Scientists Tell WHO E-cigs Could Save ‘Hundreds of Millions of Lives’

The World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the U.N. with an already long history of opposing electronic cigarettes — often with wildly nonsensical  claims, is being urged by a group of 53 scientists not to classify electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

“These products could be among the most significant health innovations of the 21st century — perhaps saving hundreds of millions of lives. The urge to control and suppress them as tobacco products should be resisted.”

The agency is still trying to figure out what to say about e-cigarettes, but scientists have urged them not to overreact, saying e-cigarettes are not part of the tobacco problem, but “part of the solution.”

Considering past efforts from WHO against e-cigarettes, logical arguments for reason in future decisions may not be enough to sway the agency. In January of this year, for example, they issued a warning against e-cigarettes, claiming that they may contain toxins, following a claim in July of 2013 that electronic cigarettes were more dangerous than tobacco cigarettes because they are not filtered.

A formal position from WHO is not expected until after discussions scheduled from October 13 through 18 in Moscow.

E-cigs could save ‘hundreds of millions of lives’: scientists | New York Post.

Scientists Tell WHO E-cigs Could Save ‘Hundreds of Millions of Lives’

Happy Mother"s Day!

A very happy Mother’s day to all the vaping moms out there. And, while we’re at it, a good one to anyone out there who came from a vaping mom. Or a non-vaping one. There… that seems pretty inclusive. If you didn’t come from a mom, we hope you’re not offended, and would love to hear the details.

Happy Mother"s Day!

University Study Discovers that Flavorings Make Stuff Taste Like Other Stuff

In what may just be the most idiotic piece of journalism we’ve stumbled upon in the history of Vape Squad, we bring you this story from the National Journal, wherein they purport to explain “how candy e-cigarette makers make their products smell like candy.”

“If you take and smell a grape Phillies blunt, you’re smelling the same chemical used in grape Kool-Aid.”

–James Pankow

They go on report the shocking discovery that what makes flavored tobacco products taste like they do is the flavorings the manufacturers put in them.

(You may note that we just said “tobacco products.” That’s because the study actually looked at flavored tobacco, not e-cigarettes. Apparently whoever wrote the headline for the National Journal couldn’t be bothered reading the article first.)

According to the piece, a study was recently performed by researchers at Portland State University in Oregon. James Pankow, leader of the study, apparently has discovered that makers of flavored tobacco products use the same artificial flavorings other people use.

We have no idea why it took a university study to figure this out. Did they think they were stuffing actual grapes into those Phillies Blunts?

How Candy E-Cigarette Makers Make Their Products Smell Like Candy – NationalJournal.com.

University Study Discovers that Flavorings Make Stuff Taste Like Other Stuff

Israel to Revoke Licenses of Pharmacies Selling E-Cigs

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s Health Ministry has sent notification to the country’s pharmacies that they must immediately stop selling electronic cigarettes.

“There are no data or proof that they are effective in helping users to stop or reduce smoking, or even that they are safe. As a result, they must not be sold in pharmacies.”

–Dr. Eyal Schwartzberg, Israeli Health Ministry

The ministry, which has been making efforts to completely ban the sale of electronic cigarettes, has said that it will begin visiting pharmacies August 1, and will revoke the pharmacy licenses of any establishment found to be selling electronic cigarettes. The rules apply to small pharmacies as well as large chain stores.

The source of the information in the linked Jerusalem Post article may have been provided by the Israeli Health Ministry, but the sources are not clear. What is clear is that it is wildly inaccurate.  For example, the article claims that the nicotine in e-cigarettes is “more concentrated, it is much more poisonous than nicotine in cigarettes. Smoking e-cig chemicals also lasts longer than smoking a cigarette.” Most studies done to date have indicated that the intake of nicotine from e-cigarettes is actually much lower when e-cigarettes are used instead of tobacco cigarettes, and there have been no indications we are aware of which indicate toxicity is increased.

Pharmacies that sell e-cigs or tobacco will lose their licenses | JPost | Israel News

Israel to Revoke Licenses of Pharmacies Selling E-Cigs

Hearing on California Internet Sales Restrictions Postponed

A hearing on California’s AB 1500, which would place restrictions on the sale of e-cigarette products via the Internet, has been postponed until May 14.

