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Oh, gee, look. The CDC is recycling their terrible youth survey to add some more juice to the pending FDA regulations. That’s this week’s top story. Don’t worry it’s been a very diverse e-cigarette news week from rockers nearly winding up in jail, to local laws, we have it all :)
After Ignoring Relevant Evidence, Group Calls for Medical Regulation
The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease had a little get together recently in Paris. The group looked at all evidence about e-cigarettes to determine what should be done. They apparently promptly tossed out much of the evidence to instead favor the CDC’s pet gateway theory as well as some of the more infamous prohibitionist conclusions to studies and decided e-cigarettes should be regulated as medicines.
A call for urgent regulation of e-cigarettes | Weekly BLiTZ
“E-cigarette and ENDS manufacturers and vendors have been vocal about the supposed benefits of their products and quick to shout down calls for regulation or questions about their contents”, said José Luis Castro, Interim Executive Director of The Union. “Based on our review of the available evidence, we strongly support the regulation of the manufacture, marketing and sale of electronic cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery systems; and our preferred option is to regulate these products as medicines. Right now, significant numbers of people around the globe are using these products and they just don’t know what that might mean for their health and for the people around them. It is an echo of the traditional cigarette industry in the 20th century, which created the current global epidemic of tobacco-related harm and mortality. To avoid repeating the same mistakes, we need to act now to regulate e-cigarettes and protect consumers around the world”.
via A call for urgent regulation of e-cigarettes | Weekly BLiTZ.
Basically, if you don’t understand it, ban the hell out of it. Or at least hand it over to Big Tobacco and your pals in the pharma industry.
Hookahs Gain Boogeyman Status Alongside eCigs
It seems the CDC is pushing out it’s OMFG THE KIDS!!!!!1 agenda on drip feed. Making the rounds in all the news outlets is the latest collaboration between the CDC and tobacco free kids which has decided to release hookah and cigar numbers to go along with their deeply flawed e-cigarette numbers.
E-cigs, hookahs gain new hold with middle, high school kids - NBC News.com
Nearly 17 percent of all high school boys in 2012 used cigars in the past month, about equal to the proportion that smoked cigarettes.
“The report raises a red flag about newer tobacco products,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. “Cigars and hookah tobacco are smoked tobacco — addictive and deadly. We need effective action to protect our kids from addiction to nicotine.”
The Food and Drug Administration regulates most tobacco products, but not e-cigarettes, although the agency is pushing for oversight there, too.
via E-cigs, hookahs gain new hold with middle, high school kids – NBC News.com.
Much like the giant scare fest that came out around e-cigarettes, these numbers lack anything of real use as opposed to simple experimentation. I’m also not entirely clear if they’re talking about hookahs, or simply e-cigarettes with “hookah” branding, in which case actual hookahs are getting a raw deal here.
Musician Confronted by Dubai Security over eCig
Just a friendly reminder for my readers who are jet setters or international celebrities. Some countries take prohibition to all new levels. Like Dubai. Dubai simply outlaws e-cigarettes altogether. Just ask the bassist from Kings of Leon who found himself on the the wrong side of airport security in that country.
Kings Of Leon | Jared Followill Confronted At Airport Over Electronic Cigarette | Contactmusic.com
The bassist, who touched down in the city on Wednesday (13Nov13) with his bandmates, was reportedly confronted by a security team at the airport over his electronic cigarette, which are banned in the country.
The star took to Twitter.com to tell fans about the incident, writing, “Just had the life scared out of me at security in Dubai. Apparently it’s not just my bros (brothers) who think e-cigs (sic) are uncool. Almost locked up abroad.”
via Kings Of Leon | Jared Followill Confronted At Airport Over Electronic Cigarette | Contactmusic.com.
For some reason e-cigarettes are banned in quite a few Middle Eastern and Northern African countries even though smoking generally is an OK thing to do. I’m not sure if the WHO gets credit or Big Tobacco (or state-owned tobacco monopolies.)
Ohio Ignores ALA & ACS, Decides to Protect Kids Instead
Edit: this post originally incorrectly referenced Iowa. The correct state is Ohio. Now I must go, it’s time for my AP US geography class.
