Mexico bans sales of 'harmful' e-cigarettes

Yahoo – AFP, 31 May 2022 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful
to health (AFP/Valery HACHE) (Valery HACHE)

Mexico on Tuesday banned sales of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices because of concerns about their health effects, the government announced. 

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said it was a "lie" to claim that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to inhaling tobacco smoke.

"The vapors are also harmful for health," Lopez Obrador told reporters as he announced the signing of a presidential decree introducing the ban on World No Tobacco Day. 

He showed a pink vaping device to illustrate how the products are intended to appeal to young people. 

"Look at the color, the design," Lopez Obrador said. 

Mexico prohibited the import and export of vaping devices and cartridges in October, but the companies have continued to sell their inventory, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said. 

The new ban covers "the circulation and marketing of these new products," he added. 

E-cigarettes heat up a cartridge of liquid typically containing nicotine and other chemicals into an aerosol. The user inhales the resulting vapor, mimicking traditional cigarettes. 

Proponents of vaping say it is safer than traditional tobacco. 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful to health and has called for tight regulation to stop young people in particular from using them. 

More than 30 countries have banned sales of electronic cigarettes, the WHO said last July. 

In April, e-cigarette firm Juul agreed to pay $22.5 million in a US lawsuit that alleged the company deliberately targeted teenagers and lied about how addictive its products are.

US unveils partial ban on flavored e-cigarettes

Yahoo – AFP, January 2, 2020

The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that more than five million US
middle and high school students are e-cigarette users, with nearly one million
using daily (AFP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Washington (AFP) - The US government on Thursday announced it would soon ban most flavored e-cigarettes as it tries to curb a rising tide of youth vaping, but stopped short of the full ban promised in September by President Donald Trump.

The Food and Drug Administration said cartridge-based e-cigarettes in flavors "other than tobacco or menthol" would be illegal unless they receive specific authorization from the government.

Companies that do not cease making and selling such cartridges within 30 days will face punishment, the FDA said.

"The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes," Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

Azar said prioritizing flavors most widely used by children would ensure e-cigarettes were a potential "off-ramp" for adult smokers but not an "on-ramp" to nicotine addiction for youngsters.

"We will not stand idly by as this crisis among America's youth grows and evolves, and we will continue monitoring the situation and take further actions as necessary," he added.

The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that more than five million US middle and high school students are e-cigarette users, with nearly one million using daily.

"Additional data from another federal survey further underscore that youth are particularly attracted to e-cigarette flavors such as fruit and mint, much more so than tobacco or menthol flavored e-cigarettes," the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The flavor ban will exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, however, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.

Related Articles:

At tobacco industry forum, panic over possible e-cigarette ban

New York state bans flavored e-cigarettes over vaping concerns
Vaping-related illness sickens over 500 in US

US says vaping market-leader JUUL's advertising was unlawful

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”

Anti-smoking campaigners want ban on too-toxic cigarettes

DutchNews, November 6, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Anti-smoking campaigners Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd , Amsterdam city council and 18 other organisations are going to court to demand a ban on cigarettes with too much tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide, the AD reports.. 

Tests carried out by public health institute RIVM have shown that many cigarettes contain more of the harmful substances than is flagged up by the official measuring method used by the Dutch product safety board NVWA. 

An earlier request to NVWA to ban the cigarettes by the Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd, which focuses on preventing young people from smoking, was rejected, as was a petition to the health ministry. The next port of call for the campaigners is the administrative court in Rotterdam which will look at the case on Monday, the paper said. 

Cigarettes can contain no more than 10 mgs of tar, 1 mg of nicotine and 10 mg carbon monoxide and all brands claim they are keeping to the norm. 

However, the RIVM tests showed that 43 out of 100 cigarettes exceed the norm for one or more of the toxic substances. Because there is a margin of 20% none of the producers has ever been fined, with the exception of Lexington. The size of the fine is unknown, the AD said. 

The Dutch term for a cigarette that ostensibly complies with the norm but doesn’t is ‘sjoemelsigaret’.

