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Tag: e-cigarette

  • TSA warns some hair tools can suddenly combust in the cargo hold

    Styling your up-do while you’re traveling has become easier with the introduction of cordless curling irons and hair straighteners but it has also gotten more complicated to fly with these hair care tools.

    Lithium-ion batteries used to power cordless hair styling tools allow these devices to have faster charging and longer usage times, and are thus more reliable, according to the Growth Market Reports, a market research and business consulting firm.

    But replacing the cord with a battery for power is what’s keeping the devices out of the cargo section of the plane.

    The Transportation Security Administration recently sought to iron out the details in a post on X.

    Plug-in hair straighteners and curling irons don’t have any flight restrictions so you’re free to pack them in your carry-on or check-in luggage.

    But the TSA said their counterpart has restrictions: cordless hair styling tools that are powered by lithium metal or lithium ion batteries or gas or butane fuel are only allowed in carry-on bags. That’s so that passengers or flight attendants can react if they start to overheat in the cabin. If they overheat or combust in your checked bag in the cargo area of a plane, it may take a while for anyone to notice.

    As an extra protective measure, the hair care tool must have a safety cover securely fitted over the heating element.

    Cordless hair styling tools, with the specific battery, gas or butane fuel, are only allowed in carry-on bags due to their combustible nature, according to a TSA spokesperson.

    Lithium-ion batteries, for example, can overheat resulting in heavy smoke and in some cases fire, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    Items that are commonly powered by such batteries include battery packs, e-cigarettes, cell phones and laptops. These items are only allowed to travel with you in your carry-on bag.

    If the items, “catch fire in the cargo area where checked bags are transported, there’s no one there to put it out,” Daniel Velez, spokesperson for Florida’s TSA, told the Florida Times-Union.

    On a flight from Lihue, HI, to Los Angeles International Airport in July, a passenger’s e-cigarette overheated inside their backpack, according to an FAA report of the incident.

    The flight attendant secured the e-cigarette in a thermal containment bag without injury, damage to the plane or flight interruptions.

    There have been a total of 644 verified incidents of lithium batteries creating smoke, fire or extreme heat between 2006 and 2025, according to the FAA.

    Of the total number of incidents, 482 occurred in the passenger area of the plane and 136 occurred in the cargo area.

    Karen Garcia

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  • FDA reverses order taking Juul vaping products off the market in US

    FDA reverses order taking Juul vaping products off the market in US

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rescinded its marketing ban on Juul Labs on Thursday, opening the door to possible authorization of its products.

    The reversal comes nearly two years after the federal health agency ordered the company’s e-cigarettes and vaping products be taken off the market.

    The FDA had initially blocked Juul’s application to sell its vaping device and tobacco- and menthol-flavored pods in June 2022, after completing a nearly two-year review of the manufacturer’s application, finding that the applications “lacked sufficient evidence regarding the toxicological profile of the products to demonstrate that the marketing of the products met the public health standard required by law.”

    The company has long claimed its product can be used as a tool to stop smoking cigarettes.

    The FDA subsequently paused the block just weeks later in July 2022 to conduct additional scientific review.

    MORE | Juul to pay $462 million to six states in e-cigarette maker’s largest settlement ever

    Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul speaks on a $462 million settlement with e-cigarette maker Juul.

    Since then, the FDA said Thursday it has “conducted additional substantive review of the applications in a number of disciplines, including toxicology, engineering, social science, and clinical pharmacology.”

    The reversal is based on a “review of information provided by the applicant” as well as new case law stemming from court decisions involving marketing denial orders, or MDOs, for e-cigarette products, the FDA said.

    “Rescission of the MDOs is not an authorization or a denial and does not indicate whether the applications are likely to be authorized or denied,” the FDA said in a statement. “Rescission of the MDOs returns the applications to pending status, under substantive review by the FDA.”

    Juul Labs said in a statement Thursday that they “appreciate the FDA’s decision and now look forward to re-engaging with the agency on a science- and evidence-based process to pursue a marketing authorization for JUUL products.”

    “We remain confident in the quality and substance of our applications and believe that a full review of the science and evidence will demonstrate that our products meet the statutory standard of being appropriate for the protection of public health,” the statement continued.

    In 2009, Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of tobacco products.

    E-cigarette manufacturers, including Juul, were required to submit their products to the FDA to review by September 2020 but were able to sell products while the FDA review was underway.

