New from Steve K's Vaping World:
Welcome to another Friday e-cigarette news roundup coming to you from a brand-new server. Hopefully, that means you will be able to get your e-cigarette news even faster. As usual, there’s a fine selection of articles to be had, so dig in and enjoy!
Weekly Standard on Prohibitionist Mindset
The conservative publication The Weekly Standard ran an article about how e-cigarettes are drawing the ire of anti-smoking types despite the obvious benefits. While there’s not exactly groundbreaking new insights going on here, the article does a good job of pointing out what we’ve all seen before. Essentially, out of sheer paranoia and anti-smoking zealotry, many groups have taken a ban first and ask questions later approach.
Thank You for Not Vaping: The irrational hostility to e-cigarettes.
Three decades of increasingly punitive anti-smoking regulations have made American smokers a pariah class. Smoking has been thoroughly de-normalized and wholly stigmatized. Smokers are no longer viewed as doing something merely stupid or self-destructive; smoking, to many, is now morally wrong. In this sense, e-cig makers have probably erred by calling them “cigarettes,” as it’s raised the ire of those with a visceral hatred for smoking—and smokers. One also gets the sense that the banners think that sucking on an e-cigarette in a public place represents a defiant flouting of anti-smoking laws rather than what it really is: obedience to anti-smoking laws.
The FDA is expected to announce its regulations on e-cigs in October. But in the meantime, the anti-e-cigarette crowd should take heart: Both Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan were recently spotted vaping e-cigarettes, which will probably do more to make them unattractive to the general public than anything the regulators can come up with.
It’s a good thing the author hadn’t yet seen the news that Jenny McCarthy joined forces with Blu as their next spokesperson.
Hopefully Jenny McCarthy Won’t Taint eCigs as Blu’s Next Spokesperson
Convenience Store News revealed that Big Tobacco-owned Blu has named a new addition to compliment B-List celeb spokesman Stephen Dorf. That spokesperson is none other than Jenny McCarthy, famous for being naked once and terrifying parents rattling on about junk science linking immunizations and autism.
Lorillard Finds No Reason to be Blue About Blu
The Greensboro, N.C.-based tobacco company is also investing in blu’s brand-building through its national advertising campaign. Lorillard re-signed actor Stephen Dorff, who starred in blu’s first national commercial “Rise from the Ashes,” which made its debut in October.
Lorillard announced today that it signed a second celebrity to help blu’s marketing push. The company is now teaming with actress and new “The View” co-host Jenny McCarthy — who, according to Kessler, approached Lorillard about working together because she uses blu e-cigarettes.
I gotta say Jenny got a lot of people on board with the immunization thing, so she can really get a following going. Maybe she can do the same for e-cigarettes. Or maybe she’ll end up tainting the industry much the same way as Big Tobacco handed ammunition to idiot prohibitionists when they started getting into the game. We sure do live in interesting times.
NJoy Struggling to Find European PR Agency
It’s been reported that NJoy is contacting PR firms in London ahead of ramping up its presence in Europe. The company has been alleged to have already met with several agencies. So far, the hunt continues as the company is running into obstacles trying to find an agency to take its business.
Njoy Hunts For PR Support To Boost E-Cigarettes
The company is aiming to boost its presence in the UK, where it estimates the e-cigarette market at upwards of £100m. After launching a presence in the country last year, Njoy is hoping to confirm a listing with one of the big four UK supermarkets, and is set to launch a major marketing campaign in the country.
Despite Njoy’s stated mission of making cigarettes obsolete, and the absence of tobacco from its products, many networks contacted by the Holmes Report indicated they would be unable to handle the assignment. The PR industry remains wary of the controversy associated with conventional cigarettes, and few firms handle such accounts anymore.
e-Cigarette Turf War!
Two local e-cigarette shops are going at it over intellectual property rights in Florida. Vapor Shark is accusing Vapor Hog of basically ripping off its logo, colors and everything else about the business. It was alleged that the Vapor Hog folks even put leaflets on customers’ cars parked in the Vapor Shark lot. Vapor Hog responded to the allegations in the news story by saying the Shark place has no basis for a claim.
