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Forum editorial: Minnesota tobacco use down

The anti-tobacco work of ClearWay Minnesota in conjunction with other tobacco cessation efforts has had remarkable results in reducing smoking rates among all age groups in Minnesota. It’s a record worthy of high praise. It’s unambiguous evidence that focused, science-based anti-tobacco campaigns can work.

Numbers released last week by ClearWay show only 14.4 percent of Minnesotans smoke cigarettes, down from 22.1 percent in 1999. The decline through the time period has been steady, and corresponds to increased education and imposition of legal restrictions on smoking in public places. Add new medical research about second-hand smoke, and graphic anti-smoking television advertising, and it appears the multi-faceted message is getting through.

But not to every age cohort.

In ClearWay statistics from 2010 to 2014, smoking hardly dipped at all (1 percent) in the 25-44 year-old group, from 19.7 percent to 18.7 percent. A similar slight improvement was measured in the 45-64 year-old cohort, compared with a huge drop (from 21.8 percent to 15.3 percent) in Minnesotans age 18-24. Which could lead to the conclusion that some Minnesotans don’t get smarter as they age. But whatever the reason, the overall percentages of all Minnesotans who smoke is down over the longer study period, and that’s good news for smokers who quit, non-smokers and reduced impacts on health costs associated with tobacco use. The trends are good.

ClearWay is not resting on its excellent record. In the eight years it has left in its mandate (funded by the national tobacco settlement of a few years back), the agency’s agenda includes raising cigarette taxes, which all studies show discourage young people from purchasing tobacco, and raising the age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21. Again, research finds that raising the age to beyond high school age contributes to fewer high school students trying tobacco. New York City and Hawaii have already taken that step.

There is still much to be accomplished to achieve as smoke-free a society as possible. A lot has been done, often led by private sector companies that banned smoking from the workplace before cities and states enacted overall smoking bans in buildings and, in many instances, outdoor public spaces. Decades of research into smoking-related illness and death, and the proven health hazards of secondhand smoke, have been the underpinnings of changing public policy. ClearWay’s work and similar complementary efforts have been pivotal in changing the way enlightened Americans view tobacco use.

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.

http://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/3751883-forum-editorial-minnesota-tobacco-use-down

Letter to the Editor: Letter: Big tobacco companies still trying to hook kids

By Jason McCoy from Moorhead

I  applaud the new TV ad airing locally that highlights Big Tobacco’s continued targeting of children. You may have seen this ad featuring an ice cream truck driving through a kid-filled neighborhood drawing lots of pint-sized customers to its menu of “31 flavors.” Only it turns out a tobacco executive is behind the wheel and the flavors disguise deadly products.
Tobacco companies have clearly come up with ways to get to kids around the 2009 ban on flavored cigarettes by pushing flavored cigars, cigarillos, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of flavored cigarettes, it did so to reduce smoking, a leading preventable cause of death and disease in our country.
In particular, the FDA wanted to reduce the number of children who start to smoke. Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers. And nicotine, which is in all tobacco products, is shown to be not only highly addictive and carcinogenic but also detrimental to adolescent brain development.
Flavorings including menthol, which is still available in cigarettes, mask the harsh taste of tobacco and are shown to be attractive to young people. Research shows that young people believe flavored tobacco products are less dangerous than nonflavored tobacco. As of last year, 44 percent of Minnesota high school smokers used menthol, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. That’s double the percentage in 2000. The same study by MDH also found that 35 percent of Minnesota students have tried flavored cigars and 13 percent of Minnesota kids use flavored e-cigarettes.
Do we really need more evidence that kids are attracted to flavored tobacco products, including menthol? Do we have any reason to believe that tobacco companies aren’t exploiting this attraction to hook more kids on their deadly products? The answer to both questions is a resounding “no.”
It’s time we say “no” to Big Tobacco’s continued marketing to our kids! Ask your lawmakers what they plan to do to stop young people from getting their hands on these tempting threats to their health.
McCoy, Moorhead, is tobacco coordinator for Clay County Public Health.
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3709662-letter-big-tobacco-companies-still-trying-hook-kids

Op Ed: How to lower Grand Forks’ high tobacco-use rates

By: Theresa Knox

On Feb. 23, the Herald ran a story about the dismal rates among adults of chewing tobacco use (“N.D. ranks highly in smokeless tobacco use,” Page A1).

