A poison used in antifreeze, compounds that cause cancer in humans and higher-than-advertised nicotine levels.
The Food and Drug Administration claims these are inside electronic cigarettes after testing more than a dozen brands.

On Tuesday, the attorney general of Oregon filed a lawsuit against an e-cigarette importer. Attorney General John Kroger says e-cigarettes are falsely marketed as safer than regular tobacco cigarettes.

That is what Aleena Schlotzhauer understands about e-cigarettes.

“It’s not as bad as a cigarette because you’re not getting all that tar and extra carcinogen,” she said, “but it’s still a toxin.”

Schlotzhauer sells e-cigarettes at a downtown Eugene tobacco shop. You have to be at least 18 to go inside, so she says only adults are buying them.

“I don’t think it’s really targeting teens,” she said. “I feel like it’s targeting people who have smoked for a long time who are looking to quit.”

But there are no legal restrictions on where e-cigarettes can be sold, and that’s another issue.

Because of flavors like chocolate, mint and apple, Oregon’s attorney general says they may lure kids into buying them — all the more reason he wants their sales stopped altogether.

Smokers like Jeremy Karl say a ban is a bad move for adults who should be able to choose their lesser of two evils.

“Maybe make them for a tobacco shop, where you have to be of a certain age to see them,” Karl said.

KVAL News attempted to contact the company being sued by the state of Oregon on Wednesday to get their side of the story.

© Aug 19, 2009 Kval

You don’t need to read all of this column to get its message. For North Carolinians it is simply this:
Food is the new tobacco.
Here’s why.

We have known all along that using tobacco products was bad for health. But North Carolina people, as a group, resisted government regulations, restrictions on places it could be consumed, taxes, and even educational programs designed to discourage their use.

We argued that people should be free to make their own choices about what kinds of products they enjoy for relaxation and pleasure. For a long while we argued, too, that there was not real proof that tobacco was causing the cancers, heart attacks, and strokes that were destroying the quality of life (and killing) smokers at higher rates than non-smokes.

We would not admit it, but deep down inside we knew that our beliefs and our arguments in defense of tobacco use had something to do with the great economic benefits tobacco growing and manufacturing were to our state.

Now our smoky rhetoric has been blown away. We say out loud what we should have known all along. Smoking causes bad health. It kills. And it costs the public lots of money in covering the health care expenses of those made sick by their tobacco habits.

Over the last few years in North Carolina, most campuses, workplaces, and other public places have come to prohibit or severely restrict smoking. Recently, the last hospital joined the trend and prohibited smoking.

We no longer argue that the government should not be involved or that it should not limit individual choice when the health impact of a product like tobacco is so great.

What does this have to do with food?

Read UNC-Chapel Hill professor Barry Popkin’s new book, “The World is Fat,” and I think you will come to the conclusion that our eating habits are destroying our good health and quality of life in much the same way the habitual use of tobacco does.

Increasingly the high caloric liquids and food we consume are driving up our weight dramatically. Our agricultural subsidy policies have made high calorie food relatively cheap compared to the higher costs of the healthier fruits and green vegetables. Commercial food products, fast food outlets, restaurants, and school and college cafeterias increase our problem with their added sugars and syrups, their supper-sized large portions, and their pandering to our individual inability to resist.

Keeping a healthy weight is an individual challenge. The consequences of not meeting that challenge are clear: higher incidences of diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and early death.

But most of us eat on.

We eat and eat and create in ourselves a life of bad health that will require extensive and expensive health treatments that others (taxpayers) will have to cover.

So does government have a role? Should it restrict or tax high calorie foods? Should it discourage, rather than subsidize, the growing of high calorie food products? Should it penalize those of us who won’t eat healthy or reward those of us who do?

Popkin says the government has to act.

He suggests it start with a tax on high calorie drinks, which he calls “super negatives.”

He says that “Juice, soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, all caloric beverages except skim milk” have little nutricional value other than calories.

