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10 Things E-Cigarettes Won't Tell You

By JEN WIECZNER
The cigarettes of the future could be safer, cheaper and less taboo than the smokes of the past. But they also threaten to upend decades of antismoking efforts.
1 “We’re Big Tobacco in disguise.”
When electronic cigarettes made their debut in the U.S. about five years ago, they seemed like a threat to the traditional cigarette industry.
The battery-powered devices, which turn nicotine-laced liquid into vapor, promised a less harmful and more socially acceptable alternative to combustible paper-and-tar cigarettes—and they were cheaper, not being subject to hefty tobacco taxes.
Already, the underdog industry is on track to hit nearly $2 billion in sales for 2013, tripling its 2012 figures, says Wells Fargo WFC -0.77% tobacco analyst Bonnie Herzog. And although the market for traditional cigarettes is still far bigger—topping $80 billion—Ms. Herzog predicts that e-cigarettes could surpass old-fashioned smokes in popularity within a decade.
But Big Tobacco brooks no challenge. The Big Three— Altria Group, MO -0.09%Reynolds American RAI +0.26% and Lorillard—have all made forays into e-cigarettes in the past two years.

2 “We can’t promise this won’t kill you.”
Antismoking advocates and public-health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alike concede that e-cigarettes have fewer toxins than regular cigarettes and none of the tar.
But that’s no guarantee e-cigs won’t give you cancer or kill you the way tobacco-burning cigarettes are known to do.
The e-cigarette industry will go only so far as to say the products are “less harmful” than traditional smokes: “It’s better than a cigarette,” says Eric Criss, president of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Group, adding that the organization doesn’t want nonsmokers to start using the product.
3 “This probably isn’t the best way to quit smoking.”
E-cigarettes aren’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a smoking-cessation product, but users and advocates say that’s one of the devices’ biggest selling points. A Gallup survey of former smokers in July found that 3% credited electronic cigarettes with helping them quit, compared with 2% who cited prescription drugs and 1% who used nicotine gum.(The rest cited everything from will power to hypnosis.)
Still, health experts worry that smokers will just switch to e-cigarettes, or use them additionally, instead of quitting cold turkey.
4 “We’re advertising like it’s 1960—while we still can.”
You won’t see a Surgeon General’s warning on e-cig packages. And you will see them advertised on TV, from which ads for traditional cigarettes have been banned since 1971. And you’ll see them promoted by celebrities—another no-no for cigarette marketers.
Indeed, there are now an estimated 250 brands of e-cigarettes sold in stores and online, and virtually no federal regulations on them.
The FDA plans to issue new rules soon, however, and state lawmakers have tried to improvise a few of their own. E-cigarette industry representatives, for their part, say they are just as eager for regulation, “especially to keep electronic cigarettes out of the hands of children,” Mr. Criss says.
5 “We defy categorization.”
The e-cigarette industry says it welcomes regulation, but it’s also shown some ambivalence: On the one hand, it doesn’t want to be grouped with cigarettes, not only because it has staked its success on being an alternative to those products, but because being lumped in with them would put restrictions on who can buy e-cigs and how they’re advertised.
On the other hand, it doesn’t want to see its product shelved. To be categorized as safe and therapeutic, the industry would have to go through years of trials and FDA approval as a drug or drug-delivery device, effectively taking e-cigs off the market entirely, Mr. Criss says.
The lack of categorization probably won’t last much longer, however. The FDA is expected to issue long-awaited rules regulating e-cigs as a tobacco product this fall.
6 “We’re cheaper than cigarettes because we aren’t taxed like cigarettes.”
E-cigarettes’ biggest advantage over traditional cigarettes is their price, market analysts say. Regular cigarettes carry excise taxes of up to about 50% of the retail price; e-cigarettes, for the most part, are subject only to sales tax, says Ms. Herzog.
Regulation, however, and accompanying taxes are likely to increase prices. Ms. Herzog predicts that e-cigarettes will be taxed 5% next year, 10% by 2015 and 20% by 2019.
7 “Kids love us.”
If there’s one thing that the e-cigarette industry and the public-health community agree on, it’s that e-cigarettes aren’t for children. Many kids, on the other hand, seem to disagree.
The proportion of middle- and high-school kids who have used e-cigarettes doubled to nearly 7%, or almost 2 million students, between 2011 and 2012, according to a recent report by the CDC.
What’s more, “there’s a substantial concern that e-cigarettes will serve as a gateway product to nicotine addiction for a new generation of young people,” says Michael Fiore, a physician and director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
8 “We’re bringing smoking back indoors…”
As cigarette smokers have been pushed ever farther out into the cold—often as far as 25 feet from the entrance of restaurants, bars and even outdoor spaces like parks and beaches—e-cigarette smokers have moved indoors.
The devices, which emit vapor that is less noticeable and odorous than smoke, and don’t involve flames or smoldering butts that pose a fire hazard, have largely been tolerated if not fully welcomed in places where smoking is banned, including workplaces.
Some policy makers have recently stomped out e-cigarettes, applying smoke-free laws to e-cigs, too. The University of California, where researchers recently found that “many of the elements” in e-cig vapor “are known to cause respiratory distress and disease,” has banned e-cigs at all of its campuses.
9 “…and back into aircraft.”
Lately, airlines have had to chastise not just passengers, but their own flight attendants for smoking—er, “vaping”—e-cigarettes on planes. The Department of Transportation doesn’t explicitly prohibit e-cigs but plans to issue new rules prohibiting them by mid-2014. And many airlines have explicitly banned them.
10 “E-joints and e-crackpipes are the new e-cig.”
The season premiere of Saturday Night Live in September included a mock commercial for “e-meth,” devices like e-cigarettes supposedly containing the illegal drug crystal meth. The spoof was funny because it seemed outrageous, but e-cigarette experts say that using the devices to vaporize illegal drugs isn’t so far-fetched.
Some users say e-cigarettes can easily vaporize a liquid form of marijuana, and Dr. Fiore cites reports that e-cigs could be used to consume crack cocaine. “It sure concerns me that there are new methods to deliver illegal substances, particularly to young people,” he says.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304448204579184052293918312

