Category: Covid-19

France Bans Online Sales of Nicotine Products

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France has banned the online sale of nicotine products and limited their sale in pharmacies, after researchers suggested that nicotine may play a role in protecting against coronavirus.
The new rules cover products like nicotine gum and patches, designed to help people stop smoking. Last week, data from a Paris hospital indicated that smokers were statistically less likely to be admitted for treatment for Covid-19, according to an article on BBC.com.
Trials are set to continue in France.
France has reported nearly 22,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the outbreak earlier this year. The authorities are planning to gradually lift the lockdown from 11 May.
What are the new nicotine restrictions?
The French government says people will only be allowed to buy one month’s supply of these products. The aim is to stop people putting too much nicotine into their bodies, in the hope of protecting themselves against coronavirus, and also to protect the supply for people who need it, says the BBC’s Lucy Williamson in Paris.
What’s the background to this?
The run on nicotine products was sparked this week after researchers noticed the low number of smokers among those hospitalised with Covid-19. The theory that nicotine could play a role in blocking the virus is due to be tested at a hospital in Paris, using nicotine patches.
The government’s chief health official said the study was interesting but warned that smoking killed 75,000 people a year in France. The official also warned that smokers who did become infected with coronavirus tended to have more serious symptoms.
April 27, 2020
Nicotine Patches Tested on Coronavirus Patients

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French researchers are planning to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients and frontline workers following a study suggesting smokers are less likely to catch the virus according to The Guardian.
The Paris-based study suggests that something in tobacco helps prevent smokers from contracting the virus, but researchers say they are not encouraging people to take up smoking; cigarette smoke causes damage to the lungs, which can cause individuals who have contracted Covid-19 to suffer more severe symptoms.
Jean-Pierre Changeux, a renowned French neurobiologist, suggested nicotine may stop the virus from reaching cells in the body. Nicotine may also lessen the overreaction of the immune system that has been seen in the most severe Covid-19 cases.
The results coincide with a Chinese study showing that only 12.6 percent of 1,000 infected individuals were smokers whereas the national smoking rate is around 28 percent. In Paris, 8.5 percent of 11,000 Covid-19 patients were smokers while the total number of smokers in France is about 25.4 percent.
“Our cross-sectional study strongly suggests that those who smoke every day are much less likely to develop a symptomatic or severe infection with Sars-CoV-2 compared with the general population,” the report authors wrote. “The effect is significant. It divides the risk by five for ambulatory patients and by four for those admitted to hospital. We rarely see this in medicine.”
April 24, 2020
Experts: Call for Vape Bans Made Covid-19 Worse

