Hookah up in smoke: Ottawa council approves water pipe ban

Shisha enthusiasts have until April 3, 2017 to get their fix before bylaw officers start enforcing a hookah ban passed at council Wednesday.

Coun. George Darouze’s failed attempt to delay a hookah pipe ban wouldn’t have made much difference anyway, said shisha lounge owner Mahmoud El-Sayed.

He owns Bay Rock Café in South Keys with his wife.

It’s solely a shisha bar: it doesn’t serve food or alcohol, only hot and cold drinks and, of course, the flavoured herbal shisha that bring customers in.

On Wednesday, council approved a water pipe ban for public places, including private businesses.

It technically comes into force Dec. 1, but enforcement will be delayed to April 3, 2017 to give businesses a chance to regroup.

Darouze tried on Wednesday to delay enforcement even further to Sept. 30, 2017, but he found very little support around the council table.

Most councillors sided with Dr. Isra Levy, the city’s medical officer of health, who told council there’s “a sufficient body of evidence” to suggest serious health risks associated with shisha and its second-hand smoke.

“Fundamentally, what we’re talking about is smoking with a different name, with the risks being the same or similar,” said Coun. David Chernushenko. “The device to me becomes irrelevant.”

But for El-Sayed, the extra five months wouldn’t have solved his business problem, anyway.

For one thing, the summer is slow season for shisha cafes, so the delay wouldn’t have added much money to his coffers as he prepared to change his business model.

And getting a liquor license can only go so far to keep his business going, El-Sayed said.

With a 1,500-sq ft shop, he could only have 30 customers at a time if he was serving alcohol – effectively cutting his 70-seat business in half.

“Thirty seats is not good enough to cover my expenses,” he said.

He expects he’ll have to close, with three years still left on his lease.

Darouze was the only councillor to vote against the hookah ban entirely, arguing it’s a cultural attack and unnecessary hand-holding in the name of public health.

Only councillors Michael Qaqish and Jody Mitic supported his attempt to push enforcement back. However, Mitic pulled his support for Darouze’s second suggested change to allow festivals to apply for a special water pipe permit.

Resource: http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2016/08/31/ottawa-council-approves-water-pipe-hookah-ban.html

Leaders call to close waterpipe loophole over health concerns on tobacco consumption

VICTORIAN ethnic leaders and peak health bodies are pushing for a ban on the indoor smoking of waterpipes, warning a single session can boast the equivalent tar of 25 cigarettes.

Smoking in enclosed workplaces across Victoria has been banned for 10 years, but Victoria is the only state to allow the use of waterpipes at indoor cafes and restaurants — also known as a shisha or hookah — because of a loophole regarding the definition of tobacco products.

The Greens and the Coalition support the proposed amendment to the Tobacco Amendment Bill, set to be discussed in the Legislative Council today, that would bring waterpipes — made popular in Melbourne’s Middle Eastern and African cafes — in line with other tobacco laws nationally.

Waterpipes can elude the ban because legislation only covers tobacco products whose main ingredient is tobacco.

Fruit flavours and molasses can make up the bulk of the waterpipe mixture.

The ethnic and health leaders — including representatives from the African, Arabic and Middle Eastern communities, as well as Quit and Cancer Council Victoria — want the definition changed to cover all products containing tobacco that are designed for human consumption.

Cardiologist and the president of the Australian Lebanese Medical Association, Dr Walid Ahmar, said there was no cultural reason the loophole should not be closed, with many overseas born youth taking up the habit for the first time in Australia.

“Middle Eastern countries internationally are banning it, yet here in Melbourne the government is saying it’s a complex issue,” Dr Ahmar said.

“We know there is nicotine and tobacco in there, but because it isn’t labelled no one has a clue about what it contains.

“There is no administration of this and we’re getting 10 and 12-year-olds smoking this.”

Hume and Greater Dandenong councils are working to ban them.

Dr Ahmar said in an average hour-long waterpipe session, the person consumed the amount of chemicals equivalent of smoking 100-200 cigarettes.

But the manager of the Sydney Rd Temple of Shisha, Brian McKenzie, said his business — and many of the 20 similar cafes on the strip — would be forced to close if indoor use was banned.

“The financial loss would be enormous. We’d have seven employees out of work,” Mr McKenzie said.

“Tobacco makes up only 5-10 per cent of the mix, but many of our flavours are just herbal.”

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessy, Georgia Brumby, would not comment on whether the government supported the proposed amendment, but said the government was “working through the detail”.

Resource: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/leaders-call-to-close-waterpipe-loophole-over-health-concerns-on-tobacco-consumption/news-story/e1f8be509b5042cefd909bd3d7da28b8

Waterpipe smoking may cause many forms of cancer afterall

Researchers hope to dispel misconceptions about the safety of water-pipe smoking.

Sarah Elmeshad

Analysis of a selection of studies has shown that misconception among the general public has led to many Arab-world smokers replacing cigarettes with water pipes in the mistaken belief that it’s safer. 

Sustained exposure to tar, nicotine and smoke, communal water pipe smoke dispensers and the presence of cancer-producing agents in the traditional water pipe, known as shisha or hooka, have all been proven causes of bronchitis, emphysema, tuberculosis, periodontal disease and cancers of the lung, esophagus and head and neck.

A study conducted at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar into 22 research projects and published in the International Journal of Public Health has shown that they concur that the use of water pipes is harmful and, like cigarettes, has addictive properties.

The pastime is popular in the Arab world, with clubs and hooka bars common in most countries.

Ravinder Mamtani, the lead researcher of the meta-analysis explains that water pipes are made more attractive because the tobacco is soaked in molasses or honey, and then flavored with agents replicating apple, mint, chocolate or floral scents.

The mechanism of the water pipe includes a water compartment where the smoke passes through before it’s inhaled. “In the minds of most people that means any harmful substances such as tar and carcinogenic compounds in smoke are filtered out before smokers inhale smoke from shisha,” Mamtani says. “This is completely untrue.”

Mamtani adds that just like cigarettes, shisha smoke contains nicotine.

In a 60- minute waterpipe/hookah session, smokers are exposed to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. While the average smoking session would last about five minutes for cigarettes, it’s 45 minutes to an hour, if not more, in a water pipe.

The study’s authors believe that longevity of hooka in popular Arab culture, in addition to limited interest and funding for research into its effects, have allowed common misperceptions about its dangers to flourish.

The meta-analysis is just the beginning of investigations for Mamtani et al. They hope to continue working collaboratively with other researchers and local health institutions to further understanding of shisha risks.

“It will be worthwhile to examine the social and behavioral determinants of shisha smoking in the Middle East, particularly amongthe young,” he says. “Any form of tobacco smoking is a public health evil, which needs to be addressed urgently.”

Resource: https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2016.138

Why can't scientists agree on e-cigarettes?

As a Cochrane review of e-cigarettes is published, its author asks why vaping devices have divided the academic community

Earlier this year, Michael Gove claimed Britain’s had enough of experts. Now I don’t agree with Gove on much, but when it comes to e-cigarettes, he may have a point. We’re bombarded with stories about these products, but most just add to the confusion, with perceptions of vaping risks rising year on year. Just recently the Sun informed us that experts are saying “e-cigs are just as bad for your heart as smoking fags”, but read a couple lines down and you’ll find other experts reasserting the claim that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than tobacco. So which is it? Why can’t the scientists agree? And will they ever?

Cochrane is a global non-profit group that reviews all the evidence on healthcare interventions and summarises the findings so people making important decisions – you, your doctor, the people who write medical guidelines – can use unbiased information to make difficult choices without having to first read every study out there. This week, the latest Cochrane review of e-cigarettes was published. I’m its lead author. While our conclusions are limited because there aren’t many high quality studies available yet, overall the evidence suggests that (1) e-cigarettes with nicotine can help people quit smoking, (2) they don’t seem to have any serious side effects in the short- to mid- term (up to 2 years), and (3) in some cases, switching to them leads to changes in your blood and breath that are consistent with the changes you’d see in people who give up smoking altogether.

