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Charles A. Gardner, PhD

@chancethegardener.bsky.social
430 followers 385 following 3.8K posts

My goals are to reduce smoking-related DEATH and reduce teen nicotine USE. Both involve change. To change something, you need to be able to measure it...

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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Malaria control health interventions are to control the vector (mosquitoes): Reduce standing water; insecticides; insecticide-impregnated bednets. Plus anti-malarial meds. Tobacco Control interventions are to control PEOPLE: Sin taxes and bans, and misinformation about relative risks.
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Reposted by Charles A. Gardner, PhD
Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
US has to decide whether it wants world to consider it is civilised or barbaric. #Capitalpunishment = state sanctioned murder. Time to ban #executions all countries @sanho.bsky.social @barnsgreg.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social @jgitchell.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Christa Pike Has Exposed the Truth About Lethal Injection
Lethal injection failures are not glitches; they are features of the process.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
American Cancer Society actively discourages smokers from quitting with the most effective smoking cessation tools... ...even though they KNOW, and continue to state, that those tools are safer than cigarettes.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
EFFECTIVENESS = EFFICACY + USE So a smoking cessation tool that is both "efficacious" AND the most used is, obviously, the most "effective" smoking cessation intervention. US states are now imposing "sin taxes," bans and restrictions on the most effective smoking cessation tools available. 🙄
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
OF THE 100 KIDS ON THE LEFT: 22 drink an intoxicating drug called alcohol 9 binge drink (causing 4,000 teen deaths/year in the USA) 5 vape a non-intoxicating drug called nicotine 1 vapes daily PUBLIC RESPONSE: Alcohol: "Kids will be Kids" Nicotine: #MoralPanic!!! #FactCheck 👇 (1/3)
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Dystopian Prophet Too @dystoprophet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So adults don't like flavors? Weird. I await your proposal to ban flavored alcohol as well.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is NOT what CDC surveys show.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Behold the "whole new generation addicted to nicotine" ...It's that one kid on the right. Of the 100 on the left: 22 use an intoxicating drug called alcohol 9 binge drink which, nationally, causes 4,000 teen deaths/yr #FactCheck tobaccocrst.org/data-briefs www.cdc.gov/alcohol/unde...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The number of Twitter/"X" posts claiming "nicotine harms developing brains" tripled over the past 15 years... ...while the number of US teens who use nicotine dropped from 24.2% to 9.5%. There is now a profound disconnect between what the public is being told and what is actually happening.
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Jacob Grier @jacobgrier.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If you don't follow this topic, you probably have no idea how out of hand the illicit nicotine market in Australia has become. It's not just tax evasion, it's extortion, firebombings of tobacco shops, and violent turf war. And if you sell e-cigarettes there, you could spend years in prison.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This summarizes the World Health Organization's advice to member states. 46 countries have now adopted THIS policy based on WHO guidance. That's 35% of all people on Earth. I wonder... Does no one working in the WHO ever take two steps back and ask themselves, "What if we're wrong?"
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Reposted by Charles A. Gardner, PhD
Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Advice for US journalists who cover the controversial topic of nicotine vapes ("e-cigarettes") and nicotine pouches.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Advice for US journalists who cover the controversial topic of nicotine vapes ("e-cigarettes") and nicotine pouches.
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Steve Hudson @dustcircle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Trying To #QuitSmoking? One Method Outperformed #NicotinePatches and Gum scitechdaily.com/trying-to-qu...
scitechdaily.com
Trying To Quit Smoking? One Method Outperformed Nicotine Patches and Gum
Smokers who want to quit are most likely to succeed when they use nicotine e-cigarettes, according to a new Cochrane review.
