobacco Harm Reduction, by almost half a century. With the current trajectory the WHO and many with her calculate total premature loss of life due to smoking (and totally unnecessarily toxic Smokeless formulations) will be a billion people or thereabouts this century. Delaying Harm reduction in tobacco by 30 years pre FCTC, materially negatively impacting how the FCTC was formulated and subsequently applied, and a further 20 years post FCTC anti THR – is probably a world record that will be very very difficult for anyone to beat. Why anyone would want to try to do so eludes me, but then again there are definitely moves to have overweight parents declared unfit, and so on and so forth.

Originally first published results:

Letter to Government

Graph tweet

Ove Bring PDF Ramkonventionen om tobakskontroll.pdf – This PM by Sweden’s most respected International Law and Treaty Law jurist is acknowledged as valid (but action refused due to clash with policy) by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Public Health Agency and National Board on Health and Welfare and finally the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

Swedish Parliament on December 12th, 2018 enacted a massive expansion of our smoke free laws and doubly bizarrely included vaping in all existing and new smoke free areas. This was done despite crystal clear and irrefutable data showing that the already record low smoking in Sweden dropped again, like a sinking rock, with the introduction of vaping.

A full billion people, of whom the vast majority are and are increasingly going to be, in Low and Middle Income Countries desperately trying to lift their broader standard of living, will this century be trudging down a long and arduous and expensive road to premature death from smoking, a road that is lined with disease, loss of income and loss of productivity. How much of this would have, or at least could have, been avoided by Sweden simply calling a spade a spade?

Snus was added to smoking as a fully legitimate TC target as a last ditch effort in circa 1993 under the guise of the “Gateway theory” in order to avoid the accumulating and overwhelming evidence that snus was in fact probably not even legitimate as a blip on the public health radar at all. That the Gateway theory for snus has been totally eviscerated and proven to go clearly and massively in the opposite direction, didn’t hinder the argument to be successfully being applied to e-cig. Unless we do something about the false basic premise here, this argument will usable again and again and again – always backed by cited bullshit on “Peer reviewed” record from Sweden and regurgitated in the form of citations abroad. Add to this a thorough understanding from anti-THR science, that is analogous to Pharaonic Egypt. If you plant the Nile plains with only Pharao’s seed and the ensuing yearly inundation is all Pharao’s water down to the last drop – then the entire crop is going to be Pharao’s crop.  

Sweden has achieved a large part of becoming the global leader of “western standard” economies in terms of low smoking through 30 years of intense public information campaigning, true. Sweden also achieved a large(r) part of becoming the global leader of “western standard” economies in terms of low smoking through almost 40 years of having +98%-99,6% harm reduced snus as the most commonly used assisted method for no longer smoking in men and now fast increasing also with women – this happended despite our government and public health bodies and even the Institute awarding the Nobel Prize in Medicine, doing their absolute damndest to stop it.

Sweden was just about to achieve the next to last large part of becoming the ultra stellar  global leader of “western standard” economies in terms of low smoking by wide adoption of e-cigarette experimentation getting the whole population under 5% daily smoking, and moving steadily toward unimaginably (ludicrous, to use a Musky term) low smoking rates in youth – along with Iceland and Norway. Norway has almost no youth daily smoking thanks to snus use instead – something they argue in European Court of Justice is nothing less than a full blown epidemic (epidemic of lower smoking would be more correct – but that runs into problems with the Siracusa principles). Iceland does not have snus and is incredibly proud and boastful of huge success despite snus being banned since 1995. Useful information here though is that Iceland’s government tobacco company has seen 400% growth in sales of “traditional coarse nasal snuff – Neftobakk – since 1995. Interesting to note here is that all the tobacco for this **unregistered and unmeasured government produced traditional product** that is not in any statistics, is that all the tobacco is high grade snus tobacco purchased from Swedish Match and the consumers mix the end product with a bit of water. What do you get then? Snus! QED.

Back to the new round of train wreck ethical travesty in Sweden. The data was in. The data was crystal. The Government had it months ago and if they didn’t, then it was because the Public Health bodies kept it from them – I don’t know which it is and I don’t know which would be the greater scandal?

