‘Vaping’ Santa Billboard Causes Backlash

By Gillian Mohney

ht vaping santa kb 131218 16x9 608 Vaping Santa Billboard Causes Backlash
E-cigarette company draws controversy after using “vaping” Santa in billboard. (VaporShark/Facebook)

This might put Santa on the naughty list.
The e-cigarette company Vapor-Shark is facing backlash after putting up a billboard of a “vaping” Santa Claus in Florida. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids complained the ad was similar to old cigarette ads aimed at children and called it ” a new low.”
Even e-cigarettes fans said the ad was inappropriate.
“Showing Santa vaping, globally recognized as a children’s icon, is irresponsible and is and will be seen as a ploy to appeal to under age customers,” said Aaron Frazier, a self-described “vapor,” on the company’s Facebook Page. 
“We disagree … it’s a difference of opinion” said Vapor Shark CEO Brandon Liedel of their dissenters. “The only type of kid that would be persuaded by Santa Claus is a 5-year-old. I think a gorgeous woman would be more persuasive for a teenager.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/12/18/vaping-santa-billboard-causes-backlash/

Tobacco down among youths; marijuana up

By Cheryl Wetzstein – The Washington Times
More and more younger Americans are snuffing out their cigarettes — at least those filled with tobacco, a new national survey suggests.
The number of 8th, 10th and 12th graders who said they smoked tobacco cigarettes in the last 30 days fell again — to fewer than one in 10 adolescents — in 2013, according to Monitoring the Future (MTF), an annual survey of more than 40,000 students.
Since most smokers begin tobacco habits at a young age, the new data are being welcomed by public health officials, as it shows a long-term trend away from smoking.
Since the peak year of 1997, “the proportion of students currently smoking has dropped by two-thirds — an extremely important development for the health and longevity of this generation of Americans,” said Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the MTF and a research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.
The MTF results on young-adult marijuana use, however, were more troubling, researchers said.
More teens in all grades took a sanguine view of marijuana — 60 percent of high-school seniors said smoking pot was not harmful.
At the same time, the MTF showed that more students were smoking marijuana: For eighth graders, use of marijuana in the past month rose from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 7 percent in 2013. For 10th graders, past-month usage was up from 13.8 percent to 18 percent, and for 12th graders, it rose 19.4 percent to 22.7 percent.
Seeing more 13- and 14-year-olds using marijuana is a significant cause for alarm, said Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Young teens, whose experimentation with marijuana leads to regular use, “are setting themselves up for declines in IQ and diminished ability for success in life,” said Dr. Volkow, adding that marijuana use can interfere with memory and cognitive functionality.
Marijuana is not a benign substance, added Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He and Dr. Volkow highlighted MTF findings that, in states where marijuana can be prescribed as a medicinal product, a third of the marijuana-smoking 12th graders said one of the ways they got the product was through “someone else’s” prescription.
Marijuana, which can act as a stimulant, depressant or hallucinogen in humans, remains illegal under federal law. However, 20 states and the District permit marijuana use for medicinal purposes — such as reducing nausea and pain related to cancer treatments — and Colorado and Washington state have legalized the production, sale and use of recreational marijuana. Groups like the Marijuana Policy Project want to see marijuana products regulated like tobacco and alcohol products.
In August, the Justice Department said it would not target the marijuana industry in states where it is legal as long as states keep pot away from children, other states, criminal cartels and federal property.
Dr. Volkow said Wednesday her agency would be also be watching emergency-room admissions, traffic accidents and school-performance statistics to see if they are affected by more liberal marijuana laws.
In other highlights of the MTF:
• Fewer teens said they used synthetic marijuana products, known by such names as K2 and Spice. Public officials have raised alarms about the dangers associated with these cheap, new drugs.
• Current alcohol use fell in all grades — to 10.2 percent among eighth graders, 25.7 percent in 10th graders and 39.2 percent in 12th graders.
• Non-medical use of prescription drugs, like Vicodin and OxyContin, dropped again.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/18/tobacco-down-among-youths-marijuana-up/#ixzz2nw9i3fhm
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U.S. Cancer Death Rates Continue to Decline: Report

WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay Reporter
Cancer death rates continue to decline in the United States, mainly because anti-smoking efforts have caused a drop in lung cancer deaths, researchers report.
From 2001 through 2010, death rates for all cancers combined decreased by 1.8 percent a year among men and by 1.4 percent a year among women, according to a joint report from four of the nation’s top cancer institutions, published Dec. 16 in the journal Cancer.
“The four major cancers — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate — represent over two-thirds of the decline,” said study author Brenda Edwards, a senior advisor for cancer surveillance at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
The report also found that one-third of cancer patients over 65 have other health conditions that can lower their chances of survival. Diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure and cerebrovascular disease, which impedes blood flow to the brain, are the most common ailments that complicate cancer treatment and survival odds, the researchers said.

“It’s good to see a report of this prominence focus on this,” said Dr. Tomasz Beer, deputy director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. “The general health of patients is important, and it impacts on cancer outcomes.”

The report produced by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
Researchers found that lung cancer death rates for men fell by 2.9 percent a year between 2005 and 2010, a much faster rate than the 1.9 percent-per-year decline during the period 1993 to 2005.
For women, rates declined 1.4 percent annually from 2004 to 2010, which was a turnaround from an increase of 0.3 percent a year during the period 1995 to 2004.
The researchers attributed these overall decreases to the decline in cigarette smoking in the United States. Since lung cancer accounts for more than one in four cancer deaths, these declines are fueling the overall reduction in cancer deaths.
Beer said new targeted therapies for lung cancer have also helped improve survival chances. He expects lung cancer death rates to fall even further with the advent of new standards for lung cancer screening using low-dose CT scans.
“I was particularly struck by the overall decline in cancer death rates,” Beer said of the study. “It’s modest but real, and the fact that it’s annual is encouraging in the sense that even though these gains are modest, they compound over time.”
Death rates among men decreased for 11 of the 17 most common cancers, increasing only for melanoma, soft tissue cancers and cancers of the pancreas and liver. Death rates among women decreased for 15 of the 18 most common cancers, increasing for cancers of the uterus, pancreas and liver.
Researchers compared National Cancer Institute data with Medicare claims data to investigate other health problems that can complicate cancer treatment and survival.
Diabetes and its associated complications is the most common health problem affecting cancer patients. It was found in 16 percent of people older than 65 diagnosed with cancer between 1992 and 2005, the researchers said.
“There are a number of issues with diabetes,” Beer said. “Some data even suggests insulin can accelerate the growth of cancer.” (Many diabetics take insulin, a hormone needed to turn food into fuel for the body).
Patients with diabetes also have to struggle with the effect that cancer medications can have on their blood sugar, Beer added. They may end up receiving a lower dosage or stopping a treatment regimen early because of the conflict between their diabetes control and their cancer therapy.
COPD affects more than 15 percent of older cancer patients, while congestiveheart failure affects about 10 percent of patients. About 6 percent are affected by cerebrovascular disease, which can include stroke and aneurysms.

Lung and colorectal cancer patients tended to have other health problems more often than people with other cancers. People with breast and prostate cancers tended to have other health problems at the same rate as people without any cancer.
“The general strength and wellness of patients makes a huge difference in cancer outcomes,” Beer said. “People who are capable of going on a hike, jogging, running and eating healthy do a heck of a lot better than people who are sedentary and in poor physical condition.”

