Negative article on AOL homepage today 9/16

[jtcaseyjr]

You got more from Schneider than I got from Siobhan DeLancey....so congrats on that....

Well I have to give you some credit, the part about the Nicotine and Withdrawl symptoms, I got from reading your post to the FDA.

By the way he did respond again to the second email, It was even shorter this time:


Mr. Casey,

I do understand your point of view and I will carefully consider anything else you send my way,

Be well,

Andrew Schneider

 

[Puffice]

Well I am sure their are and even if not their probably will be in the future which is why this problem is not going to go away. I am not certain the legalities of all this but it would seem to me that trying to get the ecig added to the law of not selling tobacco to the under aged is the only answer. Is is going to take getting the right people to the right people to stop this from being a issue.

 

[DaveP]

My comment posted to the "Worst e-cigarette article to date"

The articles we see concerning electronic cigarettes routinely contain opinionated and mis-informed data. The FDA test results are blatantly skewed and mis-represented. Electronic cigarettes are a proven method for replacing harmful components of cigarette smoke with a vapor mist containing nicotine. Ecig users typically receive their nicotine without all the tar and harmful components of tobacco smoke and the vapor exhaled has been tested and reported to contain only trace amounts of residual nicotine.

In the five months that I have used electronic cigarettes I have reduced my tobacco intake from 40 cigarettes a day to less than 7. This reduction occurred in the first week and I'm discovering that I now forget to smoke my after meal cigarette! It's amazing that electronic cigarettes have satisfied the craving for nicotine and also changed my habitual craving enough to allow me NOT to think about smoking. Quitting cold turkey, using nicotine gum, and medicinal FDA approved drugs all have quit rates of 7% or less. Studies have shown that users of electronic cigarettes have an 80% or better rate of transferring their habit completely to the Ecig.

Electronic cigarettes are a viable replacement for tobacco. A large percentage of Ecig users transition themselves to lower and lower nicotine contents in their e-liquids and eventually reach the zero nicotine level. I agree that testing is welcomed by all Ecig users, but the blatant publishing of distorted and uninformed data about Ecigs is shameful. If you publish statistics and facts, please quote the source! If you can't do that, you are just forwarding hearsay.

 

[Bill Godshall]

I urge folks not to waste their time sending a comment to the AOL article (as nearly 500 comments have been posted in less than a day), but rather send an objective and civil e-mail directly to the article's author (I know that may be difficult after reading the article) andrew.schneider@aolnews.com urging him to write a followup article clarifying/correcting his misleading/inaccurate statements, and presenting the other side of the story.

Also, please remember that titles of articles are usually chosen by editors, not the authors. So don't blame him for the outrageous title of the article, but point out how misleading it was and that his article provided no actual evidence (to substantiate the title of the article.

 

[xg4bx]

It's articles like this that make me wish I could punch someone through the screen. This entire article is obviously phony. NO teenager is going to spend what, $300+ (between train ride and rip-off kits) just to smoke an e-cig. REAL teenagers would go spend that money on an ounce of "green",a pack of Newports and a couple Xbox games or a new cell phone.

What irresponsible parents would let their 13/14 year old daughters go to DC with an envelope full of cash? This entire article is BS.

 

[xg4bx]

Quote from the article: "At the very least, it's not smart to intentionally inhale substances which have been proven to cause irreversible lung disease that has and can kill you." Huh? What? Hello? They could much more easily be talking about tobacco. Incredible. And this "for the children" bs thats become so common? I am so sick of it all. Adults do not matter in this country anymore, as to the so-called powers that be we are all nothing but children. Parental responsibility has also gone the way of the dodo, they will take care of our children for us someday. I stocked up on e-juice over a year and a half ago or so, expired or not I WILL keep it around and worst comes to worst, I WILL vape expired juice as I have no funds really to restock again. I will never let these kill-joy types make me have only the choice of "go back to smoking cigarettes or let us revel in your attempts to once again quit cold turkey and suffer". They see people enjoying themselves and hate them because they are genetically built to not experience any joy other than to control others and attempt to make people just like they are. These anti's get their o-gsms off nanny control. Really sad, but e-cig industry, in my personal opinion, is screwed, esp. with the new news about fda and such. All in good time, at this point, we will all be quit or smoking nasty excessively overtaxed cigarettes, neither is good. Sorry for the long post .