Crutch or cure: issues surround use of e-cigarettes

By Stephen Rickerl/Fremont Tribune
The meteoric rise in popularity of e-cigarettes has some people scratching their heads as to whether the tobacco-less devices are a new tool in smoking cessation or a Trojan horse that could undo decades of anti-smoking campaigns.
Electronic cigarettes are devices that primarily consist of a battery, heating coil, wick and tank or cartridge that holds flavored liquid and nicotine. As a user puffs on the e-cigarette, the battery heats the coil and the liquid is turned essentially into a vapor that is inhaled like a traditional cigarette.
But e-cigarette users don’t consider themselves smokers, they’re “vapers,” and they don’t smoke – they “vape.” Many of the devices look more like a lightsaber than a Lucky Strike.
Even though the products do not contain tobacco, and do not use combustion to deliver nicotine to the user, there are a number of issues, questions and criticisms surrounding the use of e-cigarettes.
Among the unknowns are whether e-cigarettes are a solution or part of the problem, the answer to which would likely depend on who you ask.
The Fremont Area Medical Center does not support the use of the products as a tool to quit smoking because they are not FDA approved.
Dr. James Sullivan of Fremont Family Care, a clinic associated with FAMC, said smoking is a great health hazard and doctors like it when people are thinking of ways to quit. But he, as a member of the medical community, has a couple of issues with the devices.
First, he said, the devices are unregulated, and outside of strict FDA oversight and testing, there is no way to be certain how much nicotine is being delivered to the user. Another issue Sullivan has with the devices is that the liquid nicotine, the addictive part of smoking, can have harmful health effects – especially in young people and in high doses.
In traditional smoking cessation programs, nicotine in gum or patches slowly weans the user off the drug.
“The e-cigarettes design is basically the same thing, ‘let’s replace the toxic nature of smoking and inhaling that and give you back the nicotine while you quit,’” Sullivan said. “The problem is you don’t know what dose of nicotine you’re getting by inhaling it.
“We need to know a reliable dose that is getting in. For that reason we are reticent to use it,” he added. “I don’t know if a lot of people are quitting, because nicotine is the addictive part. So people are just now using e-cigarettes instead of regular cigarettes, so they’re not using it as a tool to quit, just as a replacement.”
Other criticisms of the devices have included the fact that there are no laws in place banning the sale of the products to minors, and the e-juice — the liquid containing the nicotine — comes in a range of flavors from traditional tobacco to gummy bears, caramel and root beer.
In 2010 the FDA, based on limited studies of samples, issued warning letters to electronic cigarette distributors for various violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act including “violations of good manufacturing practices, making unsubstantiated drug claims and using the devices as delivery mechanisms for active pharmaceutical ingredients.”
In reporting its results of those limited studies “FDA found significant quality issues that indicate that quality control processes used to manufacture these products are substandard or non-existent. FDA found that cartridges labeled as containing no nicotine contained nicotine and that three different electronic cigarette cartridges with the same label emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine with each puff.”
The American Lung Association in a public health statement said there are 250 different brands of e-cigarettes for sale in the U.S., and those brands are likely to have a wide variation of chemicals that each contain. The lung association said an FDA study in 2009 found detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals, including an ingredient used in anti-freeze.
