Daily Archives: July 17, 2022

It looks like a flash drive, and it plugs into a laptops USB port like a flash drive, but its not a flash drive. Its actually an electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette, and its been causing a stir in schools across the country since it was introduced in 2015.

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Juul is a sleek, black vaping pen that fits in the palm of your hand. Like other top-selling e-cigarettes on the market (including Vuse, Logic, Blu and MarkTen), it comes with little cartridges of juice that contain nicotine, fruity flavorings and other chemicals. The cartridges snap into the device, and the juice is heated up when a user inhales, creating a vapor that delivers a quick hit of nicotine and the pleasant sensation that smoking cigarettes creates, explains pulmonologist Humberto Choi, MD.

But unlike other kinds of e-cigarettes, Juul and the newest class of devices are discreet enough that teenagers are using them in school bathrooms, hallways and even classrooms. Theyre small and easy to hide, and the fruity-smelling smoke dissipates quickly. Not only has juuling become so popular that its now a verb, but its even inspired a series of social media hashtags.

Though the companies that make these products say theyre intended to be used as alternatives for adult smokers over 21, teenagers are still getting their hands on them. In fact, use among teens is so rampant that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is officially authorizing all Juul brand flavored e-cigarettes to be pulled off the market. The agency has dedicated significant resources to review products from the companies that account for most of the U.S. market, said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, MD, in a statement. We recognize these make up a significant part of the available products and many have played a disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.

Dr. Choi explains the potential health concerns over vaping and what steps you can take to address it with your teens.

While theres been a significant drop in youth smoking over the last decade, the use of other tobacco products like e-cigarettes in this age group continues to climb. Youth are taking up e-cigarettes most often because family members or friends use them, or because the juice comes in appealing flavors like mint or fruit, according to a 2016 survey.

In that same survey, 17% of middle and high school-aged users also said they turned to e-cigarettes because of the belief that theyre less harmful than other forms of tobacco, like cigarettes.

While theres still research being done on the long-term safety of e-cigarettes, health experts like Dr. Choi say caution is warranted. A recent study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that e-cigarettes are a significant risk factor for respiratory diseases.

Theres also concern over the rise of e-cigarettes and their potential risk for nicotine addiction. Because of the attractive design and appealing flavors, young people may not understand that theyre actually taking in high concentrations of nicotine (juices contain up to 5% nicotine), which is highly addictive and damaging to brain development.

So, what is the difference between vaping and smoking? The main thing that separates them is that one (smoking) burns tobacco, while the other (e-cigarettes) heats nicotine combined with flavorings and other chemicals into an aerosol. In both cases, a significant amount of vapor and fumes enter your lungs.

While vaping has been considered less harmful than smoking, that doesnt mean it doesnt come with its own set of long-term and short-term risks.

We know that in the short-term they can cause inflammation in the airways and in the lungs, Dr. Choi explains. It will take a while until we see the long-term consequences, but our expectation is that they can cause harm similar to smoking cigarettes. Experts also worry that teens who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to start smoking tobacco.

Its not just the nicotine that can have a negative effect. E-cigarettes dont contain tobacco or tar, but they do contain many other chemicals that can be harmful, sometimes in combination, Dr. Choi says. Propylene glycol, for example, is one ingredient. Its commonly used as a food additive and considered safe for ingestion, but its not clear if its safe to be inhaled for a prolonged period of time.

Another concern has been vitamin E a supplement that is fine to take orally and topically but evidence suggests its not something you want to coat your lungs with.

I think the point here is that we cannot consider the aerosols with these chemicals safe when inhaled, Dr. Choi notes.

In addition to flavored juices and nicotine, vaping cigarettes can also be used for smoking marijuana. In 2018, it was found that marijuana vaping in teens had increased from 9.5% to 13.1% in a year.

Vaping marijuana is often done through the use of marijuana concentrate, which contains highly potent amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), vaping pens with marijuana concentrate can be up to four times stronger than other types of marijuana. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also showed that the use of THC vaping products has been linked to EVALI, a medical condition where a persons lungs become severely damaged.

