Ex-Lung Association Chief Leases His Lungs to E-Cigarette Industry

'Science should triumph over opinion,' says past president of the American Lung Association

Senators and state attorneys general are clamoring for the Food and Drug Administration to quickly restrict the sale of electronic cigarettes, but the past president of the American Lung Association, Charles Connor, says e-cigarettes may be "the breakthrough product" that stomps out carcinogen-packed conventional cigarettes.

Connor, president and CEO of the lung association from 2008 to 2012, joined the Electronic Cigarette Industry Group (ECIG) on Thursday as a paid consultant. He will serve as a conduit between public health experts, regulators and the booming industry, which will have an estimated $1.7 billion in U.S. sales this year.

Read More...

Cigarettes phase-out considered as trial tests if vapour safer

Getty Images

Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking, with a federal government-funded trial about to test the viability of electronic cigarettes as a safer, permanent replacement for tobacco.

Medical experts, cancer groups and anti-smoking lobbyists battled for decades to rid cigarettes from public spaces.

''E-cigarettes'' are battery-powered devices that simulate the effects of smoking by heating a nicotine liquid into vapour, which the user then inhales and exhales.

While the gadgets have been hailed as a safer substitute for cigarettes, there is no comprehensive scientific research into the health risks of inhaling vapour.

The Sun-Herald can reveal that as part of its anti-smoking reform agenda, the previous Labor government committed more than $1 million to a pioneering study that, by 2015, will determine whether or not e-cigarettes could be utilised to phase out traditional cigarettes altogether.

Read More

Should I take up e-cigarettes in order to stop smoking?

The medical community is divided on the matter of e-cigarettes, but they can't be as bad for you as the real thing.

Cheryl Cole, Robert Pattinson and Kate Moss have all been seen "vaping". Puffing on e-cigarettes, which produce vapour instead of smoke has been tried by up to 35% of smokers, according to the public health charity Ash (Action on Smoking and Health).

The number of UK users rose from 700,000 last year to 1.3 million this year. Smokers seem to use them on top off their normal cigarette intake, or to help them quit.

But are e–cigarettes much less damaging than the real thing? These battery-operated devices contain a cartridge filled with a liquid solution of nicotine, propylene glycol (used in special effects to create fog) and flavourings that range from traditional tobacco to candy floss. Puffing activates a heating element that vapourises the liquid in the cartridge, producing a mist that is inhaled.

Read More...

Study supports e-cigarettes superiority over nicotine patches

Ground-breaking study supports e-cigarettes superiority over nicotine patches

Posted on September 7, 2013 by ACSH

In the first head-to-head comparison between e-cigarettes and nicotine patches (NRT) for helping smokers quit, a significant win for e-cigarettes was found in every measured parameter. Led by Dr. Chris Bullen of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the researchers recruited 657 smokers who said that they wanted to quit. They were randomized into 3 groups: 289 into an e-cigarette group, 295 in the NRT group, and 73 into what they called a “placebo” group: zero-nicotine e-cigarettes. The selected marketed e-cigarette delivered a fairly low-level nicotine dose, 16 mg., while the NRTs were 21 mg. per daily patch. The study period was for 13 weeks, and the primary outcome measured was abstinence from tobacco confirmed by carbon monoxide breath testing at 6 months follow-up.

The results showed a clear win for the e-cigarette group, with 7.3 percent of that group smokefree, while the NRT group had a success rate of 5.8 percent (the placebo group had a 4.1 percent abstinence rate at 6 months). Due to the unexpectedly low success rate among the entire group, these results, while demonstrating a clear positive trend for e-cigarettes, did not achieve statistical significance. There was no advantage to any of these treatments in terms of adverse effects.

Another important finding was the likelihood of staying on the treatment throughout the study period,  even among those who did not quit completely, and the reduction of cigarette use in those non-quitters. Among those who had not managed to quit after six months, cigarette consumption was markedly reduced in the nicotine e-cigarettes group, compared to the patches and placebo groups: well over half (57%) of the participants in the e-cigarettes group had reduced their daily consumption of cigarettes by at least half after six months, compared to just over two fifths (41%) of the patches group.


In both the nicotine and placebo e-cigarettes groups, a third of participants were still using the devices after six months, compared to under one in ten (8%) of those in the patches group.  When asked whether they would recommend their allocated product to a friend one month after finishing the course, around 9 out of 10 participants in both the e-cigarettes and the placebo groups said they would, compared to just over half (56%) in the patches group.

Read More...

E-Cigarettes May Be as Effective as Patch to Help Smokers Quit

Taking a drag from an e-cigarette may be just as safe and effective as slapping on a nicotine patch for smokers struggling to quit, according to the first physician-run trial to compare the two products.

About one in 20 people who used either patches or e-cigarettes managed to quit completely six months after the test started, according to research published today in The Lancet. Meanwhile, users of electronic cigarettes -- battery-powered devices that deliver vaporized nicotine -- were more likely to have cut their use of the real thing in half even if they didn’t quit entirely.

Enlarge image

E-cigarettes have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm. In France, there are more than 1 million regular users, according to a government commissioned report published in May. Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The 657-person trial wasn’t big enough to draw definite conclusions about whether e-cigarettes are better than nicotine patches, researchers said. Still, the results should be a signal to the regulators in the U.S. and Europe now weighing restrictions on e-cigarettes, Peter Hajek, a professor of clinical psychology at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said in a comment published alongside the results.

“Health professionals will now hopefully feel easier about recommending e-cigarettes to smokers, or at least condoning their use,” Hajek wrote.

Sales Growth

If European and U.S. regulators treat e-cigarettes as medical devices, yet leave cigarettes on general sale, tobacco makers “will retain their market monopoly, and we will never learn whether e-cigarettes would replace traditional cigarettes if allowed to continue evolving and competing with smoked tobacco on even terms,” he wrote.

The results will also be presented today at the European Respiratory Society’s annual meeting in Barcelona.

E-cigarettes have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm. In France, there are more than 1 million regular users, according to a government-commissioned report published in May. Sales worldwide will probably approach $2 billion by the end of this year and top $10 billion by 2017, according to a forecast by Wells Fargo & Co.

That success has brought scrutiny. The French government said it planned to ban e-cigarettes from public places. The U.K. has moved to treat them as medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may announce potential restrictions as soon as next month.

Read More...

E-cigarettes could significantly cut tobacco use: Study

Getty Images

A new study being published in theAmerican Journal of Health Behaviorsuggests that electronic cigarettes might encourage hard-core tobacco puffers to significantly cut back on traditional cigarettes, even when they say they don't want to.

The pilot study found that of 28 adult smokers—none of whom were interested in quitting—25, or nearly 90 percent, reduced their use of tobacco cigarettes during a week in which they smoked e-cigarettes from leading maker NJOY.

Read More...

E-cigarettes: What’s Not to Like?

Aug 21, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

Many anti-smoking advocates have argued that electronic cigarettes don’t help smokers quit but merely prolong their addiction to nicotine. In other words, the hundreds of thousands of electronic cigarette users in the United States are smokers who, if only they stopped using e-cigarettes, would successfully quit smoking.

This is a ridiculous argument and those advancing it are not living in reality. The truth is that only 3 percent of smokers who want to quit will do so successfully in any given year. Thus, the vast majority of smokers who try to quit using electronic cigarettes are people who would not have otherwise quit.

Read More...

Restaurants, bar owners allow diners to smoke electronic cigarettes

Aug 15, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

Once again diners are smoking cigarettes in restaurant dining rooms and around bars.

In a day and age of anti-smoking campaigns, the whole idea of smokers lighting up in public places seems completely out of place.

A few months ago when a diner lit up a cigarette at Arooga's Grille House & Sports Bar, a bartender immediately told them to snuff it out, said co-owner Gary Huether, Jr.

Only it turned out the person wasn't smoking a conventional cigarette, it was an electronic cigarette. While at first the idea of the devices created some confusion, patrons at the chain's restaurants are now permitted to smoke the cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes.

"It's not like it's bothersome to people. It doesn't smell. It doesn't bother anyone," Huether said.

In fact, he is considering selling the cigarettes in vending machines in the sports bars as test-run to see how well the devices sell.

Increasingly, smokers are putting out their Marlboros and Camels in favor of battery-fueled, rechargeable electronic cigarettes with names such as Smoke Stick and V2 Cigs.

Read More...

FDA to Propose New Regulations on E-Cigarettes

Aug 10, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

From The Legal Examiner by David Mittleman:

E-Cigarettes No Better Than Regular Cigarettes

You’ve probably seen those ads for the E-cigarette, which promise to allow you to get your nicotine fix while leaving you sans-ash try smell. In one commercial for Blu E-cigarettes, Stephen Dorff tells you how you can “stop feeling guilty” when you want to light up, stop “smelling like an ashtray”, and that you can even enjoy your E-cigarette at a basketball game. Dorff also casually mentions that he’s been a smoker for 20 years, which is what I find most problematic about this commercial, and apparently so does the Food and Drug Administration.

FDA Ponders the Regulation of E-cigarettes for Three Years

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat nicotine solution and create an inhalable vapor. The FDA has discussed the possibility of regulating E-cigarettes since 2010, and rightly so. The cigarette companies are likely trying to attract a new slew of smokers by first hooking them to a slightly less harmful E-cigarette with the hopes of getting them to move into the full-blown addiction.

Read More...

CNBC Article...

Robert Pattinson Quits Smoking For Good – How He Did It

Jul 31, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

After his split from Kristen Stewart, Rob is taking charge of his health, which includes living a smoke-free life! Keep reading to find out all the EXCLUSIVE details about how R-Patz is ditching cigarettes.

It’s never too late to quit smoking! Just ask Robert Pattinson, who, after his recent split from Kristen Stewart, is using all of his will power to give up cigarettes, a source tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY.

Robert Pattinson Stopped Smoking For Good — How He Did It

Rob knows firsthand just how difficult ending relationships can be — and quitting smoking is no different. The 27-year-old Twilight stud is trying his best to kick his smoking addiction, but it hasn’t been easy.

“He still loves the electronic cigarettes and is not completely over smoking yet,” a source close to R-Patz tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “Its a very social thing for him and all his friends smoke so he is still fighting to quit. It’s hard for him when it is so readily available.”

Hang in there Rob. We know you can do it!

More locals trying to quit smoking after July tax hike

Jul 30, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

FAIRMONT - Kicking a bad habit is always easier said than done. But a few local people who said, "I quit," when new state taxes pushed the price of cigarettes up past $7 a pack are determined to stick to it, and making even more think about quitting.

For Travis O'Connor of Fairmont, the price hike was the last straw after 21 years as a smoker.

"It really was the final push," he admits. "I'd always said if it hit $5 a pack, I'd quit. Then it was $6. But when it went to $6.10, I made it seven."

But a few weeks before the tax went into effect, the seed for quitting was planted for O'Connor when he went to the doctor for a routine check-up.

Read More...

Electronic Cigarettes: The Way to Quit Smoking?

Jul 13, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

Everyone is talking about electronic cigarettes.

"The thing that we tell people is we will save you a ton of money and throw in saving your life for free," said Trant Bullard, owner of True Vapor.

Read More...