Valley City considering restrictions on e-cigarette sales; proposal would require licensing

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VALLEY CITY, North Dakota — Officials in Valley City are considering measures that would restrict the sales of e-cigarettes in the city.
The Valley City Times-Record reports the ordinances could ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors as well as the self-service sales of e-cigarettes. They would also require local licensing for sellers of e-cigarettes.
Members of the City County Board of Health say they want an ordinance that would not allow flavored e-cigarettes, in liquid nicotine or any other form, to be sold to anyone in Valley City.
Tobacco prevention coordinator Vicki Roseneau says “flavors are aimed at enticing youth to buy” e-cigarettes.
Thirteen businesses currently sale tobacco products in Valley City.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/6b8c1cd5f84948b39918751389336537/ND–Smoking-Ordinances-Valley-City/

LETTER: Tobacco tax can help smokers quit

By Rebekah Hartman

It’s time for North Dakota to raise the tobacco tax. I know firsthand that raising the price is an effective way to help people quit smoking.
I am personally affected by our state’s low rate of tobacco taxes, as my husband is in a constant struggle to battle his addiction to tobacco. When we lived in Minnesota, the price of cigarettes was high enough that buying a pack forced him to stop and think about what — exactly — the money was going for, and if there was a better way to spend the dollars.
Now that we’re in North Dakota, where the cigarette prices are shockingly low, there is little pause when deciding to buy a pack.
I’m urging our state legislators to support the proposals before them to increase the state tobacco taxes. Our elected officials should seize the opportunity to increase taxes on all tobacco products as it would reduce smoking rates, support countless people who are desperately trying to break their addiction and ultimately lower health care costs for all North Dakotans.
Rebekah Hartman, Mandan, N.D.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/letters/3668410-letter-tobacco-tax-can-help-smokers-quit

OFFICIALS DECLARE E-CIGARETTES A HEALTH THREAT FOR CALIFORNIA

By , ABC News
SHERMAN OAKS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) —

Health officials have declared electronic cigarettes a health threat for California, and they are seeking statewide regulations.
The use of electronic cigarettes is growing. It’s called vaping, and there’s new shops opening up all over.
The California Department of Public Health released a report saying e-cigarettes emit cancer-causing chemicals and get users hooked on nicotine, but officials acknowledged that more research needs to be done.
“There’s a misnomer that e-cigarettes emit just water vapor, and that’s not true. They actually admit aerosol that contains particulate matter,” said Timothy Gibbs of the American Cancer Society.
California Health Officer Ron Chapman said if the products remain largely unregulated, new generations of young people will become nicotine addicts.
“There is propyleneglycol, which is a food substance. They have actually used it as medication. However, when it’s heated up, if it’s heated up high enough, it becomes ethylene glycol, that’s anti-freeze,” said Dr. Brian Tiep of City of Hope.
But proponents say it is never heated that much.
“There is a dangerous part when you are heating up … but we don’t do that. Usually vape shops don’t sell those kinds of things,” said Mike Mailyan, who owns the Vapor Shop in Sherman Oaks.
He says electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco, and there is nothing burning like a cigarette. Instead, a heating element vaporizes a liquid that can have different flavorings.
“Basically it’s boiled water with vegetable glycerine,” Mailyan said.
California banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in 2010, but the report raises concerns about children consuming liquid nicotine with flavors such as cotton candy and gummy bear. Reports of children under 5 with e-cigarette poisoning jumped from seven in 2012 to 154 last year.
There’s a proposal in the state legislature that would define e-cigarettes as a tobacco product and would prohibit its use in public places. A similar bill was defeated last year over opposition from tobacco companies.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also proposing regulations that include warning labels and ingredient lists on e-cigarettes, although enactment could take years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://abc7.com/health/officials-declare-e-cigarettes-a-health-threat-for-california/495375/

 