Because of potential unknown risks, many school districts and public bodies are enacting policies to treat e-cigarettes like traditional cigarettes.
The Fremont Board of Education at its October meeting voted to approve the first reading of a policy that would treat e-cigarettes the same as traditional, or “burn” cigarettes – effectively banning their use on school grounds. The new policy is expected to pass a second and final reading at the board’s November meeting.
“I think from a school district’s perspective the reason we included them is we felt like they could be a distraction from the learning taking place in the classroom and also in the school,” said Mark Shepard, executive director of business and support services at Fremont Public Schools. “Our concern in adding it to the policy is it’s basically modeling a behavior that students should not be engaged in.”
Chad Burns, owner and CEO of American Vapor — a new e-cigarette store in Fremont — agrees that minors shouldn’t use the product and will not sell to minors, but disagrees with the findings of the incomplete FDA study.
“Right now our state doesn’t regulate (sales to minors). We can sell to anyone legally, morally we do not,” Burns said. “We self-regulate. If you’re not able to buy cigarettes, you’re not able to buy this. It’s 18 and older period. That’s self-imposed, but morally it’s the right thing to do.”
Burns said his business also self-regulates when it comes to the quality and consistency of e-juice.
“Everything we purchase is made here in the U.S. and we know where it is coming from. Most of them are local producers and we know what they’re doing,” Burns said. “Everything that we purchase, we purchase at zero nicotine and then we are right there when they add the nicotine, and it’s all computerized. You punch in how big of a bottle you’re putting the nicotine into and how many milligrams of nicotine you want in that bottle. The computer puts in the exact amount – to the drop.”
Burns said he would welcome FDA regulation of the industry.
“It would be a good idea because there are some shops out there that aren’t following the same standards,” he said. “Personally I want to know what I’m vaping, I don’t order anything offline – even for my personal use. We don’t like the companies that aren’t regulating because they’re giving us a bad name. And as this industry progresses, the weak will be weeded out of the herd.”
Shane Ekdahl, owner and business manager of American Vapor, said the store has been open two weeks and in that time business has been steady.
“People are just bringing their friends in by the droves,” he said. “It’s unreal.”
Ekdahl said about 20 percent of their customers are experienced vapers, but the other 80 percent are traditional smokers new to vaping.
Matt and Brandy Tulak said they smoked 14 and 17 years respectively. Neither has picked up a cigarette since they began vaping a week ago.
Matt Tulak said he was always the smoker who talked about quitting but never did. In vaping he sees the opportunity to satisfy his nicotine cravings without taking in additional chemicals associated with traditional smoking.
“You’re not getting all the nasty chemicals you’re getting from the cigarette,” he said. “I was getting to the point where I was wheezing at night going to bed. Now I don’t wake up in the morning and have that heavy chest,”
Brandy Tulak said they vape now because they like it better than smoking. They don’t smell like cigarettes and their sense of taste and smell are improving. She said she also likes that she can customize her device.
“You can customize your vapers to make them pretty, to speak to what you like,” she said. “With a cigarette you get stench, yellow teeth, wrinkles all that nasty stuff – and it’s not pretty.”
http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/crutch-or-cure-issues-surround-use-of-e-cigarettes/article_0c7c6547-458a-5d2f-8b3c-515f2c1f1c9b.html

Tobacco Myths Persist 50 Years After US Surgeon General Warned Americans of Smoking Dangers

