Category: News This Week

There seem to be signs that the tide is turning once again in favour of electronic cigarettes.

A report yesterday told how New Zealand’s ban on electronic cigarettes with nicotine had come under fire from a visiting health professional from Australia, where a similar ban is in place.

Now, another report describes how Australia has been urged to approve the use of electronic cigarettes.

According to a story in the Daily Telegraph relayed by the TMA, Simon Breheny, director of the Legal Rights Project at the business economics think tank Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, said the Therapeutic Goods Administration should recognize the benefits of electronic cigarettes, which Breheny described as possibly the “greatest tool in the fight against lung cancer”.

He said the use of the devices should be approved in recognition of the therapeutic benefit they offered to thousands of Australians who were trying to quit smoking.

The current law banned the sale of electronic cigarettes using claims that they have a therapeutic benefit, but studies had shown that they could save lives.

Breheny cited an article in the Journal of Public Health from August 2014 that found that electronic cigarette use could “reduce the number of cigarettes smoked and withdrawal symptoms”.

Another study in BMC Medicine in 2014 had said there was no doubt that smokers switching to electronic cigarettes substantially reduced the risk to their health.

Electronic cigarettes and other reduced risk products should be seen as the “latest in cutting-edge tobacco quitting devices, and the government should make room for life-saving innovations”, Breheny said.

British Columbia, Canada, will ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and prohibit e-cigarette use in buildings throughout the province by the end of 2015. The crackdown on vapor products is intended primarily to prevent minors from being exposed to such products and the unknown health effects they may have on users in the long term, according to Health Minister Terry Lake.

The new legislation bans the use of e-cigarettes inside all public buildings where traditional cigarette use is currently banned, including restaurants, bars, coffee shops, workplaces, hospitals, schools and movie theaters. The ban also covers vaping on all public and school properties, although health authorities are permitted to set aside specific areas for vaping as they have in the past for traditional smoking. Whether the use of e-cigarettes in parks is permitted will be determined by bylaws passed by local municipalities.

Vapers caught using e-cigarettes in restricted locations could face fines ranging from $58 to $575, while those caught selling e-cigarettes to minors risk a $575 fine.

The legislation also forbids businesses that sell e-cigarettes to advertise such products to youth, and those business that are caught selling e-cigarettes improperly could face administrative sanctions of up to $5,000.

New Zealand’s ban on electronic cigarettes with nicotine has come under fire from a visiting health professional from Australia, where a similar ban is in place.

According to a story by Josh Fagan for Stuff.co.nz, University of Queensland Professor Wayne Hall, who is due to make a presentation at an electronic cigarette symposium at the University of Auckland tomorrow, will join other experts in calling for the prohibition to be lifted.

Hall was quoted as saying that the law created an “absurd situation” where people were resorting to the black market to buy products that delivered nicotine in a less harmful way than did normal tobacco cigarettes.

“You can buy cigarettes wherever you like but you’re not allowed to buy something that’s probably a great deal safer, at least in the short term,” he said. “It does seem a pretty silly policy.”

Hall said the government needed to acknowledge the widespread use of electronic cigarettes by reversing the ban and regulating these products to ensure their safety.

The Ministry of Health’s senior tobacco control advisor, Brendon Baker, said the ministry was “stuck in the middle somewhat” between wanting to encourage people to quit smoking, but not having enough evidence to recommend electronic cigarettes as a safe alternative.

University of Auckland associate professor Chris Bullen agreed that more research was needed but said the current law was “frankly bizarre”.

“It’s not a particularly logical or helpful policy,” he said.

Two new United States surveys have found that 15-21 million U.S. adults used e-cigarettes regularly in 2013-2014; 3.2-4.3 million e-cigarette users no longer smoked cigarettes on a regular basis; and approximately 90 percent of regular e-cigarette users were/are regular cigarette smokers. The studies—which were presented in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, from Feb. 25-28 at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco—lead their authors to note that regular cigarette smokers were more likely to switch to regular use of less-harmful e-cigarettes than regular e-cigarette users were to transition to combustible cigarette use.

The first study analyzed 30,136 people from the National Tobacco Behavior Monitor survey. Results indicated that 8.7 percent of U.S. adults reported regular use of e-cigarettes, of which nearly 90 percent reported regular use of combustible cigarettes. More than 97 percent of those surveyed in the first study reported regular e-cigarette use after regular cigarette smoking; 23.7 percent indicated that they no longer use combustible cigarettes on a regular basis; and only 1.3 percent of those who use e-cigarettes regularly reported transitioning to current regular use of combustible cigarettes.

The second study—which analyzed data from the Total Tobacco Migration Tracker—involved 11,173 people and indicated that 6.1 percent of U.S. adults identified themselves as current, regular e-cigarette users, with more than 91 percent of those e-cigarette users reporting regular use of combustible cigarettes. More than 97 percent reported regular use of e-cigarettes after regular use of combustible cigarettes; 24.5 percent of those who regularly used e-cigarettes no longer reported regular smoking of traditional cigarettes; and only 1.7 percent of current, regular e-cigarette users reported switching to regular use of combustible cigarettes.

The results of this study lead its authors to determine that smokers of traditional cigarettes were 13.5 times more likely to transition to current, regular use of e-cigarettes than current, regular users of e-cigarettes were to transition to regular use of combustible cigarettes.

The studies were funded by RAI Services Co. and conducted by a team led by the company’s senior director of regulatory oversight, Geoffrey Curtin.

A study examining the vapor released from Blu Ecigs’ and Skycig’s e-cigarettes in comparison to the smoke emitted by Philip Morris USA’s Marlboro Gold and Imperial Tobacco’s Lambert & Butler cigarettes found that levels of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) in cigarette smoke were 1,500 times higher than the levels found in e-cigarette vapor.

