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• Wellstone in Conference Call With FDA | Business Wire 

Wellstone Filters Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: WFSN), the leading modified risk cigarette filter company, is pleased to announce that it participated in the FDA's conference call regarding the guidance document entitled "Registration and Product Listing for Owners and Operators of Domestic Tobacco Product Establishments."

During the conference call, Wellstone's CEO L.J. Hand focused on the need for clarification of registration by companies such as Wellstone who participate in only part of the manufacturing process. Wellstone is a filter technology company dedicated to research, discovery and development of methods and compounds that remove a wide range of toxins and carcinogens without impairing consumer acceptance.

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Anti-Smoking Groups Attack the Electronic Cigarette 

What started as a noble cause with lobbying groups like the American Cancer Society, Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights and Mother's Against Drunk Driving, is now morphing into a multi headed monster as they became a victim of their own success. Both have campaigned and succeeded in getting stricter laws on drunk drivers and smoking which most all of us applaud. They don't seem to be satisfied with just protecting the victims any more. They are now taking aim at personal freedom as they move to control your behavior even when your behavior in public or private is not harmful to anyone else. . . .

Several anti-smoking groups are going after this product to be included in bans instead of embracing it as a better product than tobacco cigarettes. These groups may be following the misguided propaganda being put out by special interest organizations that have an allegiance to the big business of pharmaceuticals and tobacco. The electronic cigarette produces no second-hand combustion smoke because there is no combustion. The tobacco companies don't make e cigarettes and probably don't care much for their existence.

This unconscionable behavior from "people who are supposed to care" makes Kyle Newton, owner of eCigarettesChoice.com, take a step back in disbelief. "I lost my mom, her sister and my grandmother to cigarette related deaths within the last six years. I just wished e cigarettes could have been available a long time ago. If I didn't believe in this product, I wouldn't be so adamant about promoting it."

One organization that shows no particular allegiance to special interest money is Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). In their October 2009 briefing, ASH in the United Kingdom released a favorable position on electronic cigarettes which is the exact opposite position taken by a few the control groups in the United States.

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• Vaporized Propylene Glycol, a Key Ingredient in Electronic Cigarettes, May Prevent Pneumonia, Influenza, and Other Respiratory Diseases 

The ingredients in most electronic cigarette cartridges manufactured today include propylene glycol, nicotine, and a flavoring. The 1942 study by Dr. Oswald Hope Robertson of the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital showed that Propylene glycol, the most prevalent ingredient in electronic cigarette cartridges, was found to possibly prevent pneumonia, influenza, and other respiratory diseases when vaporized and inhaled.

Additional studies in monkeys and other animals were undertaken to determine long-term effects, especially the potential for accumulation in the lungs. After a few months of treatment, no ill effects were discovered.

Smokers can enjoy all the engrained habits of smoking; hand-to-mouth, throat hit, visual smoke, nicotine delivery, with none of the negative effects of inhaling the dangerous smoke

Now the electronic cigarette may not only help individuals to reduce and quit smoking regular cigarettes, but it also may help to prevent some of the respiratory diseases caused by the harmful "cancer sticks". Additionally with the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus expected to cause a record number of deaths this season there is no better time for smokers to cut back or quit with the aid of the electronic cigarette.

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Where There's Smokeless Cigarettes, There's Fire  

USA Today reports that Electronic cigarettes are opening a new front in the tobacco wars as state and local lawmakers try to restrict the product, which may allow users to circumvent smoking bans.

The battery-powered devices are made up of cartridges containing nicotine, flavoring and chemicals. They turn nicotine, which is addictive, into a vapor that is inhaled. Users say they're "vaping," not smoking.

E-cigarettes are used by at least a half-million Americans, Matt Salmon, head of the Electronic Cigarette Association, Washington, told the newspaper.

"People who smoke ought to have better alternatives, because some can't quit," he said. His father, a longtime smoker, died last month of cancer and emphysema.

Public health officials question the safety of e-cigarettes.

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EDITORIAL: Smokeless cigarettes in need of more tests 

BACKGROUND: E-cigarettes, which convert nicotine directly into vapor, are becoming quite popular these days.

CONCLUSION: But the jury is still out on whether these smokeless cigarettes are any safer than the more traditional version. . . .

The e-cigarette industry's effort to block FDA intervention suggests it has something to hide, even if that's not the case. If the products really are a safe alternative to cigarettes, the industry should welcome the FDA's interest.

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• Cancer institute studies smokeless tobacco 

Is using smokeless tobacco just as harmful as smoking, or is it potentially a safer option?

Getting a definitive answer to that question has proved elusive despite centuries of medical research.

Resolving the issue, and providing clarity amid the heated rhetoric, has prompted a new series of medical studies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

One set focuses on whether such smokeless products as snus and the dissolvable products from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., provide "a truly less-harmful alternative to conventional tobacco products, both at the individual and population level," according to the institute's grant application.