Tobacco misconceptions prevail in the United States despite the dramatic drop in smoking rates since the release of the first Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health in January 1964. Experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center dispel common myths and share new educational resources to address this persistent challenge.
“Since 1964, smoking rates have dropped by more than half as a result of successful education, legislative and smoking cessation efforts,” said Lewis Foxhall, M.D., vice president for health policy at MD Anderson. “Still, lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer and the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.”
With the approaching 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General’s Report, Foxhall and other MD Anderson experts urge the public to take a proactive stance against this pervasive health issue by gaining insight on current tobacco issues including information that disproves the following myths.
Tobacco Myth #1: Almost no one smokes any more.
Fact: About 43.8 million people still smoke. That’s almost one in five people in the United States.
“The current percentage of smokers is 19%. That’s significantly lower than the 42% in 1965,” Foxhall said. “However, the actual number of people smoking today is close to the same.” About 50 million people smoked in 1965. “Because our population is much larger, it just seems like we have a lot fewer smokers,” Foxhall explained.
“We have a lot of work ahead to prevent new smokers and help existing smokers quit,” said Ellen R. Gritz, Ph.D., professor and chair of behavioral science at MD Anderson. “Thanks to programs like the American Legacy Foundation’s truth national anti-smoking campaign, we have been able to achieve fewer youths smoking,” Gritz said, a previous vice chair on the Legacy board. “But funding for these campaigns is limited and unable to compete with the exorbitant and seemingly unlimited advertising dollars spent by tobacco companies.”
Tobacco Myth #2: e-Cigarettes, cigars and hookahs are safe alternatives.
Fact: All tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and hookahs, have nicotine. And it’s nicotine’s highly addictive properties that make these products harmful.
In 2008, the five largest cigarette companies spent $9.94 billion dollars on advertising and marketing products like e-cigarettes, flavored cigars, cigarillos and hookahs.
“The tobacco industry comes up with these new products to recruit new, younger smokers,” said Alexander Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Tobacco Outreach Education Program at MD Anderson. “And, they advertise them as less harmful than conventional cigarettes. But once a young person gets acquainted with nicotine, it’s more likely he or she will try other tobacco products.”
“While e-cigarettes may contain less harmful substances than combustible tobacco, they’re presently unregulated so quality control over the nicotine content and other components is left to the manufacturer,” said Paul Cinciripini, Ph.D., professor and deputy chair of behavioral science and director of the Tobacco Treatment Program at MD Anderson.
“At this time, it’s far too early to tell whether or not e-cigarettes can be used effectively as a smoking cessation device,” Cinciripini said.
Tobacco Myth #3: Infrequent, social smoking is harmless.
Fact: Any smoking, even social smoking, is dangerous.
“Science has not identified a safe level of smoking, and even a few cigarettes here and there can maintain addiction,” said David Wetter, Ph.D., chair of health disparities research at MD Anderson. “If you are a former smoker, data suggests that having just a single puff can send you back to smoking.”
Tobacco Myth #4: Smoking outside eliminates the dangers of secondhand smoke.
Fact: There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause harm. Exposure to secondhand smoke at home or work increases a person’s risk of heart disease by 25 to 30% and lung cancer by 20 to 30%. That’s because the amount of cancer-causing chemicals is higher in secondhand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers. Families that prohibit smoking in and around the home are on the right path, said Wetter.
Stay informed and take action
“Being educated and sharing this knowledge with others are ways to action,” said Ernest Hawk, M.D., vice president of cancer prevention and population sciences at MD Anderson. “For smokers, it’s never too late to quit smoking and reap health benefits.”
As part of MD Anderson’s Moon Shot program to end cancer, Hawk and other experts have developed a comprehensive plan that addresses the burden of tobacco use in institutions, communities, states and nations.
“The End Tobacco plan recommends more than 100 actions in the areas of policy, education and community-based services that MD Anderson can lead to end tobacco at the institutional, local, regional, state national and international levels,” Hawk said. “As a leader in the field of tobacco research, it’s vital we take a leadership role to confront the use of tobacco in any form.”
More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year in the United States and about 150,000 people die as a result of this disease. Smoking contributes to almost 90% of lung cancer deaths and 30% of all cancer deaths.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131107142436.htm

