Read articles from United States of America

September 21, 2022 by reuters.com

Juul Labs has sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the agency's refusal to disclose documents supporting its order banning the company, which has been blamed for fueling a teenage vaping crisis, from selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market.

In a complaint filed on Tuesday with a federal court in Washington, D.C., Juul accused the FDA of invoking the "widely abused" deliberative process privilege to improperly withhold scientific materials that are "central" to understanding the basis for the June 23 sales ban.

September 19, 2022 by forbes.com

President Biden’s administration is clearing out the smoke when it comes to the sale of menthol flavored cigarettes. This nicotine product accounts for more than one-third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year. Menthol cigarettes have been historically heavily marketed toward Black Americans, and the FDA specifically noted that the move to ban them would save the lives of 92,000 to 238,000 African Americans.

September 14, 2022 by filtermag.org

Juul is back in the news, this time for tentatively agreeing to pay a whopping $438.5 million in a multistate agreement to settle numerous allegations (without admitting wrongdoing) related to youth vaping. The money is to be paid out over a period of six to 10 years.

In a September 6 press release, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who led the investigation and negotiations, stated, “They relentlessly marketed vaping products to underage youth, manipulated their chemical composition to be palatable to inexperienced users… misled consumers about the nicotine content and addictiveness of its products.” [...]

September 13, 2022 by sbsun.com

On November 8, 2022, Californians will be able to vote up or down a law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products statewide. The referendum, Proposition 31, would undo Senate Bill 793, a 2020 law that bans the sale of many flavored tobacco products but has yet to go into effect. The prohibited products are vapes, menthol cigarettes, and of special note, fruity and sweet flavorings like sour apple and gummy bear. Californians will be better off without the ban, which disproportionately affects the vaping market. It does more harm than good by pushing users toward unflavored tobacco products, typically cigarettes. [...]

September 13, 2022 by filtermag.org

When I was a teen in a small Midwestern town in the 1970s, the US high school smoking rate was over 25 percent. It was legal for 16-year-olds in many states to purchase tobacco products, and many high schools had designated smoking areas where both students and teachers took smoke breaks. [...] over the past decade, US high school smoking dropped a further 90 percent. “Current use” of combustible tobacco cigarettes is now 1.9 percent. But for teens, “current use” means even one puff in the past month. “Frequent use” (20 or more days per month) is now 0.38 percent. Essentially nil.

September 12, 2022 by tobaccoreporter.com

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent more than 44 warning letters to manufacturers and over 300 warning letters to retailers for violations relating to nontobacco nicotine (NTN) products since President Joe Biden signed legislation authorizing the agency to regulate tobacco products containing nicotine from any source. Additionally, the FDA has issued new warning letters to 102 retailers for illegally selling NTN products to underage purchasers.

September 12, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com

There’s no mystery as to why nicotine vaping suffers a dismal reputation. Non-profits and foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies, Truth Initiative, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the “body part orgs” have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and applied tremendous pressure to misinform the public and influence policymakers regarding the potential harms of vaping.
Veteran reporter Marc Gunther joins us today on RegWatch to discuss the impact of private money in the war on vaping.

September 09, 2022 by eurekalert.org

Five years ago, researchers led by Virginia Commonwealth University forensic science professor Michelle Peace, Ph.D., revealed that e-liquids — the flavored nicotine solution used in e-cigarettes — frequently contain ethanol, or alcohol, as an unlisted ingredient.

That hidden presence of ethanol in e-liquids raised an important question for public safety and law enforcement: Could unknowingly vaping alcohol cause a person who hadn’t been drinking to fail a sobriety test?

To answer that question, Peace and co-principal investigator [...] launched a human clinical study in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and VCU Police Department.

September 09, 2022 by medicalxpress.com

Chronic use of e-cigarettes, commonly known as vaping, can result in progressive small airway obstruction and asthma-like symptoms such as shortness of breath and chest pains, according to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In the first study to microscopically evaluate the pulmonary tissue of e-cigarette users for chronic disease, the team found in a small sample of patients fibrosis and damage in the small airways, similar to the chemical inhalation damage to the lungs typically seen in soldiers returning from overseas conflicts who had inhaled mustard or similar types of noxious gases.

September 08, 2022 by reuters.com

A North Carolina jury on Wednesday said R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co must pay tobacco giant Altria Group Inc more than $95 million, finding e-cigarettes from RJR's top-selling Vuse line infringed three Altria patents.

Richmond, Virginia-based Altria accused rival RJR of violating patents related to vaping devices with pods for storing and heating liquid nicotine, and requested more than 5% of RJR's royalties on Vuse Alto sales.