Health
Some online vape sellers don't comply with regulations to prevent sales to minors, study finds
Online e-cigarette and vape retailers are under fire for not complying with sales restrictions.
Regulations are in place to help prevent the sale of vape products to minors, including age verification, shipping methods and flavor restrictions.
Researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego put those regulations to the test.
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The study, published in JAMA last week, suggested that some retailers are not following these guidelines.
Out of the 156 attempted transactions in this study, 73% were processed and 67% of orders were delivered. (iStock)
Researchers asked 16 people to purchase flavored vapes online and have them delivered to their homes in San Diego County.
Out of the 156 attempted transactions, 73% were processed and 67% of orders were delivered.
Sales restrictions on flavored tobacco have been enacted in eight U.S. states and 392 cities or counties as of March 21, 2024, according to UC San Diego.
“The results suggest that it is incredibly easy to buy flavored vaping products online, even in areas where they are restricted.”
Some restrictions on online transactions are “ambiguous,” they stated, including in states like California.
Eight of the buyers in the study were from the city of San Diego, where there is an ordinance that restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, as stated in a press release.
Failure to comply
The purchases made in the study violated flavor restrictions as well as the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act.
The act is a “federal law that prohibits the use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship vaping products [and] requires both age verification and scanning identification upon delivery,” UC San Diego stated.
The research revealed that only 1% of buyers had their IDs scanned and 81% of deliveries were made via USPS.
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There was no interaction reported with delivery personnel for 78% of buyers, while 15% did speak with delivery personnel but did not have their IDs checked.
Eric Leas, Ph.D., lead study author and assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, discussed the findings in a conversation with Fox News Digital.
There are regulations in place designed to prevent the online sale of vape products to minors. (iStock)
“The results suggest that it is incredibly easy to buy flavored vaping products online, even in areas where they are restricted,” he said.
“They also suggest that, for the most part, retailers disregard federal and state laws pertaining to shipping requirements and age verification.”
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Leas warned that this is “especially an issue for efforts to limit youth vaping.”
To prevent these sales from slipping through the cracks, Leas suggested conducting routine checks to “monitor and enforce compliance among online retailers.”
A 2023 study found that online shopping queries for vape products were 162% higher than expected. (iStock)
Online e-cigarette sales are the “largest and fastest-growing sector of the tobacco [industry],” Leas noted in a press release.
This is according to Leas’ 2023 study published in Tobacco Control, which found that online shopping queries for cigarettes were 194% higher than expected, and were 162% higher than expected for vape products.
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“We need to evaluate tobacco retail policies and ensure they cover eCommerce, and monitor the market to improve implementation,” he said.
In response to the Tobacco Control study, California lawmakers recently approved law SB-1230 to strengthen state tobacco oversight programs. That law is expected to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, the release stated.
‘Not a new issue’
Micah Berman, an attorney who is a member of the Cancer Control Research Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, told Fox News Digital that “this is not a new issue.”
“The Tobacco Control Act required the FDA to issue a regulation to address remote sales (including online sales) within 18 months of the law’s enactment,” he said.
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“Nearly 14 years after that deadline passed, the FDA still has never issued such a rule.”
This study suggests that communities nationwide are having their local laws “undermined by easy access to online e-cigarettes and other tobacco products,” Berman added.
Online e-cigarette sellers failing to comply with regulations is “not a new issue,” according to an attorney with knowledge of the issue. (iStock)
“It’s simply not feasible for local governments to regulate online sales,” he said. “To make progress on this issue, the FDA must fulfill its obligation to issue regulations, and it must be more aggressive in its efforts to block illegal online sales.”
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed to Fox News Digital that the agency is reviewing the findings of the study.
Fox News Digital reached out to several online vape sellers requesting comment.
Health
Scientists May Be Able to Make Grapefruits Compatible With Medications They Currently Interfere With
You may be among the millions of people who have seen a surprisingly specific warning like this on the labels of drugs you take:
Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication.
Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including docetaxel, a cancer drug; erythromycin, an antibiotic; and some statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to more than a third of American adults over 40.
The problem is a set of molecules, furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. In their presence, medications can build up to unhealthy levels in the body. And grapefruits and some related citrus fruits are full of them.
But there is no such warning for other kinds of citrus, such as mandarins and other oranges. Citrus researchers at the Volcani Center in Israel reported Wednesday in the journal The New Phytologist that, by crossing mandarins and grapefruit, they’ve uncovered genes that produce furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits. It’s a finding that opens the possibility of creating grapefruit that doesn’t require a warning label.
Scientists had worked out the compounds’ structures and pieced together a basic flowchart of how they are made years ago, said Yoram Eyal, a professor at the Volcani Center. But the precise identities of enzymes catalyzing the process — the proteins that snip off a branch here, or add a piece there — remained mysterious. He and his colleagues knew that one way to identify them was to breed citrus high in furanocoumarins with those without. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of the substances, it should be possible, by digging into their genetics, to pinpoint the genes for the proteins.
“We were afraid to approach it, because it’s very time-consuming and it takes many years,” he said, noting how involved it can be to grow new trees from seeds and assess their genetics. “But finally, we decided we have to dive in.”