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20131216/us-cancer-death-rates-continue-to-decline-report

Nicotine in e-cigs, tobacco linked to heart disease

By Jen Christensen, CNN
(CNN) — The nicotine delivered by cigarettes — even the electronic versions — may still contribute to heart disease, a new study suggests.
A new paper delivered at the American Society of Cell Biologyannual meeting in New Orleans on Sunday suggests that nicotine can cause direct harm to cells in the heart.
Nicotine is an highly addictive substance found in tobacco and is also found in vegetables in the nightshade family like eggplant and tomatoes.
The substance itself has a powerful impact on the body. It elevates your mood, suppresses your appetite and stimulates your memory; however, it also speeds up your heart rate and blood pressure.
E-cigarettes satisfy a smoker’s craving for nicotine and mimic the physical movements of smoking, but were viewed as a healthier alternative by some since they don’t contain the cancer-causing toxins of regular cigarettes.
Previous studies, such as one published in the journal The Lancet in September, have suggested e-cigarettes may be a more effective way for smokers to quit than nicotine patches or the “cold turkey” method.
In 2007, the Royal College of Physicians concluded, “If nicotine could be provided in a form that is acceptable and effective as a cigarette substitute, millions of lives could be saved.”
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death, according to the American Heart Association.
For years, doctors have also known that smokers often develop heart problems in addition to lung problems.
Smoking increases a person’s risk of developing atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque, a waxy substance, builds up in the arteries, narrowing and hardening them over time and limiting blood flow.
Atherosclerosis can cause heart attacks, strokes, and can even lead to death. The connection between smoking and atherosclerosis has been unclear, but scientist Chi Ming Hai may have discovered the root cause of the problem in the new study.
The molecular pharmacology professor at Brown Universityexposed cells found in the heart to nicotine. After only six hours, a kind of cellular drill, called podosome rosettes formed and ate through tissue.
When this happens in the vascular smooth muscle cells which are in the middle layer of the arterial wall to the inner layer, this can cause plaque to form in atherosclerosis. This happened when Hai exposed human and rat cells to nicotine.
What that means is that the nicotine is acting like “a kind of cancer of the blood vessel which is waking up these cells and breaking them away from their surrounding matric and then migrating having an effect like it is almost like digging a hole through the wall,” Hai said. “I think this is potentially very interesting and significant.”
It also means that the nicotine substitute of an e-cigarette may reduce a person’s chance of having lung cancer, but it does not mean that their risk of heart disease will go away.
Research is still in the very early stages, Hai said, but he believes it would be a good area for the government to invest in to better understand the connection between smoking and heart disease.
“We have certain pillars in this data that shows something significant is going on here and we need to understand it better,” Hai said.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/health/nicotine-e-cigarettes/