Despite efforts of the American Lung Association and the Cancer Society,
Iowa
Ohio has passed a bill making it illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors. The objection by the charities seem to reflect a strong dogmatic approach to maintaining their idea of normal rather than actually protecting anyone from what they themselves claim to be a dangerous and addictive drug.
E-cigarette bill passes House despite criticism | The Columbus Dispatch
Kunze said the bill does not prevent future tax changes and she doesn’t understand why groups including the American Cancer Society and heart and lung associations are opposing it when they backed a similar measure last year in Indiana.
The Cancer Society has said that it did not become aware until recently that the bills were part of a nationwide push by the tobacco industry to avoid having the products taxed like regular cigarettes.
The Cancer Society says higher taxes are more effective at keeping tobacco products away from teenagers than laws restricting sales to youths.
via E-cigarette bill passes House despite criticism | The Columbus Dispatch.
For some reason I can’t help but think the motivation is more to keep the scary numbers the CDC put out rising rather than protecting kids. It seems that the ACS has changed its tune to make it sound like it’s more concerned about kids. Instead it sounds more like a sleazy Big Tobacco exec. Can you just smell the irony?
Japan Tobacco Brings Ploom to Korea, Local Tobacco Not Worried
Japan Tobacco International, which acquired Ploom recently is trying to take its device international starting with South Korea. That country hasn’t been particularly receptive to e-cigarettes, and the dominant local tobacco company is far from worried.
Japanese tobacco firm looks to premium niche
JTI Korea is releasing an e-cigarette here that leaves no ashes or butts, as the electrically-charged vaporizer does not give off cigarette smoke.
The smell-free “Ploom” is set to be available in Korea next week; but analysts and other tobacco firms counter it is just another e-cigarette, the likes of which have failed to penetrate into the Korean market.
“Smokers usually try e-cigarettes as part of their effort to quit smoking. But many of them return to conventional cigarettes,” said Baek Woon-mok, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities. “JTI’s new leaf-based e-cigarette won’t make a big hit in the market.”
via Japanese tobacco firm looks to premium niche.
Korea can attribute the success of its local tobacco company to the hardline stance the country took toward e-cigarettes early on. Clearly that has worked well for the high smoking rates in that country.
Town Falls for Prohibition Rhetoric, Still Does Right Thing
I’m kind of burnt out on the same old prohibitionist logic making the rounds in the media and in local politics. I’m also a little over localities attempting to ban e-cigarettes. That’s what makes this story so interesting. The city of Mundelein bought right into the gateway theories and even the old FDA propaganda, but simply enacted an ordinance outlawing sales to minors.
Mundelein cracks down on electronic cigarettes for minors | Mundelein Review
Public health advocates say sweet flavors like cookies and cream and piña colada make e-cigarette smoking more attractive to teenagers. Manufacturers argue they are a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes.
But federal and state officials fear that so-called “vaping” may lead to tobacco products.
“This is a gateway to nicotine addiction,” Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther said.
He also pointed to a Food and Drug Administration study that found carcinogens from samples of some brands.
via Mundelein cracks down on electronic cigarettes for minors | Mundelein Review.
Granted it would have been nicer to not have some bunk idea of a gateway and a dirty trick to win a court battle cited as the reason for the law. But, sometimes you have to take a reasonable move as a win despite the motives.
eCigs Apparently Have Neilsen Ratings
In the day and age of people getting their entertainment from all kinds of places other than TV, what’s a ratings company to do? Apparently, if you’re Neilsen you rate all kinds of stuff like e-cigarettes. I had no idea they did anything other than TV, but obviously I was wrong. And the winner is… blu Cigs.
Nielsen Data Reflects Emerging E-Cig Leaders
“[The Nielsen numbers] imply [about] $700 million annual sales in Nielsen-tracked channels,” Herzog wrote in a research note. “We believe retail e-cig sales (including non-Nielsen tracked channels) should approach $1 billion this year or [about] $1.8 billion including online.”
The Nielsen data further exemplified the dominance of Lorillard’s blu: during the most recent period, blu boasted a 45.6% dollar share (up 40.1% from this time last year) and a 37.2% unit share in the c-store channel.
via Nielsen Data Reflects Emerging E-Cig Leaders | CSPnet.
