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The U.S. surgeon general has warned against surging e-cigarette use among teenagers, calling it a "major public health concern" in a new report:
The U.S. surgeon general is calling e-cigarettes an emerging public health threat to the nation's youth. In a report being released Thursday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy acknowledged a need for more research into the health effects of "vaping," but said e-cigarettes aren't harmless and too many teens are using them. "My concern is e-cigarettes have the potential to create a whole new generation of kids who are addicted to nicotine," Murthy told The Associated Press. "If that leads to the use of other tobacco-related products, then we are going to be moving backward instead of forward."
[...] Federal figures show that last year, 16 percent of high school students reported at least some use of e-cigarettes - even some who say they've never smoked a conventional cigarette. While not all contain nicotine, Murthy's report says e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco-related product among youth. Nicotine is bad for a developing brain no matter how it's exposed, Murthy said. "Your kids are not an experiment," he says in a public service announcement being released with the report.
It's already illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration issued new rules that, for the first time, will require makers of nicotine-emitting devices to begin submitting their ingredients for regulators to review.
Also at USA Today, NYT, The Hill, and The Washington Post.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Friday December 09 2016, @05:13PM
This is yet again more prohibition with a "think of the children" twist.
Straw man at all? From TFA:
Murthy's report calls on parents and health workers to make concerns about e-cigarettes clear to young people. He said local officials should take action, too, such as including e-cigarettes in indoor smoke-free policies.
Not exactly prohibition, and certainly not the sort of "go-to-jail for possession, let alone supplying" mindset that has caused the "war on drugs".
Is it better that smokers currently filling their lungs with tar and carbon monoxide switch to e-cigs? No shit, Sherlock, but maybe, just maybe, it would be a good idea not to sell e-cigs to 12 year-olds, not let companies promote SpongeBob-themed, bubblegum-flavored liquids that "aren't aimed at children honestly" and have some regulations to ensure that liquids actually contain what the manufacturers say they do and don't contain crazy amounts of nicotine.
You can't have "an emerging public health threat" without any evidence of harm.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Once upon a time, nobody thought that smoking tobacco was dangerous. When people have been inhaling glycol vapour laced with nicotine (and various flavourings that aren't normally found in the lungs) for 20 years, we'll know. In the meantime, while I'd agree that we don't want "war on vapour", there is some cause for caution.
Oh and there is some evidence [atherosclerosis-journal.com] that nicotine causes problems [nih.gov]. Certainly not nearly as many problems as the other crap in tobacco smoke, but if you prematurely hang a big "totally harmless" tag on it, then some people are going to vape a lot more than they smoke, and maybe get much higher doses of nicotine. Whatever, though, its addictive, and if some problem with e-cigs does emerge, users are going to have a bloody hard time getting off them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:40AM
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
No, but the burden of proof is on the government to prove that a problem exists. Otherwise, they have no justification for creating new restrictions.
Prove you're not a terrorist, fool.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Saturday December 10 2016, @02:19PM
No, but the burden of proof is on the government to prove that a problem exists.
Really? Shouldn't the businesses poised to make a fortune from e-cigs bear some responsibility of proving that they are safe before getting millions of new people hooked on nicotine?
Oh, sorry, I forgot - "privatise the profits, nationalise the risks" is the new mantra of government.