Homeless North Texans being weaned from tobacco

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — When he was sent to Vietnam in 1970, Travis Dorsey quickly picked up a smoking habit.
As the stress of being in a war zone took its toll, Dorsey found comfort in cigarettes.
“They started giving them to us with our meals, they called them C-rations, and the next thing you know I was buying them,” Dorsey told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://bit.ly/1cXO5HL). “I didn’t drink. I didn’t do drugs. The cigarette helped me deal with the stress during the day.”
Life hasn’t been easy for Dorsey since returning, and through it all he has continued to smoke.
Sixteen years ago, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and lost his job as an aircraft mechanic. Two years ago, his wife died from breast cancer, triggering a downward spiral.
“I tried to commit suicide here about three months ago,” Dorsey said. “I ran off the cliff and tore up my truck. I was in the hospital about 2½ months.”
Dorsey, 62, who is now staying at the Arlington Life Shelter, says he’s beginning to turn his life around. He’s resumed taking insulin for his diabetes, received counseling to cope with his wife’s loss and found a church in Arlington where he feels at home.
And he’s now looking at quitting smoking through a program started in November by Tarrant County Public Health at the Arlington Life Shelter.
“I know it’s easier to quit now because I’m not under the stress I’ve been under the last two years,” Dorsey said. “I’m laying down at night and I’m not afraid.”
The county health department plans to eventually expand the program to other homeless shelters across Tarrant County, including the Patriot House, a shelter for homeless veterans.
“I wanted to reach an audience that wasn’t already being reached,” said Vanessa Ayala, a community health worker with the department. “We try to help them manage the stress from quitting smoking and understand the effects of nicotine withdrawal and dealing with weight gain.”
Michael Businelle, an assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas, said more should be done to encourage those who are homeless to quit smoking.
Tobacco-related deaths in the U.S. are about 440,000 annually, which include deaths from secondhand smoke, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These tobacco cessation services are generally not offered at homeless shelters while substance abuse programs are generally ubiquitous,” Businelle said. “Smokers don’t go and rob their neighbors or sell their VCRs for cigarettes like someone would do for crack, but smoking is responsible for way more deaths than drugs and alcohol combined.”
Businelle helped conduct a study with several other researchers for publication in the American Journal of Public Health, comparing homeless smokers with economically disadvantaged smokers who have a home. The study, conducted from August 2011 to November 2012, found that the homeless smoking rate of 70 percent was twice that of those living in poverty (34.7 percent).
One of the challenges Businelle found was that homeless people were exposed to as many 40 smokers a day compared with three or four among those who are not homeless.
Those who run area shelters agree that efforts to curb smoking among homeless people are needed.
“The majority of the homeless population does smoke,” said Toby Owen, executive director of the Presbyterian Night Shelter. “Offering programs would certainly be most beneficial but it’s going to have to provide more than just going cold turkey.”
In Businelle’s study, 10 participants received small incentives — gift cards — and their carbon monoxide levels were tested to see whether they had actually quit. A larger group of 58 homeless people did not receive gift cards.
The quit rate four weeks after stopping smoking was 30 percent among the group that got gift cards versus 1.7 percent among those who didn’t receive gift cards.
“The findings of this pilot study are important because smoking cessation interventions that have worked in the general population are not as effective in homeless smokers,” Businelle said. “Offering small financial incentives for smoking cessation may be a novel way to have an impact on smoking in this vulnerable population.”
Businelle has applied for a National Institutes of Health grant that would pay for a five-year study and is still waiting to see whether it gets approved. The most recent study didn’t cover enough time to draw definitive conclusions. But Businelle said it is worth exploring because of the extensive costs associated with tobacco-related illnesses.
“The study is so small you can’t really make any broad generalizations,” Businelle said. “It is a pilot study that shows there is potential.”
The Bridge homeless recovery center in Dallas has been offering smoking cessation classes and modified its courtyard this summer to include a nonsmoking area for those who want to quit. With a day shelter that brings in as many as 1,200 people daily, along with a transitional shelter and an emergency shelter, the Bridge is trying to find ways to reach as many people as possible, President and CEO Jay Dunn said.
“We’re learning about the need for smoking cessation medication and brainstorming about how to make that more accessible,” Dunn said.
At the Arlington Life Shelter, Dorsey can get nicotine replacement medication through the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas.
Another shelter resident, Dennis Bell, said he can get a prescription through the JPS Connection Program if he needs one.
“I don’t know that I’ll need the medication,” Bell said. “I think I can do it with just the knowledge I’ve learned in the classes. That’s my goal. Now if my body says otherwise, that’s another thing.”
Bell, 45, ended up at the Arlington Life Shelter after his home was foreclosed on and he went through a difficult divorce.
But he said he was receptive to quitting smoking after Ayala pointed out how much money it would save him.
“I knew some of the health issues but the cost of smoking wasn’t something I had really thought about,” Bell said. “It was good information.”
Bell started smoking at 19 to fit in with his friends.
“To be honest with you, it was peer pressure,” Bell said. “I guess I wanted to be in the cool crowd.”
Karen Caston, director of shelter operations at the Arlington Life Shelter, said the classes can have an impact.
“They come here to become self-sufficient,” Caston said. “Anything that helps their health, their mental state and their financial state, can’t help but be a good thing.”
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131216/GJLIFESTYLES/131209301/-1/SANNEWS

