Author: Bill Tarling

“Officials had already taken steps to curtail vaping in New Jersey, passing a law banning the sale of flavored vaping products. Some lawmakers said they hoped the rule would keep vapes out of the hands of children (those under 21 were ineligible to purchase the products already). Vaping advocates say the approach had the opposite of its intended effect. Shop owners said a ban would turn people to unregulated products that might prove more harmful. The Yale study backs them up. The authors argue that well-developed and regulated markets likely drove out the riskier products, and that legislation banning such items could subject vapers to more risks.” “I was sort of wanting to promote non-smoking and the health benefits of quitting smoking,” Adam Mitrani said. “The government has forced me to sell smoking products.”

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A ban on flavored vapes devastated N.J. shops. New study shows it might make vaping riskier

“Plaintiffs have appealed to the Eighth and Ninth Circuits, challenging flavored tobacco bans in Los Angeles County, California, and the City of Edina, Minnesota. The cases could have implications for similar laws in other States and localities. Has Congress preempted local authority to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products? Two different U.S. Courts of Appeals will have the opportunity to answer the question in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. v. City of Edina, et al., No. 20-2852 (8th Cir.), and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. v. Los Angeles County, et al., No. 20-55930 (9th Cir.). The plaintiffs are appealing adverse decisions in each case.”

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Two U.S. Courts of Appeals to Consider Federal Preemption of Local Flavor Bans

“Wednesday’s long-delayed deadline for e-cigarette companies to seek permission from the Food and Drug Administration to keep selling their products is launching a new era of uncertainty for the industry and a slog for regulators facing applications that can exceed 100,000 pages. The FDA has a year, under a court order, to assess the companies’ data and decide which devices or flavors can be legally sold. In the meantime, the agency says it will start deciding whether applications are complete and warrant a further review. Applicants whose submissions are accepted can keep selling their existing products for a year.”

NOTE 1: Theoretically [and possibly Legally], if FDA decides to accept application (including ‘incomplete submissions) and processes it quickly with a FAILED or DECLINED [perhaps based on it being ‘Incomplete’ so that they wouldn’t actually need to even read it to process it], it would eliminate the rest of the ‘year’ period remaining for them to stay on the shelves

NOTE 2: Dimitris Agrafiotis and Mark Anton have short commentaries supporting the e-liquid vapor product industry in the video

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FDA to review huge applications from vaping companies

“Stanton Glantz, the longtime anti-tobacco (and anti-vaping) activist, has retired from the University of California-San Francisco. The resignation came without warning and is effective immediately. “I have finally retired from UCSF, ready to move to the next phase,” Glantz wrote in a message to colleagues. “I will also be continuing to work with my UCSF colleagues to complete work that is under way. From talking to colleagues who have already retired, I am confident that there will be more ways that I can keep contributing to fighting the tobacco industry and promoting public health.””

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Anti-Tobacco Crusader Stanton Glantz Retires Suddenly

“Flavored vaping products are now banned in Chicago. City Council voted overwhelmingly in support of the ban Wednesday, 46-4, with supporters — including Mayor Lori Lightfoot — saying it will help save lives and keep young people from becoming addicted to tobacco. The new rules prohibit sales of liquid nicotine products that create the taste or aroma of menthol, mint, wintergreen, chocolate, vanilla, candy or dessert. And Ald. Matt O’Shea (49th), a supporter of the ban, said those who vape are more likely to face serious illness from coronavirus. Only a few alderman spoke up against the ban, saying they fear it will lead to people simply going to the suburbs to buy flavored vaping products — and Chicago needs tax dollars from such sales as it faces a $1.2 billion budget shortfall next year.”

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Chicago City Council passes ban on flavored vaping products

“A team of five researchers at the University of Salford have conducted research concluding that vaping is “an effective nicotine replacement therapy”. Although they feel further research is required, the success rate of 60% outstrips anything seen with conventional quit smoking methods. Salford’s quintet sought to build on PHE’s declaration of vaping’s relative safety by seeing if it demonstrably worked as a smoking quit tool, and so they embarked on a study involving 1022 subjects. They found that “for every five people entering the scheme, three stayed on the programme and reduced their cigarette smoking and one cut out cigarettes altogether” – a success rate of 60% for the scheme and a 20% successful quit rate.”

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Vaping Works

“If a company does not submit a PMTA by the end of today, it must remove its products from the market. If the product was “verifiably” on the market prior to Aug. 8, 2016 (the FDA’s cutoff for new products) and submitted a PMTA application before Sept. 9, the product can stay on the market for up to a year or until the FDA approves or denies the PMTA. For any PMTA submitted after today’s deadline, a product may not be marketed until the FDA grants a marketing order, according to the FDA. Because the cost of complying with the regulations is staggeringly high, experts expect that many manufacturers will fail to clear the hurdle, and the e-cigarette market will be left largely to the tobacco giants. Although the FDA estimates a single PMTA costs anywhere from $117,000 to $466,000, those figures are considered low by the industry. As of Aug. 31, the FDA had received applications for around 2,000 deemed products, of which around 40 percent have been resolved, according to Mitch Zeller, director of the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products.”

NOTE: By “resolved” he means accepted for consideration, not “Approved” for market

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The Final Countdown: PMTA Submissions Due Today

“A report, published by the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), has looked at potential toxicological risks from electronic nicotine (and non-nicotine) delivery systems. “The report correctly highlights that, as a comparative risk, vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco cigarettes.” This supports the current UK consensus and the position taken by The Royal College of Physicians in its report ‘Nicotine without the Smoke’.”

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expert reaction to Committee on Toxicity report on ecigs

“Philip Morris Korea Managing Director Paik Young-jay stressed that the company’s electronic heat-not-burn device is fundamentally different from conventional cigarettes, citing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent approval for IQOS to be marketed as a modified-risk tobacco product. The authorization also allows PMI to say that scientific studies have shown that switching completely from conventional cigarettes to the heat-not-burn system significantly reduces the body’s exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals. Paik also suggested the need to ease taxes on e-cigarettes to encourage more smokers to use e-cigarettes. Paik’s statement came in response to the Health Ministry’s announcement last month on its plan to double the national health promotion tax on e-liquids for electronic cigarettes from 525 won ($0.44) per 1 milliliter of nicotine solution to 1,050 won starting in January next year.”

NOTE:The IQOS contains a long list of the same chemicals and carcinogens that are contained in cigarettes, including: Acetone, Ammonia, Arsenic, Benzene, Cadmium, Crotonaldehyde, Formaldehyde, Lead, Mercury, Methyl-ethyl-ketone, Nickel, Tar, Toluene, and much more.

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Philip Morris rallies against gov’t treatment of e-cigarettes

“Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have raised the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 and banned flavored nicotine products commonly used in vape cartridges. DeSantis vetoed the vape and tobacco bill (SB 810), arguing it was, in part, redundant and also detrimental to smoking cessation efforts. “While originally conceived as a bill to rate the legal age to buy tobacco to 21, (which is superfluous given this is already mandated by federal law) … SB 810 effectively bans tobacco-free vaping flavors used by hundreds of thousands of Floridians as a reduced-risk alternative to cigarettes, which are more dangerous,” DeSantis wrote in his veto transmission letter.”

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Gov. DeSantis vetoes flavored vaping ban

Gov. Ron DeSantis [Twitter]