The Marlboro Man, the quintessential image of rugged masculinity, died of lung cancer.
1
Thoroughly asinine. Are we going to ban screwdriver cocktails too, since they look like orange juice - and kids drink orange juice?!! Just because something is sweet doesn’t mean it’s marketed towards children. Moreover, this infringes upon legal, taxpaying citizens to enjoy whatever flavor tobacco they want. Government overreach to the Nth degree!
3
As in, say, prohibition?
1
But let's keep selling those THC gummy bears and brownies and CBD oil for any ailment known to man!
Marijuana isn't dangerous, is it? Kids NEVER use it...
Hypocrites.
2
I know Matt Myers, we fought in the tobacco wars of the 1970s and 80s. He is a dedicated professional. Mike Blumberg was a great New York City mayor who instituted many public health measures.
And now we have e-cigs and kids being kids are adding stuff, mostly THC to e-cigs, but we just don't know enough about flavoring additions. And they are heated so they may create new chemicals. In the last two days, we have had two new deaths in the population who use and experiment with vaping. As of today, this brings the death toll to 6. And another 450 are ill. Nicotine is a very addictive chemical. It is more addictive than heroin. And you develop tolerance which means the more you vape/smoke, the more you need. Nicotine is oncogenic, teratogenic, and retards brain development in young kids.
The CDC has already put out an advisory discouraging vaping. And the American Medical Association has recommended that the FDA become more involved.
As a public health doc, I expect more deaths, unfortunately. In the future, I hope Nicotine becomes a controlled substance which requires a physicians prescription to gradually wean all those who have nicotine addiction off their vaping or cigarettes. Research has already shown that many kids who vape will also use cigarettes. With attention by the public now is the time to write your member of Congress to take action on this most destructive drug.
This is America, you cant tell anyone what to do because everyone has rights except if you want to have an abortion than every old white male can tell you what to do. Want to carry a gun to Wal Mart that is your right.
There is so much money in Juul that it doesnt matter how many people fall ill. Corporations love money and money trumps lives.
Careful. You used the word "tobacco" 17 times in an article about e-cigarettes, a product that does not contain tobacco. The absence of tobacco is the main reason why e-cigarettes have been proven to be much safer than traditional cigarettes.
5
I don't smoke anymore. Quit 30 years ago and it was tough. My mother died of lung cancer when I was off cigarettes 3 months. She tried to quit but never could.
Still...I don't want the government telling people they can't smoke or vape. A lot of people are saying "Just ban vaping" and I think that's wrong.
While we're at it let's ban every risky human habit.
Cigarettes, booze, recreational drugs, unsafe sex, dangerous hobbies like mountain climbing or racing cars, watching porn, eating too many donuts.
Please don't urge our government to ban vaping because if that is the safety standard for nicotine products, then why are cigarettes and cigars still being sold?
I wouldn't vape for anything.
But if an adult wants to vape, go for it. However, don't sell vaping products to kids. Whatever legal age Congress decides on, stick to it.
If vaping companies are targeting kids in their ads, then that needs to stop.
But otherwise, adults, deal with it.
All you people say "Ban It" like you're the nicotine police. Stop it.
3
As a former cigarette smoker who now solely uses e-cigarettes, I agree that e-cigarettes need more regulations, study and controls, but we shouldn't deny the benefits they've given to those of us they've helped.
I've been using them since about 2012, and my lungs have been better, not worse. I can walk up stairs without coughing, I have more energy, more endurance, I don't stink. I have my sense of smell and taste back, and not a bit of lung disease. I've been using e-cigarettes for a lot longer than many of the children who have reported lung disease is the past 3 months, so why is this a thing only now, and why only in the US? E-cigarettes are used world-wide.
Moreover, adults like sweet flavors as well as children, and flavor has never been the enticing aspect about smoking. Nicotine takes that role. Cigarettes, for example, are indisputably disgusting, but that didn't stop my fourteen year-old self from smoking them in 2005, nor did it stop my many peers who smoked them with me. Which leads me to my last point, children don't do stupid things for candy. They do what they perceive to be stylish, which at times can be stupid.
3
Awful abuse on our health. Similar to the tobacco industry but subtler. Equally harmful as the 'soda industry'. How long should we tolerate this senseless sickening of youth, while we see the horrors of the opioid addiction, all in the name of greed?
3
From across the Pond, this all looks bizarre, as regards both the safety of vaping and vaping among young people.
Regarding safety, as an editorial points out in the British Medical Journal today (10 September 2019): vaping has been widespread for nearly a decade in the US and a number of other countries, like Canada and the UK. Yet, in the US, there has been no association with an outbreak of pulmonary disease until now; and there is "no evidence of similar cases" in any other country.
Regarding vaping among young people: in the UK, only 1.7% of 11- to 18-year-olds vape once a week or more, and practically all of those are young people who had previously been smokers. (https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/27/e-cigarette-evidence-update-patterns-and-use-in-adults-and-young-people/)
So-- in the UK, there has been no down-side from vaping, and a huge, life-saving benefit: vaping has proven far more effective than anything previously at enabling smokers to quit smoking. And anyone who's been through the process of switching will tell you that vaping flavours are crucial. We now know that what makes tobacco smoke so fiercely addictive is a blend of nicotine and other chemicals; nicotine alone is a poor substitute, and nice flavours tilt the balance.
What you need is a properly researched article comparing the UK situation to the US situation. (Including the role of Big Tobacco in fomenting anti-vaping hysteria in the US for its own benefit; they failed in the UK.)
27
Unfortunately people are susceptible to the sensationalism of media, even those who work in the industry. Once the meme (in its original meaning) begins to spread facts to the contrary and critical thinking man little to those whose brains have host it.
1
@Jane
I find it very difficult to understand why Jane feels Big Tobacco is “formenting anti-caping hysteria “ when Altria just invested in Juul.
As a researcher it is a crime to say vaping is safe Safe???? 456 cases. 8 dead. Unregulated industry trapping children into a lifetime of nicotine addiction. Shame!!!!
Adolescents brains cannot escape negative effects of nicotine marijuana and other stimulants. Their lungs are delicate and inhaling thousands of vaporized chemicals is extremely likely to have serious and irreversible negative effects.
Why??? So big pharma big tobacco and the pot industry can ally with states to make money off of youth.
1
What should happen is this.
As much as I do not like to see more laws, the congress needs to enact a law to the effect that if you do not have health insurance and you "vape" and become ill you are on your own. No tax payer money will be spent on you.
It could also apply to "smokers" too.
1
Right. Those 13-17 year olds are so intellectually and emotionally developed that they should bear the consequences of their juvenile choices for life. Only a Republican would come up with the idea to put the blame on the victim instead of on the corporations taking advantage of them.
3
I have never in my life set foot in New York. Yet I find Michael Bloomberg continually interfering in my life and choices. Fellow leftists beware of this man. His goals may (currently) align with your own, but he is just another Koch, using his obscene wealth to impose his will. Why does he get so much say?
AOC's policy adviser was right: every billionaire is a policy failure.
2
Methinks the author should fully define his terms before moving to arguments regarding policies.
2
Folks:
Nicotine is a poison. Yes, an indisputable fact.
Ergo absorbing nicotine through your lungs is bad.
Adolescents absorbing nicotine is worse.
If you need vape to cease smoking it should be dispensed as a medication at a pharmacy.
The play here is that the tobacco industry makes $10 Billion dollars and then give back $50 million when the results are in. While nicotine does not per se cause cancer, it still does a lot of damage to your lungs and circulatory system.
4
Alcohol is also a poison. One that's responsible for many deaths ayear. Your point?
3
As long as there have been cigarettes teen have smoked, both legally and illegally. eCigarettes are no different. It is not the "flavors" that attracts them. We should never base what is sold purely on their possible illegal use or abuse. You take away the flavored products it will not stop teens from smoking, it will just punish those that use the product legally. I don't smoke, but disagree wholeheartedly with any ban.
7
The other day, my 8 year old stopped on the street because she smelled something good and wanted to go back and smell it. It was someone's vape smoke and she loved the smell, understandably. It smelled like cotton candy. My daughter could have put her face into the smoke to enjoy it. Needless to say, I was not happy about this. I am a non-smoker, but cotton candy vape smoke crosses many lines. The choice is not necessarily outright banning, or total freedom. Tobacco regulators are going to have to think this one through.
4
This whole fixation on nicotine being highly addictive is totally wrong scientifically. Cigarettes are highly addictive, no arguments. However, nicotine by itself is only mildly addictive. Three data show this. (1) In animal studies, nicotine alone is only very mildly addictive as compared to the very high addictiveness of substances such as opioids and cigarette smoke. (2) In smokers (humans) undergoing cigarette deprival, they greatly prefer a denicotinized cigarette over either a hit of nicotine or a fake cigarette (air drawn through an unlit cigarette). (3) Nicotine replacement therapy (patch, gum or vaping) is only marginally successful in helping people quit. If nicotine were why cigarettes were so highly addictive, then nicotine replacement therapy would be highly successful.
If you wish to claim that nicotine alone (as in vaping) is highly addictive, perhaps you would care to explain the above data. References for each of my statements are available on request (or, do a search on Google Scholar or PubMed).
4
Why are we even talking about this. We should have banned cigarettes 60 years ago when the surgeon general issued his report, or any time since then as we learned out the dangerous of secondhand smoke, and have seen the ravages that smoking-related illnesses cause. E-cigarettes are no different, and may even be worse. Apparently people don’t understand the amount of nicotine they are inhaling. And the recent lung issues with Juul indicate how poorly these things are tested and regulated. It’s time to get rid of them all and find new jobs for those working in the industry. How about switching them to renewable energy or climate change mitigation. It should be a growing field.
2
@Karen Please don't make things up for your post. You state "E-cigarettes are no different, and may even be worse (than tobacco, presumably)" This makes no sense since there is no combustion in E-cigarettes, and combustion is what yields the primary toxins in cigarette smoke. You state "And the recent lung issues with Juul ..." The Juul products were not involved in the recent lung issue cases.
Lastly, since when has banning something been effective? Do we really need a nanny-state telling us everything we can and can't do?
6
It worked with assault weapons until Congress irresponsibly (and with the financial backing of the NRA) let the ban lapse. Now we have mass shootings with assault rifles on a regular basis.
2
40 Years ago stores stopped carrying the candy shaped like cigarettes.
Now we allow candy flavored cigarette substitutes to deliver nicotine and who knows what else.
6
"The F.D.A. can ban flavors immediately, but it has repeatedly kicked the can down the road when it comes to taking serious steps. " But of course! There is NO agency in the current "administration" that does NOT kowtow to corporate interests FIRST, and the health and welfare of taxpaying Americans SECOND. Another disgraceful "talk to the hand", from the one agency that has refused to hold the tobacco industry to task.
They can start by requiring that all e-cigarettes/vape product LIST ALL INGREDIENTS. That's AFTER they ban flavored products, and after they're fined for misleading the government about their kid-targeted advertising programs.
3
Don't you have to be 21 to buy vape products?
Seriously, don't ban something some adults enjoy because some kids want to enjoy it too...
We haven't banned fruity alcoholic beverages because kids might like them, or actual candy...Despite knowing that excessive sugar intake is bad for people too.
7
If I had to bet on the outcome, then my bet is Congress will do NOTHING and it will be up to the states. Blue states will act first and Red states will allow a health crisis to ensnare their citizens.
Libertarians will shout that Individuals should have the liberty to poison their lungs, but they always seem to forget that the consequences go beyond the individual with increased devastating health costs to society.
I quit smoking 40 years ago. I didn’t need a vape device to do so. During high school, my parents didn’t know I was smoking socially at parties. During college, they certainly weren’t aware of my social smoking habits. So those commentators who say “just tell your kids no” are out of touch with what typically happens in a teen’s life.
Vaping nicotine equals nicotine addiction, something our society and bodies don’t need.
18
@Patricia Brown
I'm glad for you that it was easy to quit your 'social' smoking. It hasn't been easy for most of us. After years of trying all of the officially sanctioned methods I was able to quit a 42 year smoking addiction in less than 2 weeks of starting vaping.