This is good news. But other systematic reviews and studies have drawn very different conclusions, and I’m going to try to shed some light why that is.

Can e-cigarettes help people quit?

Our Cochrane review (and others, like this one published in PloS One) suggest they can. But a review published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine earlier this year, which received a lot of attention, suggests they actually make it harder. The reason for this difference is the types of studies the authors include.
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Randomized controlled trials are the best way to see if a treatment works. As Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science, explains, by randomly assigning people to one intervention or another and measuring the outcome in the same way across both groups, you can rule out alternative explanations for differences between groups. The reviews that find e-cigarettes help people quit smoking only include randomized controlled trials. The studies (like this one and this one) that find that e-cigarettes stop people from quitting aren’t randomized controlled trials - instead they survey smokers and ask if they are using e-cigarettes. Then, some months later, they ask the same people if they are still smoking. We don’t know if the results from these studies reflect the effect of vaping, or if something else about the vapers makes it harder for them to quit. For example, it might be reasonable to imagine they are more dependent smokers, which is why they vape as well as using regular cigarettes. This would make quitting harder.

Are they safe?

The issue here isn’t so much the study type, but the way you ask the question. By ‘safe,’ do you mean completely without risk? No, they’re not – not much is. We’ve seen stories about people catching fire and puppies with nicotine poisoning. Plus, in general, it’s not a great idea to inhale chemicals into your lungs if you can avoid it. Experts basically agree on that – I’ve yet to come across a tobacco researcher or policy maker who would recommend you start using e-cigarettes if you aren’t already a smoker.

The crucial question here is – safe compared to what? Cigarettes are uniquely deadly. They kill one in two people who use them regularly. So, if you’re asking whether e-cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes, most experts would, after briefly hesitating, lean on the side of yes. The hesitation is there because e-cigarettes are new to the scene. We don’t know their long-term safety profile, so we have to look for clues elsewhere – for example, studies that measure side effects of short-term use (results from these are promising) and studies about how e-cigarettes affect your blood, lungs and heart. Interpreting these measures is complicated. For example, a recent study found that vaping affects the same blood vessel in your heart as smoking regular cigarettes. This isn’t necessarily surprising – we know nicotine, the active agent in both, affects this vessel. We also know that nicotine isn’t responsible for the harms associated with smoking. So how to interpret these results? The gamut of expert reactions ran from “[e-cigarettes are] far more dangerous than people realise” to “vaping carries a fraction of the risk of smoking.” When it comes to long-term safety, experts are making their best guesses in the absence of solid data, and that’s where room for disagreement creeps in.


So what’s next?

The good news is there’s lots of research going on – finally. The most recent update of the Cochrane review found 26 studies in the pipeline that will help answer questions about the safety and effect of using e-cigarettes to quit smoking. The more studies we have looking at a question, the more certain we can be about the answer. The irony is that until we have the answer, narrow interpretations of the results of individual studies risk doing further harm, undermining public confidence in science and possibly discouraging quit attempts. Fundamentally, tobacco researchers on both sides of the argument want the same thing – to reduce death and disease. We’re in the same boat. If you’re reading this as a member of the public, please don’t be put off by the conflicting headlines – we all agree cigarettes are bad for you, most of us agree vaping is probably much safer than smoking regular cigarettes, and if you’re a smoker we all really want our research to help you to quit. Don’t let us get in the way.

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce is an author and editor of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction group, based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford, UK. She works as part of the Health Behaviours team, reviewing the most recent evidence to help people stop smoking and manage their weight. You can find her on twitter at @jhb19. Her words stated and expressed in this blog are entirely personal, and do not represent any official views or opinions of Cochrane.

Resource: https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2016/sep/14/why-cant-scientists-agree-on-e-cigarettes-vaping

Cigar smoking 'just as harmful as cigarette smoking'

Contrary to popular belief, smoking cigars may be just as harmful to health as smoking cigarettes. This is according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.


 The research team, led by Dr. Jiping Chen, an epidemiologist in the Office of Science at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, says their findings revealed that cigar smokers had much higher levels of toxic substances in their body than non-smokers.Furthermore, cigar smokers had concentrations of a specific carcinogenic at levels comparable with cigarette smokers.

Although cigars can contain just as many toxic substances as cigarettes, many people believe they are less harmful to health. This is because - unlike cigarette smokers - cigar smokers are less likely to inhale the smoke.According to the National Cancer Institute, cigar smokers are at lower risk of developing smoking-related diseases - such as lung cancer and heart disease - than cigarette smokers. The institute notes, however, that rates of these diseases are still higher among cigar smokers than non-smokers.

Since the number of cigar smokers is on the rise in the US - with rates doubling between 2000 and 2011 - Dr. Chen and his team set out to determine just how harmful cigars are to human health.
Cigar smokers have 'higher cotinine, NNAL and cadmium levels' than non-smokers

Using data from the 1999-2012 National Health Nutrition and Examination Survey (NHANES), the researchers analyzed 25,522 individuals for the presence of five substances in the blood or urine that indicate tobacco exposure.Three of these substances - lead, cadmium and arsenic - can be found in environmental sources, as well as tobacco. The other two substances - cotinine and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) - are only found in tobacco.

Results of the analysis revealed that, compared with non-smokers, cigar smokers had much higher concentrations of cotinine and cadmium in their blood and NNAL in their urine. This result remained even after the team accounted for current cigarette smoking status.

Cotinine - an anagram of nicotine - is a compound produced after nicotine enters the body and is classed as the most reliable measurement of tobacco exposure. Cadmium is an element that has been linked to a number of health conditions in humans - such as kidney disease, inflammation and respiratory diseases - while NNAL is a strong carcinogen.It was even worse news for cigar smokers who had a history of cigarette smoking; they had higher cotinine and NNAL concentrations than cigar smokers who had never smoked cigarettes. The researchers say this finding supports previous studies suggesting that former cigarette smokers are more likely to deeply inhale cigar smoke.

Furthermore, the researchers found that individuals who smoked cigars on a daily basis had concentrations of NNAL in their urine comparable with that of daily cigarette smokers.

Based on the team's findings, Dr. Chen concludes:
Resource: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/285149.php

Are teens being enticed by sweetened cigars?

WASHINGTON – Flavored cigars that are popular with teens contain the same additives found in Jolly Rancher candies and Kool-Aid drink mixes, lending weight to the argument that tobacco companies take aim at youth, researchers said.

Almost every flavor chemical found in tested sweets, including grape and cherry, are used in combinations in similarly flavored cigars and dipping tobacco, Portland State University researchers said in a letter posted May 7 by the New England Journal of Medicine.

More than 40 percent of middle and high school students who smoke use flavored small cigars, which are similar in size and shape to cigarettes, or use menthol cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a study last year. A 2009 law banned flavored cigarettes except menthol. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called flavored cigarettes a “gateway” for teens to become regular smokers, an agency proposal to regulate cigars wouldn’t prohibit flavored ones.

“For kids and youth, the familiar chemical smells of candies and Kool-Aid will in fact be found in what amounts to ‘candy-flavored tobacco,’” Jim Pankow, one of the Portland State University researchers, said in a telephone interview.Pankow is a chemistry professor who was the first to publish how to measure the amount of a certain form of nicotine delivered by tobacco smoke.

The researchers examined tobacco products including peach Swisher Sweets cigarillos, made by Swisher International Inc., grape Phillies Blunt cigars from Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, cherry cigars from Cheyenne International in addition to Altria Group Inc.’s apple Skoal snuff.

“We know from the existing science that flavorings can mask the harshness and taste of tobacco, making them easier to use and more appealing particularly for youth,” Brian King, senior adviser to the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a telephone interview. “The fact that these products are available is problematic.”

