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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Safety of Electronic Cigarettes Still Under Debate

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Tuesday, March 4, 2014   

LANSING, Mich. - Electronic cigarettes often are advertised as a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes, but there are a lot of questions about those claims. Tobacco cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals, dozens of which are carcinogenic. And according to Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society, while e-cigarettes are seen as considerably less harmful than the real thing, there's just not enough research.

"They were really only invented 10 years ago and made their way to the U.S. about seven years ago, and that doesn't enable us to look at what the effects 10, 12, 15 years out, are," he cautioned.

The vapor emitted by an e-cigarette is made from propylene glycol, a chemical approved for use in food, but Glynn said no one knows the effects of inhaling it over the long term. The FDA has proposed a rule that would allow the agency to regulate e-cigarettes as it does tobacco products.

According to Consumer Reports, sales of e-cigarettes hit $1.5 billion worth in 2013, nearly triple the previous year.

A CDC survey found that from 2011 to 2012, e-cigarettes doubled in popularity among middle-school and high-school pupils.

Glynn noted that some e-cigarettes are candy- and fruit-flavored, which is attractive to the younger crowd.

"Many of the companies are responsible. They have no flavors, or the only flavor they have is menthol," he said. "Others have flavors like bubble gum. So that's a definite concern: we do not want kids enticed into using these."

Glynn said the use of e-cigarettes could lead youngsters to switch to tobacco cigarettes.

Bills have been introduced in the Michigan House and Senate that would ban minors from purchasing or using electronic cigarettes.




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