The article neglects to mention that the Congressional Act which forces (?) the FDA's hand, was one that Phillip Morris sponsored and lobbied for. I think this is key to understanding why the FDA is acting like this, seemingly against public health, while benefiting incumbent cigarette makers.
Passage, if it comes, may be politically impossible without
the negotiated support of Philip Morris, whose Marlboro
brand helps make it the American tobacco industry’s biggest
player.
The company’s central role, in fact, is a reason that some
antismoking activists worry that the bill is a deal with the
devil. Philip Morris’s support is also why other major
tobacco companies — none of which back the legislation — see
a cunning ploy by Marlboro’s maker to seal the company’s
dominant position.
This is a great example of what lobbying is and isn't. There are objectively good reasons to regulate e-cigarettes. And it's undeniable that tobacco companies are much more heavily regulated than e-cigarette companies. But it's also true that what hurts e-cigarette companies helps tobacco companies.
> But it's also true that what hurts e-cigarette companies helps tobacco companies.
Not really. The major tobacco manufacturers dominate e-cig marketshare in the US.
The way it benefits them is that smaller players can afford the regulation less, ensuring the tobacco manufacturers can get a total lock on the market.
> The major tobacco manufacturers dominate e-cig marketshare in the US.
I'm curious what leads you to believe this? Perhaps they lead in the "gas station disposables" market, but almost no one uses those. Anyone serious about using an ecig uses the larger 650 (minimum) mah batteries with detachable ~atomizers (because nothing smaller than that performs adequately) and those are manufactured almost exclusively by independent Chinese companies and sold via independent websites and retail stores.
According to Nielsen data as of May 16, Vuse has a 35.7 percent U.S. market share as measured by all distribution channels for e-cigs. Vuse is available at more than 100,000 retail outlets nationwide.
Blu eCigs was second in market share at 22.7 percent, while Logic was third at 13.8 percent. Logic was bought recently by Japan Tobacco.
There is a lot of data missing from independent vape shops, yes. But the numbers we have indicate Big Tobacco is moving near a billion dollars worth of e-cigs a year.
> Anyone serious about using an ecig uses the larger 650 (minimum) mah batteries with detachable ~atomizers (because nothing smaller than that performs adequately) and those are manufactured almost exclusively by independent Chinese companies and sold via independent websites and retail stores.
People serious about coffee buy their own beans sourced from great growers, get a grinder, etc etc. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the millions of people who buy coffee get it from places like McDonald's and Starbucks and instant coffee containers.
And at any rate, parts and liquids sourced from independent Chinese companies and sold via independent websites sounds exactly like the kind of thing that should be regulated and inspected.
> Nielsen data focuses primarily on convenience-store sales. Data includes vaporizers, or open vapor products, but those are more frequently bought at vape shops and tobacco outlet stores.
> Nevertheless, the vast majority of the millions of people who buy coffee get it from places like McDonald's and Starbucks and instant coffee containers.
I suppose one might think this is a valid comparison, but it simply is not. Try this: for the next few weeks when you're out and about, pay attention to the types of ecigs people are using in public, I guarantee you it isn't the tiny Blu or Vuse disposables; I see at least 25 people a day using ecigs in the wild, and I have literally never seen anyone using one of these disposables that is being reported on in that statistic.
Or if you are genuinely curious in discovering the correct answer to this question:
Possible you live in a bubble. (Or more than possible. I mean, you're treating Reddit as representative.) I've seen a couple of custom-assembled vapes out and about, and a hell of a lot of gas station disposables.
Based on the virtually unanimous opinion on reddit (or any other ecig forum for that matter) that disposables suck, as well as never seeing them in public, I find that "a little" hard to believe.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. One key difference that comes to mind: people that buy a pair of Sennheisers doesn't typically run out and try and convert all of his friends and relatives who are using Beats, whereas with ecigs it is quite common (maybe because in this case it involves, you know, life or death).
seconding your anecdote. I use an ecig myself, and I live next to a college campus -- I'd probably say I see about five people a day using them. I have never seen someone using one of the cig-like disposable types.
> I use an ecig myself, and I live next to a college campus
And college campuses (and the areas around them) are totally a representative cross-section of the general; population on all things, including mechanisms of tobacco consumption, right?
> Do you have reason to think they wouldn't be representative?
The fact that they are demonstrably not representative of the general population by age, income, education, or, really, just about any other variable that has been studied makes it very unlikely that they'd be, except coincidentally, representative as far as purchasing patterns for any particular good for which a variety of options exists (unless its a good purchases nearly exclusively by college students, but that's clearly not the case here.)
Judging product popularity by visible usage is a dumb idea? So if you see lots of people driving Toyotas, and only rarely (or never) see someone driving a Ferrari, you wouldn't take seriously someone who speculated that Toyota unit sales are higher than Ferrari?
> try this: for the next few weeks when you're out and about, pay attention to the types of ecigs people are using in public
I suppose one might think this is a valid comparison, but it simply is not. Who you encounter isn't a representative sample of the population, its skewed by your own age, location, socioeconomic class, etc.
Bootleggers and Baptists... I wonder how all the hysterical anti-tobacco organizations, who see anything with nicotine in it as the second coming of tobacco smoking, feel about that? It should feel awkward.
Well, I favor it. Just because it favors Big Tobacco doesn't mean it doesn't simultaneously do some good. Big Tobacco's self interest is, in this case, what I consider to be the general interest.
It was actually incredible to me that e-cigs got away with so little regulation for so long in the first place. The only thing I'm worried about is it's too little, too late: there are a lot of people now who are hooked on nicotine who weren't before, and the constant barrage of marketing claiming they are perfectly safe is only making matters worse.
And yes, I recognize that it possibly has some use in helping smokers quit or move to a nicotine delivery system that is most probably less harmful. If that's the justification for e-cigs, then limit sales to smokers.
> There are a lot more people hooked on nicotine than before? Is there evidence you can cite for that?
I said "who weren't before", i.e., there are new nicotine addicts who became addicted through e-cig usage (and probably would not have become addicted otherwise.) I did not say, and I doubt, that there are more nicotine addicts than before given the general downward trend in smoking.
