FDA to Regulate E-Cigs

They can help smokers quit, but anti-smoking groups still want ban

(NEWSER) - A recent experiment in Italy found that electronic cigarettes can help even hard-core smokers quit, boosting hopes that e-cigarettes could be a much better tool than more traditional products like nicotine patches and gum. So why are government officials and anti-smoking groups working to ban the device, which delivers a small amount of nicotine in an aerosol form? The New York Times takes an extensive look at the issue, and points out an odd reality: It’s the more liberal officials who are touting an "abstinence-only" policy when it comes to smoking cessation tools. More»

Court decides electronic smokes should be treated like tobacco

(NEWSER) - The Food and Drug Administration's attempt to crack down on "electronic cigarettes" has been defeated in court. A federal appeals court ruled that the products, which create a nicotine vapor instead of smoke, should be treated like tobacco products—not like nicotine-placement gum or patches, which would place them under tighter regulation. The decision means that while the FDA can regulate the marketing of e-cigarettes, it hasn't got the power to restrict sales or block imports, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»

But regulators stop short of an outright ban on Avandia

(NEWSER) - The FDA today put severe restrictions on Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s embattled diabetes drug, but stopped short of banning it outright. The once-popular drug will now only be available only as a last resort to type 2 diabetes patients who can’t control their glucose levels with any other medication, the AFP reports. Avandia has come under fire because data suggests it carries, in the FDA’s words, “an elevated risk of cardiovascular events” like heart attacks and strokes. More»

What's more, FDA's claims about teen smoking are preposterous: Chapman

(NEWSER) - The FDA is all over the map—and all wrong—with its ban on flavored cigarettes, writes Steve Chapman. The agency touts the move against the “gateway” tobacco products, saying it will break the cycle of addiction “for the more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily.” First of all, kids don’t smoke fruity cigarettes. “Teenagers smoke because they want to seem older,” Chapman writes. “Smoking something that tastes like bubble gum sends the opposite signal.” More»

(AP) - President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he took up as a teenager as he signed the strongest-ever US anti-smoking bill today and praised it for providing needed protections for future generations. "It is a law that will save American lives," Obama said. "The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious." More»