What conspiracy theory? Everyone was told that May 5th was the ban day. Not a word about anything today nothing.
Were we told that it was the ban day? I've been looking for that info but haven't found it yet. I did read that the suit against the FDA was being presented in court on May 5th. Has something been lost in the hysteria?
There were a couple of posts that were interesting though, see below.
Alan.
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See thread below
05-01-2009, 10:55 PM
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-ban-electronic-cigarettes-15.html#post243655 Krakkan
Jacob Sullum | May 1, 2009, 4:46pm
Bill Godshall of Smokefree Pennsylvania reports in a mass email message that the Food and Drug Administration plans to proceed with a ban on electronic cigarettes,
devices that deliver nicotine vapor without
tobacco or combustion products. Godshall reproduces the following message from Heather Zawalick of the FDA's Office of Legislation, which says the agency will announce enforcement actions against the three largest e-cigarette distributors on Tuesday:
Subject/Headline: FDA Takes Enforcement Action on Electronic Smoking Products
Planned Release Date: May 5
Driving Event: Compliance action
Rollout Plan: Extensive rollout planned including press conference at HHS, press release, fact sheet, video for upload to YouTube, podcast, consumer article, consumer Q &A, key message points, internal media Q & A, Op-Ed, photos of products for posting on Internet.
Other background, hidden factors: Action involves three largest distributors. One of the distributors has just sued FDA seeking a restraining order to prevent us from holding their product at the border.
There is keen interest in this subject. E-cigarette kiosks are all over town, including Montgomery Mall. They're being advertised as a safer alternative to cigarettes. Our concern is that this might introduce nonusers to nicotine use. This is a drug delivery device. The content of the products have not been analyzed by FDA. To be sold, they would have to be approved by the agency.
Our concern is that this might introduce nonusers to nicotine use. And what if it did?Separated from the dangers of smoking, nicotine use is not a big health concern. The FDA itself has approved various nicotine replacement products (gum, patches, even an inhaler), some of them for over-the-counter sale, even though they theoretically might "introduce nonusers to nicotine use." That possibility is an incredibly lame justification for preventing smokers from switching to a product that eliminates virtually all the risks associated with standard cigarettes.
In an open letter to Zawalick, Joel Nitzkin of the American Association of Public Health Physicians says the pending FDA ban seems to be "based entirely on the undocumented assumption that electronic cigarettes may have the potential to attract additional teenagers to nicotine use and addiction." That concern seems to be fanciful: Godshall says "there is no evidence that e-cigarette products have been marketed to youth, nor is there evidence of youth use of e-cigarette products (most of which cost more than $100)." In any case, Nitzkin notes, the government can impose age restrictions without stopping "current adult smokers who are unwilling or unable to quit" from enjoying "the health benefits this product can offer." By Nitzkin's reckoning, based on the available research, smokeless nicotine products "promise a risk of illness and death well under 1% of the risk posed by cigarettes."
In his own letter to Zawalick, Godshall argues that "denying 45 million cigarette smokers access to exponentially less hazardous smokefree nicotine alternatives would result in millions of preventable deaths among smokers, millions of nonsmokers continuing to be exposed to tobacco smoke pollution, and tens of thousands of e-cigarettes users reverting back to smoking cigarettes." He adds that "it is absurd for the FDA to even contemplate protecting the deadliest nicotine products (cigarettes) from market competition by the least hazardous nicotine products."
More on the e-cigarette controversy
here and
here. E-cigarette testimonials
here and
here. A report on testing of the Ruyan e-cigarette
here (PDF).
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04-27-2009, 06:21 PM
Bill Godshall
Following is the latest news on the FDA tobacco legislative situation in the US Senate. Not sure if the full Senate will consider Waxman's bill or if the Senate will act on Kennedy's not-yet-introduced bill (which likely would have to go through the HELP Cmte before reaching the full Senate).
Although I gave Jim Carroll the heads up and urged him to write this article, he chose not to even mention our opposition to the Waxman/Kennedy legislation and our efforts to amend it in the Senate (with smokefree tobacco/nicotine product provisions).
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Senate set to speed up tobacco measure
Bill would allow federal regulation of all products
By James R. Carroll
jcarroll@courier-journal.com
Louisville Courier-Journal
April 26, 2009
Senate set to speed up tobacco measure | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
WASHINGTON -- The Senate plans to expedite legislation that would give the federal government the power to regulate tobacco products.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has told supporters of the legislation, which passed the House on April 2 on a 298-112 vote, that the matter will be taken up before the end of May.
Bipartisan backing for the bill is strong in the Senate, so the measure is likely to pass and be signed into law by President Barack Obama, who also supports it.
The legislation would give the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sales of tobacco products. Congressional deliberations are being closely watched in tobacco-growing states such as Kentucky, the second-leading producer of the leaf.
Reid met with representatives of the American Heart Association in his Capitol office last week.
"He was quite straightforward in saying that he knew, of course, the bill had passed the House and he hoped to do it in the next five weeks," said Derek Scholes, a lobbyist with the association.
Jim Manley, spokesman for Reid, confirmed that Senate action is slated for next month.
Bill ready for vote
The only question is whether the House-passed bill, sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will be taken up by the Senate or whether a separate and basically identical Senate measure will be voted on instead.
Reid has invoked a Senate rule that allows the Waxman bill to be considered on the Senate floor without first being approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, whose chairman is Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said last week that the senator still intends to introduce his own measure, as he did last year.
It was essentially the same as Waxman's plan.
While the House approved Waxman's bill last year, the Senate ran out of time and never took up Kennedy's bill.
Manley said no final decision has been made on the legislative procedures in the Senate for considering the tobacco bill.
Scholes said his association and Reid "didn't get too much into the weeds on that." But he added that "we're very excited we may finally see the bill go through this Senate."
Stepping up pressure
As a sign of intensifying lobbying for the measure, supporters have begun running ads in Washington-based publications to urge senators to act.
In one ad, a girl looks into the camera, standing next to these words: "You have the power to protect me from America's #1 cause of preventable death. Senators, it's time for FDA regulation of tobacco."
The ad is sponsored by the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Cancer Action Network of the American Cancer Society and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Another ad shows rows of schoolhouses and says: "7,000 kids have smoked their first cigarette since yesterday."
Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the bill has been debated in the Senate for years and that now is the time to act.
"Congress has a lot on its plate this year," Myers said. "The goal of our advertising campaign is to ensure that the tobacco bill gets the attention it deserves."
How it would work
If passed, the legislation would empower the FDA to restrict tobacco advertising and marketing -- particularly any that it determines to be targeting children.
The FDA also would have the authority to require larger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packs and demand disclosure of tobacco product ingredients.
The agency would not regulate tobacco farmers and would not be allowed to ban tobacco.
The cost of the regulation would be covered by fees imposed on the tobacco manufacturers and importers.
Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (202) 906-8141
the easiest way to get thousands of people to sign up in a matter of days is to spam youtube (technically its not spamming, its just informing) 
