Vaping is gaining fast on traditional cigarettes

By Mary Meehan

mmeehan1@herald-leader.comJanuary 4, 2015 

There's a reason that vape was the Oxford English Dictionaries' Word of the Year.There is a lot of buzz about the newest tobacco delivery system.

In Kentucky, the Farm Bureau is talking about a tax on e-cigarettes, a Lexington researcher is trying to see whether they can really help people quit, and the Urban County Government has added e-cigarettes to its indoor smoking ban.

It's all part of the vaping trend — in which users inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device — that is causing a global stir.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/01/04/3623974/vaping-is-gaining-fast-on-traditional.html#storylink=cpy

Few rules apply to electronic cigarettes

BURR RIDGE – Craig Rzepka has gotten a few dirty looks while using his electronic cigarettes. That is, he said, until the complainant realizes the vapor he’s exhaling smells more like dessert than cigarette smoke.

Depending on the day, the vapor exuded by Rzepka’s smoking device might smell like cherry, chocolate mint, or even blueberry waffles.

Despite the pleasant aroma, the devices aren’t allowed everywhere, including at Eddie Merlot’s restaurant in Burr Ridge, where Rzepka is a manager.

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Rush To Regulate Ecigs Could Destroy Effective Alternative

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire

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.

The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) is writing the president today to urge him to advise the FDA to take the time needed to develop science-based regulations that will serve the interests of public health. CASAA is a non-profit organization that works to ensure the availability of low-risk alternatives to smoking and to provide smokers and non-smokers alike with truthful information about such alternatives.

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The Silent War Against Retail and E-cigarettes

Within the past six weeks, documents outlining New York City’s secret war against electronic tobacco were leaked to the public. The contents of the documents are hardly surprising given New York’s recent assault on items sold in convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets.

The documents were leaked by the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA), an advocacy group aimed at raising awareness and protecting rights to access to reduced harm alternatives. What’s more, while tobacco and menthol flavored e-cigarettes would still be available in retail stores, all other flavored e-cigarettes could only be sold in age-restricted “tobacco bars.” Unfortunately,  New York City prohibits the operation of “tobacco bars” unless they were already in operation prior to  Dec. 31, 2001.

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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.

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E-cigarettes on the rise, but still unregulated!

Expert says e-cigarettes could be effective in quitting cigarettes or even more addictive, depending on how regulated

TOPEKA — Four years ago, when Rick Hasan first started selling electronic cigarettes, they seemed destined to be little more than a novelty, he said — the same as compact pipes and other smoking accessories available at his store.

"People were curious, but few kept buying. They would go back to the real cigarette," said Hasan, owner of Payless Smokes, a convenience and tobacco shop in Topeka. Now, "the e-cigarettes are taking up quite a bit of market share."

These days, e-cigarettes account for 15 percent of his sales, he said. Nationwide e-cigarettes are booming, with annual sales projected to reach $1.7 billion by year’s end.

The battery-operated devices — which vaporize liquid containing nicotine — have yet to be regulated by the federal government, though officials have pledged for two years now that they ultimately will be.

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Is ‘Vaping’ Better Than Smoking?

A growing number of smokers are turning to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to get their nicotine fix instead of smoking traditional cigarettes. Is "vaping" better than smoking? The e-cigarette industry would like us to believe that it is. But more research needs to be done, and federal regulation is needed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently does not regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of e-cigarettes. In New York State, they cannot be sold to minors, but other states are still trying to determine how to deal with this relatively new product. As Mitch Zeller, Director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, has said, "Right now, it's the wild, wild west." Buyer beware.

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International Vapor Group CEO, Nick Molina, Interviewed About E-Cigarette Industry

International Vapor Group CEO, Nick Molina, Interviewed About E-Cigarette Industry on Bloomberg TV

Carina Ost

MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - August 28, 2013) - International Vapor Group (IVG), a leader in the electronic cigarette industry, announced today that CEO, Nick Molina, appeared on Bloomberg TV's "Money Moves" with Deirdre Bolton. The show focuses on innovative companies and IVG leads through manufacturing, distributing and marketing some of the biggest names of e-cigarettes, including South Beach Smoke, EverSmoke, NutriCigs, and new retail concept VaporZone.

Bolton began the interview by highlighting the explosive growth of the e-cigarette industry thanks to celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and companies like International Vapor Group.

The first question was focused on how Molina is preparing for FDA regulations. Molina noted that all International Vapor Group's brands, including South Beach Smoke, were well prepared and actually embraced FDA regulations. "We are diversifying our distribution through distributors, authorized retailers and our own brick and mortar stores in the confines that may be set by the regulators," said Molina. Molina reminded Bolton that the main issue was in age verification to prevent selling to minors and that is something IVG takes very seriously.

The company CEO was careful to note that e-cigarettes were a more convenient alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes and can tout things like no smoke and no ash.