Final puffs for France's last tobacco factory

Yahoo – AFP, Nathalie ALONSO, October 2, 2019

Eric Tabanou, director of the France Tabac, factory in the Dordogne region of
southwest France, said keeping the country's last tobacco processing site
open became unviable. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH)

Sarlat-la-Caneda (France) (AFP) - Gerard Chanquoi looks sadly at the conveyor belts of France's sole remaining tobacco processing factory as they whirl for the last times ahead of its final closure, a victim of changed economic times and a different public health landscape.

Anti-smoking campaigners may cheer its demise, but for its workers and local tobacco growers, the closure of the France Tabac factory after 34 years of operation is a devastating blow to the Dordogne region of southwest France.

"It's a fine mess," lamented Chanquoi, 61, who has worked for over 30 years at the factory in the town of Sarlat-la-Caneda.

"It makes you well up a bit, it's hard. I am at the end of my career, but for my friends... who have a decade of career ahead of them, it is tough," he added.

In its heyday after opening in 1985 in one of France's main tobacco growing regions, the factory was a mainstay of the local economy, extending over 10 hectares (25 acres) and processing 20,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves from France and Europe every year.

"Our know-how is recognised across all of Europe," said Chanquoi, looking ruefully at an almost empty warehouse where only years ago bundles of processed tobacco would have stretched to the ceiling.

"This used to be a hive of activity."

The homegrown tobacco used in cigarettes like Gauloises, beloved of French film icons and philosophers, used to be a symbol of France.

But the country's last cigarette factory, la Seita in Riom in the Puy-de-Dome region, closed in 2017 and the Gauloises brand is now produced in Poland.

Inspecting tobacco leaves at the France Tabac plant, 

which will close down for good this month. (AFP Photo/

Mehdi FEDOUACH)

The number of smokers in France remains above the average for a developed country, with 32 percent of adults aged between 18-75 smoking in 2018, according to official figures.

But the number of people describing themselves as daily smokers has fallen sharply in recent years as the price of cigarettes has risen.

'Doomed'

The production line at the factory in Sarlat-le-Caneda finally came to a halt just before midday on Monday. Some workers remain in the plant this week for a final clean-up before a meeting with the director next week ahead of being laid-off.

The factory's director Eric Tabanou said that announcing the closure to the employees was painful, while insisting there was no other option.

"We stood up in front of 200 employees. It was dramatic... The factory was on borrowed time, the end was inevitable," Tabanou said.

Trouble began in 2010 when the European Union announced that, as part of its drive to cut smoking, tobacco producers would no longer receive subsidies from the bloc.

"Tobacco production diminished from year to year and certain products were not in line with the demands of the market," Tabanou said.

"Also, we had to submit to increased competition from tobacco manufacturers who would do anything to save a single cent."

In 2016, the factory was processing over 5,300 tonnes of tobacco a year, far below the 20,000 tonnes processed in the 2000s.

Patrick Maury, a tobacco grower in Mazeyrolles, France, said he hopes to 

find new buyers for his crop. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH)

"French production makes up just one percent of Europe's output, and it is doomed," Tabanou said.

French tobacco will now be processed outside the country, notably in Croatia.

"It is the turning of a page in our agricultural history," Jean-Jacques de Peretti, the mayor of Sarlat-la-Caneda, said when the closure was announced in late August.

'New opportunities'

But some producers hope that all is not lost, and say they will focus on the high-end market and also producing the raw material needed to create vaping cartridges.

"It is a tough blow, but we will try and find new opportunities," said Patrick Maury, who grows tobacco and also runs a dairy farm in Mazeyrolles, around 35 kilometres from Sarlat.

"Along with my son, we need this crop to live, it makes up 40 percent of our revenues," he said.

Laurent Testut, head of the local Perigord Tabac cooperative, said the industry had managed to adapt before, for example by moving to lighter tobacco blends in line with changing tastes and regulations.

"We risk having to come closer to world prices, but it is up to us to focus on production niches. We have some leads already," he said.

