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Big Tobacco Looks to Keep Pace With E-Cigarettes

ABC News — NEW YORK June 17, 2014 (AP)

Tobacco companies are moving quickly to keep pace with the evolution of their industry by embracing the increasingly popular e-cigarettes and making them more available to consumers.

Reynolds American Inc., the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S., moved forward on its ambitious goal for sales, announcing Tuesday that next week it would begin distributing its Vuse brand electronic cigarette nationwide.

Altria Group Inc., which owns the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, is seeking to expand its MarkTen electronic cigarette brand nationally during the first half of the year.

Lorillard, the nation’s third-largest tobacco company, acquired e-cigarette maker Blu eCigs in April 2012. Blu now accounts for almost half of all e-cigarettes sold and can already be found nationwide.

Reynolds said Tuesday that retail outlets in all 50 states will be carrying Vuse starting on June 23. More stores will be added throughout the remainder of the year.

Reynolds launched Vuse in Colorado last summer and expanded into Utah earlier this year. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina company said that Vuse quickly became the top-selling brand in both states with high levels of repeat purchase.

Like other tobacco companies, Reynolds American is looking to capitalize on the fast-growing e-cigarette sales and to diversify its business more. To that end, the company announced last month that it was expanding its Tobaccoville, North Carolina manufacturing complex ahead of Vuse’s national rollout in order to meet anticipated market demand.

The market for e-cigarettes has grown from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide and reached nearly $2 billion in sales last year. The battery-powered devices 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 cigarettes.

The Vuse can monitor and adjust heat and power to deliver the “perfect puff,” according to Reynolds American. It also has a smart light on the tip of to let users know when it’s getting low, needs to be replaced or recharged.

The country’s biggest tobacco companies have all entered the e-cigarette realm as they look to become less dependent on the traditional cigarette business, which is increasingly tougher to be a part of due to tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma.

But the growing popularity of e-cigarettes has left it open to closer examination by the government and health advocates. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed restrictions on the buying, packaging and advertising of e-cigarettes. This includes a ban on selling to minors and warning labels. The Senate will hold a hearing Wednesday to examine the marketing of e-cigarettes and potential consequences for minors.

Shares of Reynolds American shed 46 cents to $59.88 in midday trading, while Altria’s stock fell 12 cents to $41.69. Shares of Lorillard declined 59 cents to $61.39.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/reynolds-expanding-cigarette-nationally-24170948

Teen Smoking Is Way Down. But What About E-cigs?

