California, especially the Bay Area, has historically been at the forefront of promoting harm-reduction strategies among residents who use drugs. However, when it comes to smokers, instead of making it easier for them to switch to safer alternatives to smoking cigarettes, California is doing just the opposite with a newly imposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes. The ban is detrimental to public health interests, and it is imperative that cities in California reconsider the ban on flavored e-cigarettes.

As recently as June 20th, San Francisco city supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance to amend the health code prohibiting tobacco retailers from selling flavored tobacco products, and despite the fact that e-cigarettes contain no tobacco, flavored nicotine e-cigs are included in the ban. Unlike combustible cigarettes, which produce tar and smoke, e-cigarettes release a vapor containing the nicotine in the liquid, which makes it a much safer nicotine-delivery alternative to regular cigarettes. Unfortunately, that hasn’t prevented legislators from classifying them as tobacco products and banning the sale of flavored vaping liquids containing nicotine.

Banning flavored e-cigarettes also implies removing an incentive for smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, which have been found to be 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Not only does the California e-cigarette ban on flavored products reduce the motivation to switch, but according to Gregory Conley, the President of America’s Vaping Association, it also blatantly disregards the evidence that flavors help smokers quit by disconnecting them from the taste of tobacco.

Another reason for the ban is the misconception that flavored vaping liquids could entice teens to smoke. This fear is unfounded as there is no evidence to suggest that there is any correlation between the two. According to Carrie Wade, the Harm Reduction Policy Director of nonprofit R Street Institute, “rates of teen smoking are at an all-time low and have steadily declined from 15.8 percent in 2011 to 9.3 percent in 2015.”It is also important to note that it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes and other vaping products to minors and that vape shops, which are often independently owned, have a lot to lose if they don’t comply.

Taking into consideration that e-cigarettes are a much safer nicotine-delivery alternative to smoking and that flavored vaping liquids provide an additional incentive to smokers to switch, the Golden State needs to reconsider the California e-cigarette ban on flavored liquids, especially when there is no evidence of a gateway effect on teens and other non-smokers. Instead, it should differentiate e-cigarettes from other tobacco products and promote them as a harm-reduction method to encourage smokers to make the switch and quit smoking cigarettes.

What do you think about the California e-cigarette ban? Join the conversation by commenting below or tweet us @ILoveEcigs.

Big tobacco companies are diversifying out of traditional cigarettes and into new alternatives in what critics are calling a ‘smokescreen’ to divert attention from the negative effects of tobacco.

Among the companies making the change is UK tobacco giant Imperial Brands, the company behind Winston, West and Gauloises, who are currently testing caffeine energy products.

Imperial’s Chief Development Officer, Matthew Phillips said: “We’ve been increasingly looking in other areas,” including focus on products that appeal to millennials.”

One of the industry’s largest players, British American Tobacco, have also invested $1 billion over the past five years in what it terms “next generation products”. They say e-cigarettes, including its brand Vype, are “potentially less risky alternatives” to tobacco.

“The key challenge for the tobacco industry is the terrible image of their products,” said Professor Steve Greenland, a marketing expert at Charles Darwin University who specializes in the tobacco industry.

“[Tobacco companies] may be distancing themselves from the traditional tobacco market, but the reality is not far off 99 per cent of their revenue comes from cigarettes and while we’re seeing this decline in smoking in Australia the company’s growth business is in emerging markets like Indonesia and East Timor.

“These new products are providing a bit of a smokescreen to what is going on with mainstream business.”

But critics say the most effective way to quit is to stub out the smokes, rather than moving to alternatives.

“By positioning themselves as ‘part of the solution’, rather than the essence of the problem, the tobacco industry is seeking to claw back from its pariah status and to re-engage in the policy process,” said Ross MacKenzie, a lecturer in Health Studies at Macquarie University.

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A warning has been issued to keep minors away from e-cigarettes after a nine-year-old girl from Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada drank e-liquid she found in her school’s playground.

The e-liquid, which was labeled as ‘Unicorn Milk, was tasted by the girl and a few of her friends and was contained inside packaging decorated with a brightly colored unicorn.

The mother of the girl, Lea L’Hoir, said that her daughter started complaining about nausea, chest cramps, and dizziness shortly after tasting the e-liquid.