Yes, I'm addicted to nicotine, but does that mean I need to submit to COPD, lung cancer and death when there is a much safer (based on research in Europe and Britain) option?
This sudden outbreak of disease needs to be investigated and the actual cause determined. Over the last 10+ years millions of people have vaped without this happening. We need to find out what is different now.
10
@Patricia Brown Vaping nicotine may mean nicotine addiction or it could mean the beginning of the end of that addiction. It's many people out there that have switched from smoking to vaping, starting with higher nicotine strengths and tapering down to eventually zero nicotine. I personally think that's one of the good parts of vaping. For those that may not be able to quit as easily as you did, they can gradually get to that point through vaping.
3
@Patricia Brown Rather than make grown adults who (like Amoret so succinctly put) would rather not submit to COPD, lung cancer, and death suffer, why not place the blame where it due with the parents? The fact that your parents couldn't smell the scent of smoke on your clothes or hair either meant they were incredibly ignorant or didn't care. If a parent wants to know what their kid is up to they have ways of finding that out. And even if they truly have no idea what their kids are up to, nothing is stopping parents from educating their kids about the dangerous of smoking. Why should my individual freedoms be infringed upon because of some lousy parents?
Also, what's this comparing social smoking at parties to people who are addicted to nicotine? Why is it, when it comes to addictions to opioids, crack, or amphetimines we're all about compassion and "harm reduction" (safe injection sites, naloxene, etc.), but when it comes to people addicted to nicotine the only treatment they deserve when it comes to quitting is shame???
4
An awful lot of comments on here have led me to one of two conclusions:
1) People have conveniently forgotten the 60 year history of continuous tobacco industry lies that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from cancer.
2) These comments are written by the industry itself.
Another way of looking at it is to just read the post, and then ask yourself - Would JUUL approve of this comment?
Then again, would a company like JUUL actually engage in this kind of underhanded approach just to save a few hundred million in profits?
Food for thought.
5
You actually can't have both points. If we're insiders paid by Juul to comment on NYT articles, then we certainly aren't ignorant about the kind of marketing Juul is up to.
2
Let me start by saying that I don't smoke. However, I couldn't disagree with this op-ed more. I'm also a little disappointed to see something like this in The New York Times. I expect this publication to put out thoughtful and educated articles, not fear mongering and lack of accountability.
As mentioned by others, adults love fruity flavors too. I'm pretty sure if there was no interest in fruity flavored alcohol then companies wouldn't be churning out the new watermelon and raspberry concoctions on the regular. Is it really that big of a leap that as technology advances, we will find ways to make our vices taste better to us? Alcohol has been leading the way in this department for YEARS, yet we enjoy our sipping our cocktails and looking the other way.
If you don't want these products in the hands of kids, tighten regulations. But be aware, where there's a will, there's a way. Parents (speaking as one), if you don't want your kids smoking, set an example and explain early on why it's unhealthy. YOU should be holding yourselves accountable for helping to keep these products away from your kid.
Until you're willing to vehemently fault both industries for the same practices and allow for some accountability by parents and teachers who see kids smoking/vaping firsthand, you should revise your high and mighty tone.
21
@Megan
Stop. Just stop. There is no justification for fruity flavours in an addictive substance. The target is children, not adults. The tobacco industry is desperate for new customers, and this is how they snare kids.
In the old days, a parent knew their kid was smoking because it stinks -- on breath, on clothes. Vaping doesn't smell the same way.
My parents had a discussion with me about smoking, and I knew it was bad. But I was 14 and all my friends smoked, so I did too.
No, the industry has to be curtailed. There is no purpose to smoking/nicotine BUT addiction.
7
@Megan - As for your first paragraph, this is an Op-Ed article, written by outside authors. It is not a news article, nor is it an editorial stating the opinion of the Times editors themselves. Reputable newspapers host articles by outside writers in order to expose their readers to a variety of viewpoints, some of which are very far indeed from the opinions of anyone who works for the Times. So your complaint that the Times would countenance such an article only shows that you don't really know how newspapers work.
4
@LauraF
The tobacco industry has been fighting against vaping until recently when a company bought into Juul, before then they were coming up with there own version of products that never had any fruity flavors, just tobacco and menthol.
The vape industry has been around for a good decade and fruit, candy, bakery, tobacco, etc etc flavors have been a part of it pretty much since the beginning. they weren't targeting children. If you take the chance to actually sit and talk to true vape enthusiasts, you will find out how passionate they are about saving people's lives and helping people get off cigarettes. It has nothing to do with getting children hooked. The true people that are apart of this niche community and not trying to use it to make money are about protecting it and helping it grow in order to help more people, and you don't do that by getting kids hooked. Look at the discussion that we are having right now, and look at the attacks on vaping that is going on. This is a result of getting children hooked on nicotine. People are losing business and money and careers because of it, I can assure you this is not what the people that are really invested in this wanted and this isn't the purpose of having fruity flavors.
2
Perhaps, and just spit balling here, we should KNOW what caused these (very very few) lung illnesses BEFORE we go banning anything?
I mean I know that alcohol and drug prohibition have been spectacularly successful and all but maybe, just maybe, here we shouldn't listen to the same puritan zealots who've given us the drug war.
Every stat sighted here is either deeply flawed or at least correlative and not causative.
Beyond this nearly EVERY study of ecigarettes has shown them to be orders of magnitude less destructive than tobacco.
Here's a great rule of thumb. E cigarettes are potentially harmful? Fine. Make sure YOUR kids don't use them and I'll make sure MY kids don't use them and the government can go on being catastrophically dreadful at prohibition of other drugs for the next 100 year's instead.
Deal?
7
How about banning all e-cigarettes, and not just the ones that taste like candy?
3
Cool a you ok with losing your wine? Alcohol is a proven neurotoxin.
1
Children who smoke rarely do so with the permission of any adult, they deliberately disregard what adults tell them is bad for them. Early on, children are presented with evidence to dissuade them from smoking and for about sixty years or more. The idea that the cigarette companies are fooling them into becoming addicts is just mistaken. The cigarette companies are furnishing them with what they want, knowing that they will become long term customers.
The fact is that children or adults, all who smoke are placing themselves at high risk of permanent health problems. Anyone who does it is being silly. There are no advantages gained from smoking that justifies the risks from smoking, none. What is happening is that people are not seeing an immediate downside from smoking and are kidding themselves into thinking that maybe they will escape bad effects, and the same lack of appreciation of the risks is identical for children and adults.
3
I have teenage nieces and nephews. While visiting my brother in Madison NJ my niece said most of the kids at her high school vape. These are the kids of parents who are highly educated and well off. The flavoring in e cigarettes is solely to hook kids, period. How do these people sleep at night?
7
Yes, “ban the flavored e-cigarettes”, but it’s a little late.
We already have an epidemic of “vaping” in our middle schools and high schools—as the FDA let this slide for far too long.
A physician MD
5
Bloomberg comes armed with facts? In paragraph four he deliberately misleads. The hospitalized youths were using black market THC pods. They were not vaping commercial e-cigs. Yet Bloomberg conflates the two. Don’t theses kids have parents? Why is it Bloomberg’s job to “save” them? Alcohol kills 4,000 minors a year. Is that not an epidemic? Why does nobody care about them?
5
@Steve Stempel - Bloomberg was our mayor at one time, and as such it was his job to keep New Yorkers safe. This he tried to do by limiting smoking in places of business. This was a great success, and may well have "saved" people who had been subject to tobacco fumes at their jobs. (And as you probably know he has expanded his efforts to try to keep everyone safe from gun violence.)
4
What an epiphany. Ban 32oz cup Bloomberg wants to ban something else.
E-cigarettes aren't sold to children. One has to be 18 years or older to buy them, like cigarettes. Same with alcohol. It is forbidden, therefore it is appealing to American children. Declaring a product off limits to children is a greater motivator to its use by them than any marketing plan by big tobacco. Is this not common knowledge? Well, now you know.
E-cigarettes have actually reduced tobacco cigarette use among children. Fewer young people are smoking because of vaping, not more.
Juul and e-cigarettes are not responsible for the rash of illnesses cropping up in the past few weeks. Why is Bloomberg singling out that company?
Nicotine use in e-cigarettes is another problem altogether from the lung damage seen among vapers in the recent weeks.
Why does the NYT publish such blatant misinformation?
6
Ban ALL of it. There is no need whatsoever for this pernicious product.
4
So why can’t the state of California ban flavored tobacco? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article230921803.html
Turns out that flavored tobacco is used in hookah pipes and banning it is culturally insensitive.
1
Michael Bloomberg, you're the best.
2
"Kids don't smoke because a camel in sunglasses tells them too. They smoke for the same reasons adults smoke... because it relieves anxiety and depression. And you'd be anxious and depressed too if you had to put up these pathetic, anal, striving yuppie parents who enrol you in college before you're old enough to know which end of the playpen smells the worst."
--George Carlin
5
Ban E-Cigs in general! They are destroying my 19 yr old son's life!
6
Only an addict will defend an addictive item....
7
Or someone with a hefty financial interest in it (also called greed).
4
@mrpisces
And therefore addicts should all just die?
Make them available by prescription only.
Duh.
4
Yes, let's ban things because we don't like them ourselves. Plus, in reading the fine print, the vaping deaths and sickness is from marijuana vaping, not nicotine, though that would never make the news. Personally, I think we should ban the flavored alcoholic beverages, such as vodka or the alcoholic soft drinks. I don't like them and they are geared towards underage drinkers. I'd also like to ban all the cable news networks, they're quite annoying. Politicians such as Mr. Bloomberg should be banned as well, they twist the facts and are really all about themselves.
5
@DJOHN - Mr. Bloomberg is not in office and likely will not be in office again. He is not doing this for himself.
5
We know three things:
Nicotine is highly addictive.
Nicotine is in e-cigs.
Teens are vaping more than ever: "America’s teens report a dramatic increase in their use of vaping devices in just a single year, with 37.3 percent of 12th graders reporting “any vaping” in the past 12 months, compared to just 27.8 percent in 2017. These findings come from the 2018 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of a nationally representative sample of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in schools nationwide, funded by a government grant to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor."
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2018/12/teens-using-vaping-devices-in-record-numbers
Why anyone is defending e-cig use or suggesting there's no cause for alarm is beyond me.
5
Thank you, Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Myers. I am a non-smoker, a runner and I have COPD from childhood second hand smoke from parents who smoked regularly and indoors. These kids are innocent victims of an evil industry.
4
Ah no. Parents need to parent their kids. What next - ban alcohol? Where will it stop.
3
Oh yeah, let's just conveniently forget that the recent illnesses are now believed to have been linked to counterfeit cannabis products obtained off of the street... that the illnesses occurred in places where THC is prohibited... wouldn't wanna ruin the carefully crafted narrative, would we?
4
Won’t someone PLEASE think of the children??? Moral panic. Just like Elvis’s gyrating hips, heavy metal music and violent video games, nobody asked for it, but vape is here to stay. Whether it will stay legitimate, grey market or black market is up in the air. It’s already illegal for kids to buy. What more do moral warriors want?
The rash of lung illnesses all seem tied to vaping gray market THC products not vaping. It’s disingenuous to tie the two together. Drinking lemonade and bootleg whiskey are both “drinking” but one has little to do with the other.
Our puritanical society is getting ruffled by people getting a quick nicotine buzz without the penalties of tobacco related illness. Why worry so much about kids possibly getting a quick cheap buzz when we already have legal psychotropic drug pushers selling way worse stuff. Child psychiatrists. SSRIs, amphetamines are way worse for you and harder to quit than nicotine. Nobody ever committed suicide when starting nicotine. Can’t say the same for SSRIs. But drugs of social control get a free pass while a drug that gives you a boring quick buzz triggers a moral panic. Who can figure it?
Every society has and does use drugs to alter mental states. Legalize everything. Ban sales to kids. Educate people on the effects of what they put in their body. Move on.
5
I would argue that alcohol has a much larger negative societal impact than cigarettes and e-cigs combined and yet we allow almost unfettered marketing wine, beer and hard liquor, including candy flavored beer, wine and liquors. Where's the seething outrage for all the youth whose lives are ruined by alcoholism; the children abused and neglected by alcoholic parents; people killed by DUI; and for the children born with fetal alcohol syndrome? Juul doesn't hold a candle to big alcohol.
