Author: Staff Writer

Pittsburgh Latest City to Sue Juul Labs for Marketing

More than 70 school districts across the United States have filed lawsuits against Juul Labs for its marketing practices.
The Pittsburgh Public School district gave approval last week for the district to enter into a contract with the Frantz Law Group of San Diego, the firm filing the lawsuits against Juul Labs in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, where the company is headquartered.
“It’s very similar in concept to the tobacco litigation of some 20 years ago except this is not a class action,” district solicitor Ira Weiss said during a school board meeting Wednesday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the cost of installing vaping detection devices in school restrooms as well as funding for educational programs for students and families about the health risks of vaping.
Weiss said about 70 school districts nationwide have filed similar lawsuits, including several other school districts in Pennsylvania.
Austin Finan, a Juul spokesman, said in a statement that the corporation would respond to the allegations in the complaint through the appropriate legal channels, according to the story. In the meantime, Finan said the company would “seek to earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with attorneys general, legislators, regulators, public health officials and other stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes.”
“As part of that process, the company reduced its product portfolio, halted television, print and digital product advertising and submitted a Premarket Tobacco Product Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration including comprehensive scientific evidence to support the harm reduction potential of its products and data-driven measures to address underage use,” he said.
The lawsuit is a contingent fee case, meaning it will cost the district nothing if the district does not win. The Frantz Law Group would receive 20 percent of any settlement if the case is decided in 2020, or 25 percent if the case is settled in 2021 or later, the story states.
Board member Terry Kennedy said it was a “wise” decision for the district to file the lawsuit.
“We don’t have any upfront expenses, and there’s no risk to the taxpayers,” Ms. Kennedy said. “There’s a lot of benefit to our students if they understand what’s going on related to Juul and the others.”
September 29, 2020
MIchigan Recalls Marijuana Vapes With Vitamin E Acetate

The Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) in Michigan has issued a recall for any vape cartridges containing Vitamin E Acetate. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said vitamin E acetate is responsible for a rash of lung disease.
Many of these products were sold from Plan B Wellness, located on 20101 8 Mile Road in Detroit. Most of them were sold late 2019.
The substances has failed safety compliance testing in August. According to a news release, these cartridges were made before November 2019, when the rules for marijuana products were filed in the state.
The vape cartridges will all have a license number of the marijuana facility on it. They will also have a tag number that is followed by a statewide monitoring system.
MRA suggests customers and patients to return the affected products to Plan B Wellness, who will properly dispose them. The store will also contact customers who have bought these items.
September 28, 2020
Colorado Measure Would Raise Vapor Tax Over 7 Years

Cigarettes and tobacco products are taxed in Colorado. Vaping devices and vaping fuel are not.
A question on the November ballot — Proposition EE — would change that system, increasing the price of cigarettes and all other nicotine and tobacco products gradually over the next seven years.
The Colorado legislature passed legislation in the 11th hour of the the recent lawmaking term to place the question on the ballot. The bill was negotiated between Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Jared Polis’ office, health advocates and the Altria Group, according to an article on the coloradoan.com
Proponents see Proposition EE as a way to drive down tobacco use in Colorado — including teen vaping. And on top of that, they want the money raised through the tax to go toward funding preschool slots across the state. Opponents say the tax increase is regressive and will hurt smokers and tobacco users who are minorities and have lower incomes.
If passed, it would be the first tobacco tax increase in Colorado since 2004, when voters approved an additional 3.2 cents in taxes per cigarette. Today, there is an 84-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes and a 40 percent tax on the manufacturer’s list price for other tobacco products, like chewing tobacco, cigars and snuff.
September 28, 2020
Canada: Uptick in Youth Vaping, Cigarettes in Decline

Canadian youth use of combustible cigarettes has declined dramatically, while vaping increased significantly among Canadian youth over a six-year period, cigarette use remained, a University of Waterloo study says.
Vaping increased over the six years being examined by the researchers. Notably, they said, the increase started before nicotine vapes were legally available in Canada in 2018, according to a story in the Waterloo Chronicle.
The popularity of vaping in Peterborough has health officials worried, said Adam Cole, a public health researcher who led the study while at the University of Waterloo. They also found smoking rates were stable in the early years of the study but started to drop off in the most recent years, “which suggests that rather than smoking cigarettes, students are sticking with vaping.”
The researchers studied data from more than 30,000 high-school youth in grades 9 to 12 in more than 60 schools in Ontario between 2013 and 2019. The data also included a smaller sample from Alberta (nine schools), and large samples from British Columbia and Quebec, but only over three years because data was not available before 2016.
The data came from the COMPASS study, a multi-year survey of Canadian youth designed to evaluate the impact of changes to programs and policies on youth behaviour over time. It “shares the same story as other recent studies, such as in the U.S. and David Hammond’s study of Canadian youth, but with a larger sample and a longer time period,” said Cole.
Youth vaping has dropped more than 300 percent in the U.S., according to the most recent data. The overall use of e-cigarettes by youth dropped from 28 percent to 20 percent among high schoolers, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), which show 1.8 million fewer U.S. youth are currently using e-cigarettes compared to 2019.
September 28, 2020
Controversial Researcher Stanton Glantz Retires

