Officials hope to educate on e-cigarettes

By Matthew Liedke • Daily News
Advocates pushing for tobacco prevention are now having to deal with a new device on the market that isn’t subject to the same regulations as traditional cigarettes.
Jennifer Mauch, Richland County Tobacco Prevention coordinator, said a rising issue is e-cigarettes, and how traditional companies seem to be getting more and more involved.
“Altria, which produces Marlboro products, is among other large tobacco companies that are buying e-cigarette manufacturers,” Mauch said. “I’ve been looking back at the way traditional tobacco products were advertised and the advertising for e-cigarettes seems very much like a repeat.
“I think they are seeing that this is where the market is going, so they are buying it up,” said Mauch, who added that e-cigarettes make up 1 percent of national smoking sales.
The problem with these devices, Mauch explained, is the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate e-cigarette products, as they don’t contain tobacco. This leads to not even knowing what is in the e-cigarette.
“They may be in fact safer than traditional cigarettes, but we just don’t know,” Mauch said. “The issue is that we don’t know how much nicotine is in them, or what else is in them. There are some who say they don’t contain any nicotine, but we don’t know if that’s the case.”
The laws in the different states throughout the country also give challenges to regulating the e-cigarette product. In North Dakota, Mauch explained, there is no age restrictions on the products which she called “a major gateway.”
North Dakota was proactive in another law, though, which bans using e-cigarettes inside all places that traditional tobacco products are not allowed. However, in other states, such as Minnesota, it can still be used inside such places.
“The fear is that it’s becoming a social norm again,” Mauch said. “So it’s like moving backwards.
Currently, Mauch said the best thing she can do is educate the public about e-cigarettes.
“It always starts small,” Mauch said. “At this point we are just trying to educate people and have them realize that we don’t know if this is a safe product yet, so proceed with caution if you plan to use it. Unless they are studied further and regulated, we really want to get people to notice the education that is out there and be careful.”
In terms of her own office dealing with the situation, Mauch said she is currently working with communities and schools to get youth tobacco ordinances in place, which add e-cigarettes to the definitions of tobacco products.
http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/article_2055b402-9117-11e3-8f2b-001a4bcf887a.html

FDA launching $115M multimedia education campaign showing at-risk youth 'real cost' of smoking

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM  AP Tobacco Writer
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is using ads depicting wrinkled skin on youthful faces and teenagers paying for cigarettes with their teeth in a campaign to show the nation’s young people the costs associated with smoking.
The federal agency said Tuesday it is launching a $115 million multimedia education campaign called “The Real Cost” that’s aimed at stopping teenagers from smoking and encouraging them to quit.
Advertisements will run in more than 200 markets throughout the U.S. for at least one year beginning Feb. 11. The campaign will include ads on TV stations such as MTV and print spots in magazines like Teen Vogue. It also will use social media.
“Our kids are the replacement customers for the addicted adult smokers who die or quit each day,” said Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “And that’s why we think it’s so important to reach out to them — not to lecture them, not to throw statistics at them — but to reach them in a way that will get them to rethink their relationship with tobacco use.”
Zeller, who oversaw the anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign while working at the nonprofit American Legacy Foundation in the early 2000s, called the new campaign a “compelling, provocative and somewhat graphic way” of grabbing the attention of more than 10 million young people ages 12 to 17 who are open to, or are already experimenting with, cigarettes.
According to the FDA, nearly 90 percent of adult smokers started using cigarettes by age 18 and more than 700 kids under 18 become daily smokers each day. The agency aims to reduce the number of youth cigarette smokers by at least 300,000 within three years.
“While most teens understand the serious health risks associated with tobacco use, they often don’t believe the long-term consequences will ever apply to them,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. “We’ll highlight some of the real costs and health consequences associated with tobacco use by focusing on some of the things that really matter to teens — their outward appearance and having control and independence over their lives.”
Two of the TV ads show teens walking into a corner store to buy cigarettes. When the cashier tells them it’s going to cost them more than they have, the teens proceed to tear off a piece of their skin and use pliers to pull out a tooth in order to pay for their cigarettes. Other ads portray cigarettes as a man dressed in a dirty white shirt and khaki pants bullying teens and another shows teeth being destroyed by a ray gun shooting cigarettes.
The FDA is evaluating the impact of the campaign by following 8,000 people between the ages of 11 and 16 for two years to assess changes in tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.
The campaign announced Tuesday is the first in a series of campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use.
In 2011, the FDA said it planned to spend up to $600 million over five years on the campaigns aimed at reducing death and disease caused by tobacco, which is responsible for about 480,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Future campaigns will target minority youth, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and youth in rural areas.
Tobacco companies are footing the bill for the campaigns through fees charged by the FDA under a 2009 law that gave the agency authority over the tobacco industry.
 http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e2170c9ad67b4bc08ab8228b121857ea/US–FDA-Tobacco-Campaign

