“Researchers at Rice University have produced a document highlighting that outright bans are the wrong tool for controlling unwanted vaping behaviour in teen populations. Unintentionally, they also pour cold water on any notion of a gateway from vaping to smoking. The Heartland Institute agrees and says that bans are misguided, especially when the problem has been exaggerated in the first place. The report “Vaping: Clearing The Air” notes that, despite some claiming vaping is a gateway to smoking, “Cigarette smoking has been steadily declining among middle and high school students for over two decades”.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Vape Bans Don’t Work

FROM THE FSFA:

The level of urgency has never been higher. Final vote will likely be Wednesday, 3/11.
Call and email them to let them know that you will not stand for them playing politics with adults rights and with their ability to choose a less harmful alternative to cigarettes.

Tell House Members to vote no on SB 810.
This bill will force adults back to smoking and increase healthcare costs for the state in the tune of billions.
This bill will guarantee a black market in Florida.
The economic impact will be devastating to the Florida economy.
Thousands of leases will be broken once this bill goes into effect.
Thousands of small businesses will be forced to close.
They need to give the 21+ federal law time to make a difference.
This is NOT what the citizens of Florida want.

A complete list of phone numbers, emails, and Twitter handles can be found on the FSFA website HERE!

“Several bills have stalled in the state legislature. One of those bills was introduced by Sen. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek. Her bill, SB 1401, would classify vaping products as tobacco, which would subject vaping products to the same restrictions as tobacco products. That includes restricting their use indoors. SB 1401 did not get a committee hearing and the deadline for that to happen has passed. A bill introduced by Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, is also stalled. His bill, SB1063, would prohibit vaping companies from advertising their products near schools and parks. “Technically these bills are dead at this point unless we are able to amend them on to some other bill, but the chances of that are pretty slim,” he said. The bills could be revived through alternative procedures, including as strike-everything amendments.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Bills meant to curb teen vaping stalled in Arizona State Legislature

“The House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill raising the smoking and vaping age to 21, acceding to the Senate’s proposed version and federal regulations. Sen. David Simmons‘ bill (SB 810) would prohibit the sale of most flavored nicotine liquids and distinguish vaping products from standard nicotine products. Licenses to sell standard tobacco products would still carry an annual $50 fee while licenses to sell vape products would carry no cost. Toledo had carried the House version (HB 7089) together with Miami Democratic Rep. Nicholas Duran and continued her effort with Simmons’ bill. The House will likely not take up an accompanying bill (SB 1394) by Simmons, a Longwood Republican, to tag licenses for vape products with the same $50 fee. Senators voted 34-4 Friday to send the primary bill to the House with Republican Sens. Aaron Bean and Jeff Brandes and Democratic Sens. Audrey Gibson — the Minority Leader — and Linda Stewart casting the dissenting votes. Bean, Brandes and Sen. Rob Bradley voted against the vaping license fee bill, which passed 35-3.”

MAIN ARTICLE:

House ready to raise smoking, vaping age to 21

BILL SB 810  |  BILL HB 7089

“The Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday restricting the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to anyone younger than 21 years old. The bill would also close a loophole which allows people to buy vaping products online. The bill states that after July 1 of 2021, all businesses that sell the products must be licensed with the state. This means retailers would be subject to compliance checks and complaint investigations. The bill now heads to the state Senate.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Bill To Restrict Vaping For Young Coloradans Passes House

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

It’s astonishing how wide the gap is between the public health position on vaping in England and that of the United States and Canada. One side values evidence and the other, emotion and hysteria.
Public Health England (PHE) just released the sixth report in its series of independent reports commissioned by PHE to summarise evidence on e-cigarettes to inform policies and regulations.

The report meticulously addresses each of the issues anti-vaping activists expound as dangers of vaping and simply refutes each one with impeccable science.

In this exclusive RegWatch interview with Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of PHE’s 2020 Evidence Update; we walk through the findings: youth vaping epidemic, vaping-related lung illness, perception of harm, risk of nicotine use, vaping and pregnancy…

Only on RegWatch by RegulatorWatch.com

Live Streamed: March 9, 2020
Produced by: Brent Stafford

In an article found on Dr. Farsalinos’ page, Ecigarette Research, Dr. Farsalinos writes:

Let’s talk about e-cigarettes now. And that is all I can say (i.e. nothing), we have zero evidence on how e-cigarette use affects coronavirus infectivity and disease progression. There is a lot of evidence that propylene glycol (one of the main ingredients in e-cigarette liquids) has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties in aerosol form. Below is a list of studies I cited in the 2017 book on e-cigarettes that I wrote together with other colleagues:

Henle W, Zellat J. Effect of propylene glycol aerosol on air-borne virus of Influenza. Proc Soc Exper Biol Med 1941;48:544.

Robertson OH, Loosli CG, Puck TT, Bigg E, Miller BF. The protection of mice against Infection with air-borne Influenza virus by means of propylene glycol vapour. Science 1941;94:612.

Harris TH, Stokes Jr. J. The effect of propylene glycol vapour on the incidence of respiratory infections in a convalescent home for children: preliminary observations. Am J Med Sci 1942;204:430.

Harris TH, Stokes Jr. J. Air-borne cross infection in the case of the common cold: a further clinical study of the use of glycol vapours for air sterilization. Am J Med Sci 1943;200:631.

Robertson OH, Bigg E, Puck TT, Miller BF, Technical Assistance of Elizabeth A. Appell. The bactericidal action of propylene glycol vapor on microorganisms suspended in air. I. J Exp Med 1942;75:593 610.

Puck TT, Robertson OH, Lemon HM. The bactericidal action of propylene glycol vapor on microorganisms suspended in air: II. the influence of various factors on the activity of the vapor. J Exp Med 1943;78:387 406.

Let me clarify that these studies do not suggest any effect of propylene glycol on the particular coronavirus strain (COVID-19) that is linked to the global epidemic. Thus, we have no evidence on how e-cigarettes and propylene glycol use may affect disease spread and severity. Moreover, we know that the vast majority of e-cigarette users are either dual users or former smokers, so they experience the adverse effects of current and past smoking, and many may already have smoking-related disease. Thus, they may be in a higher risk group, but this is not due to e-cigarettes. Smokers switching to e-cigarettes would definitely have better prognosis (compared to continuous smoking) if smoking is found to increase infectivity and disease severity.

You can read the entire article HERE.

“Last week, Planet of the Vapes reported how Chinese academics are lying by linking vaping to the COVID-19 outbreak. A number of ardent anti-vape crusaders have been quick to try to profit from fear and misery, yet again ignoring evidence and facts as they seek to pursue their ideological agenda in their war against tobacco harm reduction. Stanton Glantz, U.S. Mayor Bill de Blasio, and a World Health Organisation’s Dr Alexey Kulikov jumped on the bandwagon to spread disinformation and fear.”

ARTICLE LINK:

More COVID-19 Dishonesty

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued 22 warning letters to online and brick-and-mortar e-cigarette product retailers and manufacturers across the country who sell flavored, cartridge-based electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products advising them that selling these products, which lack marketing authorization, is illegal. The warning letters were sent to some establishments with well-known names such as 7-Eleven and Shell and are the first of what will be a series of ongoing actions consistent with the FDA’s recently issued policy of enforcement priorities for e-cigarettes and other deemed products on the market. As announced earlier this year, the FDA is prioritizing enforcement against the following unauthorized ENDS products: 1) flavored, cartridge-based ENDS products (other than tobacco or menthol flavored); 2) all other ENDS products for which the manufacturer has failed to take adequate measures to prevent underage access; and 3) any ENDS product that is targeted to youth or likely to promote use by youth. Under this policy, companies that do not cease manufacture, distribution and sale of these unauthorized tobacco products risk FDA regulatory actions ranging from warning letters to injunction, seizure and/or civil money penalty actions.”

ARTICLE LINK:

FDA Warns Retailers, Manufacturers to Remove Unauthorized E-Cigarette Products from Market

“As legislation in Nova Scotia makes its way through Province House, government MLAs rejected opposition amendments aimed at adding more teeth to the bill. Debate topics at the legislature on Monday included bills that will add a new tax system to vape products and require anyone who sells them to be licensed. The government has already said it will ban flavoured products, as it has already done with tobacco, as of April 1. But opposition MLAs proposed a series of measures they said would be even stronger steps. The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats both proposed amendments that would have, among other things, added caps to nicotine content in the legislation and restricted the sale of vape products to adult-only specialty shops, a step that would have removed them from gas stations and convenience stores. There were also calls for a different tax structure, one that would see products taxed based on nicotine content as opposed to the total volume of liquid in a given package. But government MLAs were not interested in any of the proposed amendments and the Liberals used their majority to defeat all of them.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Liberals reject opposition calls for stiffer N.S. vaping legislation