I generally see two types of people vaping or using e-cigs: middle schoolers and smokers who want an additional fix, often in places they aren't allowed to smoke - for some reason a huge number of vapers, etc. think that no-smoking rules don't apply to them. I've seen people get violent over being asked to stop vaping in a no-smoking area twice.
Can you present data to back this up? I would be surprised to learn that it was true. Middle schoolers, for instance, can get cigarettes even more easily than they can e-cigs†, and while vaping indoors was pretty common a couple years ago, it's been more than a year since I saw anyone do it in Chicago.
I guess I'm saying: I'm really skeptical of your claim that e-cigarettes are introducing more people to smoking. Cigarettes already do a pretty amazing job of introducing people to smoking.
† As the parent of someone who was a middle schooler just last year, let me add that I would be flabbergasted to see one of them vaping, but not entirely surprised to see them with a cigarette. If I saw a teenager vaping, "tobacco" would not be my first guess as to the intoxicant involved.
I framed it the way I did because all I have is anecdotes. When I say "a lot of people are addicted to nicotine that weren't before" this is substantiated by my personal knowledge of around three dozen individuals.
> I'm really skeptical of your claim that e-cigarettes are introducing more people to smoking.
There are more than three hundred million people in the US. E-cigs are a multibillion dollar industry. It would be astonishing if there was no one introduced to nicotine by e-cigs.
> vaping indoors was pretty common a couple years ago, it's been more than a year since I saw anyone do it in Chicago.
> As the parent of someone who was a middle schooler just last year, let me add that I would be flabbergasted to see one of them vaping,
Some of this is probably cultural. I've never been to Chicago, but Chicago friends tell me that people are generally much health-focused in Chicago. I live in a southern rural area, and from what a teacher friend tells me and from my own observation, about a third of local middle schoolers vape. I can definitely believe this is an outlier, but even that's too much, in my opinion, considering it didn't have to be that way. There are much fewer smokers, and that's been about constant.
"Chicago friends tell me that people are generally much health-focused in Chicago".
This city is practically made of sausage. Its official vegetable is bacon.
I'm sure someone, somewhere has gotten hooked on nicotine by way of e-cigarettes, but it's nowhere close to cigarettes. A 12 year old can get a pack of cigarettes and hand them out to their friends. Try that with one of those dorky e-cig pens.
If we assume that childhood obesity is a reasonable proxy for health, then Chicago is healthier than my state: 25% vs 31%. [1] [2] (I use state because nobody is publishing statistics on the local level.)
> Try that with one of those dorky e-cig pens.
They just pass them around if someone doesn't have one.
I remain skeptical. I did some research, and the reports I found suggest that e-cig usage among teenagers is rare relative to cigarettes, and that most teenage e-cig users are former cigarette smokers. And again, as a parent of two children in roughly this age group, what you're saying you see every day conflicts with my own experience.
I think you're wrong about the general argument you're trying to make about e-cigarettes.
About 5 of every 100 middle school students (5.3%) reported in 2015 that they used electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days—an increase from 0.6% in 2011.
Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that current e-cigarette use (use on at least 1 day in the past 30 days) among high school students increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, rising from approximately 660,000 to 2 million studentshttp://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0416-e-cigarette-use...
PS: Why do you constantly say stuff like this when fact's are clearly not on your side?
But note that on the page you cite it says that overall tobacco use in middle school has not changed since 2011. So kids are substituting a more dangerous product (cigarettes) for a less dangerous product (vaping).
That's reversing a long term trend of decreasing tobacco use among middle school students. Current usage patterns mean e-sig users tend to go back to tobacco at some point. Thus e-sig's may in fact act like the mythical 'gateway' drug among middle school students.
During 2000--2009, the prevalence of current tobacco use among middle school students declined (15.1% to 8.2%), as did current cigarette use (11.0% to 5.2%) and cigarette smoking experimentation (29.8% to 15.0%)
So are you also banning asthmatics from using their inhaler in public? You're getting secondhand propylene glycol from them too!
I don't smoke or vape, but I really don't see why vaping is so unpopular. Is it just "drugs are bad" again? I again don't get it, as nobody complains about seeing people drinking coffee in public. As far as I can tell, caffeine and nicotine are similar drugs with different delivery mechanisms. Except nobody is worried about high school students getting hooked on caffeine from flavored coffee beverages.
I'm with you, and I also don't want to breathe the halitosis-infused mist expelled by my coworkers. Seems reasonable to me to have some legislation on the books to require people who work in a shared workplace to brush their teeth.
Assuming more people use nicotine than before, and you have no proof of that, regulating e-cigs without showing negative health effects is a bad idea.
It's also a bluenose idea: Kids are using a mind altering drug! OMG! Other than the approved ones like caffeine in Mountain Dew and Coke, which, with the sugar, are certainly more harmful than nicotine.
or the e-cig companies are a direct competitor to cigs. safer and cheaper competitive product that the cig companies want shut down or be heavily encumbered so they stay competitive.
So? It's a fact that the safety of e-cigarettes is not well-understood. That's a helpful fact to the cigarette industry. Pushing that fact to Congress is not bad just because it is self-motivated.
This could be said about any new product, and is the basis of FUD. Characterising this merely as "honest even if self-interest" is a mistake. The balance of evidence is clearly that the known health benefits of switching from cigarettes to ecigs greatly outweigh the hypothetical unknown risks.
But that's not the question. The question is: are e-cigarettes safe enough to be unregulated? Moreover, the vast majority of products don't involve inhaling chemicals so I'm not sure what you're point is bringing that up.
E-cigarettes are an alternative to something 100% known to be unsafe. Surely a better response is some sort of labeling that the risks are unknown rather than effectively banning them. This pushes people back to something smoking cigarettes, which is going to be bad for smokers, and bad for people like me who dislike being around smokers.
What Dylan said. There are more alternatives to no regulation besides "regulated the same as this deadly product from a massively encumbered industry". Bike helmets should probably be regulated too, but if they weren't yet regulated and a bill came up to place them under the same onerous rules as automobiles, the obvious correct choice would be to say no.