Another set, including one that was started Sept. 1 at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, is aimed at developing strategy to encourage reduced use or even quitting smokeless-tobacco products. Wake Forest is receiving a $2.9 million grant for its study.

Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds, said that the company supports "well-designed studies" that could help develop science-based, tobacco-harm-reduction strategies." Payne said that Reynolds does not promote its new smokeless products as a way to quit smoking.

The institute said that the studies are necessary because "previous tobacco-use reduction efforts pursued by the public-health community were disadvantaged by incomplete knowledge and methods for evaluating the health impact of modified tobacco products."

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• Designing A Safer Cigarette 

What if we had a less dangerous cigarette for people who can't kick the habit, letting them keep on smoking but stay alive longer while they're doing it? It's available in Canada, France, Russia and a few places in Asia. The 350 million smokers in China may also get their hands on it. The U.S.? Forget it.

It's another perverse result of the 1998 settlement that had tobacco companies--and, ultimately, their customers--chipping in to balance state budgets and pay for lawyers' yachts. The deal turned the big tobacco companies into a cartel and locked in their market shares. The state attorneys general who put together the $206 billion agreement ward off potential competitors so the money keeps flowing to their states. One way to fend off rivals: pounce on any company making health claims. How convenient for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.

In this case the target is an eight-year-old Hong Kong biotech company, Filligent. Its MicroBlue filter blocks many of the toxins that make a cigarette dangerous but doesn't disturb the ingredients that give it flavor and produce that seductive though addictive nicotine buzz. "For years the public health community has just assumed that the smoke from cigarettes is all bad," says Scott Ballin, director for the Alliance for Health, Economic & Agriculture Development in Washington, D.C., which is funded by economic development groups in tobacco-growing states and has been critical of the settlement. "Now advances in basic science have given us a much more nuanced understanding of what's in that stuff--what's harmful and what's mainly benign."

Fewer than 5% of the people who try to stop smoking succeed for as long as five years, says Filligent Chief Executive Melissa Mowbray-d'Arbela. So given the futility of getting smokers to end their addiction, tobacco experts such as Dr. Judith Mackay of the World Lung Foundation in New York say Filligent's product could be the next best thing to quitting.

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EDITORIAL: Smoking out e-cigarettes  

E-cigarettes might help smokers quit by providing the long inhale -- and nicotine fix -- of smoking. Because the devices are smokeless, people could potentially light up at a restaurant or on an airplane without breaking any laws. But with their candy flavors and their image as relatively harmless, e-cigarettes provide a new way to hook customers -- including teenagers -- on nicotine. That could conversely lead to more smoking. Meanwhile, the long-term effects of breathing nicotine and propylene glycol haven't been determined -- not to mention diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze that the FDA has found in many e-cigarettes.

The agency wants sales of the devices halted until, as with other drug products, animal studies and clinical trials determine whether they are indeed safe. We agree. A check of Internet chat sites shows that the devices are regularly used by smokers trying to quit tobacco. Should the courts rule against the FDA, Congress will have to step in. With the ever-expanding peddling of nicotine in the United States, the public needs federal oversight of attempts to advance an addictive drug.

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• Firestorm over smokeless cigarette  

Electronic cigarettes are opening a new front in the tobacco wars as state and local lawmakers try to restrict the product, which may allow users to circumvent smoking bans.

The battery-powered device is made up of a cartridge containing nicotine, flavoring and chemicals. It turns nicotine, which is addictive, into a vapor that is inhaled. Users say they're "vaping," not smoking.

E-cigarettes are used by at least a half-million Americans, says Matt Salmon, head of the Electronic Cigarette Association.

"People who smoke ought to have better alternatives, because some can't quit," he says. His father, a longtime smoker, died last week of cancer and emphysema.

Public health officials question the safety of e-cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates tobacco and nicotine replacement devices, says the e-cigarettes it tested had carcinogens. E-cigarette distributors have filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA's authority.

"It's a new frontier. We don't know what the dangers are," says John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-smoking group.

"We're actively investigating these companies and their products," says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Other actions:

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• Use An E-Cigarette, Reduce Risk of Heart Disease 

E-CigaretteDirect.com recommends that smokers switch to electronic cigarettes to protect themselves and their loved ones from secondhand smoke and heart disease. You don't have to be a smoker for smoke to harm you. Secondhand smoke is known to be even more dangerous than first hand smoke.

The recent study titled Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects assess the relationship among second hand smoke and acute coronary events. The scientists found that smoking regular cigarettes increases the risk of heart disease by 25-30%. The Surgeon General agrees with this conclusion in his 2006 report.

To avoid second hand smoke for others, smokers have a few options: Quit, leave the premises to smoke, or try an electronic cigarette. "The e-cigarette produces ZERO second hand smoke. None. The 'smoke' that is expelled is actually water vapor", states Gina King of E-CigaretteDirect. "People can use this smoking alternative to decrease the risk of smoking for them and their loved ones. This study only proves that regular cigarettes are dangerous for more people than just the smoker".

