E-cigarette companies fined over false claims about toxic chemicals

Australia’s competition regulator has become the first in the world to successfully take legal action against e-cigarette companies for making false and misleading claims about the carcinogens in their products.

Federal court Justice John Gilmour ordered three online e-cigarette retailers – The Joystick Company Pty Ltd, Social-Lites Pty Ltd and Elusion Australia Ltd – and their individual CEOs and directors to pay penalties for breaching consumer law.

In separate proceedings the court found each of the companies had claimed their products did not contain harmful carcinogens and toxins, when this was not the case. It also found that the directors of Joystick and Elusion, and the CEO of Social-Lites, were knowingly involved in this deception.

Joystick and Social-Lites have been ordered to pay a penalty of $ 50,000, while the company heads have been ordered to pay $ 10,000. Elusion has been ordered to pay $ 40,000 and its director $ 15,000.

All three retailers admitted the conduct alleged by the ACCC and consented to the amounts of the penalties.

According to the case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), statements on the company websites led consumers to believe they would not be exposed to the harmful chemicals found in ordinary cigarettes.

However independent testing commissioned by the ACCC identified the presence of carcinogens and toxic chemicals, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein in the products of Joystick, Social-Lites and Elusion, as well as acetone in Social-Lites’ products.

Formaldehyde is classified by the World Health Organisation International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1A carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer, while acetaldehyde is classified as possibly carcinogenic. Acrolein is classified as a toxic chemical.

Dr Becky Freeman, a tobacco control researcher with the University of Sydney’s school of public health, said some consumers thought e-cigarette companies were “small artisan companies interested in improving health” when in fact most were owned by big tobacco.

Many advertisements for e-cigarettes and related products claimed they were less toxic and therefore less harmful than tobacco, she said. “But I’d challenge you to find something that isn’t less toxic than tobacco,” Freeman said. “We have no long-term data on e-cigarettes to show that they’ve help people quit for good or that they’re safe.”

The federal court ruling was “enormously significant”, said Simon Chapman, an emeritus professor of public health. He was aware that other complaints about e-cigarette advertising have been made to the ACCC. “These are by no means isolated examples,” Chapman said.

“Tobacco companies want to walk on both sides of the street. They try to argue that e-cigarettes are simply an ordinary consumer product and not a therapeutic device and therefore shouldn’t be subject to the same regulations, yet they often make statements that these things are excellent ways of quitting.”

He said it was “insulting to science” to claim the products were harmless or safe given the lack of evidence about long-term effects.

“Of course they don’t have all the products of combustion that tobacco products have, as they are vaporised and not burned. So while they’re likely to be less harmful, we do not yet know the magnitude of their harm, we just have no accurate way of estimating that yet,” said Chapman.

The ACCC’s acting chair, Delia Rickard, said businesses, including those online, must ensure they provide accurate information to customers and have a reasonable basis for making any claims. “This is particularly important for products that may cause harm to the health of consumers,” she said.

E-cigarette companies fined over false claims about toxic chemicals

Shocking Study: E-Cigarette Vapor Kills 85 % of the Cells in Your Mouth

Smoking e-cigarettes may not be much safer than tobacco when it comes to oral health, a new study suggests. People claim that EC can reduce the harm which regular cigarettes are causing. But this theory has many holes in it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 2011-2012, e-cigarette use more than doubled among 15 and 19 age students in the United States, and in 2014, more than a fifth of adults who currently smoke reported also using e-cigarettes.

What Are E-Cigarettes?

E-cigarettes are battery-operated electronic devices that provide a way to get nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive drug that is naturally found in tobacco. E-cigarettes also allow nicotine to be inhaled, but they work by heating a liquid cartridge containing nicotine, flavors, and other chemicals into a vapor.

New Study Conducted by Dr. Shen Hu

A number of studies have shown that electronic cigarettes are not as harmful as the conventional cigarettes. New researchers found e-cigarettes contain toxic substances and nano-particles that could kill the top layer of skin cells in the oral cavity behind teeth and gums.

