Showing posts with label Ban. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ban. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Few rules apply to electronic cigarettes
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Rush To Regulate Ecigs Could Destroy Effective Alternative
Last week, several organizations sent a joint letter to the President, asking him to order the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promptly assert authority over all tobacco products not currently under its jurisdiction.
The organizations imply that the delay is resulting in negative health consequences. However, they never mention any specific consequences, and for a good reason: They are proposing a "solution" where no problem exists. Instead, enacting regulations without sufficient scientific evidence has the potential to do a great deal of harm to public health.
Monday, September 23, 2013
The Silent War Against Retail and E-cigarettes
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
FDA Denies Talk of Online E-Cigarette Sales Ban
SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Despite media reports that the online sale of electronic
cigarettes could soon be banned, the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement saying that it did not
discuss any possible regulations in a series of listening sessions held last
week.
"The FDA did not raise or weigh in on potential regulatory options -- including any potential restrictions on e-cigarettes or any other particular product category -- during these listening sessions," said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. "Any details about the agency's intent to regulate additional categories of tobacco products will be made publicly available to all interested parties at the same time, through the issuance of a proposed rule."
According to the statement from the agency, the FDA frequently meets with members of the tobacco industry, as well as with public health groups and other stakeholders, to better understand any concerns or questions they may have. As part of this effort, listening sessions with e-cigarette companies have been held at their request and have given the FDA an opportunity to listen to their concerns and views.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. In April 2011, the agency said it was developing a strategy to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products under the 2009 measure.
Via CSNews
"The FDA did not raise or weigh in on potential regulatory options -- including any potential restrictions on e-cigarettes or any other particular product category -- during these listening sessions," said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. "Any details about the agency's intent to regulate additional categories of tobacco products will be made publicly available to all interested parties at the same time, through the issuance of a proposed rule."
According to the statement from the agency, the FDA frequently meets with members of the tobacco industry, as well as with public health groups and other stakeholders, to better understand any concerns or questions they may have. As part of this effort, listening sessions with e-cigarette companies have been held at their request and have given the FDA an opportunity to listen to their concerns and views.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. In April 2011, the agency said it was developing a strategy to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products under the 2009 measure.
Via CSNews
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Arguments just a smokescreen for opponents of electronic cigarettes
Picture by Des Barry
The junior minister has written to Health Minister James Reilly and State’s chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, asking them to “clarify the legal status” of the products “for which the health effects are uncertain.”
He claims to have been approached by people “worried” by what he calls “glamorous advertising”, and he cites a World Health Organisation conclusion that until these devices are deemed safe consumers should be strongly advised not to use any of these products. Kehoe wants “strong regulation of these devices”.
Kehoe is the first prominent Irish politician to fall in line with a pattern emerging throughout Europe, and other parts of the world, where electronic cigarettes seem to be upsetting people almost as much as the real things.
Denmark, Belgium and Norway have banned them, as have Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and Singapore. Despite the absence of smoke — which means there can be no impact on non- smokers as caused by second hand smoke from real cigarettes — France is looking at banning their use in pubs and restaurants and other public places.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Starbucks, other businesses ban e-cigarettes
E-cigarettes Banned
A wispy, white cloud swirls in the air…but is it smoke?
“We’re exhaling water vapor, not carcinogenic smoke,” said Alan Rogers.
Some people, like Alan, have traded in their traditional smokes for electronic cigarettes.
Rogers added, “It tastes a lot better than tobacco. It feels a lot better than tobacco.”
They claim it’s not the same as a cigarette, but Starbucks disagrees. In June the coffee company implemented a new policy that does not allow smoking within 25 feet of their stores.
Rogers added, “The stigma with smoking comes from the fact that it’s unhealthy, not just for you, but for the people around you. With the vaporizers, we’re not using carcinogens. We’re not exhaling anything that’s dangerous to anyone. They’re attaching a stigma to it that doesn’t need to be attached to it.”
Saturday, August 3, 2013
E-cigs ad blitz goes unregulated
COMPANIES vying for a stake in the fast-growing e-cigs business are reviving the decades-old marketing tactics the tobacco industry used to hook generations of people on regular cigarettes.
They're using cab-top and bus stop displays, sponsoring race cars and events, and encouraging smokers to "rise from the ashes'' and take back their freedom in slick TV commercials featuring celebrities like TV personality Jenny McCarthy.
The Food and Drug Administration plans to set marketing and product regulations for electronic cigarettes in the near future. But for now, almost anything goes.
"Right now it's the wild, wild west,'' Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices made of plastic or metal that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. Users get their nicotine without the thousands of chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes. And they get to hold something shaped like a cigarette, while puffing and exhaling something that looks like smoke.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Regulator to Act on e-Cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will resolve in a month whether to regulate or ban electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) after medical groups raised health concerns on its use.
Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go, director-general of the FDA, said inputs presented in a public hearing yesterday as well as position papers of various stakeholders on e-cigarettes will be considered in the decision.
"The regulators will study these and come back to you in a period of one month's time with a clear position of what we need to do as far as this item is concerned," Go said.