Imagine if every food on the market had to pay a million dollars to get certified.
If the FDA wanted to run a generic study on whether vaping was safe, I would applaud it. Even if it charged ten million dollars across the entire industry to fund that study, that would be fine. But making every manufacturer go through an independent highly-expensive process is a product of regulatory capture, not to keep anyone safe.
I find it quite a stretch to lump vaping in with food. The FDA regulates food and drugs. And yes, drug makers do have to pay a strong price to get certified. It incombs to the the drug maker to run toxicology tests, not the FDA. The latter just enforces the conformity of those tests to its standards.
In general, vaping fluid is a couple basic ingredients plus flavors. The basic ingredients should go through drug-level safety testing if they haven't already gone through it. But each recipe on top of that? Very similar to new food recipes.
Or similar to drug combos, which must be certified as such.
Even if the individual drugs have their own certification, mixing them and packaging them together requires a new certification. Now of course, the new cert will rely heavily on the existing docs, so it's not like everything has to be re-proved again, but the interaction & effects thereof are scrutinized a bit more heavily.
It's not mixing and matching drugs. It's taking one single drug and adding flavors. The inactive ingredients do not need the same scrutiny as active ones.
That is "a" process. Another process is widespread usage and observing the result - there has been widespread use for 5+ years (and even further back on a smaller scale) by people who often smoked 20 to 30 years before switching, and I would challenge you to find any evidence suggesting there is a health risk.
Of course this is assuming that the goal of the FDA is to genuinely protect consumers.
I was at a theme park last month with my toddler, sitting on a bench in no-smoking area and this lady came over and started smoking an e-cig right next to us. When I pointed out to her the smoking area about 200 feet away from us, she said "Oh don't worry. These are totally safe for the little one!" I smiled politely, said "Have a good day" and walked away without making a fuss.
As to your point, they may be safer than regular cigarettes but what's even safer is not smoking anything around me or my family. I don't how safe they are because there are no regulations [1]. If the vapers think they are safe enough to be used in close proximity to toddlers, then the e-cig companies have done a fantastic job of marketing. I'm totally ok with FDA regulating them.
Worrying about e-cigarettes outdoors seems like an overreaction, compared to thousands of other more serious environmental toxins we all face every day. (Frankly worrying about regular cigarettes outdoors also is an overreaction, but smokers have been very effectively demonized in our culture.) I guess turning the issue into a black-and-white binary is easier than reasoning about dosage.
I feel like the concern there would directly be secondhand nicotine in the vapor, which is particularly neurotoxic to developing brains [1]. Feels like a pretty reasonable concern to me, with a child around?
Except the amount of nicotine indoors is far less than cigarettes. I'd imagine outside is almost nil.
> The emissions discharge water, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nicotine into indoor air at levels far lower than found with tobacco cigarettes (Schripp et al., 2013).
In addition, e-cigarettes dont always have nicotine and often have lower amounts than cigarettes. Further making the fear of momentarily sitting near someone smoking an e-cigarette outside almost irrational in terms of health risks.
In terms of not wanting vapor being blown in your face, then I agree there is a social etiquette that should be respected.
The very fact that there are flavoured vapors that smell up an entire room with their disgustingly sweet scents is enough to ban them indoors. I don't want your strawberry cloud in my face. Imagine 20+ people in a closed space all dispersing their various scented vapors. No thanks. It would not be considered acceptable for someone to burn incense in most indoors locations; this is no different in that regard, and may be worse.
People that overuse deserve to be talked to and asked to tone it down. I've seen a couple of instances of this in my time and it works, as most people are a little embarrassed to learn that their perfume/cologne/body spray is that pungent. Fair enough, considering that once you've used the same scent for months on end, you barely smell it on yourself anymore. Sometimes it takes a gentle nudge to inform.
And yes, if once talked to, someone continues to bathe themselves in scents that gag other people, they need to be let go. The flagrant disrespect for people who have to be around you for 8 hours a day is too much.
Indeed, and I think the same is true of vaping. If you're blowing obnoxious clouds indoors, sure, you should be asked to stop and, on refusing, ejected. This, as with the fragrance example, does not require regulation.
More than not wanting the vapor, it's respecting that others may have that concern in a public space, as irrational as it may seem to you. I think common sense would extend e-cigs to a "no smoking" area.
Dosage of what? The contents of e-cigs has been unregulated until now.
And what if the device isn't safe in some way? What if it's likely to explode? Or the way it vaporizes things can tend to produce some sort of unexpectedly toxic chemical, perhaps only with certain vaping fluid?
These kind of concerns are why people want them regulated.
> Or the way it vaporizes things can tend to produce some sort of unexpectedly toxic chemical perhaps only with certain vaping fluid?
The contents of the fluid was unregulated, so how can you say that's not even a theoretical concern? A quick Google search shows a TON of recipes which could easily cause problems. How can you be sure that some fluid works fine with most e-cigs but when used by one that runs a bit hotter it doesn't cause a fire or have some chemical reaction between components that generates some dangerous gas? What if the fluid somehow reacts with the plastic or metal inside your specific e-cig?
> Dosage of what? The contents of e-cigs has been unregulated until now.
And it's not like anyone has ever seen cases of normally safe products made in an unsafe way put on the market.
Of course some batteries explode. Shall we also ban laptops and cell phones?
As for content of the juice, sure there has been a few incidents of chemicals discovered to be potentially unsafe, but that's a far cry from " tend to produce some sort of unexpectedly toxic chemical". (What does that even mean, it sounds like we live in pre-scientific times and the world is a completely mystery to us.)
> How can you be sure that some fluid works fine with most e-cigs but when used by one that runs a bit hotter it doesn't cause a fire or have some chemical reaction between components that generates some dangerous gas?
There is no theoretical basis in chemistry to believe this, and there is extremely widespread usage of ecigs with no incidents.
But sure, anything in the world is possible I suppose considering you cannot prove a negative. I'm going to start wearing safety goggles when using my computer in case the screen explodes, after all, even though there's no theoretical reason to fear this and no incidences of it happening, it could, couldn't it. :)
You are so vociferously defending ecigs, i have to ask, why? They are clearly not good for you, and have been taken up by the market sources that successfully obfuscated the dangers of tobacco for many years. Are you being paid in some way by a pro e-cig group, or do you sell them?
