electronic cigarettes – Page 2

Are lozenges and other smokeless products safer alternatives to smoking?

Source: Pennsylvania's Fox News Tobacco company rep David Howard waxes enthusiastic when he talks about a new product his employer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., has developed: a pellet of finely cured tobacco, binders and flavoring that dissolves in the mouth in 10 minutes. Under test market in two U.S. cities — Denver and Charlotte, N.C. — Camel Orbs will join two dissolvable tobacco lozenges already on the market if it graduates to broader distribution. And Howard is optimistic it will. "These products provide smokers with an option to enjoy the pleasure of nicotine without bothering others," Howard said. "No secondhand smoke. No spitting. No cigarette butt." Dissolvable tobacco consists of small pieces of compressed, finely ground tobacco powder, binders and flavorings that are shaped into pellets, sticks or strips. When placed in the mouth, they dissolve within minutes, providing a nicotine hit. The tobacco industry says that the products contain far fewer cancer-causing chemicals such as tobacco-specific nitrosamines and are a "harm reduction" strategy that, like electronic cigarettes, might help people turn to less risky tobacco habits or eventually quit smoking. But public health officials and anti-smoking advocates fear that the products will help initiate a new generation of smokers. The flavoring and packaging appeal to children, they argue, and teenagers will gravitate toward a product they can easily hide. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration will take up the issue with an advisory committee hearing on the effect of dissolvable tobacco products on public health. "Tobacco companies are [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-22T10:44:37-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

E-cigarettes: battle continues

Source: www.miamiherald.com Author: staff A Broward e-cigarette distributor gave up a legal fight with Oregon over the sale of its products there, as the industry waits to see if it will sell its products as a drug device or tobacco product. A leading distributor of electronic cigarettes, Weston-based Smoking Everywhere, has agreed to halt sales in Oregon, Attorney General John Kroger announced Monday. The Oregon official said Smoking Everywhere did not seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval and provides no evidence to support claims that "e-cigarettes'' are a safe alternative to conventional tobacco products. He also expressed concern that the company geared its marketing toward young people. Oregon last year became the first state to go to court to block the sale of the devices, some of which are designed to look like traditional cigarettes. Smoking Everywhere's electronic cigarettes have a battery-powered heating element and a replaceable plastic cartridge that contains chemicals, including liquid nicotine. The heat vaporizes the liquid for inhalation. In settling the suit, Smoking Everywhere admitted violating Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act. Besides no longer selling its products there, the company agreed to pay more than $95,000 to the Oregon Department of Justice. Elico Taieb, the company president, will pay another $25,000 and is barred from doing any business in Oregon that involves tobacco, nicotine or electronic cigarettes. Taieb's attorney, Jason Weaver, said, ``We believe the product is safe,'' and fought with Oregon on the premise of the product being sold when it was not approved [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T07:53:17-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

FDA analysis finds toxic substances in electronic cigarettes

Source: www.rwjf.org/publichealth Author: staff A preliminary analysis by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicates that electronic cigarettes contain traces of toxic substances and carcinogens, contradicting manufacturers' claims that the products are safe alternatives to tobacco, the New York Times reports. According to manufacturers, the battery-powered devices, which produce a vapor that users inhale, contain little more than water, nicotine and propylene glycol, which is used in theatrical performances to create artificial smoke. However, an FDA analysis of the ingredients in two leading brands of electronic cigarettes found that some had detectable levels of nitrosamines, tobacco-specific compounds known to cause cancer. In addition, one Smoking Everywhere cartridge contained diethlyene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze that contributed to the death of hundreds of individuals worldwide after it was incorrectly used as a substitute for glycerin in toothpaste. According to the FDA's principal commissioner, the effect of inhaling diethlyene glycol and other carcinogens through electronic cigarettes on the human body remains unknown. The study also highlighted several quality control issues with the electronic cigarettes, which are manufactured in China. For example, nicotine levels varied among cartridges with labels that claimed to contain identical amounts of nicotine, and some cartridges claiming to be nicotine free did contain nicotine. Calling the products drug delivery devices, the FDA says electronic cigarettes should not be allowed in the United States and has rejected approximately 50 shipments at the border since summer 2008. However, vendors in malls nationwide and online continue to sell electronic cigarettes, which [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-07-20T06:49:17-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Are e-cigarettes too good to be true?