EDITORIAL: Raise Colorado's minimum age for buying cigarettes to 21

By The Denver Post Editorial Board
Teen smoking is not a right, it is a horrible choice that is addictive and incredibly damaging to the young brain.
The federal government has left it up to local and state governments to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes, and Colorado is looking to do just that.
Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, is pushing a bill that will be introduced soon to increase the cigarette-buying age from 18 to 21 — a move he says would add consistency to vice laws that set a 21 age limit to buy recreational marijuana, gamble and buy alcohol.
New York City last year raised the tobacco buying age to 21 and so did Utah— dismissing the argument that 18-year-olds who are old enough to fight in wars and vote should be allowed to buy cigarettes.
That is a bad position when you are talking about the supremely addictive substance of nicotine and what it does to teens.
Research shows adolescent smokers are more likely to become heavy smokers, are much less likely to quit smoking later in life, and are more likely to die from smoking-related illnesses.
Additionally, nicotine has more deleterious effects on developing brain of an 18-year-old than a 21-year-old.
Though the numbers of teen smokers have declined, research shows virtually all new users of tobacco products are under 18.
History also shows raising age limits works. It did with alcohol.
In the 1970s, states lowered the legal age to buy alcohol to 18, a major mistake that resulted in more drunken-driving deaths.
In the 1980s, Congress passed the Uniform Minimum Drinking Age Act, giving states a financial incentive to raise the drinking age to 21. States began reporting fewer drunken-driving deaths, and youth usage and binge drinking fell by a third.
In 2005, the town of Needham, Mass., raised the age to buy cigarettes to 21. The result has been a dramatic local decline in smoking.
Society has said teens can’t smoke recreational pot; we should be consistent with tobacco.
http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_25054723/raise-colorados-minimum-age-buying-cigarettes-21#ixzz2sOZXWxRI

Safety of e-cigarette vapors questioned

, Buffalo Business First Reporter-Business First
It’s been years since viewers have sat through a cigarette commercial during the Super Bowl, with commercials for beer and cars dominating advertising.
But this weekend’s game included for the second consecutive year an ad for NJOY King, an electronic cigarette, with a theme of friends helping friends.
The response has been mixed from health advocates. While some say inhaling vapors or “vaping” is safer than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, others insist quitting entirely is the healthiest course of action. And it turns out vaping also exposes non-users to nicotine in the same way secondhand smoke affects those who spend time around smokers, though at much lower levels.
That’s according to research by Maciej Goniewicz, an assistant professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute’sDepartment of Health Behavior, published by the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Goniewicz and his team studied vapor from three different brands of e-cigarettes, as well as secondhand smoke exposure of vapors and tobacco smoke generated by dual users. The results showed the e-cigarettes emit nicotine at levels of about 10 times less than conventional tobacco cigarettes, though they did not emit substantial amounts of carbon monoxide and toxic volatile organic compounds.
The study was a collaboration between Roswell Park and researchers at the Medical University of Silesia in Poland.
Though exposure to toxins is substantially lower, there’s still no definitive data on short and longterm health: The U.S. Surgeon General has not yet evaluated the short and longterm health risk from secondhand exposure to vapors.
“We don’t know yet the longterm affects of using these products,” Goniewicz said. “We know there are some traces of some potentially dangerous chemicals in the vapor. We don’t know what will happen after 10-20 years of inhaling this vapor.”
Still, vaping is considerably less dangerous than regular cigarettes, since users and those around them are exposed to significantly less toxins.
“The clear conclusion is that these products are safer than tobacco cigarettes. When you compare them, we believe these products are safer than tobacco cigarettes, but there is no doubt for smokers that quitting is the best way,” he said.
The other growing issue is how to handle vaping indoors, including in public places, restaurants and the workplace. The Food & Drug Administration and individual states place limits on advertising and how and where tobacco cigarettes are sold, but there have not yet been any rulings on exactly whether e-cigarettes fall into the same category.
A number of companies have already taken steps to limit vaping in the workplace, while in other places, it’s the state or municipality making the rules: New York City Council in December voted to ban the use of e-cigarettes in all places where smoking is prohibited. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is now considering a ban on its transit vehicles and within its properties.
Goniewicz said he believes vaping should be limited as well to protect non-users, but it’s a difficult question.
“The main reason we have the indoor smoke-free law is to protect non smokers from being exposed to tobacco smoke,” he said. “We should protect these people from being exposed to vapor. But some people also believe that since we know this product is safer for smokers and it has the potential to save the lives of smokers, how can we encourage smokers to use electronic cigarettes instead of smoking? Any regulation should balance between the potential benefits and harm from the products.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/health_matters/2014/02/safety-of-e-cigarette-vapors-questioned.html

