Category: News This Week

The Netherlands is to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to people under the age of 18, according to a Dutch News story.

The ban was announced yesterday by junior health minister Martin van Rijn, who said the measure was being introduced in an effort to stop youngsters from smoking.

The new rules will apply to electronic cigarettes with and without nicotine, and will bring the minimum purchase age of these products into line with those of tobacco and alcohol.

“Smoking tobacco may be more dangerous but we have to do all we can to stop youngsters smoking,” said Van Rijn, who is hoping to introduce the new minimum-age rule as soon as possible.

The decision to introduce the age restriction was said to have followed research by the public health organisation RIVM that showed ‘e-cigarettes are more dangerous than thought’.

‘The chemicals included in the smoking mixture include nicotine, propylene glycol and glycerol, aldehydes, nitrosamines and metals’, the News reported.

‘Inhaling these can irritate and damage the airways, cause palpitations and increase the risk of cancers, the RIVM said.

The RIVM is now researching the impact of electronic cigarettes on non-users.

The Chinese government is considering regulating the manufacture, sale and consumption of electronic cigarettes ‘in the light of uncertainty regarding the health risk/benefit of the devices’, according to a China Daily story relayed by the TMA.

Mao Qun’an, a spokesman for China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, made known the government’s thinking while speaking on the sidelines of the recently-concluded 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Mao said electronic cigarettes were widely available in China, on the streets or at online stores, and in a variety of flavors that could attract the young.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, was quoted by the Daily as saying electronic cigarettes would attract young people to smoking.

She recommended that national governments “abandon or at least regulate them”. And Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO’s Non-communicable Diseases Prevention Department, agreed.

Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Brazil had banned e-cigarettes, while others had regulated them as tobacco products or as medicinal products. “But the bottom line is to regulate them,” he said.

The Chinese government’s tobacco monopoly is, by a long way, the biggest manufacturer of traditional tobacco cigarettes

Vapor Hub International, a California, USA-based company that develops, produces and sells e-cigarette products, has appointed Ryan Moss as its new sales manager.

Moss spent the past 10 years in sales in the credit card processing industry, where he built and managed a sales team of 20 people. A graduate of San Diego State University with a major in psychology and a minor in business management, Moss has more than 15 years of face-to-face and phone sales experience and frequently set company records for the most accounts and highest closing ratio in his previous positions.

“Vapor Hub is building a sales team that will bring attention to our brand, to the e-cigarette/vaping industry and consumers,” said Vapor Hub International CEO Kyle Winther. “Ryan has the sales ability and experience to manage and build a great sales force.”

The Chinese government is considering regulating the manufacture, sale and consumption of electronic cigarettes ‘in the light of uncertainty regarding the health risk/benefit of the devices’, according to a China Daily story relayed by the TMA.

Mao Qun’an, a spokesman for China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, made known the government’s thinking while speaking on the sidelines of the recently-concluded 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Mao said electronic cigarettes were widely available in China, on the streets or at online stores, and in a variety of flavors that could attract the young.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, was quoted by the Daily as saying electronic cigarettes would attract young people to smoking.

She recommended that national governments “abandon or at least regulate them”. And Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO’s Non-communicable Diseases Prevention Department, agreed.

Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Brazil had banned e-cigarettes, while others had regulated them as tobacco products or as medicinal products. “But the bottom line is to regulate them,” he said.

The Chinese government’s tobacco monopoly is, by a long way, the biggest manufacturer of traditional tobacco cigarettes.

A US legal scholar and tobacco control expert says he has developed a research-based roadmap that allows for the immediate regulation of e-cigarettes.

Writing in the March issue of Food and Drug Law Journal, Eric N. Lindblom, JD, senior scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, said his proposal would minimize the threats that electronic cigarettes posed to public health while still enabling them potentially to help reduce smoking.

‘This approach could help to heal the current split in the public health community over e-cigarettes by addressing the concerns of both sides,’ Lindblom said.

‘We already know that using e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking, but more harmful than not using any tobacco or nicotine at all, and that’s enough to figure out how to regulate them both to protect and promote the public health.’

Lindblom’s piece ‘Effectively Regulating E-Cigarettes and Their Advertising – And the First Amendment’, was relayed by medicalxpress.com here.

The Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Health has released a report asking the federal government to establish new legislative framework for the regulation of vapor products.