The researchers – led by Dr. Shen Hu, an associate professor of oral biology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) – came to their conclusion by analyzing the effects of e-cigarette vapor on cell cultures in laboratory tests.

How it Effects Our Oral Health

Inhaling heated chemicals, including the e-liquid ingredients nicotine, couldn’t possibly be good for you.

Vapours contain toxic substances and particles which damage skin cells.
Exposure reduced body’s natural defences of the antioxidant glutathione.
Scientists say it could lead to increased risk of oral disease like cancer.

Conclusion:

“On assessing the effects of e-cigarette vapor on oral cavity cell cultures, the researchers found that the vapor reduced levels of glutathione within the cells, which is an important antioxidant that protects them from damage. As a result, the e-cigarette vapor destroyed around 85 percent of the cells.”

The substance directly kills airway cells and weakens the immune system, researchers found.

Sources:

1) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/311313.php

2) http://healthyhousetips.com/reasons-stop-using-e-cigarettes/

3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3663839/E-cigarettes-toxic-mouth-Vaping-kills-cells-oral-cavity-raising-risk-disease.html

4) http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/ecigarette-vapor-destroys-mouth.html?t=DA

Look Also:

Shocking Study: E-Cigarette Vapor Kills 85 % of the Cells in Your Mouth

E-cigarette ads may cause children to underestimate smoking risks – study

E-cigarette advertising may be leading children to believe occasional tobacco smoking is not harmful, and is potentially prompting more young people to experiment with smoking, a study has claimed.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of North Carolina recruited more than 400 English children for the study.

Aged 11 to 16, they had never smoked or vaped before and were randomly allocated to one of three groups. One group was shown 10 adverts that depicted e-cigarettes as glamorous, a second group was shown 10 adverts that portrayed them as healthy, and a third control group was shown no adverts.

The children were then asked a series of questions aimed at determining their attitudes towards smoking and vaping.

Children shown the adverts were no more or less likely than the control group to perceive tobacco smoking as appealing and all three groups understood that smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day was harmful.

However, the groups exposed to the e-cigarette adverts, both healthy and glamorous, were less likely to believe smoking one or two tobacco cigarettes occasionally was harmful.

There is concern that the increasing exposure of children to e-cigarette adverts could be contributing to high rates of experimentation.

In the US, adolescents’ exposure to e-cigarette adverts on TV more than trebled between 2011 and 2013, researchers said.

They added that estimates suggest that, among children who try smoking, between a third and a half of them were likely to become regular smokers within two to three years.

Dr Milica Vasiljevic, from the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge, said: “While we can be optimistic that the adverts don’t seem to make tobacco smoking more appealing to young people, they do appear to make occasional smoking seem less harmful.

“This is worrying, as we know that even occasional tobacco smoking is bad for your health, and young people who smoke occasionally believe they are somehow immune to its effects and do not feel the need to quit.”

The children who were shown adverts depicting e-cigarettes as glamorous also believed vaping to be more prevalent than did the other two groups.

Researchers also highlighted a 2014 study that showed more children aged 11 to 15 experimented with e-cigarettes than tobacco (22% compared with 18%).

Prof Theresa Marteau, director of the behaviour and health research unit and a fellow of Christ’s College at University of Cambridge, said: “E-cigarette marketing across Europe is regulated under the new EU Tobacco Products Directive, which came into effect on 20 May.

“The directive limits the exposure of children to TV and newspaper e-cigarette adverts. However, it does not cover advertising in the form of posters, leaflets, and adverts at point of sale, nor does it cover the content of marketing materials depicting e-cigarettes as glamorous or healthy.

“The findings from our study suggest these omissions could present a threat to the health of children.”

The research, funded by the Department of Health, was published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: “The most recent survey found the lowest recorded smoking rates among children ever: only 18% of 11- to 15-year-olds had tried smoking in 2014 compared with 42% in 2003.

