COVID-19 Relief Legislation Bans USPS From Shipping Vaping Products

(Tobacco Business) While the federal COVID-19 relief legislation that was passed on Dec. 21, 2020 was aimed at giving individuals and businesses much needed financial assistance, the bill contains a hidden agenda that could spell further doom for one sector of the tobacco industry. Within the COVID-19 relief legislation are provisions that will now make it harder to distribute e-cigarette products through the U.S. Postal Service. Continued

Vape Steams Ahead

(CSD) E-cigarettes and vaping products are facing headwinds from all sides — from regulatory challenges to competition from nicotine replacement products to disruption amid COVID-19, which has nudged some vapers back to combustible tobacco products. Still, demand for e-cigs and vape products continues to grow. Continued

E-Cigs Rock While Cigars Roll: Whether an old classic or the latest rage, adult tobacco lovers are indulging

 

(CSD) E-cigarettes and vape made a lot of noise — and a lot of money — in 2019, while cigars quietly rolled along in steady fashion befitting their staid, classic profile.
… Cigars quietly gained in unit sales over the past four years, growing at 8.3%, with dollar sales up 6.6% for the same period, according to Nielsen. Continued

Trump Administration Cracks Down On Some Flavored Vaping Products

 

(NPR) The Trump administration announced it will crack down on certain vaping products containing fruit, mint and other e-cigarette flavors to keep them away from kids. Manufacturers will have 30 days to take these products off the market before the Food and Drug Administration can take enforcement action. Continued

Also: U-Haul’s Anti-Nicotine Hiring Policy Is Draconian

F.D.A. Plans to Ban Most E-Cigarette Flavors but Menthol

 

(NYTimes) The Trump administration is expected to announce this week that it will ban mint-, fruit- and dessert-flavored e-cigarette cartridges popular with teenagers, but allow menthol and tobacco flavors to remain on the market. Continued

Evidence mounts that vitamin E acetate is to blame for vaping-related illnesses, deaths

(WaPo) … Health officials have now found vitamin E acetate in the damaged lungs of 48 out of 51 patients who had fallen ill or died of lung injuries, said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority used products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

By comparison, no vitamin E acetate was found in the lung fluids of any of 99 healthy individuals in a comparison group. Those people either vaped nicotine exclusively, smoked only cigarettes or said they never smoked. Researchers also found no evidence of other potential toxins in the healthy comparison group. Continued

Anti-Vape Laws Could Do More Harm Than Good

 

(Wired) Since July, a mysterious vaping-related lung illness has swept the country, sickening more than 2,200 people and killing 48. As the illnesses and deaths proliferated, so too did vaping bans. The city of San Francisco had already banned e-cigarette sales, and by September Massachusetts outlawed all e-cigarettes, followed by prohibitions against vaping products in Michigan, Rhode Island, and New York. There was just one problem: The laws applied to nicotine e-cigarettes. But researchers discovered last month that this lung disease seemed to be the result of Vitamin E acetate, an ingredient found primarily in black market vapes containing THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Continued

Vaping Illnesses Are Linked to Vitamin E Acetate, C.D.C. Says

(NYTimes) Samples of lung fluid from patients with the mysterious illness led to a breakthrough in finding a possible cause. More than 2,000 people have been sickened, many from illicit marijuana-based products. Continued

THC products were involved in many of the vaping-related illness deaths, officials say

Pipe smoking doctors

(Vox) … Among 19 patients who’ve died — a subset of the 34 total deaths for whom CDC had substance use data — 84 percent reported using any THC-containing products. Sixty-three percent reported exclusive THC product use. A smaller number — 16 percent — said they’d used only nicotine products, but the CDC also warned that there might be under-reporting of cannabis use since non-medical marijuana is still illegal in so many states. Continued

C-store Retailers Report 'Lots of Confusion' in Tobacco Category

 

(CSN) … "In states with e-cigarette flavor bans in place, consistent themes include 'confusion,' retailers 'thinning' e-cigarette inventories, and consumer pantry-loading," explained Bonnie Herzog, managing director of tobacco, beverage and convenience store research at Wells Fargo Securities. Continued

New York ban on hold

 

(Tobacco Reporter) A state appellate court has put New York’s ban on the sale of flavored vapor products on hold.
Judges granted a temporary restraining order Thursday that stops the state from enforcing a ban set to begin today. They are expected to rule on a preliminary injunction on Oct. 18. Continued

Why isn't there a vaping problem in England?

(ABC) … "There seems to be a bit of a panic over there, but that has nothing to do with us," said Lewis Niall, a personal trainer outside a north London vaping store. Continued

Vaping Bad: Were 2 Wisconsin Brothers the Walter Whites of THC Oils?

 

(NYTimes) … Across the country, public health officials are awakening to a massive underground market for illicit vaping products, both for nicotine and for marijuana. The products are sold online and on the streets, in pop-up stores and individual transactions, sometimes arranged through social media. Continued

Trump's crackdown on flavored vaping products unlikely to take effect soon

XVX CIGAR (my opinion)

Trump Administration Plans to Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes

(NYTimes) WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it would ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, at a time when hundreds of people have been sickened by mysterious lung illnesses and teenage vaping continues to rise. Continued

What You Need to Know About Vaping-Related Lung Illness

 

(NYTimes) Hundreds of people across the country have been sickened by a severe lung illness linked to vaping, and a handful have died, according to public health officials. Many were otherwise healthy young people, in their teens or early 20s. Investigators from numerous states are working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration in an urgent effort to figure out why.

Here’s what we know so far. Continued

Cases of Vaping-Related Lung Illness Surge, Health Officials Say

(NYTimes) … Federal health officials are reviewing 450 possible cases linked to vaping across 33 states, including the 215 cases it has previously reported, Meaney-Delman said. It’s unclear what exactly is causing the disease, officials said Friday. Until they have more information, the CDC is urging consumers not to buy e-cigarette products off the street or add any substances that are not intended by the manufacturer, the agency said. Continued

Contaminant found in vaping products linked to deadly lung illnesses, state and federal labs show

(Washington Post) State and federal health officials investigating mysterious lung illnesses linked to vaping have found the same chemical in samples of marijuana products used by people sickened in different parts of the country and who used different brands of products in recent weeks.
… The FDA also told state officials Wednesday that its lab tests found nothing unusual in nicotine products that had been collected from sick patients, according to another person who took part in the call.
… Authorities said they are not ruling out adulterants in nicotine vaping products. Continued

The Mysterious Vaping Illness That’s ‘Becoming an Epidemic’

(NYTimes) An 18-year-old showed up in a Long Island emergency room, gasping for breath, vomiting and dizzy. When a doctor asked if the teenager had been vaping, he said no. The patient’s older brother, a police officer, was suspicious. He rummaged through the youth’s room and found hidden vials of marijuana for vaping.

“I don’t know where he purchased it. He doesn’t know,” said Dr. Melodi Pirzada, chief pediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., who treated the young man. “Luckily, he survived.” Continued