Alexandra Sifferlin, Time Magazine
Rates of cigarette smoking among high school students has dropped to lowest level in 22 years, the CDC reports.
In 2013, the smoking rate among high school students hit 15.7%, which means the U.S. government has already reached its goal of lowing the teen smoking rate to 16% of less by 2020. That’s according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which began in 1991. Another important data set on teen smoking and drug use—Monitoring the Future (MTF)—reports the rate is at 16.3%. Regardless, both surveys show fewer kids are smoking.
That’s good news, and it’s likely thanks to a combination of several factors, the most important being the rising costs of cigarettes. Others include the growing stigmatization of smoking, with half of states prohibiting smoking in places like bars and restaurants. The adult smoking rate is dropping too, which means teens have fewer smoking role models.
If teens are passing around fewer packs of cigarettes, does that mean they’re not smoking other things? Past data has shown a 123% increase in the consumption of other smokable tobacco products like cigars and pipes, though the recent numbers from the larger data sets show no change in smokeless tobacco use since 1999, and a drop in cigar use.
yrbs_release_smoking_final-copy
One question you’re likely going to see is whether teens are switching to e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes is a subject the public health community is uncharacteristically split on. On one side of the spectrum, you have critics arguing that it’s possible e-cigarettes serve as a gateway to regular cigarettes. One vocal critic being the head of the CDC himself. “The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden in a statement about teen tobacco use going down. “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”
Emerging data points to certain trends, but e-cigs are still so new. Earlier this fall, a CDC report showed that e-cig use among teens, while still low, had doubled in a year, from 3.3% in 2011 to 6.8% in 2012.
Dr. Kenneth Warner, a professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, looked back through the data and found that among kids who have never smoked a conventional cigarette, only 0.7% have ever tried an e-cigarette within the last 30 days. What this shows is that the same kids who are smoking regular cigarettes are smoking e-cigs.
“Everyone thinks they are right and the logical thing is that nobody knows,” says Warner. “This is a huge-stakes issue, because the proliferation of e-cigs has the potential to either reduce the cigarette problem or increase it over time among kids.”
The reality is we have a long way to go. It took 40 years to get the adult smoking rate down to around 20%, and it won’t be easy to cut it in half again. Warner and his colleague David Mendez have created a smoking-prevalence model that’s been used since the 1990s. Their predictions show that at the rate we are going, we might not be able to hit a 10% adult smoking rate until the middle of the century. But that’s if we don’t try anything radically different.
“I believe we will do better because I don’t think we’ll stick with just status quo tobacco control,” says Warner. “In my judgment, the future lies in how effectively FDA can regulate cigarettes and other [nicotine] products.”
The FDA announced it is expanding its regulatory powers to cover more tobacco products including e-cigs, but anti-smoking advocates are arguing it’s still not enough.
“The data on kids is great, but we have a long way to go before we can pack up and go home and say we solved the problem,” says Warner.
You can read more on the latest CDC numbers here.
http://time.com/2864214/teen-smoking-is-way-down-but-what-about-e-cigs/

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

An 'explosion' of youth exposure to e-cigarette TV ads

Michelle Healy, USA TODAY

As the federal government moves to set rules that would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors, a new study shows that TV ads for the products have increased dramatically during programs most likely to be watched by adolescents and young adults.

According to the study published online today by the journal Pediatrics, between 2011 and 2013 exposure to e-cigarette TV ads increased by 256% among adolescents ages 12 to 17 and by 321% among young adults, ages 18 to 24.

Approximately 76% of the ads seen by each of the two age groups occurred while watching cable networks — most often AMC, Country Music Television, Comedy Central, WGN America, TV Land and VH1. They also appeared on broadcast network programs that were among the 100 highest rated youth programs for the 2012-2013 TV season, including The Bachelor, Big Brother and Survivor, the study finds.

One brand, blu eCigs, owned by tobacco company Lorillard, accounted for almost 82% of all nationally aired e-cigarette ads viewed by 12- to 17-year-olds.

“The tobacco industry and e-cigarette industry say that they are not advertising products to youth, but they are advertising products on a medium which is the broadest based medium in the country,” says Jennifer Duke, lead author of the study and a public health researcher at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

With a national television audience that includes 24 million viewers between the ages of 12 and 17, “as e-cigarette advertisements increase for adults they are by default also increasing exposure to youth,” Duke says. “It’s hard to argue that only adults are seeing these ads,” she adds.

Ads for traditional cigarettes have been banned from TV since 1971. A proposed rule, released in April by the Food and Drug Administration, would ban the sale to minors of tobacco products that are currently unregulated, including e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookahs. The rule would also require require ingredient disclosure, federal approval and warning labels. Marketing and advertising restrictions are currently not part of the proposed rule.

Commercial: blu eCigs ad that aired during study

Commercial: NJOY ad that aired during the study

In a statement, blu eCigs said it has “proactively set limitations on when and where” its product “can be marketed in an effort to minimize any potential exposure to minors.” A part of the criteria used “is to screen all marketing opportunities to ensure that our TV ads only run with media targeting an adult audience of 85 percent or greater.”

The new study, which analyzed Nielsen television audience measurement data, did not focus on the content of the commercials or the audience intentionally targeted by the ads, only who had exposure to them, Duke says.