But their empty calories may add 500 calories to an individual’s daily intake and make the difference, over time, between healthy weight and obesity.

For legislators looking for new revenue, the health argument provides the same kind of rationale that first led to a tax on cigarettes.

But an additional soft drink tax will be just a start.

Watch out.

Food is the new tobacco.


© Garnernews

You have to hand it to entrepreneurs in the electronic cigarette business. In a time of economic recession, they are creating wealth, jobs and scores of tobacco converts.

Electronic cigarettes look like the real thing, but they are battery powered to deliver nicotine in a vapor rather than tobacco smoke.

Calls in Washington that e-cigarettes be banned from the market because of unknown health risks haven’t stopped people from buying. The smokeless smokes have been on the U.S. market for about two years, and already they are being sold in about 4,000 retail outlets, according to an industry group.

The device is simple: The battery, which resembles white tobacco-filled paper, joins with a replaceable cartridge filled with liquid nicotine solution. Draw on it like a cigarette and the battery heats the solution, producing a cloud of nicotine-enriched vapor that looks like smoke, but isn’t.

It’s clean, which has an eco-conscious appeal; no ashes, no stink, no butts littering the landscape. You can indulge anywhere without breaking no-smoking rules.

“It’s providing your body with nicotine without the secondhand smoke, without the tar and without the carcinogens,” said Mike Patrick, who sells e-cigarettes at the Smoke 51 kiosk at Beachwood Place. “This is a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes, and it’s a lot cheaper.”
“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way.” — Sebastian Cangemi, President of Liberty Stix in Willoughby
But health groups have raised alarms about the lack of safety data. The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and others came out in support of a call from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, that the Food and Drug Administration take them off the market.

The FDA says the devices are subject to enforcement action because it considers them unapproved drug-delivery devices. The agency has stopped some shipments from China, but it has not taken steps to remove the products from the market.

“We don’t know what the health effects are. It’s not been studied,” said Shelly Kiser of the American Lung Association of Ohio. “Who knows what happens when you breathe vaporized nicotine into your lungs?”

Industry frontman Matt Salmon, a former U.S. representative from Arizona, has been busy trying to fend off regulators and critics. Salmon heads the Electronic Cigarette Association, which formed in the spring. He said in a prepared statement that electronic cigarettes are safer than tobacco, and he argues the FDA has no jurisdiction to regulate them.

On a video posted on the industry Web site, Salmon says: “Whatever is said, remember this: Withholding electronic cigarettes from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke cigarettes, which is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.”

Dr. Scott Frank, director of the public health program at the Case Western Reserve University medical school, said even if e-cigarettes help people quit tobacco, nicotine-replacement products require FDA approval.

“I would never advocate for electronic cigarettes to be available in unregulated fashion,” Frank said.

None of that seems to matter to customers. U.S. sales this past year are around $100 million, and they are on pace to double, the association says.

A Willoughby company called Liberty Stix opened for business 11 months ago, and is now selling e-cigarettes to retail outlets and individual customers across the country. The company occupies 17,000 square feet of industrial park space, where four employees take phone orders and several others fill orders for shipping.

Liberty Stix, which sells starter kits for about $40, is working on deals to place the product in casinos, retail chains and military installations, said President Sebastian Cangemi.

“Where smoking bans are in effect, we do advertising,” said Cangemi.

He said he’s concerned about calls for e-cigarettes to be pulled off the market, “but hopefully they’ll look at it without fogged glasses.” The company is working with research labs in Ohio, New Jersey and Texas in hopes of showing that the devices are safer and healthier than tobacco, he said.

“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way,” Cangemi said.

Cangemi had approached Iyaad Hasan, director of the Cleveland Clinic Tobacco Treatment Center, about recommending Liberty Stix as an alternative to cigarettes. Hasan said in an interview he considered it but declined. He said part of addiction treatment is breaking hand-to-mouth behavior. “We push breaking the linkage to a cigarette,” he said. Critics also say that nicotine itself can affect blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol levels.

