E-Cigarettes Banned: NY Bill Would Ban 'E-Cigarettes' Until FDA Action

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a bill that would make the state the first to ban electronic cigarettes, devices touted on the Internet in ads promising all the pleasures of smoking without the deadly health threat.

Health officials say e-cigarettes are just another addictive habit, one that can hook kids early and legally on smoking. But advocates who have used the devices to quit or cut down smoking tobacco call the battery-operated smokes a miracle.

"E-cigarettes are for some people a tool for enabling them to continue their nicotine addictions when they are someplace where they can't smoke," said Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, whose panel passed the bill Tuesday. "I don't think that's good for public health."

The Manhattan Democrat said the manufacturers should prove to the federal Food and Drug Administration that e-cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation aid in order to sell them to adults.

Advocates – who say there is a nationwide grass-roots movement to keep e-cigarettes available – say the proof is in their health.

"I find it difficult to believe that my wheezing and productive morning cough would have magically disappeared sometime between March 2009 and now if I had continued smoking, waiting for someone to proclaim e-cigarettes 100 percent safe," said Elaine Keller of Springfield, Va. She is vice president of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association.

"Why do politicians and organizations that claim to be protecting public health want to take away options that could save smokers' lives?" she said Tuesday.

The bill's sponsor was moved to act by the flood of Internet ads for the products and sales at shopping malls.

"So I did some research," said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat and 20-year smoker who quit more than a dozen years ago. "I found what is in the e-cigarettes is a mystery."

She wants to ban them in New York until they are more thoroughly investigated and regulated.

Her bill was approved in the Assembly last year but stalled in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon, a Republican, said the bill likely will be considered by his committee and a hearing may be held, but it's too early to predict what will happen with the proposal.

E-cigarettes have prompted debate nationwide since they became widely available in the United States in 2006. But as either a tobacco cigarette substitute or a much more extensively tested and restricted drug-delivery device, the future of e-cigarettes will likely be decided by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA lost a court case last year after trying to treat e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices, rather than tobacco products, because e-cigarettes heat nicotine extracted from tobacco.

"Maybe it stops some from smoking, but maybe it helps some kid start," said Russ Sciandra, director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York.

Powerful lobbies are involved. If treated as a tobacco product, e-cigarettes would avoid the research and trials required of competitors in the pharmaceutical industry, including anti-smoking patches and inhalers. As a medical device, e-cigarettes could draw opposition from that powerful lobby as a fresh and less expensive competitor.

The supporters of e-cigarettes are now watching New York "very closely. They kind of snuck up on us," said Keller.

She said she has been tobacco free since March 2009 after 45 years of smoking. She said her group amounts to a grass-roots effort of those who feel the government has blocked this "miracle" product.

"There is no industry support on this thing at all," Keller said of the organization. "We want to keep it this way so no one can say we are a shill for the tobacco, drug or e-cigarette industry."

She also tries to recast the safety question.

"I can't point to anything to say it's 100 percent safe," Keller said. "The thing is, it only needs to be safer. The only standard is that it's safer than smoking."

Comments

[new2nyc]

02:27 AM on 03/19/2011

when it's too good to be true, it usually is...

[blokblok]

01:19 AM on 03/19/2011

Theres not much to prove, its water and nicotine, this site http://thesmokelesscigarettereview.com/ said- "The only thing smokeless cigarettes contain as well as traditional cigarettes, is nicotine. Smokeless cigarettes provide you your nicotine fix by turning it into a harmless vapor which is inhaled instead of the toxic smokeless of a traditional cigarette. This means, no lighters, no smoke, no toxins." no brainer to me.

[Alexa Van Klemp]

08:15 PM on 02/26/2011

Lol that's just funny, but in any case, e-cigarettes have already been approved by the FDA since then and are now totally legal for those of age... Heck if it helped me quit, it can help anyone quit! I've tried quitting smoking 14 times! The e-cigarette was the 15th and last. I think it's worth a try for anyone who smokes.
__________________
Electronic Cigarette Review

[arcangel742]

12:55 AM on 01/29/2011

With ecigs, my health has so dramatically improved. There is nothing harmful in my e-cig. I make my own vapor juice from vegetable glycerin Eucalyptus for menthol and baking flavors. Not really much different from the vapor juice you can buy, which you can buy with nicotine or without, or with some propylene glycol, a humectant already used and approved in the food industry and pharmaceuticals or without that too.

I think the fact that officials are expecting us to make sense of their irrational propaganda is making same people literally crazy instead of seeing and accepting the real truth of what these lawmaking terrorists are really doing. They are trying to condition our responses to their liking of More Police State Type Laws. We are in information wars, a war for the minds and rights of the people. Why else do you think they want a kill switch for the Internet? The only other place we can seek the truth these days from their Media Controlled propaganda specialists.

[arcangel742]

12:48 AM on 01/29/2011

I live in NY and know these lawmakers were sent the facts by professionals and chose to ignore those facts. As usual they are taking more of our rights away to protect any Big Tobacco and Parma sources of income.

I was a smoker and tried the e-cigarette to try something healthier. I could not believe how easy it was to switch, and give up tobacco. With my first vape on my first electronic cigarette, I never went back to regular cigarettes. That was not what I expected. I no longer wheeze. I am no longer hacking when trying to talk or trying to sleep. My cigarettes are no longer a health threat to anyone else around me, they no longer smell up the house or my clothes, and no longer a possible fire hazard in our home. I have seen more deaths this winter just from smokers who started fires by accident.

How sad, this device could save so many lives in many ways, and lawmakers want to ban them like we are children that should not be able to decide or have the right to decide for ourselves. We know the real truth has more to do with, power, greed and money, which is why people need to wake up before it is too late. If you see it, and it makes no sense, say it, and speak out against these lawmaking terrorists, not the other way around.

