Bill Godshall Update 2015-03-23

Bill Godshall Update 2015-03-23

Tobacco Harm Reduction Update – March 23rd, 2015
Contents:
FDA, Vapor Product Research, Vaping Advocacy, Prohibition, Vapor Product Prohibition and Taxation, Taxation, Smuggling, Civil Justice Litigation, Advertising Ban, Cigarette Plain Packaging, Vapor Products Packaging Restriction, Proposed Smoking Ban, Proposed Vaping Bans, Vapor Product Sales Bans to Minors, Minimum Age Laws, Funding Of Anti-Tobacco/Nicotine Propaganda And Lobbying, More Junk Science, Propaganda and Lies.

FDA

FDA delineates how ‘Deeming’ reg/ban protects cigarettes and threatens lives of vapor and smokers by banning >99.9% of vapor products, giving e-cig industry to Big Tobacco [as Premarket Tobacco Applications for vapor products would cost >$10 million/SKU, and FDA won’t accept applications for open system products (aka e-liquids and PVs)].
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/TobaccoProductReviewEvaluation/NewTobaccoProductReviewandEvaluation/ucm304506.htm
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/MarketingandAdvertising/ucm339928.htm

FDA webinar on March 24th at 2PM to delineate agency’s 2007 Substantial Equivalence policy to exclude >99.9% of vapor products from SE pathway (if ‘Deeming’ reg/ban is imposed), to further increase withdrawals and rejections of SE applications filed since 2011, and to NOT review SE applications filed more than 4 years ago for virtually all cigarette brands on the market. Guidance for Industry – Demonstrating the Substantial Equivalence of a New Tobacco Product: Responses to Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.fda.gov/tobaccoproducts/resourcesforyou/retail/ucm220111.htm?
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/MarketingandAdvertising/ucm339928.htm#2

FDA reports 101 SE Orders, 43 NSE Orders, 20 Refusals to Accept letters for SE, 648 Report Withdrawals (to date) for cigarettes, RYO and smokeless tobacco products (i.e. FDA approved 101 SE Orders, rejected 711 SE applications).
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/MarketingandAdvertising/ucm339928.htm#2

FDA announces third so-called Public Workshop on Electronic Cigarettes and Public Health to be held June 1 & 2. April 3 deadline for requesting to present, and May 20 deadline for requesting to speak at public comment period (which were by far the most informative and objective portions of FDA’s first and second so-called workshops).
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/NewsEvents/ucm439029.htm

FDA updates label for Chantix (varenicline) to include potential alcohol interaction, risk of seizures and Pfizer studies of side effects on mood, behavior, or thinking
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm436494.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2992726/FDA-decides-suicide-warning-packaging-anti-smoking-drug-Chantix-warns-change-way-people-react-alcohol.html

NCPPR’s Amy Ridenour: The FDA should not regulate e-cigs as tobacco products
http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/opinion/2015/03/07/fda-regulate-cigs-tobacco-products/24534447/

Amid FDA regulation plans, e-cigarettes are subject of debate (Godshall interviewed)
http://www.curetoday.com/publications/cure/2015/winter2015/Amid-FDA-Regulation-Plans-E-Cigarettes-are-Subject-of-Debate

AEI/CASAA set record straight about vapor products, distorted by headline in The Hillhttp://thehill.com/regulation/236125-e-cigarette-proponents-denounce-health-and-underage-use-concerns

Smokefree Pennsylvania’s Bill Godshall testifies at FDA’s 3/10/15 anti e-cig workshop
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/fda-regulations/658105-fdas-march-9-10-e-cig-workshop-now-live-webinar-2.html#post15415327

AVA’s Greg Conley testifies at FDA’s 3/10/15 anti e-cig workshop
http://vaping.info/news/2015/ava-gives-public-comment-latest-fda-e-cig-workshop

CASAA Call to Action urges vapers to submit comments to FDA docket with scientific evidence and facts about vaping and vapor products
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/call-to-action-submit-comments-on-fdas.html