The thing I find really interesting is how so many regulator types discount online sales, yet it’s half the market. It also makes me wonder why Altria is so keen to get regulation in, when it seems that Lorillard would eat their lunch at this point.
The Proud UK eCig Marketing Tradition (Hint: Sex)
Here’s another one to make prohibitionists scream about marketing to kids. UK e-cigarette company e-Lites has setup a deal to have their product show up in a popular online video. The video is apparently something about sexism in the industry, sung by women in skimpy clothes vaping e-Lites.
E-Lites secures product placement 'first' in Lily Allen's 'Hard Out Here' video
The E-Lites packaging and cigarettes appear in the Lily Allen video that is causing a stir on social media for satirising the music industry with a parody of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ video.
Footage from the controversial video includes silver balloons spelling out “Lily Allen has a baggy pussy”, and Allen is seeking to promote debate of the music on social media using the #HOH and #Bitches hashtags.
via E-Lites secures product placement ‘first’ in Lily Allen’s ‘Hard Out Here’ video | Marketing Magazine.
You can scope the video here
Are Cities Being Paid Off to Ban eCigs?
Here we have an all-too-common e-cigarette news item about a local city in Oklahoma looking to ban e-cigarettes by way of treating them exactly like e-cigarettes. This story is a little different, however, as it dove into the ugly underside of what might be driving these bans. Cash money.
‘Vape’ activists seek 'less insane’ e-cigarette law
“First thing off the bat, in order for us to be certified healthy at the ‘excellent’ level for a city, the first thing they ask us for is to add e-cigarettes, or electronic smoking devices, to our ordinances that have to do with tobacco,” Dobbins said.
At stake is at least $42,000 in prospective grant funding from TSET.
However, that sum may understate the cash incentives for a ban.
John Yeutter, a certified public accountant and an associate professor of accounting at Northeastern State University, told officials the county program’s own online reports identified TSET grants totaling $146,9987 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012.
via ‘Vape’ activists seek ‘less insane’ e-cigarette law « Watchdog.org.
That may explain why so many cities have been on the bandwagon to enact crushing e-cigarette regulations. Many times, these get defeated thanks to activists. However, what then happens is not even a minor ban may be enacted, so Big Settlement is actually endangering children. Nice, huh?
Report: Big Companies Muscling Out Small eCig Biz
A new report that some analyst firm expects people to pay money for has come out making a not-so-shocking observation about the e-cigarette industry. Big companies are better poised to have a place in retail markets than the small companies currently living in the online world.
Fitch: Entry of Large Tobacco Companies Legitimizing E-Cigarette Market
Most participants in the highly fragmented market utilize the internet as their main distribution channel given the lack of scale to compete in the retail setting. However, the landscape is evolving, as large tobacco companies with strong retail expertise have entered the marketplace having a distinct advantage versus smaller competitors. Current tobacco retailers and a rapidly growing base of entrepreneurs are providing an expanding brick-and-mortar presence for E-cigarette manufacturers, especially those hindered by scale.
Read the story here
Of course the report also notes regulation in the US and EU can change the market. What the blurb left out is how that will harm the small companies while essentially leaving Big T to carry on since it’s already used to such restrictions.
The UK's eCig Summit - Aspirin, eCig, same thing, right?
I failed to mention this one yesterday, mostly because it was going on across Twitter, and that’s a little hard to quote. Over in England, there was a summit put together by the ECF featuring vaping advocates and industry types along with a handful of opposition types. Most notably was the head of the MHRA, Jeremy Mean who steadfastly insists medical licensing isn’t a big deal. My pals over at the Ashtray blog wrote a nice short summary about the event that’s worth a visit.
Titans of the ECigarette Debate Clash: ECigarette Summit Review
(Clive Bates, former director of ASH, who we interviewed here) replied that 1.2 million was an incredible success, especially when compared to NRT, and that success does not have to be 100% – different solutions suit different people. Continued innovation, he believes, would lead to more success in the future.)
Deborah and Jeremy Mean from the MHRA both argued that regulation was the answer to this, and Jeremy Mean believed regulation would lead to greater innovation. (Strange for the representative of a Conservative party to favour regulation over competition!)