In cherry products, benzaldehyde proved a popular chemical in Cheyenne cigars, Kraft Foods Group Inc.’s Kool-Aid and Mars Inc.’s Lifesavers. In grape products, methyl anthranilate is prominent in Cheyenne cigars, Phillies Blunts, Kool-Aid and The Hershey Co.’s Jolly Ranchers. Benzaldehyde is also known as artificial almond oil and methyl anthranilate occurs naturally in some grapes, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Joe Augustus, a spokesman for Swisher, said the small cigars aren’t targeted at children. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company doesn’t advertise to consumers, and he emphasized that states have laws banning sale to minors.

“Flavored tobacco products have been around since the Indians started flavoring their tobacco,” Augustus said in a telephone interview. “We hardly do any consumer advertising. I’m not sure how they’d be targeted at kids.”

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids called flavored cigars “Big Tobacco’s tricks for getting kids hooked on their products” in a blog post in October.“For all intents and purposes, these products are flavored cigarettes,” King, the CDC adviser, said.

The tax structure differentiates between “little” cigars and large cigars, though only by weight, not size, meaning cigars classified as large and “little” can resemble cigarettes. Large cigars are taxed less heavily, often making them cheaper to purchase.

While cigarette smoking — the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. — continued an 11-year decline in 2011, cigarette-like large cigar smoking tripled in 2011 from 2000, the CDC said. This makes it difficult for FDA’s ban on flavored cigarettes to have an effect on smoking alone, Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said in a telephone interview.

“I think it’s difficult to show that reduction until all flavorings are gone,” Glynn said. “A kid that would have picked up a cigarette would just get a small cigar.”

Swisher led the little cigar market in the U.S. in 2011, while coming in not far behind Cheyenne in large cigar sales, followed by Imperial Tobacco’s Altadis subsidiary, according to the CDC.

Cheyenne International, based in Grover, North Carolina, converted a “large portion” of its products to large cigars in 2009 and controls almost 20 percent of the large cigar and cigarillo market, selling about 2.5 billion of the products in 2011, according to the CDC.

The flavorings used by Swisher come from an FDA-approved facility, Augustus said. “Have we introduced new flavors in the last years? Yeah, but that’s what the marketplace has demanded from us,” he said.

Augustus said only a tiny fraction of the cigarette market, as opposed to the cigar and cigarillo market, was for flavored products, making the FDA ban on cigarette flavors other than menthol “a feel-good ban.”

“To compare the two industries is very different, because there were hardly any flavored cigarettes on the market when the FDA imposed their ban,” he said.

An email sent to Jessica Fratarcangelo, a spokeswoman for Cheyenne, wasn’t returned, and a person answering the phone at Cheyenne said Fratarcangelo was out of the office and no one else could comment for the company.

King compared the cigar products to electronic cigarettes that come in flavored versions as well. Lorillard Inc.’s Blu e-cigs come in flavors including cherry crush, vivid vanilla and pina colada.

The FDA also proposed on April 24 to regulate e-cigarettes and hasn’t yet made a decision on flavored versions. The proposal prohibits cigar and e-cigarette sales to minors. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has said the agency may consider a flavor ban on cigars and e-cigarettes in a separate proposal.

“This research is more evidence that the FDA needs to move fast to address the problem of tobacco companies from using flavors that appeal to kids in all their products,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in an email.

Resource: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2014/05/12/lifestyle/teens-enticed-sweetened-cigars/#.V-oBhPQRPIU

E-Cigarette Use Among Teens Continues to Rise

While lawmakers debate how to regulate e-cigarettes, new data shows vaping continues to rise among middle and high school students.

Teen tobacco use remains at historically low levels, but the popularity of electronic cigarettes continues to rise as lawmakers debate whether to regulate their use.

In its latest report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that e-cigarette use increased from 2.46 million middle and high school students in 2014 to 3 million in 2015.The report with the results from the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey is the annual snapshot that looks at children’s tobacco use.A total of 4.7 million middle and high school students reported using a tobacco-related product within the past month. Half of them reported using more than one type.

CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, says e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.

“No form of youth tobacco use is safe,” he said in a press release. “Nicotine is an addictive drug and use during adolescence may cause lasting harm to brain development.”

The use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, also referred to as “vaping,” remain the most popular options. Students also report using smokeless tobacco as well as cigars and hookahs.

Ninety percent of all adult smokers report first starting in their teens. Officials at the CDC and other regulatory agencies remain concerned that one in four students reports using some kind of tobacco product.Read More: Tobacco Companies Sued Over Cancer-Causing Substances in E-Cigarettes »

The Push to Regulate E-Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates certain forms of tobacco, such as cigarettes and loose and smokeless tobacco. However, newcomers to the field, namely manufacturers of e-cigarettes, are currently fighting to avoid falling under that umbrella.Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA has authority to regulate tobacco products. Two years ago, the agency sent a letter to the White House about its proposed rule to include e-cigarettes, hookahs, and cigars under its regulatory authority.

The FDA sent its recommendations to the White House on Oct. 19. It came with a 90-day limit for the Office of Management and Budget to review, but it’s now been six months.

Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said the agency is “deeply concerned” with the rates children use tobacco, including hookahs and e-cigarettes.

“Finalizing the rule to bring additional products under the agency’s tobacco authority is one of our highest priorities, and we look forward to a day in the near future when novel tobacco products like e-cigarettes and hookahs are properly regulated and responsibly marketed,” he said in a press release.

The FDA is expected to release its decision this month regarding how e-cigarettes are regulated, including how they’re advertised and marketed.

There are concerns about what this would do to the growing e-cigarette market, namely regarding a provision that may or may not grandfather in products on the market before 2007 under the Tobacco Control ActIf put under FDA regulation, these new products would be put under the same scrutiny as cigarettes, mainly restricting sales and marketing to minors.

Thirty groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, sent a letter to President Barack Obama earlier this week urging that all tobacco and other products containing nicotine be put under FDA approval.

“The consequences of not quickly applying FDA’s regulatory authority to all tobacco products have been serious. In the absence of regulation, we have seen irresponsible marketing of unregulated products such as cigars and electronic cigarettes and the use of sweet flavors that clearly appeal to youth,” the letter states. “E-cigarettes come in more than 7,000 flavors, including cotton candy, gummy bear, bubble gum, and other flavors that appeal to kids. It’s no wonder use of e-cigarettes by youth has skyrocketed.”

Read More: E-Cigarette Flavorings Can Be Toxic to Lung Cells »Tactics Similar to TobaccoVince Willmore, vice president of communications for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the tactics e-cigarette companies are using now are the same as tobacco companies, which is one reason they should be regulated as such.

“These unregulated products are very popular among children. Flavors help those products appeal to children,” he told Healthline. “Many e-cigarettes come in bright colors and packaging that appeal to kids. We really can’t afford any more that affects the health of children.”

Meanwhile, industry-funded groups like the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) and the American Enterprise Institute are urging Congress to step in before the FDA makes its ruling. They argue the changes would damage the e-cigarette industry.

“The regulation would have the effect, intended or not, of taking e-cigarettes away from former smokers who quit smoking by using these less harmful alternatives, NCPPR risk analysis director Jeff Stier said in a press release issued Thursday. “This is exactly the opposite of what government should be doing, which is to create a regulatory environment that encourages smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, the dramatically less harmful way to get nicotine.”

Resource : http://www.healthline.com/health-news/e-cigarette-use-among-teens-continues-rise#2

E-cigarette makers rush new products to market ahead of U.S. rules

NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The e-cigarette market is suddenly getting more crowded.

Makers of the "vaping" devices launched a flood of new products in the United States ahead of new federal regulations, taking effect on Monday, that require companies to submit e-cigarettes for government approval before marketing them, according to company officials and industry experts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which announced the regulations in May, will allow e-cigarette devices introduced before the regulations came into force to be sold for up to three years while companies apply and await regulatory review.

