E-cigarette bill, SB2233, was passed by the Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee Friday, Feb. 10, after members voted to delete language that would require a 70% tobacco tax on the devices, according to the Hawaii Reporter. Meanwhile the main portion of the bill, restricting sales of e-cigarettes to minors, remains intact. Those opposed to requiring a 70% tax on the devices, which deliver vaporized nicotine to users, noted the devices do not contain tobacco, do not emit hazardous or noxious smoke, and could help customers break smoking habits.

A sharp debate lead up to the vote. While all testimony agreed with a ban on selling products to minors, more than 1,000 people and companies protested the tobacco tax on e-cigarettes.

State Health Department Director Loretta Fuddy told members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, “There is very little known about the long term health effects of the use of e-cigarettes or the vapors given off. Recent studies have shown that within one liquid nicotine cartridge there is enough nicotine to cause serious illness or even death.”

Meanwhile, Cory Smith, president of local retailer Volcano Fine Electronic Cigarettes, said the product actually helps tobacco smokers quit their habits and produces none of the second-hand smoke issues associated with traditional tobacco cigarettes. He added that taxing e-cigarettes at the 70% tobacco rate would shut down his business and drive customers to the Internet or out-of-state to purchase the devices.

More than 2 million people across the nation are smoking electronic cigarettes, but are they really a healthier option and can you smoke them in “No Smoking” areas?” “It’s just a matter of preference,” said Allen Mendenhall, an electronic cigarette smoker, “I smoked it and smoked it and never picked up a real cigarette.” The E-Cig uses a battery to vaporize a liquid called propelyene glycol which contains nicotine and water, along with flavoring agents, which are then in inhaled by the user, just like a real cigarette. “Yes, it really helps, it works for me,” said Mendenhall.

To find out just how much it really works, Nine on Your Side called the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, a group that supports the electronic cigarettes and researches their effectiveness.

“It’s not called ‘smoking’ we call it ‘vaping’. You are just simply inhaling a vapor and exhaling a vapor,” said Tom Kaklis, co-founder of the TVECA.

It’s a vapor with close to 500 less ingredients than a real cigarette, meaning fewer carcinogens in each puff and virtually no second-hand smoke since it’s not smoke at all. Manufacturers say it’s only water vapor.

Nine on Your Side discovered the E-Cig is regulated and approved as a tobacco product by the FDA, but health experts still question the manufactory’s claims of a healthier product.

Something proponents to the E-Cig say they’ve been monitoring for years.

“I have not heard of a single incidence of harm from anybody using the electronic cigarette and we have been in this business since 2007,” said Kaklis.

Kaklis says they do continuously test to make sure the E-Cigs are dispensing the right amount of nicotine as stated by the packages.

Mendenhall says he was recently asked to leave the Olive Garden restaurant in Greenville. He says he was told “no smoking allowed,” but Mendenhall says he wasn’t smoking, he was vaping.

“I just do it so I can sit down and relax after I have a meal,” said Mendenhall.

“There is no second hand anything. I could put 50 people in my office here vaping the e-cig and you won’t smell anything so there is nothing harmful to exhale when you use an E-Cig,” said Kaklis.

In 2010 North Carolina legislators passed the controversial Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law. It bans people from using cigarettes in most public establishments.

Since the E-Cig Mendenhall uses is not a cigarette and you can’t actually smoke it, we asked Paul Stone, President and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association were it falls in the law.

“Electronic cigarettes under the law that we helped pass two years ago are allowed,” said Stone, but there’s a catch, “The restaurant owners is allowed, if they want, to have a policy on their own that says we don’t allow e-cigs. ”

Meaning, even though North Carolina law allows people to use the E-Cig in public places where cigarettes are not allowed, Stone says individual owners can chose to not allow it in their businesses, which could have been the case with Mendenhall and his trip to Olive Garden.

Nine on Your Side contacted Olive garden to find out why Mendenhall was asked the leave the restaurant.