E-cigs may deliver more toxins than smoke, researchers say

By Andy Soltis
Don’t make that nicotine switch just yet.
E-cigarette users may be getting higher concentrations of toxins than regular smokers because they inhale deeper and more frequently when they puff, NYU researchers say.
Although they are often touted as a safer alternative, e-cigs, introduced in the States in 2007, haven’t been in use long enough to determine their health effects, said Dr. Deepak Saxena, of NYU’s College of Dentistry.
“We have no scientific data to show that nicotine at this concentration is safe,” said Saxena, an associate professor of basic science and craniofacial biology.
Each e-cig nicotine cartridge provides 200 to 400 puffs, equal to two to three packs of regular cigarettes.
Saxena says e-cigs, which deliver nicotine in a vapor form, must be studied as their popularity grows.
“They are designed for new smokers, to bring up a new generation,” he said.
The City Council is now weighing a proposal to place e-cigs under the same restrictions as regular cigs. Former tobacco smokers oppose it, saying e-cigs helped them kick regular puffing.
“People are saying, ‘Now I am smoking and happy with my addiction,’ ” Saxena said.
“But the problem is that if you want to get out of the addiction, you may become more addicted.”
http://nypost.com/2013/12/14/e-cigs-may-deliver-more-toxins-than-smoke-researchers-say/

Forum editorial: Progress in tobacco cessation

North Dakota was recognized last week as leader among states meeting national standards for funding anti-smoking programs. It’s a welcome designation. Moreover, it’s more evidence the state is doing an excellent job with the resources it has to educate about the risks of smoking and secondhand smoke and provide programs to help smokers quit.
No thanks to the Legislature.
At nearly every turn in the smoking debate during the last decade, lawmakers, particularly those in the Republican majority, have done the bidding of the smoking lobby and hospitality industry. Lobbyists worked to scuttle statewide smoking curbs, and their legislative allies fell into line, despite clear indications that a majority of North Dakotans wanted a smoking ban. Indeed, several cities, large and small, were ahead of the Legislature in imposing smoking restrictions, most of them via the ballot.
As in the cities, it took the ballot box to spank the Legislature. Two measures did what the legislators refused to do. The first in 2008 established a tobacco prevention and cessation program funded in large part by tobacco lawsuit settlement money. The second passed by a landslide in 2012 with every county voting “yes.” It made all public places 100 percent smoke free.
Despite dire predictions from fans of poisoning their customers (it’s their “right,” you know), the sky did not fall on the bar scene or the hospitality sector. Instead, smoking levels among adults are down significantly. There is more work to do among the state’s youth, and that’s where education programs are focused.
It’s good news. It’s good for the state’s long term public health, which, in turn, is a plus for everything else in North Dakota.
————-
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/421219/

Smoke from E-Cigs Still Poses Some Second-Hand Risk

By  @acsifferlin , TIME Health & Family
It’s not real tobacco smoke, but the emissions from electronic cigarettes can still contain harmful ingredients.
A new study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research shows that e-cigarettes generate enough nicotine emissions that they can be inhaled by those near a smoker. The researchers conducted two studies on three brands of e-cigarettes that investigated what the devices emitted into the surrounding air.
In the first study, the scientists used a smoke machine to “smoke” the cigarettes and then measure the concentrations of nicotine and other volatile organic compounds such as carbon monoxide released. They compared these emissions to those of standard cigarettes. Then, the team asked five male participants to smoke both tobacco and e-cigarettes in a room that measured contaminant exposure.
The found that e-cigarettes are a source of second-hand exposure to nicotine, but not of other compounds released when tobacco is burned. And the nicotine exposure was 10 times less than that from tobacco smoke.
However, another recent study from New York University researchers reported that e-cigarette smokers may not be spared such exposures. They inhale more nicotine because they puff more often and tend to breathe in more deeply than regular cigarette smokers. So higher nicotine consumption may be a risk for e-cig smokers.
Both studies suggest there’s much still to be learned about the health risks of e-cigarettes, including their effect not just on smokers but on those around them. The Food and Drug Administration currently does not regulate e-cigarettes, but has proposed a rule that would give the agency more regulatory power over the devices.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/12/13/smoke-from-e-cigs-still-poses-some-second-hand-risk/#ixzz2nfw3Jckr

