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- Category: September 2018
The Tamil Nadu government has passed an order banning the sale of e-cigarettes (electronic nicotine delivery system or ENDS) with immediate effect. The health and family welfare department passed a government order (GO), dated September 3, banning e-cigarettes with immediate effect. The government has banned manufacture, sale, distribution, trade, trade, marketing, import and possession of the electronic nicotine delivery systems.
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- Category: September 2018
The Northern Territory is seeking feedback on a Bill to regulate vaping like smoking. If passed, this Bill will deny smokers access to far safer products and will lead to more smoking-related disease and death. The Economic Policy Scrutiny Committee is calling for submissions to its inquiry into the Tobacco Control Legislation Amendment Bill 2018. The fundamental flaw of the proposed Bill is that it defines nicotine-containing vaporisers as tobacco products. However, vaporisers do not contain tobacco, there is no combustion or smoke and they carry only a small fraction of the risk of tobacco products.
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- Category: September 2018
According to Bloomberg, Juul has “worked to remove more than 16,000 listings from online marketplaces since January.” As Vice News noted earlier this year, foreign manufacturers often make cloned versions of popular vaping products that are designed to be indistinguishable from the real thing. Counterfeit products are hardly new, but fake vapes are particularly eyebrow-raising because cheap batteries can explode, e-liquids sold alongside them could be loaded with toxic chemicals, and the devices could improperly heat up, releasing harmful substances instead of vapor. And, as Juul was quick to point out, buying a clone on eBay means age verification of buyers likely never happens (not that it’s hard for teens to get their hands on a real one).
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- Category: September 2018
JAC Vapour is one of the only independent companies outside of China to design and create mainstream vaping devices for people who want to give up smoking. The SPS Smoke Free Prisons initiative goes live at the end of November and the company has been working closely with the SPS and its smoke free team to design products that meet the specific requirements of prisoners and the service. As a result of the collaboration they have created a device called the Wee VIM, which was based on one of their newest e-cigarette designs, the VIM.
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- Category: September 2018
So today FDA Commissioner Gottlieb is pumping cigarette company stock prices by threatening to ban flavors in vapor products (or something — not entirely clear), unless the manufacturers magically get teenagers to switch back to smoking instead (or something — not entirely clear). I wanted to address one aspect of this rhetorical game that does not get talked about enough. I doubt there is any serious observer of this space who does not get this, but much of what is said seems to overlook it rather than drilling down to it as it should.
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- Category: September 2018
The anti-tobacco Truth Initiative tweeted that the smoking rate among young adults (18-24 year old) in the U.S. is “just 10.4%,” based on the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (here). Among the 5% who are former smokers in this age group, over half were current vapers or had tried vaping products. Even more impressive, 7 out of 10 current smokers were either current vapers or had tried e-cigarettes, meaning they could eventually make the switch to smoke-free. Advocates of greater tobacco control make a specious boast when they celebrate lower smoking rates while ignoring the positive impact of vaping.
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- Category: September 2018
On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued more than 1,000 warning letters to retailers and manufacturers of e-cigarettes. It is, according to an FDA press release, “the largest coordinated enforcement effort in the FDA’s history.” In the letters, the FDA gives manufacturers, including JUUL, just 60 days to demonstrate that they can keep the nicotine-infused products out of the hands of minors. If the companies don’t succeed, the administration could ban candy-like flavors like mango and crème brûlée, which the FDA sees as particularly appealing to teens. “JUUL Labs will work proactively with FDA in response to its request,” said a JUUL spokesperson. “We are committed to preventing underage use of our product, and we want to be part of the solution in keeping e-cigarettes out of the hands of young people.”
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- Category: September 2018
The study which was published on BMC’s Harm Reduction Journal last month, investigated perspectives on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation, by staff offering cessation interventions at Stop Smoking Services across England. The researchers interviewed 25 cessation services staff, including advisors, managers and commissioners, from eight different cessation centres in the South-West of England, UK.
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- Category: September 2018
“Best practice measures embedded in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have effectively reduced active smoking and prevented involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in many countries,” says Dr Freddie Bray, Head of the Section of Cancer Surveillance at IARC. “However, given that the tobacco epidemic is at different stages in different regions and in men and women, the results highlight the need to continue to put in place targeted and effective tobacco control policies in every country of the world.”
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- Category: September 2018
Few studies have empirically investigated the regressivity of the cigarette excise taxes, and specifically the impact of changes in cigarette taxes and prices on the distribution of the burden of the tax. Today’s tobacco tax increases make cigarettes even more expensive, causing financial pain for many low-income smokers who are unable to quit. The tax on tobacco in African countries has almost quadrupled since 2010 and is helping to fill government coffers.Most remaining smokers are addicted to nicotine and prioritise their cigarette purchase at any price, often sacrificing household essentials like food. At these unprecedented price levels, it is unclear if further price rises have a net public health benefit.