The study—titled “Comparison of select analytes in aerosol from e-cigarettes with smoke from conventional cigarettes and with ambient air”—was published in the December 2014 issue of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. According to proponents of vapor product use, the study lends credence to the belief that, although the long-term effects of inhaling the propylene glycol and glycerin found in e-cigarette vapor are not yet known, such products provide a safer alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes.

According to the study, the e-cigarettes tested contained and delivered mostly glycerin and/or propylene glycol and water, and emitted an aerosol nicotine content that was 85 percent lower than the cigarette smoke nicotine content levels. The study also found the levels of HPHCs to be consistent with the air blanks—at <2 μg/puff—and no significant contribution of tested HPHC classes was found for the e-cigarettes tested. The e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes in the study were tested on a smoking machine to compare the amount of nicotine delivery and the relative yields of chemical constituents.

The Global Forum on Nicotine’s inaugural Vaping Advocate of the Year Awards have gone to Jens Mellin, a consumer advocate and blogger from Germany, and Professor Bern Mayer, of the University of Graz, Austria.

Mayer is said to have used his background in science, health and academia to promote the cause of vaping as a tobacco harm reduction strategy.

The Forum is due to be held on June 5 and 6 at the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, and the awards are scheduled to be presented at the Forum’s Pre-conference Vape Meet and Party, which will be held in the Marriott Complex’s Wook Restaurant, starting at 19.30 on June 4.

The Dutch company E-njoint has launched a vaping product that, its says, is infused with an authentic cannabis taste and smell, provides a mild high, but may be smoked in countries where it is illegal to smoke cannabis.

‘Because the E-njoint contains no THC, CBD, nicotine, tar or toxins it’s completely legal, but still gives smokers a high-like feeling,’ according to a company press note.

‘The terpenes used to create the E-njoint Cannabis Flavor have been custom-tailored to provide a variety of effects on the user, such as muscle relaxation, mood enhancement, alertness promoting and more.

‘All ingredients are natural and are used extensively in the food and beverage industry. The ingredients are non-toxic and perfectly legal worldwide.

‘Also the cannabis flavoured E-njoint can enhance the effects of real cannabis and reduce the dose used at the same time. Studies have shown that when terpenes are consumed in conjunction with real cannabis, the effects of the cannabis are dramatically enhanced, thus reducing the dose of cannabis the smoker needs to use to achieve his desired relief.

‘For customers who do not consume cannabis, the E-njoint Cannabis Flavor provides a safe, legal alternative that still promotes good times.’

E-njoint said that it expected to cause a small revolution in the smoking world with its new formulation.

The number of young people in Canada who have tried vaping is higher than the number of young smokers, according to a story by Amy Thatcher for CMAJ citing recently released government statistics.

Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey figures show that among those 15-19 years of age, 20 percent have tried vaping while 11 percent smoke.

Only nine percent of Canadians aged 15 and older have tried an electronic cigarette, which seems to imply what everybody knows – young people are more adventurous than older people are.

“We’ve never had a snapshot like this,” said Margaret Bernhardt-Lowdon, executive director of the Manitoba Lung Association.

She called the rates of youth experimentation with electronic cigarettes “concerning”, and would like to see a ban on sales of these products to minors.

Electronic cigarettes are not regulated as are tobacco products, and therefore don’t have restrictions related to age, use in public spaces or advertising.

On the other hand, it is not legal to sell electronic cigarettes containing nicotine in Canada, though these types of product are available.

A US health expert has said that a study in the journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, ‘adds to the abundant and growing body of evidence that electronic cigarettes are orders of magnitude safer than tobacco cigarettes and suggests that brands of e-cigarettes that do not overheat the e-liquid may be associated with very minor absolute health risks’.

Writing on his blog, Dr. Michael Siegel, who is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, said these findings should put an end to the assertions of many e-cigarette opponents that electronic cigarettes are not any safer than tobacco cigarettes. It exposed those public statements as being lies.

‘This research also demonstrates how misguided the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] is in its scientific judgment,’ Siegel wrote. ‘Despite all of the evidence, with numerous studies demonstrating results similar to those above, with studies showing rapid clinical improvement in smokers who switch to e-cigarettes, and with studies showing that the acute cardiovascular and pulmonary effects of smoking due not occur with vaping, the FDA is not sure that smoking is not any more hazardous than vaping.’

Siegal’s blog.

Electronic cigarette firms in Italy have said that a new tax that doubles the price of e-liquid refills will hurt their industry while unfairly helping major tobacco companies such as Philip Morris International, according to a story by Sara Ledwith and Martinne Geller for Reuters.

The tax, which was adopted in January, is set at half the rate of that applied to traditional cigarettes.

The controversy centers on the fact that the lower rate is applied to both electronic cigarettes and to products that contain tobacco that is not burned during consumption, such as Marlboro HeatSticks, which PMI is launching in Italy.

Electronic cigarette companies say applying the discount to tobacco products is unfair and is designed to help the major tobacco companies.

The electronic cigarette companies and industry experts say also that the method of calculating the tax is too complicated and gives an unfair ‘discount’ to PMI’s products.

“It’s unjust,” said Massimiliano Mancini, president of ANAFE-Confindustria, a national trade association of electronic cigarette and e-liquid producers. “It’s clear that this legislation has been drafted for other interests than just taxing the e-cigs.”

Philip Morris would not comment on whether the new law gave it an advantage. “We have shared our views with the government via public hearings just like our competitors and others,” a spokesman told Reuters by e-mail.