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Reposted by Charles A. Gardner, PhD
Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Physician Advice on E-Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Physician Advice on E-Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation
Physicians often face a genuine dilemma when it comes to counseling patients who smoke about e-cigarettes. Although most support the concept of harm reduction in other spheres,1 “tobacco harm reductio...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Why are we demonizing, stigmatizing, banning and taxing products that help millions of adults quit smoking, and that very few teens use? Who benefits from this demonization? ...A reasonable question because MILLIONS of dollars are being spent each year on media to create our current #MoralPanic.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Why do some US Tobacco Control experts oppose #SaferNicotine alternatives? Don your tin foil hat and ask "Who loses if this new trend continues?" Note the ironic graph: FTC data from the website of a $30 mlllion per year non-profit funded by US billionaire Mike Bloomberg. x.com/TobaccoFreeK...
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Whoa 🤯 in Slow-Mo @0lsi.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🇺🇸 Smoking and vaping continued to decline among middle school and high school students in 2025 at just 1.4%. #Smoking and other nicotine products used in American youth recorded the highest rates in 1997 at 36%. Much of that decline is due in part to public messaging about the harms of smoking.
goodgoodgood.co
Smoking rates reach historic low among youth in the United States
The use of nicotine vapes, or e-cigarettes, also fell to in 2025, the lowest it’s been since its peak in 2019.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
#HarmReduction denier: "You're just trading one addiction for another." Ex-smoker who quit by vaping: Why is your concern about my nicotine dependence more important that MY concern to NOT DIE from smoking? And why are you NOT concerned about my dependence on caffeine?
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Reposted by Charles A. Gardner, PhD
GNT @generation-nt.com · 30/08/2026
dlvr.it
Etude scientifique : la vape surpasse les patchs pour stopper la cigarette
Les e-cigarettes contenant de la substance active surpassent largement les patchs et les gommes dans la course au sevrage. Une vaste méta-analyse confirme que cette méthode génère nettement plus de succès par rapport aux substituts traditionnels, se hissant comme l'outil le plus efficace actuellement disponible pour écraser sa dernière cigarette.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Vaping could save millions of lives. The reason people hate it is because it is pleasurable, and some innate puritan part of their brain insists that quitting smoking should involve suffering iandunt.substack.com/p/lost-in-th...
iandunt.substack.com
Lost in the cloud: How vaping was undermined by a moral panic
New data shows that vaping is by far the most effective way to stop people smoking. It’s about time we acclimatise ourselves to the evidence.
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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
A JAMA article supporting clinician conversations about e-cigarettes should make the debate more precise. The evidence is strongest for adult smokers who use vaping as a route away from cigarettes, not for vague claims about nicotine use in general. arielleselyaphd.substack.com/p/jama-artic...
arielleselyaphd.substack.com
JAMA Article on E-Cigarettes Makes Refreshingly Sound Recommendations to Clinicians
A new JAMA article by the Treatment Research Network of SRNT (the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research) discusses how clinicians should discuss e-cigarettes with patients who smoke cigarettes.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
US cigarette sales peaked in 1980. Over the four decades from 1980-2020, cigarette sales dropped 2.8% per year. That drop has now increased to 8% per year. Why has the decline in deadly cigarette use suddenly trippled?
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Jonathan Foulds PhD @jonathanfoulds.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
"Projected mortality effects of adolescent vaping—positive or negative—are very small. As such, this.. study of vaping’s mortality implications suggests that... youth vaping is highly unlikely to constitute an important source of lifetime premature mortality." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42571784/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The Lifetime Mortality Implications of Vaping and Smoking Initiated During Adolescence - PubMed
If youth vaping affects lifetime premature mortality, the increase or decrease is projected to be very small.