The regulations also ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under age 18. The multibillion-dollar industry had sought to delay the new rules through lawsuits and proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress. At the same time, many of the smaller players hedged their bets by releasing new products during the three-month period between the announcement of the regulations and their effective date.

"I would be surprised if there was any other period when so many products were introduced," said Bryan Haynes, an attorney with the firm Troutman Sanders who represents several e-cigarette companies.

Not of all the new products may be available immediately to consumers. Many companies beat the regulatory deadline with only limited shipments and product prototypes."There are scores of new products getting out ahead" of the deadline, said Oliver Kershaw, founder of the website e-cigarette-forum.com that tracks the industry.

"They've been put quietly into the market. Some of them are just brand refreshers. Some are quite interesting products," Kershaw said, referring to such innovations as "pods" - capsules that can be inserted into the devices - that are prefilled with flavored nicotine.

The FDA regulations for the first time bring regulation of e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco in line with existing rules for cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco.

The rules require companies to submit these products for government approval, list their ingredients and place health warnings on packages and in advertisements.Cigar makers also rushed new products to the market to beat the regulations.

"We have attempted to do in 90 days what we usually do in three years," said Eric Newman, president of J.C. Newman Cigar Co, in business since 1895. "If it wasn't so serious, it would be comical to see the hoops we're going through."

BIG COMPANIES MAY BENEFIT

E-cigarettes are handheld electronic devices: metal tubes that heat liquids typically laced with nicotine and deliver vapor when inhaled. The liquids come in thousands of flavors, from cotton candy to pizza. Using them is called "vaping."

Reynolds American Inc, Altria Group Inc and Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands Plc, are among the leading manufacturers of the devices. Their use has grown quickly in the past decade, with U.S. sales expected to reach $4.1 billion in 2016, according to Wells Fargo Securities.

The healthcare community remains divided over the devices. Some experts are concerned about how little is known about their potential health risks and about growing use by teenagers, fearing that a new generation will become hooked on nicotine.Others support them as a safer alternative to tobacco for smokers unable to quit.

The FDA regulations are expected to shutter many "vape shops" that make their own products and cannot afford undergoing the approval process. The rules may benefit the big manufacturers, especially tobacco companies like Reynolds and Altria, which have the checkbooks and experience to navigate regulatory agencies.

Despite the new rules, France's leading manufacturer of "e-liquids" used in the devices started doing business in the United States last month. The company said it hoped the new market could help double its current sales of about $55 million.

"The vaping consumer is going to be drowned in a lot of new products," said Arnaud Dumas de Rauly, president of Gaïatrend USA, referring both to new devices and to types of liquids.Reynolds, which makes the top-selling VUSE, did not introduce any new products this summer. Altria launched new flavor varieties including Menthol Ice and Smooth Cream.

Altria's Nu Mark e-cigarette company "has a robust pipeline of products and takes a disciplined approach to introducing those products to understand adult smoker and vaper acceptance," Altria spokesman Steve Callahan said.Callahan said the company was also mindful of the requirements of the new regulations and complying with the timelines the FDA established.

Mistic E-Cigs had planned to introduce sometime this year a new product called the Mistic 2.0 POD-MOD personal vaporizer, which has pods prefilled with liquids, but said its staff worked 14-hour days to ensure it was ready before the regulations took effect.

"We got a little lucky but we had to work a little extra hard," said Justin Wiesehan, Mistic's vice president of regulatory affairs. (Reporting by Jilian Mincer; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Will Dunham)

Resource: http://news.trust.org/item/20160808110121-uqb5i/

New clues to nicotine addiction

New understanding of how nicotine causes addiction has emerged, according to research published in eLife.

 Although smoking rates are declining, a consistent portion of the population continues to smoke, making continued research into tobacco addiction important.

One reason people find it hard to quit smoking is that each time they have a cigarette, feelings of craving, irritability and anxiety melt away.This is known as negative reward and is partly controlled by a region of the brain called the habenula.

The neurotransmitters acetylcholine and glutamate are thought to influence nicotine dependence in the habenula, but the molecular details of this regulation are unclear.

Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers of the brain. They are packaged into spherical structures at the ends of neurons, called vesicles. On receiving certain signals, neurons release their vesicle contents into the synapse, sending the signal on to the next neuron.

Neurons can recycle neurotransmitters by reabsorbing them through reuptake, a process that allows them to control the exact number of neurotransmitters in the synapse.

Even a small upset in the balance of neurotransmitters can affect behavior. In the case of acetylcholine, it can influence our ability to cope with addiction.Ines Ibanez-Tallon, and colleagues from Rockefeller University in New York, knew that acetylcholine and glutamate played important roles in the neurons in the habenula - but not how they might interact to reinforce addiction.

Acetylcholine controls glutamate release

The researchers created a mouse model where a key gene involved in acetylcholine processing was missing; this prevented acetylcholine production in habenular neurons.

The elimination of acetylcholine affected glutamate in the habenula in two ways. First, the amount of glutamate released by neurons was reduced; second, the reuptake of glutamate back into vesicles was impaired.

Both of these mechanisms disrupt normal signaling, thus affecting the excitability of neurons.

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that acetylcholine regulates how much glutamate is released into the synapse, and at what frequency. It also facilitates the packaging of glutamate into vesicles.

Studies using electron microscopy confirmed that the neurotransmitters are in the same place at the same time and are able to affect one another.Removing acetylcholine decreases sense of reward

When the researchers removed acetylcholine from the habenula of the mice, the mice became insensitive to the rewards of nicotine. They did not develop a tolerance to continued nicotine exposure, nor did they experience withdrawal symptoms, such as body shakes and scratching.

The findings suggest that without acetylcholine, nicotine addiction would not occur.

They also reveal new clues about the brain circuitry involved in nicotine dependence, which is relevant to opioid and cannabinoid addiction.In future, the researchers hope to examine how the interaction between acetylcholine and glutamate might work in other areas of the brain.

They say:

Resource: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/303512.php

Think e-cigs are safe for kids? You’ll think twice after reading this

A study found 75 percent of flavored e-cigarettes contain a chemical linked to severe respiratory diseaseThe teenage brain is particularly vulnerable to addiction“Popcorn lung’’ can develop

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, have become so popular that they surpassed conventional cigarettes as the most commonly used tobacco product among youth in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

E-cigarette use among youth has soared — from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2014 among high school students, and from 0.6 percent in 2011 to 3.9 percent in 2014 among middle school students, according to the CDC.

E-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that provide doses of nicotine and other additives to the user in an aerosol, are often falsely viewed as a harmless alternative to conventional cigarettes because e-cigarettes do not contain tar, which can lead to tobacco-related diseases.But, there are real dangers for users of e-cigarettes, especially for youth, medical experts say.

An adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to addiction because it is still developing, said Dr. Judy Schaechter, chair of the department of pediatrics at UHealth — University of Miami Health System. Nicotine addiction can then become more severe and difficult to break.

Nicotine addiction can also become a gateway to conventional cigarettes and other substances, said Dr. Loretta Duggan, an adolescent medicine fellow at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. A person with a family history of addiction or an addictive personality can also be very vulnerable.“It can make it easier to lead to illicit drug use,” Duggan said.

Nicotine can increase heart rate and blood pressure as well as contribute to cardiovascular and heart disease, Duggan said. E-cigarettes can cause strokes and cancer because nicotine can negatively affect blood vessels.Even though e-cigarettes seem harmless, a real risk exists,” Duggan said.

There is very little research about other effects that e-cigarettes, which include other additives, can have on the body, Schaechter said. But, e-cigarettes can have a negative effect on the brain, causing inflammation to the lungs and developing tissue.

Schaechter noted reports of e-cigarette users suffering from “popcorn lung” or bronchiolitis obliterans. That is an irreversible life-threatening disease that causes scarring within small air sacs in the lungs, resulting in a severe cough and shortness of breath that gets progressively worse over time.

