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There was a lot of controversy leading up to the vote and Sonoma's vapers tried hard to prevent the new ordinance from passing, but unfortunately, the Council members had already made up their minds. In hopes of keeping kids away from ecigs, they banned flavored eliquids. But in reality, that might just lead to a steep rise in smoking because the vast majority of vapers prefer to use flavored liquids. Those that continue vaping will likely take their business outside of the jurisdiction to get the flavors they really want.
Ecig retailers are the ones that will be most negatively impacted by this ordinance. They fought hard to try to prevent the City Council from dooming their businesses, but it just didn't work. One local shop owner pointed out that adults enjoy the flavors that Council members allege are drawing in kids. "Do you like bubble gum? Do you like gummy bears? Do you like marshmallows? Yes! Adults want these flavors, not kids."
In reality, kids DO like those flavors, but the majority of vape shops won't even let a child or teenager come through the door. They are fiercely trying to protect the ecig industry rather than sell vaping gear to underage kids. They only sell the candy and dessert flavors to appeal to adults that enjoy them.
Some local citizens told Sonoma's council members that it was unfair to attack ecigs and ignore the raging problem with teens and drinking. They pointed out that alcohol is a much more widespread problem among the city's kids, but the Council members just were not interested.
It seems that the main reason that Sonoma City Council voted to ban flavored ecigs is because they look a lot like smoking and they just don't want them around. But by the same argument, they should also ban water guns. It just doesn't make sense. Ultimately, the City Council has made a tragic decision that will hurt local vapers and most of all, local ecig retailers.
Do you think other cities will take this approach in the near future? Are flavored eliquids in jeopardy nationwide?]]>
Sylvestre said her interest in ecigs began in 2011 when she decided to try vaping to help her kick her heavy smoking habit. She was smoking a pack a day on school days and when school was out, she would smoke two packs per day. She knew that this would eventually take a major toll on her health so she decided to try ecigs. While she enjoyed vaping, she wanted to improve on the overall ecig designs and flavors. She started playing around with mixing her own eliquids at home and pretty soon, she realized that she had a potentially great business on hand. Her husband, who had also quit smoking with the help of ecigs, joined forces with her and they launched their ecig business online.
In the beginning, the Sylvestres faced many challenges. Ecigs were still relatively new and credit card companies were hesitant to work with them. But they pressed on, selling ecigs and liquids online. "Initially, I would run out into the living room, like 'Got another sale!'" she remembers.
About a year later, Sylvestre quit teaching for good so she could give her full attention to her growing business. They converted their garage into an office and ran the business there, even hiring their first employee. As things continued to grow, they eventually launched their first production facility and vape shop. With some serious momentum and a reputation for great eliquids in NC, Sylvestre soon had five vapor shops spread across the state.
Today, she continues to enjoy her work and supports the industry wholeheartedly. In fact, she believes that teaching people about vaping isn't so different from her previous job in a classroom. "I'm helping people," she explained. "It goes completely and utterly along with everything I have worked for my entire life – to help people."
It's amazing to read stories like this and hear how vaping is changing lives! How has your life changed since you started using ecigs?]]>
One of the big concerns among FDA regulators is whether ecigs will be a gateway to tobacco use. So Avail asked the vapers about their history with tobacco products both before and after they encountered electronic cigarettes. It turns out that 94 percent of the ecig users were using tobacco before they began vaping. Tobacco use ranged from a year to 30 years, but there was one common denominator. The vast majority of respondents (80 percent) said they started using ecigs to help them stop smoking. Most of them were successful with 85 percent giving up tobacco completely after they began vaping. It didn't take long either – 69 percent said they were completely tobacco-free within a month of using ecigs.
Avail's co-founder James Xu said the survey revealed that vaping is "not a gateway to traditional smoking". In fact, he believes the data clearly shows that ecigs actually act as a gateway to smoking cessation. He said participants rarely reported dual use (both smoking and vaping) and he rarely sees that in the vape shop as well. Most people are choosing to vape so they can kick the cigarette habit once and for all.
After getting such positive results from the survey, Xu said that Avail will send the responses to the FDA for consideration. Maggie M. Gowen, the director of communications for Avail, said she hoped the FDA would give consideration to the voices of vapers in Richmond and across the country. "We decided we would like our customers to voice their opinions," she explained.
Now it's your turn to express your opinion! What caused you to try ecigarettes for the first time? Did you quit smoking after you began vaping?]]>
Some of the statements from parents were understandably concerned and others were outright ridiculous. The most outrageous comments came from a local mom who said, "I almost lost my son to the misuse of e-cigarettes. He actually smoked what is the equivalent to two packs of cigarettes in 10 minutes." Even if you have a very basic knowledge of ecig technology, then you know this statement is certainly untrue and impossible. You couldn't physically consume that much nicotine in that short amount of time unless you were vaping with a high powered fog machine and a set of mechanical lungs.
It's likely the confusion comes in how the mom interpreted the nicotine content in her son's ecig. While cigarettes display nicotine by yield (how much the smoker consumes), ecigs display nicotine content. When you vape, you actually consume less than the stated nicotine level. Plus vaping causes nicotine to enter the blood stream at a much slower rate than smoking.
Local vapers are trying to set the record straight. Vape shop manager Jeff Bouman said he wants people to understand that vaping isn't the enemy and the local shop isn't trying to lure teens into using ecigs. In fact, they want to work with local authorities to prevent it. "I know that some residents will have concerns regarding minors and will be misinformed about this relatively new industry," he said. "In Fairport, we have demonstrated our firm commitment to safety, to policies that go beyond the legal minimum, and to working with the school district, police, Health Department, and parents to ensure that minors do not buy our products."
He pointed out that if there was no vape shop, people would seek out ecigs in convenience stores with no one to give them guidance of safety. "We have the opportunity to provide superior products, education, and services to any adult who has an interest in vaping. Local smokers will have a convenient, knowledgeable and friendly alternative with us."
At least for now, Victor Vapes is allowed to stay, but it could be a matter of time before the city lawmakers try to force them out. Do you think this is the beginning of a new trend in the United States? Will small town vape shops face an uphill battle for the next few years?]]>
Ecigs Are Safer and Pose No Secondhand Risk
Professor Peter Hajek is no stranger to electronic cigarettes. As the director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine Tobacco Research Unit, he has spent a lot of time learning about how they affect smokers. He believes vaping is by far, the best option.
"There are currently two products competing for smokers' custom. One, the conventional cigarette, endangers users and bystanders and recruits new customers from among non-smoking children who try it. The other, e-cigarette, is orders of magnitude safer, poses no risk to bystanders, and generates negligible rates of regular use among non-smoking children who try it."
Science Shows Ecigs are Better for Your Health Than Tobacco
Professor Linday Bauld is the deputy director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies. She has taken a long, hard look at electronic cigarettes and she is confident that smokers are making a wise choice when they switch to vaping.
"E-cigarettes are currently unlicensed, but both the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Association acknowledge that their use is safer than continued smoking. This is not simply an opinion, it is an evidence-based statement, and one that is supported by tobacco control organizations in the UK. To imply otherwise is incorrect. This does not mean e-cigarettes are risk free, but few things are. What it does mean is that their use is safer than continued smoking."
Vaping Is Just as Safe as Drinking Coffee
Professor Robert West spent years as the advisor to the Department of Health Tobacco Policy Team and English NHS Stop-Smoking Services. He has seen how vaping impacts former smokers and he is very outspoken in his support of the ecig industry.
"We have such a massive opportunity here. It would be a shame to let it slip away by being overly cautious. E-cigarettes are about as safe as you can get… Nicotine is not what kills you when you smoke tobacco. E-cigarettes are probably about as safe as drinking coffee. All they contain is water vapor, nicotine and propylene glycol [which is used to help vaporize the liquid nicotine]."
Long Term Vaping Poses No Health Risks
Dr. Jean Francois Etter has devoted the past few years to researching electronic cigarettes and how they impact addiction and health. Now he is making a public stand for vaping, insisting that it's a better choice than tobacco. He isn't worried about former smokers that continue vaping long-term.
"Even if there are long-term vapers, this is not a problem, as long as they quit smoking. The problem is combusted tobacco, not nicotine. At the dosage used by vapers or users of nicotine gums or patches, nicotine is not toxic. Long term vaping is not a public health problem; not any more than long term use of nicotine gums."
It's clear that the world's most renowned scientists support electronic cigarettes. They are the perfect bridge to help smokers escape tobacco addiction and they don't pose any more health risks than drinking coffee. Have you made the switch to ecigs yet?]]>
Canada's largest tobacco company, Imperial Tobacco, supports the ban on flavored tobacco to an extent, but they think banning menthol cigarettes is a big mistake. In fact, Imperial's Nadine Bernard said it would likely lead many adult menthol smokers to turn to illegal black market situations to buy their cigarettes.