“It doesn’t look like e-cigarette advertising has had an impact on smoking uptake so far, and from May this year all TV, radio and newspaper advertising has been banned anyway.”

E-cigarette ads may cause children to underestimate smoking risks – study

E-cigarette users say vaping can make them truly feel greater and end smelling of smoke

“It aids much more with the social aspect of lifestyle than something,” stated Elijah Williams, owner of House of Vapes, a dimly lit east London cafe total of modest flavour phials with names ranging from Grape to OMG.

“You don’t realise till you start employing it around pals and they are not bothered because it smells like strawberry.”

Customers of e-cigarettes or vaping units often speak about the alter in habit like a conversion story. Devotees say there is a culture of cool close to vaping but that there is more to the habit than fashion. They feel a genuine alter to their lives and their wellness as nicely as a release from cigarette addiction.

Related: Public wellness agency backs e-cigarettes as safer than smoking

“I utilized to be fairly towards it because a whole lot of my friends have been attempting to get me onto it and I did not truly see the stage,” explained Williams, who opened Home of Vapes in April.

“It was only when my pal received an upgrade and he gave me his outdated device and mentioned: ‘Listen, you’ve not paid for it, it is acquired some liquid in it, give it a go.’ Two weeks later, I was outdoors on my lunch break obtaining a cigarette. I started out employing the two of them with each other and I just didn’t like the smell of smoke on my clothes any more.”

Williams went on to see if vaping had impacted his well being, a concern shared by several when e-cigarettes very first hit the stores. His doctor confirmed that his lungs had enhanced because the switch. Williams added: “I consider it is more advantageous than damaging to be truthful.”

Relevant: E-cigarettes: is vaping any safer than old-fashioned smoke?

“As effectively as that, making use of it at residence grew to become a lot much more pleasurable due to the fact I could use it in the front room. I didn’t have to go to the backyard any far more to have a cigarette so I could just sit there and watch EastEnders with my mum which I’d by no means actually been in a position to do – so it’s aided me socially and it’s helped me give up cigarettes as well.”

Chadia Aboutaka, a customer, explained: “I haven’t done significantly analysis on it, but I know that I truly feel much better than I did smoking, so for me that is proof adequate. And I know I really do not want to vape for the rest of my existence anyway. It is anything that I’m carrying out that’s transitionary.

Jack Paul, a younger East Midlands Trains worker from Newcastle who has lately switched from smoking cigarettes to making use of a vaping gadget, additional: “I’m confident it is not one hundred% healthful simply because there is always chemicals in them, but I can say I absolutely come to feel better than I did having cigarettes – I feel they are possibly healthier.”

E-cigarette users say vaping can make them truly feel greater and end smelling of smoke

E-cigarette use growing amid British youths, campaign group research demonstrates

Experimentation with e-cigarettes is increasing among eleven- to 18-year-olds in Britain but is most common amid people who currently smoke or who have completed in the past, according to anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).

It says outcomes from its third annual on the web survey of youthful people’s attitudes to e-cigarettes suggest that it is “unlikely” they are currently acting as a gateway to tobacco.

Although 10% of virtually 2,300 surveyed for Ash by YouGov in March said they had experimented with e-cigarettes “once or twice”, up from four% two years in the past, standard use remained rare.

Only two.four% mentioned they used them at least once a month and virtually all have been young men and women who explained they had been, or have been still, normal tobacco smokers. The increases in use have took place as regular tobacco smoking by 11- to 15-12 months-olds has dropped to a reduced of 3%.

Ash is concerned, however, that a expanding proportion of young folks believe vaping is as dangerous as smoking cigarettes – a figure that has enhanced from 11% in 2013 to 21% this yr, even if most accurately considered e-cigarettes significantly less damaging.

