Posts

Partial indoor e-cigarette "vaping" ban heads to Dayton for signature

Posted by: Abby Simons, Star Tribune

A retooled measure that would ban the use of electronic cigarettes—commonly known as “vaping”– in some public places head to Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk for signature into law.

The measure re-passed the House 93-35 and the Senate 52-13 Thursday as part of the Health and Human Services Policy omnibus bill, which also includes a ban on the use of indoor tanning beds by children under 18.

The final version of the bill prohibits vaping in most government-owned buildings including correctional facilities, daycare facilities including home daycares, hospitals and any buildings owned by the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, including dorm rooms. The bill does not ban use in city-owned buildings, but they have the option of adopting by equal or more strict bans.

The bill also require4s child-proof packaging for all e-cigarette liquids p[prohibits e-cigarette use in public schools, bans retail sales from mall kiosks and allows local governments to pass stronger restrictions and ensure penalties for sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

The final result was a compromise between a stricter Senate versions authored by Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, which placed e-cigarettes under the Clean Indoor Air Act, banning their use in all public places. A House version narrowed the ban to state buildings and public schools. The bill’s House author, Rep. Laurie Halverson, DFL-Eagan, removed the Clean Indoor Air Act provision in hopes of garnering enough votes to pass the bill.

In the past year, 80 percent of Minnesota’s 200 e-cigarette retailers have set up shop in kiosks and brick-and-mortar stores, garnering gratitude from users who say the devices are a safe alternative for those trying to quit smoking. But the devices, which can contain nicotine laced with various flavors that emit a vapor rather than smoke, concern some who say little is known about what chemicals secondhand vapors contain, and whether they’re harmful. However, opponents of an indoor use ban say there’s no proof that the vapor emitted from the products is harmful or dangerous.

Despite earlier reservations about a ban, Gov. Mark Dayton said he intends to sign the bill.

Article about third-hand nicotine from e-cigarette exposure wins award

by Stone Hearth News

An exploration of third hand nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes was given the top Addiction Science Award at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)—the world’s largest science competition for high school students. The awards are coordinated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Friends of NIDA, a coalition that supports NIDA’s mission. The Intel ISEF Addiction Science Awards were presented at a ceremony Thursday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

First place distinction was awarded to Lily Wei Lee, a high school senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York City for her project, Assessment of Third Hand Exposure to Nicotine from Electronic Cigarettes. The 18 year-old wondered whether e-cigarette use could pose a risk of third hand exposure, where nicotine from vapors sticks to surfaces to affect non-users even if they aren’t exposed to the e-cigarette use. She took three brands of e-cigarettes and filled them with varying nicotine concentrations. Using a syringe to ensure consistent puffs, e-cigarettes were vaped, after which nicotine concentrations were measured from surrounding surfaces – a glass window, vinyl walls, tiled floor, metal, and wood. Lee found significant increases in the amount of nicotine on all five surfaces; the floor and window had the greatest nicotine levels. The amount of residual nicotine depended on the particular brand used. Lee hopes to next explore whether e-cigarette usage is also related to increased third hand exposure to cancer-causing agents.

“This bright, young scientist showed that non-users can be exposed to nicotine residue from just one e-cigarette, even if the e-cigarette usage occurred some time ago,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “Chronic e-cigarette use would be expected to produce even higher levels of third hand nicotine exposure, and it’s unclear how such exposure could impact the health of close family members, friends, and coworkers who are regularly exposed to these environments.”

The second place distinction went to Aakash Jain, a high school senior at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix. His project, Computational Analysis of the GABA(A) Receptor, used computational and statistical techniques to provide insight into the three-dimensional structure of the GABAA receptor – which is believed to be involved in various disease conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and addiction. After developing his model, Jain then screened approximately 2,500 drugs to determine if their structure would be a tight fit for the GABAA receptor. Through this process, Jain was able to identify several compounds that deserved further research into their possible clinical applications.

Winning third place distinction were two high school juniors, Alexandra Ulmer and Sarayu Caulfield from Oregon Episcopal School in Portland. Their project, Capacity Limits of Working Memory: The Impact of Multitasking on Cognitive Control and Emotion Recognition in the Adolescent Mind, explored whether experience with multitasking affected behaviors controlled by the prefrontal cortex, an area involved in self-control that is negatively impacted by drug use. They found that experienced multitaskers were better at multitasking, switching priorities, and filtering out distracting, irrelevant tasks. However, they were less able to focus on a single task, possibly because they are anticipating new information. These results may be especially relevant to today’s young, who are exposed to more streams of electronic information compared to previous generations.

