News

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is losing sales of its nicotine patches and gums because of the proliferation of e-cigarettes, according to the company’s chief executive. Andrew Witty commented, “Of course, it's definitely taken a bit of our market, no question at all," but said they won't release their own because e-cigs are "just too controversial."

Amidst continual pressure by the FDA to regulate electronic cigarettes, industry continues to thrive and move forward under the guidance of several intelligent, level-headed minds. Among the most tempered and admired voices in the field is Boston University School of Public Health's Dr. Michael Siegel.

We’ve written a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg – who has already received a “protect the children” call from the Attorneys General – putting forward the case for e-cigarettes and suggesting how they should be regulated.

After a great deal of controversy over the last time Five Pawns’ juices were tested, the company has now released new test results. The findings – which in the previous test showed up to 2,500 ppm (or 2,500 μg/ml) of acetyl propionyl (AP) in Absolute Pin – now show vastly lower levels of the chemical. So what’s going on?

With more vaping bans proposed, some movements on the FDA regulations, a couple of new e-cigarette studies, several great articles on vaping from inside and outside the community, and one of the most thoroughly absurd winners of “Bullshit of the Week” so far: here’s the Week in Vaping.

A UK couple has been banned from adopting a child because the husband was seen vaping, based on advice from the British Association for Adoption and Fostering that “users of e-cigarettes be considered smokers” until the completely ill-defined point at which the concerns about e-cigs have been settled.

The AHA comes out in support of the FDA’s proposal, and even advocates further actions such as including vaping in smoke-free air laws and increasing taxes, but manages to hold this view despite conducting a fairly reasonable analysis of the evidence beforehand.

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!

Skycig is set to become blu eCigs in May, after recently being acquired by Lorillard. Is this a sign Big Tobacco will take over the market?

Vaping makes you too drunk to drive safely, reduces your chances of quitting smoking, should be banned outdoors, shouldn’t be allowed on college campuses and is grounds for not hiring somebody, if you believe the news this week. In other words, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the Week in Vaping.

With more attacks on the evidence-based conclusion that vaping is around 95 % safer than smoking, bans on indoor vaping, absurdly high taxes proposed on e-liquid and Malaysia taking distinct turns towards anti-vaping extremism of the worst variety, it’s been a decidedly grim Week in Vaping. So – if you can stomach it – let’s dive in.

Keeping up with all of the new studies, devices, blog posts and legislation in the world of vaping isn’t easy, so we’re happy to present the first of our weekly roundups of what’s been going on in the industry: the week in vaping.

With lawmakers around the world pondering the question of how to deal with e-cigarettes, England has now joined many others (including 26 states) and opted to officially ban the sale of e-cigarettes to youths.

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.

With yet more bans on indoor vaping, anti-THR research, a litany of litigation, more “think of the children” nonsense designed to drum up support for restrictions on vaping and public health advocates starting to wonder how they should reconcile their evidence-free opposition to vaping with the growing body of evidence that it’s much safer than smoking, it’s the Week in Vaping.

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.