To make sure e-cigs properly induce cancer and life long addiction? Does regulation serve an actual purpose, or just a silly exercise in obedience directed by their corporate overlords..
Nicotine is a drug, and should be regulated at least as other over-the-counter drugs are. It's also important to keep in mind that the liquid nicotine used by the e-cig is concentrated and toxic: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/business/selling-a-poison-...
It is a drug as is caffeine and dextromethorphan. The former is marketed (to children!) and shown to be enjoyed by characters in popular television shows; the latter is sold in general stores, not necessarily just pharmacies. It is the ingredient in dayquil. Nicotine is a mild stimulant just like caffeine. I'm trying to find studies that compare it but I can only find scientific american and sky news stories that just say that many argue that nicotine is no more bad for you than caffeine.
I'm not clear on this point: do you think we are in disagreement? Both of the drugs you listed are regulated by the FDA. There is also a big difference between a can of Coke and a bottle of caffeine pills. The latter is similar to the vials of liquid nicotine (which are toxic, since they are are concentrations well above the standard dose).
I think on par with caffeine makes sense - but keep in mind that the relevant comparison here is not a can of Coke, but a bottle of caffeine pills. The latter has stricter standards than the former.
So instant coffee should be regulated by FDA? What about table salt? Also sold in deadly amounts everywhere. Vinegar?
I am not even talking about toxic common household chemicals - just the food items, directly intended for consumption.
I have no doubt FDA would love to regulate all of the above but it's specifically prevented from this. AFAIK it cannot regulate substances, which were in use when FDA was established. I hope somebody takes them to court since nicotine had been in use long before FDA.
Technically, all of that is regulated by the FDA, since food safety is part of their mandate. But they don't have extra regulations when caffeine is naturally occurring in a food. They do, however, have extra regulations when caffeine is added to a food (such as energy drinks), and part of that regulation says how much caffeine can be added.
I think people are confusing "regulation" with "I need a doctor's prescription to buy". Caffeine is already regulated by the FDA.
I'm really not sure what you're trying to say. My contention is that these nicotine vials should be at least as regulated as other over-the-counter drugs, such as ibuprofen. Do you disagree with that?
Or maybe we should back up even further. Are you ideologically opposed to all kinds of regulation, including the kind of regulation the FDA already applies to existing over-the-counter and prescription drugs?
>I'm really not sure what you're trying to say. My contention is that these nicotine vials should be at least as regulated as other over-the-counter drugs, such as ibuprofen. Do you disagree with that?
Yes I do. The regulation in OP has nothing to do with safety and everything with giving the monopoly to the right people. If you are concerned about safety then the generic food/household chemicals safety protocols are applicable here. Nobody needs to go through FDA approval for the new vintage of every wine on the market. You can even blend different grapes! FDA has no say in this.
More - safety is not a problem now. There are no reports of people suffering en masse from unregulated e-juice or premium cigars. Then, why exactly do they need to be regulated?
I thought I was clear on my point, but I suppose not. I will try to clarify again.
In the beginning of the thread, I said that I do not necessarily think the regulations should be the same as cigarettes. In other words, I am not sure if I agree with the regulations that are described in the article. I bring this up because you said "the regulation in the OP has nothing to do..." in a manner that implies to me that you think I am discussing those regulations. I am not.
However, several people have said they want no regulation, which to me seems extreme. That would make the regulation of liquid nicotine less than that of other drugs like caffeine, ibuprofen and aspirin.
I find your wine example to be strange, as wine and alcoholic drinks in general are heavily regulated, just not by the FDA. For wine specifically, see: https://www.ttb.gov/wine/index.shtml
To your question, which is why do I think think these vials should be regulated the same as existing drugs? Because it is a drug, and I think the FDA should regulate all drugs. Drug safety is generally not a problem because of regulation. I also linked to a NYT article which shows that there are problems where children handle the liquid nicotine and get very sick. Liquid nicotine is toxic, which some people don't realize. And it is a problem with "supplements" which the FDA is not allowed to regulate. So, three questions. One, do you support the FDA regulating drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen? Two, if you do, why do you want to treat nicotine differently? Third, are you ideologically opposed to all food and drug regulation?
I ask the third question because if you are ideologically opposed to all food and drug regulation, then there's no point in discussing the particulars of regulating nicotine.
>Because it is a drug, and I think the FDA should regulate all drugs.
It might be a drug by some definition, but it's not by law and, by the same law, FDA cannot regulate all drugs but only new ones.
>One, do you support the FDA regulating drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen?
In general, I do not support FDA at all and think this agency has long overstepped it's mandate and in need of serious regulations for itself. In particular, I do not see how giving aspirin to FDA is going to do any good. It's not like children never got poisoned by FDA-approved drugs.
>Third, are you ideologically opposed to all food and drug regulation?
No, only pragmatically. If you can show a regulation improving life of anybody other than people administering it on expense of general public then I am all for it.
The FDA already regulates other forms of nicotine (patches, gum, lozenges, sprays, inhalers).
But, since you are opposed to the FDA in general, then I think our discussion of the FDA regulating this nicotine product is not productive - our disagreement is not on any particular aspect of this particular drug, but in the existence of the FDA, and regulations in general. You object to all FDA regulations, not just nicotine. That is a much larger discussion, which I don't particularly want to engage in right now.
> The FDA already regulates other forms of nicotine (patches, gum, lozenges, sprays, inhalers).
And it's able to do so because these are sold as a cure for smoking i.e. a medicine. If you tried to sell charcoal as a cure for, say, cancer then FDA would be in its right to regulate you as well. I do not oppose FDA overseeing medical claims on principle. More, I think this is exactly what FDA should be doing. And I agree that this discussion is going nowhere, you seem to consider regulation good by itself, which should be enforced no matter the effects.
Yes, thank you. Regulation is why when you buy, say, ibuprofen from the drug store, you are confident that it is actually ibuprofen. Because it is a drug, it is held to different standards than, say, strawberries by the FDA.