As the story reported, North Dakota was ranked 49th out of 50 states and District of Columbia, with 7.6 percent of its adults using smokeless tobacco.

The story went on to interview several people with personal stories about the toll of tobacco in their lives. It ended with the quote, “They all know someone who’s died from tobacco-related cancer.”

These statistics are terrible. And they are not just statistics. As the article referenced, each number represents a person. These are people we know and love — people we work with, and people whom we don’t want to see sick and dying from the No. 1 cause of preventable death: tobacco use.

Nearly one quarter of high school boys in North Dakota use smokeless tobacco (22 percent). That is higher than the adult use rate and the fifth worst in the country.

We know that most smokers begin their addictive habit before the age of 18, and nearly 4,000 kids try their first cigarette every day. That’s almost 1.5 million young people per year.

The tobacco industry pours billions into advertising to create a perception that tobacco use is fun and glamorous.

But, guess what? We don’t have billions to counteract that type of messaging — and we don’t need it.

There is a solution that is nearly free of charge; and it works. Research bears out this claim.

I will tell you what that solution is, but first, ask yourself this question: Is it easier to quit using tobacco or to avoid ever taking up the habit?

It is easier (and cheaper) to avoid taking up this addictive habit.

Second, I ask you to rethink your attitudes about tobacco use and why it is not acceptable in indoor and outdoor public places. There is no denying that second-hand smoke and toxic litter from cigarette butts and spitting on the ground are bad for people and animals. But there is an even more important reason to prohibit tobacco use in indoor and outdoor public places: Public policy that keeps kids from seeing tobacco use as a normal activity will decrease youth initiation of tobacco use.

Remember, most people don’t chew or smoke tobacco.

An effective way to keep our next generation of North Dakotans from ever taking up using tobacco is to pass laws that keep tobacco use –including e-cigarettes, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco — out of our parks.

We can pass public policy that creates tobacco free environments. These policies don’t tell people they can’t use tobacco, if they choose to use. People are still free to smoke or chew. These policies prevent the use of products in otherwise safe and healthy places.

Grand Forks Park Board commissioners have the chance to take a deliberate and determined step to protect the health and safety of Grand Forks youth by adopting a comprehensive tobacco-free parks policy. They can take the lead to separate the connection between sports and chew, parks and tobacco.

And the result?

We know the result. A comprehensive tobacco-free parks policy, prohibiting use of all tobacco products in all Park District parks, grounds and facilities will result in cleaner parks and less secondhand smoke exposure.

And the most celebrated result?

Fewer Grand Forks youth will start using tobacco, and fewer among the next generation of North Dakotans will struggle with tobacco addiction and the toll of the illness and death that result from tobacco.

That is the solution. And it costs next to nothing.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/op-ed-columns/3688567-theresa-knox-how-lower-grand-forks-high-tobacco-use-rates

Teen tobacco users likely to use it in multiple forms

By Reuters Media

A national survey of U.S. middle and high school students finds that those who use tobacco or nicotine products are likely to also use more than one type of product.

About 15 percent of the adolescents reported smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, bidis, hookahs or water pipes, using dissolvable forms of tobacco or “vaping” e-cigarettes. And twice as many in that group used two or more of these product types compared to those who said they used only one.

“Our study really shows that kids are using more than one of these products at the same time,” said Youn Ok Lee of RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, the report’s lead author.

Lee said there are many varieties of tobacco products available. And each type of product also has a diverse range of options, such as flavors.

“So we don’t really know a lot about how this range of products might affect kids’ use of tobacco,” she told Reuters Health.