Judges for this year’s Addiction Science Award included NIDA-funded researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles: Keith Heinzerling, M.D., Mitchell Wong, M.D., Ph.D., and Bridget Freisthler, Ph.D.; and NIDA’s Sheri Grabus, Ph.D.

The Friends of NIDA provides funding for the awards as part of its ongoing support of research into the causes, consequences, prevention, and treatment of drug abuse and addiction.

“These incredibly gifted, young students demonstrated innovation well beyond their years,” said William Dewey, Ph.D., president and chair of the Executive Committee, Friends of NIDA, as well as the Louis S. and Ruth S. Harris Professor and chair, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond. “From looking at the effects of new technologies on health and cognition to computerized receptor modeling, this year’s winners covered a wide range of topics. We hope this award will encourage them to pursue a career in addiction science.”

This year, about 1,700 students from 70 countries, regions and territories participated in the Intel ISEF competition, coordinated by the Society for Science and the Public. The nonprofit organization partners with Intel—along with dozens of other corporate, academic, government and science-focused sponsors—to provide support and awards each year. Addiction Science Winners receive cash awards provided by Friends of NIDA, with a $2,500 scholarship for the first-place honoree. NIDA has developed a special section on its website, which includes other resources on addiction science, to highlight the winning projects and to help science fair entrants understand the criteria for the awards: The NIDA Science Fair Award for Addiction Science.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at www.drugabuse.gov, which is now compatible with your smartphone, iPad or tablet. To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA’s DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or fax or email requests to 240-645-0227 or drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at http://drugpubs.drugabuse.gov. NIDA’s media guide can be found at http://drugabuse.gov/mediaguide, and its new easy-to-read website can be found at www.easyread.drugabuse.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Source: NIH

http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/article-third-hand-nicotine-e-cigarette-exposure-wins-award/e-cigarettes/#sthash.3UrgkQCT.FhfO88XR.dpuf

5 Important Lessons From The Biggest E-Cigarette Study

 | by  Anna Almendrala

Those colorfully lit e-cigarettes are giving off way more than just “harmless water vapor,” according to a comprehensive new study review by UC San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. Users could also be inhaling and exhaling low levels of chemicals such as formaldehyde, propylene glycol and acetaldehyde (to name a few), and this secondhand vapor could be a potentially toxic source of indoor air pollution.

While the levels of the toxins were still much lower compared to conventional cigarette emissions, the findings fly in the face of the e-cigarette industries’ claims that the handheld devices are just as safe as any other smoking cessation tool.

E-cigarettes as we know them today were invented by a Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik in the early 2000s as a smoking cessation aid. They are handheld nicotine vaporizers that deliver an aerosol made up of nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals to users. It’s the chemicals in those vapors that are moving municipalities like Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago and Boston to restrict “vaping” in some way.

Formaldehyde, for instance, is a carcinogen that also irritates the eyes, nose and throat. Propylene glycol can also cause eye and respiratory irritation, and prolonged exposure can affect the nervous system and the spleen. Acetaldehyde, also known as the “hangover chemical,” is also a possible carcinogen.

The secondhand vapor finding is just one of several that UCSF researchers highlighted in the broadest review to date of peer-reviewed e-cigarette studies. The findings, which were published Monday in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation, include:

1. Some youth have their first taste of nicotine via e-cigarettes. Twenty percent of middle schoolers and 7.2 percent of high schooler e-cigarette users in the U.S. report never smoking cigarettes.

2. Nicotine absorption varies too much between brands. Early 2010 studies found that users got much lower levels of nicotine from e-cigarettes than from conventional cigarettes, but more recent studies show that experienced e-cigarette users can draw levels of nicotine from an e-cigarette that are similar to conventional cigarettes. Yet another study noted that the chosen e-cigarettes for the research malfunctioned for a third of participants. UCSF researchers say this indicates the need for stronger product standards and regulations.