Most of these THC-containing products come from informal and unregulated sources so they may contain unknown substances, cautions Dr. Choi.

There are also concerns over the trend of vaping CBD oil, mostly because it can also contain unregulated substances and harmful chemicals.

The truth is, your child may have been already exposed to the overall concept of vaping.

Whether or not you suspect your child may be participating or being pressured to vape, Dr. Choi suggests taking up the subject with your teenagers. I think its important to have the conversation anyway, he says. Odds are, they will come across a situation where someone is using e-cigarettes or they may be offered to use one.

Different people are attracted to e-cigarettes for different reasons, Dr. Choi notes, so theres no one good way to bring up their potential dangers with your kids. But understanding what might motivate them to try, or talking through ways to respond to peer pressure can be a good start.

Its normal for this conversation to happen over time, so dont feel discouraged if the first couple chats dont feel productive. You can also try working in the conversation about e-cigarettes and vaping through everyday situations such as:

Another good way of deterring your teen from vaping (or smoking) is to lead by example. Even taking the steps toward being tobacco-free in your own life may help influence your childs future actions.

If you suspect that your teen may have picked up vaping, the best you can do is approach it through open communication. Before you have the talk about e-cigarettes, it may be a good idea to get a fact sheet together on the harms and risks of vaping. Coming armed with information could be the best way to sway your teen from it.

The American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommends that pediatricians screen families and counsel patients about the health risks of e-cigarettes, Dr. Choi says. Unfortunately, the increase in the use of e-cigarettes among teenagers is so concerning that we need to be more proactive.

If you feel like youre not getting through, ask your doctor to discuss the dangers of smoking and e-cigarettes at your teens next appointment. Other resources such as the Office of the Surgeon General can also be helpful in presenting information to your teenager about vaping.

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Parents, Could Your Teens Be Vaping? - Health Essentials

People hold banners as they protest against the New York City Council vote on legislation to ban flavored e-cigarettes outside City Hall on November 26, 2019 in New York City. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images hide caption

People hold banners as they protest against the New York City Council vote on legislation to ban flavored e-cigarettes outside City Hall on November 26, 2019 in New York City.

The Biden administration says Americans now have access to the tools they need to protect themselves from COVID, as a new spike in cases begins. Deaths have remained low so far and the administration recognizing the political realities has not pushed for new restrictions.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is moving ahead on a suite of initiatives aimed at reducing smoking and vaping the latest, surprisingly apolitical chapter in a public health crusade that's notched hard-fought wins over many decades.

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Vaping, COVID, And The Biden Administration's Approach To Public Health : The NPR Politics Podcast - NPR

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If you walk inside a smoke shop in New York looking for a vape that tastes like candy, you might think youre out of luck. Flavored e-cigarettes have not been allowed in the U.S. since the Food and Drug Administration banned them two years ago. The only choices visible behind the clerk are menthol and tobacco, made by large corporations such as Juul and still allowed by the FDA. But to taste the full rainbow of nicotine flavors out there, you just need to ask: Do you have Air Bar?

Out come the boxes, hidden under the counter or in the back, full of disposable vapes in varieties from Aloe Blackcurrant to Watermelon Apple Ice. A lot of the names end in ice, which usually indicates the addition of menthol or synthetic coolants to make the vegetable glycerin containing nicotine taste cool after its been heated to 400 degrees through a metal coil. You can even get pudding flavor, if you like that. But if you want to know more about this company thats putting lab-made nicotine and a slurry of other chemicals in your lungs, you are out of luck. No one knows who really owns it.

Air Bar is controlled by Shenzhen Goldreams Technology Co., Ltd, an LLC out of Chinas tech-industrial hub, which has become the global capital of vape manufacturing. (Two more disposable-vape brands also operate out of the building that Shenzhen Goldreams calls its headquarters.) Legal documents show that in the United States, Air Bar is marketed by a wholesaler in a strip mall near the Dallas airport whose phone number permanently goes to voicemail. (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) To get the vape in front of customers, shop owners can buy in bulk from distributors in the U.S. or, if theyre willing to risk getting a knockoff, go directly to a manufacturer in China.