The data is irrefutable and solidly disqualifies policy in any other direction that the one suggested by the data. Unless of course Sweden was willing to bet the total credibility capital of the entire Swedish Public Health establishment and the red-green hued political parties in Government and what is left of a tattered Nobel Prize reputation – that just like in Asterix, the sky was about to fall on our heads. (This could very well have happened! According to many, who to a man and woman disagree with a postmodern relativist view on policy based evidence making, the level of public health science acumen in Tobacco Control could very well mean authors choosing to cite Goscinny R., Uderzo A., Miraculix, Broccoli A., et al. to an article on “Skyfall theory’s important role in substantiating the nicotine gateway theory” and hoping the reviewers (are there reviewers?) would let it slide with a chuckle. Clearly though with the premise that the evidence cannot emerge until later but will do so with 102.5% certainty and thus absolutely valid for policy and legislation. Note here please that “later” (but not 102.5%) is something up for periodic review and renewal every ten years or so… Sublimely elegant really.

Solution to this monumental conundrum: Pass the law before the data is out! But of course not before the data is out because that would be unethical. Hmmm, how does one achieve this logical double Salkov of disingenuity?

The March 2018 law bill was silently and fast as hell de-moth-balled and “sprung” on and through parliament in the shortest time recorded in peace-time Sweden. This happened  despite Sweden standing without a legitimate new government at the moment and in the middle of the biggest Parliamentary cluster waltz in modern history. (The EU initially stopped the bill in June 2018 because we refused to remove flavour markings on snus – The Horror – How was it then that the EU did not protest this time, after all the offending bit was still in the bill package!?)

The bill in its final format was released to the public on Friday December 7th, debated in Parliament on Tuesday December 11th (you have to click the link and see a report of the travesty with me and Bengt Wiberg from #EU4Snus) and finally voted on in the afternoon of  Wednesday December 12th. Nothing too bad about snus happened as the centre and right are waking up to snus and coffee and beginning to realise what is going on (The liberals are not included here – aren’t liberalism and extreme fascist tendencies sort of mutually excluding political leanings – I always thought so – Silly me!).

Reds, greens, Mussolini liberals and Christian Democrats sealed the fate of vaping as we know it. We (they!) enacted a widely expanded smoke free law framework, even to the extent of banning publicans from choosing to have a small portion of their outside service area reserved for smokers. All vaping was magically included in this and it still passed, and herein lies the royally screwed up skullduggery boo-boo in all its gory glory.

The Parliamentary vote was on the 12th, same day as the data-sets on the biggest collection of tobacco use data ever in Sweden were released. This was the first major one since 2016 and the biggest one ever in Sweden.

 

DATASETS FOR ABOVE AND BELOW: Collection CAN+PHA 2018 december 13

I think most of readers of this piece will agree that had these graphs been verified and placed before each MP before the vote – the smoke free laws would not have included vaping/e-cig?

The data was published the same night – basically available first thing in the morning of the 12th. The below two graphs are the only two representations we have seen so far superimposing the three different datasets on each other to give a more whole overview (the originals were tabulated differently and from separate sources, for extra obfuscation).

To this date we believe we are the only ones who have made the effort to collate and graphically represent the data in a useful format (useful is here in the sense of positively useful as based on hard facts and with relevant context – lying through your teeth by obfuscating what the data means and ripping it totally out of context is of course very useful too, depending on your ambitions, but hardly honest).

A completely different picture can be viewed at Psychologists Against Tobacco, a founding member of the Tobacco Endgame – Smokefree Sweden 2025 initiative here. (Swedish only, sorry, if you want a translated version then please send emails to Atakan.befrits@gmail.com – If I get more than 5 mails I’ll reallocate time to get it done, along with a peptic ulcer from piteous impotent frustration and rage)

There was a barrage of media and press in the morning of the 12th, the day of the vote. The entire focus was on that the “ever tried e-cig” among youth was up by 70% since 2014 – Ergo the only possible action was the widest possible bans and deterrents to youth e-cig experimentation – any parliamentarian not getting that and voting along those lines would automatically be in gross dereliction of duty to protect innocent youth and must obviously be a Big Tobacco lackey (100% certain Harakiri end of said political career).

