Category: News This Week

Clearette Electronic Cigarette Co. was named Best E-Cigarette and Vapor Line for 2014 in a competition organized by  Ecig Review Central.

ECig Review Central gathered 25 leading vapor enthusiasts from around the United States. Judges were blind-folded and, over the course of six hours, they sampled 20 prominent e-cigarette brands. Each tester was given a 15-20 minute break between individual e-cigarettes. Judges rated taste, quality and delivery on a scale of one to 10.

This year, 21 out of the 25 judges rated Clearette’s line as the best tasting.

“I liked the bold e-cigs the best,” said one judge.  “The throat-hit was perfect and the draw was extremely smooth.”

“The entire line was incredible,” stated another judge.” I was thinking it might be a tobacco company’s but it wasn’t. The vapor tasted just like smoke.”

Teenagers used more e-cigarettes than combustible cigarettes in 2014, according to a Monitoring the Future survey.

The organization provides new evidence that the rate of kids  trying e-cigarettes is increasing. It found that e-cigarette use exceeded cigarette use in all three grades surveyed (eighth, tenth and twelfth), with more than twice as many eighth and tenth graders using e-cigarettes than traditional cigarettes.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, these developments underscore the need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finalize its proposed rule to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. “We again call on the FDA to issue a final rule by April 25, 2015—one year after the agency issued a proposed rule— and to close gaps in the rule by cracking down on marketing and flavors that appeal to kids,” said the Campaign President Matthew L. Myers. “The FDA must also require child-resistant packaging for nicotine liquids.”

The FDA announced in early 2011 that it planned to regulate e-cigarettes, cigars and other unregulated tobacco products.

The UK government announced on Wednesday that it was conducting a consultation on draft regulations that would prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to those less than 18 years of age.

The regulations would make it an offence also for an adult to buy electronic cigarettes for a person younger than 18.

They would apply to ‘nicotine inhaling devices’, which are taken to include electronic cigarettes, nicotine refill cartridges and nicotine liquids.

Products that are licensed as medicines by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) are not included.

Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said that while the government recognized the role that electronic cigarettes could play in helping adult smokers quit, it wanted to protect young people and children from the harmful effects of addiction to nicotine, which most electronic cigarettes delivered.

There was a risk that electronic cigarettes could be appealing to children as use and awareness of these products increased.

The new regulations, which would bring electronic cigarettes into line with other age-restricted products such as tobacco and alcohol, were supported by responsible electronic cigarette manufacturers and retailers.

Electronic cigarette manufacturers, retailers and public health professionals had called for a minimum age of sale to be introduced, the minister said.

A new study released online on Dec. 17, 2014 by Cochrane, an international independent think tank, concluded that using an e-cigarette containing nicotine increased the chances of stopping smoking long-term compared to a study using an e-cigarette without nicotine. The two studies, one using nicotine enhanced and the other non-nicotine e-cigarettes, involved 662 current smokers.

The authors of the studies, who are from the U.K. and New Zealand, state that using an e-cigarette with nicotine also helped more smokers reduce the amount they smoked by at least half compared to using an e-cigarette without nicotine.

“We could not determine if [an e-cigarette] was better than a nicotine patch in helping people stop smoking because the number of participants in the study was low. More studies are needed to evaluate this effect,” one of the authors stated. The trial researchers found that about 9 percent of smokers who used e-cigarettes were able to stop smoking for up to a year, and possibly longer.

There was no evidence of serious adverse effects among people using e-cigarettes. However, the Cochrane review authors cautioned that the results were limited by the small number of trials and the limited sample of participants.

Study can be viewed here.

Nova Scotia will hold consultations in January 2015 on whether certain flavors should be exempt from a ban on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette juice, according to CTVnews.

The provincial government plans to gather input through online submissions in January and focus groups will be held to collect feedback from youth. Meetings will also be held with e-cigarette vendors and small business organizations representing tobacco vendors.

The government passed a bill this fall that outlaws the use of water pipes such as hookahs and e-cigarettes in indoor public places as well as the sale of e-cigarettes to people under 19.

When the government introduced the legislation it also proposed to ban flavored tobacco, but it later backed down from that proposal and instead promised further consultation.

The law takes effect May 31 and Health Minister Leo Glavine says it’s his intention to have legislation regulating flavored tobacco come into effect at the same time.

Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing (VTM) is due to launch what it describes as the first certified organic e-liquids for the vapor industry: Etron 3T.

VTM’s organic products are made from three ingredients: organic tobacco, organic glycerine and water.

The products have been certified organic under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Program and will carry the USDA Organic Seal when they make their debut at this month’s Tobacco Plus Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The organic e-liquids will be offered with American-blend and Virginia-blend flavors, in full and light strengths and with organic menthol flavor.

VTM says its organic liquids will be sold in child-resistant 15 ml glass bottles as well as in pre-filled Etron 3T disposable e-cigarettes.

“We are proud to launch the first certified organic e-liquid for the vapor market,” said VTM founder and inventor Tom O’Connell. “Vapor consumers have not had an organic choice until now. Moreover, our organic product offers the most natural tobacco flavor in the vapor industry. It tastes like tobacco because it is made from tobacco—certified organic tobacco.

Meanwhile, VTM co-founder Joseph Fuisz said that vapor innovation had focused on incremental device improvements while the actual e-liquid consumed had not materially changed except in respect of its provenance, which had seen a move from Chinese to U.S.- and European-made liquids.

“Moreover, strong vapor category growth has masked the relatively low conversion rate for smokers who try vapor,” he said. “The vast majority of smokers do not stay with vapor and the principle reason is the poor acceptance of product taste. It is precisely this market—the adult smoker looking for vapor alternatives—that Etron 3T organic e-liquids are geared to.”

The organizer of the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) has issued a number of deadlines ahead of GFN2015, which is due to be held on June 5 and 6 at Warsaw, Poland.

According to the deadlines, abstracts for the science and policy update session and proposals for satellite sessions are due by February 28; while poster submissions and nominations for the Young Investigator award are due by March 31.

Meanwhile, the organizer, KAC (Knowledge-Action-Change), says that Professor Derek Yach will deliver the second Michael Russell Oration at GFN2015.

Currently leading the Vitality Group, Yach previously served as cabinet director at the World Health Organization under director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland, where he led the development of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. He has held also a number of other high profile appointments in the field of public health, including professor of global health at Yale University.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert is proposing to tax e-cigarettes. His office predicts that doing so will raise $10 million next year.

Herbert doesn’t consider the new e-cigarette tax to be a tax hike, but rather a change in the way the state treats the products.

“The proposal is just saying, ‘Here’s a product that should fit under the umbrella of tobacco,’” Herbert said in an interview with The Tribune.

More than 1,200 people signed an online petition asking the Welsh government to stop its proposed ban on using e-cigarettes in enclosed public areas and the workplaces.

The Welsh government fears e-cigarettes could “re-normalize” traditional cigarettes. And it is concerned that e-cigarettes could be “gateway” to smoking for young people.

The Save E-cigs campaign group points to a poll by YouGov and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which found that only 1 percent of non-smokers have tried e-cigarettes. The group also says, “there is no evidence from our research that e-cigarettes are acting as a gateway into smoking.”

A lack of safety standards in China’s booming e-cigarette manufacturing industry presents a risk for consumers, reports The New York Times.

Experts quoted by the paper say that flawed and sloppy manufacturing could account for some of the heavy metals, carcinogens and other dangerous compounds, such as lead, tin and zinc, that have been detected in some e-cigarettes.

The full article is available here.