4
Since e-cigarette's main (sole) purpose is theoretically to enable addicted smokers a way to quit, why not have them sold under "prescription only".?
5
They won't because of Greed, here in Florida the headline in the paper yesterday was "26million lost in revenue if High capacity magazine restriction are approved by voter petition" already the scare tactics are starting....and this is here with 2 mass shootings, and the bomber.
2
Several people write that they stopped smoking with the assistance of vaping with "e-cigs", so they shouldn't be banned, but I didn't see anyone say they stopped vaping too.
All they have done is to switch the drug delivery system to one that is less irritating and seemingly harmful (they hope). They are still hooked. They are still addicts. They are still slaves to nicotine and the companies that provide their fix. Why on earth would they want their children to be enslaved in the same manner? I just don't understand.
I would understand vaping being sold for a limited time to individuals as a means to stop smoking (with a ban on cigarettes). But by continuing indefinitely the e-cigarette users are simply perpetuating their addictions and marketing them to others simply by their public use.
4
These products and their use by young people are a direct testament to the stupidity of a major portion of the population. Sorry, not a negotiable statement. At 61, having grown up with both parents smoking (one who died a horrible death from lung cancer), it was made quite clear at home and in the media that there was no upside to smoking; ecigs should have no purpose whatsoever beyond breaking the habit for those that got addicted in the first place. Perhaps we should start pushing methadone for our children as well, since it is a regulated, safe alternative to another addiction? Give us a break here. It makes me ill to see Juul advertisements when we have banned cigarette ads for so many years.
6
Mr. Bloomberg,
Shame on you for your absolute ignorance on this subject. Do a little bit of research sir and you might find that all of these issues are actually due to "vaping" fraudulent and illegal THC cartridges. They have absolutely nothing to do with flavored e-cigarettes that are and in the future going to save millions of people from the misery of smoking traditional combustible cigarettes.
Sure, Juul is an epidemic among teens and the company needs to be held accountable for their prior unethical marketing of their products. That does not change the fact that these products are saving the lives of so many smoking adults.
Would you rather people continue to die in droves from cigarettes, or live with the reality that kids are trying these products which have been proven to be by the Royal College of Physicians to be a safe and effective means to quit cigarettes? If you really think long and hard about that, you'll see the insanity of your position.
Thought you were a man for the greater good. Apparently I was very wrong.
4
@AJ - As you yourself said, the Royal College of Physicians found them to be a safe and effective means to QUIT CIGARETTES. They did not say they are a good thing to be used by people who are not already nicotine addicts.
Also, neither you nor the Royal College actually know that any lives are being saved. That will takes decades to determine.
6
@AJ
Reading the comments here today there seem to be many people who would just prefer smokers to die.
1
Mr Bloomberg would like nothing more than for all of us to live in a nanny state where he dictates the law. He is an unabashed vocal critic on an array of personal liberties. He sticks his nose and his money in all kinds of pet peeve projects like banning smoking altogether. Mr Bloomberg needs to stop trying to mold our free society into his own version of reality.
1
Opioid addicts control pain management in this country because they've made doctors afraid to prescribe adequate medication for those with legitimate pain. Now, I guess teenagers are going to control vaping? This "ban everything except what I do" thinking is hypocritical & needs to stop. Should we ban kids' football & other contact sports? Fast food? Soft drinks? Violent video games? Enforce existing laws & make the penalties meaningful! After all, this is still, allegedly, a free country!
1
Thank you so much for this.
Can we add also that they should not be selling THC laced Jules cartridges?
Right now you can go down 8th Ave and find stores advertising these.
If we actually mean to keep kids off drugs, we should not be making it legal for them to buy them
I’ve thought form the beginning that these things had to be poison, for both the vapers and those around them. And I remember reading much criticism about the kiddie flavors on offer soon after vape shops appeared. So all of this sudden awareness is hard to take. How shocking that this product is marketed directly to our children! People knew. Parents knew. No one acted. And now kids are ill, even dying.
This is an evil product. I have to wonder how it breezed through the many stages of development. Did no one ever say, “This isn’t right?” It’s a device specifically designed to deliver an addictive toxin to the lungs, where it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to the brain. A device designed to appeal to young, would-be smokers. Children. So that they might be lifelong customers of the tobacco companies. Oh...and sometimes the batteries blow up.
I have never seen anyone mention this, but I think that the “vapor” may also be a driving hazard. I often see drivers puffing away on their e-cigs, filling the cabins of their vehicles with clouds of opaque vapor. Yet it’s legal to drive while gaping.
Children are especially vulnerable to advertising, social media marketing, and peer pressure. But adults should be smarter than than teenagers. When I learned that one of my (adult) nieces was vaping, my opinion of her plummeted. You want to look stupid? Slick an e-cig in your face and puff.
4
"Greed is the knife & the scars run deep"
The comments sections for all these vaping articles prove what we already knew - addicts become very anxious when they think they might not be able to get their fix.
5
Yeah, so I can see that your solution is just to let smokers die, because people addicted to nicotine deserve no compassion, right? I quit a 25 year smoking habit with the assistance of commercially available flavored vape products. They saved my life, and the lives of a bunch of other people I know and love. Just because some people are lousy and negligent parents, doesn't mean that I and others like me don't deserve access to a lifesaving product.
1
Seriously. Who thought e-cigs were a good idea to begin with?
3
Nope. Ban them all. Smokers trying to quit can get them on a prescription basis. Do we really want to wait another 4 or 5 year to find out that hundreds of young people are addicted to something that is killing them?
2
E-cigarettes, meet THC. I wonder if anybody saw this coming.
I quit a 47 year habit using Juul mango pods. To order, I have to get my age verified and pay a special delivery fee and show my driver license to the USPS carrier and sign for the product. This is in Texas. Kids hardly work these days so how can they even afford these products? I fear these bans will simply move people to the black market, where products may be tainted.
1
While there has been excellent commentary, there's one aspect of this issue that I don't see anyone discussing: adult supervision.
In an article titled "Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes to Protect Our Children", you would think that strong guidance in order to protect our children would play a role in discouraging kids from vaping, smoking, drinking, etc. While "teens will be teens" as another reader put it, they will also respond better to grownups helping them to grow up as long as they believe they're being cared for and not patronized.
3
Yet another example of the infantalization of America. Some children may be getting ill from an unknown cause, or may switch from e-cigs to tobacco, and we call for banning the product for the millions of adults who want to use it. And then there are those who want the products banned unless they are proven to be safe. It should be the other way around, in order to ban a product the government should need to prove it is not safe.
Some kids eat tide pods and get sick from them, are they going to be banned next?
2
Disagree. Products should be proven safe before they hit the market.
Yours is a nihilistic perspective, not a libertarian one.
3
@michaelscody - "infantalization of America"
I would agree. Flavored nicotine would seem to be a strong marker for the infantalization of America.
Wanting it not taken away results in wining and crying just like children who can't get their candy.
2
@Another You CAN'T "prove something is safe".
If that's your hurdle, they'll be nothing to buy in this country.
PROVE to me water is safe? (not in Flint).
How hard is it really for kids to simply NOT do something that is already illegal? I went to a public high school and never had a problem staying clean. We didn't have vaping then (I'm a millennial) but I doubt it would've tempted me more than alcohol in sweet punch or anything else. As an adult, I don't vape, but I like candy flavors. I enjoy sweet liqueurs from time to time. Adults should be allowed their favorite flavors of a vice as long as that vice remains legal.
1
How hard is it really for kids to simply NOT do something that is already illegal? I went to a public high school and never had a problem staying clean. We didn't have vaping then (I'm a millennial) but I doubt it would've tempted me more than alcohol in sweet punch or anything else. As an adult, I don't vape, but I like candy flavors. I enjoy sweet liqueurs from time to time. Adults should be allowed their favorite flavors of a vice as long as that vice remains legal.
Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, The Processed Food Industry, Big Tobacco, Monsanto and many others have been rendering the public like swine to be slaughtered for profit. Governments job is to equitably control this Darwinian Nightmare.
Government has failed. The GOP have become stooges for this system. They serve the Power Elite like dogs called to heel.
1.5 billion years of competitive life on Earth will do this.
However, humanity took an exit off this highway and we had better accept the responsibility for this and move away from the parasitism of the Power Elite and on to the Symbiosis that will save humanity and the earth itself. Democrats have the best shot at this at this time.
" But we do know that one Juul pod contains about as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes," What I don't know is how many sessions does that pod makes? Like a case of beer. Do you have to consume the entire case all at once? I think texting and rampant media consumption on personal devices are more of a danger to today's youth, but that cash cow seems to be sacred.
3
@Robert Texting at least serves some purpose. What purpose does a Juul pod serve, unless you are trying to quit smoking?
2
With all do respect - inhaling anti-freeze, artificial colors and flavors, and addictive nicotine all heated up into your lung is dangerous enough to ban, limit to persons over the age of 21, and tax heavily - maybe $15 a pod.
1
@BS
There is no antifreeze used, and I don't know of any reputable products with added colors. There is ongoing research in Europe regarding the safety of the flavors used.
Most of us were already addicted to nicotine. Sales to teenagers are already illegal. Taxing vaping as much or more as tobacco will just leave smokers , especially low income ones, unable to afford to quit.
Why don't we find out what the actual cause of the severe damage happening now is, before panicking. Millions of people worldwide have been using vaping to quit smoking for over 10 years and there has not been any damage like this. It sounds like most of the people affected were vaping cannabis products and/or mixtures that go far beyond the nicotine, USP vegetable glycerin, USP propylene glycol, and some flavoring that are all that is in normal vaping liquid.
You can preach all day about the dangers of these products and people, especially kids, will continue to use them. The best way to reduce their use is to make them expensive. There should be a substantial tax on any product containing nicotine. Also all flavoring in both e-cigs and any other tobacco products should be banned.
Make them illegal.
Make the fine to sell them to a minor $10,000.
Make their possession by a minor a fine on their parents of $1000.
Sue Juul for their illegal marketing 50 billion dollars.
Didn’t anyone learn anything from the 100s of millions of persons incapacitated and killed by tobacco?????
1
To the extent that vaping is safe(r) means to quit both smoking and, eventually, nicotine and other substance use/abuse, e-cigarettes and other vaping-related products could/should be prescribed by a medical doctor for the exclusive use of a specific patient, for a specific time frame, and for a specific health-improving goal, much as nebulizers/inhalers are prescribed to people with certain lung conditions.
I don't go around spraying my albuterol or other drug and its "inactive ingredients" in your face and that of your infant, young child, parent with small cell lung cancer and so forth (in fact, one could go to jail for doing so). Neither I nor the producers of inhalers or the medications (substances) they deliver engage in behavior aimed at, or with the effect of, encouraging others -- including minors -- who have no associated medical need to start or continue using said products. Airborne nicotine, cannabinoids, other substances and their delivery systems should be regulated and used in a similar manner. Period.
4
@Uknowitsright
Meanwhile, the other nicotine replacement products - patches, flavored gum and flavored lozenges are all available over the counter and current labeling says you should continue to use them as long as needed.
Juul doesn't sell flavored "pods" at retail stores. To buy them online, you need a driver's license or state ID, a credit/debit card, and an address to ship them to. (You can also request that an adult must sign for the package, ensuring your kid doesn't receive it.)
I'm an adult who uses this service. It's significantly cheaper than retail, it arrives in 2-4 business days, and I never have to drive to a store. I buy mango-flavored pods, because like every other human being, I think mango tastes better than tobacco.
If I was a kid who wanted flavored Juul pods, I'd need to steal my parent's ID and credit card, and then pray the package arrived while they weren't home. (Or I'd need to know some unscrupulous kid/adult who would sell them to me at a markup.)
I understand why so many people are quick to call for the banning of flavored pods, or banning e-cigarettes entirely. But as someone who smoked for twenty years (and who started at 14, buying them without ID at corner store), e-cigarettes have made my life better. Don't trust me, trust Britain's NHS: unlike our FDA, the NHS supports the use of e-cigs as an alternative to smoking and finds them to be 95% safer than regular cigarettes.