Using data from a 2012 national survey of nearly 25,000 U.S. students, researchers found that about 7 percent reported using one tobacco product in the past 30 days. About 4 percent said they used two tobacco products in that time. Another 4 percent said they used three or more products.

“I was a little bit surprised by just how many kids were using more than one product,” Lee said. “Even more surprising was that using three or more products is more popular than using cigarettes alone.”

Overall, about 3 percent of kids exclusively used cigarettes and about 2 percent exclusively used cigars. Those products were the most popular and their use increased with age.

The study team also found that almost 1 percent of students reported exclusively using e-cigarettes, which contain no tobacco but deliver a vapor laced with nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco.

That’s more than the 0.4 percent who reported using e-cigarettes in combination with traditional cigarettes.

The increasing popularity of e-cigarettes is a concern for U.S. health officials as use has tripled between 2013 and 2014.

Lee noted that the results don’t tell why young people are using more than one form of tobacco, or how often the survey participants had used the products.

The researchers did find that being a boy, using flavored products, being dependent on nicotine, being receptive to advertising and having friends who used any tobacco products were all factors linked to an increased risk of using more than one product.

Policymakers and researchers should look at how these products affect tobacco use among middle and high school students, said Lee, because little is known about the influence of non-cigarette products.

Moreover, these products may create a public health issue by introducing people who would never have smoked cigarettes to nicotine, she said.

Lee emphasized that it’s important to look at all tobacco products together – not individually.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1za0ykL Pediatrics, online February 2, 2015.

http://www.inforum.com/news/3671610-teen-tobacco-users-likely-use-it-multiple-forms

Salt Lake County health study reveals big problem with inaccurate e-liquid labeling

By , Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — An increase in emergency room visits and calls to the local poison control hotline has Salt Lake County Health Department officials concerned about e-liquid used in battery-operated electronic cigarettes.
“You really have to treat it as a drug because it is fatal to a small child,” said Kathy Garrett, tobacco prevention and cessation manager for the Salt Lake County Health Department.
The health department, Garrett said, is encouraging users to put e-cigarettes and the “enticing candy-flavored cartridges” out of the reach of young people.
It is also seeking to pass new regulations to keep manufacturers in check.
“E-liquid is a serious poisoning threat to children,” Garrett said, adding that the United States Food and Drug Administration does not regulate e-liquid manufacturing at all. “If they drink enough of it, it can be fatal to small children.”
The Salt Lake County Health Department recently concluded its own study, where undercover workers visited all 14 vape shops and 16 of the 80 tobacco specialty stores in the county to purchase a variety of e-liquid cartridges for testing at the Center for Human Toxicology at the University of Utah.
Health officials found that 61 percent of the e-liquid cartridges collected strayed at least 10 percent from what was indicated on the labels, with either more or less nicotine content than expected.
Garrett said even the samples that listed no nicotine content had trace amounts, and at least one variety had 7.35 miligrams per milliliter.
1467294“Both specialty stores and vape shops are inconsistent with their labeling,” she said. “These findings support the need for local policy that requires licensing for the manufacturing of e-liquid, and also we’d like to regulate the sale of e-cigarettes to ensure safety standards that include accurate labeling and ingredients with nicotine levels.”
The Utah Legislature has yet to pass legislation that would govern any part of the surging electronic cigarette industry in the state, and the federal government is just beginning to assess the issues surrounding production and sales.
Last year, the number of adults using e-cigarettes topped 40 million nationwide, an increase of more than 620 percent over the previous year. The number of children and teens who use them is on the rise as well, health officials said.
The Utah Department of Health reports that 4.8 percent of adults and 5.8 percent of teens routinely use the nicotine vapor product, according to 2013 data, the latest available. The rate of regular e-cigarette use in Utah more than doubled from 2012 to 2013, and it tripled among Utah students from 2011 to 2013.
Without state or federal laws to govern e-cigarette and e-liquid production and sales, local jurisdictions have taken it upon themselves to protect Utahns, and Garrett said Salt Lake County will be the next to enact a policy.
She expects the board to vote on something as early as next month. If a policy is adopted, the health department would be responsible for enforcing it through random inspections and monitoring of local manufacturing activity.
Garrett said there are several manufacturers in the valley that the health department would love to keep its eye on to make sure they’re following the rules.
“Inaccurate labeling is alarming because consumers don’t know exactly what they’re taking into their bodies or at what level,” she said. “It’s also a real concern for poison control and emergency room staff, who don’t know if the labeled amount of nicotine in a bottle a child has ingested is accurate.”
Nicotine in e-liquids was to blame for 131 calls to theUtah Poison Control Center in 2014, according to the health department.
Health officials also reviewed the availability of child-proof lids for e-liquid cartridges and found that more than a quarter of the samples containing a listed amount of nicotine did not have safety caps.
There are 12 local health departments in the state, and at least Davis, Weber and Utah counties have adopted regulations, while Summit County has an ordinance, but Garrett said most if not all departments would be on board for statewide legislation, which may be presented in the upcoming session of the Utah Legislature.
In the meantime, Garrett said, “if you have e-cigarettes of e-juice lying around, lock it up where a child can’t get into it. Just like any medication, you should lock it up and keep it out of reach.”
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865619211/Salt-Lake-County-health-study-reveals-big-problem-with-inaccurate-e-liquid-labeling.html?pg=all