At tobacco industry forum, panic over possible e-cigarette ban

Yahoo – AFP, Ivan Couronne, September 26, 2019

Electronic cigarette devices are prevalent around the world, but could be a thing
of the past in the United States if President Donald Trump moves ahead
with a national ban (AFP Photo/Prakash SINGH)

Washington (AFP) - While most of Washington is gripped by the impeachment storm swirling around Donald Trump, a few blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, hundreds of executives are pondering another potential presidential upheaval.

Trump has floated the possibility of soon banning flavored e-cigarette products -- and even banning vaping altogether. And stakeholders in the world of tobacco and nicotine are none too pleased.

The consensus at a global industry forum that ends Thursday in the nation's capital? Times are tough.

In the past three weeks, India and the US state of Massachusetts have banned the sale of e-cigarettes. Two other states -- New York and Michigan -- have prohibited flavored e-cigarettes.

And from October, the Trump administration wants to ban all but tobacco-flavored products.

While Europe so far has escaped similar measures, the product that many industry experts believed would be their future is instead under attack.

At the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum, the nearly 400 in attendance are in agreement that the priority is to stop what they see as knee-jerk bans by worried governments.

"This is a pivotal moment for the industry," said Howard Willard, the chairman and CEO of tobacco giant Altria, a major stakeholder in the top US e-cigarette maker Juul.

"Vaping is at an inflection point."

On Wednesday, just before the industry forum opened for the day in Washington, Juul announced a corporate shake-up, including the replacement of its CEO.

The industry is facing two problems: the increasing popularity of vaping among young people and the recent explosion of cases of pulmonary illnesses, some of them fatal, apparently linked to tainted vaping refill cartridges bought on the black market.

So far, the toxic ingredient has not been identified.

The industry agrees that consumption should be limited to those over the age of 21, and has placed the blame on governments failing to punish stores for selling to underage buyers.

'It's crazy, basically'

But a total ban on electronic cigarettes in the name of harm reduction is out of the question and downright absurd, those at the Washington conference said, noting that cigarettes have far worse effects and are not banned.

At event booths, cigarette makers highlight less harmful alternatives -- tobacco lozenges and pouches, but also tobacco heating systems.

Philip Morris International is betting on its IQOS: a sort of short cigarette inserted into a device that heats the tobacco and releases a vapor which the company says is less harmful.

At one forum session, Greek cardiologist Konstantinos Farsalinos took issue with India's ban, noting that one million smokers die in the country every year.

"They banned the least harmful nicotine products that they had on the market," he said with disdain.

David Sweanor, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa, chimed in: "That's public health negligence."

In Japan, liquid nicotine is banned, but cigarettes are legal.

"It's crazy, basically," Farsalinos said.

Fact or fiction?

US Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from tobacco-producing state North Carolina, slammed what he called a "frenzy" over the dangers of e-cigarettes and compared a possible ban to a "witch hunt."

He accused states like Massachusetts of instituting bans when "they really have absolutely zero facts to make a conclusion."

For industry executives and those who back them, the furor over e-cigarettes is first and foremost the fault of the media.

They say the stories about the summer spate of illnesses and youthful users were jumbled, and failed to take into account the idea that vaping might be the best alternative for traditional smokers who want to quit.

"We can't allow misinformation assumptions to drive policy and become accepted truths," said Willard, the Altria CEO.

At another panel discussion, participants took aim at the World Health Organization, which reiterated its opposition to e-cigarettes this summer.

Among the most powerful regulatory agencies, "by far the worst and the most dangerous is the WHO," said consultant Clive Bates, adding that the Geneva-based body has "a general tendency to extreme positions."

To survive the crisis, industry executives concede that they have to resolve their credibility problem.

Part of that strategy is a communications issue: Juul targeted young users with Instagram posts until last year. On Wednesday, it announced it would forego advertising altogether.

But not everyone is on board.

Some want to be able to reach smokers seeking an alternative, and they also think it's possible to advertise to those over 21 while avoiding younger consumers, even on the Internet.