If anything it’s good to see that the British are civil enough to get together with their adversaries to try and hash things out. Unfortunately, like the post points out, it doesn’t seem the regulation-types understand the difference between aspirin and eCigs
Iowa Gov - eCigs are a Synthetic Drug
Iowa is one of many states considering enacting regulations for e-cigarettes. The state’s Governor is considering the recommendations by the state’s AG which include a minor sales ban, adding the devices to the smokefree law and taxing the devices at the same rate. These moves make sense to the governor because he is clearly finely attuned to the concept of e-cigarettes. Just look at this brilliant insight.
Gov. Branstad ‘Absolutely Interested’ in Regulating E-Cigarette
He compared e-cigarettes to synthetic drugs created to circumvent state and federal drug laws.
“They just keep coming up with different things just like we have to deal with all these synthetic drugs,” Branstad said.
According to Miller, Iowa’s smoke-free air act does not address the new technology. He said officials in Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota and Utah have included e-cigarettes in their indoor smoking bans and Minnesota changed its definition of tobacco products to include e-cigarettes and subject them to the tobacco taxes.
Read the full article
Yes, e-cigarettes, bath salts. Same difference.
What the CDC Chief Now Says about eCigs
The head of the CDC recently talked to the folks at Web MD specifically about e-cigarettes. In what should come as a surprise to no one is that many parallels were wrongly drawn to tobacco cigarettes. Kudos to the website for directly asking about the study that indicates the gateway theory may be a red herring.
E-Cigarettes: Expert Q&A With the CDC
Q: What do you make of the University of Oklahoma study (researchers surveyed 1,300 college students — average age 19 — about their tobacco and nicotine use) that found that electronic cigarettes are not a gateway to cigarette smoking? That the majority of students who were asked said they used them to quit conventional cigarettes?
A: It’s not really relevant to adolescents. It was conducted in college students, average age 19. Until it’s peer-reviewed and published, it shouldn’t be something used to make policy decisions about whether or not (e-cigarettes) have an impact on kids.
Read the full interview
First of all, I told you so. Second, wha? Yes, they were older and used to be adolescent, the idea was to see if they grew up to smoke. It’s like that old joke of looking for your keys by the streetlight because it’s easier to see over there.
A New Low for Local News Reporting
Local news stations seem to be in a heated arms race to the bottom when it comes to terrible news stories. I’m not even talking about e-cigarettes, it’s pretty much anything you can imagine, particularly when it comes to stuff “teens” are doing. In a world (use the movie preview voice) where conjecture becomes fact, a Rochester news station is claiming kids are drinking e-liquid to get high.
Liquid Nicotine: becoming street drug
Rochester, N.Y. — It’s sometimes called E juice or rock juice. It is the liquid nicotine used in electronic cigarettes. It’s not supposed to be ingested, yet comes in all kinds of flavors like pina colada, which is part of the draw for young teens. Despite warning labels which say “do not drink and keep out of the reach of children,” chemists at the Monroe County Crime Lab said teens in middle school locally are abusing liquid nicotine and using it to get high.
Read the article
Yes, rock juice. No, I have no idea. Anyway, there is no actual citation of kids doing this, just quotes from a chemist who says drinking nicotine is a really bad idea. Not even a real-life equivalent of Chief Wiggam saying this is a problem.
A prohibitionist Top 10
Yesterday I wrote that the HuffPo came out with a reasonably terrible top 9 list of prohibitionist rhetoric. Well, not to be outdone by a rag like the Huffington Post, Market Watch came up with a top 10 list along a similar theme. If you’re a fan of straw man arguments, this should make for a great read. If you’re not, be prepared to be enraged by insinuations like you haven’t actually quit smoking.
10 things e-cigarettes won’t tell you
Rob Fontano, the owner of an e-cigarette retailer Fort Myers, Fla., says e-cigarettes helped him quit smoking actual cigarettes “cold turkey,” after he’d tried nicotine patches, gum, and prescription Chantix without success. He even says his skin now looks healthier and he can breathe easier at the gym. But his version of “cold turkey” still includes e-cigarettes— which neither anti-smoking advocates nor tobacco companies would call quitting. After all, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, and therefore could keep people hooked on the powerfully addictive drug, Fiore says. Worse, they could increase a smoker’s habit if the person used e-cigarettes in places where they aren’t allowed to smoke — or reactivate the addiction in someone who had successfully quit cigarettes.“Once you provide a means for current smokers to maintain their nicotine addiction when they might otherwise think about quitting, you run the risk of continued and substantial use of deadly combustible tobacco,” Fiore says.