US Senate Democrats Durbin, Blumenthal, Merkley, Murray, Boxer, Markey & Brown send another letter urging DHHS Secretary Burwell to issue Final Rule for the FDA Deeming Regulation (that would ban >99% of vapor products and give e-cig industry to Big Tobacco under deceitful guise of protecting children), falsely accuse e-cig companies of target marketing to youth, urge DHHS to not change 2007 SE date.
http://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senators-urge-hhs-to-strengthen-finalize-tobacco-deeming-regulations-to-protect-children-against-harmful-e-cigarettes
http://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/senators-urge-hhs-to-strengthen-finalize-tobacco-deeming-regulations-to-protect-children-against-harmful-e-cigarettes
http://thehill.com/regulation/235400-senate-dems-urge-hhs-to-give-fda-authority-to-regulate-e-cigarettes

Former FDA CTP policy director (and former CTFK staff) Eric Lindblom grossly distorts risk/benefit evidence on vapor products, promotes FDA ‘Deeming’ and many more e-cig regulations that protect cigarettes and threaten lives of vapers and smokers (under the deceitful guise of protecting children and public health).
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/news/documents/March10-LindblomFDLJ_001.pdf
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-e-cigarettes-expert.html

Former DHHS Secretaries Joe Califano and Louis Sullivan falsely conflate e-cigs with cigarettes and e-cig companies with cigarette companies, urge FDA to impose deeming reg/ban (that protects cigarettes) by falsely claiming it would protect kids.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-califano-jr/its-about-the-kids_b_6832876.html

Vapor Product Research

Electronic cigarette use and harm reversal: emerging evidence in the lung
Riccardo Polosa: BMC Medicine
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/s12916-015-0298-3.pdf
http://acsh.org/2015/03/dr-polosa-italian-vapor-and-tobacco-expert-reviews-e-cigs-in-bmc-medicine/
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/new-commentary-argues-that-electronic.html

PinneyAssociates authors of e-cig flavoring study respond to false accusations about their study by FDA funded Stan Glantz
http://nicotinepolicy.net/jg/3697-impact-2

Carl Phillips: Working paper – Gateway effects: Why the cited evidence does not support their existence for low-risk tobacco products (and what evidence would)
http://ep-ology.com/2015/03/11/working-paper-phillips-gateway-effects-why-the-cited-evidence-does-not-support-their-existence-for-low-risk-tobacco-products-and-what-evidence-would/

Vaping advocacy

Konstantinos Farsalinos interviewed by UAE newspaper about e-cigs prior to WCTOH conference (where lethal cigarettes are legal, and lifesaving e-cigs are banned)
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/inside.asp?xfile=/data/nationhealth/2015/March/nationhealth_March17.xml&section=nationhealth

Canadian heart surgeon Ghopal Bhatnagar details the benefits of e-cigs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4oFQ3w3Znk&list=WL&index=184

CASAA Podcast Update March 16, 2015 (on anti-vaping legislation in states)
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/casaa-podcast-update-march-16-2015.html

Carl Phillips – Science Lesson: what are vapor, aerosol, particles, liquids, and such?
http://antithrlies.com/2015/03/20/science-lesson-what-are-vapor-aerosol-particles-liquids-and-such/

Simon Breheny: A cigarette that could actually save lives
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/a-cigarette-that-could-actually-save-lives/story-fni0cwl5-1227257302367

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg finally quits smoking thanks to blueberry flavored vapor product
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2015/Bills/Senate/PDF/S286v1.pdf

Sally Satel – Breakthrough On E-cigarette Bans: How British Adoption Authorities Regained Their Sanity
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallysatel/2015/03/04/breakthrough-on-e-cigarette-bans-how-the-british-adoption-authorities-regained-their-sanity/

VCC vaping advocacy conference in Tampa held on February 27 (2 hour audio/video)
http://dimisphere.com/the-vcc-tampa-2015-advocacy-conference/

Vaping Convention Circuit: Pittsburgh, PA June 13-14
http://www.vapingcc.com/event/vccpa15/

Carl Phillips: New research reveals 27 new deadly hazards from e-cigarettes (parody)
http://antithrlies.com/2015/03/09/new-research-reveals-27-new-deadly-hazards-from-e-cigarettes/