"We believe that next-generation products can be marketed responsibly to adult consumers," said Ricardo Oberlander, president and CEO of Reynolds American Inc, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco.

Related Articles:

New York state bans flavored e-cigarettes over vaping concerns
Vaping-related illness sickens over 500 in US

US says vaping market-leader JUUL's advertising was unlawful

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”

US says vaping market-leader JUUL's advertising was unlawful

Yahoo – AFP, September 9, 2019

An FDA warning letter identified several problematic statements made by a JUUL
representative, including that the product was "was much safer than cigarettes"
and that "FDA would approve it any day" (AFP Photo/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)

Washington (AFP) - US health authorities on Monday accused market-leading e-cigarette maker JUUL of ignoring the law and warned it to stop advertising itself as a less harmful alternative to smoking, noting in particular the company's youth outreach efforts.

The Food and Drug Administration's move is the latest development in its ongoing investigation of JUUL's practices, and comes amid a mysterious US outbreak of severe lung disease linked to vaping that has claimed at least five lives.

Federal officials have yet to identify a single substance behind the wave of illnesses, which has affected hundreds of e-cigarette users and left several teens in induced comas.

"The law is clear that, before marketing tobacco products for reduced risk, companies must demonstrate with scientific evidence that their specific product does in fact pose less risk or is less harmful," said Ned Sharpless, the FDA's acting head.

"JUUL has ignored the law, and very concerningly, has made some of these statements in school to our nation's youth," he added.

The warning letter identified several problematic statements made by a JUUL representative speaking at a school at an unspecified date, including that the product was "much safer than cigarettes" and that "FDA would approve it any day."

The representative also told a student they "should mention JUUL to his friend ... because that's a safer alternative than smoking cigarettes, and it would be better for the kid to use," the FDA said.

The agency also expressed concern about the company's "Make the Switch" campaign aimed at the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and has sought a written reply from JUUL.

The relative harm of vaping versus smoking is contested.

E-cigarette users aren't exposed to the estimated 7,000 chemical constituents present in combustible cigarettes, many of them cancer causing.

But the liquid vapor they inhale contains highly addictive nicotine, and a variety of other substances classed as "potentially harmful" in a landmark 2018 study compiled for Congress.

It might also contain traces of metal from the coil used to heat the liquid or other parts of the device, and experts had warned well before the current wave of illnesses in the US that understanding the long-term effects might require decades more of data.

As far as the severe lung disease probe is concerned, New York state has said that counterfeit cartridges containing cannabis products are the focus of its investigation.

These products contained vitamin E oil which is harmful when inhaled.

But federal authorities stress that no single substance has yet been found to be behind all the cases, and some of those who have fallen ill have reported only using nicotine products, not THC.

Billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $160 million campaign to ban flavored e-cigarettes in the United States following a spike in vaping deaths https://t.co/Yxs67WDczE

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 10 september 2019

More people ask for help to quit smoking, insurers say

DutchNews, August 19, 2019 

The number of people requesting help to stop smoking has soared, with the biggest three health insurance companies all reporting a sharp rise, the AD said on Monday. 

Last year, 40,000 people asked VGZ, CZ or Menzis to fund a course or medication to try to quit, the paper said. In 2012, just 3,200 people made a similar request. 

Research by the Trimbos addiction centre also shows more people are asking for help. Last year, some 37% of smokers had a go at quitting smoking, up from 34% in 2014. 

The Netherlands still has 3.1 million smokers, of whom 465,000 smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day. Some 20% to 30% of attempts to stop smoking after a course are successful. 

Trimbos spokesman Marc Willemsen said he expects the number of people asking their insurance company to pay for a course will soar in 2020, when help to quit smoking will be excluded from the €385 own risk element. 

‘That cost is a serious obstacle to people who need serious help,’ he said. ‘They cannot afford it.’

WHO says e-cigarettes 'undoubtedly harmful'

Yahoo – AFP, Allison JACKSON, July 26, 2019

The World Health Organization has issued a new warning about e-cigarettes
and called for tougher regulation (AFP Photo/EVA HAMBACH)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Electronic cigarettes are "undoubtedly harmful" and should be regulated, the WHO said Friday as it warned against the use of vaping products by smokers trying to quit their deadly habit.

