Free Republic

The Real Dangers of Vaping Are Only Now Beginning to Be Understood Nicotine toxicity, formaldehyde, and a whole host of new carcinogens. Yes, vaping is bad for you. Perhaps, experts are starting to think, worse than cigarettes. Let’s start with some good news: Fewer teenagers are smoking than ever before. According to a January 2019 report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the number of teens who smoke cigarettes daily has dropped 88 percent since the mid-1990s. But, as we all know from the cloudy corners on the outskirts of high schools, more teens are flirting with the dangers...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within...

A 92% tax on e-cigarettes went into effect in Vermont Monday as part of an effort to curb youth vaping in the Green Mountain State. State Rep. George Till, who sponsored the tax increase bill, said the measure will help keep tobacco products out of the hands of kids, who are most affected by price hikes. "We know the group that is most sensitive to price is teenager," he told CBS MoneyWatch. "And we know that these companies are going out of their way to get kids addicted." The new tax, which passed in February, will not effect packs of...

Sen. Mitt Romney with a New Mexico senator on Thursday presented a bill to keep electronic cigarettes and other vaping systems away from educational and child care facilities across the country, saying youth use has reached epidemic levels. "In my home state of Utah, the use of electronic cigarettes has nearly doubled in the last five years, with young Utahns most likely to be introduced to vaping while they are in school," Romney, R-Utah, said. "By banning the use of electronic cigarettes in schools, we are taking an important step to protect the health of young people in Utah and...

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Tim Kaine plan to introduce a bill Monday that would raise the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 in hopes of curbing what regulators are calling an “epidemic” of teen vaping.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 from 18, he announced Thursday. McConnell will introduce the legislation, called the McConnell bill, in May, he said. It will cover all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. McConnell’s backing marks the strongest support yet in Congress for what’s been dubbed “T21.” “For some time, I’ve been hearing from the parents who are seeing an unprecedented spike in vaping among their teenage children,” McConnell said in a statement. “In addition, we all know people who started smoking at a young age and who...

It’s not often I’m happy to see a bureaucrat leave their job. That’s not entirely true, I would like to see every bureaucrat leave their job and would cheer wildly if they did. But I’m cheering one specific bureaucrat leaving his job because he was particularly dangerous at it – Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. Why would I, and why should you, care that the head of the FDA has given his notice? Because, if you’re like me, or care about anyone in the future who might be, his resignation might just save lives. Like too many people,...

William Brown died after his left internal carotid artery was severed due to trauma from the exploding vape pen he just bought from Smoke & Vape DZ in Keller, a town just north of Fort Worth, his distraught grandmother told WFAA. “He popped it and it exploded, and that’s when it shot across his mouth,” Alice Brown told the station. Brown claimed the device’s battery malfunctioned, melting bits of plastic from her car to the vape pen — which launched the charred debris into her grandson’s face and neck, leaving her car soaked in blood. Brown died at John Peter...

I used to be a smoker. It was stupid, I know, but I did it for a very long time. I'm not alone, not unique, plenty of people made that same choice I did to take up the nasty habit when we were young and convinced we were invincible. Like tens of millions of Americans, I managed to quit and haven’t looked back. I would still be smoking today if not for the miracle (and it is indeed a miracle) of the e-cigarette. I vaped like a madman...and it was my bridge to a much healthier and happier lifestyle. To...

A clerk at Xhale City vape shop in Tucker, Atlanta went absolutely ballistic after a customer wearing a Trump t-shirt walked into the establishment. The pro-Trump customer was denied service and asked to leave the store while the vape shop employee accused him of being a “racist motherf*cker.” A black man was also standing in front of the counter watching it all go down and it was all caught on video. “If you do not stop recording in my store, I’m going to call the police and ask you to leave,” the triggered employee said. The customer refused to be...

Video from Atlanta shows store employee assaulting customer for wearing pro-Trump shirt This brand new video from Atlanta, Georgia, shows a store employee assaulting a customer for wearing a pro-Trump shirt. The assault occurs at 0:36https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65b7YuGOYMw

The captain and first officer of an Air China 737 that plunged 25,000 feet after one of them starting vaping in the cockpit will be fired, the carrier said Friday. “After an investigation to verify the incident, the decision is to suspend the related crew from flying and terminate the contracts in accordance with the law,” Air China said in a statement. “The crew members who are responsible for the incident have been seriously dealt with.” The airline has asked the Chinese aviation authority to revoke the pilots’ flying licenses as well. Flight CA106 was about half an hour out...

The Department of Health (UK/England) today released its tobacco control plan for England: Towards a smoke-free generation: tobacco control plan for England (PDF) The embrace of vaping and other low-risk alternatives to smoking runs through the text. This is probably the first significant government policy paper anywhere that recognises and pursues the opportunities of tobacco harm reduction, rather than defining these technologies as a threat to be suppressed. For that, the Department of Health and its allies deserve considerable credit. Some extracts on tobacco harm reduction.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that cigarette prices in the city would go up $2.50 to $13 which, de Blasio bragged, would be "the highest price in the country." . . . Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who introduced the bill to create the licensing requirement for e-cigarette retailers, described the proposal as "a major step to limit the use of e-cigarettes, which are dangerous nicotine delivery systems that can lead to nicotine and potentially drug addiction."

I was a 2-pack a day smoker, mainly Kool Blue 100s or Newport 100s. Menthol was my taste, but would sponge a Marlboro while in the field in the Army.After switching to vaping Halo Sub-Zero 24mg, my taste for analog cigarettes vanished. Some time later, my desire for hitting my cherry bomber deminished.So I ask my fellow FReepers and FReepettes, do you vape? Has it helped you kick the habit? Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.

On a cool spring day at the Capitol, Toni Atkins delivered a series of blows unlike anything the tobacco industry had ever felt in California. Then speaker of the Assembly, the San Diego Democrat had been a lame duck for the last six months since the house elected Anthony Rendon to replace her. It was a Thursday morning in March and her final session as speaker, a tenure that lasted just shy of a year and 10 months. In a series of quick votes, the Assembly passed six smoking bills, the most significant of which raised the age to buy...

Meet the strange bedfellows against vaping: drug and tobacco companies, health advocates and Democratic lawmakers. A convergence of interests among these four lies behind the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement on May 5 that e-cigarettes will be regulated as rigorously as tobacco beginning in August. Vaping advocates say the cost of FDA approvals will bankrupt an industry that might vastly improve public health. This spring, a major study from the Royal College of Physicians, the British equivalent of the Office of the Surgeon General, found e-cigarettes to be 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes.

Knoxville vape companies are fuming mad after the FDA passed new regulations this month. They say this new law will put an end to the vaping industry. They are shocked at how far reaching the regulations are, and now they're afraid the new restrictions will destroy the industry. Hunter Allison with Tri State Vape Company will have to submit an application for each new product. He says that would come with a hefty price tag. Allison says, "The absolutely lowest price I've seen is $300,000 per product and that's $4.5 million for me and there's no possible way. He's already...

A medical marijuana legalization bill has been sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich in an effort by state lawmakers to offset support for a proposed fall ballot measure. The measure cleared the Ohio Senate by just three votes, and the House followed by OKing Senate changes 67-28. The proposal, which Kasich has not committed to signing, would bar patients from smoking marijuana or growing it at home, but it would allow its use in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions. It garnered both support and opposition among Republicans and Democrats. Supporters recalled emotional testimony from chronic pain sufferers and...

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...