Lawmakers aren't giving much thought to adult smokers with the new laws. Instead, they are focusing on statistics from a recent survey of Canadian students. That survey revealed that four percent of students are regular smokers and eight percent reporting trying a flavored cigarette in the last 30 days. Menthol cigarettes seemed least appealing to teens with only two percent of students saying they smoked a menthol within the past month.
The medical community has been very verbal in their support for the "Making Healthier Choices Act". Former president Dr. Scott Wooder said the new rules could save lives in long run. "Ontario's doctors welcome this legislation that works to protect our children from flavored tobacco products and reduce the number or youth who start smoking," Dr. Wooder said.
Of course, there are also some Canadians that are strongly opposed to the new act and the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco has been leading the charge to reverse the menthol ban. Spokesman Gary Grant said, "Banning legal menthol products, about 5 percent of the market, will only drive consumers to underground illegal channels."
Do you think smokers will turn to underground markets to buy menthols if the new law is passed? Will it cause a sudden spike in the number of vapers?]]>
The Governor has had an intense focus on tobacco legislation in the past few months, but now he seems to be turning his sights on e-cigs as well. Along with banning vaping in public areas, he has raised the legal smoking age to 21 across Hawaii. His new bill would also create new fines for underage individuals that try to buy cigarettes.
Hawaii's lawmakers want ecigs banned because they claim the vapor is dangerous and harmful, especially to women and children. Hawaii's Health Director, Dr. Virginia Pressler, pointed out that no one expected tobacco smoke to be deadly until it was far too late and she believes that ecigs must be stopped before the trend continues any further.
Unfortunately, Governor Ige and his cronies are completely avoiding any research based evidence for their rules, most likely because there is none. Today's scientists have been clear that ecigs are far safer than tobacco cigarettes and they don't pose any health hazard through secondhand inhalation. Yet lawmakers like Governor Ige are still on a war path, trying to eliminate electronic cigarettes as quickly as possible.
In the big scheme of things, isn't this only going to do more harm than good? If we take away the opportunity to vape in areas where smoking is prohibited, it will remove one of the major incentives that pushes smokers to consider vaping instead. The more we punish ecig users, the more they will opt to stick with their old tobacco cigarettes and continue with an increased risk factor for cancer, stroke, heart disease, and even death.
Will lawmakers ever wake up to the fact that their anti-vaping policies are actually harmful to public health?
Reporters took a ride on the Metro to find out what all the fuss was about and they found that some passengers were definitely frustrated by the lingering clouds of vapor. Local resident Davon Anderson said if smoking isn't allowed on the Metro, vaping should be banned too. "If it's nicotine based, then it should be treated like a regular cigarette, honestly."
Other passengers complained that the ecigs were diffusing strong smells into the air that were altogether unpleasant in already cramped Metro cars. "It's a different smell than cigarette smoke, but it's still very potent, so I would think that they would ban 'em just like they would cigarettes," Dee Duncan said.
When reporters asked Metro officials why ecigs were allowed on the train, a spokesperson said they don't make the rules, but only follow the laws in the jurisdictions where the train travels. The only way the Metro will ban ecig is if the city says they are not allowed.
Many of the passenger's complaints boiled down to a total misunderstanding. Some people still believe vaping is no better than smoking and they fear secondhand smoke is harming them when they ride on a train car with someone using an ecig. Passenger Jamahl Mitchess said, "I just think people shouldn't smoke 'em – period, 'cause they are no different than cigarettes."
This just goes to prove that we still have a lot of work ahead of us to help people better understand the differences between cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. While cigarettes released thousands of carcinogens into the air, ecigs are tobacco-free and don't utilize combustion. That means there is no secondhand smoke to put people at risk. In most cases, there is very little odor unless you are using a more advanced ecig. In that case, the odor will reflect the kind of eliquid that someone is vaping.
One passenger told ABC7 that ecigs were not a bother to her at all. "I don't think they're harmful to anybody and they smell good," Angela Swoveland said.
This story brings up a good discussion for the ecig community. What can we do to help put nonsmokers at ease when we vape nearby?]]>
According to a new study published at WebMD, women sometimes continue smoking simply because they fear weight gain. Lead author Ce Shang from University of Illinois at Chicago explained that there is a long standing myth that cigarettes keep you thin. Women still believe this even today and they actually would rather risk cancer or heart disease than to get fat from giving up their smokes.
Shang said that after surveying 10,000 smokers, it was clear that women had a serious phobia about weight gain. "We found that concerns about weight are a significant barrier to quitting among UK smokers and US female smokers who believe smoking helps them manage weight."
Even though today's women have a 10 percent increase in their exposure to anti-tobacco ads, many are afraid to quit. In fact, Shang said the women who didn't believe cigarettes helped control their weight were 12 percent more likely to try to stop smoking.
This new information is definitely eye opening for policy makers. Shang said it's time to focus our attention on dispelling myths if we ever want women to walk away from tobacco once and for all. "Policy makers should take weight concerns into account to enhance the effectiveness of existing policies that promote quitting smoking," Shang said. "The idea that smoking helps control weight is really unfounded."
While the researchers didn't involve electronic cigarette users, many vapers have found that ecigs are the key to conquering fear of weight gain. Because eliquids come in a variety of flavors ranging from chocolate to coffee to cotton candy, women can find their favorite flavors in ecigs rather than resorting to food when they give up tobacco.
Ultimately, staying thin is never worth risking your health. Smoking is dangerous and it's time for women to hear the truth. What has your experience with weight been after giving up cigarettes? Did your weight fluctuate when you switched to vaping?]]>
The study will track participants for five years and cost $3.7 million. Grants to cover the research were provided by the FDA and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. With the FDA Investing in the study, it definitely raises suspicious that ecig regulations will remain on hold a while longer while regulators determine the real risks and benefits of vaping.
Dr. Doug Jorenby, the director of Clinical Services at University of Wisconsin, said research has never been more important for the ecig industry. "Cigarettes have been studied intensively in the US since the 1950's. E-cigarettes have just come on the market really less than a decade ago," he said. "Unfortunately, scientifically, we are way behind the curve. There are a lot of anecdotal pros and cons out there, but when it comes to evidence that meets the scientific standards, we have far too little, other than we know the use of e-cigarettes is just exploding."
While vaping is certainly becoming a more common choice among smokers that want to quit, it's still met with a lot of suspicion by health care providers. The FDA has wavered back and forth constantly about how to regulate ecigs. "Unfortunately, we don't have hard numbers yet to back up policy decisions, and the unfortunate part of research is that there's a lag time, and we are scrambling madly to try to get that information," Jorenby commented.
During this new study, researchers will follow 400 participants, including 150 cigarette smokers and 250 smokers that also use electronic cigarettes. "We're going to follow them over several years, looking at all kinds of health outcomes, including their exposure to some potential biomarkers for cancer risks," Jorenby said. "We're going to be looking at their lung function and their pulmonary function."
Regulators hope this new study will provide vital information that will help them make a decision on how to make safe rules for the vaping industry. Do you think the FDA will postpone regulations until the five year study is complete?]]>
McDuffie insists that an age change is needed to "reduce our youth's exposure to a deadly habit." This isn't the council member's first attempt to amend the current smoking age. Just two years ago, he proposed a similar bill, but it was rejected. This time, it looks like the bill is gaining more traction with five other council members signing on as co-sponsors.
But Chairman Phil Mendelson is still opposed to the change. He believes that there are better ways to attack the problem of youth tobacco use than making a change to the legal smoking age, something that is difficult to enforce in the first place. However, McDuffie believes that changing the age restrictions could actually make a difference.
"Raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products will significantly reduce our youth's exposure to the deadly habit," he explained. "The legislation is our best tool to prevent adolescents from smoking, both presently and in the future as adults."
We've already seen the legal smoking age changed in New York City and several places across Massachusetts. However, there is no data to prove that increasing the age limits has any effect on youth smoking rates.
Tobacco products are not the only thing at risk here either. The Washington DC council has also been debating how to regulate electronic cigarettes and last month councilwoman Yvette Alexander pushed for a new law to ban ecig sales to minors. She doesn't support McDuffie's bill because she said ecigs should be treated as tobacco products and if you raise the legal smoking age to 21, it would mean amending the rules for buying ecigs as well.