The finding that these “unregulated advertisement messages about the benefits of e-cigarettes are out at a large and increasing volume” is alarming because “there are no counter messages by the public health community,” she says.

Among the safety concerns about the battery-powered devices that turn nicotine-laced liquid into a vapor that users inhale, is that nicotine (derived from tobacco leaves) is addictive and may lead users to try other tobacco products.

E-cigarettes have not been fully studied by the FDA, but a laboratory analysis of several samples conducted by the agency in late 2008 found trace amounts of carcinogens and toxic chemicals, such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Results of the new media study provide “the strongest evidence that there has been an absolute explosion of youth exposure to e-cigarette advertising on television,” says Matthew Myers, president of the advocacy group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“It’s particularly disturbing precisely because Congress removed cigarette advertising from television because of the unique impact TV advertising has on young people,” Myers says. ” When e-cigarette manufacturers say that they don’t market to minors, it’s deja vu all over again. This study demonstrates the importance of FDA moving rapidly and decisively to protect our nation’s children.”

SWEETS MAKERS WORK TO KEEP NAMES OFF E-CIGARETTES

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, The AP

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Owners of brands geared toward children of all ages are battling to keep notable names like Thin Mint, Tootsie Roll and Cinnamon Toast Crunch off the flavored nicotine used in electronic cigarettes.

General Mills Inc., the Girl Scouts of the USA and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. are among several companies that have sent cease-and-desist letters to makers of the liquid nicotine demanding they stop using the brands and may take further legal action if necessary. They want to make sure their brands aren’t being used to sell an addictive drug or make it appealing to to children.

The actions highlight the debate about the array of flavors available for the battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. The Food and Drug Administration last month proposed regulating electronic cigarettes but didn’t immediately ban on fruit or candy flavors, which are barred for use in regular cigarettes because of the worry that the flavors are used to appeal to children.

It’s growing pains for the industry that reached nearly $2 billion in sales last year in the face of looming regulation. E-cigarette users say the devices address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking without the thousands of chemicals found in regular cigarettes.

There are about 1,500 e-liquid makers in the U.S. and countless others abroad selling vials of nicotine from traditional tobacco to cherry cola on the Internet and in retail stores, often featuring photos of the popular treats. Using the brand name like Thin Mint or Fireball conjures up a very specific flavor in buyers’ minds, in a way that just “mint chocolate” or “cinnamon” doesn’t.

“Using the Thin Mint name — which is synonymous with Girl Scouts and everything we do to enrich the lives of girls — to market e-cigarettes to youth is deceitful and shameless,” Girl Scouts spokeswoman Kelly Parisi said in a statement.

The issue of illegally using well-known brands on e-cigarette products isn’t new for some. For a couple of years, cigarette makers R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Philip Morris USA have fought legal battles with websites selling e-cigarette liquid capitalizing on their Camel and Marlboro brand names and imagery. The companies have since released their own e-cigarettes but without using their top-selling brand names.

“It’s the age-old problem with an emerging market,” said Linc Williams, board member of the American E-liquid Manufacturing Standards Association and an executive at NicVape Inc., which produces liquid nicotine. “As companies goes through their maturity process of going from being a wild entrepreneur to starting to establish real corporate ethics and product stewardship, it’s something that we’re going to continue to see.”

Williams said his company is renaming many of its liquids to names that won’t be associated with well-known brands. Some companies demanded NicVape stop using brand names such as Junior Mints on their liquid nicotine. In other cases, the company is taking proactive steps to removing imagery and names like gummy bear that could be appealing to children.

“Unfortunately it’s not going to change unless companies come in and assert their intellectual property,” he said.

And that’s what companies are starting to do more often as the industry has rocketed from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide, bringing the issue to the forefront.

“We’re family oriented. A lot of kids eat our products, we have many adults also, but our big concern is we have to protect the trademark,” said Ellen Gordon, president and chief operating officer of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. “When you have well-known trademarks, one of your responsibilities is to protect (them) because it’s been such a big investment over the years.”