Representative Phyllis Kahn proposes ban on indoor e-cigarettes

By Allison Kronberg
Minnesota could start treating e-cigarettes just like regular cigarettes.
Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, proposed a bill Friday to include e-cigarettes in the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, which she authored in 1975, that would ban their use indoors.
She said she’s proposing the bill because the health effects of e-cigarettes are unclear, the smokeless alternative can appeal to young people and it would make the law consistent.
“The same controls that apply to smoking regular cigarettes would apply to smoking e-cigarettes,” Kahn said.
This summer’s new tobacco tax raised the price for a pack of cigarettes by $1.60. Since then, e-cigarettes have gained even more popularity with smokers in Minnesota.
Kahn said she’s heard many people support the bill.
“The negatives all come from people who are users of the e-cigarettes and maybe one from a manufacturer,” she said.
Bad for business
In its print ads, e-cigarette company FIN has encouraged its customers to “rewrite the rules.” Its website encourages users to “smoke when you want, where you want.”
University of Minnesota biology, society and environment sophomore Josh Meidl said he’s never smoked regular cigarettes and doesn’t plan to, but he carries his e-cigarette with him every day because he likes the taste.
“I feel like [the bill] just totally defeats the purpose of the e-cig, because one of its main purposes was to bring smokers back indoors,” he said.
While the move inside is a draw for some, businesses and agencies around the state are enforcing their own rules on the product.
Metro Transit spokesman John Siqveland said the public transportation network banned e-cigarettes from its buses, trains and facilities this summer. Hennepin County banned e-cigarettes on county property in July, a move that county administrator David Hough called proactive at the time.
Joe Berg, general manager of the Library Bar and Grill in Dinkytown, said statewide regulation would be beneficial. Now, the Library asks people not to smoke e-cigarettes on the property, and they generally comply, he said.
Kahn said opponents of the bill argue e-cigarettes are beneficial for smokers who are trying to quit.
“And the answer is no, we’re not going to take it away from you,” she said. “You use it exactly where you’d use a regular cigarette.”
Nasario Sepeda, manager at Smokedale Tobacco in Stadium Village, said the store relies “heavily” on e-cigarette sales and doesn’t agree with the ban.
“The only way to see if it has any effect on us is if it passes,” he said.
Health effects unknown
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate e-cigarettes, and experts say they’ve been researched little.
A 2009 FDA study found potentially harmful substances in a majority of the e-cigarettes sampled. E-cigarettes often have nicotine and can be addictive.
“One thing is that the FDA is still struggling over the safety,” Kahn said. “We’re looking at if it’s a safe thing for individuals to use.”
Kahn said e-cigarettes could be a gateway to their more dangerous counterparts, especially for young people. University research found young people would experiment with e-cigarettes because they’re often flavored and because the students view them positively.
Ferdinand Schlapper, director and chief health officer at Boynton Health Service, said the smokeless alternative just prolongs addiction, although many use e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking.
“Proven ways to stop smoking are nicotine replacement therapy and the patch, along with a supportive environment,” Boynton senior health advocate Timothy Bell said.
School of Public Health associate professor Deborah Hennrikus said she would support a ban on indoor e-cigarette use because there is still so little known about them.
“There isn’t enough known to the extent to which e-cigarettes can help people stop smoking, or to the extent to which they appeal to adolescents as a gateway to using other tobacco products,” she said.
“They’re new enough that the research hasn’t been done.”
http://www.mndaily.com/news/campus/2013/11/06/representative-phyllis-kahn-proposes-ban-indoor-e-cigarettes

FDA: cigarette of the future could be non-addictive

By Deborah Kotz |  GLOBE STAFF

The US Food and Drug Administration submitted plans several weeks ago to increase regulation of tobacco products including chewing tobacco, cigars, and likely electronic cigarettes — which produce a nicotine vapor that’s inhaled. While the agency hasn’t announced what those restrictions will be — since they’re being reviewed by the White House budget office — Mitch Zeller, the director for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, sat down for an interview Monday to discuss efforts to help people stop smoking and to keep kids from starting in the first place.
Here’s a run-down of some of the things on his agenda, with a few wrinkles that still need to be ironed out.
1. Create a non-addictive cigarette. We have the authority given to us by Congress to reduce nicotine in cigarettes down to nearly zero,” Zeller said. Since nicotine is the addictive chemical in cigarettes, teens who start smoking products that are almost nicotine-free could, in theory, never get hooked in the first place. Researchers now have access to 9 million cigarettes with varying amounts of nicotine to start testing whether products with lower amounts will lead to less addiction among new smokers. But don’t expect an ultra-low-nicotine product for at least a few years, Zeller added, since the studies are just beginning.
The wrinkle: Smokers already hooked on nicotine might find the new products seriously lacking, and they might need better nicotine replacement products than those currently on the market to help them overcome their cravings.

2. Run ads to scare teens away from smoking. Teens may think they already know about the dangers of smoking, but that doesn’t prevent 3,000 12- to 17-year-olds every day from lighting up for the first time. The FDA is planning an ad campaign for early next that is intended to make the thought of smoking turn teens’ stomachs. Expect, Zeller hinted, to see an anti-glamour campaign: ugly photos of smokers with rotting yellow teeth, wrinkles, and tar-stained fingernails.