My mother, 69, has smoked cigarettes her entire adult life. Visiting her this summer, I was heartbroken by the number of nights I she woke up coughing and hacking. Using e-cigarettes means I don't have to deal with the tar and carbon monoxide that help cause that condition.
2
Wouldn't the best thing be to stop using nicotine altogether? With all of its negative impact on health, one wonders why you and many others haven't made that final change.
As for the NHS in GB, I agree that e-cigs and the substances they deliver should be regulated as medical devices and controlled substances.
3
The assumption is that children will avoid E-cigarettes if they are not sweet and pleasant to use. Wrong. Kids used cigarettes and smoked marijuana when both hurt to inhale and cigarette smoke made one nauseous. The active ingredients kick in, and the habit starts.
5
If we really cared about children, and Marlboro and other tobacco companies are still doing what they have for decades to target children, then we would hold Marlboro and their industry companions accountable. Until they feel pain in their wallet or they are shut down for their illegal and unethical business practices, they'll continue to figure out ways to create new customers, which means marketing towards and attracting young people.
Federal health officials announced on Friday that vaping could be the cause of at least 450 possible cases of severe lung disease — with five confirmed deaths — in 33 states
As of August 31, 2019, 297 mass shootings have occurred in 2019. This averages out to 1.2 shootings per day. In these shootings, 1,219 people were injured and 335 died (for a total of 1,554 victims).
So which is the larger threat to public health? When do we ban guns? This is insanity.
2
Enough with the "what about" ing.
Though you are correct that the US has a terrible gun violence epidemic.
1
It's too bad, that in this day and age, there isn't a conscience about what products should even by on the market, for not just marketing to teenagers, but adults as well.
1
Why wouldn't we trust the corporations who brought us COPD, emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and premature death?! I'm sure they would never hide negative scientific data or minimize the risks of vaping in the pursuit of dollars.
If I had a dollar for every person I've met here in rural Alabama who has COPD due to smoking, I'd be as rich as the average CEO of a tobacco company.
6
Here's a twist: The tobacco industry is warning the public against vaping because of all the harm it does. No, it's warning the public against vaping because vaping is eating into its enormous profits. But they shouldn't be concerned. There's overwhelming evidence that vapers eventually become conventional smokers.
1
I am a former smoker. If you vape to quit smoking, and then continue to vape indefinitely, you haven't quit anything. I wish people would just admit that they vape because they can do it wherever they want without being hassled (likely why kids use them). Who knows what the health outcomes will be? I truly think smoking is better - at least you know how it could turn out for you.
10
@479 Yes you have quit something in that case. You quit smoking cigarettes. Your imagination of peoples' motives is completely baseless and simply wrong. It didn't take a week of vaping before I noticed an improvement in my overall well being. I was breathing better, not coughing in the morning, and had more energy for physical activities within a week of me switching over to vapor - about half of that time of which I spent still having 2-3 cigarettes a day before dropping them altogether.
I'm seriously proud of you for having quit however you managed to do it, but that doesn't mean that your sour grapes for other people who are doing it with the help of a tool is warranted. Certainly, your advice to stick to cigarettes instead is not at all warranted.
4
Quitting your intentional inhalation of non-prescription substances is the best course of action, second only to not starting smoking or vaping in the first place.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. As a former smoker who finally quit cigarettes after 25 years, with the assistance of e-cigs, I am vehemently opposed to banning that product. I have not smoked a single cigarette in four years. The simple fact is that kids will smoke, whether it’s e-cigs or regular cigs. The energy should be directed toward making e-cigs safer. My gut tells me that the issue is a combination of adulterated products and obsessive use. I often see people sucking on e-cigs like they’re trying to inhale the entire atmosphere. I do agree with banning silly candy flavors is a good idea. A simple choice of unflavored or menthol should be the rule.
39
@Pde: Most teens aren't using e-cigs to quit (they could be available by prescription for that purpose). Instead they're doing it for fun and to look cool and are getting addicted to nicotine in the process.
13
Many fewer kids would smoke or vape if they didn't see their parents or other people (including you) doing so.
3
@Pde I think you mean "tobacco-flavoured or menthol". You can get "unflavoured" if you want but I'd rather not have to be subjected to the same "choice". Otherwise I (almost) completely agree with you.
Why is The Times parroting the Refer Madness playbook? Again, and again, we've seen this.
6
Why are so many people so dependent on drugs? It is something I can never understand.
My sister in law was completely hooked on cigarettes. Has quite a couple of times. Turned to those nicotine lozenges but now eats them like candy. There is literally always one in her mouth. It's like in the old days when people would talk and eat with a cigarette dancing between their lips.
Predictably the addicts who fear their fix will be taken the ones who profit from addiction are here commenting with the same old song and dance, denying, denying, denying.
The truth is "13-year-olds don’t start using cotton-candy-flavored pods for Juul devices to kick a cigarette habit" they are attracted to it to start - for whatever reason - a life time of addiction that funnels money into the hands of the pushers.
4
Please stop it. No matter what a given tobacco manufacturer may invest in, this industry largely grew out of independent manufacturers who cultivated a product and found a base of consumers whose lives were changed by it. Despite a relapse after the loss of two of the people closest in my life within a few weeks of each other, vaping helped me kick tobacco for years, and even ween myself off of the physical habit of smoking, to the point where there were often days where I didn't toke my vape pen at all.
And part of what enabled me to stay on there was the variety of flavor offerings. You may find this hard to believe, but adults enjoy flavor as well. Just ask Smirnoff and Absolut about it, with their 25 flavors each of vodka that, for some reason, nobody has a problem with in regards to kids or adults.
This article is alarmist nonsense, akin to advocating for a beef ban after a salmonella outbreak. If you want to protect people from harmful vape products, the advocacy should be to the tune of establishing regulations and standards for the industry, as well as research to determine the cause(s) of the recent phenomenon involving vape products.
3
I don't smoke and not really a fan of vaping due in general due to unknown risks. But one thing this author fails to understand is that kids are not the only ones who like sweet things. The argument that just because companies are creating tasty flavors they are targeting children is just lazy and pedestrian. I see little evidence that these companies are actively targeting children.
8
@Yolandi - "kids are not the only ones who like sweet things."
True, but anyone who tries to tell you that all those candy bars on display on the lower shelves of the check out counter at CVS aren't there for kids, because adults like candy bars too, is in complete delusional full denial.
The piece is absolutely correct that plausible deniability while knowing full well the attractiveness of their products to your people is the time worn path trod by hucksters like tobacco companies.
3
I completely agree that there is no evidence these companies are specifically aiming their products at teens. Yet, my issue with this entire argument, is that as a teen and now college student, I personally know that teens actually don’t enjoy the “flavored Juul pods”. Initially It makes sense that everybody believes that teens and flavored pods are correlated somehow, but I have watched over the past 3 years all of my peers and myself included stop using flavor pods entirely because they get really old really fast, and nobody is able to keep vaping It. Whereas with pods that have a lot more neutral flavor such as Mint pods, nobody seems to get sick of them. So my question is, Are we even looking at the fact that Mint pods are most certainly Juuls cash cow, and they are simply pulling their flavored pods from the shelves because it is the most profitable and production friendly decision?
1
And the cartoon camel also appealed to some adults.
If it causes great harm to kids (such as encouraging them to start or continue engaging in health-impairing addictive behavior (and a behavior that very well may adversely impact the health of innocent bystanders), then it's a problem, and one sweet that real adults can do without.
2
In 1972, when I was 14, I visited my relatives on the East Coast. My aunt and uncle took me to a very nice Italian restaurant, but all I remember was that the air was so thick with cigarette smoke that I couldn't taste my food. By the time we finished dinner, I was nauseous, and when we got home, eventually I vomited.
Unforgettable--and I am so glad that my state, California, took the lead in banning smoking in public places.
2
More than 399,000 people died from overdoses involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids from 1999-2017.
For years all NYT wrote about was how we needed these drugs to be more available for pain relief and even how it was wrong that these drugs could not be used, at the time, to aid dying.
So excuse me if the urgency now with 5 deaths from vaping rings hollow. Where were you when widespread addiction and deaths from opioids started to ravage the country?
5
Reading some of the comments reminds me of similar pieces about smoking, with the rabid addicted smokers ranting about bans on smoking in public, how smoking is 'a right' and so forth, not to mention of course people from Tobacco Road states , obviously written by tobacco farmers).
The sad truth is that the e-cigarettes were allowed on the market by an FDA more concerned about the profits of tobacco companies and tobacco farmers than in safety. They let e-cigarettes on the market without any kind of testing because of the need to 'help people quit smoking' supposedly, but we have seen the actual reason, to hook new generations to nicotine to keep the profits up at the tobacco companies and to tobacco farmers.
As a result, there is zero regulation around vaping, other than age restrictions (which are a joke, they aren't enforced, especially online). There are no standards for stores selling vaping mixes, no limits on nicotine levels, no purity requirements for what else is in there.....and of course the elephant in the room, unlike other products being put into the body, zero safety studies.
As far as "they have been on the market 10 years, and no problems reported", that is pathetic. Why? Because health issues often take decades to show up, people who smoke for 10 years don't show the long term effects, it takes 15,20,30 years. Vaping is introducing a foreign substance to the body, and cannot be considered safe without testing showing a)it can be safe and b)what levels.
9
The graphic by Julian Glander says all there is to say about the misdirected energies and what can only be called the deliberate misconceptions propagated by anti-vaping Nanny State do-gooders. Here we see a child doll surrounded by the one thing that is not in e-cigarettes: dark clouds of burnt tars and resins.
Ingredients in vape juice clearly cry out for research and regulation. We have an ongoing threat to public safety, but advocates remain locked in the paradigm of banning tobacco cigarettes, which, notably, they have not been able to accomplish. There is an immediate need for consumer protection against dangerous additives in e-cigarettes. Flavorings may be among them, because they may be harmful when vaporized, not because they make e-cigarettes attractive to kids whose parents are too busy to pay attention. Shockingly, we don't know. Let's find out. Let's focus on what we can all agree upon: the need for basic standards and consumer protection for vape products. And leave the use of disinformation and dubious marketing strategies to counter disinformation and dubious marketing strategies for another day.
3
Because adults don't like sweet flavors...it's why we're so thin.
8
I have a groundbreaking suggestion. Let’s make all smoking and e-smoking material quick acting deadly poison. That will be the fastest way to get rid of the problem and the rest of us can enjoy a smoke-free and e-smoke-free life.
1
My first thought....the children of the wealthy must be getting sick. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking about this.
2
Why let the kids vape or smoke to fight stress when it is so much easier to prescribe drugs (and as a bonus they are paid for by insurance). Drinking by our youth, while frowned upon (actually, winked at) is fine, of course,
I think the solution to many of our mob fears would be to ban altogether their root causes: cell phones and most social media. Our collective I.Q. is going down a point a day.
1
@Glenn
Maybe it would be best to let them play with guns as well. As long as we're on a fatalistic rant...
1
If government is willing to restrict the use of dangerous drugs (although not doing a great job of it,) they should be doing the same with smoking and vaping. So many people have died, while we dither about their right to kill themselves, to the profit of ostensibly criminal companies.
2
Here is a simple path to solution:
Ban all products that are completely unnecessary for humans until proven safe for human consumption. The burden of proof should be on the companies making the product (and profit), not on tax payers.
Allow vaping products, by prescription only, to addicted adults trying to quit cigarette smoking.
2
"Ban all products that are completely unnecessary for humans until proven safe for human consumption." Seriously?! I think you need to reconsider. Red meat, alcohol, cow's milk, refined sugar, fast food, ice cream, & so on, to infinity & beyond. We could live on grains & water--but then there's pesticides & other pollutants. Good luck selling your approach! LOL
4
@Scientist As a scientist, you should know you can't "prove" something is unsafe and what is "necessary for humans" is quite limited (water + glucose + protein powder + a vitamin supplement?), so effectively, you're banning everything.
1
@OneView i meant "prove something is safe". Sorry.