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/sweets-makers-work-keep-names-e-cigarettes

Fewer Americans Believe E-Cigs Safer Than Tobacco Cigarettes: Study

FRIDAY, May 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) — As they learn more about electronic cigarettes, American smokers are becoming less likely to believe that the devices are a safer choice than tobacco cigarettes, a new study finds.

In 2010, nearly 85 percent of smokers believed e-cigarettes were less dangerous than traditional cigarettes, but that dropped to 65 percent of smokers in 2013, researchers report in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“This apparent decline in smokers’ beliefs about reduced harm of e-cigarettes compared with regular cigarettes is perplexing against the background of advertising and media messages touting e-cigarettes as safer alternatives and cessation aids,” study co-investigator Cabral Bigman, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a journal news release.

“One possible explanation is that the increased media attention over the lack of [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approval and regulation of this emerging tobacco product, injuries arising from e-cigarette-induced fires, and health concerns from toxic chemicals in e-cigarettes in recent years may have conveyed conflicting information about the relative safety of e-cigarette use,” Bigman said.

The FDA last month proposed long-awaited regulations governing the fast-growing electronic cigarette industry. The new rules would give the agency the authority to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, placing them under the same requirements as cigarettes. That would include a ban on the sale to minors.

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that turn nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals into a vapor that can be inhaled. Most are designed to look like a tobacco cigarette, but some look like pens, USB drives or other everyday objects.

The devices are becoming more popular. It’s predicted that sales of e-cigarettes will soon reach $1.7 billion, or about 1 percent of current sales of regular cigarettes in the United States.

The current study included data from the Health Information National Trends Survey. The investigators found that Americans’ awareness of e-cigarettes rose from about 16 percent in 2009 to 77 percent in 2013.

“In the beginning of 2013, more than three in four respondents were aware of this novel product,” study co-investigator Andy Tan, from the University of Pennsylvania, said in the news release. “The rise in awareness of e-cigarettes could reflect sharp increases in advertising expenditures by manufacturers, availability in retail stores across the country, and presence in popular media.”

Those more likely to know about e-cigarettes included young people, current and former smokers, and those with higher levels of education. Those less likely to know about the devices included Hispanics and older people, the study authors noted.

The researchers also found no link between increased awareness about e-cigarettes or beliefs that they are less harmful and smokers being more likely to try quitting.

“One potential interpretation is that adult smokers have not yet accepted e-cigarettes as a means to quit smoking,” Tan said in the news release.

The finding means that any claims that e-cigarettes help reduce the health threat posed by regular cigarettes are likely premature, he added.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about e-cigarettes.

SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, news release, May 15, 2014

http://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/smoking-cessation-news-628/e-cigs-awareness-ajpm-release-batch-1200-687926.html

Reynolds expanding e-cigarette production

Washington Post – By Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. — Reynolds American Inc. is expanding its Tobaccoville, North Carolina, manufacturing complex as it plans national distribution of its Vuse brand electronic cigarette this summer, the company said Friday.

The owner of nation’s second-biggest tobacco company did not disclose the costs related to the ramp-up, which will include a multi-million dollar investment for high-speed manufacturing equipment, for competitive reasons but said the move would create more than 200 jobs over the next four years.

Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, launched Vuse in Colorado last June and plans the initial wave of national distribution next month.

Production is currently done at a contractor facility in Kansas, but the company said more production will be needed for the foreseeable future to meet anticipated market demand. The company will carve out about 70,000 square feet of space in its existing 2 million-square-foot Tobaccoville facility. It does not publicly provide the number of employees that work at the plant that also makes its cigarette brands, including Camel and Pall Mall.

The market for e-cigarettes has grown from the thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide and reached nearly $2 billion in sales last year. The battery-powered devices that 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 cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration last month proposed regulating electronic cigarettes.