Ultimately, we will have to wait and see if lawmakers will vote to change the legal smoking age. Do you think 18 is old enough to buy cigarettes or ecigs? Should we raise the age limit to 21 or is that taking things too far?]]>
Analyst Bonnie Herzog from Wells Fargo has historically been very outspoken about her support for the ecig industry. She even predicted that ecigs would eventually outsell Big Tobacco, although it might take a decade to accomplish the transition. It looks like her predictions are right on track. Herzog said while sales are booming, the unit prices are falling as vapers switch from cigalikes and disposables to more advanced ecigs with refillable tanks. This allows them to only buy eliquids and atomizers, which cuts down the cost substantially over time.
March's top selling brand was Reynold's Vuse. Herzog said Vuse was priced lower than competitors, which could have tipped the scales in their favor. "We are impressed with Vuse's strength," she said. "We note Vuse's pricing ($6.82) was 34 percent below category average of $9.12."
The second runner up in March was Blu Ecigs from Lorillard. Third place was a split between Logic and MarkTen while NJoy trailed behind competitors in last place. NJoy had previously enjoyed market dominance, but as some of the other ecig lines improve the design, they are now lagging behind.
Sales were also up for Big Tobacco in March, but the increase was substantially smaller at only two percent. As more smokers learn about the benefits of ecigs and the tobacco-free alternative they offer, vaping is gradually moving towards market dominance.
Herzog predicts that the ecig industry will also see growing profits this spring. "We continue to expect strong manufacturer pricing in 2015, which should help offset broad volume declines and generate robust profitability and growth."
While this data is exciting, it really paints an incomplete picture of the ecig industry's true growth. Many smokers choose to buy their electronic cigarettes online, where they are often significantly cheaper and they can even buy in bulk. Vape shops also bring in a good volume of sales each month.
Have you noticed a shift in the ecig industry lately? Are more smokers switching to ecigs in your area?]]>
The desire among some in the capitol is to add either a new tax to electronic cigarettes or to classify them as regular tobacco. Further, many representatives are also seeking a full and complete ban on using ecigs indoors. This would treat the electronic cigarettes as regular tobacco cigarettes. Some communities, such as Madison, have already banned indoor vaping, but Kleefisch is seeking to give the vaping community more freedom.
While many are seeking to reclassify the electronic cigarettes as tobacco products, advocates argue that this is simply unfair. Electronic cigarettes are nothing like traditional cigarettes. They have no tobacco, they produce zero ash, they emit zero smoke, and they do not utilize any flame. Ecigs are completely different from analog cigarettes in all but one area – nicotine.
Kleefisch has stated, "I do not believe it is government's place to tell a private business owner they may not allow a legal activity in their establishment. What e-cig users exhale is not smoke – it's vapor."
There are however several individuals and groups that disagree vehemently with the representative. Several health care groups, such as the American Heart Association have offered this opinion on the matter.
"This legislation is premature and potentially dangerous. There is little known about the health effects and long-term consequences of electronic cigarette both on users and bystanders."
League lobbyist Curt Witynski said, "Wisconsin cities and villages are granted extensive home rule powers to govern themselves without state interference. The league often opposes legislation preempting municipal police power authority."
Democrat Debra Kolste, also a state representative, believes that e-cigs are dangerous and that they need to be banned indoors and also classified as tobacco. She said, "Allowing e-cigarettes in businesses undermines the very purpose of the smoking ban. Allowing people to use e-cigarettes in smoke-free ventures directly contradicts Wisconsin's efforts to create healthier indoor environments for workers and patrons."
Kolste added that electronic cigarettes contain high levels of zinc, nickel, and even lead. She says these chemicals are harmful to the user and the public as well. However, renowned cardiologist Konstantinos Farsalinos, who has researched and written extensively about the use of electronic cigarettes, has refuted these claims on multiple occasions.
It would appear that the main reason lawmakers are waging war on ecigs boils down to money. Cash flow is important to politicians and the cigarette tax is already the 4th largest area of tax funding for the general budget in Wisconsin. Over the past two years the revenue from cigarette tax has fallen nearly 30 million dollars and lawmakers are feeling the hit to the budget.
Rather than celebrating the steady decline of smoking in Wisconsin, the lawmakers are choosing to fight back against ecigs. What will it take for politicians to be more concerned about public health than tax revenue?]]>
Senator Rosalyn Baker said she hoped the new tax would deter people from using ecigs. "We have raised the cigarette tax several times, and people are moving from cigarettes, which now have a hefty price tag, to less expensive products that can kill them just as easily," she said. "We're trying to provide a disincentive for the other tobacco products."
But why would the lawmakers want people to avoid ecigs? After all, they are tobacco free and produce no secondhand vaper. They are a far better choice than cigarettes, but if the two are priced at a similar level, then smokers have far less incentive to make the switch.
Hawaii vape shops are frustrated with the new tax and many fear this will lead them to shut the doors permanently. Hawaii-based Volcano ecigs is one of those companies that is gravely concerned. CEO Cory Smith said his stores in Hawaii now face a major disadvantage compared to shops in other states.
"This proposed tax would basically decimate the vapor industry here locally," he explained. "I would have to move a significant size of our operations out of state." Smith went on to explain how the tax would cause a massive price hike on all vaping products. "A tax on a 10-cent cigarette doesn't mean a whole lot, but a tax on a $20 bottle of e-liquid is a drastic price change. Tobacco revenue is falling, so it feels like the state is going after former smokers to find new ways to suck money out of them. These two products are not the same thing."
With 60 vape shops scattered across the state, Smith fears that they will all lose customers in the long run. "Subjecting my company to a tax just because I'm located in the state of Hawaii would put me at an extreme disadvantage because customers would just go online. Then how are you going to generate 80 percent tax revenues if no one in Hawaii can compete?" Smith said.
Do you think Hawaii's vape shops stand a chance after the new tax is enforced?]]>
The $68 million campaign will showcase the story of 35-year-old Kristy, a woman "who tried using e-cigarettes to quit smoking cigarettes but ended up using both products instead." She shares how her lung eventually collapsed and she was diagnosed with pulmonary disease. The CDC hopes to paint a picture that vaping is bad and won't help people quit smoking. But the truth is that this woman's health tragedies were the direct result of her tobacco use. It had nothing to do with her short-lived attempt at vaping.
The new ads will run for 20 weeks and you will find them on billboards, in print, online, and in radio and TV broadcasts. The American Lung Association spoke out recently in support of the new CDC ads. Erika Sward, the assistant vice president of advocacy, said, "This is really an industry, the larger tobacco industry with e-cigarettes, that threatens to get another generation addicted to nicotine." Sward hopes the CDC campaign will help children to see the "dangers" of ecigarettes.
Over at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, President Matthew Myers is also hopeful that the new CDC ads will make a difference. He said the ecig companies are doing a lot of harm with advertising by "introducing the glamor and sex appeal to adolescents today that have never been exposed to cigarette advertising on TV."
The CDC's attempt to convince you to stay away from ecigs is definitely coming at a high price tag of $68 million. Last year's campaign was estimated to help 100,000 people stop smoking, equaling about $480 per person impacted. CDC Director Tom Friedon justified the expense calling it a "best buy for public health".
Do you agree with Tom Friedon? Is this really tax payer money well spent?]]>
Respected researcher Konstantinos Farsalinos said his work has uncovered the incredible power of vaping to help smokers kick their addiction to tobacco. After he surveyed 19,500 smokers that tried ecigs, he was astonished to learn that 81 percent of smokers quit using tobacco after they started vaping. "In fact, they quit smoking very easily within the first month of e-cigarette use on average," he said. "That's something you don't see with any other method of smoking cessation."
Farsalinos wasn't the only one that had seen firsthand how effective ecigs could be. Professor Jean-Francois Etter from Geneva University said vaping is not just a trend, but a way to help smokers conquer addiction. He believes regulation could actually be harmful in the long run. "E-cigarettes and nicotine and tobacco vaporizers should not be excessively regulated," he said. Regulations might "decrease the numbers of smokers who switch to those new products." Furthermore, Etter fears that regulations will do nothing more than empower Big Tobacco to continue their domination and it could force the majority of ecig companies out of business.
Family physician Alan Blum said he recommends that his patients try ecigs when they are struggling to stop smoking. He believes vaping is a much better option for his patients and he would rather hand out ecigs than "give a pharmaceutical product which has side effects and which have not worked very well".
There is a lot at stake in the ecig debate. Farsalinos estimates that millions of smokers will die without access to life saving vaping technology. "If three percent of smokers switch to e-cigarettes, we are going to save about two million lives in the next 20 years."
While critics often argue that ecigs are still too new to truly understand their impact on health, the experts disagreed. Etter said they know enough to confidently recommend vaping as a method for smoking cessation. "Alternatives to smoking do not need to be 100 percent safe, they need to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes," he said. "You choose the lesser of two evils."