The discovering comes just days soon after the Royal Society for Public Well being referred to as for a public education campaign that may possibly support smokers not nevertheless ready to give up their nicotine habit switch to e-cigarettes, because these did not also have the much more hazardous chemicals, this kind of as tar and arsenic, discovered in tobacco cigarettes.

Final results from Ash’s 2015 survey coincided with analysis, in the journal Public Health, of its 2013 and 2014 statistics by personnel at Public Well being England (PHE), Ash, the Uk Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, and other experts.

Authors of the journal report, although it only covers the very first two surveys, also express issues at the rising proportion of young individuals perceiving e-cigarettes to be as hazardous as tobacco ones. This, it warns, may possibly reduce numbers of young men and women “willing to attempt and/or use what is evidently a considerably much less hazardous supply of nicotine”.

They also even so say youthful folks are “still relatively inexperienced” in the use of e-cigarettes and recognise worries above their attraction to young folks. Shut surveillance have to proceed on any romantic relationship in between e-cigarette use and that of traditional cigarettes, “and the extent to which engagement in 1 use precedes or replaces the other”.

Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at Ash, stated: “These outcomes need to reassure the public that electronic cigarettes are not linked with any rise in youthful men and women smoking. Although more young men and women are making an attempt electronic cigarettes and numerous a lot more younger folks are aware of them, this has not led to widespread typical use or an increase in smoking.”

A new law will prohibit their sale to beneath-18s in England and Wales from 1 October and Scotland is planning to adhere to suit quickly. In Wales, e-cigarette use will also be banned in enclosed public locations, as tobacco smoking previously is.

Kevin Fenton, national director for health and wellbeing at PHE, explained this would “further reduce youngsters accessibility to these goods and will reinforce the message that they are meant for adult smokers who want to minimize down or stop smoking”.

The Welsh government said: “We are concerned the use of e-cigarettes could re-normalise smoking, especially for a generation who have grown up in a largely smoke-cost-free society.

“We are not alone in our worries – the Globe Health Organisation and other global bodies have known as for better regulation of e-cigarettes and forty other nations have previously taken equivalent steps.”

E-cigarette use growing amid British youths, campaign group research demonstrates

Should the e-cigarette market be restricted? - poll

The burgeoning e-cigarette industry is proving really controversial amongst public wellness specialists. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Photographs

A group of 129 doctors and specialists has written a letter to the director of the World Health Organisation, urging it to treat e-cigarettes as it would tobacco products, and spot stricter controls on the burgeoning industry.

Criticising the part of big tobacco in the e-cigarette market, casting doubt on the role e-cigarettes can have in assisting smokers to quit and highlighting the attraction of e-cigarettes to youngsters, the doctors create:

The two scientific evidence and best practices are obtainable to support a regulatory framework that will ideal avert initiation of use amid youth and other non-tobacco consumers, defend bystanders in public areas from involuntary exposure, regulate advertising and marketing, and prohibit unsubstantiated claims.

The public well being community is polarised in excess of the concern. This week’s letter was in response to a letter in Might from a group of scientists, who advised that e-cigarettes could be a hugely important wellness innovation. They accused WHO of “overlooking or purposefully marginalising” the role e-cigarettes have as a lower-threat alternative to cigarettes.

What do you believe? Is the growing e-cigarette market a potential danger in need to have of tighter regulatory controls, including a restriction on advertising and promotion? Or do e-cigarettes supply a lower chance option to tobacco cigarettes that could have considerable constructive public overall health implications.

Take our poll below and comment below the line – particularly if want to share experiences (great or poor) with e-cigarettes.

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Should the e-cigarette market be restricted? - poll

France moving to ban e-cigarette from public spots, says report

As well as a ban affecting e-cigarettes, France may possibly comply with Australia’s illustration by ordering plain packaging for on tobacco merchandise, says the French newspaper. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

France is getting ready to location e-cigarettes on the exact same legal footing as tobacco smoking with draft legislation that aims to ban their use in public locations.

The wellness minister, Marisol Touraine, intends to table a bill on 17 June bringing in anti-smoking measures, Le Figaro reported on Friday.

