Social Smoking Very Popular, E-Cigs

Social Smoking wants to give smokers a choice with electronic cigarettes. They offer smokers a choice from cancer causing tobacco products. They are hoping to get smokers back into their social lives while allowing them to continue enjoying their smoking choice. Social Smoking is an electronic cigarette company out of Charlotte, NC. They want to help smokers kick their tobacco habit and get back into their social lives. The owners, being social smokers themselves, were concerned with not being able to continue their smoking lifestyle and hanging out with friends so they tried electronic cigarettes and were hooked.

Electronic Cigarette Makers Must Prove It Safety

A new report details exactly what kind of scientific proof the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should require from the makers of electronic cigarettes and tobacco lozenges to show that what they are selling is not harmful to the overall public health. These “modified risk” products claim to offer individuals nicotine without the health risks, namely lung cancer and heart disease, that are associated with the use of traditional tobacco products such as cheap Lady cigarettes. “These products are ones that might carry a claim that they have less risk to the user than a traditional tobacco product,” said Dr. Jane Henney, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Cincinnati and chairwoman of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that wrote the report. “We believe that if those claims are to be approved by the FDA, the sponsor will have to bring to the agency a series of data to support that claim.”

Underage smokers using taspo cards

About 30 percent of middle and high school students who are below the legal age to smoke buy cigarettes using taspo IC cards, which were introduced to prevent minors from lighting up, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry study panel.
The panel, chaired by Nihon University Prof. Takashi Oida, said about 40 percent of these underage taspo users obtained the cards from home or family members.
The panel conducted the survey on minors' smoking habits on 240 middle and high schools nationwide in autumn 2008, and 96,000 students in 172 schools responded.Regarding the introduction of taspo cards, which are used to confirm whether purchasers are of legal adult age when buying cigarette packs from automatic vending machines, 61 percent of the underage students who said they regularly smoke once a month or more said it has become more difficult for them to buy cigarettes.
But 29 percent also said they had bought tobacco using taspo cards. Among students that smoke daily, 42 percent said they had used taspo cards.
Regarding how they acquired the cards, 15 percent said they brought the cards from home; 22 percent said they borrowed cards from family members; and 7.9 percent said they undertook procedures on their own to obtain the cards from the tobacco industry's card-issuing authority.
The percentages of students who smoke at least once a month were 2.9 percent among male middle school students, 2 percent among female middle school students, 9.8 percent among male high school students, and 4.5 percent among female high school students. These figures marked a considerable fall from those of the previous survey 12 years ago--11 percent of male middle school students, 4.9 percent of female middle school students, 31 percent of male high school students, and 13 percent of female high school students.
"As fewer youths regard smoking as being cool, [the phenomenon of] minors' smoking has been steadily decreasing," Oida said. "Though taspo cards are effective to a certain degree, family members' cooperation is necessary."

Burglar targets cigarettes

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Thieves took thousand dollars worth of cigarettes from a Dougherty County convenience store last night. Store workers suspect the thief was a regular customer.
Police were called to the Express Lane on Newton Road just before midnight. 
Someone broke out a metal panel below a window on the side of the store, right by the cigarette display. The thief stole 66 cartons of cigarettes, worth nearly $2,700. 
Store workers say they think someone had cased out the store before the break in.