Over the past year, Air Bar has become one of the many sleek, disposable vapes that have become extremely popular after filling the enormous demand for flavored products following an FDA crackdown just before the pandemic. These disposables have avoided regulators with a simple trick: They use synthetic nicotine, which the FDA had no authority over until recently. A negligible part of vape-shop business at the beginning of 2020, synthetics were in two-thirds of these stores nationwide by 2021, market research shows. During that window, authorities have been more or less helpless to stop the flavors concocted in labs in Shenzhen from being sold in the States.

But on Wednesday, when it officially closes the loophole that allows synthetic nicotine to be sold, the FDA can finally crack down. And if the agency gets its way, the industry titan Juul could soon be banned as well. But it may already be too late for the agency to chase down many of the corporations whose kid-friendly devices have dodged their authority for some time now. Even if faceless companies an ocean away from FDA jurisdiction are for some reason willing to cooperate with the regulators, counterfeiters are in tow and easy to get in touch with.

Since Juul first came out of Silicon Valley seven years ago aiming to disrupt Big Tobacco, regulators have been playing catchup. The company launched in 2015 with mango and cucumber pods that experts said would attract teens; it took the FDA five years to ban all vape flavors except for menthol and tobacco. Juul reps told high schoolers on campuses that their vape was a safer alternative to cigarettes; it took at least a year for the FDA to tell them that message was illegal. But the threat of enforcement didnt matter. Soon enough, it seemed like everyone was pulling on a Juul.

We as a nation had achieved a remarkable public-health accomplishment in driving teen smoking above 30 percent when I was in high school to below 5 percent as recently as a few years ago, says North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein, who sued Juul for marketing to minors. Then e-cigs came on the market, and those gains evaporated like a puff of vapor. Thats predominantly because of Juul, but now there are copycat companies trying to exploit young peoples addictions to make money at the expense of young peoples health.

But Juul which once had a valuation as large as Ford and controlled around 75 percent of the market could soon be gone for good. As part of an extremely delayed process in which the FDA is reviewing tobacco-based e-cigarette products already on the shelves, the agency moved to outlaw the sale of Juul after it found last month that potentially harmful chemicals may be leaching from their plastic pods into the nicotine mix that users inhale. After Juul asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block the ban, the FDA announced last week it would re-review Juuls application, citing scientific issues. During that process, Juul is allowed to keep selling its product, and its chief regulatory officer, Joe Murillo, said in a statement that we remain confident in the quality and substance of our applications.

Whatever happens to Juul, many vapers have already moved on. Earlier this year, the company lost its status as the top e-cigarette maker by sales to the R.J. Reynoldsbacked Vuse, one of the few vapes the FDA has actually authorized. (The two companies still lead other e-cigarette makers by a huge margin.) And during the pandemic, with stress sending people toward a nicotine fix and Juul restricted to old-fashioned cigarette flavors, the disposable-vape industry soared. Users wanted a product that looked nearly identical to Juul and tasted even better.

They found one in a company called Puff Bar.

The business had been around for at least a year when, in spring 2020, two 26-year-olds from the Los Angeles area Nick Minas and Patrick Beltran became Puff Bars co-owners and CEOs after taking it over from an entity in China. Or at least they say they did: The pairs ownership has never been independently confirmed, and the childhood friends have refused to discuss how they got the capital to buy a large vape manufacturer. (Previously, they ran an online e-cigarette store with a P.O. box in Glendale, California, for an address.) With flavors like Orange Mango Guava and ads that said their vapes were an escape from parental texts, business was thriving. Sales consistently cleared $3 million per week; in May, the duo bought a $1.7 million house together in the nearby San Rafael hills where they could park their Lamborghinis.

