News

Here in the states, we awoke to big news this morning from our neighbors across the pond. Today, Members of European Parliament voted on several revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive. Among them was a vote on whether or not to classify e-cigarettes as medicinal products, restricting sales to pharmacies for products with a nicotine concentration over 4%, or 4 mg/ml.

To help understand how this got off the ground, the flavor ban reversal and where the industry could be headed from here, we sat down with one of the leaders of the influential pro-vaping group, We Vape We Vote.

In response to LA City Council banning public e-cig use, CASAA asked vapers to reach out to Mayor Garcetti and rally in Pershing Square.

Over the last few weeks, reports of a "mystery illness" relating to vaping have been making their rounds, but what's really going on? What do we know so far? Should nicotine vapers be worried? Here's everything you need to know.

We interviewed Prof. Jean-Françios Etter about a new study which looked at the long-term behavior of vapers.

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."

With some rare pieces of good news on the regulatory front (although there’s more bad than good news, obviously), a new wave of concern about the children following the release of the new Monitoring the Future data, more bad news for Malaysian vapers and some great blog posts from the community, it’s the Week in Vaping.

An interview with RunnerX (Jim Oliver), the man who ran the entire New York City Marathon while vaping.

According to the results, youth use of e-cigarettes doubled between 2011 and 2012, but the truth can’t be crammed as succinctly into a jaw-dropping headline. To see what the results really mean, you need to look at what they actually did and what they actually found.

Researchers are spying on your tweets, a judge in New York has been smart enough to declare that vaping is not smoking, more evidence-based rationality emerges from the UK and journalists are given a much-needed dose of common sense on the (non) issue of “e-cigarette battery explosions” – it’s the Week in Vaping.

E-cigarettes are harmful, sold by the tobacco industry, contain toxic and cancer-causing chemicals, emit a “pollution cloud” that does “second-hand harm to others” and are just the "latest gimmick" from Big Tobacco, according to the new #CurbIt campaign from the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project.

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.

Health authorities in Mexico have closed down two vape stores in Mexico City, seizing almost 9,500 devices and citing the technical illegality of e-cigarettes in the country. For the two years prior to this seizure, only around 2,200 devices had been seized, and this may be an indication that authorities are planning on stepping up activity against 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.

“Won’t somebody please think of the children” is one of the core rallying calls of the anti-vaping fanatics, and Cancer Research UK is evidently paying attention.

Tobacco controllers sneak into a vape convention and discover “particles” in the air, a politician vapes in Congress, and UK data shows that the disastrous population-level consequences of vaping we keep hearing about don’t seem to be materializing: it’s the Week in Vaping.

A recent South Jersey Times opinion piece on e-cigs illustrates this ability beautifully, as if it was designed as a template for media-based e-cig bashing. If you're a journalist looking to publish some brain-dead word-farts on the topic of e-cigs, this is the resource for you.

Big Tobacco companies Altria (of Marlboro cigarettes and MarkTen e-cigarettes) and RJ Reynolds (maker of Camels and Vuse e-cigarettes) are taking some further steps to bolster their image and further their standing in the e-cigarette market by placing some excessive warnings on their vaping products.