Reynolds says the rechargeable Vuse e-cigarette has technology that monitors and adjusts heat and power more than 2,000 times per second to deliver the “perfect puff.” It also has a smart light on the tip of to let users know when it’s getting low, needs to be replaced or recharged.

“This is all about smokers getting satisfaction from these alternatives and how many smokers find that an acceptable way to enjoy nicotine instead of smoking tobacco products,” Reynolds CEO Susan Cameron said at a news conference Friday with North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. “I think we’ll see this evolve and it’s certainly in growth mode, but how big and how fast, we really don’t know yet.”

The nation’s biggest tobacco companies all have entered into the fast-growing electronic cigarette business as part of an industry wide push to diversify beyond the traditional cigarette business, which has become tougher in the face of tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma.

Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, plans to expand its MarkTen electronic cigarette brand nationally during the first half of the year. Lorillard Inc., the nation’s third-biggest tobacco company, acquired e-cigarette maker Blu Ecigs in April 2012. Blu now accounts for almost half of all e-cigarettes sold.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/reynolds-expanding-e-cigarette-production/2014/05/23/aa1b73bc-e283-11e3-9442-54189bf1a809_story.html

How E-Cigarettes May Harm Your Health

– , Men’s Journal

The Food and Drug Administration just proposed a set of rules that would ban sales to minors and require e-cigarette manufacturers to disclose their products’ ingredients. If passed, the regulations would bring some much-needed order to an uncontrolled industry. “Right now, because there are about 250 different kinds of e-cigarettes and no regulations, it’s very much the Wild West,” says Tom Glynn, director of science and trends at the American Cancer Society. “Some e-cigarettes are pretty much just liquid nicotine, propylene glycol, and flavorings. But others have lots of contaminants and carcinogens, including heavy metals like nickel and cadmium. It’s very difficult for consumers to determine which is which.”

The proposed regulations still don’t address the biggest issue with e-cigarettes: Their long-term health effects are completely unknown. Experts agree that, compared to regular cigarettes – which contain 7,000 chemicals, 60 of them cancer-causing – e-cigarettes are the lesser of two evils. However, there’s mounting fear that even those e-cigarettes that contain only a few, “safe” ingredients may prove to be hazardous. “Since they’ve only been available in the U.S. since 2007 and didn’t really catch on until 2010, there’s been no opportunity to do long-term study on their impacts,” says Glynn.

 

The first big question surrounds the safety of liquid nicotine, which can cause vomiting, nausea, and eye irritation if too much is inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin. And since it’s impossible to know how much nicotine you’re getting per drag – or how much is even in an e-cigarette – poisoning has become a real issue. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of calls received by poison control centers regarding liquid nicotine poisoning skyrocketed from one per month in September 2010 to 215 per month this February. Forty-two percent of these incidents involved people age 20 and over.
But even just continually inhaling nicotine vapor may be dangerous. “Our big concern is that we don’t know how breathing in nicotine vapor will affect people long-term,” says David Abrams, executive director of the Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the Legacy Foundation.
Health experts are also concerned about the propylene glycol in e-cigarettes. Although the FDA deems this ingredient safe for use in foods, heating it into a vapor and inhaling it may be a different story. “We don’t know whether inhaling heated propylene glycol is safe, especially if done continually,” Glynn says. “If you take 100 drags a day over 10 years, it could be completely harmless. Or it could be Pandora’s box.” At the end of the day, no cigarette – electronic or otherwise – is truly safe.

http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/health/how-e-cigarettes-may-harm-your-health-20140520#ixzz32NumuRYc

Moorhead leaders discuss licensing e-cigarette vendors, abolishing lengthy tobacco sampling

By: Erik Burgess, INFORUM

MOORHEAD – Hoping to curb sales to minors, the city could soon require e-cigarette vendors to be licensed and subjected to compliance checks like traditional tobacco sellers.