The health experts all agreed that vaping is a smart choice for smokers. So why is the government still pushing for regulations that could squelch industry growth?]]>
To get a better look at the situation, Williams and her research team recruited 11 teens to make purchases from around 100 ecig retailers online. The teens were instructed to buy cheap starter kits and disposable ecigs and the results were really discouraging. Teens were successful in their attempts to buy ecigs online 93 percent of the time. In 95 percent of cases, deliveries were left at the door and no age verification was requested.
"We tracked whether e-cigarette sellers provided age verification at delivery, a service offered by UPS, DHL, and FedEx, but not by the US Postal Service," Williams said. "When available, buyers chose USPS to assess the proportion of vendors shipping e-cigarettes without the possibility of age verification at delivery."
While experts are concerned that online availability of ecigs is a major problem, the truth is that a teenager with a credit card can buy a lot of contraband online with few problems. From guns to ammunition to cars and alcohol, you can buy practically anything on the Internet with a valid credit card. So the real issue here isn't electronic cigarettes, but age verification protocols.
In the past, we've even seen a toddler buy a car on eBay. Back when cigarettes could be purchased online, officials did nothing to control age verification because they said very few teens would buy them online. In reality, most kids will get cigarettes and ecigs from friends or buy visiting local convenience stores where no one bothers to check ID's.
Do you think we should be concerned about teens buying ecigs online? Or is age verification the bigger problem that deserves attention from officials?]]>
After the public safety committee recommended ecigs be banned from public places, it wasn't long before the City Council voted unanimously to kick vaping to the curb. Effective immediately, ecigs are banned on city buses, parks, greenways, and all buildings owned or leased by the city of Asheville.
Councilman Cecil Bothwell defended the decision by claiming that it is backed by research. He told reporters that he conducted "fairly extensive research online" and came to the conclusion that ecigs needed to be banned right away. Deputy City Attorney Martha McGlohen insisted that there was "evidence of toxic chemicals" in ecig vapor and the officials were only acting to protect public health.
It's frustrating to see the city officials make quick judgment calls on vaping when they obviously did very little research first. We have recently seen a lot of scientific evidence that proves ecigs help people quit. Plus they eliminate secondhand smoke and the vapor contains virtually no toxins whatsoever.
Even though science backs the benefits of vaping, Asheville won't allow ecigs anymore. If citizens are caught using an ecig on city property, on buses, or even in public parks, they will face a $50 fine. Ecigs are officially outlaws in Asheville's local airport, the US Cellular Center, the Arts and Science Center, and Pack Place Education. Officials even targeted the local baseball field, calling for ecigs to be banned except in designated smoking areas.
When officials target electronic cigarettes as the enemy, they are setting smokers up to fail. How can a smoker effectively give up tobacco when the devices that help them quit are outlawed? It simply makes no sense from a public health point of view. Do you think the city council has made a mistake with this new rule?]]>
One of the latest studies looked at the actual toxins found in ecig vapor compared to the toxins found in cigarette smoke. Scientists measured harmful particles (HPHCs) and specifically looked for carbon monoxide, carbonyls, phenolics, volatiles, metals, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, polyaromatic amines, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. While they might have expected to find a lot of damaging pollutants, the results were actually quite different.
After testing vapor from Blu ecigs, and SKY cigs along with smoke from Marlboro Golds and Lambert & Butler cigarettes, the differences were shocking. The cigarette smoke was 1500 times more toxic than the ecig vapor. In fact, ecig vapor was almost identical to room air in its level of pollutants. Inhaling a puff from an ecig was virtually the same as just breathing regular air.
In order to generate a measurable number of toxins, the scientists had to use 99 puffs of the Blu electronic cigarette and then they only found 0.18 milligrams of HPHC's. It only took one puff of a Marlboro Gold cigarette to measure 30.6 milligrams. Essentially, the Marlboro cigarette smoke had 2000 times more toxic chemicals than the Blu ecig in a puff by puff comparison.
It seems that when you look at electronic cigarettes in a lab setting, the differences are crystal clear. Ecigs are no where near cigarettes and the vapor that ecig users inhale is not much different than regular air. Ecig vapor only contains propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and a tiny amount of flavorings and nicotine. It's a huge change from cigarette smoke that is heavily laden with chemicals and carcinogens that can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, and ultimately death.
The next time you hear someone say that there is no proof that ecigs are better than cigarettes, point them to this study. You just can't argue with scientific findings like these. Ecigs are clearly the winner. Have you made the switch to vaping yet?]]>
While previous studies have shown that smoking kills half of cigarette users, this is the first time we've seen research paint a much more dangerous picture. In this case, cigarettes killed two out of three smokers. The researchers found that smokers were generally younger, with lower education levels and incomes. They were more at risk for having high body mass indexes and also tended to drink more heavily than nonsmokers.
Ultimately, smokers were three times more likely to die than nonsmokers, but the damage could be reversed, at least somewhat. The investigators said that mortality rates declined after a smoker quit using tobacco. In fact, former smokers managed to lower their risk factors substantially until they were only 1.27-1.39 times more likely to die than nonsmokers. While that is still an elevated risk, it is a vast improvement on the odds of current smokers.
The number of cigarettes smoked and the frequency of tobacco use also had a big impact on mortality rates. People who smoked 1-14 cigarettes daily doubled the mortality risk compared to never smokers. Those who smoked 25+ cigarettes daily quadrupled their risk of death.
This is just more evidence that smoking is deadly and it's time to take action if you are still lighting up. Research has proven that ecigs can help you kick the habit so why not switch to electronic cigarettes?
If you are a former smoker that managed to quit using ecigs, share your story today to inspire other smokers to try electronic cigarettes as a bridge to smoking cessation.]]>
Previously, 13 adoption and foster services in England denied vapers the right to take in a child and insisted that couples be completely abstinent from e-cigs for 12 months before starting the interview process. But after news broke of a couple that was otherwise perfectly qualified to take a child, authorities decided to change their protocols and allow vapers to pursue adoption or foster care.
There was a lot of debate among the media about whether ecig use should exclude a person from adopting or fostering, but with no scientific studies to prove that vapor poses any risk a all, there is just not legitimate reason to ban these families from taking in kids that desperately need a permanent home.
In the vast majority of cases, vapers are former smokers that are making an attempt to improve their health and cease tobacco use. If anything, this should make them even more eligible to become parents because they are doing everything possible to create a healthier environment for their children.
After further consideration and a barrage of backlash from ecig advocates and the media, the British Association of Adoption and Fostering issued this statement: "At the next meeting of our Health Group Advisory Committee (HGAC), we will be recommending that agencies now consider e-cigarettes as different to tobacco cigarettes… Agencies should therefore recognize the low risk to children and not see the use of e-cigarettes as a reason to preclude foster carers or adopters purely on this basis. Each circumstance should be risk assessed on an individual basis."
This is a major victory for vapers and it just goes to show you that policies can be changed when we all work together and push for fair legislation. We applaud the British Association of Adoption and Fostering for their willingness to examine this issue and make appropriate changes.]]>
The couple had already spent thousands of dollars trying to get pregnant with the help of fertility doctors, but all attempts had failed. In December 2013 they turned to the authorities in hopes of adopting. They went through the rigorous screening process that included personal interviews, financial background checks, and even medical exams. Everything was going well until a social worker spotted Brian with an electronic cigarette and then shut down the whole process. The couple said they were essentially kicked out of the adoption program and told that they could not apply again until Brian had been ecig-free for a full twelve months.
It seems crazy to have such a silly rule in place when thousands of kids need families, but this is not the only time ecigs have caused a problem. There are actually 13 councils in England that prohibit an ecig user from adopting. This seems incredibly difficult to believe considering that there is no scientific evidence that ecig vapor poses secondhand risks. Public Health England said, "The health risks of passive exposure to electronic cigarette vapour are… likely to be extremely low."
But for Brian and Abigail, an ecig led to their dreams being totally devastated. Brian had been a light smoker when they started the adoption process and while they were not told that tobacco use would exclude them from adopting, he decided to quit anyway and used ecigs to help cope with nicotine cravings. It wasn't until they were nearing the final steps of the adoption process that social workers brought up ecigs and informed the couple that vaping would cause them to be removed from the adoption program.
Abigail said they were both devastated. "It made us feel judged and worthless, that you are a lesser person if you smoke e-cigarettes. They seem to be seeking adopters who are perfect. But we are like lots of ordinary families."