The report, titled “Vaping: Towards A regulatory framework for e-cigarettes,” includes provisions to regulate e-liquid content; prohibit e-liquid flavorings that are “specifically designed to appeal to youth”; require child-resistant packaging for e-cigarettes and refill containers; ban the use of vapor products in public places where use of traditional cigarettes is already banned; restrict advertising and promotion of vapor products; and prohibit the sale of vapor products to anyone under the age of 18.

Health Canada indicated that it would respond to the proposed regulation in “due course,” but no specific timeframe regarding its implementation was given.

RTI International, a leading nonprofit U.S. research institute, has released a study exploring the potential public health concerns associated with vapor emitted from e-cigarettes. The organization’s research paper—titled “Exhaled electronic cigarette emissions: What’s your secondhand exposure?”—examines the toxins in e-cigarette vapors and the impact they could have on people exposed to secondhand “smoke.”

Although the long-term impact of exposure to e-cigarette vapor is still unknown, the study—which was authored by Jonathan Thornburg, Ph.D., director of Exposure and Aerosol Technology at RTI—found that emissions from e-cigarettes contain enough nicotine and other chemicals to cause concern.

Nonusers who are exposed to secondhand vapor are potentially breathing in aerosol particles similar in size to those found in diesel-engine smoke and smoke produced by traditional cigarettes. Because e-cigarettes lack regulation, the type and amount of chemicals and potential toxins they may contain could vary greatly depending on the device being used.

RTI is particularly concerned with the lack of regulation regarding e-cigarettes and the surge in marketing and sales that has occurred as a result. The e-cigarette category experienced annual sales that doubled yearly to $1 billion in 2013, according to RTI.

E-cigarettes and e-liquids that contain nicotine are medical devices rather than consumer products and therefore require licensing, a Swedish appeals court has ruled.

In a previous case from July 2014, Sweden’s medical products agency convinced the administrative court in Uppsala that nicotine-containing e-cigarettes should be deemed medical devices and that as many as 30 products should be banned from sale to consumers. An e-cigarette supplier in Malmo challenged the ruling shortly after, and the prohibition was lifted until the appeal was heard. Sales of e-cigarettes were allowed to continue during the appeals process.

Following the appellate court’s most recent ruling, however, it is now illegal to import, distribute or sell e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing e-liquids commercially in Sweden, and violators could face penalties of approximately $80,000 per offense. Further appeals of the court’s most recent decision are planned and could result in another temporary suspension of the ban until a final decision is made by Sweden’s supreme administrative court. E-cigarettes and e-liquids that do not contain nicotine are unaffected by the ruling.

RTI International, a leading nonprofit U.S. research institute, has released a study exploring the potential public health concerns associated with vapor emitted from e-cigarettes. The organization’s research paper—titled “Exhaled electronic cigarette emissions: What’s your secondhand exposure?”—examines the toxins in e-cigarette vapors and the impact they could have on people exposed to secondhand “smoke.”

Although the long-term impact of exposure to e-cigarette vapor is still unknown, the study—which was authored by Jonathan Thornburg, Ph.D., director of Exposure and Aerosol Technology at RTI—found that emissions from e-cigarettes contain enough nicotine and other chemicals to cause concern.

Nonusers who are exposed to secondhand vapor are potentially breathing in aerosol particles similar in size to those found in diesel-engine smoke and smoke produced by traditional cigarettes. Because e-cigarettes lack regulation, the type and amount of chemicals and potential toxins they may contain could vary greatly depending on the device being used.

RTI is particularly concerned with the lack of regulation regarding e-cigarettes and the surge in marketing and sales that has occurred as a result. The e-cigarette category experienced annual sales that doubled yearly to $1 billion in 2013, according to RTI.

E-cigarettes and e-liquids that contain nicotine are medical devices rather than consumer products and therefore require licensing, a Swedish appeals court has ruled.

In a previous case from July 2014, Sweden’s medical products agency convinced the administrative court in Uppsala that nicotine-containing e-cigarettes should be deemed medical devices and that as many as 30 products should be banned from sale to consumers. An e-cigarette supplier in Malmo challenged the ruling shortly after, and the prohibition was lifted until the appeal was heard. Sales of e-cigarettes were allowed to continue during the appeals process.

Following the appellate court’s most recent ruling, however, it is now illegal to import, distribute or sell e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing e-liquids commercially in Sweden, and violators could face penalties of approximately $80,000 per offense. Further appeals of the court’s most recent decision are planned and could result in another temporary suspension of the ban until a final decision is made by Sweden’s supreme administrative court. E-cigarettes and e-liquids that do not contain nicotine are unaffected by the ruling.