Daniel Vaughn, 63, heard about Liberty Stix from a radio ad. The Cleveland resident said he smoked a pack and a half of regular cigarettes a day. Like most customers, Vaughn decided to try electronic cigarettes to help him quit tobacco, even though e-cigarettes are not approved for that purpose. Vaughn said they worked, though it took several months of electronic smoking to wean himself off tobacco.

“When I first wake up in the morning, I hook in a new cartridge and puff away,” Vaughn said.

Cartridges can be bought with varying amounts of nicotine, or no nicotine at all. The nicotine is contained in liquid propylene glycol, a chemical that produces the vapor. A cartridge lasts about as long as a pack of cigarettes, and they come in flavors such as chocolate, apple, mint and coffee.

The flavorings have prompted criticism that the industry is targeting young people. Cangemi said most of his customers are older, “because they realize their mortality.”

Patrick, whose family opened the Beachwood kiosk in May, launched into his pitch to two young women who stopped by one recent afternoon.

“Will this help her stop smoking?” Martika White asked, pointing to her friend, Bianca Johnson, 22. “I want to help her stop. I’ve been talking to her about it.”

Patrick explained how it works, and then demonstrated by drawing on an e-cigarette and blowing out a vapor stream. Johnson said she’d consider it and walked away with a business card.

“Now they’re thinking about it,” Patrick said. “That’s about as good as a sale.”


© Cleveland

Scott Marino was recently in Kroger puffing away on a cigarette when an employee told him he couldn’t smoke in the store. The 43-year-old Shelby Township resident said “no problem” — because the cigarette wasn’t real.

Marino hasn’t smoked in a little more than a month due in part to electronic or e-cigarettes, which provide a nonflammable, tar- and tobacco-free alternative to traditional cigarettes. Powered by a lithium battery, the cigarette includes a liquid nicotine cartridge, a “glowing” end and smoke-like vapors.

“It’s a great option, especially in light of the state considering a smoking ban,” said Marino, who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 25 years. “You can smoke it in restaurants or work, and carry it around with you and not need a lighter.”

Advertisement

But the federal government and some doctors aren’t so enthusiastic.

The FDA in March blocked the import of future e-cigarettes while it investigates whether they can be considered a drug delivery device, such as a nicotine patch.

The electronic cigarette kits sell for roughly $99 to $129.99 and include a wall charger as well as a pack of five cartridges valued at $10 that come in four different nicotine levels: 16 milligrams, 11, 6 and 0. Various flavors such as regular tobacco, apple and vanilla are also available. One nicotine cartridge is the equivalent of 20 traditional cigarettes — or a pack. A pack of cigarettes in Michigan costs about $6.

Dr. Samuel A. Allen, who specializes in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Beaumont Hospital, Troy, admits electronic cigarettes are an alternative to smoking but “not necessarily a good one.

“It’s the lesser of two evils because you’re essentially exchanging one addiction for another,” he said.

One product, called Smoking Everywhere, is made by a Florida company and is sold online and at about 130 outlets nationwide, including kiosks in Oakland Mall and Birch Run outlet mall near Saginaw.

The device is not marketed as a smoking cessation device. It’s intended to give users the feel of a real cigarette but without the carbon monoxide, smell and smoke.

When a person inhales, the tip lights up and it tastes like a cigarette, but only vapors are emitted, according to Walt Linscott of Atlanta, an attorney for Smoking Everywhere.

The technology was invented by a Chinese scientist in 2004, and Smoking Everywhere obtained the right to sell the product in the United States. It’s one of about five major e-cigarette companies. Njoy and Bloog use similar technology.

Smoking Everywhere filed a complaint against the FDA importation ban in late April and is awaiting the outcome of court arguments.

The company argues its device is more properly classified as a tobacco product because it’s marketed as “an adult smoking experience” and not as a device to help people kick the habit, said Linscott, noting all products sold are from existing stocks across the country.

Electronic cigarettes are illegal in Australia, and the Netherlands doesn’t allow the products to be advertised.