Do you think that social workers have a legal right to exclude vapers from adopting? Is this taking things too far?]]>
The tribunal was studying the case between Insley and Accent Catering. As an employee of Accent Catering, Insley was aware that smoking was prohibited, but there was no written or spoken rule to prohibit ecig use so she would sometimes vape in the workplace. She provided catering services in a high school and when a teacher noticed her vaping in view of students, she complained to the catering company and said Insley's behavior was grossly inappropriate.
The catering company decided to call Insley in for a disciplinary hearing, but before the hearing date arrived, she resigned and walked away from the job. No one can really blame her because it was obvious that she was probably facing dismissal and it's typically better to quit before you get fired.
Even though Insley had already quit, the tribunal met to discuss the case anyway and while they didn't charge Accent Catering with any misconduct, they did warn that policies needed to be updated immediately if employees were going to face disciplinary action for using ecigarettes. The tribunal said that ecigs cannot be lumped in with tobacco products and there should be a separate policy for e-cigarettes so rules are clear and openly communicated to all employees.
The tribunal's warning seems like good advice for all employers. If a company would fire an employee for vaping without having a written rule about e-cigarettes, they could likely face legal ramifications. The bottom line is that if workplaces want to get rid of e-cigarettes, they need to follow the appropriate protocols and establish a clear rule and let employees know the expectations.
Do you think Insley was treated unfairly? Should Accent Catering offer her another chance at her job and apologize for how the situation was handled?]]>
One of the leading voices of opposition comes from David Atherton, the chairman of Freedom2Choose. He said the EU is essentially putting money over the best interest of public health. "If the health lobby are so keen to reduce the harm of smoking then electronic cigarettes which have a quit rate of 20 percent after one year as opposed to using the Pharmaceutical industry's nicotine patches, gum, and drugs at 5 percent, then 'vaping' must be encouraged as much as possible."
Atherton suggested that legislators should be running to embrace electronic cigarettes rather than stifle the industry with taxes and stringent regulations. "The government should never ban vaping indoors and private enterprise should also embrace electronic cigarettes too," he said. Research points out that the secondhand vapor that many fear is "almost certainly harmless". Atherton said that vaping is no more risky that enjoying a caffeinated drink. "Most view smoking electronic cigarettes as dangerous as drinking a cup of coffee," he said.
Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader of UKIP, also spoke in opposition to the EU. "I am a great fan of e-cigs and UKIP has been very supportive of the practice because it is healthier and a source of jobs for innovative British companies," he said. "I have never seen a private pleasure that the EU does not want to tax. Of course this move will hike up the cost of vaping e-cigarettes, and thus push more people back to ordinary and less healthy cigarettes."
The world's governments have struggled for several years to determine a reasonable way to handle the growing ecig movement and opinions are mixed. While the UK opted to classify ecigs as medications beginning in 2016, the World Health Organization wants more stringent regulations to stifle the burgeoning ecig movement.
It's hard to imagine that our lawmakers have any real interest in public health at this point. With so much money being funneled to lawmakers from tobacco lobbyists, it seems they are more interested in keeping the market moving in favor of cigarettes than in protecting public health. Ultimately, it's all about the dollar signs. Ronald Reagan summed it up well when he said, "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it."
Do you think ecigs should be taxed at the same rate as tobacco cigarettes? Should vaping be excused from sin taxes since ecigs are tobacco free?]]>
Their cig-a-like kits include the Original Starter Kit, as well as 2 different On-The-Go Starter Kits that come in Tobacco or Menthol flavors. More casual users would enjoy the On-The-Go Starter Kits, while those who like to have an extra battery and extra accessories would do better with having the Original Starter Kit.
VaporIn offers 10 different vaporizer Kits. These kits vary in terms of tanks and overall appearance, so there is definitely a kit to suit every vaper's need. They also have 3 vaporizers that are compatible with dry herbs and waxes if you prefer to vape in different mediums other than e-liquid. All of their products are of the utmost quality and come with a 30 day money-back guarantee, which is something other sites don't offer to their customers.
They have a variety of tasty e-liquids to choose from, with flavors such as: Original Tobacco, Vanilla, Cucumber Mint, Grape, Watermelon, Apple, Cherry, Menthol, and Blueberry. Their e-liquids come in 4 different strengths, so can definitely find the one that is best for you.
Spokesman Taylor Huckaby said that other California transportation agencies are also struggling to determine the best way to deal with vaping passengers. Some agencies have chosen to ignore the problem for now and wait to see what the FDA will do with upcoming regulations. But BART directors felt like they needed to take action now and they will introduce the new ecig ban effective immediately.
Huckaby said the agency will give passengers some time to learn about the new policy before they begin to really enforce it. BART plans to add new signs to the trains and stations so passengers are clearly informed about the new ecig restrictions. Public transit police officers will pass out warning tickets to vapers that ignore the new rule. Eventually, BART directors plan to implement penalties to people caught using ecigs on the trains. First time violators will be fine $100 and second time offenders will have to pay $200. If a passenger gets three offenses within five years, the penalty would be $500.
Do you think San Francisco's new ban on ecigs is reasonable? Is it rude to vape on public transportation or are officials just overreacting because they don't understand the science behind electronic cigarettes?]]>
The problem began on January 13 when officials in Qatar stopped an airline employee that was carrying an electronic cigarette. The country has very strict regulations about ecig devices and imports and they held the employee for a long and difficult interrogation. Fortunately, the employee was released after a while, but his ecig was confiscated. After the encounter, airline officials decided that it's too risky to sell ecigs on flights to Middle East countries.
"BA has become aware that e-cigarettes can cause issues when taken into some countries due to local legislation," the airline wrote in a newsletter update. "With immediate effect, the product has been removed from long-haul flights to these destinations, which include Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE."
The airline also plans to give clear warnings to customers, passengers, and personnel to prevent them from landing in hot water for carrying electronic cigarettes. An unnamed airline employee has speculated that the recent encounter was not so much about ecigs as it was about the employee's job. The source said the officials likely targeted him because of his job and a normal passenger wouldn't have faced the same intense interrogation.
However, Rory Sutherland from the Ogilvy Group UK isn't so sure. He told The Mirror that he was actually thrown into prison in Qatar after officials detained him for using his electronic cigarette on a flight. He described the whole experience as "terrifying". British Airways wants to prevent their passengers and employees from suffering a similar encounter.
A spokesman for the airline said, "We have stopped selling e-cigarettes on some of our flights to ensure that no one inadvertently falls foul of local regulations."
This is an important reminder to all vapers to learn the laws about electronic cigarettes before you travel. Do your research so you can avoid any unpleasant experiences as you enter and leave foreign countries. Have you ever had any issues traveling with your ecig?]]>
Charlie's Club understands that each person is different, which is why they offer 3 different membership packages. If you tend to smoke your e-cigs a lot, the Platinum membership is for you. This package is for those who smoke roughly about two packs a day. The Platinum membership sends you 50 cartomizers per month for $69.99 and free shipping on everything for as long as you're a member. For those who smoke around one pack a day, the Gold membership is the one for you. The Gold membership sends you 25 cartomizers per month for the low price of $49.99 a month plus free shipping. For those who smoke about a half pack a day, the Silver membership will be perfect. It comes with 15 cartomizers per month for $34.99, with a standard shipping fee of $5 to deliver your items. A plus to signing up for a Gold or Platinum membership is the benefit of having free shipping.
Regardless of which membership package you choose, all three come with a free welcome package. Charlie's Club understands how much of a hassle it can be to buy batteries and chargers separately. The total can really add up fast. That's why when you sign up for one of their memberships they send you a welcome package for free. No hidden charges or fees, just a bunch of free stuff. The welcome package comes with everything you need to start enjoying your membership: two premium quality rechargeable e-cigs, two Charlie's Club USB chargers, and one Charlie's Club wall charger. I love that they send you all that for free! Especially the two USB chargers, because then you can have a charger for each battery! That's definitely not something I've seen before.
Review continues after kit comparison table...
In addition to all that free stuff, they also have a lifetime warranty on their products. Has your battery stopped working? Is there something wrong with one of your chargers? Just let Charlie's Club know, and they'll send you out replacements for free, no questions asked. Their customer service is really unmatched in my opinion.
What really stands out to me about Charlie's Club is that all you're paying for are the refill cartridges, everything else is completely free! Lots of other companies try to up-sell you on additional batteries and chargers, but since Charlie's Club is a membership program, they really try to do their best to keep their customers happy and enjoying their e-cigs. Just sign up for a membership and you'll receive your cartridges once a month, with your free membership package shipped along with your first month's supply. This is awesome because you'll never have to go online and remember to buy new cartridges; Charlie's Club takes care of everything for you.
