Can E-Cigarettes Cure America’s $90 Billion Smoking Problem?

By Morgan Korn | Daily Ticker – 37 minutes ago

It took 30 years for Peter Denholtz to give up smoking. But his nicotine addiction has been much harder to kick. “I’d be jonesing,” Denholtz admits when asked what would happen if he avoided the highly addictive chemical for 24 hours. Denholtz still carries a cigarette with him — an electronic one, that is. E-cigarettes, as they’re commonly referred to, are battery-operated devices that deliver hits of nicotine to the user when the liquid inside is heated and vaporized. E-cigs are becoming increasingly popular with former smokers and celebrities who are being paid to endorse the products on national television. But do not call an e-cigarette user a “smoker” unless you’re looking for trouble.

“We don’t smoke,” says Talia Eisenberg, correcting a reporter’s observation. “We vape.”

Eisenberg, Denholtz and Denholtz’s brother Jon know a lot about vaping and the e-cigarette lifestyle. They opened the Henley Vaporium, New York City’s first e-cigarette bar, on Cleveland Place in Soho this month. There will soon be another location in Union Square and with a third outpost planned for the first half of 2014. If all goes well a Henley vaporium could soon be coming to a city near you.

“We’re a place for people to come and learn about electronic cigarettes and vaping,” Peter tells The Daily Ticker. “Our goal is to get people to understand there’s an alternative to getting nicotine without the chemicals, without the tar, without the things that are causing cancer.”

The 2,700 square foot store has the look and feel of a traditional bar, except that cold-pressed organic juices are served instead of alcohol and customers vie for the attention of the “vapologist” behind the bar. These “vapologists” not only pour the liquid nicotine of choice into individual e-cigarette devices (Gummy bear flavor anyone?) but they’re also trained to answer questions relating to e-cigarettes. (only Henley brand products are offered at the Vaporium).

E-cigarettes are made up of three parts: a rechargeable battery, an atomizer – responsible for heating the liquid – and a clearomizer, the part that holds the liquid. Eisenberg compares the e-cigarette business to the razor blade industry model: the actual e-cig device lasts forever but the liquid nicotine (the “blade”) needs to be bought regularly. One 10 milliliter bottle of liquid nicotine lasts the equivalent of three to four packs of traditional cigarettes and retails for $10 to $15 a bottle at the vaporium. Varying strengths of nicotine — from 0 milligrams to 24 milligrams – are available. Individuals usually spend at least $70 at their first vaporium visit and $20 thereafter (no vapologist tipping required).

Sales of e-cigarettes are expected to surpass $1 billion this year and analysts at Wells Fargo predict sales will top $10 billion in five years.

Nearly 21% of U.S. adult smokers (an estimated 45 million people) had also tried e-cigarettes according to a 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 6% of all U.S. adults have used an e-cigarette at least once. The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association estimates that nearly 4 million Americans use battery-powered cigarettes. The e-cigarette trend also extends to minors. A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of U.S. middle and high school students who “vape” doubled between 2011 and 2012. More than 1.7 million teens have admitted to trying e-cigarettes. More than two dozen states ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

The Food and Drug Administration does not currently regulate electronic cigarettes but is under pressure to include e-cigarettes as part of the $90 billion U.S. tobacco market. An announcement could be made as soon as next week on whether the government agency will impose regulations on e-cigarette advertising, ingredients and sales to minors. Forty attorneys general wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg in September urging the agency to consider “immediate regulatory oversight” of e-cigarettes because they “are appealing to youth” and there are no standards “ensuring the safety of the ingredients.”

“E-cigarettes are not being marketed as smoking cessation devices, but rather as recreational alternatives to real cigarettes,” according to the Sept. 25 letter. “Consumers are led to believe that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to cigarettes despite the fact that they are addictive.”

Denholtz disagrees.

“There is a lot of evidence that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking,” he says adamantly. “There are studies at Boston University, Johns Hopkins University and two Italian universities that say there’s been no better way for people to stop smoking. When you compare it to patches or lozenges or nicotine gum, they all fall very short compared to electronic cigarettes.”

A study published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, backs up Denholtz’s claims. Researchers found that e-cigarettes were just as effective in helping people quit smoking as traditional nicotine-replacement therapies.

“While our results don’t show any clear-cut differences…in terms of quit success after six months, it certainly seems that e-cigarettes were more effective in helping smokers who didn’t quit to cut down,” said lead researcher Chris Bullen.

E-cigarettes may help smokers wean themselves off traditional smokes but are e-cigarettes healthier?

“You do not have the things that are in a traditional cigarette that cause lung cancer,” argues Denholtz. “We can debate nicotine all day long. “Propylene glycol [an ingredient used in liquid nicotine] is used in asthma inhalers, it’s used as a food additive, it’s non-cariogenic at the levels it’s being used. It’s a lot healthier than something that’s causing almost half a million deaths in the U.S. and causing our health care industry just about $200 billion a year.”

In 2009 the FDA warned that there were health risks associated with e-cigarettes. The FDA analyzed two leading brands of e-cigarettes in 2009 and found trace amounts of nine contaminates, including the toxic chemical diethylene glycol, which is found in anti-freeze.

“As for long-term effects, we don’t know what happens when you breathe the vapor into the lungs regularly,” American Cancer Society’s Thomas Glynn told ABC News. “We also don’t know how harmful trace levels can be.”

For Denholtz, making the switch to electronic cigarettes has improved his health and given him more energy.

“There’s a huge difference in the way that I feel,” he maintains. “And I attribute that to not smoking traditional cigarettes.”

Can E-Cigarettes Cure America’s $90 Billion Smoking Problem?

Trouble is Brewing in the Electronic Cigarette Sector

By Rupert Hargreaves October 29, 2013 The Motley Fool

Competition in the e-cig market is heating up. Both Altria (NYSE: MO  ) and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI  )  are set to join the electronic cigarette, or e-cig, market later this year or early next year. Lorillard (NYSE: LO  )  already has its own brand of e-cig called blu, and the company has used its first mover advantage to snap up a 49% share of the retail electronic cigarettes market.

What’s more, the domestic e-cig market as a whole is expected to be worth a total of $1.7 billion this year. This is double what it was worth in 2012. Indeed, if growth like this is set to continue then there might be room for all companies to have their own share.

However, the Food and Drug Administration will decide this month if it will lump e-cigs in with conventional cigarettes when it comes to regulation and taxes. Obviously, this would slow growth within the market, but there would still be plenty of room for expansion .

The rapidly growing e-cig market is already showing some signs of maturing. According to thisForbes article, while there are over 300 e-cig companies, the top three have 85% of the market. This is set to change as the big fish like Altria, Reynolds and UK-based British American Tobacco enter the fray, which is set to happen during the next few months.

Early mover

Still, Lorillard’s early movement into the market has helped the company surge forward. As I have already mentioned, the company’s blu e-cig brand has captured a large share of the domestic market and produced income of $9 million, or $0.02 per share, for the company during the first nine months of the year. However, it would appear that after this performance growth from Lorillard’s e-cig division is going to slow down over the next few years.

Running into trouble
In particular, Lorillard’s venture into the e-cig market is already showing some strain. For example, looking through the respective earnings reports, we can see that Lorillard’s e-cig gross margin has declined from 37%,  reported during the first quarter of this year, to 32 % during the second quarter, and finally 24%  during the third quarter.

What’s more, Lorillard’s operating income and margin from its e-cig segment have declined from $7 million and 12%, respectively, in the first quarter of this year to 0 during the third quarter. That’s right, Lorillard made no profit from its e-cig sales in the third quarter.

The reason for this? Well, the company rolled out a new, cheaper e-cig product and expanded its offering into an additional 127,000 stores, which damaged the gross margin. In addition, the company’s marketing spend increased as it tried to beat competitors.

Far from being a short term effect, it seems as if higher marketing spending is going to become the norm as more competitors enter the e-cig market.

