Entries Tagged 'Science' ↓

Found this article to be very interesting. Wanted to pass it on. What do you think? I think I have seen many of these folks in my lifetime. Post your thoughts!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/24/social.smokers/index.html?hpt=C2

WANTED to pass on a note from Bill Godshall from SmokeFree PA.

Situation: The NY Senate Health Committee may consider a bill (S7234) that would ban e-cigarette sales as soon as Tuesday, April 27.

The NY Assembly may consider an identical bill (A9529) at any time.

Action requested: Call/e-mail/fax/snail mail NY Senate Health Committee members, and e-mail NY Assembly members urging them to oppose S7234 & A9529, and urging them to amend the legislation to ban e-cigarettes sales to minors.

Smokefree Pennsylvania sent the following letter to NY Senate Health Committee members (and a similar one to NY Assembly members).  Contact information for NY Senate Health Committee members and NY Assembly is below.  Please forward this e-mail to e-cigarette consumers and other tobacco harm reduction advocates ASAP.

The Honorable Thomas K. Duane, Chair

New York Senate Health Committee

430 State Capitol  Building

Albany, NY 12247

Re: Health Committee legislation to ban sales of electronic cigarettes (S7234 & A9529)

Dear Senator Duane:

Smokefree Pennsylvania strongly encourages you to OPPOSE S7234 & A9529 because they would force e-cigarette consumers (who quit smoking by switching to e-cigarettes) to either go back to smoking deadly cigarettes, or to purchase these life saving products from a newly created black market.  An even better alternative is to AMEND the legislation so it just bans e-cigarette sales to minors, as is the law with all other tobacco products.

The growing body of scientific evidence consistently indicates that e-cigarettes (also called nicotine vaporizers) are at least 99% less hazardous alternatives to smoking cigarettes, as they emit no smoke.  Since 2007, an estimated 300,000–500,000 smokers in the US (including tens of thousands of New Yorkers) have switched to e-cigarettes, which emit smokefree nicotine vapor.  The American Association of Public Health Physicians, American Council on Science and Health, and many other health policy experts agree.

Instead of protecting health (as some groups claim), S7234 & A9529 threaten public health by protecting the deadliest consumer product (cigarettes) from market competition by far less hazardous smokefree alternatives.  E-cigarette consumers and smokers have a human right to access and use far less hazardous tobacco alternatives to cigarettes.

By creating a black market for e-cigarettes, S7234 & A9529 would force e-cigarette suppliers in NY to move to other states, encourage e-cigarette consumers to buy from a black market, and waste state and local tax dollars for enforcement and adjudication.

Although the cigarette industry would be the chief beneficiary of S7234 & A9529, tobacco companies aren’t lobbying for the legislation.  Rather, drug industry funded abstinence-only anti-tobacco groups are pushing the bills because they vehemently oppose smokers reducing their health risks by switching to less hazardous smokefree tobacco alternatives.
After 25 years of advocating laws that reduced smoking, I cannot think of a more effective way to protect cigarette markets or to harm/kill hundreds of thousands of smokers than by banning sales of e-cigarettes or other smokefree alternatives, as S7234 & A9529 would do.

Once again, please reject or amend this outrageous and inhumane legislation.

Sincerely,

William T. Godshall, MPH
Executive Director

As cigarette sales plunge, tobacco companies are marketing smokeless products to skirt smoking bans and keep customers. Lesley Stahl investigates the pros and cons. Here is the link for your review. A very interesting review. What are your thoughts on the topic? Was the presentation good for the future of Snus? Give us your feedback.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIGX) announced that on Friday, February 19 the company filed an application with the Food & Drug Administration for approval to market Ariva-BDL™ as a “modified risk” tobacco product under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. This submission is the first such application to be filed with the Tobacco Products Center of the FDA, which has been established to oversee all aspects of tobacco regulation outlined in the 2009 Act.

What are your thoughts?

Have you tried the “NEW” Ariva product?

Any expectations of others to follow Star’s lead.

Will the process work? Is harm reduction going to work?

PR Newswire Feb 22 2010 BDL Filing

In an historic first for public health, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of the UK’s National Health Service overwhelming approved tobacco harm reduction as a key component in England’s ten year plan to reduce cigarette smoking by half.  The US FDA should follow the UK’s lead.  The announcement and a news excerpt are below, the press release is attached, and the full report “A Smokefree Future” is at http://www.dh.gov.uk/dr_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_111748.pdf

Interesting development in the UK.

What are your thoughts?

Do you see the FDA following suit?

American Blend cigarettes like Marlboro are now banned in Canada so the Philip Morris International subsidiary Rothmans, Benson & Hedges is now able to only exports its AB products.    Canada’s law banning the manufacture, importation and sale of flavored cigarettes and small cigars, except those with menthol, and prohibiting tobacco product advertising in newspapers and magazines, took effect on October 8th, despite criticism from the tobacco industry and lawmakers in US tobacco-growing States that the measure was too broad and would unfairly restrict the import of US-grown burley leaf since most of it is exported as licorice-cased blended strip ready for use along with other  cocoa and vanilla flavored leaf.  Anti-smoking groups said the criticism was unfounded since Canada did not import any US-grown burley leaf in 2007 and 2008, and “American-blend” cigarettes make up less than 1% of the Canadian cigarette market. The anti-smoking groups also said fruit-flavored cigarettes and small cigars were marketed like candy to lure young smokers. The law had support from both government and opposition lawmakers (Reuters 10/8).

What makes this particularly interesting is that it now appears that at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control meeting taking place now in Jordan, the TobReg committee, which is tasked with making recommendations about flavors in cigarettes, is apparently seriously looking at the possibility of recommending the elimination of all flavors – not just the characterizing flavors such as cherry, lemon etc.

I understand that two large and a number of smaller cigarette and little cigar manufacturers got together in a law office in Washington DC on September 11th to see if they shared enough common ground to jointly create a new tobacco trade association to lobby on FDA.  Does anyone know where this effort stands?