Business interests blocking a tobacco ban—this was the theme behind the excellent Jason Reitman movie ‘Thank you for Smoking’ and also the recently held meeting of the GCC Tobacco Control Committee, apparently. Most notably, Dr Mahmoud Fikri, the undersecretary for health policy at the Ministry of Health, said the law to enforce a ban has been stalled because: “It is hard for things to run smoothly in this. There are a lot of interests, and there are big companies today and a lot of other things that come into effect.

When it came to implementation affected businesses did not all agree. Some said, ‘other countries don’t have this, so why do we have to?’”

Oh boo hoo! Will the GCC ever be tobacco free? Well there is a GCC-wide anti-smoking week, but as The National, very cheekily pointed out even those at the Tobacco Control Committee weren’t aware of it: “”When is this?” asked the Saudi official. “When it comes, I don’t even know.”

(Nope. This is just too easy the comedy practically writes itself with that quote. So we’re letting this one slide but feel free to give your own script.)

Interestingly, the meeting of the Tobacco Control Committee (don’t they sound like a fun lot?) has brought up the much debated conversation around introducing a tobacco tax into tax free UAE. Retailers say that even a 30 percent hike isn’t likely to deter avid smokers. After all, with tobacco prices at a global low (a branded pack of 20 cigarettes going for Dh6), a 30 percent increase would mean a packet would set back a smoker Dh8.

One of the top concerns is the issue of second hand smoke. In this regard, Dubai’s shopping malls, cinemas, offices and colleges have been rather successful in setting up smoking bans, forcing smokers to resort to smoking in tiny cancer-guaranteeing terminals—although, the ban is just catching up in other Emirates. Which is why, Kipp sees a fantastic business opportunity for anyone willing to bring the franchise to the region…the e-cigarette.

Once a bogus tacky invention, the e-cigarette is fast growing as a stylish alternative for those smokers tired of seeing the Blood Red No-Smoking Sign. So far, celebrities like Britney Spears, Jeremy Piven, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton, and Catherine Zeta-Jones have been spotted smoking one of these smoke-less red LED e-cigarettes. In fact, even Charlie Sheen is planning on starting his own line of e-cigs, called, wait for it, “NicoSheen”.

As Business Week says “According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of Americans who have smoked an e-cig more than quadrupled, from 0.6 percent of the population in 2009 to 2.7 percent in 2010. That’s more than 8 million people.”

With the problem of second hand smoke safely out of the way, e-cigs can be smoked ANYWHERE! Think about the possibilities-smoking in a movie cinema, smoking in a hospital, in a school, a petrol station, public transport and even around the terminally ill. OK- that last one might be pushing it too far, but you can see what we mean…so go ahead start the first UAE E-Cig brand (just remember to cut Kipp 10 percent).

Smoker Friendly International said that it will now be offering the U.S.-made Smoker Friendly Premium Brand Electronic Cigarette line, made by Freedom Smokeless, to retailers and distributors nationwide. Since 2009, Smoker Friendly has been selling the brand’s e-cigarette starter kits, express kits, cartridge refills, disposables and accessories only within the Smoker Friendly chain. This is the first time that the Boulder, Colo.-based licensee of almost 1,000 locations has expanded its private-label product line outside of its licensee network.

Smoker Friendly is beginning its rollout of the e-cigarette product line, with retail price points as low as $6.99, to convenience stores, large retailers, grocery stores and select distributors.

“We thought the timing was right to expand our brand through other retail chains and distributors,” said Terry Gallagher Jr., president of Smoker Friendly. “We know there’s a pent-up demand for an established company to take a leadership position in this relatively new category; we’ve heard this from our distributor and retailer industry friends time and again. There are way too many startups and opportunistic marketing companies selling foreign made electronic cigarettes, and it has gotten very confusing for category buyers.”

