stageofhistory

Apple are free to allow or block any content they choose and I can understand their reaction to the high-profile cases of vaping related illness and huge numbers of underage users that the US are currently experiencing.  I’m just disappointed that the whole situation is based on a misunderstanding of the actual issues and potential risks posed to the public.

I agree fully with StrangeDays’ point that decisions need to be made using science based evidence – The issue with the US regulations and bans is that they’re not being based on science, certainly not a State level:  They appear to be based at best on political populism rather than evidence-lead health policy.

I say this as a public health professional and ex-smoker who previously vaped, and also as a resident of the UK.  The Government here has based its intervention to vaping on evidence which has been peer-reviewed by health practitioners and professionals, which has resulted in actively encouraging smokers to switch to vaping as part of a harm-reduction strategy, being at least 95% less harmful than smoking tobacco. 

Let’s be clear – this position is in the UK Government’s interest:  Fewer smoking related illnesses means fewer overall referrals to NHS services, which in turn means a saving in the cost of delivery; and that is a net saving, even when considering the loss of tobacco tax revenue that results from fewer smokers (vaping products are taxed at the standard VAT rate).  This in itself reaffirms the UK Government’s belief in vaping as a form of harm reduction and is one of the rare cases where both their financial- and the wider public health-interests overlap. 

The situation in the US is very different, particularly in the nature and marketing of available vaping products, and reasonable legislation to mitigate any potential harm is clearly needed.  There are two separate issues at play and there are distinct:  (1) Underage vapers are attracted to the exceedingly high-strength yet smooth-vaping salt-nicotine in ‘pod’ style systems, which are strong enough to give a rush or buzz (50-70 mg/ml in some pods, when the legal limit in the EU is 20 mg/ml, and evidence that flavours are not major factor can be found even from US studies); and (2) the illicit sale of THC containing pods which have been cut with Vitamin E acetate, which is causing  serious or sadly even fatal injuries in users.   

There are more complexity to these two issues than I can outline here (this post is long enough already!), but in simple terms they are both based in criminality being the same as underage alcohol drinking and drug dealing respectively.  Regulation and enforcement is needed to tackle them, but this must be applied without discouraging or preventing smokers from switching to a less-harmful habit.

Despite the many scare stories the media presents – many potentially based on bias big-Tobacco or big-Pharma funded US research – vaping is without question significantly less harmful than smoking and has become the most successful method of smoking sensation we have available.  It is likely not risk-free, but millions of ex-smokers have been vaping for around a decade now and we have only in the last few months seen health issues in a relatively small number of recently-started vapers?  This shows that the problem is clearly not a fundamental problem with traditional nicotine vaping and something new has happened, now all but confirmed by the CDC.

I fear Apple may regret this decision in the future once the evidence in the States has shaken out and expect that we haven’t seen the last of vaping apps in the App Store.

Public Health England – Vaping in England: an evidence update February 2019

JFC_PA said:

“ Apple's MagSafe Charger gets firmware update”

Apple supports its own accessories: for instance I get info from my Apple MagSafe battery such as % of charge while with my Anker MagSafe pack? Nothing. 

cornchip said:

A hundred bucks huh? I mean it’s better than my company…