Source: Beasley Allen Law Firm Author: Kurt Niland I have that “born late” feeling. I quit smoking before I had a chance to “smoke” electronic cigarettes, the latest and most overtly sci-fi smoking cessation tool to come along in my lifetime. My first attempt to quit smoking was in 1989, 4 years after I started smoking, when my college roommate yanked a brand-new pack of smokes out of my hand and chucked them to the middle of a retaining pond near our New Mexico State dorm. I had given Keith my permission to do that or something like it “if you ever catch me with a pack of cigarettes again,” which was about seven hours earlier that same day. Subsequent attempts to quit involved Zyban, nicotine gum, nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges, various herbal “de-tox” remedies, and Chantix. I even bought this little gadget that punched holes in my cigarettes, allowing most of the smoke to escape through the filter. As ingenious as that device seemed to me, it was as frustrating as trying to drink with a broken straw. After a minute of sucking air, I simply got another straw that wasn’t broken. Eventually, the only method I had left to try was the primitive, old-fashioned cold turkey method. Had electronic cigarettes been around when I was trying to quit, I assure you, I would have bought them. The idea of an alternative cigarette is so appealing that many smokers probably have conceived of a fake cigarette at some point in their lives. I remember [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-03-18T10:39:18-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Kids may mistake new tobacco products for candy

Source: Clippertoday.com Author: Melinda Williams FARMINGTON — New tobacco products often look like candy, and their packaging may look like cell phones or other electronics. “But there’s no such thing as a safe tobacco product,” Davis County health educator Isa Kaluhikaua told Board of Health members Tuesday. Kaluhikaua brought examples of smoking alternatives to show board members, most packaged in bright colors with appealing logos. There’s Snus, a no-spit tobacco pouch meant to be placed under the upper lip, and Orbs, dissolvable breath-mint sized tobacco, with a camel imprinted on each. There’s also Strips, dissolvable strips, like breath freshening strips, containing tobacco, and dissolvable Sticks. And, there’s an electronic cigarette. The products all contain tobacco or nicotine and have not been approved by the Federal Drug Administration. Kaluhikaua said if a child ingested three Orbs, they would get ill, and 10 could result in serious illness. Yet, she said, they look much like Tic-Tacs and come in a variety of flavors that children may mistake for candy. She said the Federal Drug Administration has not approved most of the products, yet they are being put out on the market pouvez trouver. “Some are designed to fit into creative packaging,” and are marketed as a safe alternative to smoking. Not all the products are on the market in Utah yet, Kaluhikaua said. That sobering message was a portion of Kaluhikaua’s annual tobacco report to the board which indicates that during 2009, only 6 percent of adults and 8.6 percent of youth [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-01-15T12:41:31-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Smoking debate has become nicotine-delivery debate

Source: www.godanriver.com Authors: David Ress & John Reid Blackwell, Media General News Service Federal regulators are cracking down on a cigarette substitute that uses technology similar to devices that Philip Morris USA researchers have focused on in recent years. Meanwhile, Virginia Commonwealth University is studying how much nicotine — the addictive compound in tobacco — the “electronic cigarettes” deliver, under a grant from the National Cancer Institute to look at nicotine products. Since the start of the year, the Food and Drug Administration has issued “Import Alerts” advising staff working alongside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that they can seize “electronic cigarettes” made by three Chinese companies, federal court records show. The FDA has refused to let at least 17 shipments of electronic cigarettes into the country, saying they are unapproved drug-delivery devices, spokeswoman Karen Riley said. The devices are cigarette-shaped tubes that hold a heater that vaporizes a mix of nicotine and a kind of alcohol for the smoker to inhale. The nicotine and alcohol — usually propylene glycol, used as a moisturizers in cosmetics and in antifreeze — are contained in a replaceable cartridge inserted into the device, which also contains electronic controls that allow it to deliver a puff-of-smokelike dose of nicotine. The vaporizer and control units typically cost $100, while cartridges cost about $2 to $3 each and are supposed to be equivalent to a pack or two of cigarettes. Cigarettes routinely sell for more than $4.50 a pack in Virginia. “The FDA is not [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-06-10T06:41:54-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|