When they examined the offspring of a mandarin and a grapefruit, the researchers saw something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants had high levels of furanocourmains, and 50 percent had none. That particular signature meant something very specific, in terms of how the ability to make these substances is inherited.
“We saw there was only one gene that could have controlled it,” said Livnat Goldenberg, a Volcani Center researcher who is the lead author of the new study.
The researchers soon identified the gene controlling the production of furanocoumarins in leaves and fruit, which produces an enzyme called 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, or 2OGD for short. Mandarins, it turns out, have a mutated form of this gene that keeps the enzyme from functioning properly. This version cropped up in all the mandarin and orange varieties the researchers checked, explaining why they do not cause the same problems as grapefruit in people taking prescription medications. In these plants, furanocoumarin production is paused.
With gene editing technology, it should be possible to alter the gene in grapefruit as well, Dr. Eyal suggests. The team at the Volcani Center is now exploring that project.
Looking at how widespread this mutated version is in mandarins and some other citrus, the scientists speculate that some gene nearby on the genome must play an important role in a highly prized trait. A long-ago citrus breeder, selecting for some unknown quality, must have unwittingly spread this furanocoumarin-busting version of the gene to an ancestor of modern varieties of mandarins and oranges.
All these years later, that person’s work is coming to light, under the gaze of geneticists, who may, someday, put grapefruit back on the menu.
Cases of tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” are on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Caused by the bacteria Francisella tularensis, the disease commonly infects rabbits, hares and rodents. However, it is zoonotic, which means it can spread from animals to humans.
The bacteria is a “tier-1 select agent,” a classification given to agents and toxins that “present the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties or devastating effects to the economy, critical infrastructure or public confidence, and pose a severe threat to public health and safety,” per the CDC.
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Although tularemia is relatively rare, with only 2,462 diagnoses between 2011 and 2022, cases have risen 56% compared to the prior decade (2001 to 2010), as reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Cases of tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” are on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report from the CDC. (iStock)
“Increased reporting of probable cases might be associated with an actual increase in human infection, improved tularemia detection or both,” the report states.
Millions of new cases of diabetes and heart disease every year are caused by sugary drinks, according to newly published research.
Tufts University in Boston led the study, which found that about 2.2 million new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease were attributed to sugar-sweetened sodas and juices each year, according to a press release.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine this week.
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The highest rates were found in Colombia, where 48% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary drinks, and in Mexico, where nearly a third of cases were attributed to them.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, more than 24% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary beverages, and 21% in sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.
About 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease occur each year worldwide due to consuming sugar-sweetened soda and juices, according to the findings of a new study. (iStock)
In South Africa, 27.6% of new diabetes cases and 14.6% of cardiovascular disease cases were attributed to sugary drinks.
Sugary drinks are rapidly digested, causing a spike in blood sugar levels with little nutritional value.
Sugary drinks cause blood sugar to spike because they are “rapidly digested,” the research team said.
When consumed on a long-term basis, these types of beverages, in addition to increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, can also lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, the researchers added.
Men are more likely than women to suffer the consequences of sugary drink consumption, as are younger adults compared to their older counterparts, a new study asserts. (iStock)
Professor Dariush Mozaffarian, the study’s senior author, said in a university press release, “Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations.”
He added, “Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well-equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences.”
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Certain groups are more likely to experience negative health effects from sugary drinks, including men and younger adults, the researchers noted, as news agency SWNS also noted.
New Jersey-based registered dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade, who was not involved in the research, said the findings were to be expected, as diets rich in added sugars are more likely to increase the risk of chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes.
When consumed on a long-term basis, these types of beverages can also lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, experts say. (iStock)
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major cause of added sugar in the diet and easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness,” she told Fox News Digital.
“The high calorie content and lack of satisfaction due to little protein, fat or fiber in these drinks can lead to excess calorie consumption, which can lead to weight gain — especially gains in visceral fat (belly fat), which has been found to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,” she went on.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness.”
Palinski-Wade pointed out that there were some limitations to the new research.
“This was an observational study, not a causation study, and shows only an association between diets containing sugar-sweetened beverages and diabetes,” she noted.
“It does not prove that those drinks alone trigger an onset of type 2 diabetes.”
What needs to change?
To remedy the issue, the study authors called for a “multi-pronged approach,” including public health campaigns, regulations on advertising and taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, the release stated.
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“We need urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, before even more lives are shortened by their effects on diabetes and heart disease,” first author Laura Lara-Castor, now at the University of Washington, said in the release.
Approximately 65% of adults in the U.S. consume sugar-sweetened beverages daily. (iStock)
Mexico implemented a sugary drinks tax in 2014, which has shown to be effective in reducing consumption, the researchers stated.
“Much more needs to be done, especially in countries in Latin America and Africa, where consumption is high and the health consequences severe,” wrote Mozaffarian.
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“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
Many different factors are involved in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, Palinski-Wade noted.
“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
“However, reducing your intake of sugar-sweetened beverages can go a long way toward improving overall blood sugar regulation and future health.”
The new research was supported by the Gates Foundation, the American Heart Association and Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for further comment.
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