The justification for e-cigarettes is that they help people quit smoking or are a better alternative to people who already smoke. Since that is the case, they should require a prescription from a doctor. Similar to nicotine patches that required a prescription when they were first introduced, e-cigarettes should require a prescription.
3
I DO believe a ban should be put on advertising, that internet sales should be prohibited, and ID should be required --- and maybe even only sold in liquor stores and tattoo parlors that would have to accept a rule that only 18 and older have entry...and that puts the onus on those who want to market to younger users.
However, resorting to denying a palatable alternative to cigarettes for those who are trying to break the habit is directing the protection efforts in the wrong direction
1
@Mountain Dragonfly Internet sales should NOT be prohibited. There isn't even a basis for this argument. There are legitimate companies that are in the business that would not be able to exist without that medium. I'm not sure you want RJ Reynolds to have the monopoly on these products. Not unless you want to really see how addictive someone can make them. Everyone should be regulated, which may include licensing and inspection. Let's keep the products safe - not unavailable.
1
@Mountain Dragonfly
Simple: require a prescription for those trying to quit cigarette smoking
@Scientist Yes, what cigarette smokers need is more hurdles to quit. Especially the uninsured ones.
2
Of all the health issues Bloomberg can try to solve with his massive wealth he decided instead to concoct a health threat by misrepresenting facts in a way that is deliberately misleading. He cites federal health officials who said that vaping can be the cause of at least 450 possible cases of severe lung disease with five confirmed deaths to demonstrate that vaping is dangerous and so it poses a health risk.
However the facts are that the health authorities are unanimous in saying that the cause of those cases was not the vaping of the standard vaping products that have been on the market for years, but instead THC cartridges or cartridges with a a vitamin E based oil that were aftermarket creations, or vaping devices where the coils were altered. In other words these recent cases are not the end result of years of vaping, but damage caused by certain aftermarket and/or black market products.
So if the idea is to keep vapers safe the message should be to stick with market products and not to use black market products. Instead Bloomberg has created here a completely false narrative that it has recently been discovered that vaping products like Juul can lead to serious lung disease and even death, and so Juul is peddling deadly products to kids and they are evil, and that vaping is the new smoking.
And so now before our eyes a new 'truth" is being created by Bloomberg's billions, that "we now know' that vaping can pose serious health risks.
13
It is against the law for minors to purchase e-cigarettes already. Why not enforce that law, instead of taking away options for adults?
12
This is a product that has no other function than to deliver an addictive substance to a user. Why is it so difficult to regulate such a product? Isn't that the very function of government?
2
@Scottilla
1. Your description of e-cigs is identical to that of nicotine patches and nicotine gum.
2. Nicotine is not the harmful component of cigarettes, though it does make up one half of what makes the habit hard to kick.
3. The other half of it is a habitual addiction, which I discovered during my vape journeys as I realized that....
4. They don't all contain nicotine. Many companies offer to customize your content down to the nicotine levels, and with no nicotine at all.
So no, they don't have only one function, and to the extent that it does serve that function, it is what makes them an effective tool for smoking cessation - just as the nicotine patches and gums that came before them. Only these work and people enjoy them.
2
We have an ongoing threat to consumer safety arising, as the evidence thus far indicates, from the use of unregulated ingredients, aside from the glycerine base and nicotine, in e-cigarettes. And instead of calling for immediate research and common sense regulation of ingredients, Bloomberg and Myers remain fixated on the Nanny State issues of marketing and flavorings without regard to their safety or danger as ingredients. Consumer protection, we vapers need, rather urgently. A Nanny State that does not care about harmful ingredients, we don't. If your kids are taking candy flavors from strangers, have the good sense to stop them yourselves. And if pandering do-gooders are so hopped up to ban something, how about finally banning tobacco cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chew? It's no speculation that they kill. Too much tax revenue in their sale, I suppose.
3
While you're at it, ban candy THC "edibles," like Gummy Bears and chocolate bars. They are aimed directly at kids and have the potency of 10-20 "Woodstock Joints."
3
A ban is unlikely to muster the votes needed to enact it. What worked with cigarettes was to tax them at a high rate. These taxes discouraged smoking in themselves, and combined with the states' lawsuits against big tobacco, funded advertising campaigns that have had a real impact.
I wrote and published an op-ed in April 2013 for Huffington Post with this conclusion: "Considering over 60 years of tobacco marketing history, especially tactics popular during the 1950s and 1960s, it seems reasonable now to wonder if the e-cig marketing focus might shift from current cigarette smokers to prospective vapers, from nicotine retention to trial, and from middle-age users to young adults, even teens." Policymakers and political leaders ignored my warnings, which were widely disseminated through social media. The FDA is tacitly complicit in today's teen vaping epidemic by not addressing obvious warning signs in 2013 when the agency could have curtailed some of Big Tobacco's marketing initiatives, such as television advertising, which is still being used today to promote e-cigarettes.
1
I know so many people, myself included, for whom e-cigarettes were the only way to quit smoking cigarettes completely. I started smoking when I was 16, I thought cigarettes were nasty, but I did it anyway and kept doing it for years. Kids are going to find ways to do what they shouldn't be doing regardless, and cracking down prematurely and extremely on flavored vaping devices will only bring around another renaissance of regular cigarettes.
This panic around flavored e-cigarettes is so outrageous when we don't bat an eye at white claw, hard lemonade, smirnoff ice, etc. Alcohol is far more devastating to teens and adults, it IS the gateway drug. If you want to make strides in limiting teens smoking, raise the smoking age universally to 21. Don't give your kids a credit card to buy vaping products online, which is incredibly easy. I fear that stripping flavored options from more established manufacturers like Juul will only exacerbate the growing problem of black market options, which is where a lot of these respiratory illnesses are coming from.
9
I have been vaping for over two years. Vaping has helped me to quit cigarettes. I have not had a cigarette since I started vaping. I use a tobacco flavored e cigarette. I totally support Mike Bloomberg's and Matt Myer's article when they talk about flavored cigarettes. These candy flavored e cigarettes have no business being on the market. The vendor I purchase my e cigarettes from has a message behind the counter stating that "If you were born after this date (he changes the date every day) I will not sell you e cigarettes." He told me he never sells them to anyone under the age of 18 years old and told me that if he did and got busted for it, he would lose his vendor license.
2
@susan I'm glad you enjoy the tobacco flavors, Susan, but it doesn't work for many of us. I found them awful and horrendous, and didn't take up vaping until years later when the market grew and more flavors became available. When I began to experiment at that point, and eventually found a small group of flavors I could shift between to keep the experience satisfying, I managed to put down the cigarettes completely.
A smoking cessation tool isn't going to work if someone doesn't like the experience. People like flavors. Even grown people.
1
@susan
Trading one addiction for another. Please do yourself a favor and quit vaping as well. You will save more than just your money.
It's not surprising that Big Tobacco would hitch a ride on the candy train. Is there anything more widespread and damaging than junk food? And by junk, I mean most of our food. Try protecting your children from that.
3
Adults who want to quit smoking cigarettes, or who simply enjoy vaping, shouldn't be liable for parents who can't or won't take responsibility for their children.
3
It took a fifty year uphill battle to put big tobacco back into Pandora's Box. And then we let it all out again in the form of a blatant substitute. How many kids lives will be ruined because we allowed e-cigarettes to be legally considered not-cigarettes? "New Bubble Gum Flavor!" It's an atrocity.
Juul rakes it in while kids get lung cancer or worse...
64
@Chicago Guy
My son's friends insisted that Juuls couldn't possibly be bad for you as the nicotine didn't cause cancer...they wouldn't listen to any of my arguments that were mainly that they were guinea pigs for what nicotine and the other constituents in these vaping products would eventually do to them.
The FDA and CDC need to ban these devices and they need to come up with a plan to help these kids detox from the nicotine and THC.
2
@Chicago Guy First of all, unless you think that flavored alcohol is also an "atrocity" that is targeted towards kids and ruining kids' lives, and one that is orders of magnitude more troubling than flavored vape products, I can't take this hair-on-fire statement seriously.
Second of all, the current health issues are clearly the result of a specific type of product being sold, and not an inherent result of all vape products - and I'm not sure I've heard cancer mentioned in regards to any of it.
Finally, if you're concerned with putting tobacco in a box, advocating for better regulation of and studies around the vape industry are the best way to get there. The number of people I know who have quit smoking is not great, but of all of them, every single one of them was able to get there with the help of vapor. Not with patches, not with gum. Those represented relapses. Vaping represented a far less damaging replacement - what those other cessation tools aimed to do for decades.
4
@MomT
Britain's NHS agrees with your son's friends:
In the UK e-cigarettes are tightly regulated for safety and quality. They aren't completely risk free, but they carry a small fraction of the risk of cigarettes. E-cigarettes don't produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke. The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke but at much lower levels.
Public Health England's 2015 independent evidence review found that, based on the available evidence, vaping is around 95% less harmful than smoking. The Royal College of Physicians came to a similar conclusion in its 2016 report 'Nicotine without smoke: tobacco harm reduction'.
This short video explains some of the key facts on e-cigarette safety.
What about risks from nicotine?
While nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, it is relatively harmless. Almost all of the harm from smoking comes from the thousands of chemicals contained in tobacco smoke, many of which are toxic. Nicotine replacement therapy has been widely used for many years to help people to stop smoking and is a safe form of treatment.
https://www.nhs.uk/smokefree/help-and-advice/e-cigarettes
6
The solution to this problem, and the problem with opiod addiction is to change the laws that protect corporation CEOs and COOs. Having studied contract law and limited liability corporations in graduate school, I was appalled at the protection these businessmen and lawyers had built into the system.
Make the CEOs and COOs responsible, and the country will be better for it. But good luck overpowering the lobbyists and the corruption in Washington.
If I sell drugs on the street corner, I end up in jail as a drug dealing felon. The Sackler family made billions selling drugs, but just pay a fine. That make sense?
The Supreme court has said that corporations are "people". Well, hold these people responsible for the havoc they rain down on society while the pile up the cash!
1
The best thing Mike Bloomberg did for the people of the world while he was mayor was to make it OK for cities to ban the smoking of cigarettes inside public spaces- meaning offices, restaurants, bars. All of a sudden no smoking in public places became the way of the world. My clothes no longer reek of Gitanes -- if I spend an evening in a bar in Paris.
If Mr. Bloomberg can stop the proliferation of the use of e-cigarettes (plastic throw aways -- how environmentally green!!! (not)_. it's another mitzvah. We don't know what the long term 20-40 year effects of e-Cigarettes on people will be... I assume they are addictive at least for some people. Ditto the MJ smoking legislation -- noticed the dead skunk smell while walking on NYC streets.. There is already the perfume Poison (YSL) -- I/m thinking there needs to be one called MJ or Skunk... for those who want to be hip but find smoking the stuff as I do - boring and if I get high it's most unpleasant -- Skunk should solve that problem right away.
3
The most important oped I have seen published in the times in years. The lies and deceptions are egregious. This is every bit as serious as the opiod epidemic and I would like to see juul and other sellers held criminally liable.
3
What happened to enforcing existing laws? Selling these products to minors is illegal yet almost nowhere is talk of enforcing existing law to curb this issue even discussed. Folks are freaking out about the dangers of vaping in the US but vaping is promoted by the healthcare-providing government in the UK and is publicly endorsed as being AT LEAST 95% less harmful than smoking tobacco (yes, the Royal College of Physicians, the UK's version of the AMA, actually studied it). On a side note, at what point will easy-for-children-to-imbibe flavored seltzers, hard lemonades, etc be further-regulated because they also appeal to children's taste buds? Oh wait, they won't, because it turns out that adults also prefer sweet, easy to ingest flavors in their alcohol. P.S. former smokers, by and large, don't want tobacco flavors, they just want a pathway to quitting smoking and reducing harm. But that's THEM, not US and US like OUR alcohol too much to even consider the negative potential. But hey, WE'RE not vapers so...
3
Yes! Vaping is growing like wildfire and serving as a gateway to smoking. The FDA has been bought by big tobacco, that has taken over e-cigarettes. These products should be banned until proven safe, rather than the other way around.
