Democrats Issue Report Claiming E-Cigs Targeted at Youth

Democratic members of Congress have issued a report which they say shows that electronic cigarette companies have been targeting young people.

The report, entitled “Gateway to Addiction? A Survey of Popular Electronic Cigarette Manufacturers and Targeted Marketing to Youth” was based on an inquiry led by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), including a survey of nine major e-cigarette brands, to which eight responded.

“[The] FDA should ban and companies should cease marketing e-cigarettes in ways that are attractive to children and teens under the age of 18, such as the use of characterizing flavors that appeal to children and teens, distributing free samples of e-cigarettes, and product promotion through social media, sponsorship of events, and other activities that are intended for a youth audience.”

The primary basis of the claim that e-cigarettes are marketed toward youth appears to be that six of the companies said they had sponsored events such as parties, sports events or music festivals, and that eight had given away free samples of their products.

The report further cites the use of flavors “such as strawberry, grape or chocolate” which “appear to be designed to appeal to youth,” advertising via social media and the use of celebrity spokespeople as evidence that e-cigarettes are marketed toward young people.

The ties between sponsored events and youth are a bit tenuous, with the report including events unlikely to be attended by youth, such as DJ appearances at night clubs, smokers’ gatherings, pub crawls, and a great many other adult-oriented events. Most of the events listed in the report, in fact, seem to be events of this type.

With the FDA still not having issued rules for the sale and use of electronic cigarettes, congressional Democrats seem to be increasing the pressure on the agency, urging the swift issuance of regulations, and a ban on “flavors that appeal to children and teens,” and the distribution of free samples.  The report also calls for bans on promotion through television and radio, social media and event sponsorship.

Gateway to Addiction?

Democrats Issue Report Claiming E-Cigs Targeted at Youth

Infographic Shows How EU Ban Could Send Vapers Back to Smoking

From James Dunworth’s Ashtray Blog comes this infographic, showing what would happen if proposed bans on electronic cigarettes in the EU were to be enacted.  The statistics are based on a survey of 1,600 vapers taken last month.

Full results of the survey are available at the link below, or by clicking the image.

Infographic: How An EU Ecig Ban Could Send One Million People Back To Smoking.

Infographic Shows How EU Ban Could Send Vapers Back to Smoking

Survey Shows Majority OK with Vaping Nearby

Harris Interactive has published the results of a survey, which it performed for e-cigarette maker Mistic, asking how people feel about people using electronic cigarettes nearby, and the results are quite interesting.

Adults under age 35 (70 percent) were more likely than adults 65 and older (46 percent) to say they didn’t mind people using e-cigarettes near them.


Midwesterners who gave an opinion were more tolerant than people living in the West about people using an e-cigarette on an airplane.


People making $50,000-$75,000 a year were less likely to care about someone vaping than someone with a smaller salary.

The poll, which surveyed 505 men and 506 women, asked various questions related to how people felt about people using electronic cigarettes in close proximity to themselves. Perhaps the most startling of the results, given recent trends toward banning the use of electronic cigarettes in public places, is that 63% of respondents said they were OK with someone using an electronic cigarette nearby.

However, results varied when the questions became more specific. 58% of those responding, for example, said they would be fine with vaping at sporting events, but approval sunk as far as 26% when the question of vaping on an airplane was raised. Other questions involved using e-cigarettes on public transportation, which was approved of by 35% of respondents, and movie theaters, at 29%.

Men overall were much more accepting of electronic cigarettes, with 77% saying they wouldn’t mind someone vaping near them, compared to 55% of women. Notably, however, in both cases the majority of respondents were accepting of the idea of someone vaping nearby.

Annoyed when e-cigarette users ‘light up’ near you? It depends on where you are, new survey says | cleveland.com.

Survey Shows Majority OK with Vaping Nearby

Study Shows E-Cigarettes Not A Gateway

Study Shows E-Cigarettes Not A Gateway

Doctors Fail Nicotine Test

Doctors Fail Nicotine Test

E-Cigarette Usage Survey

The name of Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos of the Department of Cardiology at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, may be familiar to those who follow the science of e-cigarette safety; he was the man behind a recent study which found that the use of e-cigarettes did not have a harmful effect on cardiac function.

Dr. Farsalinos has a new site, and his team is performing what they believe to be the largest-ever worldwide survey of e-cigarette users. As of today, over 8,000 people have taken the survey.

Considering how often we run up against the “there haven’t been enough studies” argument against the use of e-cigarettes, we encourage anyone who has a few minutes to spare to go add to the data Dr. Farsalinos’ team is collecting.

A couple links we found helpful when completing the survey would be this page which shows the nicotine content of many popular cigarette brands, and http://www.metric-conversions.org/ for those weight and height calculations we Americans find so difficult.

Take the survey at ecigarette-research.com

E-Cigarette Usage Survey