Lab tests imply formaldehyde risk in some e-cigarette vapor

By Marilynn Marchione, The Washington Post
Using certain electronic cigarettes at high temperature settings may release more formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical, than smoking traditional cigarettes does, new lab tests suggest.
The research does not prove a health risk — it involved limited testing on just one brand of e-cigarettes and was done in test tubes, not people. It also does not mean e-cigarettes are better or worse than regular ones; tobacco smoke contains dozens of things that can cause cancer.
But it does highlight how little is known about the safety of the battery-powered devices, which heat liquid to deliver nicotine in a vapor rather than from burning tobacco.
“It’s a potential red flag,” one independent expert — Stephen Hecht, a tobacco researcher at the University of Minnesota — said of the study. “Under some conditions, e-cigarettes might be generating more formaldehyde than you’d want to be exposed to. But I don’t think we know enough yet. There’s a huge variety in the makeup of these cigarettes and how they are used.”
The study was published last week as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine. The journal said it had been reviewed by experts in the field.
Formaldehyde is found in many things, including building materials and disinfectants. An earlier study found e-cigarettes generated less formaldehyde than regular ones, but that study looked at just the gas portion of the vapor. The new one looked at the liquid particles in the vapor, like the spray from an aerosol can.
Some e-cigarette systems let users turn up the voltage to increase the heat and the amount of liquid in the vapor. David Peyton, a chemist at Portland State University, and colleagues tested one brand with two voltage settings. They used a syringe to collect vapor from 10 samples, each one representing several puffs, at both voltage levels.
They measured formaldehyde hemiacetal — a compound that can release formaldehyde — in the liquid portion of the vapor.
At low voltage, the chemical was not detected. But at the high setting, levels were five to 15 times as great as the amount of formaldehyde users would get from traditional cigarettes.
Virtually all e-cigarettes use similar materials in the heated liquid, so the formaldehyde finding “is not brand-dependent,” Peyton said.
However, Gregory Conley, a lawyer with the American Vaping Association, an advocacy group for e-cigarettes, criticized the study methods. “They use the device in a manner that no one does,” he said.
What the researchers did, he said, is like leaving a steak on a grill all day: Many cancer-causing substances might be formed, but no one would eat such charred meat.
— Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lab-tests-imply-formaldehyde-risk-in-some-e-cigarette-vapor/2015/01/26/6f36fd9a-a266-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html

Surgeon general says e-cigarette safety needs "clarity"

TIM IRELAND/PA WIRE, CBS/AP

The U.S. surgeon general says officials are “in desperate need of clarity” on electronic cigarettes to help guide public health policies.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, the country’s senior public health official, addressed the battery-powered devices that heat liquid nicotine during a stop Tuesday in Richmond. The U.S. Senate confirmed the 37-year-old physician and Harvard Medical School instructor’s nomination in December. The surgeon general’s office has previously been instrumental in guiding tobacco control.
The newly-appointed Murthy says the technology should be embraced if evidence shows e-cigarettes are able to help those who otherwise have trouble quitting smoking. However, research has found that e-cigarettes won’t necessarily help smokers quit. Last year, researchers surveyed nearly 1,000 smokers and found that while 13.5 percent of the total study pool quit smoking, only nine of the 88 e-cigarette smokers quit.
As is the case with all health officials, Murthy also expressed concern about the safety of the product. E-cigarette companies have used social media to market their product and appeal to young people, who are picking up vaping in surprising numbers. Companies claim they safer to use than standard tobacco. However, a study published last week found e-cigarette smokers are five to 15 times more likely to get formaldehyde-related cancers.
Last year, the FDA drafted recommendations to regulate marketing and sales of electronic cigarettes, though the laws have yet to be passed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/surgeon-general-dr-vivek-murthy-says-e-cigarette-safety-needs-clarity/