According to a study released by the Harvard School of Public Health, 75 percent of flavored e-cigarettes and their refill liquids were found to contain diacetyl, a flavoring chemical linked to cases of severe respiratory disease such as “popcorn lung.”E-cigarettes are often attractive to adolescents because of their kid-friendly flavors, packaging and advertisements.

According to a CDC study released in April, there is a link between exposure to e-cigarette advertisements and the use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school students. Spending on e-cigarette advertising rose from $6.4 million in 2011 to an estimated $115 million in 2014.

The high rate of e-cigarette use among adolescents suggests that adolescents who would not have otherwise used tobacco products are picking up the habit, according to a study released this summer by the American Academy of Pediatrics.Parents can guard against these dangers. Talk to children as young as 6, before they are influenced by their peers, Duggan said.Parents should also not indulge in e-cigarette use, Schaechter said.

“We know children of smokers are more likely to smoke,” Schaechter said. “If parents don’t want their children to pick up addictive habits, they shouldn’t do it.”Also, monitor their social media, TV and cellphone usage, where adolescents can view e-cigarette advertisements.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new rules in May that for the first time extend federal regulatory authority to e-cigarettes, banning their sale to anyone under 18 and requiring that adults under the age of 26 show a photo identification to buy them.

The new rules also require manufacturers to register with the FDA, disclose detailed reports of their products’ ingredients and obtain permission to sell their products.“We can work with teens to break addiction, unlike with our parents and grandparents, who didn’t have the type of knowledge that we have today,” Duggan said.

Resource: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health-fitness/article91033197.html

90% cigar products comply with pictorial warnings in Assam

 Ninety per cent of the cigarette products sold across Assam comply with the new rule mandating 85 per cent of package surface area to carry pictorial health warning on tobacco packets, according to a recent survey.

The survey found that all leading brands of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco and bidis sold across Assam follow the guidelines mandated by central government since April 1 this year.


The survey conducted by the Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA), Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) and several other local bodies was carried out in eight states of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

The survey results showed that printing the new 85 per cent warnings is practically feasible on all tobacco products, a VHAA release said here today.

Appreciating VHAA for the survey, state Nodal Officer of the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) Assam, Arundhati Deka said the health department and other enforcement agencies are trying their best to make 100 per cent compliance of the new pictorial health warning.

"The survey proved that pictorial warning covering 85 per cent of the pack area can be printed on tobacco products, contrary to claims made by the tobacco industry that it is practically not feasible," Deka said.

The ministry of health and family welfare has already issued directions to the authorities concerned in this regard.

The Assam home department recently issued instruction to all superintendents of police and deputy commissioners to implement the new pictorial rule in "letter and spirit".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Resource:   http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/90-cigar-products-comply-with-pictorial-warnings-in-assam-116092000564_1.html

Cigars Lighting Up Sales

With consumers reaching for interesting flavors at still low prices, cigars—especially cigarillos—continue to move briskly off of convenience store shelves.

According to IRI’s convenience store statistics for the 52 weeks ending July 10, 2016, cigars notched nearly $2.7 billion in sales, a 6.19% increase over 2015. Units rose 10.17%.

To take best advantage, c-stores should pay heed to customer preferences, keep the appropriate SKUs in stock, hit the key price points and stay on top of the latest line extensions.

Rich Jacobs, director of packaged beverages and tobacco for RaceTrac, which operates 420 convenience stores in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, said cigars remain a strong category for the retailer

“I would say it’s a growing, innovative category. In the past it’s been kind of dry and drab, no new innovation, nothing coming out that was exciting in the category,” Jacobs said. “But over the past few years it’s been very innovative as far as flavors go. There has been an influx of limited time offers, which are driving a lot of the profitability and growth.”

Top brands like Swisher Sweets, White Owl, Game and Black and Mild do “very” well across the chain, he said. Plastic-tipped cigars also do well. “But when we look at the overall business, tipped is a small portion of the category share that cigarillos are.”

Like other players across the convenience store channel, RaceTrac sees consumers strongly favoring cigarillos. “What I have seen across the category is that there has been a lot of two-for-99-cent offers that I think are doing very well.”

Some c-store chains have embraced larger quantities for 99 cents, Jacobs pointed out. “We have never dabbled in it. We didn’t want to devalue the two for 99 cents so we held strong with that offer and never got into the three-, four- or five-for 99 cents. A lot of the cigar companies just want to keep marching down that ladder of value, for the people who are buying the multiple cigars.”

From what Jacobs and his colleagues have seen over the past couple of years, however, that strategy harms the price-value equation. “Those companies have really fallen. Category leaders like the Swishers and Swedish Matches of the world have kept on growing, while those have declined.”

CUSTOMER PREFERENCE

Like other c-store operators across the country, Horizon Market in Bismarck, N.D., adapts its product selection and store design to the specific needs of its community. With that in mind, it has downplayed its tobacco set at times.

“It just hasn’t been a strong part of our brand to where we have really promoted tobacco,” said Casey Clement, Horizon’s president. “We’re right next to a middle school and an elementary school, our neighbor is a church, and we have a frozen yogurt shop that we operate inside of our c-store called Swirly’s. We’ve kind of softened the signage around our tobacco. We don’t even take the discount on cigarettes because we’re not going to have the Marlboro signs above our cigarette racks.”

That said, cigars remain a viable and profitable category as customer demographics have slowly changed.

“What I have seen is a definite change over the years in the typical cigar customer,” said Patrick Shannon, Horizon Market’s manager. “The typical customer has definitely gotten younger, with the majority of the sales of the single or two-pack variety as compared to the larger-pack sales. Most of the younger customers are looking for the cheaper two-for-99-cent deals.” They also look more for the fresher foil packs.

The older cigar customers, on the other hand, lean more toward the premium brand cigars in the larger packs, Shannon added. “But I am seeing less and less of this type of customer.”

As for flavors, the ones that have been around longer, like grape and blueberry, are clearly the best sellers. “They keep coming out with the new flavors that people may try,” Shannon said, “but on a consistent basis I see the customer going back to the older flavors that they know.”

Regarding flavors: On July 29, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines designed to assist retailers in complying with the tobacco regulations relating to the sale of various products. For cigars, they include:

    Check photo ID of everyone under age 27 who attempts to purchase cigars. Only sell cigars to customers age 18 and older.
    Do not give away free samples of cigars, including any of their components or parts.
    Do not sell cigars in a vending machine unless in an adult-only facility.

Of course, flavored tobacco products of all kinds have been a favorite target of legislators who cite fear over potential sales to minors. The National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) has countered that such legislation accomplishes little besides harming retailers: “A flavored tobacco ban disrupts the free marketplace by interfering with normal transactions between legitimate, responsible retailers and adult consumers desiring to purchase legal tobacco products.”

“Adults will simply turn to ordering flavored tobacco products over the Internet or traveling a short distance to another town, city or neighboring state that does not have a flavored ban law to purchase their favorite tobacco products,” NATO added.

“At GetGo, we work to identify industry trends and deliver our customers an appealing selection of cigars,” said Jannah Jablonowski, a corporate communications consultant at Giant Eagle, which operates 200 GetGo locations. “Recently, we have noted increased customer interest in seasonal flavors and pouches containing multiple cigars. As such, we have incorporated these varieties into our assortment, where appropriate.”

Chris Pelletier, the manager of Bradley’s CITGO & C-Store Car Wash in Presque Island, Maine, has noted the same product trends. “What we sell the most of is pretty much cigarillos, especially flavored cigarillos—grape, white grape, pineapple, mango.” Promotions aimed at the low end—79 cents each, or two for $1—generate the most consumer interest.

The demographic range for the vast majority of cigar buyers has remained steady, Pelletier added. “Anywhere from college guys to a few older guys.”

WHAT WORKS
The three-foot section that the store devotes to cigars is not expected to grow any time soon, Pelletier said, nor will the number of SKUs. “We just stick with what works.” Only occasionally will a limited time item become a permanent addition. “Black & Mild Jazz was a temporary one, but it did well and I can get it all the time now.”

