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The Food and Drug Administration this week came out with regulations that will force e-cigarette and vaping manufacturers to go through the same onerous process to qualify what they sell as "tobacco products" - despite not having one iota of tobacco involved.There's only one conclusion to draw here: the FDA doesn't care about public health."Vaping" is seen by government health nannies as yet another sinful behavior that irresponsible Americans are participating in when they could be eating kale salads instead. But that takes a fundamentally misguided point of view on the subject. What vaping really constitutes is a tobacco alternative...

An electronic cigarette exploded in a 15-year-old Windsor boy’s mouth, causing him to lose about a half-dozen teeth, police and fire officials said. The explosion sent hot shards of the device scattering, with some still hot like embers on the floor when firefighters arrived after a 911 call came in just after 1 p.m. Jan. 17 at a home on Summer Rain Drive off Los Amigos Road, said Cyndi Foreman, a fire prevention specialist with the Central Fire Authority of Sonoma County. “His teeth literally fell out with braces on them,” Foreman said. “He had lacerations to his lip and...

GEORGIA, A 23-year-old man was left with first-degree burns and a hole in the roof of his mouth when an e-cigarette he was smoking blew up in his face. James Lauria also suffered burns to his hand and cornea, a fractured neck and finger and had his front tooth forced up into his gum. Six weeks after the accident, James still cannot eat solid foods and now speaks with a lisp. “He had burns to his hand and a fractured neck and finger, and burns to his cornea,” Ed Lauria, James’ father said during an interview with Fox 5 News....

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t just want to limit the use of cigarettes – but electronic cigarettes as well. In a newly leaked draft of three tobacco-related bills soon to be voted on by the NYC City Council, the new definition of “tobacco products” under city law would be changed to include e-cigarettes and related components, parts and accessories. If the ordinances pass, the display of e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco would be banned in retail stores. Also, while tobacco and menthol flavored e-cigarettes would still be available in retail stores, all other flavored e-cigarettes could only be sold...

E-cigarettes are more dangerous than thought and can cause cancer, the September edition of a French magazine has claimed. “Electronic cigarettes are far from the harmless gadgets they’re sold as by manufacturers,” wrote monthly magazine “60 Million Consumers” following a study of some 10 reusable and disposable e-cigarette models. “It’s not a reason to ban them, but to better control them,” said Thomas Laurenceau, chief editor of the magazine, which reports the findings of France’s national consumers' institute (INC). The INC has relayed its findings to the authorities, Laurenceau told AFP. …

Touted as a way to quit smoking, the latest data raise concerns that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, may actually be a gateway for teens into tobacco use. ~snip he said. “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.” Most addictions to nicotine start at a young age,...suggest that a vast majority of students who use e-cigarettes also turn to conventional tobacco products as well. ~snip Whether e-cigarettes are actually safer than regular cigarettes isn’t clear; a recent study found that e-cigarettes can...

<p>Top U.S. law enforcement officials urged the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to promptly issue a promised set of rules governing the sale of e-cigarettes, adding to a growing body of legal and public health officials demanding action.</p> <p>In 2009, the FDA was given authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, although not pipe tobacco, cigars or e-cigarettes. The law allows the FDA to expand its authority over all tobacco products, but it must first issue new regulations. The FDA has said they are in development.</p>

It’s easy these days to spot people smoking electronic cigarettes – the battery-powered, pen-sized inhalers marketed as cleaner alternatives to their traditional tobacco-packed counterparts. What may be harder to detect, experts say, is what exactly is inside some of those discreet devices. More and more, people are smoking marijuana out of e-cigarettes and vapor pens -- right out in the open with little or no fear of getting caught, users and experts say. "I was on the train from New York to Baltimore and I enjoyed the pen the whole way there and back with no one noticing," said one...

Over the past two years, the use of electronic cigarettes amongst middle school and high school students has doubled. Health authorities are worried that the young people using them will end up being hooked on the regular and more dangerous regular cigarette. One out of every 10 high school students in the U.S. used an e-cigarette during 2012 as did close to 3% of the students in middle school, showed data from a new report. That rate is nearly double the rate in 2011 for e-cigarettes and equals 1.78 million children or teens who have tried the devices. The spike...

In a 32-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the Food and Drug Administration’s authority doesn’t extend to e-cigarettes....He criticized what he called the FDA’s “tenacious drive to maximize its regulatory power,” saying he found its interpretation of the law “unreasonable and unacceptable.”

Tobacco Control Expert Dr. Michael Siegel Calls for a Scientific, Not Ideological or Political Response to the Electronic Cigarette Issue (EMAILWIRE.COM, September 08, 2009 ) BOSTON – An article in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now acknowledged receiving 98 reports of suicides and 188 reports of suicide attempts that appear to be linked to use of Chantix, a prescription medication for smoking cessation. In addition, the FDA has received reports of patients taking the drug being involved in motor vehicle crashes. At the same...

"There is no substantial evidence that these devices do any harm to the user or bystanders around the user," argued Spike Babaian, of Long Island, NY, in a recent press release. "Despite the plethora of evidence provided to the Suffolk County legislature, that shows evidence that these devices are no more harmful than consuming a hot dog, they have determined that the "stress, fear and confusion," which the public could potentially feel due to the presence of the fog, was sufficient reason to force vapers to follow the Suffolk County smoking ordinance and utilize these devices only in areas where...

The bill in California, SB400, Has Passed - The right to Vape (inhale from a non-combustible e-cig) is slipping away. California has passed a bill (although not yet signed into law) that will ban the sale of Electronic Cigarette in California. What began as a bill to "prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors", morphed into a bill that prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to anyone until or unless the FDA approves them. And the legislature passed SB400 while we were focused on the 9/11 commemorations. The vote was AYES **** Aanestad Alquist Cedillo Corbett Correa DeSaulnier Ducheny...

The American Spectator has a good roundup of all the recent legislative activity to extend tobacco regulations. Another regulation possibly on its way concerns a completely tobacco-less product: the so-called "electronic cigarettes." I was not familiar with e-cigarettes, but the basic idea is this: it looks like a cigarette, delivers nicotine like a cigarette, and even puffs "smoke" like a cigarette (actually water vapor.) But an e-cigarette doesn't have any of the tobacco or additives of a cigarette. It's just a battery-charged cartridge. That's why it's promoted as a safer alternative for people addicted to smoking. But some people aren't...

During 34 years of smoking, Carolyn Smeaton has tried countless ways to reduce her three-pack-a-day habit, including a nicotine patch, nicotine gum and a prescription drug. But stop-smoking aids always failed her. Then, having watched a TV infomercial at her home here, Ms. Smeaton tried an electronic cigarette, which claimed to be a less dangerous way to feed her addiction. The battery-powered device she bought online delivered an odorless dose of nicotine and flavoring without cigarette tar or additives, and produced a vapor mist nearly identical in appearance to tobacco smoke. “I feel like this could save my life,” said...

Well, it really wasn't my intention, but my fraking tobacco seeds just didn't want to sprout. So after a lot of investigation about the subject, I ordered one of those ecigarettes. The DSE-901. Well, last Saturday evening was my last actual smoke. Been very pleased with the ecig I have. It's a kinda sad feeling -a friend I've known for almost 30 years is going away. Obama will NOT be getting more tax dollars from my bulk tobacco purchases when I rolled my own cigarettes. However... The FDA is coming after ecigs now.

For the first time, consumers can actually take a look at how electronic cigarettes are produced in China. New Smoke has published pictures of it's production in Shenzhen. Will this be the future alternative to tobacco?