The Washington Post: New, sweeping federal rules bar e-cigarette sales to teens younger than 18
By Laurie McGinley and Brady Dennis
The Obama administration on Thursday announced controversial new rules for electronic cigarettes, cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco, including barring the sales of the products to teens under 18 years old.
The new requirements, which go into effect in 90 days, mark the first time the Food and Drug Administration has regulated any of the items.
The rules compel retailers to verify the age of purchasers by photo identification and bar sales of the products in vending machines that are accessible to minors. They also ban the distribution of free samples.
In addition, the FDA is generally requiring manufacturers whose products went on sale after Feb. 15, 2007, to get approval from the agency to continue selling their products. These product reviews will allow the FDA to scrutinize ingredients, product design and health risks, the agency said. It added that it will allow the companies to keep selling their products for two years while they submit their applications and then for an additional year while the FDA reviews the submissions.
The requirements, which have been the focus of intense lobbying from the industry on one side and tobacco-control advocates on the other, are likely to only intensify the debate over whether the devices are a dangerous gateway to traditional tar-laden, chemical-filled cigarettes or a helpful smoking-cessation tool.
“As cigarette smoking among those under 18 has fallen, the use of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, has taken a drastic leap,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of health and human services, in announcing the new rules. “All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction.”
She said the new regulations were an “important step in the fight for a tobacco-free generation — it will help us catch up with changes in the marketplace, put into place rules that protect our kids and give adults information they need to make informed decisions.”
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat flavored, nicotine-laced liquid, turning it into a vapor that the user inhales, or “vapes.” The flavors can come in a wide range, from mango to margarita to mocha.
The FDA’s authority to regulate the products stems from a 2009 law that gave the agency broad power over traditional cigarettes, as well as jurisdiction over other tobacco-related products.
In recent weeks, the e-cigarette industry has gotten support from some public health experts. In late April, a group of tobacco-control experts, writing in the journal Addiction, urged the FDA to be “open-minded” about e-cigarettes, saying that the products are more beneficial than harmful and can result in a reduction in traditional smoking.
“We’re concerned the FDA, which has asserted its right to regulate e-cigarettes, will focus solely on the possibility that e-cigarettes and other vapor nicotine products might act as a gateway to cigarette use,” David Levy, the lead author and a professor in the department of oncology at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said at the time.
He added that the “big picture tells us that these products appear to be used mostly by people who already are or who are likely to become cigarette smokers.”
And recently, the Royal College of Physicians concluded that e-cigarettes were likely to be beneficial to public health in Britain.
But many anti-smoking advocates disagree. They say that e-cigarettes could be harmful, that the long-term health risks are unknown and that companies are marketing their products to younger and younger teens. They say the companies are using the same tactics and themes that the traditional cigarette makers used years ago.
The number of middle and high school students using electronic cigarettes tripled between 2013 and 2014, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WebMD News from HealthDay: FDA Launches Ad Campaign Against Chewing Tobacco
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health officials said Tuesday that they are targeting rural teenagers with a new $36 million ad campaign that highlights the health risks associated with chewing tobacco.
The campaign’s message — “smokeless doesn’t mean harmless” — will challenge a habit that has become a tradition in the rural United States, said Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“It is culturally ingrained in many rural communities, and can be seen as a rite of passage and an acceptable societal norm,” Zeller said during a Tuesday morning news conference. He noted that smokeless tobacco use is more than twice as common in rural areas as it is in urban settings.
Chewing tobacco, snuff and other smokeless tobacco products have been linked to multiple kinds of cancer, gum disease, tooth loss and nicotine addiction, Zeller said.
Nevertheless, smokeless tobacco use has become increasingly popular among rural male teenagers, according to FDA research.
Every day in the United States, nearly 1,000 males younger than 18 try smokeless tobacco for the first time, outpacing those who take their first puff on a cigarette, Zeller said. About one-third of rural white males aged 12 to 17 have tried or are at risk of trying smokeless tobacco, totaling approximately 629,000 male youth nationwide.
Rural teens are used to seeing role models use smokeless tobacco, including fathers, grandfathers, older brothers and community leaders, Zeller explained.
“When people who these teens most trust and admire openly use and share smokeless tobacco, the product is seen as acceptable, and even as an expected part of growing up and belonging,” Zeller said.
This is the first time the FDA has focused on smokeless tobacco in an ad campaign, said Kathy Crosby, director of the FDA’s Office of Health Communication and Education.
Crosby said the campaign will focus on 35 rural markets across the United States, including: Albany, Ga.; Billings, Mont.; Flint, Mich.; Medford, Ore.; Monroe, La.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Tri-Cities, Tenn.
Ads linked to the campaign show young men with ugly lip sores and horrific facial scars caused by mouth cancer, and a football player being tossed around by a nicotine addiction “monster.” The ads will run on local television and in print, while others appear on local radio and through social media.
The new campaign will also collaborate with select Minor League Baseball teams to help combat the link between baseball and smokeless tobacco use among the campaign’s target audience, Crosby said.
This summer, stadiums across the country will display campaign advertising and provide opportunities for fans to meet players who support the campaign’s public health message, she said.
The FDA also is in ongoing talks with Major League Baseball about joining the campaign, and Zeller said he is “optimistic” that a partnership will be announced sometime this season.
Major cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco have banned smokeless tobacco products at ballparks and other sports venues. Major League Baseball has warned that players caught violating the ban in these cities will be subject to discipline from the commissioner.
The smokeless tobacco campaign is an offshoot of the FDA’s award-winning “The Real Cost” campaign, which since 2014 has been warning teenagers about the health effects of smoking.
Opinion: No place in baseball for smokeless tobacco
By: Dick Durbin | As published in the Chicago Tribune
My feelings about tobacco took shape at the bedside of my father in November 1959. I was a sophomore in high school when lung cancer took his life. He was 53 and had smoked two packs of Camels a day.
As a member of Congress I first went up against the powerful tobacco lobby in 1987 and shocked myself and my colleagues by passing a bill banning smoking on airplanes on domestic flights of less than two hours. That measure turned out to be a tipping point. A series of local, state and federal laws followed, leading to restricting tobacco use on all flights, on trains and in hospitals, offices, restaurants and malls.
Despite all these victories, my battle against tobacco consistently struck out in one key area. For over 20 years I have been trying to get spit tobacco out of Major League Baseball.
Just as youth players wear their socks and sweatbands like the pros, or mimic the swing or windup of their favorite star, they are watching as baseball players slip a wad of tobacco in their cheek or under their lip. That sends a visual message, leading teenage boys to imitate this dangerous habit.
The numbers tell the story. While use of cigarettes and cigars among high school athletes declined from 30 percent to 18 percent between 2001 and 2013, use of smokeless tobacco increased by 10 percent in that population over the same period.
Among 8th grade students, the use of smokeless tobacco increased 14 percent between 2013 and 2015. Each year, nearly half a million kids age 12-17 use smokeless tobacco for the first time.
Tony Gwynn, the legendary San Diego hitter, was the most well-known baseball victim of salivary gland cancer caused by spit tobacco. Before his death in 2014, Gwynn attributed his oral cancer to his chewing tobacco use, “Of course it caused it … I always dipped on my right side,” he remarked. He and his family were honest about the cause of his death and reminded us of the real danger of this deadly habit.
Baseball owners such as Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox are outspoken opponents of spit tobacco. They remind me that all forms of tobacco are banned in the minors. Bobby Brown, a former Yankee and a medical doctor, became president of the American League. He joined the late Joe Garagiola, the former St. Louis Cardinal player and announcer, in leading the fight against spit tobacco. Despite all this opposition, the owners ran into a brick wall negotiating the issue with the players’ organization. I remember calling the players’ lead negotiator, Donald Fehr, many years ago. When I raised the danger of spit tobacco to the health of his players, he said: “It’s a negotiable item” and hung up.
The 2016 baseball season marks a long-anticipated breakthrough.
With the leadership of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, five major league cities (New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco) have enacted ordinances banning spit tobacco at their ballparks, and Toronto and Washington, D.C., are considering similar bans. When I met Tony Clark, the head of the Players Association, at a Major League Baseball event in Havana a few weeks ago, I reminded him that his players have to live in this new world. I don’t want to see any player embarrassed or fined. I just want a sport I love to stop promoting a deadly tobacco habit.
Democrat Dick Durbin is the senior U.S. senator from Illinois.
CBS News: New York teen badly injured by exploding e-cigarette
A teenage boy suffered serious injuries when an e-cigarette vaporizer he was holding blew up in his face.
The 14-year-old, who spent five days in the hospital, was left with permanent injuries after his attorney said he was maimed and blinded by an exploding e-cigarette or vape pen, CBS New York reports.
“I was shocked. I was bleeding out of my nose,” Leor Domatov said.
Domatov said he was at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn with friends when they approached a kiosk called Plaza Vapes.
“The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers. He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store,” he said. “When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face.”
Domatov now wears sunglasses after the explosion sent shrapnel flying into his eyes.
“My left eye, I can’t see anything right now cause I got a cut through my cornea, and in my right eye I have a little bit of vision,” he said.
At first, Domatov wasn’t sure what had happened. Then he realized he was bleeding.
“I see like red stuff on the floor, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, is this blood?’ So I start crying, why does it hurt me in my hands?” he said.
Domatov’s attorney Marc Freund intends to sue both the shopping center and the kiosk.
“They don’t ask him for any ID, nothing, and they’re showing different types of products. There are no signs up that reflect the New York state and city law. It’s illegal to sell these products to anyone under the age of 21,” he said.
The kiosk now has a sign posted that reads, “Must be 21 to purchase any product, we ID all.”
Freund claims the notice went up after the incident.
The corporate management offices for Kings Plaza did not reply to a request for comment. The kiosk worker there on Thursday said he could not speak to the incident or provide a phone number for the manager.
This isn’t the first report of e-cigarettes malfunctioning and injuring people.
In January, an Orange County, California, teen suffered first- and second-degree burns when an e-cigarette exploded in his pocket.
A man from Colorado Springs was severely injured in November when an e-cigarette exploded in his face, leaving him with a broken neck, facial fractures, burns to his mouth, and shattered teeth.
And last spring, CBS Los Angeles reported that a Santa Ana man was injured after his e-cigarette blew up in his hands. The explosion sent half of the device into the ceiling, starting a fire at his apartment.
Last year, the federal government banned e-cigarettes from checked luggage on aircraft because of the potential fire hazard. The Department of Transportation said it had reports of least 26 incidents since 2009 in which e-cigarettes had caused explosions or fires.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-teen-badly-injured-by-exploding-e-cigarette/?linkId=23480569
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