3. Just because particulate matter from e-cigarettes isn’t well studied, doesn’t mean it’s safe. To deliver nicotine, e-cigarettes create a spray of very fine particles that have yet to be studied in depth. “It is not clear whether the ultra-fine particles delivered by e-cigarettes have health effects and toxicity similar to the ambient fine particles generated by conventional cigarette smoke or secondhand smoke,” wrote the researchers. But we do know that fine particulate matter from cigarettes and from air pollution are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. And some research has found that the size and spray of fine particulate matter from e-cigarettes is just as great or greater than conventional cigarettes.

4. So far, e-cigarette use is not associated with the successful quitting of conventional cigarettes. One clinical trial found that e-cigarettes was no more effective than the nicotine patch at helping people quit, and both cessation methods “produced very modest quit rates without counseling.”

5. Major tobacco companies have acquired or produced their own e-cigarette products. They’re promoting the products as “harm reduction” for smokers, which allows them to protect their cigarette market while promoting a new product. Companies also using “grassroots” tactics to form seemingly independent smokers’ rights groups, just like they did for cigarettes in the 1980s.

Based on the weight of the combined research, UCSF researchers end with several policy recommendations, which include banning e-cigarettes wherever cigarettes are banned, subjecting e-cigarettes to the same advertising restrictions that constrict cigarette marketing and banning fruit, candy and alcohol flavors, which are attractive to younger customers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/14/e-cigarette-studies_n_5319225.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

The Weird Link Between E-Cigarettes and Mental Health Disorders

Dan Kedmey, TIME

A new study finds elevated rates of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders among users of e-cigarettes

A new study has found that people suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental disorders are more than twice as likely to spark up an e-cigarette and three times as likely to “vape” regularly than those without a history of mental issues.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego drew their findings from an extensive survey of American smoking habits. Among 10,041 respondents, 14.8% of individuals suffering from mental health disorders said they had tried an e-cigarette, compared with 6.6% of individuals who had no self-reported history of mental disorders.

The e-smokers’ elevated rates of mental disorders reflected the elevated rates of mental illness among smokers in general. The authors note that by some estimates, people suffering from mental disorders buy upwards of 50 percent of cigarettes sold in the U.S. annually.

Many respondents said they switched to e-cigarettes as a gateway to quitting. The FDA has not yet approved e-cigarettes as a quitting aide.

“People with mental health conditions have largely been forgotten in the war on smoking,” study author Sharon Cummins said in a university press release. “But because they are high consumers of cigarettes, they have the most to gain or lose from the e-cigarette phenomenon.”

The study will run in the May 13 issue of Tobacco Control.

http://time.com/97414/the-weird-link-between-e-cigarettes-and-mental-health-disorders/

Grand Forks targets e-cigs: New ordinance gets early approval from city committee

By Charly Haley, Grand Forks Herald
Electronic cigarettes may soon be more regulated in Grand Forks if a recommendation for a new city ordinance is approved by City Council next week.
An ordinance prohibiting possession of e-cigarettes by minors and prohibiting vending machines that sell e-cigarettes was proposed to the City Council Service/Safety Committee by council member Bret WeberTuesday. The committee voted unanimously to support the ordinance, which will go to the full City Council next week for final approval.
E-cigarettes are not technically a “tobacco product,” which is why they aren’t regulated under existing city ordinances, Weber said.
But they are a vehicle for nicotine in a vapor form, which is still damaging to health, he said.
According to Food and Drug Administration reports, e-cigarettes can increase nicotine addiction and may lead people to try regular cigarettes, which are known to cause disease.
The proposed Grand Forks ordinance states that e-cigarettes will have the same regulations as other tobacco products.
Haley Thorson, a Grand Forks Public Health nurse, said there are only two e-cigarette shops that she knows of in Grand Forks: SnG Vapor and Vapor Stars. Some convenience stores also sell simple e-cigarettes, she said.
A big part of the problem, Weber said, is that e-cigarettes are often marketed toward youths. “There are ‘Hello Kitty,’ e-cigarettes,” he said.
Members of the Red River High School Student Council and the Grand Forks City Youth Commission attended the Service/Safety Committee meeting to support Weber’s proposal of the ordinance.
E-cigarette use among youth in North Dakota has almost tripled from 2011 to 2013, according to a report provided by the Grand Forks Public Health Department. The trend is growing nationally as well, according to the report.
In Minnesota, it is illegal by state law for minors to buy e-cigarettes, Weber said. At least eight communities in North Dakota have passed or are currently discussing ordinances that regulate sales of e-cigarettes to minors, according to the Public Health report.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/grand-forks-targets-e-cigs-new-ordinance-gets-early-approval-city-committee