Not only would France become the first massive European nation to introduce the ban affecting e-cigarettes, but it would also stick to Australia’s example by ordering plain packaging for tobacco goods that display graphic pictures of diseases brought on by smoking.

The proposed bill is more prohibitive than anti-smoking measures adopted by the European parliament in February. It comes at a time when e-cigarette merchants have been springing up across France, which now has nearly one million consumers.

The president of the French Tobacconists’ Confederation, Pascal Montredon, told the Guardian that Touraine was being unrealistic by modelling her reforms on “Anglo-saxon” countries such as Australia and Britain exactly where the cigarette distribution network is fully various from France.

“Tobacconists are fed up with becoming stigmatised at a time when instead the government must be undertaking one thing about the unemployment rate,” he stated. The confederation is pressing for e-cigarettes to be offered solely in tobacconist stores, but the proposed legislation fails to handle this, he explained.

He also explained the government needed to deliver in measures to curb the parallel cigarette market which accounts for 25% of income in France.

Other critics said that studies had proven that smokers are much more influenced by loved ones and buddies in taking up smoking and that extremely number of are influenced by packaging.

Touraine’s workplace did not verify the report in Le Figaro, which was published on the eve of “globe no tobacco day”. But the ministry stated that a “nationwide smoking reduction prepare” was below consideration.

A total 73,000 French smokers die each 12 months from tobacco-relevant cancers.

France moving to ban e-cigarette from public spots, says report

E-cigarette users have tripled to two million because 2012, review finds

An e-cigarette user. In accordance to the survey, in 2010, only 2.7% of smokers stated they utilised electronic cigarettes on a typical basis, but now that is up to 17.seven%. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Far more than 2 million folks are believed to use electronic cigarettes in Britain, but almost all are recent smokers or ex-smokers who use the products to stay off tobacco, in accordance to a survey published on Monday.

The anti-tobacco charity Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) says the variety of e-cigarette customers has tripled from 700,000 in 2012. Almost two-thirds of end users are smokers and the other third are ex-smokers, Ash says, although use of the units amid non-smokers is negligible, at only .one%.

Ash’s findings are released on the day that a consultation on e-cigarette marketing closes. The Advertising Requirements Authority has been examining worries, notably between public well being physicians, that advertising encourages non-smokers and specifically youngsters to consider them, and that they will graduate to ordinary cigarettes.

But Ash’s survey, carried out by YouGov, suggests this is not occurring and that men and women are using e-cigarettes to kick their tobacco habit as an alternative.

“The dramatic rise in the use of electronic cigarettes over the previous four years suggests that smokers are increasingly turning to these devices to support them cut down or quit smoking. Drastically, usage among non-smokers stays negligible,” said Deborah Arnott, Ash’s chief executive.

“While it is essential to manage the advertising of electronic cigarettes to make certain kids and non-smokers are not getting targeted, there is no proof from our analysis that e-cigarettes are acting as a gateway into smoking.”

YouGov surveyed a lot more than twelve,000 men and women, with Ash extrapolating the complete number of e-cigarette users in the population from the findings.

In a related YouGov survey in 2010, eight.2% of recent or ex-smokers had experimented with e-cigarettes, but now half of them have (51.seven%). In 2010, only 2.seven% explained they utilised them on a regular basis, but now that is up to 17.7%.

Between recent e-cigarette users, the main reason provided by ex-smokers was “to aid me end smoking completely” (71%) and “to support me keep off tobacco” (48%). The principal explanation given by present smokers was to “aid me minimize the amount of tobacco I smoke, but not cease completely” (48%) followed by “to save funds compared with smoking tobacco” (37%).

A study from University College London earlier this month had comparable findings. The Smoking Toolkit Research carried out in England located that e-cigarettes have been taking more than from nicotine gum and patches as an assist to giving up smoking.