Photo: StockSnap from Pixabay
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) professor and anti-tobacco activist Stanton Glantz has retired after 45 years.

“I have finally retired from UCSF, ready to move to the next phase,” Glantz wrote in an email to colleagues that has since been shared by many, including Clive Bates, on Twitter. “I will also be continuing to work with my UCSF colleagues to complete work that is underway. From talking to colleagues who have already retired, I am confident that there will be more ways that I can keep contributing to fighting the tobacco industry and promoting public health.”

Glantz announced that he would be stepping down as UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education director in June of this year after previously stepping down as principal investigator for the center.

Glantz’s research on tobacco and vaping has been frequently criticized by vaping advocates. Recently, he was forced to retract a 2019 study that suggested a connection between vaping and heart attacks. It turned out that participants in the study had heart attacks before beginning to vape.

In 2018, Glantz was accused of sexual harassment by two different women, resulting in a university settlement of $150,000 outside of court.

Many of his critics are celebrating Glantz’s retirement. “Stanton Glantz’s long-overdue retirement is a win for taxpayers, consumers and public health,” said Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams.

Clive Bates wrote on Twitter, “It should have happened years ago—many lives would have been saved. And much else.”
September 28, 2020
HnB Market Expected to Reach $33.6 billion

.Photo: Лечение Наркомании from Pixabay
The global heat-not-burn tobacco market is expected to grow to $33.6 billion from $14.6 billion by 2025, according to a Research and Markets report.

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to be 14.87 percent.

“The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the global heat-not-burn tobacco products market, including British American Tobacco PLC, Japan Tobacco Inc., Pax Labs, Philip Morris International and Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing LLC,” according to the Research and Markets website.

The report also takes into consideration the effects of Covid-19.
September 28, 2020
California City Bans Vapor, Statewide Flavor Ban Looming

This week, the San Mateo City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that will ban the sales of all e-cigarettes. It will also prohibit the sale of all tobacco products in pharmacies within city limits.
The move comes as the state prepares to enact its own ban on Jan. 1, 2021, though it could be challenged if a proposed ballot referendum garners enough signatures to delay its implementation, according to an article in Halfwheel..
It also does not include an exemption for hookah tobacco, something that is contained in the flavor state’s bill.
The ordinance must still go through a second reading in October before it becomes law. If passed, it is slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021. The ordinance’s original implementation date of April 5, 2021 was amended during discussions to hasten the law’s implementation.
If passed, retailers would be subject to a number of penalties for violating the law, as a retailer’s tobacco sales permit could be suspended, and fines starting at $100 for a first violation, $200 for a second, and $500 for each additional violation within a year. During discussions, council members discussed increasing those penalties, something that could still be changed during the second reading or at a point in the future.
The city joins the surrounding unincorporated areas of San Mateo County in passing the ban, as county leaders banned flavored tobacco sales in those areas in June 2018. It also becomes the second city in the Bay Area to support such a ban this week, with Mill Valley enacting a similar ban this week as well.
San Mateo is located approximately 20 miles south of San Francisco and is home to an estimated 105,000 residents.
September 26, 2020
Sony Sued for Exploding E-Cig Battery In New York