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Anti-vaping activist groups continue to use the coronavirus crisis to advance their goal of restricting — or even completely banning — the use of vapor products. They argue that vapers are at higher risk of harm from COVID-19.
However, the available evidence indicates the opposite: If they had worked to convince more smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, there might be fewer coronavirus-related deaths today, according to a story on insidesources.com.
That’s the view of Dr. Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.
“It’s absolutely true that if more public health activists had embraced e-cigarettes instead of opposing them and more smokers had been encouraged to switch, there would be less mortality from COVID-19 today,” Siegel told InsideSources. An estimated 2.5 million smokers have given up traditional cigarettes for vaping and other similar technologies.
Siegel has spent much of his career working to reduce smoking and is no friend of Big Tobacco. At the same time, he embraces the “mitigation over prohibition” model for reducing tobacco use. Anti-tobacco prohibitionists — hoping to get every smoker to “just say no” — are fighting an unwinnable battle, Siegel said, according to the story.
“What people need to understand is that smoking is such an addictive behavior, and it’s not just the nicotine. It’s the psychology as well. In the middle of a pandemic when people are under so much stress, asking these people to just quit cold turkey is ridiculous,” Siegel said.
Pointing to claims that smoking and vaping can make coronavirus symptoms worse, some anti-tobacco activists are advocating limits, or even outright bans, on vaping products.
Earlier this month, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking the agency to “clear the market of e-cigarettes for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.”
The New York State Academy of Family Physicians has joined the call for a vaping ban, while other anti-tobacco groups like the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Truth Initiative have been advocating restrictions on e-cigarettes for years, according to the story.
Their efforts create the impression that the risks from traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes are comparable. And that, Siegel argues, is a dangerous message.
“There is no evidence for the claim that e-cigarette use has a significant impact on coronavirus patients, that’s just speculation,” Siegel said.
Dr. Sally Satel, a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, agrees. “There is no evidence that vaping causes ‘interstitial lung disease,’ or fibrous scarring. Hundreds of thousands of former smokers have been vaping for at least 10 years to date without evidence of meaningful injury to their lungs,” she writes. “Over the longer-term, it must be said, vaping might cause impairment in lung function — though surely less injury than had vapers continued to smoke.”
Even supporters of vaping restrictions acknowledge that there is little research involving the novel coronavirus.
When NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said “smoking or vaping” contribute to the impact of the coronavirus, Italian medical researcher and former president of the Italian Anti-Smoking League Riccardo Polosa tweeted, “Where is the evidence? Stop placing smoking and vaping on the same level. Get your facts straight, Mayor!”
Conflating the risks of smoking and vaping is both bad science and discourages smokers from making the switch, health professionals like Siegel argue, according to the story.
“The impact of smoking on the body’s ability to heal is so significant that most surgeons insist their patients quit prior to surgery because they know that smoking inhibits healing and increases the susceptibility to infection,” Siegel said. There’s no evidence of any similar health impact from vaping.
If anti-tobacco groups are right about the deadly impact of coronavirus on smokers, then their goal should be to get as many smokers to stop as possible. And a CDC study found that “substituting some cigarettes with e-cigarettes was used by a greater percentage of smokers than the nicotine patch, nicotine gum, or other FDA-approved cessation aids.”
Siegel makes the case more starkly: “In retrospect, the focus on fighting against e-cigarettes looks terrible. Imagine if, instead of 2.5 million former smokers who made the switch, we were in this coronavirus pandemic with 3 million, 4 million, 5 million ex-smokers. There’s no doubt we would be in better shape today.”
April 24, 2020
Court Extends Deadline for PMTA Applications to Sept. 9

Tobacco and vapor companies have an extra four months to file their premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) for newly deemed tobacco products with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) following a U.S. court ruling.
On July 12, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland ordered the FDA to require manufacturers of e-cigarettes, cigars and other deemed new tobacco products that were on the market as of Aug. 8, 2016 to submit applications for premarket review by May 12, 2020.
However, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically impaired the FDA’s ability to adhere to this timeline. As a result of the pandemic and these exceptional and unforeseen circumstances, the agency requested on March 30 a 120-day extension of the May 12 deadline. This request has now been granted.
The court order means applications for premarket review for many e-cigarettes, cigars and other new tobacco products are now required to be filed by Sept. 9, 2020. Consistent with the original court order, for companies that submit timely applications, the agency may continue to exercise enforcement discretion, meaning their products would generally continue to be marketed without being subject to FDA enforcement actions, for up to one year from the deadline (up to Sept. 9, 2021), unless a negative action is taken by the FDA on an application during that time.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the agency received numerous inquiries from the tobacco industry expressing concern they would be unable to complete premarket applications by the original May 12 deadline due to disruptions at all stages of preparation, including preventions or disruptions to in-person laboratory work and clinical studies or necessary foreign travel, or from the shuttering of manufacturing facilities abroad.
In a statement, the FDA said it believes the public health is better protected by not having these firms compromise their employees’ health or take actions that would risk spreading Covid-19 to others by trying to meet the previous May 12 deadline. In the more than a dozen requests for an extension that the FDA received, this public health concern was mentioned repeatedly.
Another consideration, according to the agency, was that a number of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) personnel have been deployed to work on Covid-19 pandemic issues for the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), leaving fewer staff to process applications. Many of those deployed are among the staff that had been playing a critical role as CTP prepared for this deadline.
“Ultimately, a Sept. 9 deadline will better serve the public health by allowing manufacturers to prepare for, and the agency to conduct, the thorough scientific review of these products that is required under law and vital to our mission of protecting Americans while reducing or eliminating physical contact during this critical period,” the FDA wrote in its statement.
“Importantly, this new deadline does not detract from our efforts to prioritize enforcement of certain e-cigarette products currently on the market. Although the FDA’s in-person compliance checks and vape shop inspections are currently on hold due to the pandemic, review of previous inspections continues, and we continue to monitor the online marketplace and will take action as appropriate.
“Accordingly, the January 2020 enforcement priorities guidance, which independently prioritizes earlier enforcement against certain e-cigarette products that are widely used by youth, remains in effect regardless of whether an application is submitted, although we intend to update it for products for which the Sept. 9 date now applies.”
April 23, 2020
Lebanon Legalizes Medical Marijuana

