VAPE NEWS

Probably no single event has rocked the vaping world like the announcement of the FDA Deeming Rule on May 5, 2016. The Deeming Rule is the regulation that gives the FDA authority over vapor products...

A-Z Reference on The Basics, Science, Effectiveness, Safety and Health, Quitting Smoking, Youth Vaping and Other Issues.  

The behavior of US public health groups like the ALA is all the more infuriating when you consider how various lung and respiratory-focused health organizations have endorsed vaping to help people stop smoking around the world.

UK Govt provides 1 million free Vape Kits for residents to quit smoking.
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The debate over nicotine vaping polarizes people “even in tobacco control,” says the chief tobacco control expert at the venerable Royal College of Physicians in the UK.

“The effects of nicotine on cognition relate to attention and memory and it has been suggested to be a “work” drug as opposed to what most of society would think of as a recreational or “fun” drug.”

“The levels of exposure to cancer causing and other toxicants are drastically lower in people who vape compared with those who smoke. Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority if the Government is to achieve a smoke-free 2030 in England.”

Health misinformation is harmful as it can cause confusion and sow mistrust regarding the adoption of public health recommendations and policies. We provide examples of e-cigarette misinformation promoted by the United States public health officials, which have persisted despite new data challenging the validity of the original assertions.

Forero maintains nicotine has been used for more than 30 years for conditions like Parkinson’s, depression, mental illness and now memory loss.
“So, we know that nicotine stimulates areas of the brain associated with memory and attention,” said Forero, adding thar they need more participants from minority communities.

Cigarette smoke inhibits pulmonary perfusion while nicotine-delivering vapors from e-cigarettes do the opposite, actually increasing blood flow in the lungs, according to a functional MRI-based study conducted in Switzerland and published in the July print edition of Radiology.

The FDA has backed down from its decision to order all Juul products off the market, issuing an administrative stay last night that puts the previous order on hold. The agency announced on Twitter it “has determined that there are scientific issues unique to the JUUL application that warrant additional review.”

In a press release, the Food and Drug Administration said the company would no longer be able to sell its e-cigarettes and must remove all of its products from the US market.
"We respectfully disagree with the FDA's findings and decision and continue to believe we have provided sufficient information and data based on high-quality research to address all issues raised by the agency," Chief Regulatory Officer at Juul Labs, Joe Murillo, said in a statement.

Through research and interviews with experts, we explore the truth about vaping and whether misconceptions are preventing us from reducing the largest preventable cause of cancer in Yorkshire.

This short investigative film tackles the myths and misconceptions surrounding vaping and provides smokers with the information needed to make an informed decision about using vape products.

On December 23, 2021, the FDA authorized and gave permission to 22nd Century Group a company that manufacturers cigarettes that have “95 less nicotine” than other tobacco cigarette products in the market, permission to advertise their products as “modified risk tobacco products.” The cigarettes which are called the VLN King and VLN Menthol will now be able to be advertised as reduced risk products, giving them a huge advantage in the market.

In view of the results that the United Kingdom has had with the use of vaping as a smoking cessation tool, public health experts and agencies in the vaping and tobacco industry have called upon the UK government to help raise awareness of their results with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other governments around the world. Especially now that the WHO’S COP9 global conference will take place in November of this year and will likely serve as a launching pad for smoke cessation, vaping, and tobacco policy around the world.

Those in the industry have known for years that the FDA was considering regulations. Anti-tobacco groups sued the FDA to force them to speed up their review. In 2019, a federal judge ordered manufacturers to submit their applications to the FDA. The agency had one year to review the application. During that time, the products were allowed to stay on the market.

American Vaping Association
“Zero product authorizations, millions of banned products, and hundreds of thousands of products left in limbo by the agency’s failure to do their job. That is the end result of the FDA’s multi-year campaign to destroy the vaping industry and hand the remains over to large tobacco companies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has stated its intent to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars. In a statement released today, the agency said it is working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year. The plan does not include noncombustible products, such as e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes with similar nicotine levels to cigarettes may reduce smoking and lessen exposure to pulmonary carcinogen NNAL, according to a study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Penn State College of Medicine.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging the agency to take all flavored e-cigarettes off the market.