World Health Organization: Public Health Rules Needed to Curb E-Cigarette Risks

by Katie Weatherford, Center for Effective Government

Contrary to industry advertising, a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other electronic nicotine delivery systems pose significant public health hazards because of toxins emitted from the devices. The agency recommends that countries adopt e-cigarette rules to prevent misleading marketing of the products and to educate the public about the potential health risks involved.

E-Cigarettes Emit Dangerous Toxins

E-cigarettes contain a battery that heats a nicotine fluid inside the device until it produces a mist-like aerosol that the user can inhale. According to the WHO report, the aerosol contains “nicotine and a number of toxicants” that pose health hazards to users and non-users, especially pregnant women and children, contrary to claims that these devices release nothing more than water vapor. Nicotine use is linked to long-term adverse effects on brain development. Moreover, the aerosol typically contains “some carcinogenic compounds,” including formaldehyde.

Although the report finds that adult smokers who completely switch from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes will be exposed to lower levels of toxins, WHO warns that the “amount of risk reduction . . . is presently unknown.” The report also notes uncertainty about whether second-hand exposure risks from e-cigarettes are lower than regular cigarettes.

Marketing Contains Unsubstantiated Claims, Targets Children

The WHO report also takes misleading marketing to task, noting the frequent use of unsubstantiated claims about e-cigarettes in product ads. According to the report, there is insufficient evidence that using e-cigarettes will help people quit smoking, yet ads commonly market e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device. Other marketing tactics may even encourage more frequent smoking.

For example, many ads promote using e-cigarettes in places where regular smoking is banned. WHO cautions that this could interfere with the intent of smoke-free policies, which “are designed not only to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, but also to provide incentives to quit smoking and to denormalize smoking . . . .”

Moreover, e-cigarette marketing has “the potential to glamorize smoking,” which may encourage nonsmokers and children to start using e-cigarettes. The endless variety of designs and flavor options can also appeal to adolescents.

WHO Recommends Developing Public Safeguards

The WHO report says, “Regulation of [e-cigarettes] is a necessary precondition for establishing a scientific basis on which to judge the effects of their use, and for ensuring that adequate research is conducted, that the public has current, reliable information as to the potential risks and benefits of [e-cigarettes], and that the health of the public is protected.”

