Free Talk Live

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.

SFO banned electronic cigarettes earlier this month and now the city is in the first stages of banning them. The plan is to fold them into the current smoking ordinance, saying that anything that looks, feels or functions like a cigarette is a cigarette and has to be banned from public places.

A UK research poll reveals the average smoker spends an hour or more taking smoke breaks each day. In the course of a year, five weeks of productivity is lost when you add in the traveling to and from the designated smoking area in most companies.

A man who refused to stop smoking an electronic cigarette forced a Continental Airlines flight to return to Portland Tuesday afternoon. he was held overnight on a federal detainer and formal charges are expected today. The Department of Transportation is considering banning the devices, which are currently legal. However, Continental has a policy banning the use of e-smokes.

A Florida vapor spent a few days in the hospital after suffering facial burns when his electronic cigarette spontaneously ejected the battery. Given the current battle e-cigarettes are facing in numerous state legislatures, this could become a serious setback for the industry.

The American Lung Association has come out in full force by sending lobbyists to various state legislators to argue against the electronic cigarette.

The FDA uses it's powers to ban "electronic" cigarets. Welcome to the new powers of the government.

Aren't these really a toy instead of a food, drug or cosmetic? Yes, yes, yes. I know how they work and that these can be used as a drug delivery system. So does your automobile. I believe that the FDA needs to narrow it's focus and do a better job there instead of expanding what it does. Consumer Reports or similar private testing agency would be a better forum for public safety with respect these devices.

Florida man on drugs got naked, barged into his girlfriend's house, bit a chunk out of a man's arm and ate it, then powered through several cop-deployed Taser probes before getting tackled and arrested. Those are just some of the allegations against Charles Baker of Palmetto, who is already being likened to the Miami man shot and killed after he got naked and chewed 75-percent of a homeless man's face off. Baker, 26, was visiting his children at his girlfriend's house on Wednesday night, WPTV reported.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to oversee electronic cigarettes marketed for non-therapeutic use as tobacco products after a court ruled the products can’t be regulated as drugs or medical devices. The FDA will propose subjecting e-cigarette companies to rules that already cover the makers of regular cigarettes, such as providing the government with lists of product ingredients, the agency said today in a letter on its website.