CHUCK NORRIS EXTINGUISHES THE E-CIGARETTE CRAZE

Question to Norris:  Chuck, my son joined the train of those who are smoking e-cigarettes. He claims they are better for him than regular smoking and that’s why he does it. Do you have any thoughts on this latest fad? – “Eliminate the E-Cigs, Too,” in Elko, Nev.
Answer:  E-cigarettes have become more than just one of the latest crazes among our culture. Vaping, which is the process of “smoking” or inhaling e-cigs, is a billion-dollar business in the U.S. and has its own subculture. Rather than devices that merely look like cigarettes, whole new breeds of smokeless apparatuses to help users get their next nicotine fix have been spawned by vaping.
Technically speaking, vaping isn’t smoking, at least according to its veteran users. Nevertheless, a user is viewed as inhaling and exhaling vapor that is generally mimicking smoke.
For the record, according to the Macmillan English Dictionary, “E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that provide inhaled doses of nicotine through a vaporized solution.” They generally utilize a heating element to vaporize that nicotine cocktail.
E-liquid, aka e-juice, is normally composed of four or five ingredients, according to Project:Vape:
1) Vegetable glycerin and/or propylene glycol makes up 80-90 percent. These are touted as “generally considered safe for consumption” because they are “widely used as food additives in a variety of commercially available products.”
2) Flavor makes up 10-20 percent. These are generally food-grade flavorings intended for baking or candy making.
3) Nicotine makes up 0-2.4 percent, depending upon potency. But according to The New York Times, “Most range between 1.8 percent and 2.4 percent, concentrations that can cause sickness, but rarely death, in children. But higher concentrations, like 10 percent or even 7.2 percent, are widely available on the Internet.” (I will speak later about the potential hazards of such high dosages.)
4) Potency prompts some manufacturers to use distilled water to dilute the chemicals.
The pitch of e-cigarettes is that they are a safer alternative to smoking. Supporters say e-juice is much less harmful than tobacco, which contains tar and other chemicals that cause cancer. Some even use e-cigarettes as a way to cut down on and quit smoking.
There is selective research that says vaping may be as effective as nicotine patches in terms of quitting smoking, but a new study documented in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that those who vaped were no likelier to quit or even smoke less than tobacco smokers. (It should be noted, however, that those who smoked e-cigarettes represented only 10 percent of those in the study.)
The Boston Globe reported: “Researchers followed nearly 1,000 smokers for a year and found that those who used e-cigarettes were no more likely to quit smoking or reduce their dependence on tobacco cigarettes than those who weren’t using the products at the beginning of the study. About 14 percent of those who didn’t use e-cigarettes quit smoking compared to 10 percent of those (who) used the products.”
I have two primary concerns about e-cigarettes. The first is that there is a significant increase of use among minors. Despite the fact that e-juice’s chemicals are less harmful than tobacco, nicotine is still an addictive drug. And in liquid form, potency and ingestion (let alone unregulated chemical mixing) clearly pose greater risks among youths.
Neal L. Benowitz, a professor and specialist in nicotine research at the University of California, San Francisco, explained: “There’s no risk to a barista no matter how much caffeine they spill on themselves. Nicotine is different.”
The health risks were explained in a recent New York Times article, “Selling a Poison by the Barrel: Liquid Nicotine for E-Cigarettes.”
It noted, “Toxicologists warn that e-liquids pose a significant risk to public health, particularly to children, who may be drawn to their bright colors and fragrant flavorings like cherry, chocolate and bubble gum.”
Some even look similar to a 5-hour Energy drink, which is why many teens are mixing these vials of nicotine with energy drinks for a quick high, according to Fox News.
But e-juices can deliver far more than benign buzzes. The Times continued: “These ‘e-liquids,’ the key ingredients in e-cigarettes, are powerful neurotoxins. Tiny amounts, whether ingested or absorbed through the skin, can cause vomiting and seizures and even be lethal. A teaspoon of even highly diluted e-liquid can kill a small child.”
I mentioned earlier that higher concentrations are widely available on the Internet. The Times went on to discuss how a lethal dose at such levels could be “less than a tablespoon,” according to Dr. Lee Cantrell, director of the San Diego division of the California Poison Control System and a professor of pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco. “Not just a kid. One tablespoon could kill an adult,” he said.
The Times further reported on increased poisonings: “Nationwide, the number of cases linked to e-liquids jumped to 1,351 in 2013, a 300 percent increase from 2012, and the number is on pace to double this year, according to information from the National Poison Data System. Of the cases in 2013, 365 were referred to hospitals, triple the previous year’s number.”
This is particularly alarming when one realizes, as the Los Angeles Times recently documented from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, that e-cigarette use among minors has increased significantly. Case in point, the percentage of high-school students who have tried vaping has gone up significantly in recent years, from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 10 percent in 2012. One can only imagine how that percentage has increased in the past two years.
It’s no surprise, the LA Times continued, that “health advocacy groups, including the American Heart Assn., Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, have expressed concern that any delay on additional regulations would allow the fast-growing industry, which already counts billions of dollars of sales, to target more children.”
That is why even some of e-cigarettes’ biggest supporters are advocating some regulation. Chip Paul – CEO of Palm Beach Vapors, which operates 13 nationwide e-cigarette franchises and plans to open 50 more in 2014 – says: “It’s the wild, wild west right now. Everybody fears FDA regulation, but honestly, we kind of welcome some kind of rules and regulations around this liquid.”
Besides the health risks, my biggest problem with e-cigarettes remains that I’m just not a believer that introducing another popular addictive vice in society is going to help young, old or America. Instead of perpetuating a this-is-better-than-that drug consumerism – as many do with the marijuana vs. tobacco smoking debate – maybe we should simply start making healthier decisions by eliminating any and all potential health risks in our lives.
I’ve said it before: Justifying eating a plain doughnut over a glazed doughnut because it’s healthier doesn’t mean one is making a healthy decision that will empower the person for optimal human performance and longevity.
Write to Chuck Norris with your questions about health and fitness. Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at ChuckNorrisNews.blogspot.com.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/chuck-norris-extinguishes-the-e-cigarette-craze/#yATcDVs6ZQMUKGBU.99