I think the problem here is that people use "regulation" as a synonym for "hard to get", but that's not what it means. Yes, part of regulation is in controlling consumer access, but regulation also applies to the manufacturing and distribution of the drug.
I sympathize with the libertarian "I should be able to decide what I put in my body" but the fact is that right now anyone using e-cigs has no idea what's in that juice they fill their devices with. Studies have found some pretty nasty stuff in there (besides the nicotine) including diacetyl. If you want to encounter corporate overlords, try suing them after the fact for destroying your lungs. They will argue you knew it's dangerous and you decided to put it in your body.
The point is we have a drug that's known to be addictive and cancerous - and it's sold over the counter. Smokers don't know what's in a cigarette and they don't care. So in this grand equation - exactly how does regulation benefit anyone besides the tobacco industry and their crony bureaucrats? The word regulatory capture comes to mind.
> the fact is that right now anyone using e-cigs has no idea what's in that juice they fill their devices with.
The majority of mainstream manufacturers are very straightforward about EXACTLY is in their juice, and the industry has been very responsible with self-regulation, such as with diacetyl which seems to be a genuine possible risk and is now largely avoided.
> But if the availability of these devices leads to lower levels of smoking (and my understanding is that it does), safer is what matters, no?
If safer is what matters, then it matters not only whether it leads to a lower volume of smoking but whether the (volume of smoking) × (harm from smoking) + (volume of vaping) × (harm from vaping) is lower under one regime than another. Its possible for the "no vaping" case to be safer in total than the "with vaping" case, even if the harm from vaping is lower and the volume of smoking is lower with vaping available.
How do you know ? I don't think this statement can be generally until more tests are done. I would expect the result to change vastly mainly depending on the composition of the liquid.
True enough. But if it turns out that a particular type of liquid is bad, you can simply switch. Switching brands of cigarette isn't going to help you.
>How is it against public health to require all these inhaler devices to undergo some sort of real approval process?
There are two issues here.
First, the government has absolutely no right to tell me what I can or can't do "for my own good" at the point of a gun (even though it does so already in many ways), and this is just another attack on my freedom.
Even if you buy into the government's "right" to control the personal behavior of consenting adults behind closed doors titularly because of "public health", this legislation isn't about that.
>Each application could cost $1 million or more
Creating such an expensive and onerous application process insures that the vast majority of e-cigarettes won't ever make it to the "approval process". Only corporations with very deep pockets will have access to this market after this law is passed, and that access has absolutely nothing to do with public health.
The bill, and today's new FDA regulation, are not against public health. As that same article says:
> Philip Morris’s motives notwithstanding, the legislation has broad support from nearly 1,000 advocacy groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which led the negotiations with the company, as well as the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society.
And today public health organizations like the American Lung Association and American Heart Association are welcoming the FDA rule:
Phillip Morris' involvement is not a form of corruption, or social proof the rule is secretly bad for everyone. It's the natural consequence of our system of government, which says that persons and companies subject to new laws are allowed to have a say in the process. Google fought SOPA, for example.
The benefit to Phillip Morris is to deny new entrants to the tobacco market. This is also a benefit to public health, plus health advocates hope that the regulations will help shrink the overall market for tobacco products in the U.S.
Edit: throwaway_yy2Di says the bill is bad for public health based on nothing, and is the top comment. 1,000 public health orgs say the bill is good for public health (in the same story!), and this comment is sitting at 0. I guess that's HN for ya...
The issue is that tobacco cigarettes are _much_ worse for your health than e-cigarettes. This doesn't mean e-cigarettes aren't unhealthy, but between the two there's a clear winner in terms of health outcomes. Sure, it denies entry to the tobacco market, but it specifically denies entry to a more competitive, healthier alternative to tobacco cigarettes.
> The issue is that tobacco cigarettes are _much_ worse for your health than e-cigarettes.
No one knows if that is true yet, which is one reason the regulation was created. Again, from the American Lung Association:
> Absent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, there is no way for the public health and medical community or consumers to know what chemicals are contained in e-cigarettes (also known as electronic nicotine delivery systems or ENDS) or what the short- and long-term health implications might be.
In addition, e-cig vs. tobacco cig is not a zero sum. E-cig use is growing among youth who have never smoked before. If the e-cig market was all smokers switching to e-cigs, your comment would make sense, but that's not the market.
From what I've read - evidence has been piling up that ecigs are in fact a far healthier alternative to tobacco.
Example (of many):
"E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm. The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting."
From my point of view, the US government has prioritized tax revenue over public health.
I'm certainly NOT against reasonable laws and health regulation - but overbearing, expensive regulations will most likely kill more people by causing them to continue tobacco smoking. The vast majority of smokers are poor - and fewer of them will be able to afford ecigs under these regulations.
It would be reasonable to expand and federally regulate the current system of third party lab testing to include all liquids and consumer equipment. Almost all domestically produced base liquids and nicotines are FDA approved. Most consumer equipment (coils, batteries, etc) I've seen at shops are also lab tested.
But instead, the government has again aligned with tobacco companies to maintain their tax base and tobacco profits. It's a disgusting abuse of regulatory powers.
> there is no way for the public health and medical community or consumers to know what chemicals are contained in e-cigarettes
Nonsense, reputable manufacturers are very straightforward about what is in their juice. Furthermore, while FDA oversight would undoubtedly increase quality standards to some degree, it doesn't guarantee purity and compliance.
On certain topics some people seem determined to not use common sense.
Also: pretty much every single tobacco manufacturer in the US sued over the constitutionality of the Act on various grounds (often free speech w/r/t restrictions on advertising).
Altria (Philip Morris parent company) was the only tobacco player not to say a word once the Act passed.
While their influence is obvious the outcome is still fine by me. Many insurance policies do not distinguish between smoking and vaping. Let alone the fact that anything you ingest or inhale that is sold should be proven safe. Where is the proof that they are safe than supports your statement its against the public health to do this?
Considering the amount of money cigarette manufacturers pay out to the government and states it makes sense that anything that takes their place needs to be proven safe or not safe and then handled accordingly.
They don't have to be "safe" - I'm sure they're not. They just have to be safer than cigarettes, which they almost certainly are. Given this it is essential to encourage people to switch. A million bucks to the government for every flavor? A transparent attempt by established players to kill a disruptive nascent industry.
Agreed, I also take issue with "Safer than cigarettes"; we know a lot more about cigarettes/tobacco than e-cigarettes. It's true that cigarettes have a large buffet of unsafe chemicals, but it's clear that e-cigarettes have widely varied chemicals from brand to brand with little transparency as to what they are. I feel it's more appropriate to say "Safer than cigarettes, we think". The Popcorn Lung situation comes to mind. Buyer/user beware.
You put a whole lot of crap in your body walking down American streets, unless you think all those cars are crapping out rainbows and sunshine from the exhaust pipe.
You're not speaking the same language as your parent commenter. "Generally Recognized As Safe" (GRAS) is an FDA designation, and not a literal phrase. High Fructose Corn Syrup, for example, is GRAS.
Like say, scary skull-and-crossbones labeling on the package? There are tons of ways they could have addressed the state of safety research available for the product without handing a giant regulatory favor to the tobacco lobby. But we're talking about the tobacco lobby -- your safety was only ever a giant farce to them.
E-liquid can be made at home using pharmaceutical grade glycerine. In fact, you can vape glycerine on its' own (possibly adding some distilled water to aid in wicking). It has a vaguely sweet flavour. Commercial e-liquid is made using vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, or some mixture of the two.
The devices themselves can be bought from overseas - AliExpress has many variants, some for <$10.
At that stage, the 'safety of e-cigarettes' is equivalent to the safety of inhaling atomized glycerine. Stage smoke.
Flavourings - you can look for things which are used in aromatherapy (e.g. menthol crystals), but you'll probably want to study whether any chemical changes can occur under heating.
Pre-mixed nicotine is a difficult one. I don't use it so I'm not sure if you can acquire it from trustworthy sources.
I would not want to fall into the habit of using e-cigarettes produced by tobacco companies such as the 'vype' disposable (British American Tobacco). They have a history of producing methods to increase the addictive potential of cigarettes, ramping up nicotine levels, to cheating on tests, using ammonia to produce 'freebase' nicotine, etcetera. I wouldn't be surprised if the same bag of tricks comes out in the e-cigarette market.
"atomized glycerine" drawn over a hot metal element. It's that heated element that biochemists find worrisome. We regularly use hot metal elements ("catalysts") in the lab to "activate" (typically to generate free radicals) small molecules along a synthetic pathway. If you draw glycerine, or any glycol, over a heated element you will generate products like formaldehyde. Inhaled formaldehyde is a health hazard; often associated with cancer. The flavorings are often aldehydes and ketones and are even more likely to generate free radicals, which are implicated to an even greater degree with triggering cancers. The real social health concern with vaping vs smoking is while we have a hundred years worth of statistical data on smoking - we only are just now guessing at the "well, it's better than smoking" conclusion with vaping.
It's a red hot element too, I've never seen a vaping device with anything like good control over more than some basic resistance parameters. Basically you can vape over a cherry red wire, or a dull red wire. IIRC that's well over 800 degrees, which is past "vaping" in any real sense.
But it is not a requirement, which maybe it should be for safety. It is pretty obvious that cooked and inhaled chemicals should be under FDA regulation. What current regulations are proposed? A warning sticker? Restricting vape sellers from calling their products "perfectly safe" until more evidence is available. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Marketing and labeling restrictions are something most of the vaping community could support, as well as requirements to list ingredients used in liquids. The burdensome fees to get a product through regulatory approval is another matter entirely and could effectively destroy the harm reduction (not elimination) these products can provide over cigarettes.
Yeah, this isn't the way to go, especially when the other option for people will be cigarettes. We have to be honest though, about the popularity of vaping beyond the community of ex-smokers, and the concern for that growing group. If you're coming at this as a non-smoker, the "less harmful than ciggies" doesn't work so well.
Human beings are wired to do drugs, all throughout history we have sought ways to get high. On the face of it, nicotine itself isn't any worse than caffeine (aside from the vasoconstriction) - both are highly addictive, but alone without any other substances aiding in the addiction it is relatively easy to quit.
It really amuses me that as a society we are finally starting to end the war on drugs (slowly, but surely) yet because of the public opinion on cigarettes ANY alternative delivery system for nicotine is stigmatized. I don't smell after I've been around people that vape, and many people I've been around that quit smoking through e-cigs are substantially healthier than before - I think that alone is enough reason to incentivize these products.
You aren't going to stop people from seeking pleasure, trying to "save the children" is almost universally nothing more than FUD to try to pass a political agenda. Are people going to pick up vaping without ever smoking a cigarette in the first place? Sure. But there was nothing stopping them from picking the worse alternative either, and I would much rather they don't. For all the talk the FDA makes about this being in the interest of protecting public health, I think it's going to do a lot more damage than good.
Lastly, this is only going to hurt small businesses who have started a multi-billion dollar industry. Modern vaping hardware evolved from hand-made devices built from flashlights, a frightening time in the history of the community where ohms law was something anyone who wanted a satisfying experience was familiar with. Modern devices have substantially better safety features, and all of that is going to go away to satisfy the public perception. I hope the FDA is proud of themselves, they have condemned tens of thousands of people to death.
I had no intention to accuse you in particular, however if you read the news following this article that is precisely the message that is being parroted.
This isn't a single-faceted issue we are discussing here.
Not a resistance setting, a voltage or wattage setting. Resistance is fixed by the coil (ohms law) - most devices sold in the past couple years allow users to set a desired wattage, they read the resistance of the coil and determine the appropriate regulated voltage required to meet that wattage.
The past year has seen an explosion of temperature controlled devices, but they require coils made out of specific metals (Ni-200 or stainless steel). Ni-200 is almost unilaterally a bad choice, one of those getting too hot releases noxious chemicals - so if the control chip in the device malfunctions (there have been reports of this) it is possible to have health repercussions. Stainless steel has been a good choice, overheating will just burn the cotton wicking - not good for you but compared to breathing air in urban centers for years it's not going to make a dent in your overall health.