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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
CDC/FDA EVIDENCE DASHBOARD US National Youth Tobacco Survey National CDC/FDA estimates for 2018–2025, with product, school-level, sex and use-frequency comparisons. Every figure remains tied to its denominator. @chancethegardener.bsky.social @jgitchell.bsky.social thrglobal.org/en/nyts
thrglobal.org
THR Global
Share your story. Join the global movement.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"People are always a little weird about drugs. We're not very rational about how we deal with everything from alcohol to cannabis to opioids... "[But] #HarmReduction is widely accepted in every field of public health except Tobacco Control." www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUqc...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This is an important publication from 24 of the world's top tobacco control researchers, published in a top journal, JAMA. But NOT the first: In 2024, the Director of FDA's Center for Tobacco Products published the same in another very prestigious journal, Nature. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Si: CLARO. No es dificil entender.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
India banned e-cigarettes in 2019. That year, its WHO teen use survey showed: 7.2% used deadly cigarettes or bidis (past 30-day use) 4.0% used toxic oral smokeless tobacco (past 30-day use) 2.8% used nicotine vapes (lifetime EVER-use) So, to protect children, India banned the safer things...🙄
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
India banned e-cigarettes in 2019. That year, its WHO teen use survey showed: 7.2% used deadly cigarettes or bidis (past 30-day use) 4.0% used toxic oral smokeless tobacco (past 30-day use) 2.8% used nicotine vapes (lifetime EVER-use) So, to protect children, India banned the safer things...🙄
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
One billion people smoke deadly cigarettes or use toxic oral smokeless tobacco. Product substitution IS happening (from deadly to safer), but slowly. Only ~200 million now use #SaferNicotine alternatives. One of the reasons this shift is too slow is that the WHO opposes #HarmReduction.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Rare to read an article that tells the public what CDC surveys actually show: Teen nicotine vaping has plummeted. ...Which is good news. Unfortunately, all over America, journalists are telling the public the opposite: Teen vaping is "rising" and a "crisis." 🙄 theconversation.com/us-teens-are...
theconversation.com
US teens are smoking and vaping less than their peers abroad
A new FDA survey finds some positive trends among young people in the US, though new forms of nicotine use like pouches have become a bit more popular.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
India banned nicotine vapes in 2019. Coincidentally, that was also the year of India's last Global Youth Tobacco survey. 2019 teen use was: 7.2% deadly cigarettes or bidis at least once in past 30-days 4.0% toxic oral smokeless tobacco (past 30-day use) 2.8% #SaferNicotine vapes (lifetime EVER use)
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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Paul Krugman explains why Trump & US ultra right are campaigning against vaccines and how that will result in ⬆️childhood deaths. Anti science is contagious @sanho.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-rise-o...
paulkrugman.substack.com
The Rise of the Measles-Industrial Complex
Why MAGA wants children to get sick and die
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Here are the numbers from CDC's National Youth Tobacco Survey: US teen use of "any tobacco product." NOTE: The CDC calls nicotine vapes and nicotine pouches "tobacco products." So it's all lumped together. QUESTION: Why are health experts claiming "whole new generation addicted to nicotine"?
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Adults with #ADHD are 4x more likely to smoke. Studies show nicotine patches reduce #ADHD symptoms. 14% of teens have ADHD. My guess: The kids in the middle and on the right may have ADHD. Strangely, no study has EVER tested this. #FactCheck: academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
US experts claim "e-cigarettes created a whole new generation addicted to nicotine." But the CDC/FDA National Youth Tobacco Survey shows how many kids vape daily (so MAY be 'hooked'). It's that kid on the right. fda.gov/media/191376... tobaccocrst.org/data-briefs academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...
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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
My recent comments on Australia’s failed & futile smoking/vaping policy & what’s needed to fix it pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/08... @algore09algor.bsky.social @ianamossyd.bsky.social @igas2.bsky.social @jmenezes.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social @jgitchell.bsky.social
pearlsandirritations.com
Time to reform Australia’s failed policy on smoking and vaping
Australia’s sky-high cigarette excise and severely restricted legal access to vaping have helped fuel a vast illegal nicotine market, undermining public health, law enforcement and government revenue.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Behold the "whole new generation addicted to nicotine." (It's that tiny red slice on the right.) New generation addicted is a flat-out lie. QUESTIONS: - Why lie about this? - Who is paying people to lie about this? tobaccocrst.org/data-briefs academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...
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SRNT Treatment Network @treatmentsrnt.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
We excitedly share a new manuscript for you to read from members of the SRNT TRN Harm Reduction Working Group now published at jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...! This timely communication offers recommendations for discussing e-cigarettes as part of evidence-based adult cessation treatment.
jamanetwork.com
Recommendations for Nicotine E-Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation
This Special Communication summarizes evidence on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and provides recommendations for clinicians on how to engage in conversations with adult patients who cu...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Believing that nicotine itself causes cancer is logically equivalent to claiming: - Polluted water causes infectious disease - Therefore, H₂O molecules are pathogenic Nicotine does not cause cancer according to the CDC, the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, and Cancer Research UK.