Shortly after, she took her daughter to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with nicotine poisoning and released later that night.

Although there was a small poison symbol on the side of the container, L’Hoir stressed that the packaging should have been clearer.

Anthony Knight, CEO of the New Brunswick Medical Society, said it’s troubling that e-vaping products might be designed and marketed to appeal to young people.

“That speaks to a need for tougher regulation and tougher oversight around how these products are marketed and that oversight rests with the government,” he said.

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Should Australia follow other countries and legalize the sale of nicotine for e-cigarettes? One tobacconist thinks so.

Franchise owner of an e-cigarette stockist, Naeem Ismail is hoping an inquiry into the devices will align Australia with the rest of the world when it comes to legalizing the sale of nicotine products.

“People are looking for an alternative to smoking for health benefits and to save money,” he said.

“Not only are e-cigarettes a cheaper alternative, they are slightly healthier and help people eventually wean off smoking.”

The said inquiry was raised by the Australian Parliament’s Health, Aged Care and Sport Committee and will look into the use of e-cigarettes in Australia.

Currently e-cigarettes containing nicotine are not uniformly available for commercial sale in Australia, but the inquiry hopes to change this as it investigates the health impacts of e-cigarettes and personal vaporizers, as well as their marketing and use as an aid for people attempting to quit smoking.

Mr Ismail argues that one of the main reasons he is in favor of the inquiry is due to the number of customers who had successfully quit smoking by using e-cigarettes.

“It’s that habit of having a cigarette in hand that is hard to break but your brain is also telling you that you need nicotine. People are training their brains to do the action without getting the nicotine hit,” he said.

“As much as it is requested, e-juice with nicotine is unfortunately banned in Australia.

“If the government is serious about getting people to quit smoking there needs to be an alternative method.

“Overseas, people can cut down their nicotine from 12mg to 6mg to 4mg and wean themselves off. We don’t have that option here.”

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Researchers at the University of Dundee in the UK are asking smokers for help with a research project which looks into the effects of e-cigs and vaping.

The study, which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, is looking to recruit 135 volunteers over the age of 18 who have been smokers for two years or longer.

Dr. Jacob George from the University is leading the study. “This is a vital question we need to answer – what actually are the effects of e-cigarettes?” he said.

“There is little scientific evidence which really shows the benefits or otherwise of using e-cigarettes as opposed to tobacco.

“We want to test the effects of e-cigarettes, with and without nicotine, on the blood vessels — a key health indicator — and compare them to tobacco cigarettes.

“To do that we really need the help of people who smoke, not only those who may be thinking of stopping or switching to e-cigarettes but also smokers who don’t want give up but want to be involved.

“They can really help us without too much time required on their part, so I would appeal to all smokers to get involved and make a real difference.”

If you or anyone you know is taking part in a research project related to e-cigs, we want to hear from you! Tweet us @ILoveEcigs or share your comments below.

The United States is continuing to crack down on rules governing e-cigs, but one drug abuse researcher, Dr. Carrie Wade, says US lawmakers need to realize that vaping is a huge help in the fight to stop smoking.

“As a harm-reduction tool, e-cigarettes should be available, even promoted, to current smokers as an alternative to traditional cigarettes,” said Wade.

“History has proven that abstinence approaches do not work: Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates did not decline in states that emphasized an abstinence-only sex education curriculum and criminalization of heroin use did not stop overdose deaths,” she added.

FDA figures estimate cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the US.

But this figure is now likely to be much lower in the UK, with research showing that for the first time in this European country, more than half of the country’s vapers have given up smoking tobacco since using e-cigs.

“This year’s ASH survey finds that around 1.5 million vapers are ex-smokers, for the first time a larger number than those who continue to smoke,” said Professor Ann McNeill, Professor of Tobacco Addiction at King’s College London.

“This is encouraging news as we know that vapers who continue to smoke continue to be exposed to cancer-causing substances. The message for the 1.3 million vapers who still smoke is that they need to go further and switch completely,” she said.

“It’s very important smokers realize that vaping is much, much less harmful than smoking,” added Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of public health charity ASH

Scroll down on our reviews page to read how ILoveEcigs products have helped smokers quit the habit.

Approximately 2.8 million adults in Britain currently use e-cigarettes, but an undercover investigation has highlighted that this figure is likely to include more than just ex-smokers.

Almost nine in 10 of Britain’s vape shops are willing to sell e-cigarettes to non-smokers, and although this is not against the law, it is against the voluntary code of conduct, which states that vape shops should not knowingly sell vape products to anyone who does not or has not smoked before.

Investigating 100 of an estimated 1,700 vape shops in the UK, 87% were found to be either knowingly or unwittingly prepared to sell e-cigarettes to people who have never smoked or vaped.

Approximately 50% of vape stores did not ask customers if they had smoked before, and around 75% of those that did still encouraged non-smokers to start vaping.

Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) chief executive Shirley Cramer said e-cigarettes must be seen as “evidence-based quitting aids – rather than lifestyle products” and should be aimed at smokers.

“We applaud the IBVTA (Independent British Vape Trade Association) code of conduct, which is in line with this principle,” she added.

“However, as our investigation shows, the majority of vape shops in the UK are not adhering to these important standards. We are keen to support the sector to strengthen their codes of best practice, and for individual retailers to sign up and ultimately adhere to them.”

Richard Hyslop, chief executive of the Independent British Vape Trade Association, said: “Vape products should not be marketed to non-smokers or those under the age of 18.

Do you believe that retailers should be responsible for confirming they only sell vaping products to actual smokers? Should the practice of selling vaping products to non-smokers be considered illegal? Tell us what you think.  Comment below or tweet us @ILoveEcigs

A new survey published in the April Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has highlighted that many US employees are unclear about the e-cigarette policy at their place of work and whether that policy is different for vaping and for smoking.

The survey was conducted to better assess the perceptions employees had of their company’s smoking and vaping policies and included responses from 456 employed smokers and vapers.

The main response was that companies had the same policy for smoking and vaping, and if there was a difference, the most restrictive policies were placed upon smoking, as opposed to vaping.

Around 12.5 percent of respondents were unaware if their company had any policy related to vaping. Approximately 20 percent reported that employers offered them smoking cessation resources.

While policies around smoking are still a little unclear, policies around vaping are often non-existent, and there is little information available about how the devices can help smokers quit a habit which research continues to show is extremely harmful to health.

“Organizations should not consider smoking and vaping to be the same when setting policy,” the authors said.

“Employers should ensure organizational vaping policies are present and clear to all employees.”

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Tobacco companies are now pushing cigarettes smokers to quit smoking cigarettes and make the switch to e-cigs, according to experts.

British American Tobacco chief scientist, David O’Reilly said in a statement: “If you smoke cigarettes and you smoke cigarettes all your life, then on average half of those cigarette smokers will die prematurely.”

“Maybe ten years prematurely from a variation of diseases, whether that’s lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease,” he added.

Studies have proven that vaping is around 95 percent less harmful than smoking cigarettes, which explains why British American Tobacco are keen to crack the e-cig market and have invested a billion dollars into researching the devices.

“We’re very confident that compared to smoking, the harms involved (with using e-cigarettes) are certainly no more than five percent of the risks from smoking,” added Dr. Nick Hopkinson from the Royal College of Physicians.

“So for someone who is a smoker, switching across to vaping is a huge improvement in terms of their health risk,” he said.

This view is also shared by various Australian medical professionals, including Associate Professor of Public Health, Colin Mendelsohn.

“We can say for sure it’s safer than tobacco, which kills two out of three long-term smokers,” he said.

“We’ve had 10 years of vaping so far, there’s been no evidence of any serious harm from vaping.”

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New research has found that smokers prefer e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

The brief, which was authored by RTI International, the University of North Carolina and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, used a nationally representative online survey of 15,943 adult smokers who tried to quit smoking during the past three months, to see which methods they preferred.

The results showed that e-cigs were more popular as a quit aid for partial or complete substitution (2.2 percent), compared with nicotine patches/gum (0.8 percent) or other prescription medicines (0.4 percent).

Telephone quit lines, which the US government have poured millions of dollars into, were rarely used as a quitting aid, making up just 0.02 percent.

After this survey, there is even more pressure on the US government to follow suit behind Britain, where e-cigs have been the leading quit-smoking aid since 2013.

The UK Royal College of Physicians clearly stated their position on the matter, stating: “the hazard to health arising from long-term vapor inhalation from the e-cigarettes available today is unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from smoking tobacco.”

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