The collated and tabulated data from the two major surveys in 2018 can be found in excel format to fiddle with, validate and/or critique here: Collection CAN+PHA 2018 December 13 . As you can see from date in the filename, it took us laymen a bit longer to play catch-up than what was absolutely necessary, in order to ensure each voting member of Parliament had at least been provided with the hard facts in politician friendly format.

Again, sublimely elegant and very well played.

We did send a call to reason already on Monday the 10th though after having read the bill published Friday. We sent in vain hopes that we could create change or a space to breathe. Here I am going to give a big hand to the Sweden Democrats for being fast on the ball and having a good grasp of 1+1=2. The SweDems changed the wording during their debate slot on the Tuesday to include a clear reference to that e-cig should immediately or later be regulated in an entirely separate framework from the smoke-free laws, as the evidence dictates. Basically the entire centre+right (not the Mussolini Liberal Party) are clearly seeing the light and want to decouple snus from tobacco, as tobacco is understood by the Swedish uniquely mistranslated FCTC. A correctly translated FCTC would have eliminated this whole problem entirely and would have shaved 13 years of the half century of delayed acceptance of Harm Reduction in Tobacco (THR). A lot of the politicians individually see cautious reason for optimism also with e-cig (HnB) as harm reduction but so far only the Sweden Democrats seem convinced enough to speak up.

I include below the letter that we did manage to get off to Parliament, Parties, Agencies and the Prime Ministry on the Friday (fast and not very good – we are a very small outfit here and did not get very much help from the pros. They are experts on snus and don’t have the requisite knowledge of vaping, vaping science or the global ping-pong game of cherry-picked science bouncing back and forth between the nicotine delivery technologies and always backed up and corroborated by someone somewhere. The general feeling was that we should be incredibly grateful that a majority of political parties are slowly changing their views on snus, so we must all be nice little boy and girl (and them) experts and show gratitude and encouragement….

Note here again: While we show gratitude for the snus kindness that has zero effect on policy in India, this latest outing is an Op-ed in Dagens Nyheter 22 December against e-cig by 2 veteran hard core ANTZ from UMEÅ U. Co-sponsored by a very credible husband and wife hit-crew from Michigan State U. Both originating from Sweden and both still on the UU (Uppsala University) faculty pages. I don’t know them and haven’t heard of them before so I will presume they are honest and diligent and professional, but they do seem to be Glans fans and that is never a good sign.

Prime Minister’s Office

Head of Legal

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Head of Legal

Ministry of Health and Social Affairs

Head of Legal

 

2018.12.10

 

CC sent to Left Party, Greens, Social Democrats, Centre Party, Liberals, Moderates, Christian Democrats, Sweden Democrats

Open letter to Swedish Governmental offices and Agencies and political parties regarding “harm reduction” in relation to the proposed new Tobacco Law.

To whom it may concern,

We are representatives of a global network of scientists, professionals and 36 civil society advocacy organisations from 34 countries. We, together with numerous national governments, represent a globally increasing movement in recognition and acceptance that “harm reduction” is clearly mandated in the original FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control). Harm reduction also in tobacco is clearly a human right and that is enshrined in the rights to health and autonomy.

Enacting the proposed law may have the negative effect that 35 CSO-NGOs together with the global harm reduced nicotine user community will advise their members to disregard Sweden as a travel destination because of the increased anti harm reduction regulations and possible legal consequences. The proposed law in its current format is unnecessarily damaging to public health, individual health and to the goal of ending cigarette smoking and smoking related disease. The proposed law is a Human Rights to Health violation.

We are writing to your respective offices and to the media in some urgency as new circumstances have come to our attention. These are very positive circumstances and present a unique opportunity to instead implement prospective new knowledge that will not be available until 2020.

In our view these very recent circumstances clearly and urgently indicate that any legal decisions that affect snus and/or electronic nicotine delivery systems are wholly inappropriate to enact at the current time. ​We therefore respectfully ask that the proposed law be voted down, withdrawn or redrafted, as the scientific validity of harm reduction via snus and electronic nicotine delivery systems are not adequately reflected in the proposed law.