Smoking is the #1 killer in America. 67% of smokers will die from smoking-related illness. It took us 60 YEARS of public education and concerted efforts to get % of adult Americans who smoke down from 45% to 15% today.
Decades of this work is being undone by the very rapid spread of vaping, that is addicting a new generation of Americans. "Vaping is not smoking" is the new mantra, implying that these products are safe. They are not. Study released last month found that vaping ONCE, even without nicotine, damages blood vessels. E-cigarettes don't have tar and carbon monoxide, but they do damage the body, just differently.
40 percent of teens have tried vaping. Most parents will be shocked to learn how widespread vaping at schools is. 31% of teenagers who use e-cigarettes are likely to start smoking within six months. These are facts reported by the US government https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/teens-e-cigarettes
E-cigarettes are pushed as being a "safer" alternative for those who smoke cigarettes. However, vaping is turning a far larger number of those who don't smoke into addicts.
The time to ban this is now. The few that tout its usefulness to wean off smoking should get this by prescription.
2
Three cheers for the Nanny State and its leading proponent, Michael Bloomberg!
This article is insidious. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "protecting our kids" and everything to do with big brotherism and behavior control.
Ban, ban, ban and ban some more. And those who dare to disagree with our self-appointed guardians of public morality are clearly against the weel-being og America's children! Spare me!
Reading the comments that have been submitted so far, I am relieved to see that NYT readers seem to have a more reasoned and dare I say "adult" approach to this debate than the self-righteous authors of this editorial.
2
I have no respect for Juul. Another company lying about safety about product. An addiction machine.
2
Incredibly creepy graphic!
Hopefully this would also stop those full grown idiots that release their sickly clouds of cherry and other repulsive flavors as they walk down crowded sidewalks. Just let them use pacifiers and be done with it.
2
I cannot disagree more with this op-ed more. Nicotine is an addictive chemical that humans have been using for thousands of years. Nicotine addiction will be eradicated as soon as we stop using alcohol, THC, and all the rest. E-cigs are a quantum-leap beyond cigarettes and I think restricting them (beyond age requirements) will only lead to more cigarette use, and ultimately poorer health outcomes. I would like to make three points:
1) Adults like candy flavors too! The idea that these flavors are designed to target kids is nuts! Have you seen all the different flavors alcohol is sold in?
2) The idea that anyone would start vaping then matriculate to cigarettes makes no sense. Nicotine is addictive (and I give no credence to reports that high-schoolers don't know this), but cigarettes stink, leave a terrible taste in your mouth, and cause physical pain and irritation when used. Considering e-cigs a 'gateway drug' to traditional cigarettes is like considering craft beer a gateway drug to malt liquor. It just makes no sense.
3) "Vaping" isn't "Vaping". The 450+ folks hospitalized were vaping THC products... not nicotine products. Nicotine e-cigs have been available for 12+ years and as far as I know, no one has ever been hospitalized for using them.
84
@Andrew Clark I agree with you 100%. Banning flavored e-cigarettes or nicotine juice may make vaping less attractive for some kids, but for the majority of kids who vape, they want the buzz in a form factor that is more discrete (so they can hide it from teachers and their parents). They'll vape tobacco flavored or menthol. Or they'll just smoke cigarettes, like kids have done since cigarettes existed. In the meantime, adults who have turned to vaping as a way to quit the much more harmful habit of smoking will lose freedom of choice and may ultimately lose their battle to quit smoking. And you are correct, the people who have been hospitalized vaped a marijuana product with an oil-based vitamin E additive and it is the oil-based additive that is making them sick, not regular vape juice. These products are sold on the black market, not by responsible vape shops or retailers. Banning flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine juice will increase the black market for these products, resulting in an increase of danger, not a decrease.
9
@Andrew Clark I couldn't agree more with each of your points. It baffles me that cities / states are outlawing these products without any solid data showing possible long term effects. The truth is - we don't know how harmful e-cigarettes are. Seems like most people informed on the topic agree they're at least safer than combustible cigarettes.
Put that $160m towards research, and stop with that 'but think of the kids' rhetoric. We're talking about high schoolers. They're going to find a way to drink, smoke, etc. Education > Prohibition.
3
@Lucas: "The truth is - we don't know how harmful e-cigarettes are. "
Which is why they should be off-market until we do know. And looik how long opioids were pushed as 'safe.'
16
The funny thing in this scare - kids are probably going to give up flavored vapes, now that they know the “adult” vape is “tobacco” or “menthol” - is vape products, put on the market with no safety testing, are being put there by relatively small companies.
And they’re turning out not only nicotine, but (where legal) marijuana vapes and (everywhere) cannabis sans THC (“CBD”) vapes.
When you buy bulk tobacco for a vape product, you aren’t shopping for the best, just stuff with easy-to-extract the nicotine from, add to whatever stuff will flavor it and coat lungs with, and make you the most money.
The frightening thing is everything from cheap cooking oil to ethylene glycol to stuff that tastes good, but when cooled as it spreads over the surface of the lungs may do ... anything.
Nobody is doing a thing about testing the vehicle for use as an inhalant.
We’re back to the days before the first Pure Food and Drug act - when Sears Roebuck, among scores of others, sold patent medicines loaded with morphine to treat alcoholism AND alcohol to treat opium addiction, when Coke had coke in it, and everything was over the counter.
There’s no telling what’s in a nicotine, THC or CBD vape beyond the active ingredient.
And no testing of those ingredients - supposedly all on the government Generally Accepted as Safe (as food additives) list - how they work when inhaled as a mist rather than eaten or, in a few cases, as smoke.
e-cigarettes should be banned altogether until more is known about their health risks. Its unbelievable to me that the FDA allows a new addictive devise onto the market before studies are done to determine their impacts on health.
1
So the ages 12 to 17 are considered children in this case. I completely agree! But why are they children in this case and when it cones to gun violence they are potential voters at 16? There seems to be a discrepancy there. They are either children or not children! It’s this kind if double-standard that makes the left look like greedy somethings bent on power no matter what!
Certainly in this case the authors are correct, the marketing machine targets fools who would stick the semi-equivalent of a tail pipe into their mouths and they should be protected from their own bad decisions, but don’t turn these kids into registered voters out of your own greed!
1
Big Tobacco's playbook is money...that's it. The same for the American Rifle Association..the same for big oil...I could go on, but in this country..it is always about following the money.
Boulder Colorado just prohibited flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine sales.
2
Stop! Some of you are saying this is a “moral” problem. This is an EPIDEMIC sweeping through our schools. I have two teenagers, and in our top ranked high school in NJ, my kids estimate that the 20% use rate is closer to 50%. Some parties they go to resemble Opium dens from Shanghai a century ago. This is big, and did you read the line that says one pod (the size of my thumb) has the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes? This exploitation of citizens is exactly why we need government involvement. We made great strides in reducing the number of cigarette smokers over the decades, and we can’t let our kids fall into the spiral of nicotine addiction by failing to heavily regulate these predators.
2
Putting people in jail, giving them criminal records for flavored vapes, will be costly and not work. How has the war against drugs worked compared to decriminalization policy in Portugal? Teach your children well.
2
Seems like nothing has changed since cigarette and candy companies worked together to create... candy cigarettes. Anyone remember those from their youth? They are now outlawed in many countries but not in ours! Oh, but they're called candy "sticks" now.
Never let a good crisis go to waste. Nothing like a lead in from contaminated illegal drug material to Bloombergian ranting about vaping in general.
1
The things are disgusting. The State of Minnesota recently (finally) included them in it’s statewide indoor smoking ban.
1
This is nonsense. I'm an academic and I am annoyed by the grandstanding which goes against evidence and regulatory convention. E-cigarettes have led to a significant decline in smoking and smoking-related illnesses. The problem is that, as with guns and climate change, the USA is behind the rest of the world. Regulate e-cigarettes like we have done in the Uk and Europe and ban children from buying them. How hard is that? Bloomberg et al clearly seen an electoral opportunity to be a hero, but history will see them as US political doing damage, once again, to the weakened poorer communities under their care.
4
Rather than punish legal users, how about enforcing the sale of e-cigarettes?
1
How is it that the FDA can approve a product that by design makes people sick? And over time will likely kill a substantial number of them?
We could also ask how can corporate leaders put such a product in the market place. But some people will do anything to make a buck.
This is a perfect example of how corporate greed is destroying America. Don't just ban the flavoring.
Until or unless these companies can show to a scientific certainty that vaping is safe, then the product should be banned.
27
@Drspock
"How is it that the FDA can approve a product that by design makes people sick?"
Yes, strange. The burden of proof (that these products are NOT harmful) should be on the company making the product (and profit!), not on tax payers to prove that it is not safe.
2
@Drspock, can candy companies show that eating sugar is safe? I don’t dispute the dangers of vaping and its limited social utility (except to the extent it helps smokers quit) but if we start with e-cigs where do we stop?
3
This article is full of misinformation. First, JUUL has nothing to do with the recent THC vaping deaths. Second, adults like the flavors. I smoked cigarettes for 20 years now only Mango JUUL pods. I’m 40. Would you prefer I if I continue to smoke combustible cigarettes?
1
Are there no adults that like flavored E-Cigarettes? Should we also ban alcohol because, while some adults also like it, those under 21 sometimes like it and use it illegally?
It is already illegal to sell E_Cigarettes, regardless of flavor, to children. Why is a new law needed?
Anyway, the investigation into the lung problems is an ongoing investigation and it appears (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1911614) that most (84%) of the "injured" in a sample set have admitted to using tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in e-cigarette devices - and it's quite possible most or all of the remaining 16% are unwilling to admit their use of an illegal substance in their devices. So, it seems likely that these problems have nothing to do with commercial vaping products and the use of already illegal black market substances of unknown composition caused these problems - it's dishonest to imply otherwise as this editorial does.
2
Ban cigarettes and all like products. It is time.
1
OUR DAUGHTER WHO HAD BEEN WORKING IN A SUBURBAN HIGH SCHOOL Had described to us how kids would sit in class and engage in vaping by concealing their e cigarettes in their backpacks. They'd bend over, take a puff and sit back up, thinking that nobody was any the wiser. If the kids can afford several pods per day--say 3 or 4, they are in effect receiving the equivalent of smoking 3 to 4 packs of cigarettes. Add to that the danger of inhaling flavorings and the severe lung damage that can cause and you've got a burgeoning epidemic that may claim many thousands of young lives. If not during high school, then during young adulthood. It is conceivable that the flavored e cigarette addiction could claim as many lives as opioid overdoses, though the deaths might result decades after the abuse. Flavorings can cause allergic reactions and may contain essential oils that coat the inner surfaces of the lungs, causing the to cease functioning. This makes teen smoking seem quaint and by comparison relatively safe--at least less dangerous. Michael Bloomberg is waging war against powerful enemies, the tobacco industry. It wouldn't be so difficult to put them out of business. Tobacco farmers are finding they can earn more money growing hemp, which is legal. If there is widespread legalization of the recreational use of marijuana, there is going to be a huge demand. So tobacco farmers could switch to growing marijuana legally. Still, there are already flavored vaping options!
2
@John Jones
Let them smoke weed!
That makes *perfect* sense...
My kids are 20 and 17. These Juul devices were prevalent throughout both their high school experience. From the beginning I told them we don’t have the science but I bet in 20 years we will learn these things aren’t safe at all. It took less than 10 and the injuries are much worse - as someone who has asthma I am horrified at the lung damage juul inflicts. I can’t imagine anyone choosing to do this knowing what we know right now.
41
@Deirdre - Let's straighten out the misunderstanding here. The recent outbreak of hospitalizations is due, any thinking person can deduce, to bad substances these vapers are putting in their devices. No such outbreak has happened up until the last few months, while vaping has been going on for ten years and has millions of practitioners.
There is a huge industry supplying this market with smart, well-engineered gear and excellent, safe juices. The well-established juice makers have paid attention to feedback and cleansed their products of any additives thought to have a bad or negative effect. They do not want to hurt anyone, much less children, because like most people, they are decent and caring.
There IS a black market that can be avoided simply by buying established gear and juices from well-known suppliers. Juul has produced an excellent product that is one of the devices responsible for most of the successful separations of cigarettes from their smokers. It's unfortunate they've attracted the most repressive attention for that reason.