Here comes the cavalry
That said, Lorillard is only trying to compete with smaller peers. The impending entry of tobacco industry behemoth Altria into the e-cig market could change all of that. Indeed, this comment from Wells Fargo Securities researcher Bonnie Herzog sums up Altria’s entry into the market. “Altria has the ability to leverage its war chest of cash, its sizable infrastructure, its deep understanding of the tobacco consumer, and its entrenched position at retail.”

Elsewhere, Reynolds is also claiming that its new electronic cigarette, Vuse, will be a “game changer.”

There has also been some concern among smaller e-cig companies that the entrance of big tobacco could spur big tobacco to use aggressive marketing tactics. This could include telling suppliers that they cannot stock the respective brand’s cigarettes unless they carry its e-cigs. .

Foolish summary
Over the next few quarters a number of new e-cig products are going to come to the market. With more products hitting the market, price-wars are likely to take hold. This will hit margins and force companies to spend more on promotion.

Unfortunately, in this situation a big tobacco company such as Altria is likely to come out on top as it uses its deep pockets and experience in the sector to grab customers’ attention.

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Trouble is Brewing in the Electronic Cigarette Sector

Electronic cigarettes: will they make life insurance cheaper?

By Richard Dyson – The Telegraph – 8:05AM GMT 29 Oct 2013 –

The wave of smokers switching from tobacco to arguably safer ‘e-cigarettes’ raises questions about the pricing of insurance and annuities

A 10-a-day smoker who quits tobacco-filled cigarettes and switches to “electronic” versions already stands to save more than £1,000 a year.

But they might also qualify for a 40pc reduction in life and health insurance premiums – if the wider industry follows the example of one insurer and agrees to treat “e-cig” users as “non-smokers”.

The rapid take-up of electronic cigarettes, which are tobacco-free and involve inhaling small quantities of vaporised nicotine, has taken governments and health authorities by surprise. There are already more than a million users in Britain. Many shops, including supermarkets, stock the devices. But the trend has not been properly addressed by the insurance industry – even though smoking remains one of the biggest factors in determining the price of cover.

A specialist insurance broker has focused attention on the matter by successfully arranging life cover, at non-smoking rates, for a number of clients who use only e-cigarettes. The insurer involved, which is one of Britain’s biggest, was made aware of their e-cig habit.

The broker, Harvey Sutton of Manchester-based Suttons Independent Financial Advisers, said: “All insurers ask questions about tobacco use and many, but not all, ask specific questions about nicotine. We sought situations where e-cig users could honestly answer questions relating to their use of tobacco products. Electronic cigarettes are not tobacco products. We spoke to the underwriters in question: we are not doing this without underwriters’ knowledge.”

Although Mr Sutton successfully obtained policies for a number of clients, by the end of last week doubts had emerged as to whether much more cover would be provided on the same basis. This is because reinsurers – who underwrite the insurers – have not resolved their position on the issue.

The Association of British Insurers said there remained “a lack of medical evidence as to any long-term health benefits” and added: “An insurer is increasingly likely to ask if the proposer is using nicotine products, as opposed to what is the weekly tobacco consumption.”

Lack of evidence of e-cigs’ impact on health is hampering other authorities’ decision on how the products should be regulated, taxed and sold. But Mr Sutton said insurers should address the issue now. “Lifestyles change – the insurers are simply behind the times.”

If, as many believe, e-cigs are shown to pose less or no harm, the impact on insurance and other longevity-related financial products, such as annuities, could be far-reaching.

Nigel Barlow of specialist annuity provider Partnership said: “This is a very new market indeed. While e-cigs appear to cut down on some of the hazards associated with smoking, there are some questions as to the chemicals. While we do not at the moment take into account use of e‑cigarettes when we quote for an annuity, this may well change in future.”

Insurers are increasingly prone to ask about smoking and other harmful behaviour, often following up applications with tests. If e-cigs were to be proved significantly safer, this would have to change. A 40-year-old seeking life cover worth more than £500,000 would probably now be given a test for nicotine use, which would not distinguish between smoking and e-cig use.

Major tobacco firms’ rollout of e-cig products is likely to accelerate take-up. BAT, Britain’s biggest tobacco firm, estimates that 11million people use e-cigarettes across the world’s major smoking nations. BAT’s own e-cig, Vype, was launched earlier this year and now sells in Sainsbury’s, among other outlets. Imperial Tobacco, BAT’s main rival, will launch an e-cig next year.

^{The ‘Vype’ e-cigarette from British American Tobacco, now on sale in supermarkets}

Dave Levin, joint founder of VIP, a British e-cig manufacturer not linked to the tobacco industry, said: “We launched our first e-cigarettes in late 2008 and now have a turnover of £18m and about 50,000 regular customers. Insurers and other industries are a couple of years behind the times.”

One issue, though, is whether e-cig users still smoke ordinary cigarettes. Professor Robert West of UCL, an authority on smoking, found in recent research that more than 80pc of e-cig users were also smokers.

Electronic cigarettes: will they make life insurance cheaper?

Marketing the cure: electronic cigarettes can defeat addiction

October 25, 2013  Examiner.com -

Glamorized cigarette usage within the entertainment industry seems to send young people the message that it’s okay to barbarically kill one’s self with nicotine, and to even be hooked on substances of higher toxicity. You can search statistics or use famous people as a gauge if you’d like, but the stories are all the same: cigarettes will eventually become an enigma which we, as molecular beings, cannot shake.

Thanks to electronic cigarettes, we can smoke like Navajo chiefs, yet without death being an imminent result. Breaking the addiction cycle isn’t easy: e-cigs definitely make the transformation back to good health much cheaper than other forms of therapy or hospitalization, however.

Addictions are Expensive…

The law of demand proves that price relationship is very real, and a prime example of this involves the tobacco industry. If you really like smoking Marlboro Lights, or perhaps Camel Non-Filters, and the price of then shoots downward, you can now either buy cartons instead of packs at one time, or you can buy single packs more frequently. Price adjustment controls habits, as do special purchases.

Electronic cigarettes remain steadily priced, easy to obtain and don’t come with warnings of death. You’re literally smoking vapors, people – how much easier to quit smoking can manufacturers make it?

Addictions are Gateways

Gambling, alcohol, adult movies, excessive gaming… bored and lonely people are addicted to something. We screen, and choose, our addictive experiences according to our beliefs, focusing on what our beliefs tell us is important and ignoring or glossing over the rest. We tend to filter the world for information that supports our belief system; conversely, addictions filter in that which contradicts what we really despise. Nicotine, filled with lots of yummy chemicals that would kill instantly if administered separately, is the gateway to wanting ‘more’.

Electronic cigarettes sustain that much needed mental signal which tells your brain you’re, in fact, receiving something pleasurable. These technological ingenuities don’t cause further addictions, either.

Addiction is Instant Hospitalization

Pain sufferers have their own theories when it comes to handling discomfort. Some might swear by a peculiar cocktail for curing hangovers, while others might profess their reliance on a remedy passed down from their relatives to get rid of back pain. Most believe cigarettes take localized pains away…

It is not surprising that the electronic cigarette has taken the world by storm as an alternative to tobacco cigarette – and as an object which predicates pain relief. These devices, also offered by Ego Cigs offer convenience, save money, and at the same time, when people buy electronic cigarettes, they offer a similar experience to traditional cigarettes, without the odor, inconvenience and health concerns of smoke.

In Closing: Choose Wisely

Cigarette addictions don’t come with reversal manuals. If you went to an addiction clinic, they would ask you to become abstinent immediately, meaning zero nicotine. With electronic cigarettes, you can become the quitter you wanted to be, yet more innocuously than other drug-induced methods. Expensiveness, ineffective pain management and no future gateways are perhaps the most common reasons electronic cigarettes have become the go-to target for smokers prepared to rob the Reaper of their addictive souls.

Marketing the cure: electronic cigarettes can defeat addiction

E-cigarette industry lobbies to avoid regulation as tobacco product

By Stuart PfeiferOctober 24, 2013, 12:29 p.m. Los Angeles Times

They have the shape, feel and nicotine of tobacco cigarettes, but e-cigarettes should not be regulated like tobacco products, makers of the popular new product say.

The Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Assn., an industry group, is lobbying to avoid Food and Drug Administrationregulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

“This is a critical time for … the e-cig industry at large,” said Cynthia Cabrera, the trade group’s executive director. “While our industry understands reasonable and appropriate regulation is needed, it is vital our young industry not be grouped with combustible cigarettes as federal guidelines are developed for these products. Excessive regulation could limit adult access to e-cigs and stifle growth and innovation in the segment.”

Members of the trade organization said they are traveling to Washington on Nov. 4 to urge members of Congress to not classify the devices as tobacco products.

Last month, attorneys general from 40 states urged the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, noting the cigarette alternatives contain highly addictive nicotine and, unlike cigarettes, can be advertised and sold to children.

“People, especially kids, are being led to believe that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative, but they are highly addictive and can deliver strong doses of nicotine,” Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley said. “We urge the FDA to act quickly to ensure that these products are regulated to protect the public, and are no longer advertised or sold to youth.”

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E-cigarettes are plastic or metal devices, shaped like oversized cigarettes, that use batteries to heat nicotine oil and create a vapor that users inhale. They provide nicotine without inhaling the smoke of burning tobacco.

The products have become so popular that some tobacco companies have been acquiring e-cigarette manufacturers as a way of getting into the business.

The Centers for Disease Control reported recently that e-cigarette use by middle and high school students doubled from 2011 to 2012. The trade group has scoffed at that report, noting that it was based on the number of students who tried the product, not those that regularly used them.

Further, the group said, studies have found that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes, the health risks of which are widely known.

“There is no evidence of which we are aware which would suggest that the risk/safety profile of e-cigarettes is in any way comparable to that of tobacco products,” Todd A. Harrison, an attorney for the trade group, said in an Oct. 17 letter to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

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E-cigarette industry lobbies to avoid regulation as tobacco product

World's most expensive e-cigarette covered in 246 diamonds is created for girlfriend of Russian oligarch

It is the ultimate bling birthday present for a wealthy Russian billionaire’s girlfriend who has everything but wants to give up smoking – at a cost of more than half a million pounds.

The £550,000 diamond encrusted custom-made electronic vaping machine was manufactured on the personal order of an anonymous London-based Russian oil magnate.

The masterpiece – which took four and a half months to create – is laden with 246 flawless two-carat clear crystal diamonds each worth £1,800.

One source said: ‘It is lined with 46 yellow Swarovski crystals and has a six-carat oval diamond worth £46,000 on the tip.’

It also features ‘authentic hand blown Italian glass from the Venetian island of Murano’ and is finished with 24-carat gold button and clearomizer base.

The creation is a tsar among the new trend of custom-made electronic vaping devices – even if it seems to come straight out of the TV show Meet the Russians.

It even has its own name – ‘Shisha Sticks Sofia’. It is not known if this is a clue about the identify of the owner who received it as a birthday gift from her tycoon boyfriend. He is keen to remain anonymous.

Anthony Mixides from makers Shisha Sticks said: ‘This was a dream brief for us. 

‘We were asked to design the ultimate shisha vaping device for class, style and luxury.

‘We were told that, within reason, money was no object on the project.

‘Once the design was approved we set about sourcing the finest diamonds, yellow crystals, glass and gold available.

‘It took over four months to design, but this is without doubt the finest shisha stick ever produced.’

The billionaire demanded ‘nothing but the very best’, added a source.

As a guessing game got underway as to the identities of the benefactor, it appeared the best-known Russian tycoon, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, was ruled out since he is not British-based.

Shisha Sticks is a UK company supplying electronic shisha vaping devices claiming to “provide the finest and ultimate smoking experience without any of the harmful toxins”.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2470632/Diamond-covered-e-cigarette-created-Russian-oligarchs-girlfriend.html

World's most expensive e-cigarette covered in 246 diamonds is created for girlfriend of Russian oligarch

The Lunatic War on E-cigarettes

By Jacob Sullum  October 23, 2013 | 2:07am

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Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Sales of electronic cigarettes have risen dramatically in recent years. Whether you see that development as an opportunity or a threat depends on whether you view the matter rationally or through a fog of prejudice that makes anything resembling a cigarette look sinister, regardless of the risks it actually poses.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to propose regulations for e-cigarettes by the end of this month. If unreasoning fear carries the day, those regulations will restrict information about and access to a potentially lifesaving product, thereby increasing smoking-related illness and death in the name of public health and consumer protection.

A few years ago, ignoring that danger, the FDA sought to ban e-cigarettes as unapproved pharmaceutical products. After that effort was blocked by a federal judge and an appeals court, the agency announced that it would instead regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products.

That approach was blessed by the courts, which noted that the nicotine in e-cigarettes is derived from tobacco. But the “tobacco product” label does not really fit either, because e-cigarettes do not contain any tobacco, delivering nicotine in a propylene glycol vapor instead of burning dried vegetable matter.

That difference is crucial for smokers contemplating a switch to vaping, because it means they can avoid the myriad toxins and carcinogens generated by tobacco combustion, thereby dramatically reducing the health hazards they face. There is no serious scientific dispute on this point, although people who should know better often pretend otherwise.

For instance, Maria Azzarelli, coordinator of the Southern Nevada Health District’s tobacco control program, recently told the Las Vegas Sun that “no one can say right now whether e-cigarettes are a healthier alternative to cigarettes.” Really? No one can say whether inhaling vapor containing nicotine, flavoring and propylene glycol, which the FDA has approved as an ingredient in food and medicine, is safer than inhaling smoke?

Even the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently cited increased consumption of e-cigarettes while urging the FDA to regulate them, concedes that “e-cigarettes appear to have far fewer of the toxins found in smoke compared to traditional cigarettes.” Boston University public-health professor Michael Siegel, who supports vaping as a harm-reducing alternative to smoking, notes that “we actually have a much better idea what is in electronic cigarette vapor than what is in tobacco smoke.”

So why the strange resistance to e-cigarettes, which contain no tobacco and generate no smoke, among people concerned about the health hazards of tobacco and smoking? Like other activists and some politicians, Azzarelli claims to be worried that e-cigarettes will make the conventional variety seem glamorous again. “We’re very concerned that what [was] becoming passé — smoking — is now coming back,” she says.

In other words, Azzarelli and her fellow activists worry that a product whose main selling point is avoiding the scary hazards and offensive stench of smoking somehow will make smoking more appealing. That fear seems implausible, to say the least, and there is no evidence to support it.

E-cigarette alarmists like to cite CDC survey data indicating that “e-cigarette use among students doubled in the last year,” as 40 state attorneys general noted last month in a letter to the FDA. But that increase was in the number of students reporting any use in the previous month, which may reflect nothing more than experimentation.

The survey provides no evidence that such experimentation leads to smoking. To the contrary, as Siegel points out, nine out of 10 teenagers who tried e-cigarettes were already smokers, meaning the trend that the attorneys general consider a public-health emergency may instead portend successful harm reduction. Likewise with adults: Survey data indicate that e-cigarette use is overwhelmingly concentrated about current and former smokers.

It’s in the shift from the former category to the latter that the disease-reducing potential of e-cigarettes lies. Impeding that transition by imposing arbitrary restrictions on e-cigarette advertising, sales and flavors would be a literally fatal error.

The Lunatic War on E-cigarettes

E-cigarettes present a (non) burning question of safety

By Don Sapatkin, Inquirer Staff Writer

After 20 years of cigarettes, things started adding up for Abhi Nath: The smoke burn. Future health concerns. “The whole ick factor.” Then his employer added a $50 health insurance surcharge. “And I was dating a girl and she hated cigarettes. So I started e-cigarettes.”

Three months on, Nath, 38, of Old City, gets looks of curiosity, not disgust. He feels and smells better. He plans to gradually reduce the nicotine level (there’s no tar or ash) – and to enjoy doing it.

“The only thing about e-cigarettes is there is no regulation of the content. How do you measure the claim that it is 5 percent nicotine?” Nath said. “That is the one very, very scary part about it.”

In just a few years, “vaping” – e-cigarettes produce vapor, not smoke – has upended the market.