The wrinkle: Teens still see their favorite movie stars — yes, you, Nicole Kidman, and you, Jennifer Aniston — glamourously smoking in photos and on the silver screen, so it may be tough for a government public safety announcement to effectively counter those influences.
3. Loosen warning labels on nicotine-replacement products. Zeller said the FDA might want to consider loosening the labeling on over-the-counter nicotine patches and gum, which currently state that users should not use them for longer than 8 to 12 weeks without consulting a doctor. “We need to look at how other Westernized nations, like Great Britain, are looking at nicotine,” he said. Other countries take the tack that smokers may always be addicted to nicotine and may need to be on some replacement product for life — which is far safer for them than continuing to inhale cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco.
The wrinkle: The FDA hasn’t determined how e-cigarettes should fit into the array of smoking-cessation products. Some smokers have told Zeller that the battery-operated devices are the only things that work to get them to stop smoking tar-filled cigarettes. But scant research has been done on the products to determine first, whether the vapor they release is safe to inhale, and second, whether e-cigarettes deliver the same quick nicotine rush to the brain that smokers seek. Those nicotine bursts aren’t delivered by FDA-approved nicotine replacement products.
4. Ramp up enforcement. The FDA has been making vigorous efforts to crack down on retailers who are selling cigarettes to minors. More than 10,000 stores throughout the U.S. have received warning letters since 2010, Zeller said, after minors serving as undercover agents were able to purchase cigarettes without an ID check. Hundreds of stores in Massachusetts were also warned that they would be fined if they didn’t change their practices.
The wrinkle: It’s tough to know how well the efforts have worked. The decline in smoking rates among teens has largely leveled off and many are still getting their hands on tobacco products.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2013/11/05/fda-cigarette-future-could-non-addictive/sEZZVH2vR9JJ6OKviItX4J/story.html

Legislation would add e-cigarettes to Minn. smoking ban

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, wants to clear up confusion about the use of electronic cigarettes by adding the so-called vaping devices to the statewide cigarette ban.
She plans to introduce legislation in the 2014 session that would add e-cigarettes to the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act.
“Right now, we’ve got a patchwork system where local governments and even individual businesses make their own rules,” Kahn said in a press release. “It’s creating a lot of confusion. My bill removes any doubt as to where e-cigarettes can be used by applying the same regulations we have for traditional tobacco products.”
Kahn joins The Daily Circuit to discuss the issue.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/11/04/daily-circuit-e-cigarette-ban-kahn

E-cigarettes Turn Up in Schools

BY LAURIE WELCH – lwelch@magicvalley.com
BURLEY, ID • Students have been sneaking off to the boys’ room to smoke since the advent of schools and the discovery of tobacco. But use of harder-to-detect electronic cigarettes is causing some educators and parents to worry.
“Any parent should be worried about this. It’s one more thing out there to distract our children from a healthy lifestyle,” said mother Jolene Graham, who serves on a parent advisory committee at Burley High School.
The Cassia County Sheriff’s Office cited five underage students at the school in October for possession, use or distribution of tobacco or e-cigarettes.
The battery-powered e-cigarettes provide aerosol doses of nicotine and other additives. The devices emit a vapor but no telltale smoke.
Depending on the brand, the cartridges can contain nicotine, a component to produce the aerosol and flavorings such as fruit, mint, candy and beer, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The products resemble cigarettes, cigars, pipes or everyday items such as pens and USB memory sticks.
E-cigarettes not marketed for therapeutic purposes are unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
FDA studies show “significant quality issues that indicate control processes used to manufacture these products are substandard or non-existent.”
The FDA found cartridges containing nicotine but labeled as no nicotine as well as three different e-cigarette cartridges with the same label but that emitted markedly different amounts of nicotine with each puff.
Sheriff’s Cpl. Terry Higley responded to the incident at the high school.
“If someone doesn’t know about them, they would just think they were some type of marker or highlighter pen,” Higley said about the devices he confiscated.
E-cigarettes are available at stores, but a person must be 18 or older to buy them.
“Most of the kids are saying they just buy them online. All they have to do is check the box that asks if they are 18,” Higley said.
He said one student told him he was using the e-cigarettes to help him quit smoking, and one girl admitted she had used the e-cigarette in class.
Four of the five students’ parents said they did not know their children were using the products, Higley said.
Twin Falls High School hasn’t had any e-cigarette incidents since students were caught smoking them on campus a couple of summers ago, said Principal Ben Allen.
The school then had no policies to deal with the electronic “smokes.” Now e-cigarettes are in school policy for paraphernalia to encompass any changes in the devices, Allen said.
“I’m not saying that eliminated it,” he said. “We just haven’t had to deal with it lately.”
No students at Jerome High School have been caught with e-cigarettes, said Vice Principal Victor Arreaga.
“I guess our kids settle for the real thing or nothing,” Arreaga said. “The problem here at our school is chew (chewing tobacco), not cigarettes.”
Nonetheless, said Jerome High Principal Eric Anderson, the school staff will have to get educated on the product because it is sure to filter into the school at some point.
The Cassia County School District board intends to revisit the district’s policy on nicotine and tobacco to include the devices, said Superintendent Gaylen Smyer.
If students are caught with nicotine oils or tobacco, law enforcement is called and the school can discipline the student up to suspension.
“As an educator, my concern is that nicotine is a habit-forming drug. Sometimes students at that age want to experience things that may have lifelong consequences,” Smyer said. “When adults make a decision to smoke, I support that. But I hate to see young people dabble with something that may have a lifelong effect.”
District teachers will be taught to recognize the objects, he said.
Higley said he plans to use the confiscated paraphernalia as a teaching tool.
“The biggest issue here is, parents need to educate themselves on this. You can’t put the blinders on,” said Graham. “Parents need to have frank discussions with their children at home about these products.”
http://magicvalley.com/news/local/e-cigarettes-turn-up-in-schools/article_cba6a692-5b14-5f73-ab27-b74850525c67.html