In this episode of RegWatch we are joined by USVA’s lawyer Jerad Najvar to discuss the intricacies of the case, including whether the “deeming” authority is so extreme that it’s unconstitutional, and if Congress failed in its duty when it delegated power to legislate to the FDA with little guidance and no restraint.

Dr Benowitz, of the University of California San Francisco, claims the level of  mucus and saliva in vapour is so minimal that it is unlikely to cause infection. 

Forget about the morality and look only at the science and you come to the conclusion that vaping is categorically safer than combustible cigarettes. This is the medical opinion of Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar, Head of Cardiovascular Surgery at Trillium Health Center and one of the leading practitioners of ‘beating heat’ surgery in North America.

While still a small part of the cigarette market, sales of e-cigarettes and vaporizers have already grown to be worth more than $2.2 billion from next to nothing four years ago. By some estimates, they will capture more than half the smoking market within a decade, and tobacco companies are already jockeying for leading positions as that change unfolds.

 Science has proven that the ingredient of propylene glycol found in e-liquids essentially eviscerates several forms of airborne bacteria when vaporized, including pneumococci, streptococcus, and staphylococci.
Each of these bacteria are easily spread from one person to another through coughing, sneezing, and even breathing within close proximity to the uninfected. 

Editors at the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) expressed worry that the study may have been based on misleading data.
"The editors are concerned that the study conclusion is unreliable," they wrote.

Well, now we know for certain what we long suspected: in an exclusive interview with WDIV's Devin Scillian, the double lung transplant patient, teenager Daniel Ament from Grosse Pointe, finally admitted he vaped marijuana.

Despite the fact that the CDC announced January 16, 2020 that the strongest link to the outbreak was illicit THC vapor products tainted with vitamin E acetate, the number of adults who believe nicotine products are the cause has risen 8 percentage points since the height of the outbreak in September 2019. Here’s what you need to know about EVALI.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the policy shift on vaping announced this week by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. In its latest national smoking cessation guidelines, the College now advises GPs and other health professionals to recommend vaping to smokers who have tried to quit but were unsuccessful with currently available medications.

It is illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product – including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes – to anyone under 21.

• MSA Agreement

• Government losing Big Tobacco funding without cigarette sales

• States over leveraged on tobacco bonds bought with THR funds

• Political corruption

• Studies show related addiction to MAOIs (antidepressant) found in tobacco cigarettes

• Nicotine alone is not enough to create the addiction without MAOIs

• Smokers High

• MSA Money over mortgaged

• Tobacco sales down 50% since 1998

• Ecigarettes pose a rising but underappreciated risk to tobacco sales and bonds tot he MSA payments paid to States

• States losing money to Vaping

No commercial e-cigarettes have been associated with these illnesses in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world. It should have been obvious to CDC that regular e-cigarettes were not and could not have been causing these illnesses. Commercial nicotine e-cigarettes have been on the American and European markets for more than a decade and are used by tens of millions of people.

The length of time cotinine remains in your system can vary depending on ethnic background, gender, medications consumed, and even diet. For example, men usually maintain higher cotinine levels than women. As the science has advanced, advice on the “cut-points” (the levels above which the person being tested is considered positive for nicotine use) has changed.

The Oregon Health Authority has officially made a statement this past weekend that they are currently suspending their flavor ban of flavored e-liquid products. This was brought about thanks to the combined efforts of the Vapor Technology Association, Vape Crusaders & Smokeless Solutions. These organizations, with our community's support, filed a successful lawsuit. 

As hysteria over the so-called “vaping-related lung illness” proceeds unabated, the attack on science that supports vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking is renewed in earnest.

Researchers are working hard to determine the cause of more than 500 reported cases of lung illness affecting e-cigarette users. But even before this outbreak, e-cigarettes divided the medical community. Public Health England describes e-cigarettes as "at least 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes" – a claim New York University professor David Abrams agrees with.

On the basis of public health alone, limiting the ability of adults to access reduced-risk and proven-effective alternatives to cigarettes is an unjust assault on consumer freedom. The global scientific consensus is that when an adult vapes nicotine instead of smoking a cigarette to get nicotine, the commercially available e-cigarette reduces the harm associated with smoking by at least 95%. 