A stigmatized habit is suddenly cool again. A burning stick has become a high-tech gadget (one product vibrates when it senses another nearby, a sure conversation-starter). Falling cigarette sales are balanced by big growth in electronics.

The most deadly behavior in the United States might morph into a lifesaver. Or a product with an unknown safety profile might lure more smokers. The e-cig has divided a public health community whose reliance on carefully collected scientific evidence is no match for a fast-moving new technology backed by some of the world’s slickest marketers.

Which is why so much is riding on a Food and Drug Administration decision expected soon on whether and how to regulate e-cigarettes.

Some states have stepped in. New Jersey bans sales to people 19 and under, and the use of e-cigs in indoor work and public spaces. In Pennsylvania, anyone of any age can buy and use them anywhere.

E-cigarettes don’t burn and don’t produce tobacco smoke, which contains dozens of known carcinogens. Instead, electric current from a battery heats a liquid containing nicotine. The resulting vapor is inhaled, mimicking the feel (and look) of tobacco smoke with what more closely resembles steam. Nicotine – the ingredient that causes addiction but that is not necessarily harmful – provides the kick.

Although research is ongoing, it seems likely that vaping will prove safer than smoking, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates leads to more than 440,000 deaths per year.

That alone supports a public health point of view – embraced by the industry and cited by every vaper in this article – known in the field as harm reduction. It’s the philosophy behind methadone maintenance for people addicted to heroin. It prevents deaths by accepting the lesser of two evils.

Danny McGoldrick takes the other view.

“We need to look beyond that very narrow question of ‘Are they less harmful than cigarettes?’ ” said McGoldrick, vice president of research for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Former smokers might be brought back, he said. Sponsoring sporting events and marketing flavors like bubble gum – both prohibited for regular cigarettes – might lure youngsters who would not have smoked.

“It all comes down to, are these going to be used to decrease smoking or to increase smoking?”

Anyone who has tried to quit would be hard-pressed to recognize that experience at Ecigs International, a new e-cigarette store and vapor lounge on Green Lane in Roxborough. A handful of customers sit around blowing “clouds” and talking about the merits of different products.

Most people there started with more basic disposables, the products that look like an oversize cigarette, battery included, provide puffs equal to about a half-dozen regular cigarettes, and cost $7 to $12 in convenience stores. Now they favor rechargeables, which come with external chargers and which can be customized with a range of atomizers – the heating element that turns nicotine liquid into vapor – and varieties of the “e-juice” that feeds them; the store mixes 150 to 200 flavors with a range of nicotine contents.

“I had open-heart surgery 13 years ago and a heart attack three years ago,” said Robin Patterson, 48, who drives from her home in Allentown, N.J., east of Trenton, for supplies. She was unable to quit smoking until July, she said, when her brother suggested an e-cigarette.

She gets the same “throat hit” as with regular cigarettes, and the electronic varieties offer the same “oral fixation.”

She showed off her new black chrome Vamo V3, a complete $110 kit that she supplemented with a $22 Kangertech Protank II atomizer that holds more e-juice, of which she bought two bottles, guava and spearmint, each with 24mg of nicotine. Total cost: $149. The e-juice will last a month and a half; the rest, in theory, could work for years. Yet the total cost equals two weeks of her old 11/2-pack-a-day Virginia Slims habit.

She has set a personal goal of reaching zero nicotine level within a year by buying liquids with lower content every four months. Meanwhile, she vapes wherever she wants – home, the car, at work as a corporate relocation manager, even once flying from Newark to Chicago.

“I don’t cough anymore,” Patterson said. “The blessing is that I don’t smell like an ashtray anymore.”

E-cigarettes make up just one percent to two percent of $90 billion in tobacco sales. But an August report by Goldman Sachs predicted a rise to 20 percent by the end of the decade. Another top analyst projected last month that e-cigarette revenue would exceed that from cigarettes by 2021 for Reynolds American Inc., which sells both.

The three big tobacco companies recently created or bought e-cigarette brands, among them Lorillard Inc.’s blu eCigs, the market leader, along with privately held NJOY.

The original e-cigarettes were bulky rechargeables. NJOY, founded in 2006, introduced the first disposable two years ago, instantly changing the market. NJOY set the stage for the current regulatory vacuum when it successfully sued to stop the FDA’s plan to classify e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices.

The agency now plans to regulate e-cigarettes under the 2009 law that authorized it to oversee tobacco. It cannot ban them, as Japan, Brazil, and Mexico have. It can regulate e-cigarettes marketed as cessation tools, requiring evidence from clinical trials. And it could approve messages that they are less harmful than cigarettes, but only if manufacturers submit evidence of a net benefit to public health.

Observers expect some version of tobacco rules, which allow the FDA to test safety, restrict sales to minors – and, in the case of regular cigarettes, limit self-service displays and the sports and entertainment sponsorships known to increase sales.

Marketing limits would be too much for Craig Weiss, CEO of NJOY, who said he supports “reasonable regulation.” But given the death toll from tobacco – “basically a 9/11 every three days,” he said – “I don’t want them to restrict our ability to advertise our product.”

Many longtime tobacco researchers are pressing for restrictions, hoping to prevent a new generation from getting hooked before evidence proves e-cigarettes are safe.

Some have found harmful ingredients. Perceptions that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit far outstrip the evidence, they say.

No one knows how they will be used in the long term.

“There may be people who use this exclusively for their [entire] life and we need to know how it will affect them,” said Andrew Strasser, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who is enrolling cigarette smokers in a study to see how they respond to e-cigarettes. “Others may use it for a short time,” he said. Still others may add e-cigarettes to an existing cigarette habit.

His conclusion: “More evaluation needs to be done before you make a decision either way.”

---

dsapatkin@phillynews.com 

E-cigarettes present a (non) burning question of safety

Healthy Markups on E-Cigarettes Turn Vacant Storefronts Into 'Vape Shops'

By Karen E. Klein October 03, 2013 Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Across the country, small storefronts shuttered during the recession are reopening. The new occupants aren’t coffee shops or dry cleaners: They’re small retailers catering to the fast-growing electronic cigarette market. Known as “vape shops,” because e-cigarettes dispense vaporized nicotine rather than tobacco smoke, their products provide “a great business for us with excellent margins,” says Sam Bahhur, who in June expanded his 10-employee U Smoke Shop in Miami, adding a second location in Coral Gables dedicated solely to e-cigs.

While he can mark up traditional cigarettes by 10 percent to 20 percent, the numbers jump to 200 percent to 400 percent on e-cigarette dispensers, nicotine cartridges, and accessories, he says. Bahhur expects to bring in $1.3 million in revenue this year from the two stores. Vaping, he says, is “cost-effective for our customers.”

There are more than 3,500 independent vape shops around the country, according to Aaron LoCascio, chief executive officer of Vape World, a distributor based in Boca Raton, Fla. E-cigs’ manufacture and sale are not regulated or taxed in most states, making them more profitable than tobacco products. While a 2009 U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on sales of the devices was overturned by a federal court in 2010, industry groups the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association and the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association expect the FDA to propose regulations on the devices as early as this month. Those regulations could lead to taxes on manufacturing and sales.

Some regulations, including a potential ban on Internet sales, could help brick-and-mortars. The TVECA estimates that physical stores will sell more than $1 billion in vaping equipment and products this year. If online sales—estimated at about $500 million in 2013—move offline next year, many of those independent retailers could benefit, the group says.

Most vape shops are independent ventures put together by owners of traditional tobacco stores and small groups of investors, such as self-employed marketing consultant James Ting and five business partners, most of whom are smokers. So far, they’ve come up with $90,000 and plan to open Ja’Vape in about a week in El Monte, Calif., near Los Angeles.

A neighboring town “already has 10 or 11 vape shops that have popped up within the last three months,” Ting says. “That’s how crazy this market is now—the demand is so high.” He and his fellow investors have refitted a 1,500-square-foot video store that went out of business a few years ago. No special licenses or permits were required for the store, and the city had no apparent concerns about it, Ting says. The partners are waiting on inventory and store furnishings to arrive before they can open Ja’Vape.