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- Category: September 2018
Tobacco stocks are rallying the most in a decade following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that it’s cracking down on e-cigarettes in an effort to combat youth vaping. Altria Group and British American Tobacco gained the most intraday since 2008, rising as much as 7.7 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. Philip Morris rose the most in more than three years. The agency has asked that the five top-selling national e-cigarette brands submit plans on how they will address youth access and use of their products.
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- Category: September 2018
Associations of electronic cigarette users, also known as “vapers” from the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, joined together to launch a united voice to be heard by policy makers. Peter Paul Dator from The Vapers Philippines (..) said the campaign #VapersBeHeard aimed to express to policy-makers that it is the basic human right of vapers and smokers to receive accurate information as well as have access to better alternative products, rather than for them to continue smoking cigarettes, which is the most harmful way of consuming tobacco.
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- Category: September 2018
No flavor ban in Oakley. While I never allow myself to call anything a “win” since most wins are always of a temporary nature anyway, I think we can safely say that a flavor ban will not be part of the consideration in Oakley. An hour ago we (Chuck Allen and Stefan Didak) along with two other valued NBS allies, engaged the city council in a work session on flavored tobacco and restrictions. At the end of that common sense prevailed with three of the council members agreeing that age restrictions need to be enforced, banning the sale of legal products to adults is silly, and that people need to parent their kids and that is not a job for the government.
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- Category: September 2018
(..) by ignoring overwhelming evidence of the benefits of ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems), this abrogation of the health groups' responsibility to maximize public health is peculiar, indeed, particularly when recognizing that the United Kingdom is calling for a change in national policy after acknowledging that vaping is an important tool for smoking cessation. Instead of speculating regarding motives, it is necessary to confront their reticence to embrace ENDS, notwithstanding their classic "more research regarding electronic-cigarettes is needed" disclaimer.
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- Category: September 2018
Tobacco smoking rates present a challenge for Europe as rates for the adult population are the highest of the six WHO regions though the figures varied between countries and age groups. WHO estimates (based on data from 45 coun-tries) show the age-standardized prevalence of current tobacco smoking among people aged 15 years and above was 29% in 2013. The prevalence of tobacco smoking in 2013 among males (38.5%) was higher than that for females (20.7%). The highest and lowest national rates for smoking any tobacco product were 59.8% and 18.6% among males and 39.7% and 0.4% among females (see Fig. 2.3). These esti-mates are the highest of the six Regions of WHO.
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- Category: September 2018
The new Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill loses the opportunity to provide the millions of South African cigarette smokers with clear, unambiguous risk differentiation between tobacco and nicotine. Tobacco kills, but nicotine-based vaping products (e-cigarettes) can be a lifesaver. It is important for government to understand and communicate the difference accurately and responsibly to our citizens.
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- Category: September 2018
(..) article, in which the authors showed that e-cigarette aerosol emissions increase platelet-activating factor receptor (PAFR) expression and, consequently, Streptococcus pneumoniae adhesion to human airway epithelial cells. These findings led authors to conclude that e-cigarette use has the potential to increase susceptibility to pneumococcal infection.
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- Category: September 2018
Since entering the Croatian market three years ago with the takeover of the TDR company, British American Tobacco (BAT) will have invested 45 million euro by the end of this year, BAT told a press conference during a presentation of glo, the apparatus for heating tobacco. Glo is a device that heats tobacco to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol with a tobacco taste. Because the tobacco is only heated and not burned, the resulting aerosol can potentially contain substantially lower levels of the toxicants found in the smoke produced when tobacco is burned.
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- Category: September 2018
Heated tobacco products (also called ‘heat-not-burn’ products) heat tobacco at temperatures below that of combustion, causing nicotine and other compounds to aerosolise. One such product, IQOS from Philip Morris International, is being marketed internationally with claims of harm reduction. We sought to determine whether exposure to IQOS aerosol impairs arterial flow-mediated dilation (FMD), a measure of vascular endothelial function that is impaired by tobacco smoke.
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- Category: September 2018
When people begin smoking at a young age, they are more likely to acquire a lifelong addiction, according to medical studies, and Washington County Health Commissioner Dick Wittberg believes that raising the minimum age for legal tobacco purchase from 18 to 21 will have long-ranging impacts on the health of Washington County residents. Tobacco 21, being overseen by the health department’s tobacco prevention coordinator, Stephanie McPeek (..)