“We take the position that FDA approval isn’t needed, just like regular cigarettes. They are taking a hard line, limited view of a product that doesn’t produce all of the negative health effects and by doing so are yanking away consumer options. It doesn’t seem like good public policy,” Linscott added.

While the liquid nicotine in electronic cigarettes doesn’t have the same components as traditional cigarettes, “There is still some pretty concerning stuff in them,” including the nicotine and propylene glycol, which is used in antifreeze, Allen said.

Regardless, Jackie Wilson, 51, of Detroit is considering buying the product. She’s been smoking since age 16, has emphysema and “desperately needs” something to help curb the habit.

“I need to quit bad. I get tired just going up the stairs. When I do, it feels like I ran around the block a few times,” said Wilson taking a puff on a sample Smoking Everywhere e-cigarette at Oakland Mall last month.

“I like the way it tastes. This might be a healthier option for me when I come up with the cash for it.”

Smoking Everywhere has reported sales of about $12 million in 2008 for the product marketed to ages 18 and older, Linscott said.

It has become about a $100 million industry, said Matt Salmon, president of the Electronic Cigarette Association.

The kiosk in Oakland Mall has sold more than 130 kits since it opened May 1, and sells about 20 packs of cartridges daily, according to co-owner John Mannino, who opened a second kiosk at Birch Run mall Wednesday.
© Detnews

Everyone knows the dark and dangerous side of the tobacco industry. The ill effects of cigarettes on the health of smokers, non-smokers, and the environment are well established. So is it fair or ethical for such a heinous and disgusting product to promote eco-friendly improvements to its packaging?

This is precisely what has happened recently with one of Canada’s leading cigarette brands, du Maurier. Du Maurier is using a more sustainable grade of paper for the outer cardboard packaging and they have removed the traditional inside foil liners with ones made of paper. To promote these green initiatives, du Maurier invested in a full-page color advertisement in a major Canadian magazine.

While it seems laughable that a tobacco company would be trying to paint itself with a shade of green, does this constitute greenwashing?

Gideon Forman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment said: “Is it green washing? Yes.” According to the ‘Seven Sins of Greenwashing’, the closest sin that du Maurier might be guilty of is the Sin of Lesser of Two Evils. This is where an environmental claim makes consumers feel ‘green’ about a product that is lacking in environmental benefits.

Obviously cigarettes are lacking in environmental benefits. But was the intent of the advertisement to trick people into thinking they were improving the environment by smoking du Maurier cigarettes? Doubtful. My guess is that they are trying to convince existing smokers to try their brand because of their green actions, basically saying ‘if you are going to partake in this senseless habit you might as well use one with green packaging’. Maybe they did some research and found there are enough smokers out there with an environmental conscience to warrant this advertisement.

If they truly are just promoting their recent green packaging without trying to pass off cigarettes as a green product, the greenwashing angle might be unfounded. Yet all of these issues may soon become irrelevant, as wheels are in motion to close the Canadian tobacco advertising loophole that allows ads like this to continue to be published.

© Redgreenandblue

Have you seen any of those TV commercials touting laser therapy as a solution to those who want to quit smoking but for whatever reason have been unable to do so? I don’t know about you but the first time I saw those commercials I thought to myself, “You’ve got to kidding”.

After a few more exposures to the commercials I thought well I’m sure many of the now known medical treatments for many common illnesses were once looked down upon as outlandish and crazy as well. They were until people discovered how effective they were. In many cases we can’t even imagine anyone ever questioning some of those treatments because they are so recognized and accepted now.

Based on what I’m learning about laser therapy, it too is well on its way of becoming a widely accepted and practiced method not only for helping people stop smoking but also for helping people lose weight as well. While I admit that I have never smoked and that seems to be the most popular application for laser therapy, I am over weight and I would love to discover any method that’s safe that works in helping me lose weight.

So I personally will be giving it an opportunity to help me shed some unwanted pounds hopefully just in time for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas season which is only about 8 weeks away.