29
@Deirdre Kids don't like Juuls. They are boring black sticks. The pods are proprietary, can't be refilled, and come in limited flavors - tobacco, mint, cucumber, mango, menthol, crème - that can hardly be considered to be candy flavored. Kids like the big, flashy, refillable-with-your-own-recipe vaporizer products. You cannot compare those big, flashy vaporizer products with Juuls. To label all vaporizer products as Juuls muddies the issue - that teens will be teens.
8
@Gusting I'm pretty sure this "epidemic" of teen vaping can be directly correlated with the rise of Juul and pod based systems. In Fact, the kids that do it, they don't say they are vaping, they call it Julling. Those big flashy vaporizer products also don't contain as much nicotine as the juul pods, and from what I've seen, the kids love the mango flavor so much it had to be banned from all stores, and even then they just moved over to mint. So while I agree that it's not right to label all vape products as Juuls, kids do like juuls, and that is the reason for this whole issue in the first place.
6
Thank you for your article. If a single individual puts poison on candy and gives it to a child, it is a potential capital crime. If a corporation puts sweets on poison, how is that different? If the Supreme Court declares corporations to be people, let’s have capital punishment for them as well.
2
Thank you for saying out loud.
It's clear that unfettered capitalism can't be allowed where health & safety is involved.
Let's get this right about our kids and future..
And also to Red State voters; if you don't stop this; your future insurance premiums will be out of control and t that point ObamaCare won't help either.
5
Alas, this is where America shows its true colors. Any action that jeopardizes the acquisition of money, will be a slow and painful process, during which many people will be injured. It’s what this country stands for - making money, at all costs. The fact that you have clear and present danger, and that nevertheless it will take private funding to fight, shows you that our country’s priorities need a deep realignment. There is something very wrong here. Even if we left it to individual states - most will prioritize money over health and safety.
9
@Alex Your country is also known for Puritanism or wowserism: being anti-pleasure (at least the pleasure of others, anyway.) Prohibition? Heard of it? Only tried in the USA!
The marijuana is intriguing, the flavor might be nice, but it is neither that is killing the vapers. There have been those who have blamed the lung problems on Vitamin E, but I think that if they removed vitamins E from the mixture, there wold be no change. They are inhaling oil vapors and that can cause petroleum pneumonia, or pneumonia from another oil.
2
It's time to act American. How much profit is Big Tobacco making from e-cigarettes? How many children die or become seriously ill? Put a number of the value of each child's life, multiply it by the number of children who die or become seriously ill, and compare that number with the profits going to Big Tobacco? One will also have to add a number representing payoffs to Congress and the administration to measure overall benefit to society.
Something wrong with this logic? That is why we have elections.
1
We live in a country where guns shot down 20 children going to school in Sandy Hook and another 14 children in Parkland FL, and nothing changed.
Republicans continue to push the time-worn and consequential argument that ‘regulations increase the cost to businesses’ while consumers pay the price in health or jobs.
It’s time to realize as a country we have crossed the line, potentially, of no return. We have accepted the deaths of children with nothing more than inaction from those we elect.
Of course we should regulate how smokeless cigarettes are marketed. Part of me wonders if we should allow, even push, these products to the folks who defy increased regulations. Let them manage the consequences alone.
2
Not just the children, but adults. Nothing like being in a "prestigious Ivy League workplace" and witness a department manager exhaust her vape in her office space.
Aren't e-cigs illegal to smoke inside workplaces or entrances? And don't plead "nicotine addiction" when its more serious than that.
3
If you have had this happen to you - please look up your workplace smoking regulations and complain. Public health has worked too hard to let workplace and indoor no-tobacco rules be chipped away. States including NJ have extended their smoke free laws to cover ecigarettes. ( https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/resources/us-e-cigarette-regulations-50-state-review/nj)
1
Nearly a hundred kids a year drown in bathtubs. No need for the nanny state on this. I'm okay with no nicotine-vape sold to minors, but taking flavored e-cigs off the market is going way too far. Parents say "no" effectively far too infrequently. "No" would go far, here.
3
@O'Brien
But when e-cig companies make e-cig equipment to look like normal items, it becomes much harder for parents. For instance, e-cigs equipment designed to look like a USB stick, or a pen. Even making your kids empty out their backpacks and pockets before going to school won’t work, they will find some other way to hide them. The only effective way is to ban the flavored e-cigs.
4
@O'Brien
'No, don't sit in a class where a random shooter with a complex and unfettered access to guns might decide today is the day he makes a name for himself'.
Saying 'no' isn't the only sane approach, and definitely is not the one that always works.
A country needs to decide the best and proven ways to keep children safe in a society. Then they must come together: families, government, schools and places of worship to make it so.
Our country's problem is that we cannot even agree on what a problem is, so kids simply die.
1
Although it is anecdotal, my kids say that 3/4 of the students in their suburban public high school were using Juul's last year. It is rampant. The statistics in this article are out of date. School are unable to police it, parents are oblivious and don't realize what the device is and kids are creating a pathway to addiction to other drugs. All manipulated by big tobacco, again. Ban these products unless prescribed for smoking cessation purpose.
6
Why are we allowing a product on the market that poisons and sometimes kills our children?
I listen to some recent college graduates tell me they've seen these products sweep onto campus and overly addict students. By overly, I mean they can't go five minutes without a hit. They even take them to class to get their fix.
The solution? Withdraw these things from the market, and do so immediately.
8
@Cal Page
Thus applying the death penalty to smokers who haven't been able to quit using other methods. Seems extreme.
@Cal Page
Same reason we have alcohol, fatty foods, oversalted processed foods, children under 2 with iPads, etc., etc., etc. We are consumers. The responsibility as with preventing kids from other harmful behavior needs to rest with the parents. How many kids have HPV from middle-school sex? How many kids are using prescription pills to get high, low, or end it all?
Education needs to start at home and the government to whom we pay taxes should augment it.
While the headline declares that the purpose of a ban of flavored e cigarettes is to "protect our children", that such a ban will result in a drastic reduction of their use of e cigarettes, the true purpose of the proposal is buried deep in the article. That after helping 20 cities and states to impose the ban "we will evaluate the impact of these rules on youth use and share lessons with other cities and states".
So the whole proposal is a huge real world experiment where tens of millions of adults will have a product that they enjoy as a daily part of their lives taken from them so that a person for whom money is no object can get an answer to a simple question he has. And that question is do kids like to vape only because of the candy flavor, or do they do it for the same reason that kids have smoked cigarettes for decades, and so banning flavored e cigarettes won't make a bit of a difference.
The idea that a person can use their immense wealth to conducts an experiment in which he will play with the lives of millions of people, depriving them of a pleasurable activity that is a part of their daily lives simply because his money gives him the power over them is inequality at its very possible worst.
Instead of using his money to enjoy his life, Bloomberg chooses instead to use it to dictate to millions of people how they cannot enjoy theirs. Because in his eyes their lives are nothing more than subjects for his experiments. And he thinks nothing of it.
10
Vaping is promoted as an aide to quit smoking. If that is the reason for permitting this nicotine delivery system, then it should be available by prescription only.
19
@Ken Erickson will you pay for the premium? I dont know if you noticed but America has this thing where anything related to doctors become.... expensive.
2
@YL
That does not affect us so much here in the land of "socialized medicine", but high cost has always been the most effective motivator for breaking a nicotine addiction. The more expensive tobacco, the less people smoke, and I expect the same applies to vaping.
@Ken Erickson
My apologies for not noticing your location. I am currently seething with jealousy...
Price tag is a big motivator. It was a major reason to switch to a vaping product.
But to completely quit nicotine?..
I would probably go bankrupt while in denial.
1
I'm an adult, nearly thirty, who quit smoking relatively recently. This summer, I visited Santa Cruz, where they banned flavored e-cigarettes and cigarettes.
Being unable to buy my preferred menthol-flavored cigarettes made them lose much of their appeal to me.
I agree with the policy of Santa Cruz: ban flavored nicotine products, period, and fewer people will smoke. It's just not as much fun. Isn't disincentivizing death a good thing?
22
@db
Boulder CO just banned flavored e-cigarettes also.
2
Sadly, one cannot legislate human behavior.
Were that the case, we would be a healthier, wiser society. Obesity, opioid addiction, etc....
all could be minimized if we thought before we acted.
1
@George
No, but legislation can make it much more difficult--and plays a big part in changing behavior--ie seat belts and drinking and driving laws.
8
I don't understand, Mayor Bloomberg cites the success of our efforts to reduce cigarette smoking to support the steps being taken now to curb e-cigarette smoking. But did we ever ban smoking wholesale from cities and states to reduce smoking? Not that I can remember. I can still smoke a cigarette in San Francisco. So why don't we reuse the same playbook? Want to get rid of something? Tax it. Juul pods are incredibly cheap. Tax them and people will buy them less frequently.
5
@Vince
Yes, NYC under Bloomberg pretty much banned smoking in any public space. The number of smokers has significantly. decreased since the ban began.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-lowest-adult-smoking-rates-new-york-state-history
Hard root beer, hard iced tea, hard lemonade, hard ginger ale, hard orange soda, hard seltzer, wine in a can, sugary, fruit-flavored grain alcohol cocktails...also for adults? Or to entice kids and make alcohol consumption more palatable and attractive? It’s not just nicotine. We are turning all our vices into candy.
18
@H.L. Why the flavors needed then?...if just for adults...keep it simple with no flavors. I certainly do not appreciate that my 11 year old has access to this product. It starts with the kids using just the flavors without the nicotine...but then the flavored non-nicotine ones can be substituted with the nicotine laced flavors and parents would not know any better. It also is very easy to hide it...including taking a puff or two between classes from your backpack without raising the suspicion of the teachers in school. I think we need to be worried. In NYC, I went for a PTA meeting last year that had a parent psychologist come in to address the issue as the middle school had found a rapid increase in usage among its school population in the recent year. One of the things that this article does not clearly mention, that she said is that the impact of a small amount of nicotine on a child's brain is much more damaging than that on an adult's brain. She also said that a child gets addicted quicker than an adult and it takes a much smaller amount of nicotine to get a child addicted to it. In philanthropy one helps with the things one feels strongly about. I am thankful that Mr. Bloomberg is helping with this issue as we do need to wake up before it is too late.
13
@IGupta Vaporizor products are only for sale to adults with proof of age. How, exactly, is it that your 11 year old has access to them? Does the local store sell to underage kids? Did you have one that came up missing?
4
Modern existence is very complex and there is plenty of evidence that human beings are not coping with living in our present circumstance (to say the least). What has stopped me personally from becoming a raving misanthrope and giving up on Humanity, is that I am very aware that we are essentially beings that evolved to live in small social groups on a savannah many millennia ago. Therefore, it would be very surprising - to me - if we all coped well in modern cities and social structures as things stand.
There's evidence in this article that the authors are not coping well with present circumstances, I think. There's poor reasoning, a conflation of different issues, flat out misinformation if not lying and hysteria in evidence in it. Deaths from the use of illicitly produced and supplied nicotine and thc solutions, and the marketing of non-tobacco flavoured solutions to children, do not make for a case against all vaping. Nicotine solutions are NOT tobacco products. There is evidence that vaping IS significantly less harmful than smoking. Cigarette companies should be encouraged to invest in e-cigarettes and get out of the tobacco business. Tobacco products (and semi-automatic rifles!) are currently legal to sell and buy in the US.
Despite its demonising of "Big Tobacco" is the NYT comfortable with the suggestion that this article could be non-ridiculously followed by: "this important health information is brought to you by British-American Tobacco" (for instance)?
6
A society that won't protect it's children has utterly failed, no matter what it's other accomplishments might be.
28
@otto
"Protect it's [sic] children?"
You mean by providing them with universal healthcare, nutritious meals in schools, and banning the guns that rip them apart in school shootings...or do you mean banning bubble-gum flavoring? You tell me, which of these actions is likely to have the greater effect?
From a comment below pushing back on Bloomberg and Myers:
"But nearly all available research has pointed to vaping being far less harmful. More research is necessary. Regulation is necessary. Moral panic and premature bans are counter-productive and rife with unintended consequences, at this juncture."