Prohibition

Anti-tobacco/nicotine extremists and prohibitionists hold WCTOH in UAE (where vapor products are banned, but cigarettes remain legal). WHO director Margaret Chan calls for driving tobacco companies ‘out of business’, resolutions falsely equate all tobacco use with cigarette smoking, call for worldwide tobacco bans.
http://www.wctoh.org/updates/conference-resolutions
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2015/03/who-chief-wants-tobacco-firms-pushed-out-of-business/
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-chief-tobacco-firms-business.html
http://www.wctoh.org/updates/youth-resolution

Smoking increases in UAE after vapor products demonized and banned
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-losing-fight-against-smoking
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-doctors-warn-against-e-cigarettes

ISIS’ feared religious police force carry out another mass cigarette burning in Syria, show shocking new anti-smoking posters showing lungs being set on fire
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3003848/ISIS-feared-religious-police-force-carry-mass-cigarette-burning-Syria-unveil-shocking-new-anti-smoking-posters-showing-lungs-set-fire.html

Swedish Court ruling protects cigarettes, bans sale of all nicotine vapor products http://nicotinepolicy.net/atakan-befrits/3727-vaping-in-Sweden
http://www.kammarrattenistockholm.domstol.se/upload/Avindentifierad%20dom%205313-14.pdf

Singapore officials raid, shut down illegal e-cig business (protect legal cigarette markets)
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/hsa-shuts-down-illegal-e-cigarette-peddling-operations
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/hsa-clamps-down-e-cigarette-seller-raid-flat-bukit-panjang-2015031

Utah legislature enacts bill (HB 415) to protect Big Tobacco cigarettes and cigalikes, would ban sale of virtually all e-liquid products by mandating state specific standards for e-liquid product manufacturing, labeling, packaging, advertising and retail licensure http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/hbillhtm/HB0415.htm
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2286219-155/lawmakers-pass-new-regulations-for-sales

Canadian e-cig ban ‘˜not an option’: Commons health committee calls for legalization.
Vaping opponents who advocated Health Canada’s purported ban on nicotine e-cigs urge Canadian Parliament to impose more counterproductive regulations and bans on e-cigs.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=7862816&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2&File=9
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/12/e-cigarette-ban-not-an-option-commons-health-committee-calls-for-legalization/

National Post editorial: Vape ’em if you got ’em (Canada)
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/16/national-post-view-vape-em-if-you-got-em/

Public health experts criticize New Zealand’s nicotine e-cig ban (as cigarettes are legal)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/67186317/ecigarette-nicotine-ban-criticised

Lancet editors and prohibitionists launch campaign for a ‘tobacco-free world’ by 2040
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60512-8/fulltext
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60133-7/fulltext
http://www.thelancet.com/series/tobacco-free-world
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-experts-tobacco-free-world.html

Bruce Maiman: Parents, not state, should take charge (Rocklin, CA)
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/bruce-maiman/article14672255.html

Tasmanian may ban cigarette sales in 2018 (to anyone not born before 2000), retailers oppose prohibition proposal
http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2015/03/20/tasmania-may-ban-tobacco-sale-from-2018/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-17/tobacco-retailers-lobby-against-generational-ban-on-cigarettes/6327004

Vapor Product Prohibition & Taxation

CASAA updates Call to Action opposing Vermont bill (HB 233) to impose 92% tax on vapor products, and bill (HB 59) to ban sale of flavored e-liquid except menthol.
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/02/vermont-call-to-action-take-action-now.html

Washington House Commerce and Gaming Cmte holds hearing on bill (HB 1645) that would protect cigarettes by taxing vapor products at 95%, banning sales of flavored vapor products, banning shipment and possession of vapor products sold on Internet and mail order, licensing of vapor product vendors. Public health and vaping advocates testify against bill; e-cig opponents mislead and scare legislators about lifesaving e-cigs (in cluding former CDC OSH Director Tim McAfee falsely claiming that switching from cigarette smoking to primarily vaping e-cigs ‘is disasterous for their health’).
http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2015030136#start=1309&stop=8170
http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/olympia/2015/03/16/vaping-e-cigarette-olympia-pollet/24877451/

Danny Westneat: Smokers’ new e-cigarette option may get snuffed (WA)
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/smokersrsquo-new-e-cigarette-option-may-get-snuffed/