Health Insurance Surcharge Has Vapers Fuming

By  via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can charge smokers and other tobacco users up to 50 percent more than non-smokers for a health insurance policy. But where do e-smokers fit in?

E-cigarettes are battery-operated nicotine inhalers that consist of a rechargeable lithium battery, a cartridge called a cartomizer and an LED that lights up during each puff. Although they contain no tobacco, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans on regulating them like cigarettes and cigars. This, it turns out, is complicating things for insurance companies.

While the ACA allows insurance companies to charge higher premiums to smokers and other tobacco users, the definition of a “smoker” is unclear under the law.

One way insurance companies could deal with e-cigarettes is to lump them in with tobacco products – a move that would subject so-called vapers to the same higher premiums as cigarette smokers. The companies could also swing the other way and decide to cover the cost of e-cigarettes as a means to help people quit smoking, despite a lack of evidence that the devices work as well as a patch. Insurers could also choose to ignore e-cigs altogether.

”The Affordable Care Act does not specify e-cigarette use for purposes of cessation coverage or tobacco surcharge application,” the American Cancer Society said in a statement to ABC News. “The lack of clarity may allow health plans to try to add the surcharge for e-cigarettes.”

If and when the FDA regulation of e-cigarettes goes into effect, insurance companies could change any of their current policies to reflect the agency’s direction. In the meantime, most companies claim they have too little experience with the devices to have a position, according to an informal poll by the National Association of Health Underwriters.

Carrie McLean, director of customer care for the online health insurance brokerage eHealth, said some insurers are telling their agents to add a smoking surcharge for those who vape.

“If a consumer indicates they use e-cigarettes, the carriers are expecting them to be uprated just as if they are a smoker,” she said, noting that consumers aren’t actually asked about the type of tobacco products they use during the health insurance application process – just whether they use them at all.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, an association which represents most of the country’s large health insurance companies, recommends that agents ask about regular tobacco use in the last six months and the most recent use. However, if a consumer were to ask for clarification about whether or not e-cigarettes count as tobacco use, then an agent is obliged to add the surcharge, McLean said.