The leader of that study, Professor Robert West, stated: “Regardless of claims that use of electronic cigarettes dangers renormalising smoking, we identified no evidence to help this see. On the contrary, electronic cigarettes might be assisting to reduce smoking as a lot more folks use them as an aid to quitting.”

The consultation is looking at regardless of whether marketing guidelines require to be modified for e-cigarettes. Some public health doctors argue that marketing could normalise ordinary cigarettes, which have otherwise turn into pariah merchandise.

The e-cigarette business explained the Ash survey showed that public wellness opponents, such as the British Health care Association, have been incorrect to oppose the devices as determinedly as they do. “Review after examine is showing that scaremongering that e-cigarettes are luring folks into tobacco is baseless nonsense. The reverse is going on – smokers are switching into e-cigarettes as the way to minimize the harm from tobacco,” explained Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, legal and corporate affairs director of E-Lites.

E-cigarette users have tripled to two million because 2012, review finds

E-cigarette poisoning figures soar as vaping habit spreads across Uk

Investigation exhibits 36.five% of the phone enquiries manufactured by wellness pros concerned kids aged four and younger. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

The quantity of men and women – like very youthful kids – poisoned by swallowing e-cigarette liquids containing nicotine rose sharply in the United kingdom final year.

There were 139 calls by wellness experts seeking professional guidance on how to treat members of the public as the vaping habit rapidly spread.

The figures obtained by the Guardian from the Nationwide Poisons Details Support(NPIS) display that there were 29 this kind of circumstances in 2012 and 36 in excess of the five years before that.

The NPIS’s analysis indicated that in excess of a third (36.five%) of calls concerned really youthful kids, 56% more than 18s and the rest young children of 5 and over and youngsters.

Most poisoning situations have been accidental and signs and symptoms, including vomiting, nausea, dizziness and abdominal pain, were typically quick-lived, according to the service’s director John Thompson.

“Whilst any instances of poisoning are of concern, our preceding analysis showed that fortunately fewer than 1-in-ten of individuals developed symptoms of toxicity which lasted far more than four hrs and only two individuals had long lasting symptoms.

“However, just above a third of the phone enquiries concerned children aged four and younger and of these, 10% produced symptoms which required hospital care,” mentioned Thompson.

“E-cigarette usage has increased drastically in latest years. The liquid found in e-cigarettes can be quite harmful and I would urge any person who employs e-cigarettes to make confident that the liquids are stored safely, and in particular away from kids.”

The figures obtained by the Guardian come after health warnings from the US Centers for Ailment Management (CDC) which has observed large increases in calls to poison centres involving e-cigarettes – from one particular a month in September 2010 to 215 in February this 12 months. In contrast to the British figures, these included calls from the public as nicely as overall health specialists, and also covered instances of inhalation and absorption by means of the skin and eyes.

Sweden too has reported increases in e-cigarette poisoning.

The NPIS figures come as EU nations prepare to tighten controls more than e-cigarettes and some businesses opt to look for costly licensing as medicines, which they would need to have to back up any declare they assist tobacco smokers to quit.

The Welsh government is considering regardless of whether e-cigarettes ought to be banned from public locations, and a new law banning income to underneath-18s in England and Wales is anticipated to be implemented soon.

The 1st e-cigarettes in the United kingdom went on sale in 2005 and now are used by at least 2m people, in accordance to Katherine Devlin, of the Electronic Cigarette Sector Trade Association(Ecita), a Uk physique with 26 companies in membership.

She explained the present EU laws covering the safety of items and chemical compounds should reassure the public. Makers have been already meant to warn e-cigarette end users that liquids in e-cigarette cartridges could be toxic if swallowed or in contact with the skin and urge them to preserve them locked up and out of attain of kids.

But trading specifications officers were not always enforcing the principles, leaving area for “cowboys” to exploit consumers, Devlin stated. Makers and retailers working illegally and not delivering suitable childproof packaging and labelling need to be pursued by authorities despite the fact that she recognised council trading specifications officers had suffered public spending cuts.