On September 24, Bernardino Manuel brought a new product liability action against Sony Corporation in the Southern District of New York. He alleges that the a Sony e-cigarette battery exploded without warning, resulting in severe injuries to the plaintiff as he carried the defendant’s battery in his pocket.
Manuel claimed that the defendant’s battery was made of lithium-ion, which by its chemical makeup is known to pose a heightened risk of “fire and explosion” when used in e-cigarette systems, according to lawstreetmedia. The plaintiff supported this assertion by referencing a “medical case report of a man in New Jersey, whose e-cigarette exploded in his pocket causing him severe burns,” a “California man (who) recently lost his eye as a result of an e-cigarette exploding near him,” and a “Southern California woman (who) was set on fire after an e-cigarette exploded while she was a passenger in a car.”
Manuel also noted that cases like the aforementioned ones in New Jersey and California were only further exacerbated by the federal government’s failure to regulate the devices that power, and only the resulting toxins from, e-cigarettes. For example, the plaintiff averred, in October of 2014, a report was released by the federal government that noted that the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Fire Administration, nor the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission regulated any aspect of the “battery or electronic components of the devices.”
However, Manuel proffered, despite the government’s refusal to regulate, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a “rule banning e-cigarettes from checked bags on airplanes because they have been known to catch fire,” which supports a claim that there is “mounting evidence the explosions and fires caused by e-cigarettes and lithium-ion batter(ies) are increasing in occurrence.”
Given all this knowledge, Manuel argued that Sony should be held strictly liable for all damages based off of its defective battery. The plaintiff also alleged that the defendant should have provided consumers with similar “warnings, labels, or instructions” stating that the battery was “designed in a manner such that it should not be stored in a pocket.”
Manuel sought damages “to compensate…for his injuries, economic losses and pain and suffering sustained as a result of the use of the (defendant’s) battery.” The plaintiff also sought attorney’s fees, court costs, and punitive damages.
September 26, 2020
NicVape Faces Suit Over SantiHands Brand Sanitizer

Professional Disposables International (PDI) has files suit against South Carolina-based NicVape over its new SantiHands brand hand sanitizer. PDI has been producing Sani-Hands alcohol wipes since 1995.
PDI filed a complaint on Sept. 11 in U.S. District Court, White Plains, for trademark infringement. NicVape, PDI claims, “willfully intended to trade on plaintiff’s reputation and to cause confusion” between SantiHands and Sani-Hands.
PDI says it is a pioneer in manufacturing alcohol prep pads and germicidal disposable wipes. Nice-Pak Products Inc., an affiliated company, was granted the Sani-Hands trademark in 1995 for antiseptic, premoistened towelettes, according to an article on westfaironline.com.
The wipes are more than 99 percent effective against many bacteria, viruses and fungi, according to PDI, in preventing infections. Sani-Hands are marketed to health care staff and patients and foodservice patrons who don’t have access to soap and water.
NicVape’s wipes began showing up in August at Home Depot stores, the complaint states, in the Bronx, Hawthorne, Port Chester and Fairfield, Connecticut. PDI says it asked NicVape to cease and desist from using the SantiHands mark, but NicVape has not responded, according to the story.
The complaint claims that many new hand sanitizer makers do not use the stringent manufacturing and testing procedures that PDI employs. It also notes that the FDA has recently recalled hand sanitizers that contain toxic alcohols, but provides no evidence that SantiHands does so.
A National Drug Code filing lists SantiHands’ active ingredient as alcohol, at 80%. The product label, as depicted in a photo exhibit in the lawsuit, shows its composition as 80 percent ethyl alcohol.
PDI’s Sani-Hands has 70 percent ethyl alcohol.
PDI accuses NicVape of trademark infringement, dilution of Sani-Hands’ reputation for excellence, false designation of origin and unfair competition. It is demanding that NicVape stop using the SantiHands mark, destroy the products, and abandon its application for a trademark.
September 25, 2020
Rodu: No Evidence to Support CDC ‘Nicotine Brain’ Claim

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out with a false advertisement telling kids that “Nicotine in e-cigarettes can harm brain development.” The headline says, “It’s not like you can buy a new brain.” To make it accurate, I’ve added “…for your pet mouse,” writes Brad Rodu in his blog rodutobaccotruth.
Let me be crystal clear. The harm in brain development federal officials talk non-stop about only happens in laboratory torture of mice. Mouse studies are well known to be of questionable value in predicting human effects. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support the claim that nicotine causes harm to human brain development, so it is astounding that federal officials traffic in this false narrative. This nonsense is an affront to 34 million adult current smokers and 55 million former smokers in the U.S., virtually all of whom started when they were teenagers. There is no evidence that their brain development was harmed, a fact that was specifically acknowledged by a prestigious nicotine researcher Dr. Neal Benowitz at an international tobacco meeting this week.
Credit: Brad Rodu
I have for years catalogued CDC misinformation campaigns regarding smokeless tobacco (examples here, here, here) and e-cigarettes (here, here, here, here).
Today, CDC’s bungling of Covid-19 facts and guidance is pulling back the curtain on that agency’s tragic shortcomings and its readiness to disregard or “warp” the truth. Educated tobacco users have known the CDC has been lying about and to them for years.
September 25, 2020