How about you? Are you a smoker or do you know of someone who smokes who have unsuccessfully tried to quit but for whatever reason can’t seem to shake the habit? Or are you like me and you’d like to shed some unwanted pounds?

Regardless of which if these you’d like to conquer, recognize that both of these habits can be deadly. It is well known now that many of our medical issues as we grow older stem from smoking and being overweight.

So the challenge is this, do you homework, kick the tires, quit putting this off because unless you take action and do something different nothing is going to change. As the saying goes, today is the first day of the rest of your life, so do yourself a favor and stop what you’re doing and seriously give laser therapy a serious look. Virtually all the clinics will be able to provide enough real life testimonials that their clinic is responsible for. If they can’t go somewhere else, but again do yourself a favor and at least give laser therapy a serious look, it very well may be the thing you’ve been looking for to give you and your body that new lease on life.

You can still smoke in bars and casinos in Florida, but like in many states, your options to smoke indoors are limited, so when a new electronic cigarette was introduced in the market, CBS4 set out to find out how they work.

“I’ve probably been a smoker since my late teens,” said Hollywood resident Charles Jay.

So when he heard about electronic cigarettes, he was intrigued by the convenience.

‘You could basically do it anywhere because you weren’t leaving an odor behind or leaving any smoke behind,” said Jay.

It looks like a traditional cigarette but contains no tobacco or tar, which are widely known to cause cancer. Instead it has pharmaceutical grade nicotine and water, which are often used in many of the brands sold in malls and on the internet.

One of those brands, the “Clean” cigarette, was created by Frank Simotics.

“This holds a pack of nicotine flavor and water, so if you smoke a pack a day this will last you all day,” said Simotics.

His electronic cigarette uses a microchip with a lithium battery to heat up the device. A nicotine vapor is emitted when the user inhales. It has an LED indicator light on the end that simulates the burning of a cigarette.

While some say it’s a safer alternative to cigarettes, more studies are needed and the FDA says they are not safe.

© Cbs4

He has vaped — the term for using a personal vaporizer also known as an e-cigarette — for about two months. He’s a definite fan of the pen-shaped device, gladly demonstrates its workings to anyone interested and has been making converts for what some people in the business and health officials think may become the next debate in the use of nicotine.

Spencer, a driver for Ferrellgas, said having to step outside to smoke in cold weather was his main motivation for trying the e-cigarette, which he prefers to call a vaporizer.

“I don’t use my vaporizer to get around the smoking ban,” he said. “I just like to have my nicotine fix when I drink coffee and after a meal.”

E-cigarettes use a rechargeable battery to activate a heating coil that quickly heats nicotine suspended in a propylene glycol solution, which in some models is soaked into a soft fabric cartridge, until it vaporizes. The user inhales the vapor just as if he were smoking a cigarette and exhales a white mist that resembles smoke or steam.

Prices range from about $60 to $240 when extra cartridges and flavoring options such as mint or fruit flavors are included.

The device comes in several styles — some, like Spencer’s, resemble an ink pen with a mouthpiece while others look like a pipe or a regular cigarette. Some light up orange or green at the tip when in use.

None of them burn tobacco or, Spencer said, any illegal substance.

“It does satisfy my cravings,” Spencer said. “I use it, and I’ve probably cut down on my regular smoking by about 75 percent.” But he said the devices aren’t marketed as nicotine-replacement therapy. “It’s an alternative to your cigarettes,” he said.

Chris Ray, owner of Cigtechs, an online e-cigarette business based in Schaumburg, said his customers come to him because they are limited in where they can smoke by enforcement of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, they want to quit smoking or they want an alternative to smoking.

“We don’t sell our products as stop-smoking devices,” Ray said. “We pretty much label them as a smoking alternative.”

Ray said he decided to get into the business last December after he traded vaping for his 15-year, pack a day cigarette habit.

“My brother found out about this product in November of last year and began using it,” Ray said. “I waited about two weeks until he had some experience with it.”