FAA warns U.S. airlines about e-cigarette risk

By JEFF PEGUES | CBS NEWS
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration is warning U.S. carriers about the risk of fires caused by e-cigarettes.
Earlier this month at Los Angeles International Airport, an overheated e-cigarette sparked a fire in a piece of luggage in a baggage area. Four months prior to that at Boston’s Logan Airport, an e-cigarette in a passenger’s bag caught fire in the cargo hold of a plane — forcing an evacuation.
Those incidents and others have prompted the FAA to issue an official warning to U.S. carriers. The agency says the popular tobacco alternative “can pose a fire hazard in the cargo compartment of planes.”
Fires can spread when lithium ion batteries ignite.The FAA has already cracked down on those but e-cigarettes are powered by the same technology: Lithium cells.
The concern is that e-cigarettes could inadvertently turn on in checked luggage, igniting a fire that could be catastrophic in mid-flight.
The FAA is not banning e-cigs on planes outright. It just wants passengers to carry them onto the plane so that they can be monitored.
To read more or watch video: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-warns-airlines-carriers-about-e-cig-risk/

What to Know About the Science of E-Cigarettes

 
Eliza Gray & Alexandra Sifferlin | TIME Magazine

A guide to understanding conflicting and ongoing research

Two Columbia University professors warned in a new study Thursday that the health fears over electronic cigarettes are hindering research. The very same day, another new study showed that smoking e-cigs, or “vaping,” can produce cancer-causing formaldehyde.
Clearly there’s some disagreement among scientists about the risks and benefits of a product that’s growing in popularity. Here’s what you need to know about the latest science.
What’s with the latest disagreement?
Columbia public health professors Amy Fairchild and Ronald Bayer argue in Science magazine that the staunchest opponents of electronic cigarettes are so concerned about the potential downsides that they advocate for an anti-e-cigarette regulatory and research approach that may be bad for public health. This approach of “deep precaution,” they argue, “has served as a kind of trump argument, hostile to the notion of trade-offs, seeing in them perilous compromise. Such a posture does not serve either science or policy well.”
It “may be years before the disagreements over the evidence” about the effects of electronic cigarettes can be resolved, Fairchild and Bayer wrote. On the one hand, electronic cigarettes may serve as gateway drugs for young people to start smoking cigarettes, and “dual” use of electronic cigarettes with tobacco cigarettes may stop some smokers from quitting. Electronic cigarettes may also carry unknown health consequences of their own. On the other hand, they may provide harm reduction for people who have been unable to quit any other way.
Given these two competing possibilities, the authors argued that the best formula for public health is to acknowledge the possibility for costs and benefits and to push for a regulatory scheme that is flexible enough to account for both outcomes. It is better to make public policy and execute scientific research under the assumption that e-cigarettes could bring good as well as bad.
But also on Thursday, the New England Journal of Medicine published a new study reporting that chemicals inside e-cigarettes—like propylene glycol and glycerol—can produce a type of the cancer-causing chemical called formaldehyde when heated during the vaping process. The researchers report that when testing samples of the aerosol from vaped e-cigs, they found that the e-cigs can contain formaldehyde-releasing agents slightly different from regular formaldehyde, and that the levels are especially high when a user vapes at high voltages. Scientists don’t yet know if formaldehyde-releasing agents carry the same risk as pure formaldehyde, but the researchers said in their report that if they assume the substances do carry the same risks, then long-term vaping could be associated with a significantly higher risk for cancer compared to long-term smoking. The researchers said formaldehyde-releasing agents may actually burrow into the respiratory tract more efficiently than regular formaldehyde, though the observation wasn’t confirmed.
Are there other reasons experts are concerned?

There’s also debate over the safety of the liquid nicotine inside e-cigarettes. In April 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report showing what they called a “dramatic” rise in e-cigarette-related calls to U.S. poison centers. Calls went from one a month in September 2010 to 215 calls a month in February 2014, and more than half of the calls involved children age five and under. Forty-two percent involved people age 20 and older. Symptoms of liquid nicotine ingestion are known to be vomiting, nausea and eye irritation.

Researchers are also wary of the long term effects of inhaling propylene glycol, one of the main ingredients in e-cigarettes. The jury is still out, but some physicians are concerned. “As for long-term effects, we don’t know what happens when you breathe the vapor into the lungs regularly,” Thomas Glynn, the director of science and trends at the American Cancer Society, told ABC News. “No one knows the answer to that.”