Electronic cigarettes remain controversial, and their health effects are still being studied. Proponents tout them as a safer, cleaner alternative than inhaling tobacco smoke’s hazardous chemicals and an effective way to quit cigarettes. Because they supply nicotine and mimic the physical act of smoking, e-cigs are psychologically satisfying in a way that nicotine gum or patches aren’t, they say.

Opponents worry that because e-cig cartridges are unregulated, there’s no quality control on what goes into the mix of nicotine, propylene glycol, and flavorings that are included in them. There are also concerns that e-cigs’ sweet flavors, such as cherry and bubble gum, may get teens who wouldn’t have started smoking hooked on vaping, and also that these new products may make the use of nicotine glamorous in a way it hasn’t been for decades.

The large tobacco corporations have latched on to the disruptive technology in recent years, buying established e-cigarette brands or starting their own. Reynolds American (RAI) estimates electronic products account for about 1 percent of U.S. cigarette sales and projects e-cig revenue will reach $3 billion within five years.Other forecasts show e-cig sales reaching more than $10 billion by 2017.

Collin Spencer is hoping for a slice of that market. His two OG Smoke Shops in Los Angeles County will bring in combined revenues of $750,000 this year; he’d like to top $1 million in 2014 and predicts a quarter of that will come from vaping customers. He says about half of those customers smoke traditional cigarettes and are looking for ways to stop smoking or to at least cut back. The rest are just curious or have smoked hookahs as a social experience and “want some of the same effects in a portable fashion,” Spencer says.

Vaping attracts a lot of young people, he says, though he has banned customers under 18 from his stores, which employ seven. “There is a non-nicotine option, so if people don’t smoke, there’s a flavored propylene vapor they could use,” he says.

Healthy Markups on E-Cigarettes Turn Vacant Storefronts Into 'Vape Shops'

Vapers’ Plea: Don’t Outlaw E-Cigarettes in Evanston

Many people spoke up against a proposed city ban on smoking e-cigarettes in places where you can’t smoke tobacco.

Posted by Jennifer Fisher (Editor) , October 15, 2013 at 12:28 PM

If his father had switched from regular cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, he might still be alive today, Evanston resident James Gottschalk told city council members Monday.

Along with other supporters and users of e-cigarettes, Gottschalk spoke up Monday night against proposed restrictions on smoking e-cigarettes, or “vaping.” City council members are considering amending the Evanston ordinance on tobacco to include electronic cigarettes and prohibit their use in all places where other types of smoking are banned.

Only a handful of other municipalities in the U.S. have passed such legislation, and few if any in Illinois, although many cities are considering passing similar ordinances to the one on the table in Evanston. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has said it will issue proposed regulations on the sale, advertising and ingredients of electronic cigarettes by the end of October.

“It is pre-emptive,” said Gottschalk, whose father died of complications from emphysema and long-term smoking last year. “For us to restrict other individuals from having access to a product like that is very wrong.”

While the ordinance amending the city’s tobacco code was scheduled for a vote Monday night, city manager Wally Bobkiewicz told council members that the ordinance was not complete, and asked them to hold off on voting for two weeks.

If passed, the ordinance would also limit sale of electronic cigarettes to minors under the age of 18. Gottschalk and other supporters of electronic cigarettes said they would support a ban on sales to minors.

Speaking on behalf of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives (CASAA), Lincolnwood resident Michael Cozzi explained that the proposed ordinance would force ex-tobacco smokers to “vape” in the same places where other tobacco users smoke. Practically speaking, that means they would be exposed to the smoke they were trying to avoid by quitting regular cigarettes and switching to e-cigarettes.

Cozzi said he had smoked tobacco from the age of 14 until he smoked his last cigarette on June 5, 2010. Electronic cigarettes are motivating for tobacco smokers who want to quit, he said, in part because they do not produce smoke and also because they are allowed in more places than traditional cigarettes.

“If you relegate electronic cigarettes to the same classification as tobacco cigarettes…you’re taking away the motivation of people who want to get off tobacco,” Cozzi said.

He and other supporters also told council members that they believe electronic cigarettes are significantly healthier than tobacco cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat up a liquid solution, vaporizing the material and delivering nicotine to the user in a water-based mist, according to CASAA. They may look like traditional cigarettes, pens or small flashlights.

Traditional cigarettes cause cancer because of the chemicals created when the cigarette is burned, according to the American Lung Association.  Meanwhile, electronic cigarettes do not generate that smoke, but simply create a watery mist. They still contain nicotine, however—meaning they are also addictive, just like regular cigarettes.

The American Food and Drug Administration states that the health effects of e-cigarettes are not fully studied, and therefore, consumers should avoid them. However, Cozzi and others cited recent studies that appear to show e-cigarettes may not be all bad. Researchers at Drexel University recently concluded that the chemicals released from electronic cigarettes do not pose significant hazards to bystanders, while Boston University scientists showed that e-cigarettes may be a good tool for quitting tobacco.

“Essentially, there are no risks whatsoever to people who are near vapers,” said Evanston resident Tom Kendall. “I just don’t understand why we would be considering such an ordinance, especially because nowhere else has it.”

Municipalities that recently passed legislation to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes include Duluth City, MN, Woodstown, NJ, Monroe and West Monroe, LA, and Woburn, MA.

Vapers’ Plea: Don’t Outlaw E-Cigarettes in Evanston

iPloom - New Electronic Cigarette with Antioxidants

iPloom Granted Provisional Patent for Electronic Cigarette with Antioxidants

BOSTON, Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — iPloom, LLC a Massachusetts based manufacturer of electronic cigarettes has been granted a Provisional Patent for their new Electronic Cigarette with Antioxidants. The pending patent covers the method and system for preparing a liquid tobacco extract solution enriched with Polyphenols and Epigallocatechins Gallate (EGCG), potent antioxidants that provide health benefits to people who use an electronic smoking device as an alternative to traditional tobacco products.

Studies have demonstrated the cancer-fighting properties of EGCG, a natural compound found in green tea. These potent antioxidants may help to repair lung damage caused by smoking cigarettes.

iPloom is a Massachusett based limited liability corporation. The company manufactures E-Cigarettes in China and manufactures E-Liquids in the United States that are used in electronic smoking devices. iPloom is a pioneer in extracting tobacco flavor and nicotene from “All Natural” Whole Leaf tobacco.

www.iploom.com

For additional information:

Anthony Marino

800-570-8980

Media Contact: Anthony Marino, iPloom LLC, 800-570-8980, acmarino@iploom.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

iPloom - New Electronic Cigarette with Antioxidants

Big Tobacco Invests in E-Cigarettes. Should You?

U.S. sales of electronic cigarettes are expected to jump past $1 billion this year, and where there’s growth like that you can bet someone is making money – whether it’ll be new companies or Big Tobacco remains to be seen.

While still a tiny fraction of total tobacco sales, the market is already a lucrative one for some fledgling e-cigarette firms, though companies that promote and advertise the products are receiving much of the benefits, not manufacturers themselves. Longer term, the burning question is: Who is best positioned when government regulators take control of a market that’s so unfettered it can legally target adolescents with candy-flavored smokes.

Nationwide, e-cigarettes are sold with little restrictions except for one big one – they cannot claim to be a cure for habitual smoking or they risk U.S. Food and Drug Administration sanctions (several states also restrict sales to minors). Instead, sales have grown slowly in a curious niche – a hybrid of traditional smokers and those trying to quit. The battery-operated smokes heat nicotine-infused vapors that can be inhaled like a regular cigarette, making them safer than carcinogenic tobacco, but not necessarily risk-free, according to the FDA. Studies about their safety or effectiveness in quitting tobacco are not conclusive, and health officials say more research is needed.

 

In economic terms, e-cigarettes hit a classic inflection point last year when, after years of gradual sales growth, they became too big for the $100 billion tobacco business to ignore. Suddenly, celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio are puffing on black-tube, blue-tipped e-cigarettes and touting them on commercials on MTV. E-cigarettes are becoming cool, and marketers have taken notice.