2014 WA Health Dept survey finds teen smoking at record lows, fails to release most survey data on e-cig use, but Health Dept Secretary Weisman (who has previously made false claims about e-cigs) criticizes e-cigs in press release to lobby for Gov. Inslee’s proposal to impose 95% vapor product tax, ban flavored vapor products, and ban Internet sales of vapor products. Survey never asked teens the content of e-cigs that were used, but Health Dept inaccurately classified and insinuated all were nicotine e-cigs (despite another survey that found 96% of nonsmokers reported vaping nicotine-free e-cigs).
http://www.askhys.net/Docs/HYS%202014%20Facts%20Tobacco%20Ecigs%20FINAL.pdf
http://www.askhys.net/Docs/15-034-HealthYouthSurvey-SubstanceUse-FINAL.pdf
http://www.askhys.net/Home/Press
http://www.askhys.net/Survey
http://www.blscourierherald.com/news/296386531.html

Taxation

CASAA Call to Action urges opposition to PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed 40% tax on vapor products and smokeless tobacco products.
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/pennsylvania-call-to-action-oppose.html

Industry is smoking mad over proposed e-cig tax in Ohio
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150308/SUB1/303089989/industry-is-smoking-mad-over-proposed-e-cig-tax-in-ohio

CASAA Call to Action opposes Alabama bill (HB 224) that would impose a $.25/ml tax on e-liquid (i.e. $7.50 tax on a 30 ml bottle of e-liquid)
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/alabama-call-to-action-take-action-now.html

Smuggling

Richmond Times publishes special report exposing huge cigarette smuggling industry created by cigarette tax differential between Virginia and northeastern states
http://www.richmond.com/news/article_78fe5bb8-b721-597c-88ad-3df1e9a28fcc.html

Civil Justice Litigation

Florida bills (HB 1067 & SB 978) would protect cigarette companies from punitive damage awards in lawsuits filed by injured victims
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2015/1067
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2015/0978
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/politics/florida-law-would-limit-jury-awards-in-tobacco-lawsuits_06187057?_ga=1.35868773.479925529.1426891681
Don’t fall for Big Tobacco’s ploy (to lobby FL legislators to protect them from lawsuits)
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/fridays-letters-dont-fall-for-big-tobaccos-ploy/2222057
Jeffrey Haut: Big Tobacco and Jury Awards
http://politics.blogs.naplesnews.com/2015/03/15/big-tobacco-and-jury-awards/

Advertising Ban

Estonia to ban e-cig advertisements
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies/?doc=103872

Cigarette Plain Packaging

UK House of Commons and UK House of Lords vote to require plain packaging for cigarettes and RYO despite no evidence that similar Australian law reduced cigarette consumption or smoking rates, cigarette companies say they will file lawsuits.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2997538/Plain-tobacco-packs-ahead.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/16/us-britain-cigarettes-packaging-idUSKBN0MC25W20150316
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/03/12/cigarette-companies-wont-go-down-without-fight-what-plain-packaging-means-britain
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/03/12/uks-new-plain-cigarette-packaging-law-test-case-trademarks
http://www.talkingretail.com/category-news/supermarket/tobacco-companies-threaten-legal-challenge-mps-approve-plain-packaging-regulations/

Irish President Michael Higgins signs plain cigarette packaging law, PMI says it will sue.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/president-signs-plain-cigarette-packaging-law-31057470.html

BMJ Tobacco Control publishes junk science claiming Australian plain packaging law reduced smoking and cigarette consumption
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/24/Suppl_2.toc
http://theconversation.com/cluster-bomb-of-new-research-explodes-tobacco-industry-lies-about-plain-packs-38978

Vapor Products Packaging Restriction

NC bill (SB 286) would protect Big Tobacco’s cigalike e-cigs (under the false guise of protecting children) by mandating state specific packaging and warning labels for e-liquid bottles (but not for e-cigs marketed by Reynolds, Altria or Lorillard). http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2015&BillID=S286&submitButton=Go
http://www.journalnow.com/e-cig-warning-label-bill-introduced/article_605e4a49-67e7-5531-a40b-e5abef0d2e42.html