“We want accessibility to these goods but they require to be risk-free, appropriately examined and correctly sold,” mentioned Devlin.

Ecita says the new guidelines will indicate numerous e-cigarettes presently on the marketplace will be banned and make new varieties significantly less eye-catching and tougher to use. They are expected to be comprehensive in a directive subsequent month and will be phased in from 2016.

These will demand far more info on nicotine material, which includes its toxicity and addictiveness, new controls over liquid refills, powers for member states and Brussels to act in which there are “justified security worries”, and much better monitoring of developing e-cigarette market place.

The Department of Overall health stated: “We lately passed legislation to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under 18s. Like any nicotine merchandise, we want to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of youthful youngsters and are now working to put measures into spot to make certain that new European tobacco regulations are implemented properly.”

E-cigarette poisoning figures soar as vaping habit spreads across Uk

Exploding e-cigarette sets barmaid"s dress on fire

Element of it also hit at buyer at the Buck Inn Hotel, in Richmond, North Yorks, and left him with a red mark on his abdomen.

Miss Baty mentioned: “I was about to give someone their alter and I heard the bang. I could see the fire coming at me and I felt the heat as I ran away.

“I started crying hysterically and my arm was all black. My dress caught on fire as I ran away and I just did not know what was happening.

^{Ross Parry}

“A client came and took me in to the bathroom to calm me down. She washed down my arm which was all black and I even now didn’t know what had happened.”

Miss Baty, who has worked at the pub for nearly two years, was badly shaken by the explosion on Saturday.

She added: “I thought the fuse-box had blown up or a firework had gone off.

“Everyone was just so shocked.”

The e-cigarette belonged to fellow barman Stewart Paterson, 21, who has been trying to quit smoking since December final year.

Video courtesy Ross Parry

Exploding e-cigarette sets barmaid"s dress on fire

E-cigarette ad banned over overall health claims

An ad for Ten Motives e-cigarettes has been banned by the ASA Photograph: Screengrab

An advert for an e-cigarette brand has been banned following the advertising watchdog ruled that claims which includes that it was “the healthier smoking alternative” could not be substantiated.

Wednesday’s ruling by the Promoting Specifications Authority comes as it seems to introduce new regulations for e-cigarette marketing and advertising to clear up uncertainty in the industry.

The leaflet for 10 Motives’ disposable electronic cigarettes claimed they have been “the healthier smoking option” and “due to the fact it consists of no tar or cancerous toxins, you can nonetheless appreciate smoking without worrying about the effects on your wellness”.

The ad was challenged over no matter whether these claims could be substantiated.

In its defence, Ten Motives argued that e-cigarettes have been a safer substitute to standard cigarettes, saying that its solution contained none of the 4,000 or so damaging harmful toxins and carcinogens found in standard tobacoo-primarily based merchandise.

It pointed out that regulator Medicines &amp Healthcare Products Regulatory Company (MHRA) had confirmed that it was acceptable to refer to its goods as a healthier alternative.

It also cited a briefing document from the public health charity Ash (Action on Smoking and Wellness) that stated “individuals smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar”.

10 Motives also presented hyperlinks to presentations given at an e-cigarette summit in November 2013 at the Royal Society, which it mentioned had been attended by recognised worldwide scientific authorities on smoking, which includes the MHRA.

It highlighted estimates and presentations that it said supported the ad’s claims, like a science-based mostly independent presentation, “Nicotine security in the context of e-cigarette use and tobacco dependance”.

In its ruling, the ASA mentioned the two claims in the ad have been understood to suggest the Ten Motive’s merchandise were significantly less harmful than typical cigarettes.

But it ruled that the ad ought to be banned, as although it acknowledged the quote from Ash, it mentioned it was not supported by even more documentation or substantiation displaying the results of e-cigarettes or the 10 Motives products particularly.

Likewise, it said the summit presentations did not deal particularly with Ten Motives items.