E-cigarette maker NJOY, with about 40 percent of the market, isn’t selling itself based on its hipness factor. It’s positioning itself as the choice of Main Street smokers who just want to quit tobacco, says S&P Capital IQ equity analyst Esther Kwon, who covers the tobacco industry. Targeting “smoke-quitters” makes business sense, she says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 70 percent of smokers want to quit. To reach that group, Kwon says NJOY tries to duplicate the look and feel of a real cigarette.

Still, if its mainstream focus lacks downtown hipness, NJOY has generated buzz with its high-profile investors and anti-smoking “cred.” NJOY’s roster of supporters include billionaire Sean Parker, of Facebook and Napster fame, and former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who will head a NJOY research committee that will study the e-cigarettes. The company is positioned for a possible takeover by one of the major tobacco players or a possible initial public offering, analysts say, though that could be some time into the future.

“Some smaller players will be taken over by Big Tobacco, and NJOY could eventually go public,” says Adriana de Lozada, an analyst for private company research firm PrivCo. “NJOY has done a great job of positioning itself, but it’s not ready to do an IPO, not yet. Growth is important, but so is size to be able to go public and to compete in this market.”

[Read: What You Don't Know About Dividend Reinvestment Can Hurt.]

Lorillard, the scrappy No. 3 cigarette maker behind giants Altria and Reynolds American, has moved aggressively with its blu brand, says Kwon, adding that the company has “always been an innovator.” It’s trying to bring a touch of Mad Men-style glamour to cigarettes, and bringing smokes back to the tube for the first time in four decades with ads featuring television celebrity Jenny McCarthy puffing up the benefits of e-cigarettes by saying “it’s not sexy” to smell like an ashtray and pointing out she doesn’t have to freeze outside to smoke a cigarette.

Lorillard trades at about the same relative price-to-earnings as the other tobacco makers. Its market cap of $17 billion is far less than Altria’s $70 billion. A successful IPO or acquisition of its startup competitor, NJOY, could boost its valuation further, according to Kwon. “They could get rewarded by the publicity of NJOY’s IPO,” she says. “It might get their value noticed more.”

Lastly, Vapor is the pure play, the lone publicly traded e-cigarette company. Its performances suggest that the economics of e-cigarettes are difficult, as it trades at 85 cents a share and has lost money on flat earnings the past year. But others, like Swisher, have succeeded in building market share with savvy marketing, de Lozada says.

“There is a window with a bit of an opening now, but if they have to compete with big brands that are already established, their profit margins will be squeezed,” Kwon says. “And Big Tobacco has the advantage of huge distribution no one can match.”

More broadly, media firms could be a big winner regardless of which e-cigarettes prevail, because they’re being advertised on television – a venue where traditional cigarettes have been banned for years. It’s a new front for the tobacco industry, which still spends billions of dollars on other media, including magazine ads, promotions and sponsorships. That trend will probably accelerate in an all-out marketing e-cigarette war as Altria and Reynolds enter the market this year. And e-cigarettes already have outspent traditional cigarette makers advertising in major media this year, according to data by Kantar Media.

New frontiers in advertising and social media may win some of that spending. The Internet advertising industry could benefit from e-cigarettes supported by people online via the likes of Google’s recently launched “shared endorsement” service, which sells information about users’ endorsements. (It’s not a coincidence that digital entrepreneurs like Parker have entered the space.)

And what about Big Tobacco’s role? Altria and Reynolds need to compete, but the cost of a massive new marketing push in a sector where regulatory issues are still being sorted out might not make perfect sense, at least for now, analysts say, especially if such new costs mean any trade-off for tobacco company shareholders who purchase the stocks in part for their high dividend yields. “They are in a business that is highly profitable that does not require a whole lot of investment,” says Kwon, while noting a changing market could upend such reluctance. “This could be much different in the future, and this is something they will have to invest in. It’s in its very early stages, but it has potential to become something big, and it could have an impact.”

[Read: 6 Companies You Did Not Know Were High Tech.]

Analyst Bonnie Herzog of Wells Fargo Securities sparked media attention with a report earlier this year that e-cigarette growth will continue for the next decade and overtake traditional smoking sales for U.S. tobacco companies. A number of analysts declined to comment, citing a pending earnings period for tobacco companies, and Herzog was not available for comment. However, big brokers have generally been recommending the stocks for their dividends and steady earnings, and analysts have expressed skepticism that e-cigarettes, with less than 1 percent of the total market, will make much impact anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the regulatory and legal issues surrounding their marketing has been slowed by Washington’s budget stalemate that led to government shutdown. A number of decisions are due soon that could bring clarity and more regulation.

“All of these big gains [for e-cigarettes] are coming at a time of zero regulation, no taxes and a lot of hype,” says one analyst who requested U.S. News to not use his name. “The bottom line is that only a limited number of people will switch once the playing field is leveled. Our research shows that it won’t happen because e-cigarettes are just not as satisfying.”

Big Tobacco Invests in E-Cigarettes. Should You?

E-Cigarette Marketing Seen Threatened by FDA Scrutiny

By Anna Edney - Oct 15, 2013 9:00 PM MT  The Bloomberg Washington Newsletter

The $1.5 billion U.S. electronic-cigarette industry has tripled sales this year with the help of TV ads, Nascar sponsorships and product giveaways. Government regulation may now threaten those marketing tactics.

The Food and Drug Administration is set to decide this month whether to lump e-cigarettes in with conventional smokes as part of its oversight of the $90 billion U.S. tobacco market. Such a step would set the stage for greater restrictions on production, advertising, flavorings and online sales.

With at least 40 U.S. states seeking stricter rules and federal health officials raising the alarm about e-cigarette use by children, manufacturers of the smokeless devices are preparing for a FDA crackdown. Photographer: Mike Kane/Bloomberg

June 26 (Bloomberg) — Thilo Wrede, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., talks about the development of smokeless alternatives to cigarettes by Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris International unit. He talks with Adam Johnson and Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” Christopher Verrone, head of technical analysis at Strategas Research Partners, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

With at least 40 U.S. states seeking stricter rules and federal health officials raising the alarm about e-cigarette use by children, manufacturers of the smokeless devices are preparing for a FDA crackdown.

“We do anticipate becoming a regulated industry, so it is very possible the way in which we advertise will change,” said Andries Verleur, co-founder of e-cigarette maker VMR Products.

E-cigarettes heat liquid nicotine into an inhaled vapor without the tar of normal cigarettes. For the moment, marketers operate with few, if any, of the regulatory limits that apply totobacco companies such as Philip Morris USA and Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) TV advertisements by tobacco companies were banned in 1971, and in 2010 the FDA eliminated cigarette sampling. Sporting leagues such as Nascar also have severed ties.

With the FDA seeking to expand its regulatory authority beyond conventional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, some e-cigarette companies are opening up the marketing spigot while they still have a chance.

Nightclub Push

Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corp. (ECIG), run by the same marketing executive who helped build InBev NV into a dominant brewer, is handing out 1 million e-cigarettes starting this month at events in 50 U.S. cities. There will be a traveling van and tents at Nascar races, said Chief Executive Officer Brent Willis, who was once the president of InBev’s Asia-Pacific operations and helped introduce the Kraft brand to China.

Logic Technology Inc., which makes up 17 percent of industry sales, plans a push in Manhattan bars and nightclubs this year or early 2014.

“You go where adult smokers are,” said Miguel Martin, president of Livingston, New Jersey-based Logic, in an interview.

The industry says e-cigarettes are a healthier, cleaner alternative to traditional smoking. Many disagree. At least 40 U.S. state attorneys general on Sept. 24 urged the FDA to immediately regulate the sale and advertising of electronic cigarettes in a letter that said the products are appealing to youth and no one is “ensuring the safety of the ingredients.”

Child Addicts

That followed a Sept. 5 report in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised an alarm about children getting hooked on nicotine. The CDC found the share of U.S. students in middle school and high school who used e-cigarettes doubled to 10 percent in 2012 from 4.7 percent a year earlier.

By comparison, adolescents who reported smoking regular cigarettes daily or more casually, declined to 8.3 percent in 2010, from 11.9 percent in 2004, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said earlier this year.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and 11 other Democrats, seized on the report to call for immediate FDA regulation and to demand that e-cigarette companies provide documents related to sales, labeling and marketing of their products to children.