The cartridges come in three tasty flavors: Charlie's Blue, Charlie's Green, and Charlie's Choice. Charlie's Blue is inspired by sun-cured tobacco. This is one of the flavors I chose for my first month, and I really liked it. It's a sweet tobacco flavor that's crisp and very tasty, while still giving you that tobacco flavor that you expect from your e-cig. I could definitely use this flavor all day without getting tired of it.
The second flavor they offer is Charlie's Green, which is a menthol flavor that is very minty and makes you feel like you're sitting on an iceberg. This was the other flavor I tried in my first month of membership. It's a very sweet menthol flavor that I really liked, even though most other brand's menthol flavors don't taste very good to me. This one I would definitely use all day and not get tired of. The third flavor option is called Charlie's Choice, which is an energizing flavor that has the "smooth sweetness of summer dew and the boldness of a charging bull". I was so impressed with the other two flavors that I can't wait to try this on my next shipment of cartridges next month! In addition to tasting great, their cartridges also come in 0mg, 12mg, and 18mg strengths to appease any level of smoker. Charlie's Club really has something for everyone.
Overall, I was really impressed with my Charlie's Club membership. I love the fact that they send you 2 batteries, 2 USB chargers, and a wall charger for FREE. I honestly couldn't believe it at first, but they're the real deal. I was also extremely impressed with their dedication to customer service. If something were to break or malfunction, they'll send you a new one free of charge. Charlie's Club also takes the hassle out of buying replacement cartridges. Just sign up for a membership and Charlie's Club takes care of the rest. Most companies just try to get more money out of you in any way possible, but Charlie's Club is a membership where club members are truly taken care of.
Charlie's Club is a brand new company that offers monthly e-cig subscription packages. They offer three different subscription packages: Platinum, Gold, and Silver, depending on how much you typically smoke each day. Each month, Charlie's Club will send you refill cartridges so you never have to worry about going online to buy more. Other e-cig companies make you pay high prices for their starter kits, but at Charlie's Club, they offer free membership packages to all their customers. Each membership package comes with 2 premium quality rechargeable batteries, 2 USB chargers, and 1 wall adapter. Not only do you get all of that for free, but if for some reason something stops working, they're more than happy to replace it free of charge. At Charlie's Club, you get all the hardware for free, and only pay for the cartridges!
Charlie's Club offers three different subscription packages to ensure that you receive enough cartridges each month to last you until your next shipment. Their lowest subscription package is the Silver package, which is designed for people who smoke around half a pack a day. This package costs $34.99/month for 15 cartridges. The Gold subscription package is made for those who smoke around a pack a day. This package is $49.99/month, comes with 25 cartridges, and offers free shipping. The Platinum package is $69.99/month and is designed for those who smoke around 2 packs a day. In the Platinum package you receive 50 caps per month and you also receive free shipping.
The cartridges come in three tasty flavors: Charlie's Blue, Charlie's Green, and Charlie's Choice. Charlie's Blue tastes like sun-dried tobacco, and is a very crisp and clean taste. Charlie's Choice is another tobacco flavor that is very sweet, yet bold. For the menthol lovers out there, Charlie's Club offers Charlie's Green flavor, which is a crisp menthol taste. Charlie's Club offers their cartridges in 3 different strengths: 0mg, 12mg, or 18mg. Each cartridge comes individually wrapped to ensure the utmost freshness.]]>
After surveying hundreds of people using ecigs, nicotine gum, and cigarettes, researchers found that ecigs were actually the least addictive of the three. "Dependence ratings were slightly higher in users of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes than in users of nicotine-free cigarettes. In former smokers, long-term users of e-cigarettes were less dependent on e-cigarettes than long term users of the nicotine gum were dependent on the gum."
It turns out that ecigs are less addictive than nicotine gum. Those ecigs that contain nicotine are only slightly more addictive than the ecigs without nicotine so in the big picture, it could be the behavioral addiction that is more concerning than the actual nicotine content. The scientists concluded, "Some e-cigarette users were dependent on nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, but these products were less addictive than tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes may be as or less addictive than nicotine gums, which themselves are not very addictive."
Ultimately ecigs are nowhere near as addictive as tobacco cigarettes and there is absolutely zero evidence that vaping will lead people to use tobacco. Instead, the opposite seems true. Vaping offers smokers a perfect avenue to transition away from using cigarettes. Contrary to what many people believe, ecigs are not going to sentence you to a lifetime of addiction. You can gradually reduce your nicotine levels until you are completely nicotine free.
Have you noticed any changes in your level of nicotine addiction since you switched to ecigarettes?]]>
Murthy spoke out this week, pointing out the potential benefits of e-cigs. "There've been theories and ideas around the fact that e-cigarettes may be helpful from a harm reduction perspective in helping people who are already on cigarettes (that) have had trouble quitting actually get off cigarettes," Dr. Murthy said. "If the data indeed bears that out, then I think we should absolutely embrace that and use e-cigarettes in targeted ways."
Still, the surgeon general isn't giving the green light to vapers quite yet. He said we first need to see the long term impact of vaping on health and he is especially interested in how the ecig industry will interact with American youth. "I'm concerned about e-cigarettes, and I think this is an area where we are in desperate need of clarity," he said. "I think it's important for us to understand the impact, particularly on youth, before we allow the full-fledged spread of e-cigarettes and then later have problems that we have to deal with."
Murthy isn't the only one that is still unsure about ecigs. The FDA is still dragging their feet on regulations despite releasing an initial regulatory proposal almost a year ago. Perhaps the FDA will hold off until our new Surgeon General takes an official stance on the ecig movement. Historically, the nation's approach to tobacco control was largely dictated by the leading of the surgeon general.
Do you agree with Dr. Murthy's stance on vaping? Is it still too early to make any officials decisions on regulating ecigs or do we have enough information to safely endorse their use for smoking cessation?]]>
"Whether you get people hooked on e-cigarettes or regular cigarettes, it's nicotine addiction and it kills," Leno said. "We're going to see hundreds of thousands of family members and friends die from e-cigarette use just like we did from traditional tobacco use."
While Leno's point of view isn't uncommon, it has no basis in science. A look at recent research shows that nicotine actually isn't the reason people die from smoking. In fact, nicotine is comparable to caffeine in the way it affects the body. There is no evidence that using nicotine will increase risk for cancer. People get cancer from cigarettes because they contain tobacco and tar, not because of nicotine.
This is just another example of how our legislators are turning a blind eye to medical science as they dictate laws that impact public health. Rather than saving California residents from cancer and heart disease, this kind of law will only make it more difficult for smokers to make the jump to electronic cigarettes. If the bill is accepted, California will become the 23rd state to regulate ecigs as tobacco products, a devastating mistake since e-cigs are tobacco-free.
The American Vaping Association said passing this bill would be a major mistake for California in terms of public health. "California smokers deserve truthful information about smoke-free alternatives, not hype and conjecture designed to scare them away from attempting to quit with these innovative technology products," President Gregory Conley said in a press release.
Is public vaping really an issue that calls for new legislation? Do you think people should be allowed to vape in places where smoking is already prohibited?]]>
"To tell you the truth, I never smoked one cigarette in my life. But what I see on the clinical side, if you let me put on my doctor's hat today, is that it really, really works," Barrette said. "If you speak with doctors in that field, it's what we can call a breakthrough."
Barrette went on to explain that electronic cigarettes fill a major void in the smoking cessation marketplace. While most smoking aides only address nicotine withdrawals, the ecig actually deals with the behavioral component of giving up cigarettes and that is what makes it so successful in a real world situation. By giving a smoker the opportunity to continue the actual experience of smoking while eliminating tar and tobacco, it makes it possible to seamlessly transition to a tobacco free lifestyle.
"Reproducing the habit – the feel, the behavior that goes with it – in a manner that you reduce your nicotine dosages over time – it works," he said. "And many, many people at the end of the process keep vaping with stuff that has no nicotine."
Ultimately, the Health Minister said regulations must be balanced. While we need some regulations to keep ecigs out of the hands of children and teens, our ultimate goal is to make them easily available to adult smokers for the purposes of smoking cessation. Do you think health professionals are finally waking up to the benefits of vaping? Will we see more stories like this one in the future?]]>
Professor David Peyton led the study and he said the researchers examined vapor by drawing it up into syringes to simulate the lungs being filled with vapor after inhaling. When they started running tests on the vapor samples, they had some worrisome results. "We found this form of formaldehyde at significantly higher concentrations than even regular cigarettes (contain) – between five and fifteenfold higher concentration of formaldehyde than cigarettes," Peyton said. "Long-term exposure is recognized as contributing to lung cancer."
