“Fixed that for Yahoo”
Articles on e-cigs are increasing in frequency all over the world. The latest to come to my attention sheds light on the situation in France, but Yahoo’s journal appears to have got a lot wrong, so I’ve re-written it by striking out the inaccuracies and replacing or adding, as required, in bold text.
So to the experiment. In order to prove that nicotine is fun but not an addiction, I need two things. Ordinary smokes and nicotine-free smokes. It can’t be done with tobacco and herbal cigarettes. I tried the herbals once, many years ago. They were foul. Any smoker anywhere is going to spot the difference at once, despite the antismoker insistence that smokers can’t smell anything. Yes, we can. So any experiment that tries to fool smokers with herbal cigarettes will fail.
What is needed is something that tastes exactly the same with or without nicotine and that is where Electrofag comes in. Electrofag has flavouring, steam-producing stuff and nicotine. Take out the nicotine and it tastes the same. If it’s all about the nicotine, then nicotine-free Electrofags won’t work as well as nicotine-loaded ones. If it’s just about the smoking, it won’t make a difference.
Vendors are still selling e-cigs and cartridges despite the warnings and “virtual bans” being placed on these products.
Nicotine cartridges were sold in New Zealand until April, when Medsafe issued a warning to the Dunedin outlet because it had made a therapeutic claim, promoting them as a quit-smoking aid.
Users would subsequently have had to import their own, although one website with a New Zealand web address is now understood to arrange deliveries from Britain for New Zealand customers.
Separately, Auckland-based AFP International said yesterday it had starting selling nicotine e-cigarettes in New Zealand in October. The products were available at 150 outlets, including dairies, convenience stores, liquor stores, petrol stations and some restaurants. Around 5000 had been sold. The company was not making any therapeutic claims for the device, nor advertising it at all.
It was not expecting any difficulties with Medsafe, because the agency had said in an email in 2008 that in respect of e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, it had “no direct interest in regulation of cigarettes as such”.
Yesterday, however, Medsafe issued a new warning when told about the resumption of nicotine cartridge sales.
“Nicotine is a deadly poison and when intended for administration to humans it is a scheduled medicine,” said group manager Dr Stewart Jessamine. “Even without claims or advertising the company is supplying their nicotine-containing inserts for e-cigs in breach of the Medicines Act and risk prosecution.”
2. E-Cigarettes
The (Unfounded) Scare: E-cigarettes, an odorless and flameless clean nicotine delivery system, contain carcinogens such as diethylene glycol and nitrosamines that pose a health risk to the user. Due to their uncanny appearance to regular cigarettes, certain public health regulators believe they will encourage others to continue smoking.
Origin of the Scare: Earlier this year, the FDA decided to treat e-cigarettes as drug delivery devices, not tobacco products, placing them under more stringent regulation that would require e-cigarette makers to conduct extensive clinical trials in order to allow their product to remain on the market. In July, ACSH joined several other public health and interest groups as an amicus, or friend of the court, to appeal the FDA’s decision. In December, a federal appeals court overruled the FDA’s injunction and determined that, due to its nicotine component, e-cigarettes should be regulated as tobacco products.
Hollywood and the tobacco industry used to be close friends, but public pressure has mostly stigmatized onscreen smoking. Now here comes a similar trend: vaping.
Never heard of vaping? It’s the preferred term for using an electronic cigarette, a relatively recent invention that produces a steam-like nicotine vapor. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, might or might not be a healthful alternative to regular “analog” cigarettes — few studies on them exist. Nevertheless, they’re becoming the entertainment industry’s new habit.
Imagine, a tobaccoless cigarette that delivers nicotine in the form of water vapor. No second hand smoke, no stinky clothes, no annoying people with asthma coughing, and no violation of any smoking laws. You’d think the anti-smokers would be embracing it, right? Not quite.
“The New York State Assembly has voted overwhelmingly 125-0 to ban e-cigarettes [e-cigs]; a product which has already been banned in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, and New Zealand, restricted in Finland, Malaysia, and Singapore, pending restriction in the UK as a drug, and the subject of law suits by attorneys general in several states, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).”
Yet normal people, that is anyone who’s not a politician, tend to disagree. Look at this response:
Another good video to check out. Katherine Heigl throws some celebrity weight around by showing off her electronic cigarette on Letterman show. She even talks him into trying it out.
Four medical doctors on live TV explain how ecigs might help you quit smoking. This video is over a year old but is still a good watch
CBCnews discusses e-cigs and the continued attempts to ban them by the FDA
By admin | December 23, 2010
Just because the FDA keeps getting shut down doesn’t mean others will stop trying to ban electronic cigarettes.
