Regulators urged to ease rules on smoke-free nicotine products

Public health advocates have gathered in Melbourne, Australia to urge international health bodies and government regulators to ease the restrictive rules against non-combustible, smoke-free nicotine products that are regarded as much safer alternatives to cigarette smoking. “We have the evidence that harm reduction products―snus, vapes and heat-not-burn tobacco are at least 90-percent safer,” Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, a tobacco treatment specialist [...]

2019-10-11
manilastandard.net

E-cigarettes, tobacco and cannabis products are littering high schools

High schools in the San Francisco Bay Area are being contaminated by plastics and toxic litter from e-cigarettes, cannabis products and combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigarillos, a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco has found. "We're in the midst of an epidemic of teen e-cigarette use that is causing substantial toxic waste contamination at some high schools from teens discarding these products on the ground," said first author Jeremiah Mock, [...] "But e-cigarettes are not the only problem," Mock said. [...]

2019-10-11
sciencedaily.com

Breaking up with my Juul: why quitting vaping is harder than quitting cigarettes

The electronic cigarette Juul was invented as a means to help its two co-founders quit smoking. But it’s surprisingly hard to quit the quitting tool. I found out 27 days ago when I took a final puff of my USB-shaped nicotine vape, which over the past year had become an extension of my arm. When I first picked up a Juul, it seemed innocent enough: I was out on a Saturday night and I felt itchy for a new vice. At 25, I had made it through most of my life without smoking cigarettes, save for when I was out on the weekends and bumming them from friends.

2019-10-11
theguardian.com

Why People Are Dying from Vaping in the U.S. and Not the U.K.

"I think the difference between the U.K. and the U.S. are due to the American propensity to turn health issues into moral crusades," said Brad Rodu, a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville and an expert in tobacco-addiction harm-reduction, who also noted that another big issue is the bureaucratic mess in obtaining funding for research in the States. "It appears that policymakers in the U.S. are either completely ignorant of the history of tobacco, or completely ignore it."

2019-10-11
vice.com

Restrictions Make Vaping the Next Lucrative Product Line for Cigarette Smugglers

Minnesota is poised to join the panic-driven crusade against vaping, a move that's guaranteed to drive even more business through well-established smuggling channels. In Minnesota, as elsewhere, cigarette smuggling is well established. In a 2012 article, Tax Foundation economist Patrick Fleenor traced the black market import of smokes right back to the imposition of a tax in 1947. "By the mid-1950s, official figures show, the sale of legal, tax-paid cigarettes had plunged 20 percent below the national level," Fleenor wrote. [...]

2019-10-11
reason.com

Vapers – like smokers – may now have to pay more for life insurance

E-cigarette users may no longer be able to purchase life insurance at cheaper rates than those who smoke regular tobacco products. As more illnesses and, in some instances, deaths are reported from vaping, insurers now appear to be charging the same high premiums for both categories. The nation's fourth-largest life insurer, Prudential, says vapers who inhale from a hand-held electronic vaporizer rather than a traditional cigarette will now be classified as regular smokers and pay more when applying for individual life coverage, according to a company statement on Wednesday.

2019-10-11
cbsnews.com