When Bolton pressed on competition in the industry and how Molina is protecting his brands' position, he responded that innovation is key. The CEO added, "When you look at e-liquid, we are one of the few companies that manufacture it in the U.S. Most of my competitors manufacture their e-juice in China." This 100% USA made liquid nicotine juice is a huge differentiator across all International Vapor Group brands including: South Beach Smoke, NutriCigs, EverSmoke and a new retail concept called VaporZone.

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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

Editorial: Rational policy for e-cigarettes

From Granite Falls Advocate Tribune By MetroWest Daily News:

GHNS  —

 The growing popularityof e-cigarettes raises two issues for policymakers — one of them simple, the other more complicated.

E-cigarettes serve up nicotine extract in a vaporized form, cooking it without burning it. They deliver the same nicotine fix that comes from cigarettes, with the same smoking-like activity longtime smokers find so pleasurable, but there is no tobacco, no burning – and no smoke. A light vapor may be visible coming from users’ mouths, but it is odorless and, while there hasn’t been sufficient research to declare it harmless, its chemical composition bears no resemblance to secondhand smoke.

The first issue they pose involves the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, which is currently legal under state law.

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E-cigarettes targeted for state regulation

From Winchester Star By Colleen Quinn:

Winchester, MA —

As electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, grow in popularity, it is legal in most Massachusetts cities and towns for minors to buy the smoke-free products marketed as an alternative to traditional paper cigarettes.

Boston is one of about two dozen Massachusetts communities that prohibit store owners from selling the nicotine alternative to minors. But some owners say they assumed those restrictions were nationwide.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to step in and regulate the decade-old products that appear to be gaining popularity. The FDA recently said it would issue guidelines later this year.

While waiting for the federal government to weigh in, a Boston lawmaker wants the state to make it illegal to sell e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery products to anyone under 18 years old in Massachusetts.

Twelve states have passed legislation restricting e-cigarette sales in some way, including Colorado and Minnesota.

Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, D-Jamaica Plain, said current state laws are "silent" on electronic cigarettes and other products like it, and minors have easy access to them unless cities and towns take action. Sanchez wants statewide regulations, and filed a bill last week to prohibit sales to minors.

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Arguments just a smokescreen for opponents of electronic cigarettes

Aug 16, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

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.

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Harm of E-cigarettes?

Aug 14, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

Three Piece E-cigarette

There is no doubt that smoking is harmful. Tobacco is thought to kill nearly 6 million people every year, but do electronic cigarettes provide the answer to this assault on the nation’s health? As with conventional cigarettes, there is often an information deficit on the chemicals that electronic cigarettes contain and although some just use flavoured water vapour, others can contain a cocktail of chemicals including nicotine of varying concentrations and quality.

E-cigarettes have emerged onto the UK market relatively unregulated. In countries such as Brazil, Norway and Singapore they have been banned entirely or are only available as a regulated medicinal product. From 2016 the UK will follow New Zealand’s example and license e-cigarettes as a medicine so all e-cigarettes on the UK market will have to prove their quality, safety and effectiveness to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Is this really an appropriate response to a product which already appears to be used reasonably safely by 1.3 million people in the UK?

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CASAA: California SB 648 UPDATED - Hearing Canceled!

Call to Action! California E-Cigarette Usage Ban -- SB 648 (UPDATED -- Hearing Canceled!)

UPDATE (8/14/2013): Today's hearing on SB 648 before the Assembly Committee on Government Operations was canceled just an hour before it was set to begin.  Word on the ground is that SB 648 is dead until at least January.  Those in California should continue to respond to this Call to Action. 

For more information please visit CASAA

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.

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CNBC Article...

Bloomberg Is Trying To Snuff Out Your E-Cigs

Aug 9, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

E-cigs

The Bloomberg administration is quietly working to explicitly categorize electronic cigarettes as tobacco products and enact a sweeping ban on flavored e-cigs.

The details of the plan come from a newly leaked draft of three tobacco-related bills currently making their way through the City Council; one would raise the tobacco age to 21, while another would prohibit the display of cigarette advertising in stores. A third bill would prohibit the use of tobacco coupons, create a $10.50 price floor for cigarette packs, and increase the fines against those selling illegal cigarettes.

Initially the bills, drafted by the Health Department and introduced into the Council at the request of Mayor Bloomberg, were silent concerning the City's position on electronic cigarettes.

"The bills were written with no intention of addressing electronic cigarettes at all," Health Department Commissioner Thomas Farley told e-cigarette proponents [PDF] at a hearing in May.

The draft language reveals that this is no longer the case. While menthol and tobacco flavored e-cigarettes would ostensibly remain available at convenience stores, the burgeoning flavored e-cig market would ironically be relegated to "tobacco bars," of which there are very few in New York City—mostly because they must have been in existence before December 31, 2001.

"This is a de facto ban on electronic cigarettes,"

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Starbucks, other businesses ban e-cigarettes

Aug 3, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

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.”

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E-cigs ad blitz goes unregulated

Aug 3, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

From News.com.au:

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.

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Regulator to Act on e-Cigarettes

Jul 27, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

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.

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E-cigarette technology is ahead of the laws

Jul 26, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

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).

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