“Despite claims from some e-cigarette makers that they do not market their products to youth and that kids should not have access to their products, e-cigarette manufacturers appear to be applying marketing tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry to hook a new generation of children,” the senators wrote in a Sept. 26 letter to e-cigarette companies.

FDA Agenda

The FDA has oversight over the cigarette market under a 2009 law that gives it sway over manufacturing, marketing and other tobacco industry practices. The law permits the FDA to determine whether it will extend its reach to related products.

In a government catalog of upcoming federal regulatory actions, called the Unified Agenda, the FDA lists October 2013 as the deadline for issuing a notice for proposing such rules.

The FDA has sent a proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget, seeking to expand its regulatory authority beyond cigarettes, Steven Immergut, a spokesman for the agency said in an e-mail yesterday. “Their review will begin when the government shutdown ends,” he said.

Industry Standard

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said everyone is watching to see precisely what the FDA has proposed.

“Sometimes OMB takes weeks and sometimes OMB sits on things for a very long time,” he said in an interview. “I don’t think this is something the OMB plans to sit on.”

E-cigarette companies are on board with manufacturing standards and age restrictions while saying advertising limits shouldn’t be on the table. VMR’s Verleur said his company, which makes the V2 Cigs brand, and his competitors have asked the FDA for meetings to give their side of the argument.

“One thing that would be very bad is to lump us in with traditional cigarettes and apply some of the same standards,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

E-Cigarette Marketing Seen Threatened by FDA Scrutiny

Why Is The FDA Shielding Smokers From The Good News About E-Cigarettes?

By Gilbert Ross, M.D. -

Any clear-thinking health professional would agree that cigarette smoking is without question the most devastating and preventable public health risk that we need to address in this country. And now, four-plus years after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given legal authority over tobacco products, the regulatory agency faces arguably its most important public health decision in its history. The time has come to confront their responsibility to smokers trying to quit and their families.

The worldwide death-toll of cigarette smoking is reliably predicted to hit one billion this century. Despite this depressing fact, the measures implemented by the FDA thus far, ostensibly to reduce the toll of smoking, have been almost entirely lip service, without making any real impact. A relatively new method of helping addicted smokers quit has been adopted by millions of smokers – many of whom are now ex-smokers — over the past few years. I refer of course to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Concurrent with the dramatic spike in sales of this device comes word of historic declines in the sale of real cigarettes.

E-cigarettes work by delivering a potent “hit” of nicotine in water vapor, with flavorings and propellants of no significant health concerns — neither to the “vaper” (as they call themselves), nor to bystanders. Most of them resemble cigarettes — which is both their blessing, and their curse.

Astoundingly, this nascent public-health miracle has been met with something between derision and hysteria by anti-tobacco groups worldwide: globally, the WHO, health-oriented NGOs, the British regulator MHRA, and many nations are sparing no effort to discourage smokers from trying them, employing misleading (even false) alerts and dire website warnings, phony surveys, and exaggerated concerns about youth being led astray. Unfortunately, and embarrassingly for science-based public health policy, our FDA and CDC have been willingly complicit in this widespread disinformation campaign. Meanwhile they purposely ignore studies that indicate the benefit of e-cigarettes for helping smokers quit. I ask, “How could this be?”

The possible explanations are not pretty: willful ignorance, dogma based on experiences garnered in the 20^th century, or greed.

I accuse those responsible for impeding truthful communication about the real risks of e-cigarettes of collaborating in a “cigarette-protection campaign,” whose effects will be to discourage smokers from quitting, leading to more dead smokers. Consider this: those who stand in the way of acceptance of e-cigarettes are acting from motivations that are far removed from public health. The nonprofit groups in the forefront of anti-e-cigarette activism are also heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies in the business of selling near-useless cessation drugs — a fact which they conveniently neglect to disclose. If tobacco companies carried on the same way, they would be hauled into court by the FDA in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, the net result of the official campaigns: cigarette markets protected, worthless cessation aids promoted. Who profits? Not addicted smokers.

Despite the pervasive anti-smoking campaigns, a handful of marginally successful cessation drugs and the “denormalization” measures, the addictive drumbeat goes on.  In our country alone, cigarettes exact an annual sacrifice of about 450,000 prematurely dead. Another 8 1/2 million people and their families suffer lingering ills thanks to smoking. And still, near twenty percent of our population continues to smoke, with little change over the century’s first decade.

While smoking rates did come down after the Surgeon General’s report in 1964, the sick and the dead pile up anyway: nothing can be done about this, since the damage was done decades ago, thanks to the nefarious, deceptive manipulation by the cigarette companies — experts in selling their deadly product to credulous, impressionable youngsters. But something must be done now to save future generations from the loss of life and health that continues to ravage those who were addicted last century.

Quitting cigarettes is extraordinarily difficult — most smokers want to quit, but of the millions who try each year, less than one in ten succeed for long. This abysmal result is improved only minimally by the currently available FDA-approved therapies.  Despite these undeniable facts, the officials at our CDC and the FDA continue to tell smokers to stick with the “approved” products, and warn them against e-cigarettes — based on hypothetical fears, while perversely ignoring the body count.

The recently-appointed head of the FDA’s tobacco center, Mitch Zeller, has indicated that this is the month that the FDA will issue its ruling as to whether or not it will “deem” e-cigarettes to be tobacco products, in the same regulatory framework as cigarettes. If that is the decision, dire consequences will inevitably follow. The time has come, indeed well past time now, to deal with the problem of smoking-related disease with an eye toward the future, not the past.

Time is running out for the FDA. The law requires them to decide how to regulate novel tobacco products (a 2011 Federal court ruled that e-cigarettes are tobacco products, thanks to the nicotine they deliver). If the regulators flout all the science and squeeze e-cigarettes into the same framework as cigarettes, millions of ex-smokers will revert to toxic deadly cigarettes, or they’ll find them on the Internet (the black market) — and many more will die with a cigarette in hand. One thing is certain: this genie will not go gently back into the bottle.

But if the FDA’s Zeller decides to interpret the law flexibly — there are provisions in the law to allow it — and exempt e-cigarettes from such stringent regulation, while enforcing sound manufacturing practices, valid product labeling and a ban on sales to minors, a revolution in public health may transpire. Listen, to everyone’s surprise, the European parliament did just that! Those of us devoted to public health now have reason to hope that our FDA will hear the lesson from the EU, and flout the hysterics and rent-seekers whose messages would lead to more needless smoking-related death.

Gilbert Ross, M.D., is the executive and medical director of The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org) in New York.

Why Is The FDA Shielding Smokers From The Good News About E-Cigarettes?

E-cigarettes: all you need to know

By Cherrill Hicks

6:31PM BST 13 Oct 2013 The Telegraph

Kate Moss is a fan, as is Leonardo DiCaprio. With an estimated seven million users in Europe alone, electronic cigarettes are definitely on-trend. They are also proving controversial: last week, a Mothercare worker was suspended after “vaping” in front of customers. Michelle Capewell, 41, was told to leave the store by her manager after taking a drag of her e‑cigarette.

That is not the only row the gadgets have sparked. Public health experts are sharply divided about e‑cigarettes, with some arguing they could substantially cut deaths from tobacco – of which there are 100,000 annually in the UK – while others warn they will only glamorise smoking, especially among the young.

Euro MPs added to the confusion last week by throwing out a European Commission proposal, supported by the UK’s regulatory authority, to treat e-cigarettes as medicines.

E-cigarettes comprise a battery, atomiser and a cartridge containing nicotine, suspended in a solution of propylene glycol (the stuff from which theatrical smoke is made). When the user inhales, the solution is vaporised (hence “vaping”), delivering a nicotine hit to the lungs without the tar and toxins that would come from conventional cigarettes.

Some e-cigarettes have an indicator light at the end which glows when the user inhales, to give an added touch of realism. And, unlike standard nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as gums, patches and sprays, they offer “the cigarette experience”, notes Jeremy Mean, from the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA). “Rituals such as having something to hold are very important in addiction,” he says. “E-cigarettes may help some people more than standard NRT.”

