For more than 50 years the Surgeon General has warned consumers of the risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Since that time, many products introduced as alternatives. One of the most recent, and popular options is the use of e-cigarettes. But poison control officials say the reusable sticks contain enough nicotine to be bad for your health. [More]
e-cigarettes
L.A. City Council Votes To Ban Use Of E-Cigarettes In Public Places
By 3.5.14
Those on the left and right coasts might quibble over who has it better — 75 degrees and sunny all the time or not freaking out when it rains? — but there’s at least one thing Los Angeles and New York City have in common: You won’t be able to suck on an electronic cigarette in public in either place very soon. [More]
Ohio Likely To Become First State To Prohibit E-Cigarette Sales To Minors
By 2.13.14
E-cigs are still in a strange regulatory no-man’s-land. They’re kind of like regular cigarettes, but they’re also kind of not. Can you use them in places where smoking’s not allowed? Do they fall under current laws restricting the sale of tobacco products to minors? Nobody really knows, yet. Nobody, that is, except the state of Ohio, where a bill regulating e-cigarette sales is now sitting on the governor’s desk. [More]
50 Years After First Surgeon General’s Report, Smoking Still Leading Preventable Cause Of Death
By 1.17.14
Back in 1964, 42% of American adults smoked tobacco. That same year, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office issued a landmark report about the link between smoking and lung cancer. Since then, there have been 31 additional reports from various Surgeons General, each adding more insight into the health hazards of smoking. In that time, the percentage of adult smokers has been cut by more than half to 18%, but the latest report says people aren’t quitting fast enough. [More]
NYC Adds E-Cigarettes To The List Of Things You Can’t Smoke In Many Public Places
By 12.20.13
New York City has had a strict ban on smoking in many public places like bars, restaurants, workplaces, stores and since 2002, with the addition of parks and public plazas in 2011. But even if that smoke isn’t really smoke, and is vapor from an e-cigarette, well now you can’t do that either, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped push a measure through the city council that extends the smoking ban to e-cigs. [More]
Los Angeles Might Treat Sale Of E-Cigarettes Like Regular Smokes
By 12.5.13
It’s not just has-been actors like Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy who smoke electronic cigarettes. They have become increasingly popular not just with smokers trying to quit but with people who want the fun of smoking without the whole “ashtray lung” after effect. Additionally, e-cigs don’t come with most of the pesky sales limitations of their tobacco counterparts, making them easier to buy and sell for some folks. But if the Los Angeles City Council gets its way, electronic cigarettes will soon be treated exactly the same as the unplugged versions. [More]
Please Don’t Fling Your Empty E-Cigarette Cartridges Out The Car Window
By 11.26.13
E-cigarettes, even the ones that are plugged into the correct charger and don’t explode, have a problem. Well, their users have a problem. Some former cigarette smokers who are used to flinging butts out the window when they finish a smoke are having trouble letting go of their nasty habit. The trouble is that metal e-cig cartridges are, well, metal, and puncture tires out on the roads. [More]
Yet Another Exploding E-Cigarette Starts A Fire While It Was Plugged In To Charge
By 11.5.13
In the most recent addition to a slew of incidents where charging e-cigarettes have exploded while charging, fire investigators in Idaho say an e-cigarette plugged into a laptop overnight is to blame for a recent house fire. [More]
New York City Council Votes To Raise Legal Smoking Age From 18 To 21
By 10.31.13
Any 17-year-olds in New York City ticking off the days until they come of legal age and can go out to buy cigarettes or other tobacco should probably know that the City Council just voted to move the legal age to buy tobacco products — and also e-cigarettes — from 18 to 21. Keep ticking those days off. [More]
Is Anything Being Done To Prevent Exploding E-Cigarettes?
By 10.3.13
While concerns about health effects and youth-targeted marketing have the attorneys general of 37 states asking the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes much like the agency regulates the sale of tobacco, there are numerous reports of the devices “exploding” or catching fire, which can be significantly more dangerous than simply inhaling nicotine. [More]
40 Attorneys General Agree: E-Cigarettes Need To Be Regulated Like Tobacco
By 9.24.13 — Updated: 12.5.13
The use of electronic cigarettes is growing rapidly, not just among tobacco users seeking a smoke-free alternative, but also among those who’ve never smoked but still want to experience the effects of nicotine. Concerned about this relatively unregulated (at least compared to tobacco) market, the attorneys general of 37 states — plus AGs for Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — have written to the FDA asking for more regulatory controls on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes. [More]
Study: Some E-Cigarettes Contain Carcinogens Similar To Those Found In Regular Smokes
By 8.28.13 — Updated: 8.29.13
There you are, puffing away on your e-cigarette, feeling like you’re doing something good by not smoking a regular cigarette. But popular though those tobacco-less nicotine vaporizers may be, a new study finds that there could be a comparable level of carcinogens in e-cigs to their traditional cigarette brethren. [More]
Faulty Battery Likely To Blame For Electric Cigarette Exploding In Man's Mouth
By 2.16.12
Puffing away on an electric cigarette is viewed by many as a healthier option than the traditional tobacco smoke stick, but in the case of one Florida man the e-cigarette turned out to be pretty darn dangerous to his health too, after it exploded in his mouth. [More]
Unable To Get Nicotine Fix, Southwest Passenger Resorts To Throwing Peanuts & Pretzels At Flight Attendants
By 7.14.11
A passenger on board a Southwest Airlines flight from L.A. to Salt Lake City was arrested earlier this week after he allegedly hurled bags of snacks at flight attendants to express his frustration over being unable to inhale fumes from an electronic cigarette. [More]
FDA Fuming Over E-Cigarettes
By 9.10.10
It’s been a busy week of letter-writing for the FDA. First, they sent out miffed missives to Canada Dry and Lipton over their questionable claims about their green tea drinks. Now the regulators are going after five manufacturers of electronic cigarettes for what the FDA alleges are illegal marketing tactics. [More]
