Fridays News at a glance:

Govt approved drafting e-cigarette bill last year – Ireland: standardised packaging of e-cigarettes? – I wasn’t going to write this. More from the “totally unfashionable” Jo Lincoln – Electronic Cigarettes Remain Top Tax Target For Politicians – How Should E-Cigarettes Be Regulated? – Huffpost-Live – California Declares E-Cigarettes a ‘Community Health Threat’ – How Wall Street Tobacco Deals Left States With Billions in Toxic Debt –  Nicotine Science and Policy – Daily Digest – Fri, 30 January 2015

Govt approved drafting e-cigarette bill last year

A spokesperson for the Department of Health has said the Government approved the drafting of a General Scheme of a Bill last year to restrict e-cigarette sales.

The bill would prohibit the sale of non-medicinal nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, to those under 18 years of age and by those under 18 years.

The spokesperson said this bill would also deal with the introduction of a licensing system for those products….

Ireland: standardised packaging of e-cigarettes?

Simon Clark – Taking Liberties:

It won’t surprise you to learn that one of the senators behind it is our old friend Professor John Crown.

I have written about Crown several times, as indeed has Chris Snowdon (“One of the most infantile displays I have seen since puberty”).

Not everything Crown does turns to tobacco control gold. In 2012 his motion to prohibit smoking in the grounds of the Irish parliament failed (see The Senator Crown affair).

I wasn’t going to write this.

More from the “totally unfashionable” Jo Lincoln –

To begin with, Big Tobacco does not exist. There is no monolithic all encompassing tobacco corporation. That’s an invention of tobacco control and public health.

Stop saying it. It’s misleading and plays directly into tobacco control’s hands.

Repeat after me: There. Is. No. Big. Tobacco…..

Electronic Cigarettes Remain Top Tax Target For Politicians

From Forbes-

So-called public health advocates claimed the tax hikes were about improving public health. In reality, it was about filling government coffers. Between taxes and the federal Master Settlement Agreement, governments have collected more than $500 billion from tobacco companies for a wide range of spending programs since 1998.  However, a new disruptive technology has exposed the fact that many politicians who wanted to raise taxes on cigarettes didn’t care about improving health; they really just wanted more money….

How Should E-Cigarettes Be Regulated? – Huffpost-Live

While many believe “vaping” to be a safer alternative to smoking, California is the latest state to declare e-cigarettes a health threat and call for regulation. But should the laws be as strict as tobacco products? Our experts weigh in.

California Declares E-Cigarettes a ‘Community Health Threat’

Jacob Sullum flays California Health Dept-

This week the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) declared electronic cigarettes “a community health threat” in a report that crosses the line between hyperbolic scaremongering and outright lying. The report includes the same lame claims that people who hate vaping for subrational reasons tend to offer when they try to justify their gut reactions to products that offend them mainly because they look too much like the real thing….

How Wall Street Tobacco Deals Left States With Billions in Toxic Debt

Fascinating reading about American tobacco dollars:

In November 1998, attorneys general from across the country sealed a historic deal with the tobacco industry to pay for the health care costs of smoking. Going forward, nearly every cigarette sold would provide money to the states, territories and other governments involved — more than $200 billion in just the first 25 years of a legal settlement that required payments to be made in perpetuity…

 Nicotine Science and Policy – Daily Digest – Fri, 30 January 2015

Researchers have discovered yet another reason why it is so difficult to quit smoking: just 12 hours after a person’s last cigarette, the oxygen uptake and blood flow in the quitter’s brain decreases significantly compared to those who have never smoked.

Reynolds American Inc. on Wednesday won shareholder approval for its $25 billion acquisition of Lorillard Inc….

Responding to riders complaints, BART plans to join the ranks of public transit agencies snuffing out e-cigarette use on its trains and at stations….