But e-cigarette makers don’t outright advertise that their products help people quit smoking — because they aren’t FDA-approved as a smoking-cessation product.“If a tobacco product consumer is concerned about the health effects from tobacco products, the best thing that they can do is quit,” says May of Altria. People who want to quit smoking can go to smokefree.com to learn about the seven treatments FDA-approved to help, or call 1-800-QUITNOW for counseling.
Read the whole thing here
Nice commercial for Big Pharma, eh? Of course it’s easy to say that when e-cigarettes aren’t supposed to be a cessation product. I don’t hear the same yahoos claiming people using the patch are still “smokers.” Apparently Big P is now the arbiter of semantics in our society.
Organized Vapers CAN Overcome Odds to Protect Their Interests
The New York Times ran a piece this weekend on the impact of the vaping community with regards to the EU’s TPD e-cigarette provisions being removed at the 11th hour. The piece is an interesting look at how vapers fought in Europe to keep e-cigarettes from becoming medicalized. The piece also comes dangerously close to calling the outcry a massive Astroturfing. Actually, one of the biggest proponents of the mecicalization of e-cigarettes still remains convinced this was some massive front for a sinister industry.
Aided by Army of ‘Vapers,’ E-Cigarette Industry Woos and Wins Europe
“Are these people all in the pay of e-cig companies?” said Linda McAvan, an influential member of Parliament’s environment and public health committee. “No. But they have been told by these companies that Brussels wants to take away their product. They are genuinely angry. But their anger has been fed.”
This anger, whether spontaneous or stoked by companies, provided the industry with an army of volunteer lobbyists. “They are almost evangelical about e-cigarettes,” said Rebecca Taylor, one of many members of the European Parliament swayed by the appeals of former smokers who switched to e-cigarettes.
McAven still sees this as a conspiracy after everything was said and done. This is the same person that was convinced e-cigarettes weren’t part of the TPD and managed to throw the UK’s hat in the ring on the subject despite having no actual authority to do so from the UK Parliament. However, this article is a great example about what is possible. The US is still somewhat different because it’s not lobbying averse like the EU is, plus we have an agency at work here and not a full vote by the US Congress. That still doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight the good fight like our Euro brethren.
FDA Prepared to go to Court for eCig Regulations
Here’s an interesting nugget of information. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (a pharma-funded charity) published an interview with the FDA’s tobacco tzar, Mitch Zeller. Much of the interview was about regular cigarettes, but you can bet e-cigarettes were featured in there as well. Zeller wouldn’t spill the beans, but he did seem to indicate the FDA is going to have to defend its regulation in court, and its preparing to do just that.
Regulating Tobacco: Q&A with FDA’s Mitch Zeller
It’s not really about barriers. It’s about what is the reality if you’re in the business of regulation and what do you need to be thinking about as set policy. At the end of the day we’re regulators and because there are potential violations of law that we’re talking about, both civil and criminal, what we have to think about when we take agency action is that any interested party that disagrees with a final decision that we’ve made through rulemaking can sue us.
So, we’re always thinking about the evidence base in support of any regulatory policy decision that we’re making, knowing that there is a potential for litigation, and we have to be able to prevail in whatever litigation comes down the road following final agency action through rulemaking. That’s why we’re constantly exploring the evidence. We’re making an enormous investment in research because with these new products such as e-cigarettes, we have far more questions than answers about how they work, what kind of nicotine is being delivered, who is using them and how they are being used.
Now, remember a while back the FDA and NIH ponied up a bunch of cash to provide grants for e-cigarette research, and much of it went to known blowhards and prohibitionists? Is this starting to become clear now? I should also note, Zeller mentioned they can only address studies that have been registered with the FDA as evidence, so I wonder how many, if any at all, of the more positive studies are on record with the agency.
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Originally posted: e-Cigarette News Roundup for 11-15 – The old tried ‘n true
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