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One study of 657 smokers, published in The Lancet last month, found that e‑cigarettes worked as well as nicotine patches in helping people stop smoking within six months. With an average quitting rate of about 6 per cent, neither method worked brilliantly, but e-cigarettes were also better at reducing conventional cigarette use among those who did not give up totally.

“We cannot say they are 100 per cent safe because there isn’t enough evidence,” says Amanda Sandford, research manager at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). “But in comparison to tobacco products they are safer by several orders of magnitude.” Unlike with passive smoking from conventional cigarettes, the effect on others from the vapour exhaled is thought to be negligible.

However, there is a problem with quality control – which is why the MHRA wants to see e-cigarettes regulated as medicine. This should come into effect in 2016, although without a Europe-wide initiative the UK may act unilaterally. “Our tests show that different products vary in how much nicotine they deliver” says Jeremy Mean. “So some products may not help people regulate their nicotine cravings.”

There are also fears that e‑cigarettes could “renormalise” smoking and promote nicotine addiction. “This is precisely why they need regulating as medicines, so that they are not sold to under-18s or targeted at non-smokers,” says Mean. He advises that for now, would-be quitters should use conventional NRT products – patches, gums and sprays – rather than e‑cigarettes.

Amanda Sandford agrees that the potential of e‑cigarettes to reduce tobacco-related damage outweighs the risks, but “they are not a panacea”. “Our research shows that two thirds of people who try e‑cigarettes give them up – although we don’t know why.”

E-cigarettes: all you need to know

Univ. of Iowa discusses electronic cigarette ban

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Faculty and administrators at the University of Iowa have begun discussing whether to ban electronic cigarettes on the campus.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports (http://icp-c.com/19gYWe0 ) that members of the university’s Faculty Council discussed Tuesday whether the increasingly popular battery-powered cigarettes should be included in a campus-wide smoking ban.

The university president’s office has assigned Human Resources Services director Joan Troester to gather comments about the matter. She notes that e-cigarettes aren’t included in a campus-wide ban on smoking, which was instituted in conjunction with the state’s Smoke Free Air Act in 2008.

“E-cigarettes weren’t really on the market at that time, and were not really as popular as they are today,” Troester said.

The devices deliver nicotine through water vapor, rather than through tobacco smoke. Users can buy different flavorings for the cigarettes and can vary the amount of nicotine delivered in each puff.

Faculty Senate president Erika Lawrence said so far, e-cigarette use hasn’t spawned complaints on campus and that discussions about the matter were intended to be proactive.

Some council members said the university should discourage all kinds of cigarettes, but others said the ban was aimed at secondhand smoke, which isn’t an issue with e-cigarettes.

Professor Paul Muhly said he and students would find it distracting if someone used an e-cigarette in the classroom.

“Independent of the health consequences, I think that’s reason enough to ban them,” Muhly said.

Dr. Francois Abboud, who specializes in cardiology, cautioned about instituting a ban when there have been few studies examining the health effects of e-cigarettes. He noted e-cigarettes could be compared to nicotine patches.

“From a medical standpoint, we don’t know enough to say we shouldn’t use this,” Abboud said.

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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/

Univ. of Iowa discusses electronic cigarette ban

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Cheaper Way to Smoke?

By Michael Sweet, Cheapism.com

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, are an increasingly popular alternative to regular cigarettes, and for several good reasons. Perhaps most importantly for smokers who watch their budget, e-cigarettes are far cheaper than the standard variety. Moreover, they don’t contain tobacco, so there’s no second-hand smoke and nothing to stink up the air, your clothes, or your breath. The jury’s still out on the health implications, but at least electronic cigarette liquids don’t contain the many toxic chemicals found in regular cigarettes. Cheap e-cigarettes also tend to taste better thanks to the raft of available flavors. And while they may be less offensive than regular cigarettes, that’s not to say they’re OK for kids. Most e-cigs contain nicotine, and none of the e-cig e-retailers we’ve come across will sell to anyone younger than 18.

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Ecigs don’t have to be expensive.

Types of Cheap Electronic Cigarettes. E-cigarettes come in two varieties: disposable and reusable. Disposable e-cigs, such as Blu, Fin, and Njoy, resemble real cigarettes in size and often in looks. One disposable e-cig typically provides at least 40 cigarettes’ worth of smokes, notes the chief executive of e-cigarette maker E-Luminate, although the exact number of puffs you get depends on how deeply you draw on it. You know it’s time to throw away your cheap e-cigarette when no more vapor appears.

 Reusable e-cigs have a refillable tank or cartridge and a rechargeable battery. Users buy the e-liquid separately, fill the tank or cartridge, then puff away. Reusable e-cigs vary in size and shape — some are as small as a normal e-cigarette and others have very large batteries and tanks. SmokTech, for example, makes components in different sizes and colors, which gives users a chance to mix and match to suit their preferences. Cheap reusable electronic cigarettes last as long as the battery accepts a recharge; figure at least a year.

Cost of E-cigarettes vs. Cigarettes. One of the first questions potential e-cigarette smokers ask is: are they cheap compared with the cost of tobacco cigarettes? Puff for puff, e-cigs are cheaper — often costing half as much as the standard version.

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Consider a 5-pack of Njoy King disposable e-cigarettes, which fetches $30 online. Because each disposable e-cig is the equivalent of about two packs of regular cigarettes, $3 buys you 20 cigarettes worth of electronic smoking. You’d be hard pressed to find even a bargain-basement brand of tobacco cigarettes for that price, and big-name cigarettes easily cost twice as much. Moving up the reusable e-cigarette price ladder is still a deal; the unit price for disposable brands such as Fin and Blu is $10-$11, which translates to about half the price of a full tobacco-based pack in places like New York.

 E-liquid for reusable e-cigs is quite cheap, making it the most cost-effective option for e-cig users. Even a small bottle of e-liquid (say, 7 to 10 milliliters) typically lasts several days, sometimes as long as a week. Halo E-cigs charges $5.99 for a 7 milliliter bottle; a 10 milliliter bottle from online e-cigarette store Madvapes costs as little as $3.

Prices vary considerably for ecigs.

 Reusable e-cigarettes are most often sold in kits that usually include at least one rechargeable battery, a tank or cartridge, a USB-based charger for the battery, and a case to store everything. Most kits contain at least two batteries and two or more tanks or cartridges. Prices vary considerably, depending on the specific kit and where you buy it, but the cheap e-cigarette kits cost from $40 to $60. Some kits sell for up to $100 depending on the accessories included. Many e-cigarette retailers offer “build your own” kits that let you choose the preferred contents. Well-known names in the reusable e-cig market include Joyetech and SmokTech.

How E-cigs Work. E-cigarettes are surprisingly simple devices. Both cheap disposable and reusable e-cigarettes consist of a battery, a reservoir that contains e-liquid (either a tank or a prefilled cartridge), and an atomizer that converts the e-liquid into vapor when the e-cigarette is activated.

There are two ways to activate the atomizer: automatically by taking a drag, and manually by pressing and holding a button the side of the battery. Disposable e-cigarettes are usually automatic and reusable e-cigarettes are automatic or manual but usually the latter.

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E-liquid Flavors. Reusable e-cigarette smokers have more flavor options than those who stick to disposable e-cigarettes. There are hundreds of e-liquid flavors available for tank refills, ranging from different types of tobaccos to fruits, candies, and desserts, but just a handful of disposable e-cig flavors.

E-liquids contain some nicotine to satisfy smoker cravings. Most manufacturers offer flavors with several nicotine levels so users can get the amount they need, and some flavors are available with zero nicotine content. Halo Cigs, for example, infuses flavors with 0 milligrams, 6 mg, 12 mg, 18 mg, or 24 mg of nicotine per milliliter of e-liquid; 6 mg is equivalent to a light cigarette, 12 mg is medium, and 18 mg is a strong, full-flavored cigarette. E-Luminate offers e-cigs and flavors in three strengths: silver (ultra-light), gold (light), and red (regular).

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Cheaper Way to Smoke?