CHART OF THE DAY: How Cigarettes Became Bigger Than Spitting Tobacco 100 Years Ago

, Business Insider
These days, you can’t talk about tobacco without talking about the rise of e-cigarettes.
“By year-end 2013, the e-cigarette category is expected to have doubled to over $1B from $500MM in 2012, according to various industry sources,” noted RBC Capital analyst Nik Modi.
Still, e-cigarettes represent a very tiny fraction of the tobacco business.  Tobacco giant Lorillard recently said that e-cigarettes may have taken 1% of the U.S. cigarette volume.
However, there was once a time when the cigarette wasn’t the dominant product in the tobacco business.
“We point out that it took 45 years for tobacco consumers to transition from smokeless to cigarettes during the late 1800s and early 1900s,” added Modi. “The cigarette’s popularity among tobacco consumers as we know it today was helped by two key catalysts: 1) spitting tobacco was declared unsanitary and disease spreading, leading to spittoons being removed from public places in 1915; and 2) during the Second World War, soldiers were given cigarettes as part of their rations.”
The removal of spittoons a hundred years ago isn’t unlike the bans on smoking we see today.
Who knows where we’ll be 45 years from now?

cotd tobaccoRBC Capital Markets

http://www.businessinsider.com/historical-share-of-tobacco-2013-12#ixzz2nekV5FUw

E-cigarettes: a burning question for U.S. regulators

Marina Lopes, Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) – At the Henley Vaporium, one of a growing number of e-cigarette lounges sprouting up in New York and other U.S. cities, patrons can indulge in their choice of more than 90 flavors of nicotine-infused vapor, ranging from bacon to bubble gum.
The lounge, located in Manhattan’s trendy Lower East Side, features plush seating, blaring rock music, and fresh juice and coffee. A sprawling sign on one wall lists all the carcinogens that e-cigarette users avoid by kicking their smoking habits and using the e-devices instead.
But the growing popularity of e-cigarettes has not escaped the notice of the industry’s critics, who have stepped up calls for new regulations, including bans on their use in public places, even though the scientific evidence about exposure to their vapors remains inconclusive.
Selling for about $30 to $50 each, e-cigarettes are slim, reusable, metal tubes containing nicotine-laced liquids that come in exotic flavors. When users puff on the device, the nicotine is heated and releases a vapor that, unlike cigarette smoke, contains no tar, which causes cancer and other diseases.
The product, introduced in China in 2006, has become a worldwide trend at least in part because it may help smokers of regular cigarettes break the habit.
“It’s an addiction – not everyone can quit cold turkey,” said Nick Edwards, 34, a Henley employee who says he kicked a 15-year cigarette habit the day he tried his first e-cigarette. “E-cigarettes give you a harm-reduction option.”
That’s one reason why the market for e-cigarettes is expected to surge, reaching $2 billion by the end of 2013 and $10 billion by 2017, according to Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Bank in New York.
Herzog said the U.S. market alone could top $1 billion this year. She predicts that by 2017 e-cigarettes sales will overtake sales of regular cigarettes. That estimate does not take into account the impact of potential government regulations on sales.
E-cigarettes may help smokers save money too. Edwards, for one, says he cut his $60 monthly cigarette bill in half when he switched. On top of the cost of the device, the smoking liquids cost around $10 per refill.
Despite the perceived benefits, critics worry that the addictive nicotine found in e-cigarettes could lure more people into smoking and discourage others from quitting all together.
“Essentially e-cigarette companies are selling nicotine addiction,” said Dr. Neil Schluger, chief scientific officer for the World Lung Foundation, which advocates for tobacco control.
“Once you have them addicted to nicotine, you can sell them all sorts of things, including conventional cigarettes,” he said. “This is a giant Trojan horse.”
In the United States, such concerns have led to calls for increased government regulation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently has no regulations on e-cigarettes, but it is expected to release rules this month that would extend its “tobacco product” authority over the devices. New FDA rules could follow.
“Further research is needed to assess the potential public health benefits and risks of electronic cigarettes and other novel tobacco products,” said Jenny Haliski, an FDA spokeswoman.