That's the plan, man. Indoctrination. Adults are a lost cause so the powers that be seek to influence young minds. Watch Disney or Nickelodeon and see how many politically correct causes are promoted on a daily basis.The government wants us "old fashioned" types to die off so they have a nice fresh populace full of eager young brown shirts.

They simply can't BS me anymore with claims of caring about public health. As has been said many times if they cared so much why are cigarettes and alcohol so readily available.

I know the solution to solve all of this but frankly it's pretty damn militant because that's the only thing that will work at this point.

 

[thephoenix]

vendors who sell to minors should be hanged, followed by any who pitch it as "healthier" or a smoking cessation device...they're half the reason we're drawing so much fire...

two beautiful words to remember: recreational alternative.

 

[MoonRose]

Quote from the article: "At the very least, it's not smart to intentionally inhale substances which have been proven to cause irreversible lung disease that has and can kill you."

Guess we all need to stop breathing the air in any large town or city, the pollution/smog has been proven to cause irreversible lung disease that has and can kill you.

 

[jtcaseyjr]

I urge folks not to waste their time sending a comment to the AOL article (as nearly 500 comments have been posted in less than a day), but rather send an objective and civil e-mail directly to the article's author (I know that may be difficult after reading the article) andrew.schneider@aolnews.com urging him to write a followup article clarifying/correcting his misleading/inaccurate statements, and presenting the other side of the story.

Also, please remember that titles of articles are usually chosen by editors, not the authors. So don't blame him for the outrageous title of the article, but point out how misleading it was and that his article provided no actual evidence (to substantiate the title of the article.

I did that already and he did respond. I sent him an email last night, I posted the letters and his responses, some in this thread I believe

 

[BobTheKlown]

Well, I wanted to leave a comment on the article concerning use on an airplane, but my aim account must have expired
here's the comment I would have left:
By that logic, someone in the middle of an asthma attack cannot use an inhaler on a plane, since it's the same thing (a personal inhaler with either medicine or nicotine suspended in a pg based liquid). If a flight attendant informed me I could not smoke, I would explain: there's no smoke, there's no tobacco, the absorbtion of the nicotine is close to 100%, it's virtually the exact same as an asthma inhaler. I know of several pilots and quite a few flight attendants who use these on planes. There is very little to no validity in your article. Please do some actual research instead of just posting anecdotal tripe. Thank you, for printing garbage, in the future I will remember to NEVER believe ANY your news stories; I'll get news from somewhere that bothers to fact check their information, and encourage others to do the same.

 

[mpetva]

He wrote a 2nd part to this on 09/16/2010 and linked to it in his first article:

Despite Ad Claims, You Can't Smoke E-Cigs on Planes
Despite Ad Claims, You Can't Smoke E-Cigarettes on a Plane and They Won't Cure ED

 

[jtcaseyjr]

Well The reporter who wrote the article actually responded to me again. I have to give the man some respect for at least responding to my emails and just not hitting the delete key. Here is what he said and what I replied back with:

Mr. Casey,

Your point about the way this sentence was written (If the Canadians could do it, why not U.S. regulators?") is a valid comment and I agree I can be read the way you mentioned, and could have been written differently.
However, don't you wonder whether it was science or politics that prevented the FDA from moving along those lines?
Again James, thanks for writing.

And I Replied:

Mr. Schneider,

Thank you so much for your reply. I will first say, I respect the fact that you are willing to admit that it could be read that way and I appreciate your condor.

As far as your point I think it's a little of both actually. Meaning I think there is pressure in Washington to keep these E-cigarettes on the market, not as much as you might think though as the ECA that you mention in your article was a loosely based organization and fell apart. Matt Salmon whom you also mentioned was quoted as saying he left the organization months ago. He also thought they disbanded. The only really active organization around is the The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) They are a consumer group and not organized by E-Cigarette vendors.

I also sincerely believe that the FDA really doesn't have the science to say these are an unsafe alternative to smoking. Please review the actual testing they have done and then compare it to the other smoke alternatives on the market and you will see what I mean.

Do E-Cigarettes need more study, yes I agree that they do. However I also think jumping the gun and banning them is also a mistake. In the 7 years E-cigarette's have been around worldwide, there have not been any serious reported side effects. Outside of the ones you mentioned in the article. As I said in the previous email those side effects can also be attributed to Nicotine usage and/or withdrawal.

