Our house is filled with artwork, cloth and knick-knacks we’ve picked up over decades of travel. I often wonder what I’d take if we chose to downsize to an apartment when zimmer frames make the house too difficult. Here are seven very special pieces that I’ll take to my grave. Maoist kitsch I bought this statuette in a Beijing flea market about 20 years ago for $15. These pieces were massively popular during the Maoist cultural revolution in China and now command sometimes high prices from kitsch aficionados. I took it back securely wrapped in hand luggage where it went to my university office ..read more

The report of the Senate Inquiry into the regulation of vapes has been published. It will inform the debate in the Senate scheduled for the June sitting. The Greens will play a pivotal role in the outcome of the vote. In the report, their concerns are well expressed – particularly when it comes to the detail of how we can be assured that possession of vapes is not criminalised – only commercial supply and sales outside of that which will be dispensed to those with prescriptions will be hit with huge deterrent fines.  No one. No one wants users to be prosecuted, fined or otherwise criminal ..read more

The latest official national data on smoking and vaping in Australia were released in late February.  One of the most remarkable sets of findings was the massive support across the community for tough controls on the promotion and supply of vapes (see chart below). The data were collected between 2022 and May 2023 from some 21,500 people across Australia by the Roy Morgan company, on contract from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to conduct the latest in the National Drug Household Survey (NDHS) series, run since 1985.  A question about restricting sales of vapes to th ..read more

The Australian government with support from all the states and nearly every health and medical agency in the country, has introduced a policy that requires all vapers to have a prescription for these products which can only be dispensed by a registered pharmacist. In 2021/22, 223.1 million prescriptions subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) were filled in a population of some 26 million. There can be few who do not get a prescription dispensed at least each once a year. In our two-person house, we take seven drugs between us. It’s a routine part of nearly all our lives. Oral ..read more

This is a lengthy two part podcast on vaping hype, published on 6 Feb 2024 on Karl’s Shirtloads of Science podcast. In it, I discuss the factoid that vaping is “95% safer than smoking”; critically look at claims that vaping is the most effective way of quitting smoking; at what vapers inhale deep into their lungs when they vape; and discuss Australia’s historic policy of requiring vapes to be sold only to those with a doctor’s prescription. I’ve done 1000s of interviews over my 45 year career. This I think is one of the best. Part 1 (20m 26s) 9,434 downloads by 7 Feb Part 2 (24m57s) 6,989 dow ..read more

I have a dear friend who has lived with strong pain every day and night for over a decade. Following extensive damage to her spine from osteoporosis, she was advised to have a spinal fusion operation, on threat of needing a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She has a metal “cage” supporting her lower spine but pain fills her life. More often than not, she wakes several times a night and gets some relief from hot showers. Pain relieving drugs are a daily part of her life. Globally, millions of people live with unremitting pain. If you are in pain, it dominates your life. I originally publish ..read more

An open letter to ABC Pronounce I write to draw attention to the pernicious creep of “preventative” instead of “preventive” in what the ABC broadcasts. Your pronunciation standards guide, ABC Pronounce, formally notes that “preventive”, not preventative be used. This ruling has been in place since 1989. Tonight on the Sydney 7pm news bulletin, the words “preventative medicine” bannered an item on vaping. I’ve noticed it several times recently. Scopus, the scientific world’s largest and most respected scholarly reference service indexes  over 22,000 journals. Not one of these has the wor ..read more

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay When the definitive history of tobacco control is written, it will record a most peculiar phenomenon. British tobacco control experts cannot help themselves from schooling Australian colonial numbskulls about where we are going so very wrong with vaping. Britain really has better vaping policy than Australia, they keep telling us. This is quite amusing because as we’ll see below, some 10 years after the major boom in vaping commenced, vaping prevalence is higher in Britain than in Australia and you could put a cigarette paper between the smo ..read more

Image by haiberliu from Pixabay Smokers have been trying to quit since smoking started, and there have always been opportunists trying to cash in on those hopes. A 1923 book published in Melbourne, Secret Recipes, described an “anti-smoking mixture” where 36 grains of silver nitrate were mixed with 475ml of water for use as an aversive mouthwash after meals. A medical advice column in the Detroit News from 1949 also recommended the same path, “One trying to quit smoking should exclude from his diet meat soups, broths or extracts, highly seasoned sauces or dishes. He or she ..read more

This week, on the cusp of the rollout of their worst nightmare of vaping regulation,  serial vaping barrel-scrapers Colin Mendelsohn and Alex Wodak reached deep into the murky depths of their vaping theology lexicon and pulled out the old hypocrisy meme. This was also a week where Mendelsohn, with “the greatest humility” let us know that he was gonged with a coveted award from the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) as their new public health golden boy. In his blog, he helpfully explained UKVIA’s  impact on smoking: Col also updated his website FAQs (see under ‘fires and explos ..read more