Before you go and throw all your ecigs in the trash, let's take a closer look to see if their findings are accurate. The first thing to keep in mind is that just because they were able to find formaldehyde in a syringe of vapor, that doesn't necessarily mean the same level would be found in your lungs after you vape. In fact, vapor contents are heavily determined by the heat settings of you ecig.
Gregory Conley from the American Vaping Association said voltage makes a world of difference in ecig vapor and the number of carcinogens that scientists can generate in a lab. With a little digging, we found that the Portland State University scientists only found formaldehyde when they generated vapor at the highest heat settings.
"If you hold the button on an e-cigarette for 100 seconds, you could potentially produce 100 times more formaldehyde than you would ever get from a cigarette," Conley explained. "But no human vaper would ever vape at that condition, because within one second their lungs would be incredibly uncomfortable."
Conley said he could generate similar scary test results on a piece of red meat. "I can take a steak and I can cook it on the grill for the next 18 hours, and that steak will be absolutely chock-full of carcinogens," he said. "But the steak will also be charcoal, so no one will eat it."
Professor Peyton even acknowledged that there was no formaldehyde found when ecigs were tested at low voltage levels. But he justified publishing the scary results by claiming that most vapers were using high heat levels. His only evidence was the fact that he sees big vapor clouds when he watches people use ecigs on the street.
Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos is well known for his cutting edge ecig research and he found a lot of fault in this study's methodology. He weighed in on the results, saying, "It is more than obvious that the findings of very high levels of formaldehyde are a result of overheating," he said. "Lack of experience on e-cigarettes and no contact with vapers can result in such erroneous and unrealistic results, which can create confusion and misinformation both in the scientific community and among users and potential users of e-cigarettes."
Ultimately, it seems that vaping is perfectly safe if you are using cigalikes. But when you start moving towards mods or tank systems with variable voltage, you could potentially enter some dangerous territory. Do you think mods and tanks are a smart move to advance the ecig industry or should vapers stick to cigalikes for the health benefits? Do you worry that your mod could expose you to carcinogens?]]>
"Of course, it's definitely taken a bit of our market, no question at all – but there's a lot of competition in that space anyway," he said. Witty said GSK had even considered developing their own version of an electronic cigarette to compete in the growing market, but eventually they decided to wait it out. "We've decided we're not going to play. We've consciously had a think about it but we're not going to play," he said.
Over the past two years, there has been a plethora of research about how ecigs impact smoking cessation and it's clear that vaping works. In fact, a recent study revealed that smokers are more likely to successfully kick the cigarette habit by using ecigs than if they relied on cold turkey methods or traditional nicotine replacement therapies like nicotine patches. Smokers like using ecigs as an alternative because they offer nicotine replacement in a familiar form. They can still enjoy the act of smoking by inhaling a nicotine vapor, but the tobacco and tar is eliminated to drastically reduce health risks.
Even with an abundance of evidence to suggest that ecigs are the best avenue for smokers that want to quit, Witty said GlaxoSmithKline is not ready to concede just yet. They will continue offering nicotine gum, patches, and medications in hopes to attract smokers that are not sold on the ecig concept. He believes ecigs are "just too controversial" at this point and it's too early for Big Pharma to jump in the ecig market.
We will have to watch to see if GSK will change their position in the future. Would it be a smart move for Big Pharma to launch their own line of electronic cigarettes? Would this ultimately help or hurt the growing ecigarette industry?]]>
The team's commercial manager, Alex Wilson, said the change of heart came after really learning about differences between vaping and smoking. It became obvious that electronic cigarettes were the best choice and the Wolves don't want to discourage fans from making a positive lifestyle change.
"We are firmly committed to helping our fans make informed choices, particularly when it comes to health and fitness. Obviously the best option is to never smoke at all, but as a percentage of our fans are already smokers, we are pleased to be able to encourage them to consider switching to alternatives," Wilson said. "We are pleased to be able to encourage them to considering switching to alternatives by allowing vaping in certain areas of the stadium, as well as providing a branded vaporizer that can be purchased on site."
As for the new partnership with TruVape, Wilson said it is a good choice for the team because TruVape is a trusted name in the ecig industry. "We believe this partnership, with a reputable brand like TruVape – known for their attention to safety and adherence to regulations – will help our fans enjoy a better match day experience, and provide those who smoke with an alternative that experts believe has the potential to hugely reduce harm," Wilson said.
TruVape's representative, Lee Bryan, said they are excited to work with the Warrington Wolves. "The synergy between Wolves and TruVape in terms of both branding and fan base is excellent," Bryan said. "We are looking forward to working with the Warrington Wolves in helping their fans make the conversion from smoking to vaping."
Ecigs are wildly popular in the UK and two million smokers have already made the switch to electronic cigarettes. As more research emerges to show to health benefits of using ecigs for smoking cessation, public venues like Halliwell Jones Stadium are beginning to reconsider their previous vaping policies. Do you think the overall view of vaping is finally shifting? Will electronic cigarettes eventually be widely accepted or will they always face an uphill battle?]]>
Li Baojiang, the deputy director of the Chinese economic research institute, said lawmakers are concerned with consumer safety. "Regulating e-cigarettes, like traditional tobacco products under the State monopoly, is highly feasible," Baojiang said. "And that helps with consumer safety and rights, product quality control and the government coffers."
The World Health Organization has historically taken a harsh approach towards the vaping industry and they have continuously put mounting pressure on China to enact new regulations for ecig manufacturers and exporters. Bernhard Schwartlander, the WHO representative for China, said the ecig industry is growing at an unprecedented rate and safety measures need to be enacted immediately to protect consumers. "The WHO is calling for stronger regulation of e-cigarettes and similar devices," he admitted.
China is lagging behind many other countries around the world that have already jumped on the regulation bandwagon. The United States is currently mulling over regulations through the Food and Drug Administration. In Brazil, electronic cigarettes were completely banned in 2009 and Spain has banned vaping in public places, treating them much like tobacco products. The UK insisted on a different approach, classifying electronic cigarettes as medications and regulating them as pharmaceutical products.
Schwartlander worries that ecigs could pose a public health risk and hopes that vaping products will be regulated as tobacco products in China. Li agreed, saying that treating ecigs as tobacco products would be the most effective way to insure fair policies and product safety for consumers. "If it's regulated as a tobacco product, it will thereafter be subject to existing smoking control policies," he said.
There is a lot at stake with these regulations as China currently has over 900 ecig manufacturers. From 2012 to 2013, the industry grew by 200 percent and in 2013, they exported $560 million worth of ecig products. Experts estimate that the Chinese ecig industry is worth around $3 billion.
Do you think China should move forward with ecig regulations or is it best to let manufacturers determine their own quality standards?]]>
1. Ecigs Improve Health for 91 Percent of Smokers that Switch
According to the #curbit marketing, "e-cigarettes are harmful, just like cigarettes". But if you want to know the truth, just read this study where independent university researchers found that 91 percent of smokers had noticeable health improvements after switching to vaping. Remember that old smoker's cough? Scientists found that 97 percent of smokers eliminate it or drastically reduce it after swapping out their old tobacco smokes for ecigs.
2. Ecigs Do Not Lead Teens to More Frequent Smoking Addictions
The San Francisco Department of Health claims that "flavored e-cigarettes hook teens on nicotine." But studies show that ecigs don't lead to higher rates of teen smoking at all. In fact, out of 1,300 college students that use ecigs, only one individual had never smoked a cigarette. Teens are switching to ecigs to avoid tobacco addictions, not vice versa.
3. Ecigs Have Reduced Teen Smoking Rates to Historical Lows
The #curbit campaign paints ecigs as the enemy by pointing to CDC statistics claiming 263,000 teens have used e-cigs but never smoked. These numbers are highly misleading because the surveys didn't find out if teens were regular vapers or had simply taken one puff on an ecig. They also didn't ask teens if the ecigs they tried contained nicotine and there are plenty out there that are nicotine-free.
President Gregory Conley from the American Vaping Association said the most important aspect of the recent surveys has been completely ignored. "The most important part of this survey is also likely to be the most underreported – youth smoking has declined to a record low," he explained. "This drop in youth smoking comes despite several years of hype and conjecture by reckless activists who have been keen to portray vaping as a gateway to traditional cigarettes."
4. Ecig Vapor Has Far Less Toxins and Carcinogens than Cigarette Smoke
San Francisco health activists claim, "E-cigarettes contain tobacco related carcinogens, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals." They also allege that ecig vapor has "toxic and cancer-causing metals and chemicals". But is it true? According to Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, after many hours of research, he says there is no scientific evidence to back those claims. "Overall, the residual risk from e-cigarette use is orders of magnitude lower than smoking. This is exactly what smokers need (and deserve) to know."
