New Jersey Expo….

More details are coming out on the recent NJ Vape Expo. For those who haven’t heard, this past weekend in Edison New Jersey they held a vaping convention with over 40 vendors, a number of events, and even an acoustic concert. New Jersey is a state we’ve talked about quite often on the podcast because of it’s clean air act preventing vaping indoors. This includes vape shops (though there is a bill in progress to exclude them from the ban, but it hasn’t passed as of right now, and who knows what affect this weekend’s events will have on it). That law was passed back in 2010 when CASAA was busy fighting against the FDA, and there really wasn’t any other major advocacy groups out there. It pretty much flew under the radar. Needless to say, it came as no surprise that a large number of fines of were handed out. I’ve heard between $10-50,000, but as of right now can not get a confirmation.

So why was this convention even held? That’s where things get muddy. You see the organizers of the event thought they had found a loophole. Where vape shops routinely look the other way when a customer comes in and tries a new juice or the like, that tactic simply wouldn’t work for a major vape meet. They thought by making it a private event where the participants had to pay they would be excluded from the clean air sanctions. Apparently that’s not the case, though it looks like there will be a legal battle. One with no winners though…

On one side you’ll have the organizers, certain vendors, and individuals who will fight their sanctions in court. This could result not only the fine being upheld, but with the added cost of legal fees. The publicity from this will only be fuel to the fire for the anti-vaping pundits and groups out there. I’ve already spoken to a few who have said this was a showing of a lack of respect and authority by the vaping community. People who were on the fence about it, and now lean more towards being against it. Fact this story has been picked up not only here in the states or surrounding areas of NJ, but internationally shows just how serious it’s being taken. Then we have the vendors themselves. Some have already talked of bringing a case of fraud against the organizers of the expo. Claiming they were lead under false pretenses to be part of this, and I can see their point…

The only good from this whole situation is hopefully this is will be a wake up call to anyone who’s state or area has purposed a public indoor ban. There has to be exceptions, otherwise the shops in your area will have no choice but to revert to the speak easy atmosphere of the prohibition days. Vape meets in those areas will be forced to be held outdoors flea market style if at all…

If you aren’t a member of CASAA, now’s the time to join. It’s free, easy, and most of all important if you want to keep your right to vape- CASAA

Answering some user feed back- Stainless Steel

On episode 30 of VR we discussed the new SS coils in the Aspire Triton tanks. I got an e-mail today asking for some further information. Figured would be better to answer it on here as well, than wait until next week on the show. Here’s the quoted text rom the e-mail-

“You mentioned stainless steel is a safer alternative to titanium. What exactly are the reasons why, and what’s the resistance of stainless compared to that of say kanthal or nichrome?”

We’ll begin with the safety aspect. Medical grade stainless steel (304 and 316) are two of the most inert alloys when it comes to human health. There’s a reason they’re both used in medical equipment, implants, and for cooking. They can take a lot of heat, resist corrosion, and the potential issue alloy elements are not going to leech or break off with use. Pretty much it’s the safest material on the market. The worry with titanium comes in the form of titanium oxide. While used in food colorings and sunscreen it has been labeled as possible carcinogen. There’s a lot of debate going back and forth on this, but for those who don’t want to have to worry about which side is right or take any risk, SS is a great alternative. Both metals handle high heat very well, and are far stronger than kanthal or nichrome. Both can be equally harder to work with though because of this. It’s just something to keep in mind.

As for the resistance. Have been scouring the internet looking for resistance numbers on stainless steel wiring the past few days with little results. Can only go by my personal testing with 34 gauge SS wire. Where 1.1″ of 34g kanthal is equal to about 2.0ohms resistance (got 1.98, but could have cut it too short), the same length of 34g 316 SS is about 2.2ohms (2.197 to be exact). Once I get a hold of some 28, 30, and 32g 304/316 SS wire will give a full side by side comparison of it versus kanthal and nichrome. Both 316 and 304 stainless are helped by the nickel content in the metal to make it less resistant than other steel alloys, 316 being 10-14% Ni. The steel I used from back in the day mentioned on the show was higher manganese and less nickel.

I hope this answer the question as best as possible. Sorry I can’t give any further data yet, but once I have the aforementioned wiring on hand to actually test can give a better run down.

It has nothing to do with Health

This is something we’ve been discussing in depth over the last few podcasts. I debated putting this up on the 4th or waiting until after our nation’s birthday had passed out of respect for the date. Only problem is as a nation we’ve lost respect for what that date stands for. Every year we’re overlooking more of why the founders of this country broke away from England- Unfair taxes. Only back then it was a 2% tax that sent us into a revolution, now we accept that almost or over half our income goes right back to the government. Will keep this focused only on vaping and smoking though.

Washington DC is one step closer to passing the 70% “sin” tax on ecigs. Montgomery County MD has already a 30% tax on vaping. Juno Alaska has also passed a similar tax. We keep seeing more and more of these popping up despite the fact there are many studies showing just how much safer vaping is than smoking. How much more effective it is than smoking. Smoking rates are down all around the country, and while some of the credit goes to the increased tax rate on tobacco over the past decade, a lot has to go to vaping. It’s the one product that has shown a greater than 5% success rate for those trying to quit smoking over that same time period. All the ingredients inside e-juice are FDA or EPA approved (PG has been since the 1950’s) by themselves, but not together. There’s no real reason to tack on a “sin” tax to an item that isn’t a health threat.

Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno put it best though when asked about his proposed smokeless tobacco tax being designed to help stop nicotine use or to collect revenue- “It’s both. I know it’s cool to say, ‘It’s about the kids. It’s not about revenue.’- it is about revenue. It’s also about acknowledging that this smokeless tobacco nicotine product is on the rise, whereas smoking is on the decline for a variety of reasons. Society is not accepting it any more. There are limited areas where you can smoke.”

At least we can give him credit for being honest. The government is trying to balance the budget. A budget they themselves screwed up, and instead of them taking a pay cut or losing their job as a majority of Americans would if they performed this badly, they’re turning to the pockets of the people they are so called “public servants” of. It is in essence the same reason our founding fathers fought back in the late 1700’s- Taxation without representation.

None of these fiscal choices has anything to do with public safety or health, and it’s not just the government at play. CVS was given a lot of praise by many media outlets and anti-smoking groups for their choice to no longer sell cigarettes or tobacco in their stores. What wasn’t reported was the fact that because of the affordable health care act, Caremark one of the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies in the nation, could not be used with any of the AHCA plans. By dropping cigarettes and their reported 2 Billion dollar revenue generated by it, CVS Health was able to sign a deal with the government to bring in at least 15 Billion over the next 5 years. Even if the cigarette sales are inflated, that’s a 33% minimum gain. Their choice not to sell tobacco again had nothing to do with health concerns, but with money.

And that’s what all these taxes come down to. The people in charge need their revenue stream. Instead of cutting back on pork projects and other wastes, it’s how can we bring in as much as possible. This is another reason why it’s so important you take action. Vote, contact your representative, and if they won’t listen get them out of office for someone who will. The people in charge are not our leaders, they are supposed to be our servants. That is the point of public office. To serve the people in your community, town, city, county, state, or country. The politicians have forgotten that, and we’re letting them.