In its ruling, the ASA concluded the claims “the healthier smoking substitute” and “you can even now enjoy smoking with no worrying about the results on your well being” had been misleading and the ad should be banned.

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E-cigarette ad banned over overall health claims

E-Cigarette Makers Give Public the Finger

With Sarah Mittermaier and Lily Swartz

In 1964, smoking was everywhere: on television, on airplanes, in workplaces and movie theatres, school campuses, doctors’ offices, dining establishments and bars. In the 50 years given that the very first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health was launched, smoking has slowly faded to the margins of public lifestyle. The Marlboro Marlboro man was bounced from the airwaves, complete smoking bans have been passed in hundreds of cities and 28 states, and smoking costs have been lower almost in half. The struggle to safeguard the public’s health is far from over—and shocking disparities in tobacco use and exposure to tobacco advertising and marketing remain—but we’re now reaping some rewards, with eight million lives saved more than the previous half-century.

But now a new threat is emerging. The use of e-cigarettes is increasing rapidly, with teenagers a essential target of advertising efforts. “Vaping” is producing smoking acceptable—even cool—once again as the tobacco sector returns to its outdated methods, putting e-cigarette commercials back on the airwaves for the 1st time considering that the 1970s.

Right now, e-cigarettes exist in what tobacco manage researcher Stanton Glanz calls a regulatory “Wild West,” with no federal regulation of the manufacturing, advertising and marketing and sales of these items. This regulatory vacuum threatens to undo the tough-won victories of the past 50 years in tobacco control.

E-cigarette firms are taking a page appropriate out of Big Tobacco’s outdated-college playbook: advertising their merchandise with intercourse appeal, celebrity endorsements, even cartoons. The companies argue that “vaping” is safer than classic smoking and that might or could not be true—there are far too few research to back up that claim or refute it. But it’s also a smokescreen.

The tobacco market is out to hook youngsters, and it’s functioning. E-cigarettes come in an array of child-friendly flavors, from“Cherry Crush” to “Coca Cola.” And in contrast to conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes can legally be sold to kids in most US states. Information released last year by the Centers for Disease Management and Prevention showed that e-cigarette use more than doubled among middle and large college college students in the previous year. For twenty % of the middle schoolers, e-cigarettes were their first knowledge with smoking, raising considerations that e-cigarettes may act as a gateway to the use of other tobacco merchandise.

E-cigarettes also threaten to reintroduce smoking to workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public spaces the place challenging-fought public overall health campaigns have succeeded in banning cigarettes. These policies have transformed our communities from the ground up, producing new expectations and norms about smoking. The science is even now out on no matter whether e-cigarettes threaten non-smokers with toxic exposure, but their use in public legitimizes their use, generating them look acceptable, even Golden Globes-glamorous. We can not allow e-cigarettes undo the hard work tobacco manage advocates have attained in excess of the past 50 many years.

Some cities and states are pushing back towards e-cigarettes, taking measures to regulate the sale and public use of e-cigarettes. Above the past number of months, New York and Chicago city councils voted to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco merchandise, extending current smoking bans to cover vaping. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to regulate the revenue of e-cigarettes. Boston has banned e-cigarette smoking in workplaces. States this kind of as Utah, New Jersey, and North Dakota ban the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public spaces.

These regional and state efforts should be followed—and strengthened—by federal action. Attorneys general from forty states have known as on the Meals and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco items, a move that would give the FDA the electrical power to impose age restrictions and limit advertising and marketing of e-cigarettes. Proposed rules drafted by the agency have not yet been launched publicly.

We can not wait many years for scientists to carry out new research on the health risks of vaping just before we take action. We know better than to trust the tobacco industry’s wellness claims about their products—or to trust the business with our children’s long term. The time for action is now. To paraphrase a single anti-cigarette business in California: “Some folks will say anything to promote (e-) cigarettes.”

E-Cigarette Makers Give Public the Finger