The report will be a topic of discussion this October at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Convention is an international effort to address global tobacco use. The report calls on the 179 countries that are parties to the Convention to adopt new standards to protect the public from the hazards associated with e-cigarettes. Such safeguards would:

  • Prohibit claims that these products can help people quit smoking until manufacturers provide sufficient scientific evidence to support the claim and gain regulatory approval

  • Ban indoor use of e-cigarettes unless it is proven there are no health effects from second-hand exposure

  • Restrict marketing by requiring that all ads, promotions, or sponsorships provide warnings, encourage people to quit smoking, in no way promote use by nonsmokers or adolescents, contain no images, words, etc. associated with a tobacco product, and more

  • Require that manufacturers design products to reduce exposure to toxins, make information about contents and exposure levels available to users, register products with a governmental body, and report design and emissions information to a governmental body

  • Prohibit sales to people under the age of 18 and ban fruit, candy-like, and alcohol-drink flavors unless and until it is proven that these flavors do not appeal to minors

To ensure strong public health protections, the global community must adopt WHO’s recommendations so that people understand the risks associated with e-cigarettes and adults can make informed choices about whether or not to use them.

Protecting Public Health in the U.S.

Although the U.S. is a signatory to the Convention, it has not yet ratified the tobacco control treaty. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking some steps similar to WHO’s recommendations.

FDA proposed a rule in April that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18. The rule would also require e-cigarette manufacturers to register with the agency and report the manufacturing process and ingredients used in their products. Moreover, companies would be required to place health-warning labels on e-cigarettes.

However, some tobacco control advocates believe the proposal does not go far enough and are urging FDA to prohibit manufacturers from marketing candy-flavored options that attract children. The Center for Effective Government and other health and safety groups also heavily criticized the FDA’s decision to discount the benefits of the proposed rule by 70 percent, which the agency claims is necessary to account for the “lost pleasure” from reducing tobacco use.

FDA is currently reviewing public comments and considering any changes to its draft rule. We hope the agency will correct its flawed benefit calculation and move forward with strong safeguards without delay. The U.S. should also ratify the treaty and communicate its support for global efforts to combat the tobacco use epidemic.

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/13198

The Health Claims Of E-Cigarettes Are Going Up In Smoke

Jasper Hamill, Contributor | Forbes

The sales pitch of electronic cigarette manufacturers seemed too good to be true. Could nicotine addicts around the world really get their fix whilst dodging the health risks of puffing away on cancer sticks?

Sadly for smokers and “vapers”, the answer is far from clear. Over the past week, new evidence has emerged which suggests that E-Cigarettes can be dangerous too – in some cases carrying higher amounts of certain toxins than the blazing tobacco of old.

Researchers at the University of South California have found that although E-Cigarettes are less harmful than ordinary smokes, the vapour emitted by the gadgets contains the toxic element chromium, which is not found in traditional cigarettes, as well as levels of nickel four times higher than in real tobacco. The electronic replacements also contain lead, zinc and other toxic metals, although in lower levels than cigarettes.

English: Two electronic cigarette models. Self...

Two electronic cigarette models. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Our results demonstrate that overall electronic cigarettes seem to be less harmful than regular cigarettes, but their elevated content of toxic metals such as nickel and chromium do raise concerns,” said Constantinos Sioutas, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

There is a bit of good news for reforming smokers, as E-Cigarettes contain virtually no detectable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known to cause cancer. The researchers also said the metal particles were likely to come from the cartridge of the E-Cigarette devices, opening up the possibility that a change in the production process could eliminate the dangerous chemicals.

But this isn’t the only bit of bad news for vape inhalers. In the UK, the BBC reported that E-Cigarette liquid sold in the north east of England was found to contain a chemical called diacetyl, which is used to add butterscotch flavor to liquid tobacco.

Whilst this substance is harmless to eat, it is extremely dangerous to inhale. The chemical is known to cause a serious condition called popcorn lung, orbronchiolitis obliterans, an irreversible disease which scars the lung and makes it impossible to breathe properly. This illness has struck workers in popcorn factories, who are known to breathe in vast quantities of diacetyl, as well as ordinary people who eat a lot of popcorn.

Commenting on the report, Dr Graham Burns, a respiratory expert at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, said the illness is often “serious enough to warrant lung transplantation”.

