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Recap of the 2013 Electronic Cigarette Convention in Anaheim, CA, presented by West Coast Vapers Club.

Today the Royal Society became the site of the E-Cigarette Summit, a day dedicated to debating the safety, efficacy and regulation of e-cigarettes. The day was split into three sessions, firstly looking at the safety and efficacy, then moving on to regulation, and finally looking at the controversies surrounding the technology.

The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products has announced it will be holding a public listening session to discuss “any topic relevant to science-based regulation of tobacco products” on April 5th in San Diego.

A bill that will add electronic cigarettes to New York City's Smoke-Free Air Act was passed by NY City Council Thursday afternoon. The legislation would go into effect in four months and would ban use of e-cigarettes wherever smoking is prohibited.

It was only a matter of time until this happened. A class action has been filed against Lorillard at the Orange County Superior Court for Blu eCigs’ “claims” that e-cigarettes are safer and healthier than tobacco cigarettes.

Along with the usual repetition of myths and the hyping of battery explosions, there have been a couple of positive stories published in mainstream media outlets this week, and some lively debate about whether schools should allow students to vape if they’d otherwise be smoking. The Week in Vaping covers all these stories and more!

Big tobacco giant Lorillard saw sales of blu eCigs fall by almost 40 percent in the third quarter of 2014, likely due to the fact that vapers have long-since realized that eGo-style devices or mods are vastly superior to the cigarette-sized weaklings of the vaping industry.

After a string of court cases in Germany revolving around the possible classification of e-liquids as medicines, the Federal Administrative Court has decisively ruled that they don't meet the definition, and e-liquids can therefore continue being sold freely.

The Global Forum on Nicotine included talks from over 80 experts in vaping science, policy and more, taking place over three days in Warsaw. There was a lot of useful information shared over the course of the weekend, but here are my top 10 take-away points.

With harsh e-cig regulations in the pipeline in Washington state, Mt. Baker Vapor has opted to cull a large number of e-liquid flavors, in case each flavor will need to be individually certified for sale. With 190 flavors on the chopping block, it’s a firm reminder of the impact irrational legislation can have on vapers and the companies that supply us.

The FDA, which claims to stand for “science-based regulation,” seems incapable of drawing even the most basic of conclusions: e-cigarettes, regulated or unregulated, are vastly safer than tobacco cigarettes and should be treated as such.

The effectiveness of electronic cigarettes as a quit smoking aid just received a huge boost with a new Italian study published on the scientific journal PLOS ONE. In the first ever clincal trial on the effectiveness of tobacco reduction and smoking cessation rates using e-cigarettes, ECLAT found up to a 13 percent quit rate in participants over a 52 week period.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK has recently announced that it will regulate e-cigarettes (as well as other nicotine-containing products) as medicines from 2016 onwards. This move is a huge step forwards for the e-cig industry – despite some concerns – but what will the legislation mean for UK vapers? And is the FDA likely to pursue their regulation in the same vein?

It's been jam-packed with research this week, from studies leading to claims that vaping will cause lung cancer to ones finding little to no risk of passive vaping, but there's also been the usual selection of new pieces of legislation, excellent blog posts from the community and some serious nonsense spouted about e-cigs. It's the Week in Vaping.

Taxes on vaping have been proposed in many states already, and as a post by Americans for Tax Reform shows, four states and several localities have already approved taxes. Many other states have bills pending, and even more will undoubtedly impose them in future. So where is vaping being taxed? And, most importantly, what are the likely consequences of taxes on vaping?

Day 2 of the Electronic Cigarette Convention in Anaheim featured a workshop on e-cig regulations and e-liquid safety by Azim Chowdhury, Lou Ritter and Linc Williams from AEMSA.