Read articles from North America

July 24, 2023 by medium.com

When Ocean City, MD, banned smoking and vaping from its boardwalk, the city manager said visitors to the popular seaside resort would police themselves. “Will we haul people off to jail for smoking on the boardwalk?” asked David Recor. “No, that’s not our approach.” It hasn’t worked out that way.

July 21, 2023 by themessenger.com

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International said Thursday sales of its smokeless electronic cigarettes were one of its fastest-growing segments during the second quarter as sales of traditional cigarettes declined. The company sold 157 billion packs of cigarettes during the quarter, falling by 0.4% from the same time last year, versus a 26.6% jump in sales of heated tobacco units to 31.4 billion. [...] In the U.S., the company saw shipments for its nicotine pouch brand Zyn jump 53.1% over last year to 89.9 million cans. As of Thursday morning, Philip Morris' stock was up by less than 1%.

July 21, 2023 by cnn.com

Over 1 in 10 young adults in the United States regularly use e-cigarettes, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, conducted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, provides a snapshot of e-cigarette use in 2021. Based on data from the National Health Interview Survey, the report identified that e-cigarette use generally declined as family income increased. Adults under 44 were more likely to be dual users of both cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

July 21, 2023 by amgreatness.com

The longstanding and ongoing crusade the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been waging against e-cigarettes is a classic case of failure to see the forest through the trees. The purpose of e-cigarettes, the practice more commonly referred to as vaping, is to get people off of traditional cigarettes that cause lung damage and addiction. For some, if vaping is banned, they will go back to traditional smoking which will defeat the whole reason that vaping was created – to help get people off of harmful smoking.

July 21, 2023 by filtermag.org

Truth Initiative, a leading anti-smoking nonprofit, has released a report laying out its “strategy to move toward the end of commercial tobacco and nicotine use.” You read that right. Truth Initiative, according to its July 12 report, ultimately wants governments to ban not just combustible cigarettes but all commercial nicotine products. Gone would be nicotine vapes, which have helped millions of people in the United States quit smoking.

July 20, 2023 by amsterdamnews.com

One of my most sacred obligations as Mayor is keeping our children safe from harm. And one of the leading risks to their health is nicotine-based products—including cigarettes and e-cigarettes, also known as vapes. We have made great progress, as a city and nation, keeping our youth safe from traditional cigarette smoking—bringing down youth smoking rates from 23% in 2000 to 2.3% in 2021. But with the rise of vaping, nicotine addiction among middle and high school students is once again on the rise. Vapes are packed with nicotine, a toxic and highly addictive chemical that is particularly damaging to adolescent minds and bodies.

July 18, 2023 by realclearscience.com

Like millions of other Americans, I was hooked. I knew I needed to quit smoking, but I just couldn’t give up cigarettes. I tried everything: nicotine gum, patches, medication, even cold turkey. None of it worked, and I feared I was destined to keep smoking until it killed me. But my smoking-cessation failures came to an unexpected end when I discovered e-cigarettes, more commonly called “vapes” today. And after years as a pack-a-day-smoker, I was done with cigarettes forever. I’m certain that vaping saved my life. And since saving lives is what America’s public-health establishment exists to do, I was sure that they would avidly endorse the technology. Sadly, and inexplicably, I was wrong.

July 18, 2023 by reason.org

The government, at state and federal levels, imposes excise taxes on combustible cigarettes. Principally, the taxes serve to offset the costs smokers impose on non-smokers through increased healthcare demands, deter use (especially among minors), and raise revenue. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was tasked with regulating tobacco products in 2009, a host of safer nicotine alternatives to cigarettes have entered the market, including e-cigarettes, modern oral nicotine, and heated tobacco.

July 18, 2023 by iwf.org

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published the results of the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The biennial survey is administered among high school students and assesses various student behaviors from diet and physical activity habits to mental health and substance use. In 2021, among New Jersey high school students, 3.7% reported currently using combustible cigarettes. Current use is defined as having used the product on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior. [...]

July 18, 2023 by politico.com

The FDA is poised to finalize a rule banning menthol cigarettes — which make up nearly 40 percent of the market — in an effort to encourage smokers to quit. But it hasn’t approved a new smoking-cessation aid in nearly 20 years and has such high standards for authorizing less-harmful menthol e-cigarettes, some public health experts fear the ban may fall short of its desired effect. Not all menthol smokers will just quit, said David Méndez, associate professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan.