September 13, 2019
The media has presented the anticipated FDA action on flavored e-cigarettes as a “ban” on flavors. The FDA is not planning to issue a regulation (technically a product standard under Section 907 of the Tobacco Control Act) prohibiting the use of flavors. Rather, it is planning to adjust and finalize the draft “compliance policy” it proposed in March 2019 by stopping to use its “enforcement discretion” to allow illegal e-cigarette products to remain on the market.
This is a good idea, at least in the short run, because, unlike a regulation, which could take years to finalize, the compliance policy will take effect 30 days after it is announced (unless the industry manages to block it in court).
To understand what this means, it is important to understand that after the August 2016 “deeming rule,” all e-cigarettes on the market became illegal because they were tobacco products under FDA jurisdiction that were being sold without a “marketing order” from the FDA, which is required to legally sell new tobacco products like e-cigarettes.
September 10, 2019
September 7, 2019
As health officials struggle to understand the increasing number of serious lung disease, a new experimental study using mice may provide some clues about what is going on.
Matthew Madison and his colleagues published “Electronic cigarettes disrupt lung lipid homeostasis and innate immunity independent of nicotine” in Journal of Clinical Investigation. They exposed mice to e-cigarette aerosol without and with nicotine and found that the aerosol altered lipid (fat) balance in the lungs in ways that depressed the ability of the lung macrophages to fight infections and disrupted normal production of surfactants, chemicals in lungs that help keep the airsacs from collapsing. This effect did not depend on the nicotine, but was related to the propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin that are the primary carriers in e-cigarettes.
September 4, 2019
August 31, 2019
Alessandra Caporale and colleagues recently published “Acute Effects of Electronic Cigarette Aerosol Inhalation on Vascular Function Detected at Quantitative MRI” that shows that exposure to nicotine free e-cigarette aerosol immediately inhibits normal function of blood vessels in ways similar to exposure to cigarette smoke or secondhand cigarette smoke.
They had 31 young adult never-smokers who were in good health use a nicotine-free e-cigarette, then measured the ability of their blood vessels to dilate (get bigger) in response to increased demands for blood flow. There was also evidence that their arteries got stiffer. These effects appeared immediately after using the e-cigarette.
These changes (reductions in so-called flow mediated dilation) are a risk factor for long-term development of heart disease and, if it occurs in people at risk of a heart attack, can be involved in triggering an event.
The fact that they found these effects in nicotine-free aerosol is more evince that other elements of the e-cigarette aerosol are causing the problems.
Here is the abstract: