Category: Recent News

LOUDLY OPPOSE THE 

SAN FRANCISCO FLAVOR BAN!

(Update – 06.22.17)

In a surprise move, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance that will ban the sale of flavored e-liquid and smoke-free tobacco products within the city. Although this move could be dismissed as expediting the process, it doesn’t make this ordinance any less reckless and dangerous. The Board will vote one more time, next week, to make the decision final.

But the Board’s decision doesn’t mean we have to quietly take their abuse. On the contrary, we must voice our opposition and do it loudly!

What happened in San Francisco is just the start of a shortsighted policy movement that will restrict our access to low-risk tobacco and nicotine products. Anti-vaping activists in New Jersey and New York City will use San Francisco’s decision as support for their own proposals. And we should all be aware that proposals to ban or limit flavors are being discussed in Washington, DC.

This is not just about San Francisco. The Board of Supervisor’s decision has NATIONAL consequences.

If smoke-free products that come in flavors other than tobacco have helped you significantly reduce or quit smoking, please take action NOW! (This is not limited to residents of San Francisco).

Click Here to Take Action!

Very proud of the work that we’ve done and hope to continue the effort long into the future. Hope even more that we win and I can JUST VAPE AND SHOW YOU SHINY THINGS. 🙂

Thank you to Guide To Vaping for acknowledging this effort.

Two vapers that are bridging that gap between US and China in an effort to right those wrongs, educate China’s manufacturing brands, and partner with them to bring both countries together under one fight.

Read the entire article HERE.

This is an absolute disaster.

This is why we need to continue to fight, continue to educate, and continue to take all the calls to action very seriously.

This is why it’s so important to have responsible and mature labeling, packaging and marketing.

Do what you can to spend more time and effort on advocacy and less time on hand-checks.  It’s FAR more important.

San Francisco has condemned people to death… well done.

The ink is barely dry on amendments accepted during San Francisco’s Public Safety and Neighborhoods Committee hearing and the full Board of Supervisors has passed the ordinance that bans the sale of flavored vapor products, tobacco products, and menthol cigarettes. The new law takes effect in April 2018.

To say that San Francisco’s decision to ban flavored vapor products is disappointing would be an understatement and minimizes the real impact of this horrible miscalculation. Whereas at least some study has gone into prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes, there is no evidence to suggest that banning low-risk nicotine products will benefit anyone. In fact, it is reasonable to infer from emerging data that banning flavored vapor and smoke-free tobacco products will send some people back to smoking while discouraging others from quitting. At the very least, banning flavored vapor products will delay quit-attempts resulting in an unnecessary harm to San Francisco’s smoking population.

Rather than consider innovative new ways to address the disease and early death attributed to smoking, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has, instead, opted to experiment on their constituents with an untested policy. We need to emphasize that banning low-risk, smoke-free products is NOT based on evidence. This was purely an emotional decision.

The pace at which this ordinance was driven through San Francisco’s legislative process also indicates that very little deliberation took place. Zero consideration was given to city vape shop owners, who likely have thousands of quit-smoking stories to their credit. Even less consideration was given to individual consumers who shared their testimonials with the Public Safety Committee.

San Francisco has done a shameful thing, but there is still time to fix it. In the months leading up to implementing the flavor ban, there is still an opportunity to pass an exemption for low-risk tobacco and nicotine products. Considering the rate at which studies about tobacco harm reduction are emerging, it is possible we will have more evidence to support an exemption. Unfortunately, while we wait for the Board of Supervisors to come to their senses, hundreds of San Francisco residents will continue to smoke past a point where switching to a low-risk alternative could have saved their lives.

You can find the contact information for the SF Board of Supervisors here.

(Update – 06.19.17)

An indoor vaping ban is coming back to life in New York. Although A 516 has been amended (A 516-A) to define “vapor products” separate from cigarettes, this bill would still prohibit vaping in indoor public places and workplaces–just like smoking. Whereas some might feel that exempting vape shops is an acceptable compromise, regulating vaping just like smoking discourages switching to safer products.

The NY Assembly is in session RIGHT NOW and A.516-A is on the calendar for a vote tonight.

Please take a moment NOW to call your assembly member and urge them to oppose this bill.

Asm. Peter Lawrence (R) 

(518) 455-4664  

Politely and quickly tell them:

1. You are a resident in their district and you are opposed to A.516-A (give them your ZIP code as verification)
2. Private businesses and workplaces already have the right to set their own vaping policy and enforce it.
3. Briefly, share your story about vaping. If you were introduced to vaping by seeing some use the products in an indoor public space, be sure to include that.
4. Politely let them know that regulating vaping like smoking will discourage smokers from switching to safer products. This is supported by recent survey data from the Centre for Substance Use Research in Scottland. (here’s the link in case you want to familiarize yourself with the research – http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/6/647/htm )

Thank you,

CASAA Legislative Team

Here’s the latest from Brent Stafford at Regulator Watch:

It’s the mortal enemy of the tobacco industry, the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association. For over 40-years, the NSRA leads the effort to eradicate the tobacco industry’s deadly products. Racking up win after win with non-smoking bylaws, advertising bans and the world precedent setting graphic warnings on cigarettes packages.

You might think the NSRA would be a natural enemy of vaping, but to the surprise of many, it has become a strong supporter of vaping as a tool for harm reduction. And, it has voiced serious concerns over key provisions of Bill S-5, which it believes could cost the lives of Canadian smokers if passed without amendment.

On this special edition of RegWatch hear directly from Pippa Beck, the NSRA’s Senior Policy Analyst and learn why the NSRA believes Canadians have a right to relative risk information and how Bill S-5 does NOT ban flavours—only on RegWatch!

RegulatorWatch.com – June 17, 2017.

WEB EXTRA: Vapour Products Advertising Under Bill S-5 | Web Extra 0

Getting a positive message about vaping out to the general public is a difficult task for the vaping industry.

With media companies instituting unilateral ad bans and the prospect of new regulations seriously restricting the where, when and how. It has become all the more important for key NGO’s in the tobacco control arena to weigh in on the importance of providing Canadians accurate information regarding the benefits and relative risk of vaping.

In this RegWatch Web Extra hear directly from Pippa Beck, the NSRA’s Senior Policy Analyst and learn what the NSRA thinks about vapour products advertising in Canada—only on RegWatch!

RegulatorWatch.com – June 17, 2017.

NEW YORK NEEDS TO ACT FAST TO STOP VAPING FROM BEING ADDED TO
THE CLEAN INDOOR AIR BAN

The New York vapor industry is under attack again. 

We have killed these bills 3 years in a row, but now
NY legislators have been told that
the Vapor Industry SUPPORTS banning vaping in public places!

We need your help to send a CLEAR MESSAGE that

the VAPOR INDUSTRY OPPOSES banning vaping in public places!

Vaping is NOT smoking!

​Click below to send an e-mail TODAY because
these bills could be heard on Monday.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

From PennState Health:

People who regularly use electronic cigarettes are less dependent on their product than those who regularly use traditional cigarettes, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

You can see the entire article HERE.

Congratulations to Chris on winning a “Not A” Contest!  Although Chris won more than he’s showing, he can be seen here with the Vaporesso Aurora.

Vape Happy My Friend!

SEVIA-USA is proud to welcome it’s latest member… Yihi!

Dimitris and I have been working on this for a long time and it has finally happened.  Yihi is now a member of SEVIA-USA, helping us in our fight against the unjust and overreaching FDA regulations.

Welcome Yihi and THANK YOU!

I have seen a couple of mentions of overheating and failure with Efest SODA chargers so I decided to check into it.

I measured the external and internal temperatures of two SODA chargers at their 0.5A and 1A settings, charging two batteries at once. They were only about 3°C apart for any temperature reading so I averaged the two readings.

Ambient temperature = 27°C

Temperatures at 1A:
Top external = 71°C
Bottom external = 87°C
Internal = 108°C
Batteries = 53°C

Those charger and battery temperatures are too high!

The bottom was hot enough to be painful to touch and the internal temperature exceeded the 105°C rated max of the capacitors inside (see the photos). Those capacitors are quite temperature sensitive and shouldn’t be run at anywhere near their max rating to ensure a long life. That high of a temperature is also bad for every other component in the charger.

In addition, the batteries were being heated up above the 45°C (approximately) point where aging of the batteries starts accelerating. The measured temperature of 53°C is what I would call “very warm”.

In my opinion, this charger runs too hot at the 1A setting and could fail prematurely because of that. It will also heat your batteries up enough to possibly shorten their overall life some. I advise running the Efest SODA charger only at its 0.5A setting.

Charger temperatures at 0.5A:
Top external = 49°C
Bottom external = 55°C
Internal = 71°C
Batteries = 38°C

Running it at the 0.5A setting does not guarantee that nothing can go wrong!

I still recommend always charging on a non-flammable surface and staying nearby until charging is done. Then remove the batteries from the charger and store them in a non-conductive case or sleeve. Do not store your batteries in the charger!

Never put any charger in a LiPo battery charging bag!
Those bags are made to only hold the battery pack. Putting the charger and batteries in the bag traps all the heat from the charger inside and the temperatures can rise high enough to cause failure of the charger.

Images: https://imgur.com/a/DG90C