Electronic Cigarette War: Vapor Shark Sues Vapor Hog
Vapor Hog, he says, is “just trying to be like us. They opened five blocks away.” He said “there’s a whole bunch” of similar e-cigarette stores now, and “competition is fine — but infringing and trying confuse people is not.” Leidel said the parties would be meeting this week to try to come to an agreement.
A man named Sergio at Vapor Hog initially said Leidel “made a big mistake… my attorneys are going to have a field day with him” and that “he has no case” before thinking better of it and referring questions to his attorney, who did not immediately return a call for comment.
Can’t we all just get along?
Italy Scraps its Money-Grubbing eCig Tax Scheme
The ill advised plot by the Italian government to tax e-cigarettes at a staggering 58% has been abandoned amid protests. Originally the revenue from the tax was going to pay for prison staff, apparently by killing smokers by limiting their ability to buy e-cigarettes. Someone pointed out that the tax actually threatens some 5000 jobs in the nation so Italy decided to back off their plans (for now).
Italy scraps e-cigarette tax plans
The National Association of Electronic Smoking (Anafe) welcomed the news, although it said that the tax may still be introduced at a later date.
“We will continue to protest. This tax is unjust and unbalanced and we ask the government to look at possible alternatives that allow it to make up the necessary revenue,” Anafe President Massimiliano Mancini said in a statement.
“The alternative is the death of a sector that was growing,” he added.
Italy’s MEP was whining about tax income lost to e-cigarettes (from people giving up smoking) since back in the early debates of the TPD. This move clearly illustrates that at least for one country e-cigarettes have never been about health and that it was willing to sacrifice some percentage of its population to prop up its ailing economy.
HuffPo Contributor: OMG eCigs Will Hook Your Babies on Crack!!!
Ah, the Huffington Post, where they’ll let pretty much anyone write anything. Sometimes it’s great stuff. Other times it’s this piece by prohibitionist Jeffrey B. Lane, the head of CASAColumbia. Mr. Lane’s article is all about the gateway argument. Not satisfied with the traditional prohibition chestnut that e-cigarettes will get kids to smoke, this article takes it to the next “logical” conclusion that e-cigarettes are the gateway to all kinds of horrible addictions.
Electronic Cigarettes — Let’s Think Before We Inhale
Fact: A growing body of evidence suggests that early use of nicotine increases the risk of addiction involving not only nicotine but also other drugs. High school students who have ever smoked cigarettes are nine times likelier to develop addiction involving alcohol or other drugs than those who have never smoked.
Or maybe those with addictive personalities are more likely to smoke, because logic. Did I ever tell you I have a magic tree in my yard that can create weather patterns? Every time the tree shakes its leaves, it makes the wind blow. Fact.
Scientific American Presents an Evening With Stan Glantz
After being traumatized by a friend daring to vape in the ladies room at a Broadway play, a guest blogger on Scientific American’s website decided to speak with an expert about the terrors of e-cigarettes. That expert is one often maligned and misunderstood expert in tobacco control, Professor Stanton Glantz. In the interview the professor put forth his musings on electronic cigarettes in a tone that almost sounded downright reasonable. Of course the tone of the message doesn’t mean the message itself is any different.
How safe are electronic cigarettes? Not everyone agrees.
Q: Where do the authors stand on harm reduction and addiction?
A (Glantz): The articles reflect the polarization in the public health and tobacco control communities. The optimists – the harm reduction people (in this instance Hajek et al.)– essentially believe that electronic cigarettes are much less dangerous than traditional cigarettes and so their use should be encouraged. The pessimists (Cobb and Cobb) see electronic cigarettes as an addictive drug that, without regulation, are not going to market in a way that will disrupt the primary profit stream of cigarettes, and so could end up just keeping people smoking conventional cigarettes.