My health has so dramatically improved! Out of room!

[La Elle]

01:37 AM on 01/28/2011

Of course, the FDA is dragging their feet because they are scared about the potential outcome of this. Is it any wonder that the Nicotrol inhaler has the exact same ingredients as an ecig? The only difference is that the e cig heats up the nicotine suspended in water and it is heated with a vapor to produce steam.

Let's take a look at the findings in two FDA test. One test (done in 2009) only tested e-cigarettes and the number of carcinogens in them. A separate and earlier test done in 2001 tested the number of carcinogens in regular tobacco cigarettes as opposed to the nicotine patch.

Here's the breakdown (in nanograms/gram) comparing the carcinogens in the e-cigarette, the nicotine patch, and a Marlboro cigarette :

E-cigarettes: 8
Nicotine patch: 8
Marlboro cigarette: 11,290

There can be no serious question from anyone who's done the most basic level of research that e-cigarettes are *magnitudes of order* safer than smoking.

[Gerry Borger]

05:54 PM on 01/27/2011

When I learned that the NY State Assembly was considering this law I was very disappointed. I am an ex-smoker who stopped smoking after 20 years and started using e-cigarettes. It has improved my life dramatically.
It makes sense that the NY State Assembly would want to restrict minors from purchasing e-cigarettes, but why would they want to restrict adults from what many has claimed to be beneficial and helps saves lives. It appears that Chairman Richard Gottfried doesn't trust the claims of e-cigarette users and is assuming that they are simply using e-cigarettes to bypass non-smoking sections. If this is the case, why not ban using e-cigarettes in public places? Why ban it altogether? I believe this is an attempt of the assembly to regulate the freedom of the people.
If this law is passed it will be a clear signal to the citizens of New York that the State Assembly is bending to the will of the powerful tobacco industry or the pharmaceutical industry as both would lose money if e-cigarettes became more popular. Smoking kills so many people a year, it seems like a no brainer.

They should mind their own business and allow people to make their own choices regarding their own health.

[La Elle]

01:25 AM on 01/28/2011

Absolutely true! F&F!

[LFox6]

12:58 PM on 01/26/2011

The legislature is only concerned with finding a way to replenish the vastly over-spent budget, and since e-cig smokers won't be paying the insane tax as they would on traditional cigs,well, the NYS gov. will not sit still for that.

Hypocrites!

[orbro]

08:42 AM on 01/26/2011

I know a couple people who use them and go outside with all the other smokers anyway. It just takes a couple of other patrons freaking out once.

[krone5]

08:17 AM on 01/26/2011

This seems to be all a ploy to get more cigarette taxes, as the users would have to switch to tobacco if they wanted a legal cigarette that was readily available.

[rjhuntington]

04:01 AM on 01/26/2011

This kind of legislation is exactly the sort of thing that defines the New York state legislature. Instead of dealing with real issues and making real progress, NYS's totally corrupt and moribund legislature spends time on stupid non-issues in order to avoid doing real work for New Yorkers.

Watch, this e-cig ban will be their signature legislation for the session. One year it was to ban talking on cell phones while driving. Worthy, perhaps, but that was their entire year's accomplishment. They'd probably ban texting while stupid but that would bring them up short.

[Geoulio Fransesco]

02:39 AM on 01/26/2011

Let me just add that you have to be careful about cheaply made products. I think I've tried all of them on the market. And out of them all, I would only recommend 2 different companies Either Green Smoke or Amerismoke. They are essentually the same product. I would stay away from e-cigs that you have to refill yourself.

In closing, E-cigs do not completely stop your cravings of smoking a real cigarette. There is something is a true tobacco cig that still makes you want to smoke them. You truly have to want to quit smoking real cigs in order to stop. But e-cigs in my opinion and research are far safer than the real thing, and an excellent product for smoking cessation.

But don't take my word for it...do your own research. This is just my own humble opinion.

[LynnyC]

01:10 PM on 02/11/2011

yeah, my husband bought an electronic cigarette and he found that it isn't the same as his regular cigarettes, and thought maybe if he got the Marlboro flavor he could quit, but then the specific company went out of business and the cig wouldn't hold a charge. Crooks. You gotta watch out for the crappy companies.

[Geoulio Fransesco]

02:23 AM on 01/26/2011

I had been a smoker 20 years. I tried to quit so many times, I literally lost count. I tried EVERYTHING. Nothing else helped me quit as quickly as the e-cig. I did careful research on this, and from what I can tell, these e-cigs are by far better than smoking actual tobacco cigarettes, and considerably better than those horrible prescriptions such as chantix.

The initial argument that the FDA produced after a brief study, was that Diethylene Glycol was a health risk, as it is commonly found in substances such as anti-freeze. What the FDA did here was consciously derail and sabotage the E-Cigarette. What the FDA failed to mention is that the tested E-Cigarette cartridges had about 1/10 the DG that can be found in aspirin, and about 1/40 the amount found in your typical tobacco cigarette.

But they mixed that DG with PG (Propylene Glycol) which is actually put into anti-freeze in order to make the anti-freeze child-safe and/or pet-safe. PG is found in asthma inhalers, cake mixes, toothpaste,wine,mouthwash,cough syrup etc.

I have sucessfully quit smoking cigarettes and I rarely even use my e-cig any more. The only reason the FDA is trying to shut this down, IMO, is because of Tobacco lobbyists and all they tax dollars big brother stands to lose by smokers giving up tobacco.

[FromTeaToBag]

07:55 PM on 01/25/2011

New York State. Where selling gift-bags or gift-boxes for wine...in a liquor store...is illegal, because of some lady in Rochester.