State law in Minnesota – and local ordinances in West Fargo and Fargo – prevents the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

But because Moorhead doesn’t license e-cigarette vendors, there’s no registry of businesses that sell them and no one doing compliance checks to make sure e-cigarettes aren’t being sold to minors, Keely Ihry, of Clay County Public Health, told City Council members Monday.

New state e-cigarette laws give statutory authority to cities to license and regulate e-cigarettes, which Ihry argued are being targeted to and becoming more popular among teens.

Ihry passed around e-cigarette, or “vape pen,” samples to council members Monday, noting the colorful packaging and the myriad flavors like Skittles, bacon and strawberry banana.

“To subject any of our youth to an addictive substance such as nicotine, with the additional pleasures of scent to draw them in, it’s just unbelievable,” said Councilwoman Nancy Otto, who was the most vocal on wanting to license e-cigarette vendors.

“Otherwise, it’s basically a free-for-all,” Otto said. “We’ve got nobody that is going in to check these facilities.”

Council members Mike Hulett and Brenda Elmer said they would support licensing e-cigarette vendors in Moorhead. City Manager Michael Redlinger said the council could vote on it at the end of the month or in June.

Police Chief David Ebinger also urged the council on Monday to consider abolishing what he called a “deceptive sampling practice” in the tobacco industry.

Some tobacco vendors are taking advantage of a broadly worded state law that allows “sampling” of cigars, tobacco or hookah indoors, he said. Instead of offering a taste or two, some shops are allowing lengthy, hour-long smokes.

That’s not the spirit of the sampling provision, Ebinger said,

“You don’t sit down … and smoke an entire cigar or two of them in a bar, and call it ‘sampling,’ ” he said.

The chief proposed that Moorhead set up an ordinance that would prevent lengthy tobacco sampling and only allow limited sampling if a customer was looking to make a “bona fide purchase” of a product, like a hookah.

Hookahs On Main, 815 Main Ave., is the only hookah shop in Moorhead that allows such lengthy sampling, said City Clerk Michelle French, but she and Ebinger said others have inquired about setting up similar businesses.

If the council decides to pass a more restrictive sampling law, Hookahs on Main would be grandfathered in, Ebinger said. Still, the law would prevent more of these shops from setting up in Moorhead, he said.

“It’s a public health issue,” Ebinger said, arguing that hookah tobacco can be just as dangerous as standard cigarettes.

Redlinger said law enforcement also sometimes has disturbance and neighborhood issues with hookah shops.

The City Council denied a tobacco license renewal in February for the former owner of Hookahs on Main, then called Pyromaniacs, after learning that police regularly received complaints of loud noise and parties at the business.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/435266/

With few regulations, e-cigs grow in popularity throughout area

By: Patrick Springer, INFORUM

MOORHEAD – Aaron Templin tried quitting smoking multiple times but his efforts always fizzled after a matter of days.

Nicotine patches or gum never appealed to him as the path to cessation. Then, at a friend’s suggestion, he tried one of the much-in-vogue electronic cigarettes, which are tobacco-free but allow users to inhale a vapor, usually containing nicotine.

Two months later, he and his fiancée consider themselves ex-smokers on the way to breaking free from nicotine altogether.

“It was really easy,” Templin said. “Whenever we had a craving, we’d have an e-cigarette.”

E-cigarettes find themselves under a cloud – enthusiastically embraced by some as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes, while under fire from health officials who vehemently warn the unregulated products can make no scientifically valid safety claims.

The Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to regulate e-cigarettes, including banning their sale to those under the age of 18 and requiring makers to disclose ingredients.

“I can’t stress enough that there are a lot of unknowns and there isn’t enough scientific evidence” to prove the safety of e-cigarettes and similar devices, said Jeanne Prom, executive director of BreatheND.

Three recent studies cast doubt on the safety or effectiveness of e-cigarettes as alternatives to smoking, she said.