    Juul pods contain nicotine strengths of 5% or 3%, according to the company.

    The American Lung Association said Thursday it was “deeply troubled” by the FDA’s announcement and urged the agency to deny all Juul products, citing its role in the “youth e-cigarette epidemic from 2017-2019.”

    “These products and its manufacturer clearly do not meet the standard for protecting the public health,” Erika Sward, the association’s assistant vice president of nationwide advocacy, in a statement.

    After hitting the market in the mid-2010s, Juul became one of the most popular brands of e-cigarettes available, in large part due to its wide variety of flavors. Politicians and anti-tobacco advocates have accused the company of using these flavors — along with a sleek design resembling a USB flash drive — to market vaping to U.S. children and teenagers.

    More than 2 million American middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2023 — with nearly 9 in 10 students saying they use flavored e-cigarettes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Use of e-cigarettes among high school students declined from 14.1% to 10.% from 2022 to 2023, though they remained the most commonly used tobacco product among youths, according to the CDC.

    The 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey found Juul was the fourth-most popular e-cigarette brand used by adolescents — down from the most popular in the 2020 survey.

    Juul says its products are designed for adult smokers, ages 21 and up. In response to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, the company said it was “pleased to see continued declines in underage use of all vapor products and JUUL products in particular.”

    “These data demonstrate that appropriate restrictions to access and marketing of vapor products work and can lead to meaningful reductions in underage use in a regulated marketplace,” the company said. “The data further show the need to escalate enforcement against the illicit disposable products that now dominate youth use. That enforcement effort, if coupled with market authorizations for products that meet the statutory standard with science and evidence, can unlock the historic opportunity to reduce the deadly harm of combustible cigarettes while continuing to drive down underage use.”

    Copyright © 2024 ABC News Internet Ventures.

    ABCNews

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  • California banned the sales of flavored tobacco products, but researchers say online sales have boomed

    California banned the sales of flavored tobacco products, but researchers say online sales have boomed

    Despite California’s efforts to stop the sale of flavored tobacco products, University of San Diego researchers say consumers have discovered a loophole: online shopping.

    In 2022, Senate Bill 793 went into effect, prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products — making California the second state in the U.S. after Massachusetts to pass the broad law.

    The bill was prompted by the growing sales of an assortment of “kid-friendly flavors” such as cotton candy and bubble gum as well as the high rates of teen use of e-cigarettes.

    E-cigarettes are still considered a relatively new product — sold in the U.S. for about a decade — so their impact on health is still being researched, according to the American Lung Assn. However, in 2018 the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine reported e-cigarettes can cause health problems, including a risk for coughing, wheezing and an increase in asthma in youth. It was also found that e-cigarettes contain a number of dangerous chemicals including acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde. These aldehydes can cause lung disease and heart disease.

    In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration reported e-cigarette use among youth as its top concern. In its 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, the agency found that more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes. The same data found that e-cigarette users preferred flavored products, with fruit flavors being the most popular, followed by candy, desserts or other flavors.

    The most recent version of that national survey reported that 2.1 million youths use e-cigarettes, with a decline in high school students using the product.

    Several California counties, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, adopted local bans on flavored tobacco long before the statewide law took effect.

    But state and local efforts haven’t stopped consumers from getting their hands on tobacco-related products like e-cigarettes.

    Researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego found that online shopping for cigarettes and vaping products increased significantly in the weeks after the implementation of Senate Bill 793.

    The law says tobacco retailers cannot sell flavored products, but it doesn’t specifically define e-commerce businesses as retailers.

    Researchers collected weekly Google search rates related to online shopping for cigarettes and vaping products in California from January 2018 to May 2023, and identified websites marketing flavored vaping and menthol products, according to the report.

    They found that shopping queries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher than expected for vaping products after the Senate bill was adopted.

    Eric Leas, assistant professor of the School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and director of the tobacco e-commerce lab, said retailer licensing programs have proved to be effective in enforcing tobacco control laws.

    “However, the exclusion of e-commerce retailers from these programs can undermine their impact,” Leas said.

    “The absence of explicit regulations on e-commerce sales can create loopholes in enforcing tobacco control laws, allowing consumers to easily access restricted products online,” he said.

    Researchers are recommending that e-commerce businesses be included in the definition of tobacco retailer within existing and future tobacco control policies as well as monitoring online compliance.

    Karen Garcia

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