Are they really attracting young people?

Several recent—but fairly small—studies say yes. A December 2o14 study in the journal Pediatrics surveyed 1,941 Hawaii high school students and found that about 17% of the high schoolers smoked e-cigarettes only, 12% smoked both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, and only 3% smoked conventional cigarettes. The findings suggested that kids who smoked e-cigarettes scored lower on outside risk factors to pick up a conventional smoking habit. “The fact that e-cigarette only users were intermediate in risk status between nonusers and dual users raises the possibility that e-cigarettes are recruiting medium-risk adolescents, who otherwise would be less susceptible to tobacco product use,” the authors wrote. Numbers released in 2013 from the National Youth Tobacco Survey showedthat the percentage of middle school and high school students who have tried e-cigarettes doubled from 3.3% in 2011 to 6.8% in 2012.

What’s the argument in favor of e-cigarettes?

Some smokers use e-cigarettes to help them curb their traditional cigarette habit, or even quit. An August 2014 study that surveyed over 20,000 Americans showed that among adults who used a product to help them quit smoking, 57% chose e-cigarettes. That’s compared to the 39% who used prescription drugs like Chantix and the 39% who used other over-the-counter methods like patches or nicotine gum. Another study from July 2014, which reviewed 80 studies on e-cigarettes’ safety and their effects on users, revealed that not only can e-cigarettes help smokers quit, but they are less harmful to smokers and bystanders’ health compared to regular cigarettes.

What’s the FDA doing about it?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only regulates e-cigarettes that are marketed for therapeutic purposes, though the agency has proposed a rule that would give it more regulatory power over e-cigarettes but that has not yet been implemented. The FDA has suggested a ban on sale of e-cigarettes to minors, and admits that there is a lot consumers don’t know about the product like whether they attract kids and teens or just how much nicotine is inhaled when a person vapes.

http://time.com/3678402/electronic-cigarettes-ecigs-health-science-research/
 

Lab tests suggest some e-cigarette use may release high levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Chief Medical Writer
Using certain electronic cigarettes at high temperature settings could potentially release more formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical, than smoking traditional cigarettes does, new lab tests suggest.
The research does not prove a health risk — it involved limited testing on just one brand of e-cigarettes and was done in test tubes, not people. It also does not mean e-cigarettes are better or worse than regular ones; tobacco smoke contains dozens of things that can cause cancer.
But it does highlight how little is known about the safety of e-cigarettes — battery-powered devices that heat liquid to deliver nicotine in a vapor rather than from burning tobacco.
“It’s a potential red flag,” one independent expert — Stephen Hecht, a chemist and tobacco researcher at the University of Minnesota — said of the study. “Under some conditions, e-cigarettes might be generating more formaldehyde than you’d want to be exposed to. But I don’t think we know enough yet. There’s a huge variety in the makeup of these cigarettes and how they are used.”
The study was published Wednesday as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine. The journal said it had been reviewed by experts in the field.
Formaldehyde is found in many things — certain building materials, disinfectants and embalming fluid. An earlier study found e-cigarettes generated less formaldehyde than regular cigarettes do, but that study looked at just the gas portion of the vapor. The new one looked at the liquid particles in the vapor, like the spray from an aerosol can.
Some tank system e-cigarettes let users turn up the voltage to increase the heat and the amount of liquid, which contains the nicotine and flavorings, in the vapor. David Peyton, a chemist at Portland State University, and colleagues tested one brand with two voltage settings. They used a syringe to collect vapor from 10 samples, each one representing several puffs, at both voltage levels.
They measured formaldehyde hemiacetal — a compound created during the vaping process that under certain conditions can release formaldehyde — in the liquid portion of the vapor.
At low voltage the chemical was not detected. But at the high voltage setting, levels of that compound were five to 15 times greater than the amount of formaldehyde users would get from traditional cigarettes.
Virtually all e-cigarettes use similar materials in the heated liquid, so the finding on formaldehyde “is not brand-dependent,” said Peyton, who plans more extensive tests.
However, Gregory Conley, a lawyer with the American Vaping Association, an advocacy group for e-cigarettes, criticized the study methods.
“They use the device in a manner that no one does,” he said.
Using the high voltage for as long as the researchers mimicked in the study “creates a burning, acrid taste” called a “dry puff” that would cause users to adjust the e-cigarette, Conley said.
What the researchers did is like leaving a steak on a grill all day — many cancer-causing substances might be formed but no one would eat such charred meat, he said.
Eric Jacobs, a biologist at the American Cancer Society, said a biochemist at the society looked at the work and “was reasonably convinced” that the chemical researchers measured would break down into formaldehyde in the user’s lungs.
“No one should conclude from this that e-cigarettes used at high voltage are worse than combustible tobacco cigarettes,” because of all the other toxins in tobacco smoke, Jacobs said.
The society’s advocacy affiliate, the Cancer Action Network, said the research “should raise serious concerns” about the lack of regulation of e-cigarettes, and urged the Food and Drug Administration to quickly finalize the proposal announced last spring to do so.
 
http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/01/21/lab-tests-imply-formaldehyde-risk-in-some-e-cigarette-vapor

SAVE OUR SCOUTS – A CALL TO END PARTNERSHIP WITH BIG TOBACCO

The following post was written collaboratively by the 2014-2015 Legacy Youth Activism Fellows, in an effort to call for the end of the partnership between the Boy Scouts of America and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Each day, we interact with a world full of seemingly static realities. Because facets of the world we live in appear the same day after day, it is easy to accept them. The natural inclination to go on autopilot prevents us from questioning the realities created around us. As youth activists engaged in the 2014-2015 Legacy Youth Activism Fellowship Program, we feel a deep-rooted sense of questioning when it comes to facing the seeds of Big Tobacco that are planted all around us. We are baffled by the way tobacco is a reality of our world, despite the unnecessary disease and death it causes, and the evidence that the tobacco industry has acted on a vested interest in attracting youth to its products.

On November 25, 2014, three U.S. Senators took a stand to question the status quo of Big Tobacco’s presence in youth tobacco prevention programs. We applaud U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) for urging the Boy Scouts of America to put an end to their partnership with Right Decisions Right Now (RDRN), a youth tobacco prevention program funded by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.  These leaders are not buying Big Tobacco’s efforts to insinuate themselves into youth-focused programs – and neither are we.

Other tobacco prevention programs funded by tobacco companies have been found to be ineffective. When we take a step back to question the presence of Big Tobacco in uncanny places like prevention programs, we can evaluate the reality of their drive. Big Tobacco is maintaining a presence with young people, who are key to keeping their business going as older smokers pass due to tobacco-related illness. In fact, the very company that is sponsoring this prevention program once stated that “younger adult smokers are the only source of replacement smokers… if younger adults turn away from smoking, the industry must decline…”

Inconspicuously, Big Tobacco continues to place its image in front of youth such as through prevention programs like RDRN, and offering funding to after-school programs. In addition to the Boys Scouts of America, some youth-serving groups are partnering with other industry-sponsored prevention programs. Philip Morris USA and other Altria companies are also supporting groups that provide youth-targeted services through the Success360 prevention program. For an industry that has a history of deceitful marketing, it’s shocking that we are continuing to see their involvement with these national organizations and the youth that they serve.

As nearly 9 out of 10 smokers start before the age of 18, the tobacco epidemic can be halted by removing these influences and preventing youth from starting to use tobacco. We urge schools and youth programs like the Boy Scouts of America to divest from their partnerships with Big Tobacco. Prevention programs and funding from tobacco companies undermine efforts such as our own to end youth tobacco use. As Legacy Youth Activism Fellows, we are taking a stand in our own communities to challenge the norms that keep tobacco use prevalent, including: evaluating point of sale tobacco advertising, exploring use of emerging tobacco products on college campuses, supporting tobacco cessation in mental health settings, and engaging youth in promoting smoke-free policies in apartments. Through each of our local efforts, we are striving to place an image in front of youth and our communities that encourages people to live free of tobacco.