“Few, if any, chemicals at levels detected in electronic cigarettes raise serious health concerns,” Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health and co-author Zachary Cahn conclude in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Public Health Policy.
“Although the existing research does not warrant a conclusion that electronic cigarettes are safe in absolute terms and further clinical studies are needed to comprehensively assess the safety of electronic cigarettes, a preponderance of the available evidence shows them to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes and comparable in toxicity to conventional nicotine replacement products.”
While studies are being done that show the harmful chemicals found in e-cigarettes are orders of magnitude less than their analog counterparts, Canada and Australia are both seeing similar attempts being made to stop the use of them.
Last week, the Australian Medical Association and Australian anti-smoking groups said e-cigarettes with nicotine have not been tested for safety and could pose a serious health risk, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
E-cigarettes are available to Canadians through online sales. Health Canada says they are not approved for sale in Canada.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s attempt to ban electronic cigarettes, battery-powered devices that simulate smoking by generating vapor from a propylene glycol solution containing nicotine. An article in the December 9 Journal of Public Health Policy explains why, legal issues aside, the FDA should not be trying to ban this product if its aim is to reduce tobacco-related harm. Boston University public health professor Michael Siegel and Zachary Cahn, a graduate student in political science at U.C.-Berkeley, review the evidence concerning the relative hazards of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes as well as the former’s potential as a replacement for the latter. “A preponderance of the available evidence shows [e-cigarettes] to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes and comparable in toxicity to conventional nicotine replacement products,” they write. Furthermore, because e-cigarettes more closely simulate the experience of smoking than nicotine gum, patches, or inhalers do, they may be more effective in helping smokers quit.
A new study suggests electronic cigarettes are much safer than conventional smokes that burn tobacco, and could be used to effectively help people quit the real thing.
Researchers Zachary Cahn and Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health wrote in the December issue of the Journal of Public Health Policy that the controversial products should be considered for their “harm reduction” potential.
“We conclude that electronic cigarettes show tremendous promise in the fight against tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. By dramatically expanding the potential for harm reduction strategies to achieve substantial health gains, they may fundamentally alter the tobacco harm reduction debate,” the authors wrote.
Read the full article at allheadlinnews.com
Friend and Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest in Ecig News. Tell your friends on facebook so they can check us out too.
Carla Patton of BuddyTV.com gives a summary of an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where a character puffs away on her ecig.
s this conversation goes on, Allison Dubois chugs down the cocktails and “lights up” an electronic cigarette. She’s such a creep. Then she tells people she can “tap peoples’ heads,” but she would never do that on GIRLS’ NIGHT! Lisa wants her to do some medium stuff and I think we’re treading into dangerous territory. Allison refuses to “do anything” because she’s “off the clock.” They push her and she says, “don’t tempt me, don’t get me started,” as she sucks on that cigarette like it’s a bottle.
It is a brief mention but we will take what we can get.
Nothing can help the cause more than big name celebs taking up vaping. Toronto star talks about how The Tourist star Johnny Depp makes use of his electronic cigarette and has since quit smoking (or more likely switched as many vapers tend to do).
Hollywood and the tobacco industry used to be close friends, but public pressure has mostly stigmatized onscreen smoking. Now here comes a similar trend: vaping.
Never heard of vaping? It’s the preferred term for using an electronic cigarette, a relatively recent invention that produces a steam-like nicotine vapor. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, may or may not be a healthful alternative to regular “analogue” cigarettes — few studies on them exist. Nevertheless, they’re becoming the entertainment industry’s new habit.
In the new Sony Pictures thriller The Tourist, the e-cig makes its most high-profile appearance yet, between the fingers of Johnny Depp. After helpfully explaining the gizmo to his co-star Angelina Jolie, Depp puffs away on a train and even over dinner at a restaurant. These scenes are likely to make today’s ostracized smokers green with envy (which may be the point). Depp’s character says he’s quitting smoking, though many e-cigarette vendors carefully avoid making any cessation claims.
THR2010 is an anthology of important writings about tobacco harm reduction, primarily from 2009 and early 2010. The period covered has seen important developments in both the scientific research and politics of THR, particularly the explosion of interest in electronic cigarettes and efforts by tobacco companies to promote low-risk alternatives to smoking. Anyone interested in tobacco use or harm reduction should find something of interest, from general overviews to political analyses. While some chapters report on more technical scientific research or philosophy, even those should be accessible to most interested readers. In spite of the technical subject matter, many of the chapters are genuinely entertaining as well as being educational.