He added, “Smoker Friendly is a well-established, 23-year-old tobacco company, with vast experience and expertise in the tobacco industry, so distributors and retailers know we’re here for the long haul, which is critically important when representing electronic cigarettes, a fast-growing new tobacco product category.”

Smoker Friendly selected Freedom Smokeless, a manufacturer of e-cigarettes and nicotine e-liquid, to manufacture its e-cigarette line in 2009..
“We liked the quality of their products, service and support, and were relieved to know the e-liquid is made here in America; that the e-liquid is batch tested in an FDA-registered lab and that cartridges are filled here thanks to some high tech automation. Our goal is to have the Smoker Friendly brand of electronic cigarettes become a household name,” said Mary Szarmach, Smoker Friendly’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Glenn Kassel, president of Freedom Smokeless, said, “We are honored to manufacture the Smoker Friendly brand and are thrilled that it will be available in retail establishments across the country. Retailers like the fact that they are getting a competitively priced product that’s Made in America with a highly trusted brand name behind it. Tobacco buyers for chains like all of the safeguards we have taken to ensure that our product is safe.”

He added, “We have already received orders from distributors and retailers who were waiting for an established brand to emerge as the leader in this category. ”

Smoker Friendly is America’s largest cigarette and tobacco store (CTS) retailer. The Smoker Friendly Authorized Dealer Program is designed for existing retail tobacco store operators who wish to market their own brand of competitively priced, private-label products within an exclusive territory that is geographically protected. This program is for the tobacco retailer who would like the advantages of a buying group; wants more interaction with other cigarette and tobacco store retailers including information and idea sharing; clout with manufacturers; and the greater synergies that a nationally known private-label brand like Smoker Friendly provides.

Currently there are almost 1,000 stores across the United States with The SF Private-Label Tobacco Family.

San Clemente, Calif.-based Freedom Smokeless’ Made in the USA line of e-cigarettes and cartridge products are sold in thousands of tobacco shops, retail outlets and c-stores across the United States.

A battery-powered device as small as a No. 2 pencil is becoming a big enough deal that the Utah PTA is taking aim. The local organization of parents and teachers on Tuesday put electronic cigarettes at the top of its list, along with alcohol, drugs and other tobacco products, hoping to get state leaders to take notice of increasing trends among children and teens. Nearly 8 percent of Utah’s sixth-, eighth-, tenth- and twelfth-graders reported they had experimented with e-cigarettes and 3 percent had used them in the past 30 days, according to a 2011 Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health survey of more than 55,000 Utah school children, conducted by the Utah Department of Health.

Among 19- to 24-year-olds, 25 percent reported having tried e-cigarettes and 9 percent continued to use them, according to the health department.

“There’s a lot of danger associated with these cigarettes,” Utah PTA President Gainell Rogers said. “It is a safety issue for our children as well as a health issue.”

Limited research on e-cigarettes makes it difficult to assess those risks. The lack of evidence has prompted the American Cancer Society, and other advocacy organizations, to refrain from taking a stance on e-cigarette use. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that e-cigarettes do contain harmful levels of nicotine, a substance the agency classifies as a stimulant drug.

E-cigarette manufacturers claim the product is safer than cigarettes, as a vaporized mixture of various chemicals and low amounts of nicotine actually enters the body through inhalation, instead of a steady stream of straight nicotine from an ignited, tobacco-filled cigarette. The product simulates the look, feel and flavor of smoking, according to a website promoting Green Nicotine, an e-cigarette brand previously sold at the Fashion Place Mall.

“There is no safe level of tobacco smoke,” said David Neville, spokesman for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program at the Utah Department of Health.

In smoking a cigarette, he said, a user generally knows how much nicotine is being consumed. “They know if they are a half-a-pack-a-day smoker. When it comes to an electronic cigarette, you just don’t know. You just keep on smoking,” Neville said.