5. Nicotine In E-Cigarettes Is Not Linked to Cancer
Ecig critics want you to believe that ecigs will still give you cancer because they contain nicotine. But studies equate the health impacts of nicotine to consuming caffeine with no evidence that it could cause a higher risk for developing cancer. When you consume nicotine, the impact to your body is similar to drinking a cup of coffee – you might have a slightly increase in heart rate and blood pressure, but the overall risk is quite small.
6. Flavored E-liquids Help People Quit Smoking
The #curbit campaign says, "E-cigarettes are heavily marketed to youth using sweet flavors." However, this study found that those sweet flavors actually help smokers kick the habit. The vast majority of e-cig users rely on non-tobacco flavors to help them avoid nicotine. Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos said the variety of e-liquid flavors "are important contributors in reducing or eliminating smoking consumption."
7. Ecig Vapor Creates No Secondhand Toxins.
San Francisco's Department of Public Health insists that ecigs be kicked to the curb because the vapor is a threat to public health. They claim, "E-cigarettes emit a pollution cloud that contains hazardous materials, presenting a potential danger to the public and secondhand harm to others." But they must have skipped their research on this one because there are numerous studies that prove them wrong. Researchers proved that ecig vapor will dissipate within an average of 11 seconds while cigarette smoke can linger for more than 20 minutes. Another study found that there were no combustion related toxins in ecig vapor at all.
8. Ecigs Help People Quit Smoking
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the #curbit campaign is the attempt to equate ecigs and tobacco cigarettes with lines like "Ecigs are cigs". This is absolutely false and there are multiple differences. Not only are ecigs tobacco free, but there is no tar, no flame, and no combustion to create toxins like you find in cigarettes. Tony Newman, the communications director of the Drug Policy Alliance said, "It seems like every day we hear a new attack – yet these products are actually helping some people quit or cut back on the much more dangerous alternative of smoking tobacco."
9. Ecigs are Less Addictive Than Tobacco Cigarettes.
Critics claim, "E-cigarettes are just the latest gimmick from Big Tobacco to hook a new generation on their products." But it's important to note that ecigs were not born from the tobacco industry and less than 1 percent of the market is tied to Big Tobacco. Furthermore, studies from Penn State College of Medicine recently found that electronic cigarettes are less addictive than tobacco cigarettes. They aren't hooks used to lure innocents into a lifelong tobacco addiction because scientists said vapers are far less dependent on ecigs than they were when smoking analog cigs.
10. Regulating Ecigs Could Be Deadly for Public Health
The #curbit campaign tries to discredit ecigs because they are not currently regulated by the FDA. However, there are local laws in place in San Francisco that prohibit ecig sales to minors. Dr. Gilbert Ross, the medical and executive director of the American Council on Science and Health, argued that research proves ecigs are healthier than tobacco cigarettes. He believes imposing harsh regulations could actually be deadly for public health in today's society.
It's clear that San Francisco is turning a blind eye to scientific research and they want to ignore the facts so they can carry on with their bogus #curbit campaign. But it's our job to refute their claims and spread the word so that ecigs get a fair chance. Do your part and spread the word on these studies so that people can hear how life changing it is when you switch to electronic cigarettes.]]>
Phillips' statements shed a lot of light on how important electronic cigarettes could be for the future of American health. "We know that every time a smoker switches to e-cigarettes, there is a good chance she is saving herself from an eventual smoking-caused premature death," Phillips said. "But this also means that, for someone who has quit smoking thanks to e-cigarettes, there is a chance she has already avoided premature death."
Based on methodology from tobacco research in 2009, Phillips calculated how many Americans would have already died from smoking related causes if they had not switched to electronic cigarettes. He believes 10,000 would have already died and many more could have developed terminal diseases that would result in eventual death. He said that ecigs offer a much better approach than cold turkey quit attempts because they statistically save more lives.
"Switching to a low-risk alternative is usually lower risk than trying to quit completely, even if the alternative has non-zero risk. This is because even a few more months of smoking before quitting poses greater risk than a lifetime of using the alternative product," Phillips explained.
He also suggests that even if no one else switches from tobacco to electronic cigarettes, another 400,000 lives will be spared from eventual death by smoking-related causes in 2015. These numbers are an important addition to ecig research and need to be considered carefully in light of the FDA's regulatory plans. "If the FDA had succeeded in banning e-cigarettes in 2009, over 10,000 Americans who are now alive would be dead," Phillips said. "There is a lot of work to be done to stop those who would choose to let smokers die rather than have an attractive alternative."
As we move forward into the new year, we should all work together to continue spreading the word about how important ecigs are for American health. There are a lot of critics and skeptics that still believe ecigs are nothing more than an advanced version of analog smokes and we have to press forward with research to show them the truth.
How did ecigs impact your health in 2014?]]>
"We make quite a few dollars off of them. You'd be surprised how they use them things up here," said Don Hall, the county director of Accounts and Budget. "We probably make $75,000 to $80,000 this year alone just on the profit of those cigarettes. It may even go to $100,000 next year."
The income from ecig sales goes to the general fund, which covers extra expenses and needs for the sheriff's office, jail system, and EMS services. Auditors reported that officials purchased the prison's ecigs at a total of $33,015 with the money coming from inmates and not taxpayers. However, some local citizens are bothered by the high cost and believe the prison should reach out for bids.
The sheriff's department said they did ask for additional bids, but had very little interest. "We only got one vendor to even bid on it," Hall said. "I'd figure we would have had 10 of those vendors, but we only had one."
Even with only one participating vendor, the ecig program has been widely accepted by inmates and Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe said that prison officials have been very cognizant of any risks associated with vaping. "I'm not aware of any additional health risks with vapor cigarettes," Bledsoe said. He also explained how the guards keep ecigs from becoming weapons.
"We looked at the devices inside them and to see if there was anything that could be used for some kind of malicious purposes. Once we figured out they were safe to have and couldn't be fashioned into a weapon, we put parameters in place that these products have to be returned, with no tampering at all, in order to receive another one."
So far, the Tennessee prison's plan seems to be working with inmates faithfully buying ecigs and the county gaining a nice profit from the tobacco-free devices. Perhaps the Dickson County success story will pave the way for more prisons to offer electronic cigarettes in the future.]]>


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Find more dishes for winter on menus -- Buckley's, Andrew's, The National, Il Mito
Restaurants continue adjusting their menus as we roll toward winter. Here's a sampling of what you'll find around the area:
Buckley's: Some of the newer items on the menu include appetizers of caramelized Brussels sprouts with kimchi ($8) and grilled octopus ($12) with paprika-pancetta vinaigrette, fig vincotto and soft polenta. »Read Full Blog Post
'Airplane' co-creator's mother set her own course
When she reached a certain age, Louise Abrahams Yaffe did what a lot of people do. She joined AARP.
"She figured that's what people should do," said her daughter, Jane Butenhoff. But Yaffe was also the kind of person who got involved, and getting her AARP card marked her entry into a new frontier - working on behalf of seniors. »Read Full Article
Theater scene delivered captivating performances in 2012
Here are two memorable scenes - one from each of the two best shows I saw on a Milwaukee stage this year.
Toward the end of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's "To Kill a Mockingbird," 8-year-old Scout escorts Boo Radley home. As Atticus, Lee E. Ernst watches her go, while also gazing into the future at the woman she will become, embodied by Deborah Staples. Atticus and Scout are sometimes at loggerheads. But in this great moment, we also see how much they share. »Read Full Article(2)
'Help, Thanks, Wow' gets to the heart of the power of prayer
Anne Lamott, whose Christianity is permeated by the street-wise spirituality of the 12-step programs, has much in common with the publican in Luke's parable, whose simple prayer is "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Luke doesn't record how much of a sense of humor the publican had, but Lamott brings her hard-earned wit to this concise book about the ways that need, gratitude and awe drive prayer. »Read Full Article
The restaurant closings (and refashionings) of 2012
Every year has its share of restaurant closings. In 2012, an unusual number of restaurants closed but reopened fairly quickly with new concepts under ownership that was the same or just somewhat different.
On Tap Today: Hollywood elbows its way back
Who'd a-thunk Hollywood still had the juice? But the mainstream film industry did indeed seize this year, striking back at the box office against the relentless trendiness of indie films. Learn more as Movie Critic tells us what movies he put on his 2012 Top 10 List – and why -- in Friday's Weekend Cue.
Dining Critic Carol Deptolla has a "Best" list of her own. She gives us a roundup of "Best New Restaurants of 2012." Among them: Braise, c.1880 and Odd Duck . Find out what other new dining places made it to the top this year, and why you should check them all out. »Read Full Blog Post

subset: commoncrawl