Proposed Smoking Ban

Georgia Senate approves bill (SB 130) to ban smoking in cars with minors under 15http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20152016/SB/130
http://onlineathens.com/general-assembly/2015-03-16/bill-stop-smoking-while-kids-cars-passes-senate

Proposed Vaping Bans

Vapers / Godshall urge Erie County (NY) Exec. Mark Poloncarz to reject vaping ban bill
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/legislation-news/660586-truckin-up-buffalo-amazing-hearing-where-25-vapers-urged-erie-county-exec-mark-poloncarz-veto-vaping-ban-bill.html
http://wivb.com/2015/03/19/residents-speak-against-e-cigarette-bill/
http://news.wbfo.org/post/public-hearing-reviews-ban-e-cigarettes

ACSH’s Gil Ross: Connecticut should help smokers, not cigarette industry
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20150316/PRINTEDITION/303139967
http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20150312/forum-connecticut-should-help-smokers-not-cigarette-industry

NCPPR’s Jeff Stier testifies at Connecticut Public Health Cmte on March 11, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsNb3qAcXLQ&feature=youtu.be

Rhode Island bill (HB 5690) would ban vaping where smoking is banned, hearing scheduled for March 18
https://legiscan.com/RI/text/H5690/id/1143630

CASAA Call to Action opposes RI bill (HB 5690) to ban vaping in all workplaces
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/rhode-island-call-to-action-oppose-hb.html

NOCAL SFATA updates Call to Action opposing proposed vaping ban bill (SB 140), Senate Health Committee hearing scheduled for April 8
http://norcal.sfata.org/2015/03/sb140-1/

CASAA Call to Action opposes Arkansas bill (SB 447) to ban vaping in workplaces
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/arkansas-call-to-action-take-action-now.html

Muskogee (OK) City Council snuffs proposed e-cig ban on city property
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/local_news/council-snuffs-e-cig-ban-effort/article_2fe69404-c7ad-11e4-b323-a714efee3b36.html

Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council to the Alameda County (CA) Board of Supervisors rejects vaporizer/e-cigarette usage ban ordinance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abg6hLYJepE&feature=em-share_video_user

Illinois State Rep Kathleen Willis says she plans to amend her workplace vaping ban bill (HB 2404) to just ban vaping in state owned facilities and schools
http://www.sj-r.com/article/20150313/NEWS/150319702

Waco (TX) City Council approves first vote to ban vaping in workplaces
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/health/waco-council-votes-to-regulate-e-cig-vaping-as-smoking/article_f35002e2-73fa-5314-8c93-92f9e548dcb5.html

Ulster County (NY) Executive Mike Hein protect cigarettes by signing bill to ban vaping, Health Commissioner Carol Smith repeats lies about health risks of vapor products
http://www.poststarnews.com/article/20150319/NEWS/150319528

Austin (MN) City Council bans vaping due to false fear mongering claims
http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/S3737047.shtml?cat=11985
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/03/17/austin-e-cigarette-ban

Delaware bill would ban vaping in all workplaces
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/17/delaware-bill-ban-cigarettes-indoors/24923873/
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20150317_ap_afbbcceadf6c4692bb2bec3474ac8101.html

Montgomery County (MD) Council protects cigarettes by banning vaping in workplaces
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-council-unanimously-bans-e-cigarettes-in-public-places/2015/03/03/3a4c464e-c1d8-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html

British Columbia (CA) to protect cigarettes by banning vaping in all workplaces after public health officials lie about vaping
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/restrict%20sale%20cigarettes/10864415/story.html

Springfield (MA) Housing Authority bans use of e-cigs at its properties based upon lieshttp://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/springfield_housing_authority_15.html

No vape zone: SF hasn’t waited for science to declare war against e-cigarettes and vaporizers (CA)
http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/no-vape-zone-sf-hasnt-waited-for-science-to-declare-war-against-e-cigarettes-and-vaporizers/Content?oid=3467978

NH Union Leader editorial – Nicotine jihad: An even more tyrannical smoking ban
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-tobacco-atlas-scale-epidemic.html

Chris Denning: Student Senate’s indoor e-cig ban act is full of hot air (NC)
http://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/article_86de1b1e-cd1c-11e4-865e-d38ec81dd828.html

