Puff!

According to the government’s Centers for Disease Control: “Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, with more than 41,000 of these deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke. In addition, smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct medical care for adults and $156 billion in lost productivity.

“In 2016, an estimated 15.5% (37.8 million) of U.S. adults were current cigarette smokers. Of these, 76.1% smoked every day… Current cigarette smoking is defined as smoking 100 cigarettes or more during one’s lifetime and currently smoking every day or some days.” Poor people smoke more that wealthier people, men more than women and less-educated more that those with at least some college. But to make money, Big Tobacco has to get more smokers, and who better to lure into this habit than kids seeking a rebellious cool factor?

Cute camels on packaging might have worked a few years ago, but softening the impact of harsh tobacco smoke makes it easier to get kids to try and keep using. Add flavors to make it taste good or what about a tobacco-less nicotine product with a wide array of possible flavors? All this is marketing that is pretty obviously aimed at children.

Let’s start with “vaping,” using so-called electronic cigarettes, Wikipedia: “An electronic cigarette or e-cigarette is a handheld electronic device that simulates the feeling of smoking. It works by heating a liquid to generate an aerosol, commonly called a ‘vapor,’ that the user inhales. Using e-cigarettes is commonly referred to as vaping. The liquid in the e-cigarette, called e-liquid, or e-juice, is usually made of nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerine, and flavorings. Not all e-liquids contain nicotine.

“The health risks of e-cigarettes are uncertain. They are likely safer than tobacco cigarettes but are of unclear effect in relation to other methods of stopping smoking. Their long-term health effects are not known. They may help some smokers quit. When used by non-smokers, e-cigarettes can lead to nicotine addiction, and there is concern that children could start smoking after using e-cigarettes. So far, no serious adverse effects have been reported in trials. Less serious adverse effects include throat and mouth irritation, vomiting, nausea, and coughing.” Oh yum!^[

But the feds are on to this less-than-subtle marketing technique: “Effective August 8, 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates electronic cigarettes products to be regulated as tobacco products. The FDA rule also bans sales to minors. The FDA classified e-cigarettes as drug delivery devices and subject to regulation under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) before importation and sale in the US.

“Vaping is steadily being regulated across [states and cities in] the US. Some state and regional governments in the US had extended their indoor smoking bans to include e-cigarettes. As of April 2017, 12 US states and 615 localities had prohibited the use of e-cigarettes in venues in which traditional cigarette smoking was prohibited. High schools and some middle schools throughout the US have been revising their tobacco rules to ban vaping on school grounds.

“A review of regulations in 40 US states found that how a law defines e-cigarettes is critical, with some definitions allowing e-cigarettes to avoid smoke-free laws, taxation, and restrictions on sales and marketing. The tobacco industry heavily lobbies states to make it harder to regulate and tax e-cigarettes.” Wikipedia. Vaping tends to attract younger adults, and while it may be illegal for those under 18 to buy e-cigarettes, according to the June 6, 2017 nicmaxx.com, around 25% of American teenagers admit to having tried vaping.

The FDA is also stepping into the world of mentholated and flavor-based full tobacco products, after seeing a rather direct connection between an increase of tobacco use among teenagers and the popularity of these “flavor-soften” versions of cigarettes.

“The Food and Drug Administration last week announced new initiatives aimed at stemming the increase in young Americans’ use of tobacco and its primary psychoactive agent, nicotine.

“The object of FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s ire was flavorings — those minty, sweet, nutty or even salty flavors that cigarette and e-cigarette manufacturers add to their products to make them more enticing.

“The prime market for those flavors, Gottlieb said, is no secret: While fewer than one-third of adults over 35 smoke mentholated cigarettes, “menthols” are the choice of 54% of children too young to buy cigarettes legally but who acknowledge they smoke anyway.

“At the same time, 3.6 million high school and middle school students surveyed in 2018 said they used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days — a 78% increase since 2017 that Gottlieb blamed on flavorings such as cola and chocolate. And, of course, menthol, a flavoring derived from peppermint oil… ‘These data shock my conscience,’ he said.

“He pledged to exercise a stronger regulatory hand over the use of flavorings in e-cigarettes and to crack down on retailers that sell tobacco products to minors… He also opened a new front in the tobacco war with a proposal to ban menthol in products that are burned or smoked, including cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco.

“[But c]an he do that?… It’s not entirely clear whether the FDA has the power to ban menthol in cigarettes.

“The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the agency the authority to establish product standards ‘where appropriate for the protection of the public health,’ including ‘provisions respecting the construction, components, ingredients, additives.’

“By all appearances, that would allow the FDA to prohibit the use of certain flavorings. The 2009 law went ahead and did just that, banning the use of ‘characterizing flavors’ in cigarettes — those used to give a product a distinctive taste and marketing appeal.

“But it made an exception in the case of menthol… Unanticipated by the landmark Tobacco Control Act, the delivery of nicotine by electronically heated dispensers — vaping — became a multibillion-dollar industry in which flavorings, including menthol, have flourished…

“Among kids 12 to 17 years old who smoke, 54% smoke mentholated cigarettes. Young adults 19 to 25 are right behind them: 50% smoke menthols… For new or younger smokers, ‘the primary advantage of smoking a menthol cigarette is that the menthol masks the harshness and discomfort of inhaling smoke enough to allow delivery of an effective dose of nicotine,’ wrote the authors of a 2008 study.

“These researchers combed through internal tobacco industry documents to reveal how companies ‘manipulated menthol .levels in cigarettes and introduced new menthol brands to gain market share, particularly among adolescents and young adults.’… [And then there is vaping.]

“The FDA has asserted its authority to regulate e-cigarettes and their flavorings. That claim is contested but hasn’t yet been struck down by the courts… Gottlieb said that although he’s ready to ban menthol as a flavor enhancer in smoked products, he wants to keep it available for e-cigarettes because many older users like it, and he doesn’t want them to go back to smoking menthols.

“When it comes to vaping, Gottlieb said he wants to concentrate on kid-oriented flavorings. But he warned that if he sees more evidence that menthol is luring uninitiated kids to e-cigarettes, he would revisit the possibility of restricting it there too.

“In the end, new congressional authority may be necessary if the FDA is to ban menthol or restrict the use of flavorings in e-cigarettes. Alternatively, the FDA could act, get sued, and let the courts decide whether and how much authority it has to take such actions.

“Any way you look at it, this process will take years to work itself out, said Will Woodlee, a partner with the law firm Kleinfeld, Kaplan & Becker, which has represented tobacco and e-cigarette companies in their dealings with the FDA.” Los Angeles Times, November 19^th. Tobacco kills. Vaping clear leads to full tobacco use, and flavorings in any cigarette or vape product ramps up children getting hooked on a potential lifetime of toxicity… a shorter less healthy life… and perhaps an ugly death.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and if you have ever spent time on a pulmonary unit of a major hospital (I did when I was misdiagnosed with a pulmonary embolism), just walking down the hall and listening to dying people desperately gasping for air is one hell of a deterrent to any form of smoking!