Posts

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/

You Now Have To Be 21 Years Old To Buy Cigarettes In New York City

 | by  Brigitte Dusseau

New York raised the minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21 on Sunday, in its latest initiative to encourage healthier behavior among residents.

The law, signed November 19 shortly before former mayor Michael Bloomberg finished his third term, had a six-month waiting period before it came into effect — but its impact can already be clearly felt.

“Under 21, no tobacco,” warned a small sign at the entrance of a small shop that sells smokes, newspapers, candy, coffee and cakes, in the Nolita neighborhood (North of Little Italy).

No tobacco, either, for anyone who can’t present a valid ID proving their age. Shopkeeper scan IDs to test their authenticity before handing over the box of cigarettes.

The measure — unprecedented among America’s big cities — raises the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18. It also applies to other forms of tobacco and to e-cigarettes.

It’s the latest of New York’s efforts to reduce smoking in the city, which bans cigarettes and, as of April 29, e-cigarettes in restaurants and bars, in parks or squares, and at the city’s public beaches. Some private residential buildings have also banned smoking.

Cigarette taxes in the city are also the highest in the country: $5.85 a carton, which brings the overall price to around $12. In addition, the city has established a minimum price of $10.50 a box for cigarettes.

Nataleigh Kohn, 23, who works at a startup company, underwent her ID check with good grace.
“It is a good thing. People in high school can’t start smoking,” she said.
Thomas Wall, 24, a former smoker who works in architecture, agreed, though he said the measure probably wouldn’t eliminate teen smoking all together.
He compared the new age restriction to the ones around alcohol, which set the US drinking at at 21.
When underage people want alcoholic drinks, they often get them from older people who buy for them.
Shopkeeper Muhammad Arisur Khaman said he’s seen some complaints since the law was implemented, but not many. He just tells unhappy clients: “It’s the law.”
The higher minimum age is “a step in the right direction,” said Pat Bonadies, a teacher walking with a group of students in Union Square.
The 52-year-old said there has been a sea change in attitudes towards smoking.
“When I was younger, smoking was much more prevalent among teenagers and preteens in restaurants and social settings,” she said.
“Even my mother’s friends, they smoked during their pregnancies.”
The city has seen a sharp drop in adult smokers, from 21.5 percent in 2002 to 14.8 percent in 2011, according to official statistics.
But the smoking rate among young people has been steady since 2007, at 8.5 percent, which was part of the impetus for raising the minimum age.
Authorities hope that the new law will cut the smoking rate among 18 to 20 years by more than half.
New York hopes to inspire other cities to pass similar age restrictions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/18/new-york-city-cigarettes-minimum-buying-age-now-21_n_5348490.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

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.

Report slams child labor in tobacco fields

By Mariano Castillo, CNN

(CNN) — Children can’t light up, but there are some who suffer the effects of nicotine exposure as they labor in U.S. tobacco fields.

There is not an exact figure for how many children work in America’s tobacco fields, but Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 150 for a new report on the dangers these workers face.

“I would barely eat anything because I wouldn’t get hungry,” one child worker, Elena G., 13, told the human rights group. “Sometimes I felt like I needed to throw up. … I felt like I was going to faint. I would stop and just hold myself up with the tobacco plant.”

Nearly 75% of the children interviewed reported similar symptoms — nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, dizziness, irritation and difficulty breathing. These are symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, Human Rights Watch said.

And nicotine is not the only danger.

Exposure to pesticides from adjacent fields and accidents with sharp tools are also common, the report said.

“Once they sprayed where we were working. We were cutting the flower and the spray was right next to us in the part of the fields we had just finished working in. I couldn’t breathe,” Jocelyn R., 17, told HRW. “I started sneezing a lot. The chemicals would come over to us.”

Altria, one of the biggest cigarette makers, does not employ its own farmers but maintains strict standards on the contractors it buys tobacco from, company spokesman Jeff Caldwell said.

His company’s view is not that the HRW report is critical of the tobacco industry, but that it asks for cooperation with various interests to protect the safety of workers, especially minors, he said.

“Our tobacco companies do not condone the unlawful employment or exploitation of farm workers, especially those under the age of 18,” Caldwell said.

Altria requires that its growers follow certain guidelines that specifically include best practices for labor management when it comes to harvesting tobacco. Issues such as avoiding acute nicotine poisoning and heat stress are addressed in the guidelines, he said.

U.S. tobacco companies intend to work together to further discuss the topics in the report, he said.

The study focused on four tobacco-growing states: North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

Children can legally work in the tobacco fields, and some as young as 11 and 12 years old do. These children primarily work during the summer to help support their families. The majority of them were Hispanic children of immigrants who lived in nearby towns, the report said.

“As the school year ends, children are heading into the tobacco fields, where they can’t avoid being exposed to dangerous nicotine, without smoking a single cigarette,” Margaret Wurth, a co-author of the report, said in a news release. “It’s no surprise the children exposed to poisons in the tobacco fields are getting sick.”

Many of the children the group spoke with reported working long hours without overtime pay or enough breaks, HRW said.

One of the recommendations of the report is that no one under 18 be allowed to work in tobacco fields, due to the risks that such exposure can bring.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/14/us/hrw-children-tobacco-workers-report/

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

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

Forum editorial: Prohibit smoking in all parks

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
—–
All metro area communities, large and small, should follow the lead of Dilworth and Moorhead and ban smoking in public parks. Dilworth took the smart step last week. Moorhead parks have been smoke-free since 2011. The Fargo Park District has a limited ban that allows smoking 25 feet away from playgrounds. West Fargo allows smoking in parks.
Parks primarily are venues for families and children. Moreover, park officials champion healthy lifestyles. The sports activities that take place on park fields comport with fitness and health. Smoking should be anathema.
In addition to bans and partial bans in the metro, nearby cities that ban smoking in parks include Mayville, Kindred, Valley City, Cooperstown and Wahpeton, all in North Dakota. Dozens of Minnesota cities have bans in place.
While some smokers might see the closing off of more public spaces as a violation of their rights, that argument is nonsense. There remains a plethora of places where smokers can indulge their habit, as long as it does not threaten the health of others. The many voter-approved bans in place reflect recognition that smoking and secondhand smoke are health issues, not rights issues. Some smokers will debate that unassailable premise until they cough their lungs out, but as a matter of public policy the debate is over.
Therefore, the Fargo Park District should extend its limited ban to every square foot of park land, and West Fargo should ban smoking in every one of its beautiful, allegedly family-friendly parks.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/433907/

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