Vapor Product Sales Bans to Minors

CASAA Call to Action urges support for Texas bill (HB 647) to ban vapor product sales to minors, opposition to four bills that would impede consumer access to vapor products, House Public Health Committee to hold hearing on Tuesday, March 24
http://blog.casaa.org/2015/03/texas-call-to-action-take-action-to.html

MA AG Maura Healey announces plan to bypass legislature and governor with her own regulation to ban e-cig sales to minors
http://nepr.net/news/2015/03/18/mass-ag-healey-looks-to-ban-e-cigarette-sales-to-minors/
Boston Herald editorial: The AG, out on a limb
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/editorials/2015/03/editorial_the_ag_out_on_a_limb

Minimum Age Laws

IOM Cmte report estimates that increasing minimum age for cigarette sales to 21 years nationwide would reduce smoking rate by 12%. But the FSPTCA specifically prohibits the FDA from banning cigarette sales to 18 year old high school students because CTFK’s Matt Myers agreed with Philip Morris lawyers to do so (when negotiating and agreeing to the FSPTCA’s text in 2003/04).
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2015/TobaccoMinimumAgeReport.aspx
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18997
http://www.healio.com/pediatrics/adolescent-medicine/news/online/%7Bd1aced5e-08e7-44c0-9758-38d775913716%7D/panel-public-health-will-benefit-by-raising-legal-age-to-purchase-tobacco
http://www.journalnow.com/report-raising-smoking-age-could-delay-stop-use/article_22c5d67f-2c3b-5b58-9f38-6bcbf7de3723.html
Note that CTFK opposed a proposal by NY Gov. Pataki a decade ago to raise the minimum age for cigarette sales to 19 years, and that PA’s three decade old minimum age 21 law for cigarette sales (championed by Smokefree Pennsylvania) was reduced to 18 in 2002 due to aggressive lobbying by Big Tobacco and RWJF funded ACS, AHA & ALA.

Mike Siegel – Disingenuous as can be: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids urges states to raise tobacco sales age to 21
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/disingenuous-as-can-be-campaign-for.html

Funding anti-tobacco/nicotine propaganda and lobbying

Bloomberg Philanthropies gives $14 million to CDC Foundation, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates give millions more to promote and defend tobacco/nicotine prohibition laws worldwide (that exempt Big Pharma’s tobacco derived nicotine products)
http://www.cdcfoundation.org/pr/2015/cdc-foundation-receives-bloomberg-philanthropies-grant-further-monitoring-global-tobacco-use
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/18/bloomberg-gates-foundation-fund-nations-legal-fight-big-tobacco-courts
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bloomberg-gates-launch-antitobacco-fund-1426703947
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4200722.htm

Sedgwick County (KS) Commission rejects federal and state funding for tobacco control programs because they discourage smokers from switching to far less hazardous vaping and because they lobby for vaping and tobacco use bans.
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article13497542.html

More junk science, propaganda and lies

FDA/NCI/CDC funded UNC activists find minors can unlawfully buy e-cigs online if/when recruited, funded and instructed how to do so by Obama’s DHHS, a police chief, a DA, a university and its employees. Activists violate NC law at least 98 times by instructing minors to lie about their age and unlawfully buy e-cigs online with UNC credit cards, and request delivery by carrier (USPS) that doesn’t check IDs. Then activists accuse online vendors of marketing e-cigs to youth, urge federal crackdown on online e-cig sales to adults. Police chief and DA conspired to commit ALL these crimes by providing UNC activists and their youth recruits immunity from arrest or prosecution.
http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2174572
http://www.healio.com/pediatrics/practice-management/news/online/%7B7f613daf-e926-4fb5-b9ee-720927362867%7D/online-age-verification-fails-to-prevent-minors-from-purchasing-e-cigarettes
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/media-general-news/660218-fda-funded-unc-activist-unlawfully-instruct-minors-how-illegally-buy-e-cigs-online-than-claim-internet-vendors-sell-e-cigs-youth.html
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/HTML/S530v6.html