Don't believe e-cigarette hype

By: Janie Heath
Several weeks back, “Saturday Night Live” spoofed the increasing ubiquity and purported safety of e-cigarettes by touting its own fictitious product — “e-meth.” The skit, which included “Breaking Bad’s” Jesse Pinkman (actor Aaron Paul), offered e-meth as a sensible smokeless alternative to crystal meth itself — a completely far-fetched and ridiculous claim.
It was also quite laughable — until you realize that e-cigarette companies are hawking their product as a “safe cigarette” in much the same way.
It’s no joke. And e-cigarettes are uniquely poised at the moment to either be regulated by the government as tobacco products should be or to enjoy looser, less strict regulation.
Companies that make e-cigarettes — battery-operated sticks made of plastic or metal that release vapor, rather than smoke, to deliver nicotine in a warmed mist of diethylene glycol, propylene glycol and carcinogenic nitrosamines — are counting on the latter. These companies hope that e-cigarettes — already a $2 billion a year endeavor — might just save a dying U.S. tobacco industry.
Using the swaying power of actors Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy, companies such as Blucigs — which offers nicotine delivered in flavors from pina colada to peach schnapps, sure to appeal to youngsters who gravitate toward the exploding market of flavored cigarettes — these companies are ramping up for a fight. Promises like “You can smoke at a basketball game if you want to” and “We’re all adults — it’s time we take our freedom back” offer smokers and would-be e-cigarette buyers a chance to tap into the bygone era when smoking was cool and its deadly health effects were not known.
The thing is, today we know better.
What we don’t know is the science as to whether e-cigarettes are a safer alternative or just more of the same. As a professional nurse, I wager the latter.
The American Lung Association is very concerned about the potential health consequences of electronic cigarettes, as well as claims that they can be used to help smokers quit.
There is no government oversight of these products. And, absent oversight by the Federal Drug Administration, there is no way for the public health and medical community or for consumers to know what chemicals are actually contained in e-cigarettes — or what the short- and long-term health implications of using them or being around them might be.
It’s why the American Lung Association is calling on the Obama administration to propose meaningful regulation of these products to protect to public health.
There are roughly 250 different e-cigarette products on the market today. Based on evidence so far, there’s nothing safe about them —not even as a gateway to cessation. In the FDA’s own research on e-cigarettes from 2009, lab tests revealed detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals, including an ingredient used in anti-freeze, in two leading brands of e-cigarettes and 18 various cartridges. Other analyses have found formaldehyde, benzene and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a carcinogen, in e-cigarettes’ emissions, pointing out the poisons in secondhand exposure.
This why it’s urgent for the FDA to immediately begin its regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes, which would include ingredient disclosures by manufacturers. While there is certainly more to learn, it’s clear there is a great deal to be concerned about — especially in the absence of any sort of oversight.
As a former smoker myself, I understand all too well the hope for a safe and evidence-based way to break the habit — but e-cigarettes just are not the way. There is no magic bullet; quitting smoking is incredibly hard to do. Nicotine’s the reason. And at present, there is no evidence supporting e-cigarettes as the best way to kick the habit.
Americans have the freedom to decide, of course, what they do with their bodies — and knowing what we know about the debilitating diseases and deaths faced by many former smokers, I think we will choose to kick the e-cigarette habit before it garners a foothold. E-cigarettes might seem to tout a pathway to tobacco-less freedom, but they entangle individuals in the same poisons as their smoke-filled grandfathers.
We’re all adults here: It’s time to take back our freedom — and choose health for ourselves, our children and communities.
Janie Heath, PhD, is the Thomas A. Saunders III Professor of Nursing and associate dean for academic programs at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/guest_columnists/don-t-believe-e-cigarette-hype/article_be688534-4491-11e3-a58b-001a4bcf6878.html