The obvious question: If "more research is necessary", why not advocate that the research be conducted before the tobacco / vaping industry is allowed to push for widespread uptake of vaping? Why not advocate that the research be conducted before the industry is allowed to employ the same tactics it once used to entice kids to smoke?
The widespread uptake of tobacco happened long before we had the ability to conduct the research needed to show that smoking is highly addictive and that it causes an enormous health burden on society -- something the tobacco industry knew long before the rest of us. We have the opportunity to get the order right this time. We should take it.
(Disclosure - for a brief time I was given a desk at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids to help organize a meeting, bringing together a group of individuals from both the anti-smoking lobby and the cancer research community. And for a brief time I worked for WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative which received funding from Mayor Bloomberg's foundation and included the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids as a partner. I have not met Mayor Bloomberg and nor seen or spoken to Matt Myers in more than a decade.)
9
@Douglas Weil
How many smokers should be disabled and die while this research is taking place? How many years would we need to wait? Vaping has been readily available for over 10 years now with no evidence that it is nearly as harmful as burning tobacco is.
Enforce the current laws against sales to minors. Limit displays in convenience stores, or only condemn >some< adults to death by removing them to only specialized stores.
Investigate this outbreak of illness to find out what the difference of ingredients or equipment is from what the vast majority of 10+ years of vaping has been.
Look to the honest research that has already been taking place overseas. I realize that smokers have been demonized for their addiction, but removing a means of quitting smoking that has so far been found to be more effective than any other methods is a death penalty for many of us.
1
@Amoret
I am not demonizing anyone. I am strongly suggesting that (a) the tobacco / vaping industry should not be allowed to use tactics that attract minors to take up the habit (e.g., marketing fruit-flavored vaping pods) and (b) that the health impacts including the beneficial claims should be studied before a there is further uptake of a potentially harmful product (e.g., the cause of the lung disease and deaths recently reported and the impact of flavors on uptake).
Allowing the industry to market its product and to use tactics previously employed to entice new smokers to use tobacco before the research is conducted is backwards.
3
And the alternative to mango-flavored vaping is tobacco flavored. I can think if no better training wheels to develop a taste for real cigarettes. Let people of all ages enjoy what few pleasures are left in legal relaxing aides that are a less damaging alternative to burning plant products. Restricting vaping flavors is like restricting alcohol to hard seltzer.
14
@PL Try meditation or exercise . They are a lot healthier than alcohol or vaping.
4
@Randee
Interesting, you mention alcohol and vaping, but I'm having a hard time finding an article and op-ed about the one of those that is actually linked to thousands of deaths in teens and adults: alcohol.
11
@PL
The point is the appeal to kids.
A physician MD
3
The moral panic over "flavored" e-cigarettes put the pressure on the major companies producing them - those with big money to lose via future governmental or legal action - to voluntarily limit their retail availability. Rushing to fill that void has been a gray market of many small companies producing a wide variety of products without even self-regulation or standards.
Now, unsurprisingly, people across the country of all ages face an immediate and grave health risk that will likely be traced back to that premature pressure and resultant gray market.
I started smoking cigarettes at 16. They tasted like cigarettes. I knew they were bad for me. I still did it. Using the Juul product has been the one thing that has kept me quit.
Vaping is not safe. Nicotine is not safe. But nearly all available research has pointed to vaping being far less harmful. More research is necessary. Regulation is necessary. Moral panic and premature bans are counter-productive and rife with unintended consequences, at this juncture.
45
@CT Yankee
Why not prohibit candy flavored e-cigarettes so children have a much lower chance of getting hooked similar to your history?
Bloomberg is not against vaping as a means to quit cigarettes.
But lets do our best to avoid our children from starting like you did.
4
Moral panic is so fitting
Mind Control from addiction.....seems to be the evil intent of
all addictive products; be it the I Pad; or the Facebook addiction: or the lung destructive substitution for cigarettes
e cigarettes ;
Where is the Food and Drug Administration on the products
that are ruining our mental and physical health.
Perhaps this should be a discussion for the 2020 Election.
Smoking is so bad. I think any effort to reduce smoking from a public health approach is a good idea.
22
Nicotine is bad. It doesn’t matter what delivery system is used, whether it’s cigarettes, cigars, chew, electronic cigarettes or vaping.
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@Jane K
Nicotine is bad. Alcohol is objectively much worse.
Smoking is bad. Vaping is objectively much safer.
No one would bat an eye if there was an article about how cigarettes are leading to acute respiratory illnesses in less than a percent of cigarette smokers. In fact, we'd probably rightfully be concerned with how the article was likely misrepresenting the fact that smoking is significantly more dangerous than a simple and often easily treated respiratory illness.
6
@Jane K Unlike nicotine solutions, tobacco smoke contains at least 69 chemicals known to cause cancer. You are right to point out, though, that there is no evidence that long term use of nicotine gum, patches and sprays have no negative health impacts - just like vaping nicotine solutions. So why is one alternative to smoking subject to significant social comment and criticism but not the others?
4
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, and a habit that, for many, is excruciatingly difficult to quit. I smoked since the 1960s (usually menthols) and switched to vaping about 7 years ago (usually mint flavors).
Considering how long vaping has been available, I wonder what variables are most correlated with the recent lung diseases and deaths. Per my doctor, my lung functioning has improved since switching from smoking to vaping (to the point that she no longer nags me about quitting). As an older person, I don’t modify my devices and don’t purchase street or off-brand vaping liquids.
I think we need to further examine the vaping issue before going full-ban. To me, it’s not any different than uncovering the source of bad alcohol. Find the cause(s) of the problem, then create and implement appropriate public education programs and quality control and sales regulations.
People are always going to find some way to alter their consciousness, often by using psychoactive substances. Bans can create greater problems... those unintended consequences. Let’s make the situation as safe as possible.
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@Donna M Nieckula
You can never compare smoking to alcohol consumption because alcohol in and of itself, whether legitimate or something adulterated, harms no one except the person who chooses to consume it. The same cannot be said of smoking because second-hand smoke is harmful to innocent bystanders, many of whom are children.
4
@Robert
But behavior associated with "alcohol consumption" can harm many.
7
@Donna M Nieckula
It’s selfish to demand that children maintain access to sweet flavors so that you can have them. In my experience, quitting entirely is easier than switching to vaping. If adults have to give it up for the safety of the youth, so be it.
3
E cigarettes have been pitched to us by Juul and others as smoking cessation devices, meant to be used only by adult smokers who are trying to quit. If that is the case there is no need for flavored options. I agree wholeheartedly with this article. All flavored e cigarettes should be banned. Keep the unflavored plain ones legal and easily available to adults only.
52
This is simply not true. Adults like the flavors, myself included.
12
@A Cynic
Flavors are important to adults quitting smoking. Nicotine lozenges and gum are flavored for that reason. Why does alcohol come in many flavors and strengths? Surely adults should only need unflavored spirits in 1 standard strength?
Vaping has been a life saver for many of us and removing this harm reduction option will cost thousands of lives. But smokers deserve to die young, right?
9
@A Cynic - There are many more adults vaping than kids. Adults like and enjoy the flavored ejuices, or they would not be partaking, and quitting smokes. Do you see now?
4
This strikes me as another moral panic. When someone tells me something must be done in order to "save the children," my antennae get twitchy; it strikes me as cheap cover for some other motivation. When they follow it up with talk about banning a substance that's currently legal, particularly a drug, in the name of public good, I feel extra uneasy. And, in this case, the item on so many hit lists actually seems to be doing some good for some segment of the population.
May we please try to avoid the inclination to outlaw anything that looks decadent and offends our puritanical sensibilities? Is it too much to ask that we approach issues with some measure of reason? Has anyone thought about all of the people who will be locked up if flavored nicotine products are no longer legally available? The flood of homemade/back alley juice (or whatever it's called) that will hit the market before the new rules even get drafted?
Wanna do something for the public good? Get to work on access to healthcare for all children. Do something about inequality of opportunity that leaves some more likely to consume products that may lead to physical damage. And for Pete's sake, allow adults to make their own decisions and do with their bodies as they please.
76
@H.L. Why the flavors needed then?...if just for adults...keep it simple with no flavors. I certainly do not appreciate that my 11 year old has access to this product. It starts with the kids using just the flavors without the nicotine...but then the flavored non-nicotine ones can be substituted with the nicotine laced flavors and parents would not know any better. It also is very easy to hide it...including taking a puff or two between classes from your backpack without raising the suspicion of the teachers in school. I think we need to be worried. In NYC, I went for a PTA meeting last year that had a parent psychologist come in to address the issue as the middle school had found a rapid increase in usage among its school population in the recent year. One of the things that this article does not clearly mention, that she said is that the impact of a small amount of nicotine on a child's brain is much more damaging than that on an adult's brain. She also said that a child gets addicted quicker than an adult and it takes a much smaller amount of nicotine to get a child addicted to it. In philanthropy one helps with the things one feels strongly about. I am thankful that Mr. Bloomberg is helping with this issue as we do need to wake up before it is too late.
25
@H.L. This is NOT a "moral panic". Morality is not the issue - health is. There is absolutely, positively no benefit to any child to inhale ANY foreign substance. It took decades to show the link between smoking and lung cancer, COPD and heart disease, yet within a few years we are seeing children with chronic lung damage from vaping. The argument that e-cigarettes are primarily to help smokers quit is no less dishonest that the lies the tobacco industry told for years. There are other nicotine replacement methods, from gum to lozenges to patches, that can help adult smokers quit. But none of these are attractive to children, which is why the tobacco companies haven't rushed in to buy Nicorette. As an ex-smoker I can tell you firsthand that the easiest way to quit smoking is to never start in the first place. Tobacco companies know this which is why they are pushing so hard to keep these deadly devices on the market. It is long past time for the FDA to demonstrate that it exists for the public good and is not just another regulator captured by industry.
30
@H.L.
Stop! This is not a “moral” problem. This is an EPIDEMIC sweeping through our schools. I have two teenagers, and in our top ranked high school in NJ, my kids estimate that the 20% use rate is closer to 50%. Some parties they go to resemble Opium dens from Shanghai a century ago. This is big, and did you read the line that says one pod (the size of my thumb) has the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes? This exploitation of citizens is exactly why we need government involvement. We made great strides in reducing the number of cigarette smokers over the decades, and we can’t let our kids fall into the spiral of nicotine addiction by failing to heavily regulate these predators.
53
And while you're at it, ban cell phone use under a certain age and start a serious campaign to significantly curb their use for kids 18 and under. There is a huge - and growing - body of evidence to show that phone use and social media is one of the most addictive and destructive forces in our kids' lives, yet most adults are doing nothing. Kids are dying from soaring depression and suicide rates, too, and far more than from e-cigarettes. This spike is directly linked to increased phone and social media time. Where is the outrage and concern about putting these in the hands of kids?
59
@ADubs
I have to suspect there are plenty of kids out there who control their cell phone usage and have interests in their lives beyond social media. And perhaps they're that way because their parents are good role models and know when and how to say no. We wouldn't want to throw the baby out with the bath water by taking phones away from all kids. This is a parental responsibility. Let's not turn to our lawmakers or the public at large to fix something just because some parents don't know how to fix it themselves.
2
@ADubs You have a very important observation, I believe which should be pursued further.
Putting cellphones or iPads into the hands of toddlers does not help their social skills or other skills such as reading – "watching" a video is not the same as "reading" since different cognitive skills are used.
Far greater responsibility should be taken by parents instead of plopping a phone or i-thing into the hands of children in the hopes that somehow the child will be quieter.
Some parents seem not to understand that they are raising thinking human beings, not children and human beings need thoughtful attention more than cellphones.
3
@Robert
How is the ability of a child to use a controlled substance, i.e. nicotine (you have to be 18 to purchase it), not a parental issue?
6
I don't know what they put in some of these vape devices, it's not just the flavor, but the stuff that makes the user look like a cross between a steam locomotive and a dragon. The dramatic display has nothing to do with delivering either nicotine or THC, a 'pure' vape has hardly any visible 'smoke'.
I hope that they