Altria Acquires E-Cig Maker Green Smoke for $110M

RICHMOND, Va. February 3, 2014 (AP)

Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. says it is buying electronic cigarette company Green Smoke Inc. for about $110 million.

The Richmond, Va.-based owner of Philip Morris USA said Monday that the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter.

Read more:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/altria-acquires-cig-maker-green-smoke-110m-22344353

Public hearing scheduled on proposed e-cigarette ban

By LeAnn Eckroth, Bismarck Tribune
BISMARCK, N.D. –A Feb. 11 public hearing is scheduled on a proposed Bismarck ordinance that bans selling e-cigarettes to minors.
The Bismarck City Commission set the hearing date Tuesday. Under the ordinance, those providing or selling e-cigarettes to people under age 18 could be fined up to $500. Minors found possessing or using the product could be fined up to $70.
The proposal also states that devices marketed and sold as e-cigars and e-pipes cannot be sold or provided to minors, and that minors cannot possess or use them. Commissioners did not comment about the ordinance at the meeting.
The Bismarck ordinance also would bar minors from having or using electronic oral devices with a heating element — battery or electric circuit — to inhale as if smoking cigarettes. They include devices that both contain nicotine or simulate cigarette use.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/public-hearing-scheduled-on-proposed-e-cigarette-ban/article_c777742a-8882-11e3-b9e4-0019bb2963f4.html

Lawmakers look again at possible tobacco tax increase

By Shauna Johnson, Metro News
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Tobacco users may be asked to pay more to fund health programs in the Mountain State.  A proposal to add to West Virginia’s tobacco tax is again being taken up at the State House.
Del. Don Perdue (D-Wayne, 19) has introduced a bill that would raise the state tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1, taking it to $1.55 total or equal to the national average.  On all other tobacco products, an excise tax equal to 50 percent of the wholesale price would be imposed.
Perdue said the state needs the estimated more than $90 million such a tax increase could generate every year.
“I think the interest is very high and getting higher,” he said of the potential for passage of the bill which has been proposed several times in recent years.  “Whether there’s enough there (for passage) this year, in 2014, that remains to be seen.”
As proposed, for ten years, the first $90 million generated from the increase would be designated for the Bureau for Medical Services with $6 million going into tobacco control annually and $1 million per year for five years going to the West Virginia University School of Public Health.
Any additional money beyond that would be allocated as follows: 30 percent for oral health improvement programming, 30 percent for substance abuse prevention and treatment programming, 24 percent for in-home elderly care services and 16 percent for early childhood development programming.
“We just saw it exacerbated by this water crisis,” said Perdue on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”  “We need the money to do the things that have to be done for our population.”
The House Health and Human Resources Committee, which Perdue leads, was scheduled to take up HB 4191 during a Wednesday afternoon meeting at the State Capitol.
Perdue has also proposed a separate bill to raise the state tax on alcohol.
http://wvmetronews.com/2014/01/28/lawmakers-look-again-at-possible-tobacco-tax-increase/