I do believe there will and should be some type of regulation and/or standardization for E-cigarettes. However banning them as a "Drug delivery device" is not the answer.

Again Mr. Schneider, thank you for your gracious reply, If there is any thing I can do to help in getting real facts out there, I will be more then happy to do so.

sincerely,

James T Casey Jr

 

[Vocalek]

Very well said, James. Very well said, indeed.

 

[HighHeeledGoddess]

I am going to play Devil's advocate for a minute here and pretend these 2 little girls really did cruise over to the kiosk with their little envelopes (probably had on little trench coats and detective hats to match - think Carmen San Diego) to buy some PVs.

Ok, so they buy their little e-cigs, and giggle all the way home on the train about how covert they are, having been able to purchase these. They rush up to whichever of their little bedrooms they plan to do the deed in, and eek gads the things have to be charged! Now they have to wait around on that, already they're feeling distracted.... Now they have them charged, they take a couple puffs and nothing happens! There is no cool buzz like smoking a cigarette, etc, just fog and a little pen flashlight. Boring. Little girls feel ripped off, and scurry off to buy Cosmo, 17, and Teen Beat. The e-cigs are scattered in parts around who knows where, forgotten.

 

[maxx]

Reply I got from the FDA after getting the ol' email shuffle.....

Your message has been forwarded to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), one of the seven centers within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for a response.

The side effects listed in the news article were reported as adverse events to the FDA. These individual adverse event case reports are available under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. For more information on submitting an FIOA request, please see Freedom of Information

Sincerely,

Division of Drug Information
D202D

This communication is consistent with 21 CFR 10.85 (k) and constitutes an informal communication that represents our best judgment at this time but does not constitute an advisory opinion, does not necessarily represent the formal position of FDA, and does not bind or otherwise obligate or commit the agency to the views expressed.

For up-to-date drug information, follow the FDA's Division of Drug Information on Twitter at FDA_Drug_Info

So to summarize....to get the studies or reports, if they exist, they want me to pay for a FOIA request. They claim they exist...I think they are lying, so obviously I won't be shelling out any dough for non-existent reports. If they did exist, they would have splattered them all over the net by now. Bottom line...the FDA spokesperson made an unsubstantiated medical claim...the same type of thing they accuse E-cig makers and vendors of.

 

[BCB]

I think that's a pretty accurate assessment of the situation.

 

[Vocalek]

I was asked if I had ever received a response to my email to the reporter. I did, for what it is worth:

Thank you very much for your note.


I must tell you that I asked more than 15 people in the e-cig field if they could point me to anyone who could speak for the industry. The result was zero.

We even held the story two days hoping to find a responsible person or organization to speak to the issue and FDA's action.

Please put me on your mailing list which would be useful to all if I have to do another tory on the topic.


Again, thanks


Andrew Schneider

So, he's going on the list of those who receive CASAA press releases, for what it's worth.

 

[t9c]

I must tell you that I asked more than 15 people in the e-cig field if they could point me to anyone who could speak for the industry. The result was zero.

We even held the story two days hoping to find a responsible person or organization to speak to the issue and FDA's action.

WOW! And to think all he had to do was Google "e-cigarette" and then come here to ask the question...badaboom! Yeah, helluva reporter that Mr. Scheider is.

 

[DC2]

So this is the second time lately that I remember seeing this canned email response from the FDA...

Your message has been forwarded to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), one of the seven centers within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for a response.

Does anyone see what the problem is with this?
Well, here's a big hint: Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The FDA has not changed their tune one bit.
And anyone that thinks they will through anything less than force of law is sadly mistaken.

As always, we need to grow our power base by getting more users, and the public on our side.
And CASAA is leading that charge, in exactly the right way.

Sadly, they are not getting enough help from the rest of us.

 

[jtcaseyjr]

I was asked if I had ever received a response to my email to the reporter. I did, for what it is worth:




So, he's going on the list of those who receive CASAA press releases, for what it's worth.

Wow, I didn't realize he only talked to 15 people. Did he do a Google search, check youtube, I mean If he would have came here he could have talked to hundreds of people. He could have also talked to almost every vendor too. It does prove my point about investigative reporting that I said in my first letter, I mean that just seems really sad.