 “While CASAA supports bans on sales to minors, we oppose any restrictions that impose unnecessary burdens on adult consumers. Requiring age verification before delivery (with third-party database verification), and then mandating a delivery service with age-verified signature required–and requiring it each and every time an order is delivered to a particular address–imposes an unnecessary burden on adult consumers, especially those who are not able to be present at the time of delivery.”

–CASAA

AB 1500 would amend California’s Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) act, and make it a crime to deliver an electronic cigarette without first obtaining the full name, birth date and residential address of the person to whom it will be delivered, and then validating the information “through the use of a commercially available database or aggregate of databases, consisting primarily of data from government sources.” Violations of the law would carry fines up to $1,000 per violation.

Previous version of the legislation would have banned the sale of electronic cigarettes unless the seller had obtained a tobacco license, but advocacy group CASAA credits the efforts of vapers for getting the bill amended to its current version. However, they say, the requirement to provide vendors with personal information every time they make a purchase would still place an undue burden on consumers, as well as increase the cost of the devices.

CASAA: Call to Action! California Ban on Internet Sales (AB 1500) and Ban on E-Cigarette Usage (SB 648).

Hearing on California Internet Sales Restrictions Postponed

Will New FDA Regs Leave Us with Crap?

Today’s issue of Motherboard features an article from Meghan Neal succinctly wraps up the fears of much of the vaping community: that the FDA’s new regulations may not completely kill the booming e-cigarette industry, but they will effectively hand it over to Big Tobacco.

“The difference between pre-loaded ‘cigalikes’ sold by Lorillard (the Blu e-cig) or Reynolds tobacco (the Vuse e-cig) and the customizable DIY mods beloved by the vape community is like the difference between instant coffee and responsibly sourced beans hand-ground and brewed with a high-end filter by a loving if pretentious barista.”

With their long-awaited new rules now published, it has become apparent that the new hurdles they want to place in front of new products may prove too much for the current market to bear. An example is their requirement for all e-cigarette products introduced after 2007 (which effectively includes everything on the market today). Some estimates place the cost of such approval at $3 to $4 million, obviously much too high for the modest mom and pop shops that basically are the whole industry if you leave out big tobacco and a small handful of other players.

The real problem here, as Neal explains, is not so much who will be selling the small number of companies who can afford to get their e-cigarette products approved, but that, in her words, “those products suck.”

Could FDA regulations leave us with only lowest-common-denominator products and kill the innovation that has brought us some really great vaping gear over the last few years? It seems very possible.

The E-Cig Industry Will Choke on New FDA Regulations—Except Big Tobacco | Motherboard.

Will New FDA Regs Leave Us with Crap?

E-Cigs: Too Brownian for Prime Time?

In an article from Live from Golga-Frincham, Mary Ann Jarvis believes she’s discovered why people are taking up vaping faster than other anti-smoking products: it’s the vapor.

To be more precise, it’s the Brownian motion of the vapor. For those who slept through physics, Brownian motion in the seemingly random motion of particles caused when they bounce off other molecules or atoms they’re suspended with, and describes (to a degree, at least) why vapor clouds swirl and tumble the way they do.

“We see ourselves thinking. This is a highly powerful and addictive effect and an effect, crucially, that means vaping will forever partner smoking and forever be the knock on the door reminding you of the existence of cigarettes.”

But it’s not just the hypnotic qualities of the swirling vapor that make vaping so attractive, says Jarvis, but something much deeper. “The gently uncoiling swirls of vapour offer up a mirror to the electrical activity that swishes through our brains, remodelling the workings of the inner world in the outer world and transforming thoughts into something material, apparent and circumambient to the flesh: we see ourselves thinking.”

According to Jarvis, this Brownian motion inextricably links vaping with smoking, and inevitably causes people who see it to think of cigarettes.

Her answer: devices like the Gerskzer Plume, which creates a mist which, rather than being exhaled in a cloud, escapes in “a long, straight, responsible line.”

Note: We’re about 97% sure the article’s satirical, so don’t freak out. Just to be sure, we went ahead and Googled Gerskzer, which turned up absolutely nothing.

E-cigarettes: vapour is the magic ingredient, but it’s dangerously brownian | ☁.

E-Cigs: Too Brownian for Prime Time?