There’s an assumption among the harm reduction people that if you could snap your fingers and get every smoker to switch to e-cigarettes, you’d be ahead. One problem is that you can’t do that. While the industry uses social media and the internet to present e-cigarettes as a miracle way to quit, as noted above, no independent studies show that e-cigarettes actually help people quit. They may even discourage quitting.
But wait! There’s more, read this article and you’ll see all of Stan’s greatest hits including the #1 smash hit, e-cigarettes encourage dual use.
Local News Station Discovers Marijuana Vaporizers
In a classic local news piece involving stupid crap kids are up to, the Action News I-Team out of a Florida station investigated people using e-cigarettes for other purposes. Someone let the I-Team have access to You Tube where they found herbal vaporizer reviews. Surely there has been tons of arrests as everyone just gets high in public now. Not so much, the local police, so far, haven’t seen a huge explosion of this type of use.
I-Team: E-cigarettes used for illegal purposes
Because it releases a vapor, rather than traditional smoke, an e-cigarette does not have as noticeable of an aroma as traditional marijuana or hash cigarettes.
Local law enforcement agencies tell the I-Team they haven’t made many arrests involving e-cigarette type devices so far, but it’s a trend they are closely watching, as e-cigarettes become more popular nationwide.
Instructional videos are popping up on YouTube showing people how to use e-cigarettes to take drugs, even reviewing certain models.
All kidding aside, this could potentially be an issue in states where marijuana prohibition is still a thing. That’s probably a comment for a different blog. I’ll point out, however, age restrictions might help with the youth access part, if only the anti-smoking groups would stop lobbying to make e-cigarettes available to the young ‘uns.
Prohibitionists to Ohio Kids - Vape 'em if you Got 'em
Coming off their recent win to keep e-cigarettes available to Rhode Island children, anti-smoking groups have now set their sights on Ohio. That state also has legislation in the works to prohibit the sales to minors, but is yet again opposed by groups who are supposed to actually be protecting children. At issue is that the legislation doesn’t tax the daylights out of electronic cigarettes.
E-cig bill called a ‘Trojan horse’
But Stephens and Shelly Kiser, advocacy director for the American Lung Association in Ohio, say youth-access laws are among the least-effective ways to prevent minors from getting hold of tobacco products — so tobacco companies lose little by advocating the provision. But higher taxation, they argue, is a key deterrent.
Kunze said she is surprised by the opposition, which focuses on the bill’s new definition of alternative nicotine products.
For the moment, we’ll set aside the idea that heavy taxes on cigarettes were intended to fund prevention and increased healthcare costs resulting from smoking, not as a deterrent. Apparently it’s ok to not have age restrictions, so long as the devices are taxed. I guess filling coffers is more important than age restrictions and that somehow keeps kids from using certain products, as opposed to just making more grant money available for anti-smoking groups.
Colorado's Phantom e-Cigarette Menace
RJR released its retooled Vuse electronic cigarettes into test markets in Colorado recently. This move has gotten local prohibitionists all a twitter with the raising of voices and wringing of hands. The main fear seems to be that with big tobacco clout, e-cigarettes will finally be able to be used to lure kids into a lifetime of smoking, thus giving anti-smoking groups something to do for years to come.
Health officials worry about electronic cigarette push in Colorado
“By around August we should start seeing significant TV advertising, as well as online,” said Colorado-based marketing executive Brent Green. In addition, he said, “there will be live sampling at nightclubs and festivals where people gather.”
Green, a critic of e-cigarettes, highlighted the dangers of romanticizing e-cigarettes. For example, recently actor Leonardo DiCaprio was seen vaping in public.
“You show celebrities, you show cool adults using the product. Kids always aspire to act and react like adults. They want to be grown up,” said Green.
Leonardo, like many celebrities has been using e-cigarettes well before the Johnny-come-lately Big Tobacco entered the market. Yet, there is no scientific evidence to support an uptick in youth use. It seems these groups are focusing on the wrong things, which may explain why Colorado is the #10 state for smoking in the US.