In April 2013, the FDA issued an advisory that it has "not registered any electronic cigarette product and will not register them as health products." The FDA also said in the advisory that e-cigarettes violate Republic Act (RA) 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 since it promotes smoking among children and the youth.
Friday, July 26, 2013
E-cigarette technology is ahead of the laws
Laguna Beach restaurant owners are coping with customers who choose to boot up battery-powered, vapor-emanating electronic cigarettes in the absence of rules governing use of the devices.
Some restaurant managers see customers "vaping," a term connected with the e-cigarettes, which vaporize a liquid solution of propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerin that contains nicotine and flavorings.
"Is it legal or illegal? No one knows," said Fouad Ziady, general manager of Las Brisas restaurant, which overlooks the ocean. "We don't have a problem [with customers using e-cigarettes], but there's a no-smoking ordinance in the city."
Laguna Beach does not have any laws pertaining to e-cigarette use, according to John Montgomery, the city's community development director. But e-cigarette regulation could be on the way if state legislators adopt a bill put forward by Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett (D-East Bay).
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
EU wants to stub e-cigarette businesses out
There’s a new craze sweeping the nation. Adults partaking have formed clubs and meet regularly to indulge. It’s happening on streets, on public transport, in local boozers: anywhere. It’s called vaping.
It doesn’t sound like a terribly agreeable habit - but before you jump to conclusions, it refers to using an electronic cigarette. Vaping is the new - 'safe' - smoking.
E-cigarettes come in various forms: some are designed to look like real cigarettes, others are simply elaborate metal tubes, but both work in the same way. They contain ‘e-liquid’ capsules - nicotine disolved in propylene glycol or glycerine. When turned on (powered by batteries), the devices produce a vapour, which is inhaled (hense 'vaping').
Despite the fact that the long-term effects of smoking e-cigarettes are still unclear, they have become popular with smokers eager to give up, partly because they've been deemed ‘as dangerous as a cup of coffee’ thanks to the absence of tar. Some have claimed if all smokers switched, millions of lives would be saved.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
E-Cigarette Vendors and Makers Fret As Government Officials Plan to Regulate Their Industry
They come to Paul Davey for help every day. Most have little to no knowledge of the electronic smoking world and just stare, wide-eyed and perplexed, at the devices behind the glass: batteries, flavored e-cigarette liquid, chambers to hold liquids, mouthpieces. They're smokers—some lifers, some short-timers—who all have the same plea: They need to quit. "They'll say, 'I smoke seven [cigarettes] a day, and I've been trying to use these electronic ones, but I have no idea what's in it. I just know you buy it, you use it, and you throw it away.'"
Blu eCigs
He tells them his story. "I smoked for 27 years," he says, "and I bought my first e-cigarette online. Within a week, I had quit." Within a year, armed with his pharmaceutical background, he opened up the Vapor Loft in Orange. He sells all the necessary bits and bobs to start "vaping," the term used by e-cigarette users. But he also set out to educate customers in a community riddled with bad information, explaining everything from why it's called vaping (the devices create a water vapor that can be inhaled) to troubleshooting questions to helping them choose the right e-liquid. When the Vapor Loft opened in 2012, there were only a couple of such shops; now, Orange County is home to around 60, one of the highest concentrations of e-cig businesses in the United States.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
FDA faces important decisions on regulation of e-cigarettes
The FDA faces a dilemma as electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, grow in popularity, according to researchers.
The agency initially tried to block the sale of e-cigarettes, claiming that they were unapproved “drug/device combinations.” Manufacturers successfully challenged the FDA's position, but in a 2010 ruling, a federal appeals court held that e-cigarettes could be regulated by the agency as tobacco products.
In 2010, 11.4% of U.S. smokers report ever using an e-cigarette, and 4.1% report using one within the last 30 days, the most recent data from two surveys that involved more than 6,000 people indicate. In the city of Boston, 28 permits to sell e-cigarettes were given out in June 2013, compared with only three in June 2012.
Yet many of the alleged benefits of e-cigarettes are unproven and tighter regulations to ensure the quality of the product are needed to protect public safety.
Monday, July 15, 2013
E-cigarettes an emerging alternative
E-cigarettes remain in a regulatory haze in Illinois.
The one bill sent to Gov. Pat Quinn in the spring legislative session bans sale of the cigarette alternative to anyone younger than 18. But the debate continues on just how to regulate e-cigarettes.
About all that both sides agree on is that some type of regulation is coming with the growing popularity of the products.
“I expect there will be some things to come as more vapor stores are opening online and in communities,” said Niki Castleman, who opened Tribble Vapors at 2413 Denver Drive in Springfield last spring.
Tribble Vapors is among the first group of e-cigarette retail outlets in the region. The shop is named for Castleman’s partner in the business.
Castleman lives in St. Louis but stays with family in Springfield as needed to take care of the shop. Herself a smoker for nearly 30 years, Castleman said there are probably 15 to 20 e-cigarette shops in the St. Louis metro area.