Colorado lawmakers look to outlaw tobacco use for those under 21

By Lynn Bartels
The Denver Post
A bill that would raise the age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products from 18 to 21 is intended to try to keep young kids from picking up the habit.
The bipartisan measure, from two Democrats in the House and two in the Senate, could be introduced as early as Tuesday.
Jodi L. Radke of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said most 18-year-olds are seniors in high school.
“They are able to go off campus during the lunch hour and buy tobacco products and oftentimes they are coming back to use them across the street or near campus and sharing them with their peers,” she said. “The push behind this is to delay the initiation with kids; 95 percent of tobacco users begin using tobacco before the age of 21.”
The bill will cover tobacco products, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and chewing tobacco. It does not increase penalties, only the age.
An underage person who buys a tobacco product commits a Class 2 petty offense and faces a $100 fine or community service. It also is a petty offense to sell to a minor, with fines varying depending on the number of offenses.
In addition to Colorado, legislatures in Utah and Maryland will take up the issue this year, Radke said. Already, New York City and Hawaii County in Hawaii have raised the age from 18 to 21.
The sponsors of the Colorado measure are Sens. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, and John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, and Reps. Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen.
“Drinking is 21. Marijuana is 21. Gambling is 21. We’re just making tobacco 21 also,” King said. “It’s a consistency across those laws.”
He added that studies show people who haven’t started smoking by age 18 generally don’t start.
Colorado lawmakers look to outlaw tobacco use for those under 21 – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_25006278/colorado-lawmakers-look-outlaw-tobacco-use-those-under#ixzz2rp7x2OXR 

Bismarck mulls age limits on e-cigarette users

By LeAnn Eckroth, Bismarck Tribune
BISMARCK, N.D. —The Bismarck City Commission might crack down on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors under age 18. Minors found having or using the products also would be fined under the proposed ordinance.
Commissioners will review the first reading of the proposal today for a possible February hearing, City Attorney Charlie Whitman said.
Those selling or furnishing electronic cigarettes to minors could face up to a $500 fine under the proposed ordinance, Whitman said, and minors possessing or using the devices could pay up to a $70 fine.
E-cigarettes were banned in or near public places by the Legislature. State law also requires no vapors be emitted by e-cigarettes inside or 20 feet from public places.
The Bismarck ordinance would ban minors’ use of electronic oral devices with a heating element — battery or electric circuit — that provides nicotine or any other substance to be inhaled to simulate smoking.
The ordinance states devices marketed and sold as e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes cannot be sold or provided to minors, and that minors cannot possess or use them.
Pat McGeary, coordinator for the Bismarck Tobacco Free Coalition, said Monday that the group requested that Bismarck include the ordinance because the devices have not been proven safe. She said the electronic cigarettes are not controlled by the Federal Drug Administration. “There is no scientific evidence of the safety of e-cigarettes. The FDA has done preliminary testing that detected cancer-causing material in them and traces of nicotine,” she said.
“Our concern is that American tobacco companies have bought the e-cigarette companies and marketing it ‘kid friendly,'” she said. “They sell it in flavors like chocolate. We also are looking at e-cigarettes as a possible gateway drug.”
She said a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey showed that the use of e-cigarettes by minors has jumped from 4 percent in 2011 to 10 percent in 2012 nationwide.
“These are not FDA-regulated,” McGeary said. “These products have emerged more frequently in the last two years and (their companies) seem to be marketing more aggressively to the youth,” she said.
She said the FDA does not now control the levels of nicotine in the e-cigarette products. “(The levels) are all over the board, according to a preliminary study by the FDA,” she said. “The e-cigarettes have not been found to be safe. It’s not established.”
The Federal Drug Administration found that cartridges labeled as containing no nicotine contained nicotine and that three different electronic cigarette cartridges with the same label emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine, according to the North Dakota Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy.
“I think it’s a natural and reasonable restriction,” Bismarck City Commissioner Josh Askvig said. “If the city won’t allow the sale of tobacco products and nicotine to minors, the same argument stands for this product.
“My personal opinion is this is a loophole into (minors) smoking that we can control before they get hooked on it before they are of legal age,” he added.
“I’m OK with the ordinance,” Bismarck Commissioner Mike Seminary said. “I don’t think we should encourage minors to smoke anything.”
The Tribune contacted some stores Monday that sell e-cigarettes and they assured that they already set limits on who buys the product.
“We only sell to those over 18,” said Chris Pribyl, manager of Tobacco Row.
“Minors cannot come through our doors. We card everyone who looks under age 27,” said Suzanne Willis, manager of Discount Smoke. “It says right on the package: ‘Not for sale for minors.'”
Sara Lang, manager of Red Carpet Car Wash, said employees card buyers of the product to ensure they are eligible. “We treat it like we were selling tobacco,” she said.
The proposed e-cigarette ordinance mirrors two passed by the Fargo City Commission on Jan. 6. The ordinances both prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and the use and possession by minors. Minors who violate the Fargo law will pay a $25 fine and complete a tobacco education program.
Under the Fargo law, a clerk who sells e-cigarettes to a person under age 18 will pay a $50 fine. A business that sells e-cigarettes to a minor will get a warning for the first sale in 12 months, have its tobacco license suspended for the second violation in a year and have its tobacco license suspended for 10 days for the third illegal sale within 12 months.
Whitman said Bismarck’s ordinance wording does not mention suspension of tobacco licenses because it would not affect stores that do not sell tobacco, but sell e-cigarettes.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/bismarck-mulls-age-limits-on-e-cigarette-users/article_201fa2e8-87aa-11e3-9659-001a4bcf887a.html