This isn't really true - elements are cleaned at red-hot temperatures, sure, but they never reach anything like that temperature when saturated with liquid.
Thank god we have established just how cancerous some things are, because otherwise we would be having these kind of discussions about bananas and apples, as there sure are a lot of things out there that can be trivially proven to be cancerous.
If the only purpose is create a myst of nicotine, aren't there other chemicals what could do that without creating free radicals, at least theoretically, and it's just a matter of searching for them ?
Nicotine premix is available from many online vaping sites, so is going to be at least as trustworthy as their e-liquids.
I stopped thinking about mixing my own when I discovered Poundland carries branded eliquids. £1 for what seems to have a widely standard price of £3.33 or £4 in the vape shops and sites.
This is a prime example of Regulatory Capture [1].
"That means nearly all every e-cigarette on the market — and every different flavor and nicotine level — would require a separate application for federal approval. Each application could cost $1 million or more."
The FDA's position on tobacco products is such that they realize they will continue to exist, but they certainly don't want to incentivize their continued use and development. Of course, the high cost of the application results in regulatory capture, so this is more of a handout to the existing tobacco industry more than anything. Imperial Brands and Reynolds American both own products that are grandfathered in (Blu and Vuse respectively), and can afford the cost of the applications (especially when you consider they sell cartridges fro these products at $5 a piece for under 1ml of liquid, which is why the majority of "vapers" buy higher grade equipment and liquid in bottles - these devices are less cost effective than traditional cigarettes).
I am confused. Most things in this article talk about tobacco products, but many e-juice and e-cig products actually do not contain tobacco, though they do contain nicotine. Is this just failure on the author's part, or is this bill not really going to affect e-cigs afterall?
It's representative of the equivocation being used by the anti-tobacco lobby to expand to a device that doesn't involve tobacco. The ultimate inversion of the tobacco industry helping them would be surprising to me if I weren't familiar with their efforts to keep Swedish snus out of the EU (where it is illegal.)
edit: "The widespread use of snus by Swedish men (estimated at 30% of Swedish male ex-smokers), displacing tobacco smoking and other varieties of snuff, is thought to be responsible for the incidence of tobacco-related mortality in men being significantly lower in Sweden than any other European country. In contrast, since women traditionally are less likely to use snus, their rate of tobacco-related deaths in Sweden can be compared to that of other European countries."
They haven't just done this for e-cigarettes, they've done it for cigars as well. My understanding is that any new cigar released in the US will need approval from the FDA at a fairly exhorbitant cost.
This will of course massively favour the big producers who can afford to deal with it and destroy the boutique brands.
shows that a good part of the middle- and high-school student population replaced their cigarette consumption by electronic cigarettes. But this is another nicotine-delivery system, and, as the report says, "Nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical period for brain development, can cause addiction, might harm brain development, and could lead to sustained tobacco product use".
That's hilarious. The one thing nobody is concerned about with smoking (e- or otherwise) is the nicotine, because it has been established countless times that it is no more harmful or indeed addictive than e.g. caffeine.
From what I can tell it would regulate all nicotine containing juice and all hardware that is intended to be used with that. So a lot of small business that build these mod-boxes and things will not be in compliance.
i suspect some will rebrand as marijuana focused vape companies, that will also happen to work as ecigs, especially as marijuana becomes more legalised across the nation.
Though i further suspect someone will try to get the FDA to pass similar rules for marijuana products, something i dont believe it can do until marijuana is legalized at the federal level (it would be hard to get federal approval for a device thats designed to break federal law)
The dispensaries in WA already sell the same devices as well as pre-filled cartridges containing oil extracted from cannabis. I don't think the FDA would buy it though.
Agreed, combustion of any kind produces things you really shouldn't be inhaling. Inhalation of anything that isn't clean air (not much of that anymore these days, though) is potentially hazardous, but the cannabis vape cartridges are certainly a better way to go about it (and less smelly too). It will be unfortunate if these FDA regulations hurt these too, not that the FDA is particularly fond of cannabis either (and I can easily foresee similar regulations being passed when it is eventually legalized at a federal level).
Can anyone fill me in as to whether or not this will apply to any 'e-juice' products that do not contain nicotine?
I think the 'competitive vape' scene use nicotine-free substances, so I'm aware they exist. But that whole 'different formulations' thing sounds very troublesome, even on the basic level?
Many thanks in advance to any who might have closer tabs on this subject.
The general presumption is no it wouldn't effect ejuice containing no nicotine. The general formula for ejuice is vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavor extracts, and liquid nicotine based in PG. Sine all these ingredients are generally available without regulation ( minus nicotine ) I feel that I would be hard to claim that these constitute a tobacco product.
Thank you very much for the distinctions. This bodes well for a non-consumption idea I had somewhat based on the existing technology, though with no intention of including nicotine in the platform. I'll have to see what the local shops plan on doing to get a first-hand feel for potential supplier issues. Again, very much appreciate the shared perspective.
Actually I do mean there are vaping competitions hehe. They call themselves 'cloud chasers' and they put on an event a few months ago at a local, rather large entertainment venue in Deep Ellum (The Bomb Factory). I've been wanting to use some of their findings and techniques in an offshoot project, so their interest, while not my interest, is useful.
I think they set up a measuring scale and try to judge the size and distance of the released vapor cloud. They're...large. I couldn't imagine a person actually making such a cloud in a normal place, but my idea did come from seeing a person use a vape a couple years ago in a bar, nearly across the room, and the scent carried all the way to me. It was cotton candy. Quite interesting sub-culture over that direction hehe.
My only opinion on this: Nicotine vapour can be absorbed through skin. That, and the lack of any possible filtration, means it is a totally different beast in terms of bystanders. I don't want to be around nicotine vapour. Any and all legislation/regulation that keeps me from having to share a bus/plane/bar/ship/hallway with that cloud is a good thing.
Whether it's better or worse for current smokers is beside the point. That's their problem and they can solve it themselves. I care about my health and me remaining not influenced or even addicted to nicotine.