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The Lebanese parliament on Tuesday voted to legalize medicinal and industrial cannabis cultivation. The legislation was recommended by economic advisers previously. However, after the coronavirus pandemic dealt a devastating blow to the Mediterranean nation’s struggling economy, lawmakers pushed the law through.
The new law would not legalize marijuana for recreational use. Instead, it would allow for the plant to be grown for export for medicinal and industrial purposes. The cultivation of cannabis by farmers would be regulated within the country, according to The Daily Star, a Lebanese English-language newspaper.
Although the plant has long been widely and openly cultivated in Lebanon, particularly in the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley, growing cannabis was strictly illegal, according to an article in Newsweek.
Under the new legislation, Lebanon would also aim to foster a new legal industry producing cannabis pharmaceutical items, including wellness products and CBD oil. Industrial products, such as fibers for textiles, could also be produced from the plant.
Kareem Chehayeb, an independent Lebanese journalist and researcher, noted on Twitter that Lebanese political party Hezbollah opposed the new law. “Though their key allies supported the draft law, #Hezbollah were not the only party to oppose this,” Chehayeb tweeted.
Hilal Khashan, a professor of political studies and public administration at the American University of Beirut, told Newsweek that legalizing cannabis would not be nearly enough to address Lebanon’s economic concerns. He also voiced skepticism that the government would be able to successfully implement the law, given Hezbollah’s opposition.
“Hezbollah is a primary beneficiary of cannabis trafficking,” Khashan said. “The only way for Hezbollah to accept the ratification of the law is to be directly involved in its implementation—i.e., get its share from it.”
Lebanon has been publicly discussing the possibility of legalizing cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes for nearly two years. Back in July 2018, Raed Khoury, Lebanon’s former caretaker minister for economy and trade, bragged that the quality of Lebanese marijuana “is one of the best in the world” during an interview with Bloomberg News.
April 22, 2020
Cost of Crude Oil Futures Falls Below Negative

