Read articles from United States of America

March 22, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com

Congress granted FDA the authority to regulate synthetic nicotine in a crass attempt to ameliorate the moral panic over teen vaping.

A problem that many researchers say is waning if it existed at all.

Joining us today for a special LIVE edition of RegWatch is Amanda Wheeler, president of the American Vapor Manufacturers. Learn what happens next for the U.S. vaping industry as it navigates the treacherous path to keep much-needed safer nicotine products on the market.

March 21, 2022 by ctpost.com

As anticipated, the Connecticut Public Health Committee raised Senate Bill 367 recently, which would ban the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes except those that taste like tobacco. This legislation is no surprise: leadership in the Public Health Committee has made a flavor ban a top priority, and Gov. Ned Lamont has been a longtime advocate, even including it in his 2020 budget proposal. He has committed to signing it into law if the Legislature passes it.

March 21, 2022 by reason.com

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, if it hasn't happened already, the first American will likely be sentenced to prison for selling flavored tobacco or e-cigarettes.

It might happen in Massachusetts, where state attorney general Maura Healey announced charges last year against New Hampshire resident Samuel Habib, accused of running "a large-scale illegal marijuana, tobacco, and flavored vaping product distribution operation." The charge of tax evasion, stemming in part from his sale of flavored e-cigarettes that are banned in Massachusetts, carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

March 18, 2022 by everydayhealth.com

People who smoke e-cigarettes and hookahs may be at a higher risk of inflammation and cancers of the nose, sinuses, and throat because of the way they exhale when using these devices, according to a new study.

Researchers found that vapers and hookah users are more than twice as likely to exhale particles through their nose than people who smoke cigarettes, who typically exhale the emissions from their mouth.

“This matters because the way vapers and hookah smokers use their devices may expose the nose and sinuses to far more emissions than cigarettes, which may in turn increase their risk of upper respiratory diseases,” says the study's lead author, Emma Karey, [...]

March 17, 2022 by filtermag.org

[....] President Joe Biden was about to sign an omnibus spending bill, giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate synthetic nicotine like any other “tobacco product.” The law will go into effect in 30 days.

It’s possible the FDA—which is in no reasonable position to authorize the applications in that period—could order every single synthetic nicotine product off the market.

Once that date arrives in mid-April, producers of synthetic nicotine vapes and other products like pouches will have 30 additional days to file premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) with the FDA. [...]

March 16, 2022 by ctpublic.org

Connecticut raised its tobacco purchase age to 21 back in 2019, but youth advocates and health care experts say that hasn’t stopped flavored vaping and e-cigarette products from winding up in the hands of teens and adolescents.

“A lot of the time, people have older siblings and friends where they get these products from,” said Phoebe Lampos, a junior at Lyme-Old Lyme High School who testified Monday before Connecticut legislators about what she’s observed among fellow students.

“Once these younger students have them from older children, they’ll distribute them in their grades and then soon it just becomes something in their grade,” she said, [...]

March 14, 2022 by reason.com

The pandemic has given Americans ample reason to be skeptical of pronouncements by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC). A press release the CDC [...] reminds us that the agency's habit of misleading the public began long before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

According to the latest results from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), the CDC says, "about 2.55 million U.S. middle and high school students reported current (past 30-day) use of a tobacco product in 2021." If you have not been paying attention to the CDC's inveterate dishonesty on this subject, it may surprise you to learn that most of those 2.55 million students did not use products that contained tobacco.

March 14, 2022 by cigaraficionado.com

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a report [...] Premium Cigars: Patterns of Use, Marketing and Health Effects. [...] It’s the first major-government-funded report that deals specifically with the scientific study of premium, handmade cigars, and was conducted by a panel of 13 scientists, chaired by Steven Teutsch.

The findings indicate that the risks associated with other tobacco products are different from those tied to handmade cigars, underscoring the need for a separate premium category. [...]

March 14, 2022 by cdc.gov

 Commercial tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. Most tobacco product use begins during adolescence. In recent years, tobacco products have evolved to include various combusted, smokeless, and electronic products. [...] In 2021, an estimated 34.0% of high school students (5.22 million) and 11.3% of middle school students (1.34 million) reported ever using a tobacco product (i.e., electronic cigarettes [e-cigarettes], cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookahs, pipe tobacco, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches, and bidis [small brown cigarettes wrapped in a leaf]). [...]

March 11, 2022 by forbes.com

Of the many provisions included in the 2,741 page omnibus spending bill being pushed through Congress this week is a budget rider that will subject thousands of products containing synthetic nicotine to FDA regulation for the first time. Proponents of this policy change refer to it as closing a loophole. Meanwhile critics of this rider contend that, given the well documented flaws and deficiencies in the FDA approval process, this budget rider will likely result in the prohibition of products that former smokers have used to quit smoking and stay off cigarettes. [...]