E-cigarettes labeled health threat in Calif.
The California Department of Public Health has issued a warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes, as states across the country consider new regulations for the booming industry.
In a report issued Wednesday, the department urged legislators to regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products. The growing popularity of the new devices presents a particular risk to children and teenagers, who increasingly report using them, the department said. Department of Public Health Director Ron Chapman told reporters the department will begin a public-education campaign warning of the dangers posed by e-cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes, which vaporize liquid that contains nicotine, are different enough from regular cigarettes that existing laws do not regulate them.
The product also represents a major growth opportunity for tobacco companies, whose sales have slid as smoking rates of tobacco smoking have dropped.
Defense likely to focus on dead brother
BOSTON – The best chance to save the life of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might be to put his dead brother on trial.
When Tsarnaev’s case begins, his lawyers are likely to pin their hopes – and the bombings themselves – on his older brother, Tamerlan: a Golden Gloves boxer, college student, husband and father who also followed radical Islam was named by a friend as a participant in a grisly 2011 triple slaying.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died days after the bombings following a gun battle with police. Dzhokhar, then 19, was later found hiding in a boat parked in a backyard. Jury selection in his federal death penalty trial is entering its second month. With a snow storm in the forecast, proceedings Monday were canceled and jury selection was to resume Tuesday.
Dzhokhar’s lawyers have made it clear they will try to show that he was heavily influenced, maybe even intimidated, by his older brother, into participating in the bombings.
Free diapers for those who quit smoking
AKRON, Ohio – Pregnant smokers in one northeast Ohio county can get free diapers in exchange for permanently kicking the habit through a new health program.
Summit County’s Baby & Me-Tobacco Free program aims to reduce premature births and infant mortality, as studies have linked smoking during pregnancy to preterm labor and health problems for infants, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
The program’s incentive could be worth hundreds of dollars per mother. Pregnant smokers can earn a $25 voucher each month for one year if they quit smoking, attend at least four support group sessions and prove they’re smoke-free by passing monthly carbon monoxide tests after their children are born.
Washington Post, AP