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Oil did something Monday that made even market veterans shake their heads in wonder — the thinly traded, soon-to-expire May contract for West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded, and closed, in negative territory, according to a story on marketwatch.com.
“I’m not sure how to react to that other than say that nobody, whether they’re 120 years old or whether they’re 20 months old, has ever seen an oil price lower than this,” Tom Kloza, a 40-year market veteran and head of global market analysis for Oil Price Information Service, told MarketWatch just minutes before the market closed.
Negative prices means someone with a long position in oil would have to pay someone to take that oil off of their hands. Why would they do that? The main reason is a fear that if forced to take delivery of crude on the expiration of the May oil contract, there would be nowhere to put it as a glut of crude fills up available storage.
Negative oil prices would also seem to be a foreboding sign about the outlook for an economy kicked in the teeth by the COVID-19 pandemic. At first glance, it would also point to ever-cheaper gasoline prices at the pump — a potential positive for hard-hit consumers.
The move was certainly emblematic of a historic bear market for oil, which has been sunk by the collapse of demand as a result of coronavirus outbreak and a brief but ugly price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia that added even more crude to an oversupplied market. But it also represents a phenomenon characteristic of futures markets, where wild price swings — albeit perhaps never on Monday’s scale — can occur around contract expirations, according to the story.
The opposite of a ‘short squeeze’
The May WTI crude contract CL.1, -103.06% CLK20, -103.06% closed Monday at -$37.63 a barrel, a one-day drop of $55.90, or 306%, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The May contract expires at Tuesday’s close. Any traders that are still long crude at that time must take physical delivery, while anyone short must make delivery.
What happened Monday in the futures market was effectively the opposite of so-called short squeeze, a phenomenon that may be more familiar to investors. In a short squeeze, traders that are short the market fear they will be unable to find the underlying physical commodity and are forced to cover their positions, driving prices up sharply.
On Monday, traders with long positions scrambled to get out amid a fear that it would be difficult to find a place to park physical oil amid a rising glut of crude. So in a way, Monday’s price action, while certainly bearish, was also something peculiar to the futures market, with the action in the thinly traded May contract not necessarily an accurate reflection of supply and demand fundamentals, according to the story.
Note the contango
Indeed, crazy things — albeit not this crazy — sometimes happen when a futures contract moves into expiration. The heaviest trading volume and positioning had long since moved to the June contract CLM20, -27.90% , which will become the front month when the May contract expires Tuesday.
The June contract on Monday fell $4.60, or 18%, to settle at $20.43 a barrel. That also marked a further move into what’s known as “contango,” a condition in which future months trade at a premium to the spot price and the nearby contract. The premium of the next-month contract to the nearby contract was already trading at a record before Monday’s close.
Will June suffer the same fate as the May contract in coming weeks? After all, storage is likely to be even more tight in the weeks ahead. The June contract was under heavy pressure Tuesday morning, falling around 21% to trade a little above $16 a barrel, while May remained in negative territory.
Long-term market bulls argue that the steepness of the contango curve — the December 2020 contract CLZ20, -6.36% is trading above $32 a barrel — seems to indicate optimism for an eventual recovery as economies move past the pandemic shutdowns and demand for crude revives in the second half of the year.
“Concerns about commercial and industrial oil storage capacity have exacerbated the current contango structure, but in the long run, the futures curve term structure is likely to normalize, implying potential appreciation for oil from here once the current temporary issues are resolved,” wrote Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, in a Monday note, according to the story.
Storage running tight
Those storage considerations are front and center, with data showing a historic jump in U.S. inventories, including a sharp rise in Cushing, Okla., the delivery hub for Nymex futures.
“Supply is threatening to overwhelm storage in coming weeks, and the flood of crude oil shows no signs of abating,” said Robert Yawger, director of energy at Mizuho Securities USA, in a Monday note. If crude storage levels continue to rise at their current clip, U.S. inventories will break their all-time record in two weeks and reach maximum capacity in eight to nine weeks, he said.
Kloza cautioned that it would be a mistake to read the price action as a sign that there’s no storage available, however.
“It tells you that storage is fully accounted for and if you want to take delivery of oil you better have a place to put it or a pipeline to put it on, or otherwise you’re really screwed,” he said, according to the story.
Even cheaper gas?
The fall in the nearby contract won’t necessarily translate into ever-cheaper gasoline prices at the pump, analysts said. Gasoline prices in some states had already dropped to more than 10-year lows at the end of last week as Americans stay home thanks to the lockdowns aimed at containing the pandemic.
Front-month Nymex gasoline for May delivery RB.1, -13.29% lost 4.24 cents per gallon, or 6%,to end Monday at 66.83 cents a gallon.
“The futures market has its own ecology and that really was at work today, and it’s more about the inner workings of trading and investors and trapped longs than it is about…typical supply and demand fundamentals,” Kloza said.
April 21, 2020
Covid-19, Flavor Ban Could Crush New Jersey Vape Shops

