Emanuel has made tobacco regulations a recent focus, working to frame the discussion over cigarette sales as a question of how willing elected officials are to protect children from getting lured into addiction at a young age.

At the last City Council meeting, aldermen voted to restrict sales of menthol cigarettes near Chicago schools. Emanuel delivered a short speech from the dais positioning himself as a bulwark against the evils of Big Tobacco. Emanuel also increased the city s cigarette tax as part of his 2014 budget.

On Wednesday, the mayor used the passage of the e cigarette regulations as a chance to again lay out his anti tobacco bona fides, saying Chicago can t wait for the Food and Drug Administration to take a position on the safety of the products.

“Having worked with the FDA, having encouraged them to take steps to protect individuals and children, they are usually an agency that leads from behind,” Emanuel said. “And when it comes to the city of Chicago, when it comes to the people of the city of Chicago, when it comes to the children of the city of Chicago, I do not believe we should wait.”

But Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, a smoker, continued to oppose the indoor ban on e cigarettes. Reilly, who said he s using e cigarettes to help himself quit, likened e cigarettes to needle exchanges for heroin addicts and said they help reduce the harm smokers suffer by offering a product safer than conventional smokes. “We re talking about treating two different products like they re one, like they re combustible cigarettes,” Reilly said.

And Ald. Rey Colon, 35th, said he resents how people who oppose greater restrictions on e smoking have been accused of not having children s best interests at heart. “I hate to keep using, I keep thinking of that movie My Cousin Vinnie the youths, the youths. We keep using the children as an excuse to pass any ordinance we want to pass, because who can deny the children?” Colon said.

In other action Aldermen approved $13.8 million in lawsuit settlements. Nanny Jennifer Anton was pushing a stroller carrying a 20 month old girl and shoved the child out of harm’s way before drunken city worker Dwight Washington crashed his city pickup truck into a crowd on a Gold Coast sidewalk. Anton will receive $7.4 million for severe injuries she suffered in the May 2011 incident. Separately, Larry Gillard will get nearly $6.4 million for a wrongful conviction in a 1981 rape case.

jebyrne

Twitter johnbyrne

Electronic cigarettes growing in popularity with teens – los angeles times

Buy davidoff cigarettes online|buy discount cigarettes????

In addition, e cigarettes are sold with cartridges that give them enticing flavors such as mint or chocolate, and health advocates fear they have the potential to turn teens on to regular cigarettes.

“The increased use of e cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. “Many teens who start with e cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”

The new study, published in Friday’s edition of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, is based on data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. It found that 1.1% of students in grades 6 through 8 were using e cigarettes at least once a month, as were 2.8% of students in grades 9 to 12.

Among these regular e cigarette users, 76.3% also smoked traditional cigarettes. But the report’s authors from the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health expressed particular concern about students who had used e cigarettes but had not yet tried conventional cigarettes. The researchers estimated that 160,000 students across the country fell into that category.

“The risk for nicotine addiction and initiation of the use of conventional cigarettes or other tobacco products” among these students is a “serious concern,” they wrote.

Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 440,000 deaths each year, including 49,400 due to secondhand smoke, according to the CDC. Tobacco use is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S., and it contributes to cancers of the lung and other organs, cardiovascular disease and respiratory ailments.

Electronic cigarettes are not regulated by the FDA, though the agency has said it plans to bring them under its jurisdiction.

The American Lung Assn. has been a consistent advocate for FDA regulation of e cigarettes.

“When you see cotton candy, bubble gum and atomic fireball flavors, there’s no question these products are being marketed directly at kids,” said Erika Sward, the group’s vice president for national advocacy. “I think this data really shows our concerns are real.”

E cigarette manufacturers insist that they are not marketing the devices to minors.

Tom Kiklas, the chief financial officer of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Assn., said a federal appeals court ruled in 2010 that e cigarettes were not medical devices and should instead be considered tobacco products. As such, their sale to minors is prohibited by law, and it’s the responsibility of retailers to ensure that buyers are of legal age, he said.

“Kids aren’t supposed to be buying any tobacco product,” Kiklas said.

The American Thoracic Society, like the American Lung Assn., has criticized e cigarette manufacturers for marketing their products as a means to help people quit smoking.