 

1.​  ​We have received information that a project has been initiated within Swedish Agency SBU (Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services) to evaluate and assess snus (and e-cig) in relation to smoking and the results are expected no earlier than 2020. This project carries tremendous global value in that adequate and useful quantitative relative risk estimates between Swedish Snus and Smoking have so far to the best of our understanding never been produced or communicated, Nationally or Internationally. Snus is not harmless and should not be communicated as harmless. Nor should there be any misunderstandings regarding that nicotine use should best be avoided in entirety, but if not entirely then at least especially in and before pregnancy and preferably when there is cardiovascular disease present ​unless it is likely that the alternative is continued smoking​. These facts are already known and almost universally agreed, therefore what remains to urgently quantify is the relative difference in risk between snus use and smoking to otherwise healthy and non-pregnant adults, and this announced project within SBU is therefore of immense global value.

2.​  ​It has also come to our attention that a new tobacco law for Sweden was agreed by the Social Committee in Parliament on Thursday December 6th and published online on Friday December 7t​ h​. These steps taken in preparation for a parliamentary debate on December 11t​ h​, with a planned Yay/Nay voting session on December 12t​ h​. In effect this means that the final version was made available to the public​[1]​on December 7t​ h​, and the voting session is less than three full weekdays from that day.

3.​  ​We have received information that there is an initiative underway, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Treaty office, to correct an obvious mistranslation in Article 1(d) in the Swedish version of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

4.​  ​The clearly mistranslated portion has changed the meaning of “harm reduction” as understood, expressed, and intended in 1(d) in the original as a requirement, to instead becoming a de facto ban of “harm reduction” in Sweden. The most obvious effects of this are found in science and policy regarding snus and the international (mis)information enabled by the error. A correction of the Swedish FCTC text, to accurately reflect the true meaning and intent of “harm reduction” as expressed in the treaty and preparatory materials would be a very welcome step forward and have tremendous potential value in the fight against tobacco related disease. We believe a correction would have a positive impact on willingness and ability to affordably achieve UN Agenda 2030 SDG goal 3 targets, also in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) globally, where soon 75% of global smoking takes place.

There is every likelihood that prospective and retrospective results from assessments by SBU in 2020, and a correction in the Swedish translation of the FCTC, can considerably improve and expand the available toolbox that the global health community and public health communities use in “Tobacco Control” work as per the requirements and intentions enshrined in the FCTC.

We therefore respectfully urge political representatives of the Kingdom of Sweden, and her governmental bodies and agencies – to postpone any proposed legislation that negatively affects the ability to exercise and utilize an appreciation of the relative risks of different products– at least until such a time as the two crucial issues in this letter have been thoroughly examined and resolved.

With our great respect for Sweden and her role in promoting health, equity and Human Rights.

 

Atakan Erik Befrits

NNA Sweden (New Nicotine Alliance Sweden)
INNCO (International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations)ab@nnasweden.org
+46 764 156046

 

 

 

Pro-Vapeo Mexico publishes open response to train wreck anti-THR Television adverts by MoH (Translated)

The spot of the Ministry of Health

Irresponsible disinformation about electronic cigarettes

The Ministry of Health continues to broadcast an alarmist spot on radio and TV
about electronic cigarettes (1). The narrator, Dr. Angélica Ocampo Ocampo, who is a psychologist and director of the smoking cessation clinic of the General Hospital, warns that “the electronic cigarette affects those around us” and adds that “the nicotine that comes out of vapor kills, generates cancer and heart attacks and heart disease exactly like smoking tobacco.”

The intention of the spot is not to inform but to instill fear in the population. The Ministry of Health has never provided evidence to support this content. Furthermore, the MoH fails to comply with its ethical duty to provide the population with information on health issues that is based on the scientific evidence, namely (see references on the back of the sheet):

• It is grossly untrue that the use of electronic cigarettes is “exactly the same” as smoking tobacco. The electronic cigarette represents for the user a 95% reduction of the damage that causes smoking (see reports from the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom (2) and Public Health England (3).

 

• Nicotine is not carcinogenic or causes heart attacks once dissociated from the smoke from tobacco. There is 30 years of epidemiological (snus) evidence that shows this (4)( 5).

 

• Nicotine “coming out of the vapor exhaled” does not affect people in the environment. The user’s body absorbs more than 94% of the nicotine inhaled (6), so the exhaled concentrations of this substance (and other pollutants) are truly
  minimal (3) and they disperse quickly. Environmental vapor is nothing like environmental or second hand tobacco smoke.