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As people rushed to stock up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer in March, Debi Meinwieser dropped thousands of dollars on more than 400 bottles of vape juice for e-cigarettes, according to an article on NJ.com.
The 56-year-old from Whiting Township said she sought out the supply not in anticipation of the coronavirus outbreak and stay-at-home order, but to avoid a drought when the state law banning flavored vaping products takes effect Monday.
“I stocked up,” she said. “But I’m concerned for the new vapers and the smokers who haven’t had the chance to start vaping yet.”
Meinwieser, like many others across the country, said she quit smoking cigarettes after three decades once she started vaping. She had tried nicotine gums and patches, but nothing helped to wean her off nicotine. Instead, she credits the flavored vaping products she has used for nearly five years for saving her life, according to the article.
As New Jersey officials watch for the forecasted peak in coronavirus cases later this month, another date looms: April 20, the day when vape shops must stop selling flavored products. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law banning the sale of of flavored vaping products, which include candy and fruity flavors that may attract teens, in January. It came with a 90-day waiting period before going into effect.
The measure marked the nation’s first permanent flavor ban, going further than several emergency orders some states issued last year as a mysterious vaping health crisis took hold in the fall. Rhode Island has since made its temporary flavor ban permanent, too. The illness put 2,807 people into hospitals and killed 68, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the article.
Supporters of the law say it will keep the products out of the hands of teens, who have taken up vaping years after youth cigarette use fell. But opponents say it will force adult users, many of whom previously smoked cigarettes, either back to those products or to the black market. And vape shops, largely small businesses employing a few thousand people across the state, have promised the ban will thrust them into bankruptcy. It will also rob the state of tax revenue as people shift to the web or stores over state lines to buy the products.
“They’re still easily accessible, ordering online, shipping in state,” said Sheryl Agro, owner of InnoVapes in Wrightstown. “You’ve effectively just given up your control over these products.” A former version of the flavored vaping bill included a ban on menthol cigarettes, but state Senate President Stephen Sweeney said lawmakers put that on hold, planning to bring it up again later this year during budget discussions. The change has vapor rights advocates accusing lawmakers of playing a political game, rather than looking out for the health of the state.
The stress on the industry was exacerbated when Murphy ordered non-essential businesses to close in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak. In mid-March, the vape shops suddenly found themselves fighting a tighter deadline to unload the products, but had no customers walking through their doors. Now, they’re pleading for an extension on the ban, and for the state to allow them to operate with curbside pickup as essential businesses. Activists and shop owners say they haven’t heard back from officials, according to the article.
“Cigarettes are still labeled to be sold. Cigarettes are proven to be killing,” said Shoaib Iqbal, CEO of Good Guy Vapes and a vice president of the New Jersey Vapor Rights Coalition. “We feel like an alternative should also be able to be sold.” Other countries under lockdown — including Spain, Italy and France — have kept vape shops open, and last week, Louisiana reversed a decision to close them.
And for those like Meinwieser, who found relief in a legal and regulated product, the policy is a gut punch. “When I started vaping, I had no clue that vaping was being attacked,” she said. “I just thought, ‘Oh my god, I finally found something to help me quit smoking.’”
She, too, wonders why vape shops have not been allowed to operate with curbside pickup as essential businesses, like takeout restaurants or stores that sell cigarettes. She bought some 400 bottles at $8 a piece, a wholesale price, but knows many others do not have the luxury to drop so much money at once.
In early March, with about five week left until the ban took effect, vape shop owners said they had not seen customers stocking up yet, both because time remained, and because some customers knew they could order online. Now they’re facing even larger stockpiles of soon-to-be banned product than expected.
“We’ve been kind of robbed of that time,” Iqbal said. “We’re hoping to get some sort of extension.” A spokeswoman for Murphy declined to comment on an extension of the enactment date. While they’ve started online ordering, Iqbal says many customers have reached out desperately — they do not know how to order products online, or do not have credit cards to pay for them.
During the 90-day period, vape shop owners were meant to unload product and pivot their business models. Agro sells some CBD products for people and pets, but most of her revenue to support five employees with benefits comes from the flavored vaping products purchased by military personnel at nearby Fort Dix. She did not think her shop would survive the ban, and said the closure of nonessential businesses in March put her further behind, according to the article.
For her, the inability to open during the stay-at-home order only builds on the idea that the government has something against vape shops. “To deem vape shops as nonessential is just more blatancy from the government that they just don’t want to accept that this works as a smoking cessation product,” Agro said. “I quit the day I started vaping. I would never go back. I had a dream that if I could do this myself, I could help so many other people.”
April 21, 2020
U.S. FDA Shifts its Covid-19 Stance on Vaping