What they were doing technically wasnt against the law: A footnote in the FDAs 2020 flavor ban allowed disposable devices to be flavored. But by that July, the regulators caught up, ordering Puff Bar to halt sales for not applying for authorization in the first place. The company went quiet for about six months, until it borrowed an idea spreading among smaller players in the field. A 2009 law passed by Congress gave the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products the same way it oversees what corporations can put in food and pharmaceuticals. So Puff Bar stopped using tobacco as its source of nicotine, synthesized the addictive chemical in laboratories, and ran right through the loophole. By September 2021, according to federal data, over 26 percent of high-school kids vaping regularly and 30 percent of middle-school kids already vaping chose Puff Bar as their preferred brand. Nielsen data showed that Puff Bar sales for the past year up to that point totaled $156 million, even though the FDA had officially shut it down for seven months out of that period.

At the time, Beltran told CBS News that he and his business partner were not trying to side skirt, you know, kind of laws. On national television, he said that if theres a law that would order us off the market tomorrow, we would pull our products off the market tomorrow.

Closing the synthetic-nicotine loophole that Puff Bar made infamous could bring serious change to the industry. Retail establishments wont be able to say, Gee, I didnt know this brand wasnt okay, says Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It ought to be pretty clear across the board. But in practice, its going to be a lot harder for the FDA to figure out how to enforce its new rule. First off, it assumes that companies that have been hesitant to cooperate with the FDA will adhere to the law.

Anything is possible with these folks, says Illinois representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law passed in March giving the FDA oversight over synthetic nicotine. I think that the Puff Bar leadership is very much intent on making sure that they take advantage of any slowness or delay on the part of FDA, any loopholes in the regulatory framework to continue making money. And thats what theyve done in the past to great effect. It would not surprise me if they continue with that type of practice. Puff Bars Minas and Beltran did not respond to requests for comment.

FDA is now basically trying to put the genie back in the bottle, says a legislative aide for Senator Dick Durbin, who also helped lead the effort to close the synthetic-nicotine loophole. All these products flooded the market without adhering to the law.

The counterfeit market is an even bigger problem. Theres been a metastasis of the Puff brand, says Stanford professor Robert Jackler, who has researched the companys marketing and corporate structure. He says that anyone in the U.S. can order knockoffs from manufacturers in Shenzhen on a website called made-in-china.com; some firms listed on the site can make up to 50,000 vapes per day. If you want to start a cigarette company and have a billion dollars, you probably cant do it, he says. But if you want to start a vaping company and have $100,000, youre in business. Its really easy. One vape-shop owner in Florida said in an interview that at the height of Puff Bars popularity last year, 90 percent of the vapes on the market were fake clones. He also says the speed of market development plus a year of bad press means a lot of customers have moved on: If I had Puff products in my shop right now, I probably couldnt give them away.

Industry groups, who point to evidence that their products offer nicotine for adults without the known carcinogens in cigarettes, argue that the FDA is at fault for this knock-off market. Weve told them that in writing, your efforts to crush this industry are creating black and gray markets, says Jim McCarthy of the American Vapor Manufacturers Association. People arent going to stop using nicotine because the FDA commissioner told them to.

The scale of the synthetic-nicotine market might be the biggest challenge of all. Counterfeiters aside, many companies, Air Bar included, remain in stores though theyve already been told by the FDA to stop selling in the U.S. The agency, widely seen as underfunded, has a small number of enforcement officers responsible for in-store crackdowns in the thousands of vape shops in the country; the FDA did not disclose how many officers it will have on the job. Buying these vapes through the mail is already technically illegal, but when has that stopped anyone? Local authorities have not always been helpful with the fight either. New York City, which banned flavored e-cigarettes years ago, has done little to stop the proliferation of synthetic nicotine in the dozens of stores across the five boroughs.

When the synthetic-nicotine loophole closes, there will still be effective ways to stop sales. Large manufacturers cant afford to just ignore FDA, and they wont, says Myers. Retail chains will be hit too. Other than vape shops, the largest number of these disposables are distributed in gas stations and convenience stores, he says. Very few are truly independently owned, meaning they, too, probably wont risk selling illegal e-cigarettes as a corporate policy.

