The New Haven (Conn.) Register, March 24, 2014
The need to regulate electronic cigarettes and the liquid nicotine that fuels them is obvious - there is nothing to stop children from buying them, and some are marketed with bright colors and flavors like vanilla cupcake and peach-mango.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has come out strongly against e-cigarettes, especially the flavored ones known as e-hookahs, and every legislator on the state and federal level should join him.
On March 25, five Democratic senators joined Blumenthal in calling for immediate regulation of e-cigarettes, pointing to “serious public health and consumer protection concerns about the rapidly evolving market for new and unregulated nicotine delivery products.”
Their statement noted that, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, 1.8 million middle and high school students tried e-cigarettes in 2012 (76 percent of those also smoked regular cigarettes).
A report in The New York Times makes this issue even more of an imminent threat to health and safety. The liquid nicotine that is vaporized and inhaled is in fact a strong neurotoxin that can lead to serious and even lethal poisoning if ingested through the skin.
The Times quoted a poison control director in California as saying, “It’s not a matter of if a child will be seriously poisoned or killed. It’s a matter of when.”
Poisonings from liquid nicotine rose 300 percent to 1,351 between 2012 and 2013, reported the Times, based on information from the National Poison Data System. Even small amounts can lead to serious poisoning.
It may be true, although there is no evidence yet, that e-cigarettes can be used to help quit smoking. And certainly adults should be able to buy and use them. But just as cigarettes cannot be sold to youths under 18, e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine should be barred from sale to minors.
Blumenthal issued a statement in which he said, “E-liquids are the new snake oil of cigarette marketing - with purity and potency varying widely, and no safeguards. The FDA must act immediately to forestall imminent public health threats from e-cigarettes and toxic nicotine e-liquids.”
The senator is correct. The Food and Drug Administration should issue regulations quickly to prevent sale to minors, and to regulate liquid nicotine as it does other toxins.
The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester (Mass.), March 26, 2014
The Group of Seven’s decision to exclude Russia from the world’s most powerful economic club sends a strong message that annexation of the Crimea will not go unanswered.
But Ukrainians and others threatened by Vladimir Putin’s aggressive nationalism won’t be able to breathe easily unless the world maintains diplomatic pressure and makes Moscow feel economic pain.
March 24th’s decision to transform the G-8 into the G-7 was made by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The partners also announced they will target Russian banking, weapons, and energy.
If the West follows through forcefully, Russian businesses - and Putin - will begin to feel the heat.
One of the best ways to do that is for the U.S., the heavyweight among the G-7, to ease export rules on oil and gas, thus giving our allies on Russia’s western borders assurance that they will not be held hostage by their reliance on Russian energy.
Putin’s annexation of the Crimea is a page torn from the pages of the past. The world’s bet is that, in the 21st century, the only viable responses to curb Russian ambitions and protect Ukraine’s sovereignty are diplomatic and economic.
We’ll make that bet. But winning it will require unity, resolve, courage, and a willingness to match Putin’s power politics. The return of the G-7 is only a start.
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