To be sure, no one is expecting the federal government to go as far as Brazil, Norway and Singapore, where the devices are banned outright.
In the United States, Utah, North Dakota, Arkansas and New Jersey have already passed legislation outlawing e-cigarettes wherever smoking is prohibited.
Other jurisdictions are considering new rules of their own. New York City could decide as early as next week whether to prohibit e-cigarette use in public places.
Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who leaves office January 1, New York was one of the first cities to ban cigarette smoking in public places, and its decision could influence Chicago and other cities that are considering a similar controls.
The outcome is crucial for tobacco companies, which are banking on the devices to make up for a sharp decline in sales of regular cigarettes in the United States. Smoking among U.S. adults dropped to 18 percent in 2012 from 24.7 percent in 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reynolds American Inc, which makes Camel cigarettes, began selling its Vuse vapor cigarettes in Colorado retail stores in July and plans on expanding nationwide by mid-2014.
Other companies have also dipped into the e-cigarette business, too. Last year Lorillard Inc, maker of Newport cigarettes, acquired the best-selling blu eCigs brand, while Altria Group Inc, best known for the Marlboro brand, followed suit in August with the launch of MarkTen e-cigarettes.
“As society is transforming, so must the tobacco industry,” said Reynolds spokesman Richard Smith. “It’s just good business sense.”
The arrival of Big Tobacco could mean fierce competition for small e-cigarette companies that do not have the resources or experience to deal with tight government regulation.
But many e-cigarette companies say Big Tobacco is late to the game and has a lot to catch up on. “They are going to need to boost up their game if they want to compete,” said Christina Lopez, a saleswoman at Smokeless Image, an e-cigarette shop that sells smaller brands in Hoboken, New Jersey.
HEALTH RISKS UNCERTAIN
To be sure, there is still a dearth of scientific evidence about the safety of e-cigarettes and their effectiveness in helping smokers quit. For regulators, the big question is, are e-cigarettes a treatment for would-be quitters or “gateway” products to nicotine addiction?
Supporters say some e-cigarettes allow users to slowly reduce their nicotine intake and wean themselves off nicotine completely. A study published in the September issue in Lancet, the British medical journal, said the e-cigarettes are as effective as nicotine patches for smokers trying to quit.
Worldwide, conventional cigarette addictions kill 6 million people a year, in part because of the 250 harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke, which can cause cancer, heart disease and stroke, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But e-cigarettes may not be harmless, either. Nicotine addictions, fed by smoking, chewing tobacco or e-cigarettes, can cause high blood pressure, disrupt heart rhythms and lead to obesity and diabetes.
Electronic devices that feature fruit and candy flavors are even more worrying, critics say, because they could introduce children to smoking.
E-cigarette vendors say the sweet flavors make the process of quitting smoking less painful.
“By taking a sort of ‘Willy Wonka,’ fun approach to a serious matter, it breaks down people’s perceptions of e-cigarettes,” said Talia Eisenberg, owner of the Henley Vaporium, referring to the fictional candy maker.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 10 percent of high school students surveyed reported using e-cigarettes in 2012, up from 4.7 percent in 2011.
About 60 percent of current users are over 35 years old, and 43 percent are college-educated, according to Reynolds American.
Twelve states, including New York, have passed laws preventing e-cigarette sales to minors.
At a hearing on the proposed New York City ban on e-cigarette use in public places, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said allowing it could glamorize all types of smoking and encourage teenagers and children to take up the cigarette habit.
“While more research is needed on electronic cigarettes, waiting to act could jeopardize the progress we have made over the last few years,” he said.
(Reporting By Marina Lopes; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Tim Dobbyn)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-ecigarettes-20131211,0,720952.story?page=2