Look at e-cigarettes with a questioning eye

By: Erin Hill-Oban, Executive Director, Tobacco Free North Dakota
There’s been a lot of buzz lately regarding electronic cigarettes and the rise in popularity (and sales) they’ve seen all across the country, including right here in North Dakota.  Whether news and opinions have come from the mouths of trusted news sources, Big Tobacco (which now manufactures e-cigarettes), health professionals, or e-cigarette users themselves, we should all stay informed.
Tobacco Free North Dakota (TFND) would like to add the voice of our organization and our members to the conversation.  We have no interest in scaring the public; rather, we feel education and information is important.  What we know about e-cigarettes for certain, unfortunately, is pretty minimal.
As of today, there is not enough data collected nor studies conducted to determine how safe or unsafe these products are OR to prove e-cigarettes are effective cessation devices.  Tobacco companies are promoting e-cigarettes as a means to help users quit, but until science backs up that claim, TFND cannot and will not endorse it.  NDQuits provides excellent (and free) services – both counseling and access to FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy – to North Dakotans who wish to quit.
In addition, e-cigarettes are not regulated by the FDA as a tobacco product, and therefore, are neither taxed as such nor have age restrictions placed on their sales.  That does, in fact, mean your 10-year-old child or grandchild could legally purchase these devices.  Though we hope many retailers in our state would deny their purchase based on morals, it’s irresponsible not to have laws in place to prevent our kids from that kind of access.
TFND is genuinely concerned about reports of e-cigarette explosions, studies that show youth use of e-cigarettes doubling in just one year, and the knowledge that adolescents have found ways to alter these devices to smoke other drugs, like marijuana, without a detectable scent.
TFND wants answers and common sense protections put in place by both the FDA and our state policymakers, a goal we will be working toward leading up to the next state legislative session in 2015.  In the meantime, we encourage the public to stay informed, proceed with caution, and visit with your district legislators about any shared concerns you may have.
http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/content/look-e-cigarettes-questioning-eye
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/277311/group/homepage/
http://www.jamestownsun.com/content/letter-editor-e-cigarettes-should-be-regulated-state
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/417138/

E-Cigarettes A Blast From The Past, In A Bad Way

By Erica Sebastian and Jonathan Chaffee Special to the Olean Times Herald
Youth love to trick-or-treat on Halloween. Unfortunately, there is one product that is more trick than treat: e-cigarettes look and taste like a treat, but contain a nicotine solution that is turned into a vapor that users inhale.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Youth Tobacco Survey states that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students has doubled since 2011. This growth can be attributed to the variety of flavors of e-cigarettes, such as chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and fruit flavors that appeal to teens and young adults.
E-cigarette advertisements are also appearing on television and in magazines. E-cigarettes’ formula for success is not that much different from how the tobacco industry marketed cigarettes.
Stanton Glantz, who directs the Center For Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco, says, “They’re making health claims. They’re using celebrities, movies, television. It’s just like getting into a time machine.”
In 2009, the FDA tested e-cigarettes from two leading manufacturers and found detectable levels of toxins and carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) in their cartridges.
Any product designed to deliver more than trace amounts of nicotine can lead to addiction. As such, the sale and distribution of these products should only occur after these products are appropriately regulated by the FDA.
The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as smoking-cessation devices. To date, there are no well-controlled studies that test the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device despite industry ads to the contrary.
New York has made great strides in reducing youth smoking rates. High school youth smoking rates are down nearly 60 percent from 2000 to 2012. The introduction of e-cigarettes threatens the substantial gains made in reducing youth smoking in New York.
(Ms. Sebastian is the Cessation Center coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Wyoming counties; Mr. Chaffee is the Reality Check Program coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.)
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/editorial/article_779e64d0-4300-11e3-92ff-001a4bcf887a.html