E-Cigarette Makers Give Public the Finger

Rob Waters, Contributor, Forbes
With Sarah Mittermaier and Lily Swartz
In 1964, smoking was everywhere: on television, on airplanes, in workplaces and movie theatres, college campuses, doctors’ offices, restaurants and bars. In the 50 years since the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health was released, smoking has gradually faded to the margins of public life. TheMarlboro man was bounced from the airwaves, comprehensive smoking bans were passed in hundreds of cities and 28 states, and smoking rates were cut almost in half. The struggle to protect the public’s health is far from over—and shocking disparities in tobacco use and exposure to tobacco marketing remain—but we’re now reaping some rewards, with eight million lives saved over the past half-century.
But now a new threat is emerging. The use of e-cigarettes is rising rapidly, with teenagers a key target of marketing efforts. “Vaping” is making smoking acceptable—even cool—once again as the tobacco industry returns to its old ways, putting e-cigarette commercials back on the airwaves for the first time since the 1970s.

Right now, e-cigarettes exist in what tobacco control researcher Stanton Glanz calls a regulatory “Wild West,” with no federal regulation of the manufacturing, marketing and sales of these products. This regulatory vacuum threatens to undo the hard-won victories of the past 50 years in tobacco control.
E-cigarette companies are taking a page right out of Big Tobacco’s old-school playbook: marketing their products with sex appeal, celebrity endorsements, even cartoons. The companies argue that “vaping” is safer than traditional smoking and that may or may not be true—there are far too few studies to back up that claim or refute it. But it’s also a smokescreen.
The tobacco industry is out to hook kids, and it’s working. E-cigarettes come in an array of kid-friendly flavors, from“Cherry Crush” to “Coca Cola.” And unlike conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes can legally be sold to kids in most US states. Data released last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that e-cigarette use more than doubled among middle and high school students in the previous year. For 20 percent of the middle schoolers, e-cigarettes were their first experience with smoking, raising concerns that e-cigarettes may act as a gateway to the use of other tobacco products.
E-cigarettes also threaten to reintroduce smoking to workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public spaces where hard-fought public health campaigns have succeeded in banning cigarettes. These policies have changed our communities from the ground up, creating new expectations and norms around smoking. The science is still out on whether e-cigarettes threaten non-smokers with toxic exposure, but their use in public legitimizes their use, making them seem acceptable, even Golden Globes-glamorous. We can’t let e-cigarettes undo the hard work tobacco control advocates have achieved over the past 50 years.
Some cities and states are pushing back against e-cigarettes, taking steps to regulate the sale and public use of e-cigarettes. Over the past few months, New York and Chicago city councils voted to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, extending existing smoking bans to cover vaping. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes. Boston has banned e-cigarette smoking in workplaces. States such as Utah, New Jersey, and North Dakota ban the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public spaces.
These local and state efforts should be followed—and strengthened—by federal action. Attorneys general from 40 states have called on the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, a move that would give the FDA the power to impose age restrictions and limit marketing of e-cigarettes. Proposed rules drafted by the agency have not yet been released publicly.
We can’t wait years for scientists to conduct new studies on the health risks of vaping before we take action. We know better than to trust the tobacco industry’s health claims about their products—or to trust the industry with our children’s future. The time for action is now. To paraphrase one anti-cigarette commercial in California: “Some people will say anything to sell (e-) cigarettes.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robwaters/2014/01/27/e-cigarette-makers-give-public-the-finger/