Note that 2013 NC law prohibits minors from purchasing vapor products and prohibits adults from assisting or encouraging minors with unlawfully vapor products purchases.
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/HTML/S530v6.html

Tobacco Almanac authors (financed by Big Pharma) refuse to correct, repeat fear mongering lies; conflate all tobacco/nicotine use with daily cigarette smoking to confuse, scare and lobby for many unwarranted tobacco/nicotine bans/taxes/regulations (that exempt and protect taxpayer subsidized nicotine products sold by Big Pharma).
http://www.wctoh.org/updates/tobacco-atlas-5th-edition-launched-at-wctoh
http://3pk43x313ggr4cy0lh3tctjh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TA5_2015_WEB.pdf
http://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-tobacco-atlas-scale-epidemic.html

Brad Rodu: Sloan Kettering corrects e-cigarette study (Borderud et al.)
http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/2015/03/sloan-kettering-corrects-e-cigarette.html
Carl Phillips: What is peer review really? (the case of Borderud et al.)
http://antithrlies.com/2015/03/12/what-is-peer-review-really-part-8-the-case-of-borderud-et-al/#more-2152

Mike Siegel: The complete blindness of some e-cigarette opponents: Re-normalization hypothesis defies science and logic, ideology prevents them from thinking straight
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-complete-blindness-of-some-e.html

Big Pharma funded American Cancer Society gives award to Big Pharma funded Jonathan Samet, who was removed from FDA TPSAC due to Big Pharma financial conflicts of interest.
http://www.wctoh.org/updates/acs-announces-2015-luther-l-terry-award-winners

Eighteen journalists attend WCTOH tobacco control training sessions taught by tobacco/nicotine prohibitionists and propagandists
http://www.wctoh.org/updates/tobaccos-global-impact-journalists-from-13-countries-trained-at-wctoh2015

2014 Iowa Health Dept. Youth Survey finds three times more 11th graders reported daily cigarette smoking than daily e-cig use (3% vs 1%) and four times more reported smoking at least 20 days in past month (4% vs 1%), but Health Dept tells news media more youth use e-cigs than cigarettes. Survey failed to inquire about content of e-cigs that were used.
http://www.iowayouthsurvey.iowa.gov/images/2014_State/IYS_2014_State_Report.pdf
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2015/03/13/electronic-cigarettes-iowa-youth-survey/70288172/
http://www.kwwl.com/story/28524148/2015/03/15/study-more-kids-using-electronic-cigarettes-than-regular-ones

Extremists at RTI (which has received more than $873 million from NIH) misrepresent nonexistent risks of e-cig aerosol to confuse, scare, obtain more funding, lobby for vaping bans and FDA’s proposed deeming reg/ban
http://www.rti.org/pubs/Secondhand_Exposure_to_Electronic_Cigarette_Emissions.pdf
http://www.rti.org/publications/rtipress.cfm?pubid=24019
http://projectreporter.nih.gov/Reporter_Viewsh.cfm?sl=13EAC10C4E84C2D27598B8961CAA4A01A2FFCEB861BF
https://www.yahoo.com/health/secondhand-e-cig-vapor-can-penetrate-paint-what-113444498677.html

FDA funded Stan Glantz misrepresents findings of more than a dozen studies on e-cigs to falsely claim that smokers who use e-cigs are less likely to quit smoking and to falsely claim e-cigs ‘keep people smoking cigarettes,’ urges state/local governments to falsely claim e-cigs ‘keep people smoking cigarettes,’ urges FDA to further deny e-cig companies of US Constitutional right to truthfully inform consumers about e-cigs.
http://tobacco.ucsf.edu/meta-analysis-all-available-population-studies-continues-show-smokers-who-use-e-cigs-less-likely-quit-smoking
http://tobacco.ucsf.edu/two-more-well-done-studies-show-e-cig-use-associated-significantly-less-quitting-smoking

NJ Poison Information and Education director Steven Marcus grossly exaggerates negligible risks posed by e-liquid to confuse and scare, fails to acknowledge that drugs and household cleaners cause >100 times more calls to poison control centers than e-cigs.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-issues-warning-on-liquid-nicotine-used-in-e-cigarettes-1.1287965

– Bill Godshall

Godshall THRU 2015-03-23