Jacobs conceded that legislators cracking down on flavored cigars for fear they might attract under-age smokers could be an issue going forward.

“It depends on how the FDA/deeming regulations flush out as far as what they deem to be a flavor, and then how the big manufacturers look at the flavors and actually brand those flavors. Some have suggested manufacturers could replace flavor names with colors, which could hold restrictions at bay, at least for a time,” Jacobs said. “It would slow down innovation, but I think long term it will flush out to where we will still have some flavors that will keep the category growing. Swisher and Swedish Match have done a great job of creating new flavors and bringing them to the market on a quarterly rotation.”

Those drivers could include the two-for-99 cents limited time offer for a new flavor, or a different promotional offer on cigars that are not pre-priced and have a big impact on the category.

The category, Jacobs said, can be expected to continue to grow through 2016 and at least into 2017. In the meantime, operators can help fuel sales.

“Retailers need to really define what their SKU optimization process is going forward,” Jacobs concluded. “That is a big driver for us and other people who really think that cigars are an important category. What I mean by that is, making sure you have the right SKUs at the right stores in the right demographic area.”

Resource:http://www.cstoredecisions.com/2016/09/16/cigars-lighting-sales/

Two Limited-Edition La Aurora Cigars Coming Soon

The oldest cigar company in the Dominican Republic is using some pretty old tobaccos in its new limited-edition cigars.

La Aurora is set to release Preferidos Double Barrel Aged and 107 Cosecha 2006, which both feature tobaccos that have been aged for an extended period of time. While 107 Cosecha 2006 will begin arriving at cigar shops in October, Double Barrel Aged won't ship until November.

The tobaccos selected for the Double Barrel Aged blend, like all of the tobacco used in La Aurora's Preferidos, spent a minimum of three years aging inside rum barrels before heading to the rolling gallery. Double Barrel Aged is unique because the cigars are then placed back inside the barrels for an additional 90 days after being rolled.

Those extra-aged cigars consist of a Habano-seed wrapper grown in the Dominican Republic, Dominican binder and a filler mix from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The cigar, which will retail for $22.50 each, will come in one size only—measuring 5 inches by 54 ring gauge—and ship in a bronze tube. Production is said to be limited to 1,500 boxes of eight.

La Aurora has reached back even further for the 107 limited-edition blend, which features vintage-specific tobaccos from 2006. Cosecha 2006 consists of a Habano-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador, Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and filler from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, all of which are said to have been aged for 10 years. The cigars will come in three sizes: Robusto Especial, measuring 5 inches by 54 ring gauge; Corona Gorda Especial, 6 by 47; and Churchill Especial, 7 by 50. Each size is limited to 1,000 boxes of 10 cigars each and will retail between $9 and $11.

Both La Aurora's Preferidos Double Barrel Aged and 107 Cosecha 2006 debuted at the 2016 International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers trade show in Las Vegas.
Resource: http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/two-limited-edition-la-aurora-cigars-coming-soon-19017

FDA Warns Stores in Crackdown on E-Cigarette Sales to Minors

Federal regulators began a crackdown on sales of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to children under the age of 18, issuing warning letters to 55 retailers across the U.S.

Drugstores, convenience stores and online outlets violated prohibitions on selling children and teens newly regulated tobacco products including cigars, hookah tobacco and liquids for vaping devices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday in a statement. Minors were able to buy some products in “youth-appealing flavors,” such as bubble gum, cotton candy and gummy bear, the agency said.

High school students’ use of e-cigarettes rose more than 10-fold between 2011 and 2015, according to data from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Strict FDA regulations went into effect Aug. 8 on sales of tobacco products to minors that require retailers to check for a government ID for anyone under 27.

“Retailers play a vital role in keeping harmful and addictive tobacco products out of the hands of children,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, in a statement. “It’s clear from these initial compliance checks that there’s a need for strong federal enforcement of these important youth access restrictions.”
Drugstores, Online Outlets

Retailers receiving warnings included drugstores in the Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. chain and the Rite Aid Corp. chain, along with online sellers such as Hookah Town.

“Our local management team is taking this as an opportunity, and will immediately visit with the entire store team and go over the aforementioned procedures and policies,” Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid said in an e-mailed statement.

Hookah Town is looking for better ways to verify customers’ ages and prevent sales to minors, founder Nathan Mark said by telephone. Jim Graham, a spokesman for Walgreens Boots, declined to comment.

Further actions, including fines, will be issued to retailers if violations continue to occur, the FDA said in the statement.
Resource: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-15/fda-warns-retailers-in-crackdown-on-e-cigarette-sales-to-minors

Teen Vaping Nourishes E-cigarette Wholesale

The e-cigarette industry has quickly developed a slew of e-cigarette products that appeal to teens: E-pens, vape pens, e-Hookahs, and hookah pens are some of the more popular nicknames. The bright, iPod-like colors of these devices are enticing to teens; you even plug in and re-charge them just like other tech gadgets. And e-liquid comes in fun flavors like bubble gum, chocolate and watermelon — all available online.Readily available, cool, tech-like…and unregulated by the U.S. Government. Unlike the tobacco industry and even nicotine gums and patches, there is no national legislation regarding the marketing and selling of e-cigarettes and their ingredients. And liquid nicotine can be bought and sold over the Internet without much oversight.

Teen Vaping Nourishes E-cigarette Wholesale.Adolescent use of e-cigarettes has increased rapidly in recent years,with several studies reporting higher rates of e-cigarette use than combustible cigarette use among high school students in 2014 Among high school students in the National Youth Tobacco Survey, 13.4% of adolescents reported past 30-day use of e-cigarettes in 2014, compared with 9.2% of adolescents who reported past 30-day use of cigarettes.Among high school students participating in the Southern California Children’s Health Study (CHS), we found that 24.0% had ever tried e-cigarettes (including 9.6% who reported use in the past 30 days), compared with 18.7% who had tried cigarettes (5.7% in the past 30 days); >40% of e-cigarette users had never smoked a combustible cigarette.A critical question is whether e-cigarette use in adolescents who have never smoked cigarettes will lead to subsequent initiation of cigarette or other combustible product use.

The initial data addressing this question came from several cross-sectional studies that examined the association between e-cigarette use and self-reported intention to use cigarettes among adolescents with no previous history of cigarette use, using validated survey measures. E-cigarette users, representing several age groups and geographic locations, had 2 to 4 times the odds of indicating an intention to use cigarettes as never users,7,8 results consistent with those we reported in the CHS. To date there have been 3 reports from prospective cohort studies examining the relationship between e-cigarette use and subsequent initiation of combustible cigarette use in adolescence, including a study of 9th-grade students (mean age 14.1).

Teen Vaping Nourishes E-cigarette Wholesale.A second study of 9th and 10th-grade students (mean age 14.7), and another small study of 16- to 26-year-olds, with few never-smoking e-cigarette users at baseline that was not able to examine associations within specific developmental periods in this age range.All studies found that e-cigarette use was associated with elevated risk of initiation of combustible cigarettes. However, the risk of initiation of combustible cigarettes is likely to vary by age 17; the developmental context of the end of high school is unique, because those turning 18 face particular challenges associated with the transition to adulthood, including postsecondary education or employment seeking, which co-occur at the age (18 years) at which the purchase of tobacco products becomes legal.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that vaporize liquid nicotine, and they’re becoming increasingly popular with youths. Between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of high school students who had ever used e-cigarettes rose to 10 percent, from 4.7 percent (in contrast, 46 percent of high school students have tried tobacco products in general). And the total number of middle school and high school students who tried e-cigarettes in 2012 topped 1.78 million, according to the CDC, despite the fact that 41 US states have laws that prevent minors from purchasing e-cigarettes. Moreover, kids who use e-cigs are twice as likely to state that they intend to smoke regular cigarettes, compared with kids who have never touched an e-cig.