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that enable users to inhale addictive nicotine liquids, has raised fears among policymakers worldwide of a new gateway addiction for young people.

While vaping exposes users to lower levels of toxins than smoking, the World Health Organization said the devices still pose "health risks" to users.

"Although the specific level of risk associated with ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) has not yet been conclusively estimated, ENDS are undoubtedly harmful and should therefore be subject to regulation," the WHO said in a new report on the global smoking epidemic.

There was also "insufficient evidence" to support claims of their effectiveness in assisting smokers trying to quit conventional cigarettes, it said.

"In most countries where they are available, the majority of e-cigarette users continue to use e-cigarettes and cigarettes concurrently, which has little to no beneficial impact on health risk and effects," the report said.

Big tobacco companies have been aggressively marketing e-cigarette and heated tobacco products in recent years as they seek new customers.

They argue such products are far less dangerous than traditional cigarettes and can help some smokers completely switch to "safer" alternatives.

But the WHO warned misinformation spread by the tobacco industry about e-cigarettes was "a present and real threat."

Restrictions on the use of e-cigarettes around the world is increasing. San Francisco last month banned the sale and manufacture of the products, which unlike tobacco cigarettes do not burn.

China, home to nearly a third of the world's tobacco smokers, is also planning to regulate the vaping devices.

More effort was needed to help smokers quit, the WHO said in the report, noting only "30 percent of the world's population have access to appropriate tobacco cessation services," such as counseling, telephone hotlines and medication.

Without assistance, only four percent of attempts to stop smoking succeed.

Tobacco claims more than eight million lives each year either from direct use or second-hand smoke, according to the WHO.

While the number of users has declined slightly since 2007, it remains stubbornly high at 1.4 billion, the vast majority of them men.

"People who quit tobacco can live longer, healthier and more productive lives," the WHO said.

Amsterdam wants to bring in ‘no junk food zones’ around schools

DutchNews, July 15, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Officials in Amsterdam wants to restrict the number of snack bars and fast food joints near schools in an effort to reduce obesity rates among the city’s children. 

A campaign launched in 2012 helped reduced the percentage of too-heavy children in the Dutch capital from 21% to 18% over a three-year period but the decline has since halted. 

Now alderman Simone Kukenheim plans to take further action to improve the health of the city’s school going children. She wants to introduce a ‘healthy belt’ around schools without snack bars to prevent children filling up on chips and sweets during their breaks, the Parool reported at the weekend. 

Kukenheim hopes new zoning legislation which will come into effect in 2021 and which aims to ensure a ‘safe and healthy physical environment’ will help reduce the number of snack bars near schools. ‘We are researching how these new rules can be used to encourage a healthier supply of food,’ the alderman said. 

The city has also recently expanded the number of water fountains in the city to encourage children to ditch fizzy drinks. 

Minister 

The alderman has appealed to health minister Paul Blokhuis, urging him to get tougher on the sugar, salt and fat content in food. She also wants him to clamp down on the way unhealthy food is marketed at children. 

Socio-economic status and cultural background also play a role in childhood obesity and the problem is largely confined to poorer parts of the city and among immigrant communities. 

The 2012 campaign included advising schools to ban fruit juices, and unhealthy treats for at birthday celebrations and introduced a ban on fast food sponsorship of council events involving children. 

Amsterdam already bans cannabis cafes, or coffeeshops, from being within 250 metres of a school.

Is San Francisco's vaping ban backed by science?

France24 - AFP,  26 June 2019

Jeremy Wong smokes an e-cigarette at The Vaping Buddha on January 23, 2018
in South San Francisco, California GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Washington (AFP) - San Francisco has decided to ban the sale of e-cigarettes in 2020, hoping to curb a surge in vaping among adolescents. But is the policy backed up by the available evidence?

How harmful is vaping?