Some consumers view an e-cigarette as a nicotine replacement, a method to help them quit smoking. But Neville argued that the device is not compatible with a step-therapy program because it delivers a specific level of nicotine to the user and can be refilled when emptied.

“It’s confusing to a smoker or someone who is trying to quit,” he said, noting that nicotine gums and patches are offered in varying nicotine levels and help people kick the habit.

THE sale of electronic cigarettes has rocketed 200 per cent over the past year as smokers look to alternative ways of getting their nicotine fix. The products, which offer a nicotine hit without the inhalation of tobacco, do not fall under the jurisdiction of the smoking ban and are proving especially popular with smokers during the winter months. But anti-tobacco campaigners have warned that the product could glamorise smoking and raised fears that there is currently no regulation of the device.

“It’s only the beginning of December, but we are already seeing sales climb,” he said. “Electronic cigarettes make an imaginative gift and can be used as a healthier alternative to traditional cigs.

“But we are also seeing many people buy them for themselves as they can be used anywhere, so smokers can get their nicotine hit without having to huddle outside in the freezing cold.”

Celebrities including green-fingered Alan Titchmarsh, snooker player Jimmy “Whirlwind” White, singer Matt Cardle and June Brown, chain smoking EastEnders’ star Dot Cotton, are all known to favour e-cigarettes.

Sheila Duffy, chief executive of anti-tobacco charity ASH Scotland, said it is “interested in the potential that e-cigarettes could have to help people take the first steps away from a deadly tobacco habit. With e-cigarettes, however, there is no standardisation or regulation of the product, which concerns us.

“Many e-cigarettes also look like cigarettes and, as a society, we should be moving away from giving the impression that smoking is desirableto protect young people from the harms of tobacco.”

At some point we need to either ban cigarettes or call off the fundamentalist ranting about smokers. Yes, smoking is bad for you, everyone knows that by now, but having the state of California increase taxes on cigarette smokers – making the state government even more reliant on them – while they use some of that money for anti-smoking campaigns, which means the government now wants to kill the revenue source it is making itself more reliant on, is the kind of thing only…well… progressive government would do.

If you have a risk factor for lung cancer, smoking is going to make it worse. Sure, if you have a rick factor you may get lung cancer whether you smoke or not and 90% of smokers will never get lung cancer, but the multi-billion dollar marketing campaign against smoking doesn’t like to engage in science or fact – yet an “e-cigarette” would seem to be a happy medium for everyone, right? They mimic mimic the look, feel and taste of traditional cigarettes, and deliver the dose of nicotine a smoker craves without most of the 10,000 chemicals in cigarettes. That has to be better, for people who just will not quit.

Nope, those are no good either, because it is not really a health issue, despite what they claim, it is a fundamentalist crusade – and science is always the first to fall while the FDA is first to be ignored in those kinds of fights.

Smoking is a habit that some people want to quit, but wanting to quit can be easy to say, than it is to do. Electronic cigarettes, also referred to as E-Cigarettes, can be just the help booster a chain or occasional smoker needs to stop altogether. While some people are under the impression that E-Cigarettes were created in 2003, that is only for the modern day version of the devices. Some studies show that in 1963, the concept was described, but never tested out. Since that time, E-Cigarettes have been helping people satisfy their craving of the tobacco, without all the health risks.

E-cigarettes are made of three sections, a smart chip with the lithium battery, an atomization and a nicotine cartridge. When the smoker puffs on the e-cigarette, there is an operating light at the tip of the device that lights up, turning red, just like a real cigarette that is lit would do. The e-cigarette works with micro-electronic technology. No lighter or match is needed, just the battery. Batteries are rechargeable, and some are disposable. The e-cigarette can be the size of a pen, or a marker, depending on the size of the lithium battery. Most e-cigarettes are the size of a typical cigarette or cigar, so the smoker is under the allusion she is smoking a traditional cigarette.