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tobaccoreporter.bsky.social @tobaccoreporter.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
tobaccoreporter.com
Experts Recommend Physicians Use Vape to Help Smokers Quit - Tobacco Reporter
Researchers from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Treatment Network published new recommendations in the JAMA encouraging healthcare providers to discuss nicotine e-cigarettes as a potential harm reduction option for adults who smoke and have been unable or unwilling to quit using FDA-approved cessation methods. The guidance, published July 30, emphasizes patient-centered, shared
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Hypothetically: What if these 42 experts are right? If they are right, then current recommendations from American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and WHO cause harm. ACS, AHA, ALA and WHO all actively advise smokers NOT to quit by vaping.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Behold the US teen nicotine vaping "crisis." Here is what CDC/FDA surveys show: RIGHT: Their infographic LEFT: Same graph with Y axis set, honestly, at 100% #FactCheck: fda.gov/media/191376... tobaccocrst.org/data-briefs academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...
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Reposted by Charles A. Gardner, PhD
Je ne fume plus ! @jenefumeplus.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Le fardeau du tabagisme, conjugué aux données scientifiques soutenant l’efficacité des CE pour le sevrage tabagique, démontre clairement la pertinence d’intégrer ces dernières aux discussions sur les traitements pharmacologiques fondés sur des données probantes. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Recommendations for Nicotine E-Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation
This Special Communication summarizes evidence on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and provides recommendations for clinicians on how to engage in conversations with adult patients who cu...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Tobacco is a plant 🌱 Nicotine gum is a candy 🍬 Nicotine vapes are not plants; not candy ⛔️🚫 FDA DEEMED nicotine vapes "tobacco products" so it could regulate them. #HarmReduction-deniers claim #SaferNicotine vapes are "tobacco products" to slander them and confuse the public.
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
24 of the world's top academic tobacco researchers say nicotine vapes are safer and help people quit smoking. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 15 past-Presidents of world's top professional society in Tobacco Control agree SAFER and help people quit smoking. ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2...
jamanetwork.com
Recommendations for Nicotine E-Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation
This Special Communication summarizes evidence on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and provides recommendations for clinicians on how to engage in conversations with adult patients who cu...
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Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Most of the 21 million US adults who use nicotine vapes "daily or some days" to avoid deadly cigarettes do NOT want tobacco-flavor. Forcing them to use cigarette-flavored vapes would be strange and cruel. 1.4 million teens vape nicotine "at least one time in the past 30 days." 0.4m vape daily.
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Brown University School of Public Health @brownpublichealth.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Are e-cigarettes safe? No, they’re not," says Dr. Jasjit Ahluwalia. "Are they safer than cigarettes? Dramatically safer." @browncaas.bsky.social Professors Ahluwalia, Cara Murphy & other SRNT working group members are urging doctors to discuss #vaping with adult smokers who are struggling to quit.
sph.brown.edu
Trying to quit smoking? Experts urge recommendation of e-cigs for adult cigarette smokers
E-cigarettes aren't safe, but they're ‘dramatically safer' than smoking. Citing strong evidence for harm reduction, Brown experts join co-authors for a new SRNT paper that advises healthcare providers discuss vaping with adult smokers struggling to quit.
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Action on Smoking Health (UK) @ashorguk.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
💻 You can add your response to the consultation here: www.gov.uk/government/c... 📊 For more new data on the usage of vaping products, see ASH's adult vaping factsheet and youth vaping factsheets: 🔗 ash.org.uk/resources/vi... 🔗 ash.org.uk/resources/vi...
gov.uk
Tobacco and vapes: packaging, appearance and display
Proposals for regulating tobacco, vaping and nicotine product packaging, device appearance and retail displays, to implement the Tobacco and Vapes Act.
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