Unlike tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not "burn." The devices, which have been available in the US since 2006, work instead by heating up a liquid that then turns into vapor and is inhaled.

Because of this, e-cigarette users don't get exposed to the estimated 7,0000 chemical constituents present in combustible cigarettes, and vaping is generally believed to be safer than smoking.

The liquids do, however, contain nicotine, which has been studied for decades and is known to be highly addictive.

They also contain a variety of other constituents classed as "potentially harmful" according to a 2018 study compiled by the US National Academy of Sciences requested by Congress.

Though many of the flavorings in e-liquids are recognized as safe, their toxicity was studied for oral consumption in food and not inhalation, it said.

There is also "substantial evidence" that the vapor contains traces of metals, either from the coil used to heat the liquid, or other parts of the device.

Another potential red flag, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the presence of diacetyl, which is used to add a butter flavoring to microwave popcorn but has been linked to a serious but relatively rare lung disease.

For the time being, there is "no available evidence" to show whether or not e-cigarettes use is associated with cancer, said the NAS report.

But there's a caveat. While experts generally believe vaping is a less toxic alternative to smoking, "the implications for long-term effects on morbidity and mortality are not yet clear," and would require decades of more data and studies to know for certain.

Can it help smokers quit?

Market leading maker Juul's response to the San Francisco ban was that it would "drive former adult smokers who successfully switched to vapor products back to deadly cigarettes."

Are they right about that?

A study published in February in the New England Journal of Medicine on a group of 886 patients in Britain's National Health Service found the claim to be true.

The one-year abstinence rate among e-cigarette users was 18 percent, compared to 9.9 percent among a group who used other nicotine replacement products like gum or patches.

The conversions are not, however, all in one direction.

A slew of recent studies have found that, among adolescents, e-cigarettes effectively provide a gateway toward full-fledged smoking.

Authorities are worried that decades of declining smoking rates among this demographic could go up in smoke as a result of these devices.

Regulation versus prohibition

The vaping industry is adamant it doesn't want to see underage people using its products and more must be done to prevent their sale. E-cigarettes are already illegal to sell in the US to people under 18 or 21, depending on the state.

But, the sector argues, bans are a poor policy choice because they deprive adults addicted to smoking of a valuable tool.

"To deprive those smokers from access to e-cigarettes, which we know are substantially less harmful, I think is a terrible decision, " Neil McKeganey, of the UK-based Center for Substance Use Research based, which is partly funded by the industry, told AFP.

The irony is that the sale of alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis will remain legal in San Francisco for those over 21.

The risks associated with all three are well studied. For alcohol, these include liver disease, high blood pressure and heart disease, numerous cancers. For cigarettes, heart disease, stroke, lung and various other cancers.

Numerous papers meanwhile have explored the risks of cannabis particularly on the juvenile brain.

In place of bans, makers want to see tighter regulation.

There is a lot of work to be done: an analysis of Californian vendors published Monday in the medical journal JAMA found that almost half of tobacco and vape shops did not ID young customers looking to buy vape products.

Dutch get tougher on tobacco, bring in plain packaging next year

DutchNews, April 26, 2019 

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Junior health minister Paul Blokhuis is pressing ahead with plans to ban the sale of cigarettes in all but standard packaging with health warnings from next January, as part of a string of measures to stop more youngsters taking up the habit. 

The plans, which derive from the minister’s health agreement thrashed out with industry and social organisations last year, have now been put out to internet consultation. 

They state that all cigarette packages will have to be the same shape and colour, and will list only the name of the manufacturer alongside health warnings and photographs. The same will apply to rolling tobacco and e-cigarettes may follow suit in 2022. 

Blokhuis also wants to expand the ban on smoking in July 2020 to include e-cigarettes, so that their use will also be banned in the hospitality industry and at work, broadcaster NOS reported. 

Last September the government announced plans to add a euro to the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes next year, and to increase the price to €10 by 2023. 

According to the latest figures 22% of the Dutch adult population are regular smokers and while the number of young smokers has declined, 18% of 16 to 18-year-olds still smoke on a daily basis.

Related Articles:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”