“It’s just growing in leaps and bounds,” said Castleman, who also uses her products.
Bloomberg News reported in June e-cigarette sales are expected to hit $1 billion within a few years.
Awaiting FDA
Electronic Cigarettes: Critics slam e-cigarette classification
Smokeless electronic cigarettes could be taken off the European market because of a "short-sighted" vote in the European Parliament that will classify them as a medicinal product, according to critics.Thursday, July 11, 2013
Davies continues fight for e-cigarette users (UK)
Rochdale Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has vowed to continue to campaign for e-cigarette users after a key European Parliament committee voted to restrict e-cigs yesterday.
MEPs voted in committee to treat e-cigarettes as medicines, reducing their availability compared to tobacco and putting big new costs on users.
E-cigarettes work by vaporising nicotine that is then inhaled, providing nicotine addicts with their ‘hit’ without many of the carcinogens and secondhand smoke produced by conventional cigarettes.
Rochdale Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has vowed to continue to campaign for e-cigarette users after a key European Parliament committee voted to restrict e-cigs yesterday.
MEPs voted in committee to treat e-cigarettes as medicines, reducing their availability compared to tobacco and putting big new costs on users.
E-cigarettes work by vaporising nicotine that is then inhaled, providing nicotine addicts with their ‘hit’ without many of the carcinogens and secondhand smoke produced by conventional cigarettes.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
EU regulation of e-cigarettes a step closer
E-cigarettes regulated
REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC cigarettes and a ban on ‘slim’ cigarettes could be on the way following a vote by MEPs today.
Nessa Childers MEP said there had been a strong vote today in her Public Health Committee on the EU tobacco control directive, “despite the massive industry lobbying against the law”.
“As co-chair of the ‘MEPs against Cancer’ forum in the European Parliament, I have campaigned and pressed for this anti-tobacco legislation for a long time,” she said.
Read More...I am delighted that today we voted against the massive negative industry lobbying campaign which tried to try to delay, block and defeat this legislation.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em? Anti-smoking laws evolve to cover e-cigarettes
Anti-smoking laws cover e-cigarettes
Estelle Green affectionately refers to her electronic cigarette as her "lifesaver."
The Haiku Plantation grandmother began smoking cigarettes decades ago as a senior in high school. She quit for a few years but returned to her two-plus pack-a-day habit after gaining 25 pounds. Since switching to an e-cigarette three years ago, Green said she's saved hundreds of dollars, banished the lingering tobacco smell that bothered her grandchildren and says the spots on her lungs and her wheeze have vanished.
But the switch brought something even better.
"I'm able to sing in church," she said, "and I can hit the higher notes."
Green has joined millions of people nationwide who have made the switch from traditional cigarettes that burn tobacco to e-cigarettes, the tobacco-free, battery-powered technology that delivers nicotine in vapor form. For a new generation of smokers -- and older ones who have found themselves increasingly ostracized -- e-cigarettes are seen as a hipper alternative to smoking and one that is more socially acceptable.
The estimated 3.5 million users nationwide represent a nearly fivefold increase in three years, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association. Electronic cigarettes are a $600 million market, the association says.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Italy bans sale of electronic cigarettes to minors
Italy Bans Electronic Cigarettes
AFP - Italy banned the sale of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine to minors on Thursday and forbid their use in schools, amid criticism from a consumer watchdog that the move did not go far enough.
Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin "bans the sale of electronic cigarettes with nicotine to minors under the age of 18," her ministry said in a statement.
"We don't want to say that electronic cigarettes are more dangerous than normal cigarettes but they should not be used as harmless objects," Lorenzin told Rai television.
Monday, June 24, 2013
E-cigarettes are latest target
THERE can be little doubt that the so-called permissive age is well and truly over.
This may be thought a good thing by some, but while we wrestle personally, within our families and across society, with some of the unintended consequences of social liberation during the 1960s – such as the sexualisation of society at a young age – it is clear that in many other respects the pendulum has swung the other way towards authoritarianism.
All sorts of bans and restrictions on our lifestyle choices have been introduced or proposed by governments of all colours in recent years that reduce personal liberty and remove personal responsibility, all in the name of seeking to engineer a perfect homogenous society with longer life expectancy, irrespective of the quality of our lives.
Slowly the nanny state that tried to warn us against making those wrong choices has become the bully state that firstly punishes us through punitive taxes and then makes criminals of us for ridiculous policies such as smoking in our own cars even when we are alone. While there are legislative milestones that are life-changing – such as forcing motorcyclists to wear crash helmets, occupants of cars to wear seat belts and forcing smokers out of pubs and on to the streets – these restrictions have been gradual enough and usually perpetrated against minorities, so that public opposition is usually muted.
Thus it is no surprise that the non-smoking majority approves of further restrictions against the smoking minority and agree it has been a good thing; that the public thinks that as motorcyclists are coerced into wearing protection for their own good then applying such a law to those on push bikes makes sense; and that if those in the front seats of cars must wear belts then so too should those in the rear.
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