Ray said he started using an e-cigarette Dec. 2 and stopped using regular cigarettes in about two weeks.

“It didn’t take as much time,” he said. “I was satisfying my need for nicotine by using the e-cigarette two to three times a day instead of lighting up 20 times.”

He said he now uses a zero-nicotine option but using the e-cigarette satisfies the oral fixation of puffing a cigarette and exhaling.

Ray said he got started as a supplier with a $100 investment for supplies Dec. 28 and now does about $3,000 in business per month.

“I’m on the bottom end of the food chain as far as this goes,” he said. “I know of some suppliers who are doing up to $50,000 a month.”

The National Institutes of Health say a tobacco cigarette delivers about 10 milligrams of nicotine. E-cigarette cartridges can hold up to 36 milligrams of nicotine, and Spencer said new users should begin slowly to avoid nausea caused by overdosing on nicotine.

Or an e-cigarette cartridge can hold no nicotine, which is the type Jayne Engelsen, general manager at Dodge Lanes in Belvidere, uses.

She also smokes regular cigarettes but said, “I’m basically a social smoker, so when everybody runs out to have a cigarette, I’ll join them. I don’t necessarily like the taste of cigarettes, so I went with a mint-flavored cartridge and there is Marlboro zero cartridge which has no nicotine in it, and I get along fine with that.”

Engelsen said she allows vapers to use their e-cigarettes at the bowling alley and has had no complaints. She prefers to use hers during the day when the lanes are closed.

“I’ll pick it up if I feel like I have an urge to smoke a little bit,” she said, “and I can take a few puffs on it, and I’m satisfied. I can lay it back down, and the nice thing about these is that they don’t burn up in the ashtray. They’re waiting for you when you pick them up and when you put them back down you don’t have butts lying around all over.”

Larry Didier, tobacco programs coordinator for the Winnebago County Health Department, said e-cigarettes don’t fall under the provisions of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, which prohibits smoking in public places.

“As far as we know,” Didier said, “they produce nicotine-flavored water vapor, which is not the same as smoke. It does not contain the toxins that you would normally find in cigarette smoke.”

Didier said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is authorized to regulate nicotine delivery devices such as nicotine patches and gums, is looking into regulating the use of e-cigarettes.

“This is a classic case of a nicotine delivery device,” he said, “so the FDA is looking at it to see if there is anything dangerous associated with its use. Certainly, we know that nicotine is addictive so the question is whether nicotine consumed in this way is more addictive or less addictive. Who knows? At this point, we don’t.”

Didier said a regular cigarette produces about 4,000 chemicals and “about 50 to 60 of those have been shown to be carcinogenic to one extent or another.

“We don’t know yet if there are dangers associated with the e-cigarette, but they have apparently extracted the nicotine without bringing along the other chemicals,” he said.

“It was 1963 before the first surgeon general’s report on the dangers of cigarette smoking came out, but way back before World War II everyone was calling them coffin nails because they knew they were dangerous and now the science has caught up with the common sense. We may find out that is true for these, too, and they could end up being classified the same way as a patch or a gum.”

Ray said all of the e-cigarettes he knows about are produced in China and that the FDA has seized some shipments of them.

He said he doesn’t think it’s inevitable that the FDA will take control over e-cigarettes “but they are a device that delivers nicotine. If they do take control, I think we will see an immediate ban.”

Ray said, however, he is unsure how ambitious the FDA will be in seeking to control e-cigarettes “because there are only about 50 to 70 suppliers in the U.S. and most of them are small.”

Dr. Robert Bales, the Winnebago County Health Department’s medical director, said he can find no studies that look into whether e-cigarettes are safe to use.

“From a health-care standpoint, we have no idea what any long-term or short-term effects of inhaling this vapor may be,” Bales said. “What we do know is that it has not been studied as a stop-smoking product and the World Health Organization is saying these things should either be studied more or they should not be used.”

Source: Hollandsentinel