Courtesy: US FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration modified its stance on Covid-19 and vaping, saying it has an unknown effect on the risk of the new coronavirus, while warning that smoking can create worse outcomes, according to Bloomberg News.
“E-cigarette use can expose the lungs to toxic chemicals, but whether those exposures increase the risk of Covid-19 is not known,” the agency said Wednesday in an emailed response to a question from Bloomberg News.
The agency had said late last month that vapers and smokers with underlying health conditions might be at higher risk from complications.
Its description of cigarettes’ risks also differed from its earlier statements. “Cigarette smoking causes heart and lung diseases, suppresses the immune system, and increases the risk of respiratory infections,” FDA spokeswoman Alison Hunt said. “People who smoke cigarettes may be at increased risk from Covid-19, and may have worse outcomes from Covid-19.”
The new statement comes as the disease afflicts young people in some countries at rates that are surprising, given initial data out of China, and some health experts speculate as to whether vaping could play a role, the article states.
‘Especially Serious’
Other U.S. agencies have issued mixed warnings on both smoking and vaping. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, wrote a recent blog post warning that the coronavirus “could be an especially serious threat to those who smoke tobacco or marijuana or who vape.”
The coronavirus presents a new challenge for the tobacco industry, which for years has faced lawsuits and higher taxes due to links between smoking and higher rates of lung disease. E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. was already under fire for allegedly marketing its product to teenagers, and an amended complaint filed in San Francisco district court this month includes claims that vapers suffer a greater risk of more serious coronavirus complications.
Before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the vaping industry had drawn scrutiny and restrictions from federal and state governments amid a series of deaths and illnesses that were linked to faulty cannabis products.
Michael R. Bloomberg has campaigned and given money in support of a ban on flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco. He is the majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
April 20, 2020
Florida Vape Shop Wants ‘Essential’ Status

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A vape shop owner in the US state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against local city and county governments arguing that his store should be allowed to remain open as an essential business.
Today, Modern Age Tobacco filed a complaint and a request for injunctive relief in to the City of Gainesville and the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, following about three weeks of back-and-forth, according to an article in The Gainesville Sun.
Modern Age sells tobacco products, butane, vaping products and devices, CBD and hemp-based food items,and devices for the use or ingestion of medicinal cannabis. It is filing to remain open on the grounds that it provides medical services and products, natural gas and food products.
Last month, Alachua County and the City of Gainesville ordered the closure of all “non-essential” businesses, with violators facing a second-degree misdemeanor for not following the order. Modern Age applied for inclusion as an essential business and converted to retail delivery, according to court documents.
On April 9, police and fire officials went to the store’s retail locations and told managers the business was non-essential, the lawsuit says.
“Modern Age will be unable to continue business operations if they continue to be regarded as a non-essential business or alternatively if they are forced to comply with defendants’ arbitrary definition of delivery,” the complaint reads.
Modern Age’s owner, Patrick Patton, said he did not know anything about a lawsuit and referred the newspaper to attorney Nick Zissimopulos, who declined to comment.
City Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos said Gainesville is enforcing emergency orders that have been ordered by the state government to protect the public health.
April 20, 2020
CTFK Wants Vape Shops Labeled as Non-Essential

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The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) is sending out email blasts urging for a “Call to Action” to pressure U.S. President Donald Trump to label vape shops as non-essential businesses.
“In a new low, vape shops are lobbying the Trump Administration to be declared “essential businesses” so they can stay open during the COVID-19 crisis. This is ludicrous and we need your help to stop it,” the email begins. “It is the height of disgrace for the vaping industry to argue that e-cigarettes, which damage the lungs, should be considered essential during a lung disease pandemic. It has never been more urgent for us to protect our kids and their health, not vape shops.”
Some states have labeled vape shops as non-essential businesses. In states such as Ohio, vapor advocacy groups such as the Ohio Vapor Technology Association (OHVTA) have asked its members to close their doors during the pandemic. Ohio, however, allows online sales. Many US states do not.
Gas stations and convenience stores, where the majority of combustible cigarettes are purchased, are labeled essential businesses. CTFK does not make any mention of asking for businesses that sell deadly cigarettes to be closed.
April 16, 2020