The road to vaping

Most Canadians don't smoke. Yet Canada has chosen to implement a nationwide smoking-cessation strategy to make nicotine vaping devices as accessible as possible. It was an unusual public health decision for regulators to deliberately craft a law to encourage the sale of an addictive product. The federal government's goal was "to strike a balance between protecting youth from inducement to nicotine and tobacco use, while allowing adult smokers to legally access vaping products," Health Minister Jane Philpott told a Senate committee on April 12, 2017, [...]

2019-12-02
newsinteractives.cbc.ca

How safe are e-cigarettes?

Earlier this year vaping hit the headlines with reports of deaths in the United States linked to the use of e-cigarettes. Vaping was the common factor, but a toxicologist from Imperial College London suggests the deaths could have been caused by oils or other unlicensed substances being added to the e-cigarette, rather than the approved contents of e-liquids. While the jury is still out on the long-term health impacts of vaping, the evidence suggests that in the short to mid-term at least, switching from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes could reduce the harm to smokers by as much as 95 percent.

2019-12-02
medicalxpress.com

MINISTERS MONITORING E-CIGARETTES

The latest communique released by the intergovernmental Ministerial Drug and Alcohol Forum notes that Health Ministers discussed the growing evidence from both Australia and overseas implicating e-cigarettes in a range of harms to population health. “Broadly, this evidence concerns the direct harms e-cigarettes pose to human health, their impact on smoking initiation and cessation, uptake among youth and dual use with conventional tobacco products,” the communique states. The Ministers agreed to monitor evidence as it emerges.

2019-12-02
ajp.com.au

Bangladesh plans to ban e-cigarettes amid growing health concerns

Bangladesh plans to prohibit the sale and use of electronic cigarettes and vaporisers, a health official said on Sunday, as countries around the world move to ban devices that have been linked to health risks and teen addiction. "We are actively working to impose a ban on the production, import and sale of e-cigarettes and all vaping tobaccos to prevent health risks," Shaikh Yusuf Harun, Secretary at the health education and family welfare division of the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, told Reuters.

2019-12-02
news.yahoo.com

DOF seeks ban on flavored e-cigarettes

The Department of Finance (DOF) is pushing for a ban on flavored electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or vapes to discourage the youth from buying these products. “Our original position has always been to make sure that the flavors appealing to the youth are not allowed,” Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said. [...] Chua said the DOF was still awaiting an executive order clarifying the scope of the President’s ban on e-cigarettes.

2019-12-02
newsinfo.inquirer.net

Recreational marijuana is legal in Michigan and will soon be legal in Illinois. Here's what to know

Two Midwestern states are breaking into the recreational marijuana market, and dispensaries are expecting huge crowds. Legal weed sales began Sunday in Michigan, where a handful of dispensaries in Ann Arbor planned to be open for business. The landmark moment in the state's cannabis industry comes amid a temporary ban on the sale of vaping devices in Michigan as health officials investigate the causes of vaping-related lung illnesses nationwide.

2019-12-02
eu.usatoday.com