While the e-cigarette is a product that reduces health risks that smokers are prone to from tobacco products, the device does not eliminate the health risks altogether. Nicotine is still inside of the e-cigarette, the levels are just lower. For instance, e-cigarettes that use a liquid solution generally have a nicotine concentration of six to eight milligrams of nicotine, per every milliliter of liquid. However, high doses of liquid solution have a nicotine concentration of 16 – 8 milligrams per every milliliter of liquid. The level of liquid used in an e-cigarette depends solely on the individual. Some people feel starting off with extra-high or high doses are more practical when first starting out, instead of a low dosage.

Some companies know that an e-cigarette is not the same as a cigarette itself. To help transition the smoker, companies sell devices that resemble famous cigarette brands, and types, such as menthol. That’s not all. E-cigarettes also come in different flavors, such as exotic foods like pies, cakes and fruits. Traditional food flavors, like vanilla or coffee are available. A smoker can even get an e-cigarette that has the flavor of a soda or any other beverage.

The e-cigarette can not only reduce a smoker’s health risks, but the health risks of non-smokers too. E-cigarettes are eco-friendly products that produce vapor, unlike real smoke from cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. Since e-cigarettes do not actual burn down to buds, there is less to recycle, also making the e-cigarette a green product. Ashtrays are not necessary, so an individual saves the money buying the ashtray, and the time cleaning it. Another benefit from the e-cigarette producing vapor, instead of smoke, is that individuals can use the device in places where smoking is prohibited. After an individual buys the e-cigarettes’ starter-kit, he can expect to save at least fifty percent, maybe more, depending on his smoking usage. The e-cigarettes are tar-free, so people can save on the dentist bill too!

Most people would be flabbergasted to see anyone smoking inside an office, a hospital waiting room or an airport. Yet, lately, people are smoking indoors — not traditional cigarettes, but e-cigarettes. These are smokeless cigarettes that can look like the real thing, a pen or even a USB stick. What they all do is deliver nicotine to the smoker in a vapor form. A rechargeable battery powers a heating element that vaporizes the nicotine in a replaceable cartridge so that what’s inhaled just looks like smoke.

Some E-cigarette companies claim the devices are safer and can help smokers quit. But critics say the companies’ statements are unproven and their health claims are unsubstantiated.

It is true that e-cigarettes do not contain the more than 4,000 chemical compounds created by a burning cigarette. Many of these are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Tar, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all in regular cigarette smoke.

However, nicotine itself is dangerous and highly addictive, and with e-cigarettes, smokers may not know how much of it they’re getting. A lack of regulation and quality control means the amount of nicotine in each drag of an e-cigarette is inconsistent. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that since e-cigarettes are not considered a drug delivery device, the agency has no jurisdiction over them.

Yet the administration issued a health warning about e-cigarettes after its tests show they contain harmful chemicals such as diethylene glycol, a component of antifreeze that’s toxic to humans and is banned in food and drugs. There were also detectable levels of a known carcinogen called nitrosamine and other toxic chemicals that users could potentially inhale.

Even if, as some enthusiasts claim, e-cigarettes can help a smoker quit, could it also entice young people to start? Health experts and the administration have both expressed concern e-cigarettes are marketed toward young people since the devices come in pink, gold or blue with flavors such as chocolate and bubble gum. Plus, the products’ labels don’t have a health warning.

Since e-cigarettes are unregulated and not covered by federal tobacco laws, they can be sold online and in mall kiosks. They’re also cheaper than regular cigarettes. Because of this, they’re easily accessible to children and young adults.

Some e-cigarette makers go so far as to make unsubstantiated health claims on their websites and printed materials. That’s why Australia, Canada, Israel and Hong Kong have banned them on the grounds they have not been sufficiently tested for safety. New York City is pushing to become the first city to ban them.

For scientists, those are enough reasons to not try an e-cigarette. At the very least, wait until science shows what is in them before smoking one, or better yet, choose not to smoke at all.