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LETTERS: Use snus, you lose 

Review of epidemiologic data on the debate over smokeless tobacco's role in harm reduction 

Leading authorities in the USA have firmly stated that there is no safe tobacco - a message which does not allow for any discussion of comparative tobacco risks. This commentary is intended to review the origin of the controversy over Swedish 'snus', to examine briefly the meta-analysis on cancer risks by Peter Lee and Jan Hamling (published in July in BMC Medicine) and to discuss the anticipated direction of the debate on tobacco-harm reduction in the USA.

We anticipate that much of the debate will shift from the discussion of epidemiologic data to the discussion of the marketing, health communication and economics of smokeless tobacco. While the Food and Drug Administration's newly approved authority over tobacco will undoubtedly affect the smokeless products, it may not be the sole determinant of harm reduction's fate in the USA.See associated research article by Lee and Hamling: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/36

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STIER: Council votes to boost butts 

THE City Council this week voted 46-1 to ban many flavorings in a variety of tobacco products, and Mayor Bloomberg is likely to sign it into law. Speaker Christine Quinn justified it as an effort to protect children -- but the main effect will be to make it harder for adult smokers to quit.

The ban also covers many flavors of snus -- a smokeless, and thus far less harmful, tobacco. . . .

But sales of all tobacco products to minors are already illegal. The city should enforce the law on the books rather than stymie adults' switch to a less harmful product.

Ironically, the city ban exempts flavored hookah tobacco and menthol -- both of which are popular among younger tobacco users and which, unlike the banned flavored snus, have no redeeming public-health value. They certainly don't help people quit cigarettes.

New York City is not alone in banning the wrong products. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently called for a ban on e-cigarettes. . . .

The federal government is getting into the act as well. The Food and Drug Administration, now tasked with regulating tobacco, in July warned about tiny levels of carcinogens in e-cigarettes, telling smokers to stay away -- in effect telling them to stick with deadly cigarettes.

These government actions will do nothing to protect kids. The only effect is to promote the most dangerous form of tobacco use, smoking cigarettes.

If the advocates get their way, the only thing addicted smokers will be able to buy are mostly ineffective nicotine gums and patches -- and, of course, cigarettes.

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The Real Meaning of the FDA's Anti E-Cigarette Report 

On February this year, the FDA got sued by two of the most popular E-cigarette companies in the US- Njoy & Smoking everywhere. They sued for seizing and sending back product stocks shipped from China. FDA didn't want the products enter the. WHY?! FDA, like other federal offices is not driven only by the public's benefits, there are many other factors than that. Their excuse was the fact the Electronic cigarette is still under inquiry, by this fact alone- IT'S ILLEGAL for the FDA to stop and seize shipments in the US border but yet- It's in their power to do so as ridiculous as it is. That was the sue case.

The FDA have completed these days a preliminary test on 19 kinds of E-cigarette cartridges of Njoy & Smoking everywhere (rings a bell...) They have found ONLY 1 CARTRIDGE that contains Diethylene glycol "in very low levels". Same Diethylene glycol is found in tobacco cigarette in high levels, It's A humectants mixed in the tobacco to keep it moist. Watch Dr. Sanjai Gupta, Chief medical correspondent on CNN interview:here! . . .

A list of honorable Doctors and researchers have challenged the FDA to provide the full quantitative data of the study upon which the FDA has based the warning Against the Electronic cigarette. The doctors (listed below) has the justified suspicion that the FDA is trying to present the Electronic as a drug and legalize it & by that- to eliminate maybe the only chance of the tobacco smokers for a rehabilitation. Doctors and researchers of the Group: Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Joel Nitzkin of the AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force, Dr. Brad Rodu, Endowed Chair, Tobacco Harm Reduction Research University of Louisville . . .

"It is absurd to take the electronic cigarettes out of the market when the tobacco ones have been shown to be killing millions every year" Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health . . .

For more information and interviews, see contact details of all personalities mentioned here: http://www.thesmartsmokers.com/news.html

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• Patents - Star Scientific Breaks New Ground, Plans FDA Filing for Approval of First 'Modified Risk' Tobacco Product; Nominates Curtis Wright, MD, MPH for FDA Advisory Committee ($$) 

Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:STSI) makers of low-nitrosamine smokeless tobacco products, announced that the company will utilize a novel, patented method for cultivation, curing and preparation of tobacco to formulate dissolvable smokeless tobacco products. This new curing process was the subject of a patent application filed in December, 2008. Its use has resulted in tobacco leaf with significantly lower levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) than previously achieved using the StarCured curing process: the International Agency for Research on Cancer previously has reported on the low levels of nitrosamines in Star's products. The company believes that this novel process, as...

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