Resource: http://www.joinnest.com/teen-vaping-nourishes-e-cigarette-wholesale.html

Tobacco-and Vape-Free Policy now in Effect on SFA Campus

The Tobacco- and Vape-Free Policy went into effect at SFA on Aug. 22 following the recommendation of the Employee Wellness Advisory Board comprising faculty and students.

SGA and the Faculty Senate created the policy to improve campus health and qualify for additional grant funding. University President Dr. Baker Pattillo delegated the task of outlining the policy to the Employee Wellness Advisory Board, according to Jessica Waguespack, SFA employee wellness coordinator and Employee Wellness Advisory Board member.

“We wanted to protect the health of the students, faculty, staff and visitors on campus,” SGA President Jessica Taylor said. “The [previous] 20-foot rule [you must be at least 20 feet away from a building to use tobacco] was not being followed around dorms, the student center and other areas around campus. The fact is that smoke affects the health of everyone in the vicinity, not just the individual who is smoking. Ultimately, we wanted to make SFA a healthier place.”

The policy states that cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaporizers, vape pens, hookahs, blunts, pipes, snuff and any other tobacco or vape-related products are banned on SFA campus or any property owned by SFA.

Campus reaction is mixed, as some now face the challenge of quitting the products altogether or leaving campus to use tobacco.

“In life, there are always things that you don’t agree with, but I don’t think it’s the responsibility of other people to tell adults how they should be able to live,” SFA student Azune Achmad said. “As a student here for years, people have always been very respectful in regards to smoking. Never have I seen anyone disrespecting another student by smoking too close to them.”

SFA has provided free Quit Kits containing educational information and tools to quit using tobacco. These are available at Human Resources in the Austin Building, Campus Recreation in the administration offices, the Health Clinic and counseling services.

“We had some grant money [Peers against Tobacco Grant] that we put forth into purchasing the supplies that went into these Quit Kits,”

Waguespack said. “The Quit Kits are available to students, faculty and staff [part time and full time]. It is completely anonymous to pick them up whenever you want. We asked around to find out what helped prior tobacco users quit, and so we took that into our research into what to put in the kits.”

According to Waguespack, there is no rule that students and faculty must quit, only that they hope this will motivate them to do so while making the campus healthier for everyone.

“I’ve had quite a few tobacco users come up to me and tell me that it was the kick in the butt they needed to quit using,” Waguespack said. “It makes it less convenient than just going right outside the building or residence hall to light up a cigarette or chew tobacco.

“We got a lot of feedback from students with asthma and faculty with asthma. This policy was great for them, too, because some of them had strong symptoms from cigarettes, that even just walking behind someone that was smoking was difficult for them.”

As for punishments for breaking the policy, SFA has found in other universities that it would be unnecessary. The campus will currently use other methods to maintain the policy.

“As a university, we have a culture of living by the SFA Way of respect, responsibility, caring, unity and integrity,” Taylor said. “So this initiative was planned to be led by the students, faculty and staff to hold others accountable in non-confrontational ways. If there is a blatant disregard for the policies of the university, there is the possibility of fines and punishments being implemented.”

However, some students find this will not stop their tobacco habits in their personal time.

“I grew up with it,” SFA student Brett Smith said. “My dad dipped, his dad dipped, so it’s kind of around my household. Everyone has their little addictions and things they have to do. Mine makes me focus more. I mean some people take medicine or use energy drinks, but I just use dip.”

Now that SFA is a tobacco-free campus, it will be eligible to receive funds from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, as explained in the policy. Some students feel this is why the policy was established.

“I don’t agree with the new policy,” Achmad said. “I know it was done strictly for funding reasons from the state, not for student health. I think that as an adult, you should be able to have the choice of what to do with your body. I think there should be designated areas for people who would like to smoke between classes.”

In response to that, Taylor explains that students are welcome to speak to SGA about concerns or opinions.

SGA holds meetings Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. in the Commons room of the Baker Pattillo Student Center and are available in their offices throughout the day.

“It was not about potential funding,” Taylor said. “It was about health. We now have a chance to be competitive for grants that can help cancer research, employees are saving money on their insurance because we are smoke-free, and we have a healthier campus. Funding may come and go, but the fact remains that this initiative has made our campus a better place.”

Resource: http://www.thepinelog.com/news/article_f4114eb0-74a8-11e6-ba69-7f9b5d3e836f.html

Exploding e-cig batteries leave trail of injuries in Alabama

Jennifer Bennett thought she was making a healthy decision last year when she switched from regular cigarettes to the electronic kind that heat liquid nicotine and turn it into vapor.

"I wanted to stop smoking and with the vaping you can kind of decrease the amount of nicotine," said Bennett, who lives in Jemison.

Bennett and her husband went on the internet to read reviews and picked a model produced by Sigelei that was highly touted for its safety features. Her healthy plan backfired, literally, when Bennett's e-cigarette battery exploded in her hand last week, causing a fire she fears could have burned down her home.

Bennett said she was changing the battery on her e-cigarette when it sparked.

"It shocked me and then the next thing I know I had a ball of fire in my hand," she said.

She hurled the device across the room and it landed on the bed. The sheets immediately caught fire, so she and her husband quickly hauled the mattress outside before the fire spread to the walls of their mobile home. Although they lost the mattress, they saved their house.

Bennett considers herself lucky, even though she sustained burns to her hand and leg. Her children weren't home and nobody was hurt.

The same can't be said for the increasing number of patients seeking treatment at Alabama burn centers for injuries caused by the batteries in electronic cigarettes. Dr. Chandra Ellis, who directs the burn program at UAB Hospital, said she has treated two patients in the emergency room and tracked five in the clinic for burns caused by exploding batteries. Some of the injuries can be very serious, requiring hospitalization and skin grafts.

"They cause third degree burns that require grafting and may cause disfigurement forever," Ellis said.

Ellis began keeping track of e-cigarette injuries about a year-and-a-half ago when she noticed a string of cases. She searched the internet and found reports about e-cigarette injuries from other academic medical centers.

"It's not isolated to us at all," Ellis said.

Right now, there is no agency that is collecting reports about e-cigarette injuries, but Ellis said she will continue to keep track so she can share the information with other hospitals.

One patient treated at UAB had an e-cigarette battery explode in her mouth, which fractured her jaw and broke a tooth, Ellis said. Most of her patients suffered burns from products that exploded in their pants pockets, she said.

Many products use the same type of batteries that power e-cigarettes, such as laptop computers and cell phones. Investigators believe the shape of e-cigarettes may contribute to the danger, according to an article in Scientific American. When lithium ion batteries inside the cylindrical containers overheat and explode, the burst can propel them like bullets.

Explosions can hurt bystanders as well. Earlier this year, a high school student in Albertville suffered burns to his neck and face after a classmate's battery exploded.

Before the fire last week, Bennett's husband suffered minor burns when a battery overheated in his pocket, she said.

Her three-year-old often plays on the bed that caught fire, Bennett said, and she shudders to think about what might have happened if he and his siblings hadn't been staying with a family member that night.

"If the kids had been there I'm afraid someone would have really gotten hurt," she said.

Very serious injuries have been reported, including cases that resulted in paralysis and death. After her experience, Bennett said she won't buy another e-cigarette, and would like to see stronger warnings on the products themselves.

"I value my home and family too much to purchase another one," Bennett said. "They are very dangerous and they need to put warning signs up."
Resource: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/exploding_e-cigarettes_leave_t.html

E-Cigarette Health Risks: A Smoking Gun

Walking outside our uptown Oakland office the other day, I passed a young, pregnant woman who was smoking an e-cigarette while waiting at a bus stop. She was chatting with an older woman there, and I overheard her remark that she didn't think that her vaping habit would pose any risk to her baby.