One published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that e-cigarettes did not help smokers quit or reduce their use of conventional cigarettes.

Another study published in JAMA concluded that e-cigarettes did not discourage tobacco use, while the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research suggest that some e-cigarettes yield formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, with their nicotine-laden vapor.

“Until they’re proven to be great, we’ll treat them with caution,” said Prom, who urges users or those considering e-cigarettes to do the same. She stressed that multiple proven smoking cessation methods are available, including over-the-counter options.

Templin, a Moorhead resident who smoked for nine years, has read news reports about health concerns regarding e-cigarettes. But his experience persuades him that their benefits outweigh possible risks as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes.

“They are obviously a healthier alternative to analog cigarettes, and an excellent way to kick the habit,” he said. “It worked for me and my fiancée, and it was almost effortless.”

The nicotine potency of the e-cigarette “juice” that Templin uses has diminished dramatically, he said, as he weans himself. He also uses the device less often.

His fiancée, Linsey Kneisl, rarely uses hers, he said.

Inhaling the vapor is a lot like smoking a cigarette, which makes it an attractive substitute for someone trying to quit, Templin said.

“It’s just like smoking,” he said. “That helps.”

Others have embraced e-cigarettes as less bothersome than secondhand smoke.

Lindzee Morgan of Fargo is not an e-cigarette user, but persuaded her boyfriend, a smoker, to switch to the vapor-emitting alternative.

“I hate cigarette smoke and having to be around it,” she said, “but now I don’t have to worry about it. The e-cigs don’t have a terrible smell and actually some of them smell quite pleasant.”

As for health effects, Morgan said she is much less concerned for herself and her boyfriend “even after reading the numerous articles out there.”

Because e-cigarettes are unregulated, consumers can’t be certain what they contain, regardless of what manufacturers list, said Holly Scott, tobacco prevention coordinator at Fargo Cass Public Health.

Although some e-cigarette juice is billed as nicotine-free, “What guarantee do you have as a consumer that there’s no nicotine?” she asked.

Darius Endres, co-owner of Sports Vape, a vendor of e-cigarettes and juice on South University Drive in Fargo, said regulation is inevitable, including banning the sale to minors and requiring ingredients to be listed.

North Dakota already includes e-cigarettes in its smoke-free law, which prohibits smoking in public buildings. A growing number of cities ban the sale of e-cigarettes or juice to those under 18 and require behind-the-counter sales.

“I am completely done with smoking, Enders said, adding that he uses only nicotine-free juice.

Sports Vape is one of a growing number of e-cigarette sellers in Fargo-Moorhead, reflecting the rapidly growing adoption of the smoking alternative.

Although at least a handful of specialty shops have opened, Scott said most e-cigarettes and juice probably are sold at gas stations and convenience stores, where they are commonly featured alongside tobacco products.

Both Prom and Scott worry that e-cigarettes, with their fruity flavor options and bright packaging, are being marketed to children.

The significant drop in prices also is of concern, said Prom, who noted that the cost of a “starter kit” when look-alike e-cigarettes first appeared on the market was $50 to $100.

Now a bottle of juice that can last a week costs $7, she said.

Anecdotally, both Scott and Prom have received reports that e-cigarettes are being used by schoolchildren around the state.

A check with school administrators in the Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead and Northern Cass public school districts, however, indicates that no reports have reached the central school offices.

Moorhead has added e-cigarettes to its anti-tobacco policy, and Northern Cass will do so soon, according to school officials. Scott predicts that most school districts will follow.

The claims by e-cigarette proponents that they provide a safe alternative to tobacco echo earlier claims, including filtered and menthol cigarettes, Prom said. Studies later debunked those claims.

Meanwhile, e-cigarette backers say they have studies to show the safety of the products. Those on both sides of the debate agree that science has more work to do to settle the issue.

“We’re actually still probably rounding first base right now as far as the studies go,” Endres said.

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