Pro-Vapeo Mexico deeply regrets that:

• The Ministry of Health is causing serious social damage by demonizing the
  electronic cigarette and falsely equate it with the tobacco cigarette. How many millions of smokers will continue to smoke because of fear of consuming nicotine through a medium that eliminates 95% of the risk to your health? Nicotine itself may be addictive but it is not the main cause of health damage from smoking.

 

• The Ministry of Health has failed miserably in the fight against smoking.
  As an institution still in the charge of Dr. José Narro Robles, he must be held accountable to the public. According to official data (ENCODAT 2016-2017 7) in Mexico, more is smoked now than in 2011 (17.6% of the population between 12 and 65 years of age smoked in 2016 but 17.0% smoked in 2011).

 

Pro-Vapeo Mexico hopes that the Secretary of Health in the new administration can correct the failure of the previous administration. A worthy example to follow is the case of the United Kingdom, whose Ministry of Health has adopted as an integral part of its official public health policy (8), the use of electronic cigarettes, which has contributed to a great breakthrough in the fight against smoking: the proportion of smokers in the adult population decreased at further and greatly accelerated rates (from 20.2% to 15.1%) in the same period as smoking in Mexico increased 2011-2016 (9).

There is no reason why a similar Public health success can not be achieved also in Mexico.

Original below:

References to support below

REFERENCIAS.

1 Enlace del spot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irx9s15tUlc&feature=youtu.be

2 Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction”. Informe del Royal College of Physicians RCP, 2016. Enlace. Versión en

2 Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction”. Informe del Royal College of Physicians RCP, 2016. Enlace. Versión en español: pulsar aquí. Versión resumida en español: pulsar aquí.

3 A McNeill, L S Brose, R Calder, L Bauld, D Robson. “Evidence review of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products 2018. A report commissioned by Public Health England”. Informe completo PDF, Resumen extenso, Resumen Breve, Nota de Prensa

4 https://cancer-code-europe.iarc.fr/index.php/en/ecac-12-ways/tobacco/199-nicotine-cause-cancer

5 Benowitz NL, Fraiman JB, Cardiovascular toxicity of nicotine: Implications for electronic cigarette use. Trends Cardiovasc Med. 2016 Aug;26(6):515-23. doi: 10.1016/j.tcm.2016.03.001. Epub 2016 Mar 10

6 St Helen G, Havel C, Dempsey DA, Jacob P, Benowitz NL. Nicotine delivery, retention, and pharmacokinetics from various electronic cigarettes. Addiction. 2016;111(3):535-44; Bush D, Goniewicz ML. A pilot study on nicotine residues in houses of electronic cigarette users, tobacco smokers, and non-users of nicotine-containing products. Int J Drug Policy. 2015;26(6):609-11

7 Encuesta Nacional de Consumo de Drogas, Alcohol y Tabaco (ENCODAT 2016-2017). Ver páginas 65-66.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iktptvdu2nsrSpMBMT4FdqBIk8gikz7q/view

8 Towards a Smoke-free Generation: A Tobacco Control Plan for England. Department of Health. Descarga

9 Office for National Statistics, Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2017. Enlace

Pro-Vapeo México, A.C.

https://www.provapeo.org.mx facebook/provapeomexicoac

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Pro-Vapeo México A.C. es una asociación civil que no persigue fines de lucro. La formamos consumidores informados

de productos que suministran nicotina sin combustión de por medio, por lo cual son sustancialmente menos dañinos que el cigarro tradicional. Promovemos la estrategia de Reducción de Daños por el Tabaquismo que consiste en dar a conocer a los fumadores adultos, y a la sociedad mexicana en general, los beneficios a la salud por la sustitución del hábito de fumar por el consumo de estos productos. Nuestra asociación civil comparte los principios, y es miembro activo, de la Red Internacional de Organizaciones de Consumidores de Nicotina (INNCO, por sus siglas en inglés).

Pro-Vapeo México, A.C. no tiene dependencia ni vínculos financieros con la industria tabacalera y/o las industrias que fabrican y venden cigarros electrónicos, ni con la industria farmacéutica, ni con las burocracias de la salud.

RCP 2007 Report

RCP 2007 Harm reduction in nicotine addiction