We encourage youth-serving groups to join us in questioning the presence of Big Tobacco in their midst. Youth should seek to interact with the many great tobacco prevention programs in their state. With their help and the support of bold leaders like Senators Blumenthal, Brown, and Harkin, we can challenge the status quo and create an environment that gives our communities, especially youth, the tools to thrive. Together, we can #FINISHIT.

http://www.legacyforhealth.org/newsroom/blog-making-waves/save-our-scouts-a-call-to-end-partnership-with-big-tobacco

E-cigarettes may promote lung infections

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Vapor from electronic cigarettes may increase young people’s risk of respiratory infections, whether or not it contains nicotine, a new laboratory study has found.

Lung tissue samples from deceased children appeared to suffer damage when exposed to e-cigarette vapor in the laboratory, researchers reported in a recent issue of the journal PLOS One. The vapor triggered a strong immune response in epithelial cells, which are cells that line the inside of the lung and protect the organ from harm, said lead author Dr. Qun Wu, a lung disease researcher at National Jewish Health in Denver.

Once exposed to e-cigarette vapor, these cells also became more susceptible to infection by rhinovirus, the virus that’s the predominant cause of the common cold, the researchers found.

“Epithelial cells are the first line of defense in our airways,” Wu said. “They protect our bodies from anything dangerous we might inhale. Even without nicotine, this liquid can hurt your epithelial defense system, and you will be more likely to get sick.”

The new report comes amid a surge in the popularity of e-cigarettes, which are being promoted by manufacturers as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes and a possible smoking-cessation aid.

Nearly 1.8 million children and teens in the United States had tried e-cigarettes by 2012, the study authors said in background information. Less than 2 percent of American adults had tried e-cigarettes in 2010, but by last year the number had topped 40 million, an increase of 620 percent.

For the study, researchers obtained respiratory system tissue from children aged 8 to 10 who had passed away and donated their organs to medical science. Researchers specifically looked for tissue from young donors because they wanted to focus on the effects of e-cigarettes on kids, Wu said.

The human cells were placed in a sterile container at one end of a machine, with an e-cigarette at the other end. The machine applied suction to the e-cigarette to simulate the act of using the device, with the vapors produced by that suction traveling through tubes to the container holding the human cells.

The vapor spurred the release of IL-6, a signaling protein that promotes inflammation and an immune system response. This occurred whether or not the vapor contained nicotine, although nicotine appeared to slightly enhance the release of IL-6, the researchers said.

The exposed lung tissue also appeared more susceptible to the common cold virus, developing higher amounts of virus compared to healthy cells that had not been exposed to the vapor, the investigators found. In follow-up testing, lab mice exposed to e-cigarette vapor also appeared more likely to come down with a cold from rhinovirus, compared with unexposed mice.

The American Vaping Association, an industry group representing e-cigarette makers, said the study findings were limited because the tests involved cells in a laboratory, not actual people using e-cigarettes. The tests also failed to compare the effects of the vapor to other inhalants, the group said.

“Many in public health agree that the risks of vaping must always be considered in the context of the risks of cigarette smoking and traditional stop-smoking therapies,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association.

“Unlike past studies, this study provides the reader with no data to compare the liquid results to. What would happen if these same cells were exposed to combustible cigarettes, nicotine gum, or the smoking cessation drug varenicline (Chantix)? That is an important — and unanswered — question that the authors don’t appear to have great interest in answering,” Conley said.

Dr. Norman Edelman, senior medical adviser for the American Lung Association, agreed that people should be cautious in drawing conclusions based on lab tests using cell cultures.

At the same time, Edelman said, the study findings are “interesting and provocative” and fit in with prior research on the effects of e-cigarette use.

“We already know that if you have someone smoke an e-cigarette and then test them, they show airway inflammation,” Edelman said. “The susceptibility to viral infection is brand new and interesting.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-health-0121-e-cigarette-infections-20150109-story.html