VP, the firm which manufactured the cigarettes, immediately withdrew the liquid from sale, and Lynne White, head of retail distribution, admitted there were concerns about inhaling the liquid on a long-term basis.

“We are very sorry it has happened, we are investigating how it has happened,” she added.

“Because of the small amount the vaper would actually consume it was deemed in the short term there would be no health concerns.

“Long-term yes there could well be, however we decided it was a withdrawal rather than a recall of the product and that was based on Ecita’s (Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association) guidelines.”

But for many health-conscious people, the damage is likely to have been done. Once upon a time, the world didn’t know about the many terrible effects of cigarettes. It was only after a concerted campaign by scientists, doctors and activists that the risks began to be publicized and governments began to act on them. The long term implications of switching to E-Cigarettes have not yet been tested, so anyone using the devices has to ask themselves if they are willing to take the risk of becoming a guinea pig.

Marlboro Cigarettes

Marlboro Cigarettes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The World Health Organisation has issued a report advising that use of E-Cigarettes should be banned indoors and and all advertising stopped until the emerging industry produces “convincing supporting scientific evidence and obtains regulatory approval”.
Backing this call, the British Medical Association board of science deputy chair Ram Moorth said “tighter controls are needed to ensure their use does not undermine current tobacco control measures and reinforces the normalcy of smoking behaviour”.

‘There is a need for research to understand the health impacts of E-Cigarettes on both the user and bystanders, and it is vital that the sale of e-cigarettes is appropriately regulated to ensure they are not sold to minors, and are not aggressively marketed to young people as tobacco was in the past,” he continued.

“Any health claims must be substantiated by robust independent scientific evidence to ensure that the consumer is fully informed regarding potential benefits and risks of E-Cigarettes.”
Are you willing to take the chance and keep on vaping?
For more news and comment, follow me on Twitter @jasperhamill
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasperhamill/2014/08/31/the-health-claims-of-e-cigarettes-are-going-up-in-smoke/

WHO urges stiff regulatory curbs on e-cigarettes

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, Geneva
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) stepped up its war on “Big Tobacco” on Tuesday, calling for stiff regulation of electronic cigarettes as well as bans on indoor use, advertising and sales to minors.

In a long-awaited report that will be debated by member states at a meeting in October in Moscow, the United Nations health agency also voiced concern at the concentration of the $3 billion market in the hands of transnational tobacco companies.

The WHO launched a public health campaign against tobacco a decade ago, clinching the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Since entering into force in 2005, it has been ratified by 179 states but the United States has not joined it.

The treaty recommends price and tax measures to curb demand as well as bans on tobacco advertising and illicit trade in tobacco products. Prior to Tuesday’s report the WHO had indicated it would favor applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products including smokeless ones.

In the report, the WHO said there are 466 brands of e-cigarettes and the industry represents “an evolving frontier filled with promise and threat for tobacco control”.

It urged a range of regulatory options, including banning e-cigarette makers from making health claims such as that they help people quit smoking, until they provide convincing supporting scientific evidence.

Smokers should use a combination of already-approved treatments for kicking the habit, it said.

While evidence indicates that they are likely to be less toxic than conventional cigarettes, the use of e-cigarettes poses a threat to adolescents and the fetuses of pregnant women using them, it said.

“NOT MERELY WATER VAPOR”

E-cigarettes also increase the exposure of bystanders and non-smokers to nicotine and other toxicants, it said regarding Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems that it calls ENDS.

“In summary, existing evidence shows that ENDS aerosol is not merely ‘water vapor’ as is often claimed in the marketing for these products,” the WHO said in the 13-page report.

E-cigarettes should be regulated to “minimize content and emissions of toxicants”, and those solutions with fruit, candy-like and alcohol-drinks flavors should be banned until proven they are not attractive to children and adolescents, it said.

Adolescents are increasingly experimenting with e-cigarettes, with their use in this age group doubling between 2008 and 2012, it said.

