SIGN THIS PETITION, SERIOUSLY NOW

If you do nothing else today, please click the link below and sign this petition right away.  Like site says, the FDA is intending to propose DEEMING regulations on electronic cigarettes. 

What does that mean? the problem is nobody knows.  Taxes that will drive the price of juice way up?  no more flavors except tobacco and menthol? They truly want to make vaping as hard as possible for us.  The vape world we have come to know and love is being shaken at the foundation.  

Make your voice heard today.  Don’t let me down troops

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/prevent-fda-regulating-or-banning-sale-and-use-electronic-cigarettes-accessories-and-associated/RQLBYRsd

This week, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a consumer education and nonprofit advocacy group devoted to the promotion of sound science in public health policy, urged the FDA to reconsider their overly cautious stance on e-cigs. Like many of us in the vaping community have long since realized, the ACSH firmly believes that e-cigs have great potential to help Americans kick their cigarette habit. While the FDA cautions that e-cigs may contain unsafe components, the ACSH rightly points out that cigarettes DO contain dangerous ingredients, and are NOT safe. The ACSH is committed to truthfully communicating with smokers about the benefits of a harm reduction approach and promoting e-cigs to combat the negative health effects of smoking. Bottom line…e-cigs help people quit, myself included. Cessation products currently approved for use by the FDA (gums, patches, inhalers, etc.) did NOT work for me, and they don’t work for a lot of people. The ACSH believes that “a product that can end a smoker’s exposure to the carcinogenic products in tobacco smoke is not one that can be dismissed lightly. It should not be rejected based upon ideology or unscientific extrapolation and insinuation.” Well said! Kudos to the ACSH for their support of e-cigs as effective tobacco cessation products. Follow the link below to read the ACSH’s full statement. http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.1995/news_detail.asp 

Via their website, the FDA is now warning smokers against the use of electronic cigarettes, because the risks of such nicotine delivery systems are not precisely known. The statement reads, “e-Cigarettes may contain ingredients that are known to be toxic to humans, and may contain other ingredients that may not be safe. Additionally, these products may be attractive to young people and may lead kids to try other tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, which are known to cause disease and lead to premature death.” It continues, “Because clinical studies about the safety and efficacy of these products have not been submitted to FDA, consumers currently have no way of knowing whether e-cigarettes are safe for their intended use, what types or concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals are found in these products, or how much nicotine they are inhaling when they use these products.” I found the Google “Lay Person Translation”, found in the second half of the blog write up, to be very amusing. It was a much needed laugh after trying to digest the FDA’s point of view. Link to the full blog article: http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/05/fda-warns-smokers-against-using.html Link to the FDA web page: http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm172906.htm Link to the Polosa Study (Clinical Trial) mentioned in the blog article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/786

CASAA AND THE FDA

CASAA is currently organizing vapers to attend and testify at a public meeting that is being held at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products in Rockville, MD on January 19, 2012. Testimony will be taken from 3-4 PM.

It is CRITICAL that the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee meet people who have had their lives changed by e-cigarettes. Even speaking for ONE MINUTE is enough. Please Facebook message Gregory Conley or e-mail him at grconley@casaa.org for more details. 

Link on the FDA site is HERE

Smoke and mirrors behind FDA report on e-cigarettes 

An FDA-authored analysis of electronic cigarette contents has just appeared in the Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies. The agency has, in the past, gone out of its way to find hypothetical dangers of e-cigarettes — even going so far as to try to bar their importation (a Federal judge stopped that attempt). This most recent article’s slant is in keeping with the FDA’s enduring prejudice against this clean nicotine delivery device. 
 
The study, performed by the the agency’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis, aimed to determine the levels of nicotine and nicotine-related by-products in the cartridges, refill solutions, and vapor of e-cigarettes from three different manufacturers. They report that nicotine content labeling was not always accurate, that nicotine is present in the  “smoke” emitted, and that nicotine-related impurities in the contents of cartridges and refills varied from one manufacturer to another.
 
Unfortunately, observes ACSH friend and colleague Bill Godshall, Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, the findings are stated in a misleading and negative way, unnecessarily obscuring the actual benefits of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device. (For instance, the agency’s consistent referral to e-cigarette vapor as “smoke” suggests that it is similar to the carcinogenic combustion of cigarettes — which is not at all the case.) Such official misrepresentation is not surprising, he notes, considering that the report was written by those involved in the FDA’s biased 2009 report during their ill-fated attempt to ban such products.
 
“The variable level of nicotine in e-cigarettes doesn’t mean that they’re less helpful, or dangerous,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. However, he notes, there is almost always some level of agenda-based misinformation present when the FDA discusses e-cigarettes. (See, for instance, the agency’s often cited — yet incorrect —claim to have detected one of the ingredients of antifreeze in some e-cigarettes.)
 
“The truth is,” says Dr. Ross, “the amount of so-called ‘carcinogens’ in e-cigarette vapor is no greater than in any other nicotine replacement product. The e-cigarette happens to be a very useful smoking cessation device that is much, much less toxic than cigarettes. We don’t yet have all the answers about their benefits and risks; these data are being accumulated now. For government authorities and other groups to condemn and attempt to ban them makes no sense: it blocks a product that’s clearly safe in the short term, while another, highly dangerous one remains on the market.”

http://www.acsh.org/

Thanks to Kate from VapersNetwork for the link