One vape-store owner in New York who doesnt deal in disposables blames the FDA for the synthetic boom. The best they could do was to make everything illegal and not enforce any of it, she says. That was their solution. So now because flavors are illegal, because the products are illegal, because disposables are illegal, everything is being sold from under the counter. Which means its being sold for cash, theyre not paying tax, and its being sold to underage kids without showing identification because theyre already selling illegal products, so they dont give a fuck if theyre selling it to a 15-year-old. So they have done nothing to help the situation. They have only made it worse.

If the feds actually do come knocking, the store owner expects the flavored-vape market to take a turn for the illicit: Its going to become like marjiuana was for the last 50 years. Its gonna be call a guy, word of mouth, tell a friend, you can get illegal vape flavors from this phone number. Text this person and theyll drop it off at your house and youll pay a $20 delivery fee and nobody gets any money in the government.

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The FDA Is Going to Regulate Synthetic Nicotine and Puff Bar - New York Magazine

A Ramsey County ordinance passed Tuesday will ban tobacco use on county property.

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners passed the ordinance, which will take effect on Aug. 26., on Tuesday.

The ordinance bans smoking and vaping commercial tobacco on property owned, rented, leased or contracted by the county. It includes indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as private vehicles parked on county property.

Similar ordinances have been passed by 27 cities, counties and townships in the state, the county says.

Ultimately the objective of this ordinance is to protect the overall health of Ramsey County residents from the negative effects of commercial tobacco while in public places and places of employment, Ramsey County Public Health Director Sara Hollie said in a statement.

Members of the public passing through outdoor locations owned by the county are exempt from the ordinance, whichwill replace the 2015 Ramsey County Clean Air Ordinance.

But while it's banning tobacco use on its grounds, the county is also reducing the penalty for infractions to limit the impact on people from "historically marginalized backgrounds." The penalty for unlawful tobacco use is being reduced from $300 to $50.

Traditional tobacco used by Native Americans for ceremonial purposes is excluded from the ordinance.

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Ramsey County bans smoking, vaping on its property - Bring Me The News

Youth vaping is in the spotlight around the world. A leading vaping company was recently banned from selling e-cigarettes in the US due to its alleged role in the rise of youth vaping, although the ban was later suspended, and the EU is proposing a ban on the sale of flavoured vapes as part of its plan to fight cancer.

In the UK, selling vapes to under 18s is banned and there are rules on how they can be advertised. But the use of disposable vapes has risen sharply among children, with a recent study finding that many are trying them after seeing influencers promote them on social media.

We would like to speak to parents whose children use e-cigarettes in the UK. When did they take up vaping and what inspired them to try it in the first place? Have they become hooked on the habit?

We are also keen to speak to parents or teachers about vaping in schools. Do the pupils at your childs school vape? Are e-cigarettes being advertised on billboards or at bus stops near your local school? And how do you feel about it all?

We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature. We will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy.

If you are 18 years or over, you can get in touch by filling in the form below. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. One of our journalists will be in contact before we publish, so please do leave contact details.

This article was amended on 15 July 2022. An earlier version stated that a leading vaping company was recently banned from selling e-cigarettes in the US due to its alleged role in the rise of youth vaping. This ban was later suspended, and the article has been updated to reflect this.

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Parents in the UK: has your child or teenager taken up vaping? - The Guardian

Nearly a quarter of students in the UAE used an e-cigarette in the past month, a study has found.

Research carried out at three universities in the country recorded higher vaping rates than other recent studies in the Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf.

Experts have given a warning that while e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, they do pose a risk to health and could be a gateway to more hazardous tobacco smoking.

Students at one private and two public universities were polled on whether and when they had used e-cigarettes.

Almost all of my friends vape. I can count on one hand the number of friends I have that don't

Karthik Mallya, a 23-year-old Indian designer living in Dubai

Researchers found 23 per cent said they had smoked e-cigarettes in the past month, while 37 per cent had used them in their lifetime.

The researchers, from Maudsley Health and Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, both in Dubai, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, published their findings in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

E-cigarettes are electronic devices that contain a liquid and include nicotine, a battery and an atomiser, which produces vapour instead of cigarette smoke.

