June 23, 2014 – e-cigs again

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Anchor lead: E-cigarettes remain in the headlines as marketing practices are scrutinized, Elizabeth Tracey reports

To whom is e-cigarette advertising targeted?  A recent study establishes children as the primary target, a finding underpinned by the array of flavors used in these products.  Michael Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, expresses concern.

Klag: Obviously they’re being marketed to young people in flavored products like bubble gum, and in products that don’t look anything like a cigarette.  We know that nicotine is an incredibly difficult addiction to overcome, and so there’s great concern that this is a gateway drug that would then introduce children to nicotine whether they then go on to smoke cigarettes or not that you’re creating a lifelong addiction.  So that’s a key concern about these products.  The other is that we don’t know the safety of them.  And the absence of evidence is not the same as evidence that they’re not harmful.    :33

Klag says that so far, FDA regulation is underwhelming.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.