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Alisyn Camerota fact-check the president of the American Vaping Association, Gregory Conley, about the detrimental impact of vaping products among children. 
Source: CNN

At least one of the associated deaths that has been publicly disclosed appears to have been related to illicit THC vaping products. In many cases of illness reported by the states, patients have acknowledged recent use of THC-containing vaping products while speaking to healthcare personnel, or in follow-up interviews by health department staff.

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax “usually occurs in tall, thin males of 10 to 30 years old,” according to Shi-ping Luh of the Department of Surgery at St. Martin de Porres Hospital in Taiwan. Unless caused by a particular gene mutation, “researchers suggest that rapid growth of the chest during growth spurts may increase the likelihood of forming blebs,” says the NIH.

“FDA’s constantly shifting regulatory process is wholly unreasonable, unfair and unlawful,” said VTA executive director Tony Abboud. “The Agency has failed to provide advance notice or an opportunity for public comment as required by the Administrative Procedure Act"

• 2019 est 10million Vapers in the US.

• $50 Millon a DAY in tobacco sales lost to Vaing

• $18 BILLION a YEAR in tobacco sales lost to Vaping

• Lower tobacoo sales means less money paid to States

• Follow the Money

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its latest national smoking statistics last Tuesday, and tobacco use among both teens and adults has plummeted to record lows.  

Perhaps no commonly used drug is more misunderstood than nicotine. Because of its presence in tobacco, its effects are frequently confused with the effects and dangers of smoking. But the truth is that nicotine by itself, assuming a reasonable dose, is a largely benign — and even beneficial — substance. 

About 40 million US adults smoke cigarettes. Statistics show, at least one tobacco product, including e-cigarettes is being used by around 4.7 million middle and high school students. 

According to the FDA, some of those experiencing the seizures had a prior history of seizures, some were experienced and others were novice e-cigarette users, and some had used other drugs prior to the seizures, such as marijuana or amphetamines.

 Public Health Expert Dr. Michael Siegel pointed out that the results for this report were obtained from a relatively small and non-ventilated vape shop, where many of the employees and 13 customers were actively vaping while the sampling was taking place, hence what would be considered a situation presenting a high level of exposure to second-hand vapor.

My answer is that vaping is a disruptive industry which threatens more than US$700 billion in tobacco revenues  and US$250 billion in tax revenues. It’s inevitable there’s going to be opposition to vaping.

“Tobacco manufacturers developed the use of a range of compounds, including pyrazines, in order to enhance ‘light’ cigarette products’ acceptance and sales. Pyrazines with chemosensory and pharmacological effects were incorporated in the first ‘full-flavour, low-tar’ product achieving high market success. 
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Hawaii lawmakers today killed a proposal that would have banned flavored electronic smoking devices and e-liquids, saying they suspected teenagers would continue to get the products online even if sales were prohibited.

"If you could take every adult smoker and fully switch them to e-cigarettes, that would have a substantial public health impact..."

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, three million adults and 470,000 children suffer from epilepsy or seizures in the United States.  Therefore, it would be expected that some number of e-cigarette users would suffer from seizures regardless of whether they vaped or used no nicotine products.

• Vape friendly airports in the US

• Countries where vaping is allowed in airports

• What to know about vaping and TSA regulations at the airport

• Tips on vape transportation

• Important things to know about vapes on a plane

E-cigarettes are not subject to such fees now, but several other types of tobacco products are, including cigarettes, cigars and snuff. The agency is expected to collect an estimated $712 million in user fees in the current fiscal year, with cigarettes accounting for more than 86 percent of the amount.

A long term study looking for possible lung damage after a cohort of non-smokers had used e-cigarettes daily for a number of years, indicated that these vapers suffered no lung damage, when their results were compared with those of non-vapers.

Do you want to know what cigarettes really do to your body? This shocking video captures the difference between a heavy smokers lungs and someone who had a healthy set.

The CDC is one of the finest public health institutions on the planet...
 
But not everything the CDC does is equally praiseworthy. As Dr. Josh Bloom explains, their portrayal of the opioid crisis has been unhelpful at best and lethal at worst....

Scientific Summary: Based on currently available evidence, using current generation e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but the health effects of long-term use are not known. 

Popcorn lung is a slang name for a serious condition with the scientific name bronchiolitis obliterans, or obliterative bronchiolitis. Sometimes the name is abbreviated as BO, and it is occasionally called constrictive bronchiolitis.