In the paper, the researchers highlighted a 2021 study, which found only 3.7 per cent of university students in the UAE were current e-cigarette smokers.

A 2020 study in Qatar put the figure at 14 per cent, while in Saudi Arabia, the latest research points out, scientists have found figures of 7.2 per cent (in 2020) and 10.6 per cent (in 2018).

The researchers behind the latest study found that students who used e-cigarettes were more likely to also smoke other forms of tobacco, such as traditional cigarettes, shisha or medwakh pipes.

Male students, who made up about a quarter of the studys 240 participants, were about twice as likely as females to have used e-cigarettes in their lifetime. Men tended to perceive them as less harmful than females did.

This is consistent with previous research about tobacco smoking among university students in the UAE, where males are more likely to consume tobacco, the researchers wrote.

In the GCC, this pattern has also been observed in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. This could be due to smoking being more socially acceptable for males in this region and that they could also be subject to peer influence.

Prof Kamran Siddiqi, professor in public health at the University of York in the UK, who researches smoking internationally, said the latest study, based on relatively small numbers and focused specifically on university students, may not necessarily indicate wider smoking rates among young people in the country.

More broadly, he said it was difficult to determine whether e-cigarettes were a gateway to the use of combustible cigarettes.

While research has, he said, found that people who vape were more likely to go on to smoke traditional cigarettes, this did not necessarily indicate that one caused the other.

Another possible explanation is what researchers call common liability, when people who take up vaping are already more inclined to smoke cigarettes.

In Britain people are more and more thinking along the lines of common liability, because despite young people experimenting with e-cigarettes, we havent seen a huge increase in smoking, said Prof Siddiqi, who was not connected to the latest study.

The National

Compared to combustible cigarettes, he said e-cigarettes caused significantly less harm but not zero.

Individuals are still inhaling liquids with the potential to damage the lungs, he said. Nicotine is highly addictive. There are other [substances] nicotine is mixed with. They could cause long-term lung damage.

From the evidence, its nowhere near as toxic or potentially harmful as the smoke from combustible cigarettes. That said, nobody wants young people to take up e-cigarettes.

The UKs National Health Service describes e-cigarettes as not completely risk free, and carry a small fraction of the risk of cigarettes.

Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not produce carbon monoxide or tar, which Britain's National Health Service said were two of the most harmful substances found in tobacco smoke.

Arjun Chandavarkar, 22, from India, used vaping to help him quit cigarettes while he was at university and uses a refillable device regularly throughout the day.

Most of the times I tend to vape in the mornings, usually after meals and about six or seven times a day, said Mr Chandavarkar, who lives in Dubai and works as a financial analyst.

The frequency of when I vape isnt particularly set in stone, but I vape for about two minutes 'per session'.

It has helped me avoid cigarettes altogether.

The majority of the people I know within my age group tend to use a vape. I would say in a group of about 20 people, 16-17 of them will vape.

Considering the frequency of my vaping, I use one pod every two days, so I go through about four refills per week.

I am worried about my health and the impact vaping has. While it does offer a much safer and healthier alternative to smoking, I havent come across any research that suggests vaping is completely free from harmful effects.

That being said, I do exercise on a frequent basis, around five times a week, and tend to believe Im mitigating the harmful effects of vaping through this exercise.

However, based on my vaping experience over the last three or four years, I havent seen any harmful impact of vaping on my physical performance.

Karthik Mallya, a 23-year-old Indian designer living in Dubai, said vaping helps relieve stress.

Almost all of my friends vape, he said.

I think I can count on one hand the number of friends I have that don't.

Even friends of mine that don't use them regularly will usually vape when they get the chance to.

I'm definitely worried and very aware of the health risks associated with vaping.

Since there's not much research into the matter, I don't really know if it's a healthier alternative to smoking or not.

As of now, I vape to curb my urge to smoke tobacco products.

I like it because it doesn't stink up my clothes and hands and, of course, I like it for the many flavours.

Updated: July 17, 2022, 11:17 AM

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E-cigarettes used by one in five UAE university students, study finds - The National