“The problem arises because most people fill out their applications online and, as of now, most applications don’t ask specifically about e-cigarettes,” McLean said. “Consumers are left to decide on their own whether or not they consider themselves a tobacco user.”

It’s an important question to settle, as the price differential can be significant.

For example, a plan for a 40-year-old non-smoker with a $35,000 income that costs $3,857 a year minus a $532 tax credit would rise to $5,254 for someone labeled a smoker, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s exchange subsidy calculator. In some cases, the rate increase might even be larger than the 50 percent increase the ACA allows because government tax credits only apply to the base premium and not the tobacco surcharge.

Not surprisingly, e-cigarette advocates are fired up about vaping being likened to smoking by insurance companies. Cynthia Cabrera, executive director of the e-cigarette industry organization Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, said that e-cigarettes and other vaping products are a healthier lifestyle choice than combustible tobacco cigarettes, and argued that it seems inconsistent to apply the same higher insurance rates to vapers.

“The SFATA does not agree with any policy that positions users of electronic cigarettes and other vapor products in the same category as smokers,” she said. “These products do not emit smoke and do not contain tobacco, tar or any of the many carcinogens known to exist in combustible cigarettes.”

But the phenomenon of vaping is so new that experts say there’s insufficient science to determine whether e-cigarettes really are a healthier alternative to traditional tobacco products.

Dr. Ravi Ram, the chief medical officer for Blue Shield of Northeastern New York, said that although New York has chosen to eliminate rate increases for e-smokers, he suspects most plans would place e-cigarettes on par with cigarettes in terms of their health risk.

“Until you have some long term data and some actuarial differences to health outcomes such as lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and other conditions which are significantly impacted by smoking, and likely to be impacted by e-cigarettes as well, you have to rate them the same,” he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/health-insurance-surcharge-vapers-fuming/story?id=23628060

 

E-Cigarette Makers Going After Youth, Report Finds

BY MAGGIE FOX, NBC News

E-cigarette makers may say they welcome regulation and don’t want to sell to teenage nonsmokers, but their advertising dollars paint a very different picture, according to a report released Thursday.

E-cigarette makers spent $39 million on ads from June through November 2013, much of it on programming targeting youth, the anti-tobacco organization Legacy found.

“Overall, these research findings indicate that, despite their publicly stated intentions, some e-cigarette companies are reaching youth with their advertising,” Legacy says in its report.

“Moreover, the only national brand owned by a major tobacco company, blu, is reaching a significant portion of young Americans with its advertising. The effects of this are apparent, with nearly all young people aware of these products and use among young people rising rapidly.”

Health officials from several major U.S. cities say that’s why federal regulators need to act. They can restrict sales and limit where people may smoke or “vape,” but they cannot restrict national ads.

“There are some areas where our hands are tied and that particularly is in marketing,” said New York City health commissioner Dr. Mary Travis Bassett.

“They need to do more to protect kids from the effects of TV,” added Los Angeles County health commissioner Dr. Jonathan Fielding.

The fear is a whole new generation of people will become addicted to nicotine before federal regulations can be written, let alone take hold, the health commissioners told a news conference. New York, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles County are among the big city areas that have restricted sales and use of e-cigarettes.

Even some public health experts say e-cigarettes may be a useful alternative to burned tobacco cigarettes for smokers. But they also agree that it would be bad to encourage or even allow non-smoking children to become addicted to the nicotine in e-cigarettes.

Legacy was set up in 1999 as part of the Master Settlement Agreement when major tobacco companies agreed to pay more than $200 billion to states and territories. The states wanted some of the money to be used for an organization dedicated to studying and providing public education about the impact of tobacco.

Just last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would seek to regulate e-cigarettes, because they contain nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco. Most e-cigarette makers said they’d welcome some regulation.

Legacy did two studies looking at the marketing of e-cigarettes, and asking teens and young adults what they knew about them. It found e-cigarette TV ads reached 29.3 million teens and young adults from January through November 2013, including 58 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds.

Taken together, the two reports show e-cigarette makers using tactics that have long been banned for regular cigarettes, the report says.

E-cigarette makers dispute this. “The products are being advertised to adults,” said Cynthia Cabrera, executive director of the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association. “If children are watching during that time, it’s possible, but they are being marketed to adult consumers, to adult smokers.”

Public health experts say 90 percent of smokers start by the age of 20. They worry that e-cigarettes sold in flavors such as bubble gum and Gummi bear are targeted mainly to younger teens.

“While cigarette advertising is prohibited on television, it is currently fair game to use television to promote electronic cigarettes. Using broadcast and online advertising has allowed the e-cigarette industry to promote its products in a way that has broad reach and is largely unregulated,” Legacy says.

“Every day that industry is growing very, very rapidly,” LA’s Fielding said. “And you can be sure that big tobacco is going to wind up in the driver’s seat with respect to marketing. Don’t let them undo decades of efforts to de-glamorize smoking.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/e-cigarette-makers-going-after-youth-report-finds-n94166

E-Cigarette Sales to Minors: Hooking a New Generation?

Margaret I. Cuomo, M.D., HuffPost Healthy Living Blog
“Vaping” is the term used by many middle and high schoolers to describe the inhalation of vapors from an electronic cigarette. Celebrities have advertised e-cigarettes in advertisements and in the movies, and until now, it has been legal for a teenager to purchase them.
In April, 2014, the FDA issued a document in the Federal Register, which would regulate electronic cigarettes nationally as a tobacco product, including age restrictions similar to those for conventional cigarettes. The proposed rule will be enforceable once it is finalized. The American Medical Association, the American Lung Association, and the American Association for Cancer Research are all in support of the FDA’s announcement.
This proposed regulation will also include cigars, pipe and water pipe tobacco, nicotine gels and some dissolvable tobacco products, and anything else that meets the definition of a “tobacco product” according to the Tobacco Control Act.
At this point, the FDA will not restrict flavored e-cigarettes or advertising on television or print media. Hopefully those restrictions will follow soon, because Gummy bear, Fruit Loop and bubble gum flavors clearly target middle and high school students. Only menthol is permissible as a flavor for conventional cigarettes, as mandated by the Tobacco Control Act.
Originally, e-cigarettes were designed as an aid to quit smoking conventional cigarettes.
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, and is present in most e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes also contain cancer-causing nitrosamines and diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical found in anti-freeze. Are they effective in helping people quit smoking? Until large, randomized controlled trials are conducted, no one will know for sure.
We do know that e-cigarette manufacturers have been very clever in marketing to middle- and high-school students with colorful packaging, fun flavors and cool accessories.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in September, 2013 that the use of electronic cigarettes doubled in young people between 2011 and 2012, increasing to 10 percent for high school students, and 2.7 percent for middle schoolers. In total, 1.78 million United States students have used e-cigarettes as of 2012.
Should we allow manufacturers to entice our youth with a nicotine-delivery device that can lead to addiction to conventional cigarettes?
Some researches warn that e-cigarettes are a gateway device for nicotine addiction among youth. In a study of nearly 40,000 youth around the USA, the authors, Lauren M. Dutra, ScD and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF concluded that, “Use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among U.S. adolescents.”
We have come too far, and battled far too long with the tobacco industry, to make the mistake of trusting the e-cigarette manufacturers to do what is right for America’s children. How long was it before the tobacco industry would admit that smoking causes cancer?
Dr. Janie Heath, Associate dean and professor of nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, and an expert on the effects of tobacco on smokers, offers this insight into the problem: “When we look at 95 percent of individuals that smoke cigarettes, they all started that initiation before age 21. So, there’s the likelihood of these younger ones starting on electronic cigarettes, and wanting to have more and more of a hit.”
Dr. Heath also warns that “It’s harder to help an individual quit smoking than it is to get them off crack cocaine, heroin or any of the other drugs.”
Hopefully celebrities will resist the allure of advertising e-cigarettes in magazines, and also in movies, knowing that their endorsement have a powerful effect on teenagers.
Where are the famous athletes. actors and athletes who are willing to say: “There’s nothing cool about smoking or vaping, because there is nothing cool about cancer”?
While we wait for the scientific data to prove the harms of vaping, let’s protect our middle and high schoolers from a lifelong addiction and a high risk of cancer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-i-cuomo-md/healthy-living-news_b_5213382.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Dr. Nancy Snyderman: E-cigarette issue ‘is a big fight’

Today Show:  NBC News’ chief medical editor discusses what new FDA regulations could mean for e-cigarette consumers.

To view video:  http://www.today.com/video/today/55025322#55025308