US Paper Quotes the FDA's Crazy Cousin
The extra-crazy version of the FDA, also known as the Philippine’s FDA was quoted in a florida newspaper recently quoted the June 26th advisory from that FDA. Among other things, the advisory warned of propylene glycol, since apparently their research review process hasn’t caught up to the 1940′s yet. Otherwise it was your generic are e-cigarettes a secret plot kind of articles.
Are e-cigarettes healthier?
In June, the Food and Drug Administration in the Philippines issued an advisory, warning that e-cigs have not been tested and second-hand emissions could be harmful.
“E-cigarettes contain volatile substances, including popylene glycol, flavors and nicotine, and are emitted as (a) mist or aerosol into indoor air,” according to the June 26 advisory.
The story lead off with a correction that it had originally misattributed the organization that issued the advisory. Since I didn’t see the article I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they thought it was the US FDA issuing the advisory. It’s an easy mistake to make since most articles out of the Philippines just call it the FDA. I’ve almost done it myself, until I actually read the article.
Training the Next Wave of Zealots
The CADCA, an organization for community anti-drug activists apparently has e-cigarettes in its craw now. A blog post on their site has raised the virtual call to arms, using the finest incorrect and outdated information available.
E-cigarettes: Do I Smell a Rat?
A few years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to parents and consumers, noting that e-cigarettes are sold without any legal age restrictions and are available in different flavors (such as chocolate, strawberry and mint) which may appeal to young people. In addition, the FDA said, the devices do not contain any health warnings comparable to FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or conventional cigarettes.
If that doesn’t work, try adding a dash of fear mongering to get folks motivated.
E-cigarettes were never introduced by scientific acclaimed standards as a cessation product in the first place– telling the truth just about that alone can raise some eyebrows among early adopters. The key here can simply be to report on what we know, albeit little, rather than calling our public health claims into question by promoting all the many things we don’t know.
So what do we know for certain? We know e-cigarettes are used to deliver nicotine into the bloodstream and we all know nicotine is the addictive agent that takes thousands of lives each year. We know that nicotine is more addictive than crack cocaine and heroin. So, here you have a new kid on the block coming along to deliver that same addictive substance in a new, more attractive shell. Drawing those associations may, at the least, force consumers to question the validity of e-cigarette vendors’ claims.
Yes, mentioning that e-cigarettes were never approved for a purpose for which they aren’t marketed will work wonders with the early adopters. Best go back to smoking.
A Tweeting e-Cigarette - Sure, why not?
Maybe I need to come up with a weird e-cigarette news section because this story certainly fits. Apparently, someone modified an e-cigarette to Tweet. The device uses a small CPU on chip and a bluetooth connection to send various progress updates to the Twitter account @TweetingCiggy.
This Tweeting E-Cigarette Does Exactly What You’d Expect
While at New York’s Tir Na Nog bar, John Mayo-Smith of the creative agency R/GA observed a fellow employee taking drags from an e-cigarette. Later, after reading a New York Times article about them, he instructed his team to hook one up to the Internet. Within four days, they had created a prototype — by using an Arduino microprocessor with a Bluetooth shield and some conductive tape on the e-cigarette’s button — and written a matching iPhone app to boot. When the button is pressed, a signal travels from the cigarette to the Arduino to the app, which records statistics and sends tweets to an account titled TweetingCiggy.
I’m actually surprised this didn’t come out of the usual modding community. How long will it be before overseas factories swipe this idea and put it in absolutely everything?
Deal of the Moment
50% off e-Liquid at Panda eCigs
Panda‘s e-Liquidation (get it?) sale carries on with an even bigger discount. The company is blowing out its e-liquid line at 50% off with coupon code LIQUIDSALE. Much of the line has been sold out with the previous sale, so if you want to get in on the deal, it’s probably best to do so soon before all they have left is that one weird flavor nobody likes. Click here to see what’s left at Panda.
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Originally posted: e-Cigarette News Roundup July 26 – Shiny and new
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