Vending machines should be removed in almost all locations, it added.

Scientists are divided on the risks and potential benefits of e-cigarettes, which are widely considered to be a lot less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

One group of researchers warned the WHO in May not to classify them as tobacco products, arguing that doing so would jeopardize an opportunity to slash disease and deaths caused by smoking.

Opposing experts argued a month later that the WHO should hold firm to its plan for strict regulations.

Major tobacco companies including Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), Altria Group (MO.N), Philip Morris International (PM.N) and British American Tobacco (BATS.L) are increasingly launching their own e-cigarette brands as sales of conventional products stall in Western markets.

A Wells Fargo analyst report in July projected that U.S. sales of e-cigarettes would outpace conventional ones by 2020.

Uptake of electronic cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced inhalable vapor, has rocketed in the last two years and analysts estimate the industry had worldwide sales of some $3 billion in 2013.

But the devices are controversial. Because they are so new there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence to support their safety and some fear they could be “gateway” products to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking.

The American Heart Association said in a report on Monday that it considered e-cigarettes that contain nicotine to be tobacco products and therefore supports their regulation under existing laws on the use and marketing of tobacco products.

“Although the levels of toxic constituents in e-cigarette aerosol are much lower than those in cigarette smoke, there is still some level of passive exposure,” the AHA said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Ben Hirschler and Martinne Geller in London, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-health-who-ecigarettes-idUSKBN0GQ0PF20140826

Electronic Cigarettes Makers Under Fire in Senate

By JENNIFER C. KERR Associated Press

E-cigarettes with fruity flavors like “cherry crush” ignited an intense Senate debate Wednesday about whether manufacturers are trying to appeal to youngsters similar to the way that Big Tobacco used Joe Camel decades ago.

“The last thing anyone should want to do is encourage young people to start using a new nicotine delivery product,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said as he opened a hearing on the battery-powered devices and worries that e-cigarette makers aim to tempt young people to take up something that could prove addictive.

Jason Healy, president of blu eCigs, and Craig Weiss, president of NJoy, were challenged for more than two hours about industry marketing practices that include running TV commercials and sponsoring race cars and other events. Both men insisted they aren’t trying to glamorize smoking and don’t target young people and that their products are a critical alternative for people desperate to quit traditional smokes.

Electronic cigarettes heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. E-cigarette users say the devices address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking without the thousands of chemicals found in regular paper-and-tobacco cigarettes. But there’s not much research on any health risks of e-cigarettes, and the studies that have been done have been inconclusive.

As the Food and Drug Administration considers regulating e-cigarettes, critics wonder whether e-cigs keep smokers addicted or hook new users and encourage them to move on to tobacco.

Healy of blu eCigs, which is owned by the tobacco company Lorillard Inc., testified that his company has voluntary restrictions in place, such as limiting advertising placements to media and events where the target audience is at least 85 percent adults.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., questioned the youthful-sounding flavors for e-cigarettes. Healy’s company, for example, sells electronic cigarettes that come in flavors like Cherry Crush, Peach Schnapps and Pina Colada. Healy countered that the average age for consumers of his e-cigarettes is 51.

Rockefeller was not swayed, bluntly admonishing both men and telling them: “I am ashamed of you. I don’t know how you sleep at night.”

About 2 percent of U.S. teenagers said they’d used an e-cigarette in the previous month, according to a survey done in 2012 and released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about 7 percent said they’d tried an e-cigarette at least once in 2012, which translates to nearly 1.8 million.

In April, the FDA proposed regulating e-cigarettes, banning sales to anyone under 18, adding warning labels and requiring agency approval for new products. But the FDA didn’t immediately place marketing restrictions on e-cigarette makers or a ban on fruit or candy flavors, which are barred for use in regular cigarettes. The agency has left the door open to further regulations, but says it wants more evidence before it rushes into more restrictions.