You're being entirely dogmatic; nicotine is hardly bad for you at all on its own. The consensus is that it probably doesn't have any role in causing cancer, although it might accelerate an existing metastasized cancer. There are some adverse effects on developing fetuses, but those are relatively minor even when the mother is smoking a pack a day.
Consuming nicotine yourself is somewhat bad for your health, and its irresponsible for a pregnant woman to smoke it because it will hurt their child. But in the doses that can be achieved through secondhand consumption are so terribly low as to be totally negligible. It's absolutely ridiculous to worry about being around someone who's vaping.
Second hand smoke is a problem not because of nicotine, its a problem because of other chemicals in smoke, and its only actually harmful if you live or work with a smoker. You have to be exposed to it constantly and live in an environment where the smoke has penetrated every porous object and seeps into your clothes and your food and your water.
And your comment about nicotine vapor being absorbed through skin is misleading, because you suggest that cigarette smoke isn't absorbed through the skin and that there's a significant amount absorbed through the skin relative to the amount inhaled. Perhaps the root of your confusion is that the nicotine/glycol liquid solution can be absorbed through the skin and spilling it on yourself is enough to get quite a high dose of nicotine if you don't quickly wash it off. Before ecigarette fluids standardized on glycol, they used other solvents which allowed faster absorption through skin, which made it realistic to give yourself lethal nicotine poisoning by spilling it on yourself.
If you want to avoid the ecig cloud for the sake of avoiding the smell, I can't disagree with you, and I'd support legislation prohibiting vaping in public indoor spaces.
Just please stop making up stupid shit. It is inconceivable that your health would be influenced by spending time in a public space with someone vaping. It would be even more absurd to conceive of developing an addiction that way.
It is certainly not absurd to not like being bombarded with a cloud of smoke or vapor, at the very least. The vast majority of people who use e-cigs follow the same etiquette as smokers, but there's always asshats in society who care about nobody but themselves.
Not sure how driving is relevant, but yes, I do on occasion drive (though usually it's the wife behind the wheel). Unfortunately I do not live in a public transit friendly or walkable city.
> nicotine is hardly bad for you at all on its own.
Incorrect. It is also used as a pesticide and is highly poisonous to humans.[0] You don't get to make that decision for me, do whatever you want in your own home but on public property cut it out with the bullshit. If you can't go a few hours with that drug maybe you need to reevaluate your life.
"In December 2002, approximately 250 lbs. of ground beef was adulterated with nicotine sulfate by a supermarket employee and subsequently sold to the public. Soon afterward, reports of illness associated with ground beef purchased at a single store were identified. Authorities suspected the ground beef was tainted with Black Leaf 40, a banned pesticide containing approximately 40% nicotine as nicotine sulfate"
Nicotine is deadly in high doses, and a "high dose" of nicotine is pretty small. If you extracted all the nicotine from an average cigarette and took it intravenously, I imagine that would be enough to kill an average person.
But the dose makes the poison and nobody consumes nicotine in such high doses, and you can't accidentally overdose through any of the ways that people intentionally consume it, because it makes you extremely nauseous before it gets dangerous.
I don't consume any nicotine containing products, though, and I have never had a nicotine addiction. That's just an assumption you jumped to.
Lots of people are opposed to WiFi and cell phone signals, so those should also be banned. Whether that is inconvenient or not or has any basis in science is beside the point, that's the problem of Wifi users to figure out. I care about my health and do not want carcinogenic waves passing through my skin. Using similar logic from this thread, I in no way have to show there is any genuine risk involved, the burden is on you to prove that there is not risk.
Wow, throwing one's legislative weight around with no concern for facts or reality is fun.
There are a lot of posts on this threat that assume nicotine is bad. "Bad" badly needs to be defined. Worse than other stimulants? If not, why not accept a choice people make to vape?
Being a bluenose is bad. It's bad for everyone's freedom of choice. It's bad because it introduces social costs for no supportable reason. Don't be a bluenose.
Lastly, this is transparently a rearguard action by cigarette makers, who have been shown to be selling a deadly product. That's really bad.
Nicotine in and of itself is a wonderful drug, far better and less harmful than caffeine. The problem is not nicotine, it's tobacco and the other things that come with it.
That may have been the intent. The million dollar a flavor fee isn't too large a hurdle for the likes of Phillip Morris, but will be ruinous for most of their competition.
No, they're the "social sharing" scores from the strip along the left hand side of the article page. If you're not very careful about how you highlight the title of the article, you'll get them too when you copy and paste. They aren't part of the title and will presumably be removed when a moderator notices.
This regulation is disingenuous and misinformed, if only because vaping solutions don't contain nicotine as a necessary component any more than bubble gum or throat lozenges do. The regulation seems to try to cover for this by including new rules for only other optional ingredients: its flavorings.
Conflating it with tobacco smoking is their basis for passing as a protection measure for children, but it bears little in common, chemically or medically, with it. When ultrasonic models appear, they'll piggyback off of existing regulation to include them, but it'll be a bankrupt argument.
They are regulating the hardware as well? What is to differentiate between an ecig battery and a flashlight battery? Are Tesla vehicles now going to be considered nicotine devices? That's absolutely ridiculous.
So as usually kill the little guy and make big corporations even richer. The same big corporations who then complain that there is "too much regulation" on CNBC.
These rules were issued by the FDA under the provisions adopted in "actual laws passed by Congress", principally the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.
I'm not entirely comfortable with Congress delegating its authority to unelected people for unlimited periods of time.
The fact is, what was perfectly legal yesterday will be illegal shortly, despite no new laws being passed, and no members of Congress taking responsibility.
Perhaps it could have been phrased more clearly: It seems like more and more [the force (and consequence to the citizen) of the government's authority] is based on "rules" issued by unelected officials, and less based on actual laws passed by [elected members of] Congress.
It's kind of sad that the only answer to this type of thing we have seen in (relatively) recent times is Reagans disastrous deregulation, nothing like Northern Securities Co. v. United States or the Sherman Anti-trust act in over 100 years (unless you count NIRA or the Robinson-Patman Act), which I don't. The FTC just approves mergers, that's the only change, one more step.