I'm not surprised that people believe that e-cigarettes are safe. But new research from our organization has shown that it's not safe to vape. Our review of nearly 100 actual products is the first to show, through testing mimicking real-world use, that 90% of the companies whose products were tested had at least one product that produced high levels of one or both of the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Cancer is not the only health hazard linked to exposure to these chemicals: both, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, also cause genetic damage, birth defects, and reduced fertility.

E-cigarettes have only been in wide use since 2007, and most people have heard little information about the risks. By contrast, we are all at risk of being duped by the massive pro-vaping marketing campaign backed by Big Tobacco. That's right: the big cigarette companies own the largest e-cigarette companies, and they aggressively market their risky products as harmless, just as they claimed for decades that tobacco was safe.

Nicotine: the fix is in

In my Mom's generation, many women believed that cigarettes were safe and that smoking presented no special risks to pregnant women. But even then many women were not so lucky: as early as 1961, doctors found links between an increased risk of stillbirths and smoking, and more recently, a review of 50 years of data found that smoking during pregnancy significantly increased the risk of birth defects, including missing or deformed limbs, clubfoot, skull defects, and others.

But vaping isn't smoking, says the e-cigarette industry. Their products, they claim, are a "safe alternative" to smoking, producing nothing more than harmless "water vaper."

In fact, e-cigarettes and other vaping products typically contain nicotine, a chemical known to cause serious reproductive health problems. While tobacco contains many other chemicals, animal studies have linked nicotine alone to fertility problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory problems and other health issues. We found many brands of e-cigarettes and vaping products with no warning labels to let women know that the products pose a threat if used during pregnancy.

Where there's smoke...

The recent testing by CEH is especially troubling, given that studies show that vaping may be just as addictive as smoking traditional cigarettes. Most worrisome is the rapid uptake of e-cigarette use among teens and young people: their use of vaping products tripled between 2013 and 2014, and experts warn that nicotine may cause lasting harm to adolescents' developing brains. According to Dr. Stanton Glantz of Stanford University's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, numerous studies suggest that the use of e-cigarettes may lead many young people to tobacco smoking.

But let's say that our bus-stop waiting pregnant woman has a healthy, happy baby. An accidental poisoning by her e-cigarettes still looms as a serious health risk. Poison control centers are seeing skyrocketing rates of nicotine poisoning incidents: nationwide, the number of cases of child poisoning linked to e-liquids jumped to 1,351 in 2013, a 300 percent increase from 2012. Kids are drawn to the products, which are often marketed in candy or dessert flavors, and usually sold without child-safe packaging. Last year we saw the tragic results of this reckless marketing: a one year-old child died after swallowing liquid nicotine.

CEH action for truth in vaping

CEH is now taking on the vaping industry: our legal action is challenging their sales of these dangerous products, since warnings about these chemicals are required by California law. Tobacco companies have been barred from marketing to teens and using child-centered flavors and packaging for years - we aim to hold the e-cigarette makers to similar standards. And we are demanding that the companies institute child-safe packaging, to end the threat of deadly poisonings from their products.

Following years of educational campaigns, tobacco use dropped dramatically after social pressures made cigarette smoking less acceptable and more cumbersome. Most young people, and especially pregnant women, now know about the dangers from tobacco. We owe it to today's young people to be clear about the dangers of e-cigarettes now, before we allow the phony "safety" claims of this toxic industry to take hold.

Resource:   http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/ecigarette-health-risks-a_b_8067234

Head in the Clouds: Vaping culture continues in Tuscaloosa

As a kid, Michael Wilson was fascinated with the world of fantasy and the rings of smoke released by dragons in movies. After seeing people do similar tricks online with vape pens, he 
was intrigued.

Wilson, 28, has been vaping for a year as a hobby and a way to de-stress. Though not a cigarette smoker, he has dabbled in smoking with a hookah, a stemmed instrument made for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco, with friends on occasion.

Vaping is a form of nicotine intake through an electronic kit known as a vaporizer. These kits are filled with coils and batteries that heat up flavored juices that are then pushed as 
water vapor.

“Everyone on my mom’s side of the family smoked, so it’s a miracle that I haven’t gotten into it, but I’ve been around it my whole life, so I kind of know what it can do to you,” Wilson said. “It’s taken the lives of two of my relatives, so I told myself I’m going to stay away from this as much as I can.”

Wilson decided to go to a vape shop in Tuscaloosa to discuss the pros and cons with an employee. After learning about the differences in vaping and what goes into the vaporizer itself, he bought a starter kit.
Wilson said that a basic vaporizer costs around $60 to $70, but additional parts could increase the cost to upwards of $100. Those interested in modifying their kit can upgrade coils and batteries to increase voltage and intake, but FDA regulations have arisen to counteract the potential risks.

Before the new regulations, Wilson could walk into a local store to get repairs and buy parts. Now he buys juices and parts for his vaporizer online.

Reports from CNN and The New York Times have shown accidents that have arisen from improper building, in one case an exploding vaporizer that burned a man’s tongue.

“If you build too high or too low, that’s where it gets really dangerous, and that’s where you hear about the batteries exploding,” Wilson said. “Someone most likely had a defective model, or they built it wrong or their battery was too low. There’s a ton of 
different variables.”

The juices inside contain various flavors and levels of nicotine. Wilson tends to go towards flavors that generally have a juice or custard-like taste.

“With mine, you can’t really do much with it,” said Carter Chiselko, a senior majoring in international business management. “There’s new mods out there that give you more power, which gives you more vapor with less time trying to just inhale it all.”

Chiselko began vaping after smoking hookah regularly at Big Daddy’s Mediterranean Grill downtown. After a high school friend took him to a Birmingham shop to buy his first vaporizer, he became interested in vaping and learning about 
modifying his kit.

Chiselko said regulations are hurting the industry by making it more difficult for shops to bring in new supplies, but the regulations could stop hardware malfunctions that could cause fires. For him, modifying his vaporizer is a hobby.

“If you’re a hardcore smoker, it’s easier for you to start off with a box mod or something like that,” Chiselko said. “If you’re just getting started and just want to see what it is, you can get a little stick that looks like a laser pointer, and it comes with a small tank and a little bit of juice, or depending on what mod you get, but it doesn’t hit as hard as other mods. You’ll get a little vapor, but it isn’t overbearing, and it’s cheaper and easier for someone who wants to get into it without spending a ton of money.”

For Chiselko, vaping brings a sense of community with friends and relaxation as he tries new tricks and inhales the flavored vapor. Despite enjoying the feel and taste of vaping, he said he still had doubts about its safety.

“You can say it’s water vapor, but there are people that are still allergic to it,” Chiselko said. “I’ve told people multiple times and they’re usually like ‘Oh, ok, go for it,’ but I still have that consideration. I’m not going to go inside a Walmart and just start vaping.”

Currently, the smoking ban on campus and within most of the city of Tuscaloosa includes the use of vaporizers, both indoors and outdoors due to risks of secondhand smoke exposure. Katie Garrison, a senior majoring in biology, said the rule against vaping was a step too far, due to a safer output from the kits.

“There’s almost literally no byproduct to it, but it’s a lot of that ‘someone told me this was bad’ mindset to it,” Garrison said.

Garrison started vaping as a way to safely switch to a nicotine replacement. Though she was never a habitual smoker, she would smoke when out with friends or when she felt stressed. The vape kit, for her, has been a successful substitute.

“When I was a little kid, I had some breathing problems, and the glycerin in a vape is actually the same glycerin as in an inhaler for people that have asthma,” Garrison said. “If I ever feel my throat getting constricted or anxiety over a test or something, it actually helps to relieve that whereas, obviously, cigarettes only make something like that worse.”

Despite the stigmas and concerns many have against smoking and vaping, Wilson, Chiselko and Garrison said their friends have garnered a positive community. The three have occasionally discussed different juices and new mods with their friends.

“Just like anything, it’s possible to make things dangerous, but it’s also possible for it to not be dangerous,” Garrison said. “You just have to do it correctly.”

Resource: http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/09/tuscaloosa-vape-culture