————

AP Tobacco Writer Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/electronic-cigarettes-makers-fire-senate-24202582

Teens and young adults confronted by more TV ads for e-cigarettes

By: Karen Kaplan, LA Times

Commercials for electronic cigarettes have become so ubiquitous that millions of American teens have seen them since 2012, a new study says.

About 4 out of 5 of the TV ads seen by these young viewers were for blu eCigs, a brand that was purchased by tobacco giant Lorillard Inc. in April 2012. Though the ads are ostensibly aimed at adults, they employ language that makes e-cigarettes seem desirable to teens, researchers write in a study published Monday by the journal Pediatrics.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that allow users to inhale nicotine vapor. The devices have generated billions of dollars in sales but remain extremely controversial. Advocates for e-cigarettes like that the vapor contains fewer toxins than the smoke from traditional cigarettes, and some studies suggest they can help smokers kick the habit. But public health advocates contend that e-cigarettes get young people hooked on nicotine, increasing the risk that they will become regular smokers. The devices also undermine efforts to make smoking seem taboo and may make it harder for smokers to quit by keeping them hooked on nicotine, they say.

Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced its intention to prohibit sales of e-cigarettes to minors, the agency has not taken steps to limit advertising aimed at kids. The authors of the new report wanted to quantify how often teens and young adults saw e-cigarette ads on TV.

To do, so they turned to data from Nielsen, the company that keeps track of what Americans are watching. The data reported in the study was in the form of “target rating points,” or TRPS, a measurement that combines the proportion of viewers exposed to an ad and the number of times it may be seen.

The researchers found that nationally televised e-cigarette commercials were not particularly common through the first half of 2012. But in the second half of 2012 and the first nine months of 2013 – the period after Lorillard entered the industry – such advertising increased dramatically.

Between 2011 and 2013, the TRPs for viewers between the ages of 12 and 17 rose by 256%, according to the study. In the year that ended Sept. 30, 2013, those TRPs were high enough that 80% of teens could have seen 13 e-cigarette commercials, on average. Those TRPs also could work out to half of all teens viewing an average of 21 e-cigarette ads over the course of a year, or 10% of viewers watching an average of 105 commercials over a year.

The researchers also calculated the exposure for young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 and found that it increased by 321% between 2011 and 2013. The TRPs for this group were high enough to allow half of these young adults to see 35 e-cigarette commercials, on average, over the course of a year.

About 75% of these commercials aired on cable TV channels, including AMC (which aired 8% of them), Country Music Television (6.1%), Comedy Central (5.9%), WGN America (5.4%) TV Land and VH1 (both 5.3%), the study authors found. The commercials also ran during network shows that are popular among teens, including “The Bachelor,” “Big Brother” and “Survivor,” according to the study.

Among the nationally televised ads seen by teens, 82% were for blu eCigs, the data show. For young adult viewers, ads for blu eCigs accounted for 80% of the total.

The researchers also reported that 19 e-cigarette makers aired commercials in some local markets between 2011 and 2013. These ads aired in groups of cities that were home to as many as 40% of American teens.

The study authors expressed great concern over Lorillard’s ad campaign for blu eCigs. They noted that other studies have found a strong correlation between smoking in movies and the number of teens and young adults who pick up the habit. They also wrote that the ads were running at much higher frequency than the levels needed for anti-tobacco ads to influence teens that smoking is harmful.

The most widely aired blu eCig commercials featured actor Stephen Dorff. In one, he is seen smoking in restaurants, a taxi, a subway, at a rock concert, on a hike and even while riding his bike. In another, he ticks off the benefits of e-cigarettes versus traditional cigarettes and winds up by saying, “We’re all adults here. It’s time we take our freedom back.”

That kind of explicit reference to e-cigarettes being an adult product may seem like a responsible move by Lorillard, but it also serves to make the devices more appealing to teens, the study authors wrote.

The study was conducted by researchers at RTI International in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and a colleague at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee. Funding was provided by the state’s Tobacco Free Florida program.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-electronic-cigarette-tv-advertising-20140602-story.html