Charlottesville Personal Injury Lawyer - cigarettes

FDA Pulls the Plug on Flavored Cigarettes

Greg Webb — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:46:30 GMT

The FDA has banned flavored cigarettes from the market as its first act since being given the authority to monitor and regulate the marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products. It is widely viewed that flavored cigarettes serve as a draw to usher teenagers into smoking, eventually leading to a regular habit with studies showing that almost one in every three teenagers who start smoking become daily smokers.

The New York times reported in its article “Flavors Banned from Cigarettes to Deter Youths” that “In 2004, 17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer.” The ban will hopefully have a butterfly effect in the number of smokers it decreases, as well as the potential millions of dollars in health care costs it may eliminate down the line.

One of the problems with the new legislation is that the law does not clearly denote what constitutes a cigarette.

The most common distinction between a cigar and a cigarette is in the way each is wrapped, with cigars being rolled in tobacco leaves and cigarettes being cased in paper. Officials have been “deliberately vague” in letting the public know whether the ban would apply to flavored small cigars and cigarillos.

In a letter to tobacco manufacturers the agency noted that the ban applied to all “cigarette-like” products, regardless of how they are packaged and/or marketed.

Part of the confusion is due to the strict deadline that the agency had to meet. It only had 90 days to put the ban on flavored cigarettes into effect.

Catherine Lorraine, a lawyer in the agency’s tobacco center, said, “We will be looking at products on an individual basis to determine if it meets that aspect of the legislation.”

For some customers, the ban has been an education on switching from flavored cigarettes to flavored small cigars. Brian M. Mulholland, general manager of Georgetown Tobacco in Washington, said customers are “making the transition.”

The ban does not include menthol cigarettes, as the new law makes specific note that menthol cigarettes are to be researched and dealt with independently. USA Today’s article “FDA: Sweet-flavored cigarettes cannot be sold” cites a study published earlier this year that found that menthol cigarettes “make smoke less harsh, so smokers can take in more nicotine and carbon monoxide per cigarette.” Jonathan Foulds, director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at the Unviersity of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health, is not surprised that the agency went after flavored cigarettes before menthol cigarettes.

Menthol cigarettes are “far bigger sellers” and would have likely lead to a “pretty major revolt from industry.”

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

Federal Concerns About Electronic Cigarettes Are Growing

Greg Webb — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:17:06 GMT

Because so little is known regarding what is in electronic cigarettes, regulators are growing more and more concerned due to the increase in popularity of the product over the past several years. Preliminary tests carried out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) show e-cigarettes, which are battery operated tubes that deliver a nicotine vapor instead of burned tobacco smoke, contain some of the dangerous carcinogens that traditional cigarettes do, but at lower levels. The samples also revealed quality-control issues with some of the products, which are marketed the exact same, having wildly variable amounts of nicotine and one of the products even having poison (diethylene glycol) in it; this indicates that regulators do not know enough about how the product is being produced. Due to the study’s findings, the FDA Commissioner has warned consumers to beware.

Since e-cigarettes, or "e-cigs", are being subject to FDA approval as a drug or medical device, they are illegal until they are cleared. Smoking Everywhere, one of the two major importers of e-cigarettes, has since sued the FDA, claiming it should not be regulated like a drug but as a tobacco product. While the company engages in this legal battle, however, its sales representatives at one point claimed the product had been approved and deemed safe by the FDA. An attorney for the company claims this misinformation has since been corrected.

Michael Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health Professor, says the FDA’s newest consumer warning is misleading because the agency found very low levels of carcinogens in e-cigarettes. Siegel claims these levels were comparable to what is present in nicotine-replacement products, which are currently on the market. He also states the levels of carcinogens in the e-cigarettes are about 1,400 times lower than in Marlboros. The FDA deputy commissioner, however, says it is premature to claim e-cigarettes are safe until regulators know what is in them. If the product is meant to help some Americans stop smoking, it is the manufacturers obligation to present that data to the FDA.

Many anti-smoking advocates are putting pressure on the FDA to officially ban e-cigarettes from the U.S. They claim these and similar products should be taken off the market because the lack of testing to determine the hazardous ingredients in the product would lead to smokers becoming guinea pigs. The public health community is also split over the issue regarding whether to advocate smokers switch to a less harmful product even if they are not completely safe. Though the government has blocked the product from the border, it has not shut down domestic retailers. This means consumers can find the $40 to $100 e-cigarette starter kit in mall kiosks, travel centers and online. So far, the e-cigarettes have also been banned in Canada, Australia, Mexico and Israel.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

FDA Study Identifies Toxins in Electronic Cigarettes

Greg Webb — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:42:28 GMT

According to a preliminary analysis by the FDA, electronic cigarettes contain traces of carcinogens and toxins. These findings contradict electronic cigarette manufacturers’ statements that their products are a safe alternative to tobacco. Manufacturers claim that the battery-powered cigarettes contain nothing more than water vapor, nicotine, and propylene glycol, which is used to create artificial smoke. When heated, the liquid produces a vapor that users inhale.

The FDA analyzed 19 varieties of the cartridges that hold the liquid and two types of cigarettes made by NJoy and Smoking Everywhere. It found that several cartridges contained nitrosamines, tobacco-specific compounds known to cause cancer, and one cartridge from Smoking Everywhere contained diethlyene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal commissioner, reports concerns because, while the FDA knows what’s in the cigarettes, it doesn’t know how those ingredients affect the body when inhaled through electronic cigarettes.

The Electronic Cigarette Association said in a statement that the FDA’s testing was too narrow to be reliable and that its members only sell and market their product to adults. CEO of NJoy Jack Ledbetter said a third party had tested its products and pronounced them an appropriate alternative to cigarettes, but he did not release those findings. He said experts would review both NJoy’s tests and the FDA’s.

Dr. Sharfstein said that electronic cigarettes are manufactured in China and subject to little quality control, adding that the study found nicotine levels to vary in cartridges who claimed to have a standard amount and found the drug in cartridges who claimed to be nicotine-free.

The FDA has called the cigarettes electronic drug delivery devices, turning away approximately 50 shipments of them at the border. It would not comment on whether it planned to ban electronic cigarettes, but public health officials are worried that the cherry and bubblegum flavors are enticing to children and may be easy for minors to obtain. Smoking Everywhere filed a lawsuit against the FDA in April, claiming that it did not have jurisdiction to bar electronic cigarettes from entering the U.S.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb