scholarly journals Vape Shop Owners/Managers’ Opinions About FDA Regulation of E-Cigarettes

Author(s):  
Carla J Berg ◽  
Dianne C Barker ◽  
Steve Sussman ◽  
Betelihem Getachew ◽  
Kim Pulvers ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction In the United States, prominent sources of vaping products are specialty vape shops, which are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation. This study interviewed vape shop owners/managers to assess: (1) reasons for entering into or engaging in vape shop retail; (2) personnel training, particularly with regard to FDA and state regulations; and (3) how existing regulations are perceived and the anticipated impact of future regulation. Aims and Methods The current study involved phone–based semi-structured interviews of 45 vape shop owners/managers in six metropolitan statistical areas (Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Seattle) during Summer 2018 as FDA regulations regarding minimum age verification, bans on product sampling, and health warnings (among others) were first being implemented. Results Vape shop owners/managers reported: (1) entering the industry with positive intentions for their customers, (2) training their personnel to adhere to regulations and provide good customer service, and (3) significant concerns about the impact of FDA regulations. With regard to the latter, participants reported mistrust of the intentions of the FDA regulations, financial implications of the regulations (particularly for small businesses), difficulty understanding and interpreting the regulations, insufficient evidence to support the regulations, negative impact on customer service, negative impact on product offerings and product innovation/advancement, and negative implications of flavor bans and/or restrictions on sale of flavors. Conclusions These findings indicate the complexities in implementing tobacco regulations, particularly from the perspective of the vape shop industry. Current findings should inform future regulatory actions and efforts to assess compliance with regulations. Implications Current and impending FDA regulation of vaping products present a critical period for examining regulatory impact on the vape shop industry. Current results indicated that many vape shop owners/managers reporting positive intentions for engaging in the vaping product industry and in training vape shop personnel to adhere to regulations. However, the majority reported concerns about FDA regulation and other state/local regulations that could have negative implications for their industry. Particular concerns include difficulty understanding the regulations due to complexity, vagueness, and changes in language and/or interpretation over time. These issues have implications for compliance that must be addressed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda A. Lee ◽  
Maia Ingram ◽  
Carolina Quijada ◽  
Andres Yubeta ◽  
Imelda Cortez ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Throughout the United States, low-wage, minority workers are disproportionately affected by occupational illnesses and injuries. Chronic exposure to hazardous chemicals at work can lead to serious illnesses, contributing to health inequities. In this article, we expand on theories of ‘responsibilization’ in an occupational health context to reveal how responsibilities for workplace chemical exposures are negotiated by workers and owners in Latinx-owned small businesses. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of 22 workers and owners in auto repair shops and beauty salons – two high-risk industries – in Southern Metropolitan Tucson. Participants were asked about their insights into workplace chemical exposures and health. A qualitative analysis team with representation from all study partner organizations collectively coded and reviewed the interview data in QSR International’s NVivo 11 and identified overarching themes across the interviews. Results We identified three primary themes: 1) ambivalence toward risks in the workplace; 2) shifting responsibilities for exposure protection at work; and 3) reflections on the system behind chemical exposure risks. Participants discussed the complexities that small businesses face in reducing chemical exposures. Conclusions Through our analysis of the interviews, we examine how neoliberal occupational and environmental policies funnel responsibility for controlling chemical exposures down to individuals in small businesses with limited resources, obscuring the power structures that maintain environmental health injustices. We conclude with a call for upstream policy changes that more effectively regulate and hold accountable the manufacturers of chemical products used daily by small business workers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110041
Author(s):  
Candidus C. Nwakasi ◽  
Kate de Medeiros ◽  
Foluke S. Bosun-Arije

Some Nigerians, in their effort to make sense of dementia symptoms, use descriptions that may stigmatize people with dementia and their families. This qualitative descriptive study focused on the everyday understanding of dementia and the impact of stigma on the caregiving experiences of informal female Nigerian dementia caregivers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 12 adult informal female caregivers in Nigeria and analyzed for themes. Afterward, results were presented to focus groups of 21 adult Nigerians residing in the United States for more contextual insight on the findings. The three major themes were misconceptions about dementia symptoms, caregiving protects against stigmatization, and stigma affects caregiving support. Overall, we argue that knowledge deficit, poor awareness, and traditional spiritual beliefs combine to drive dementia-related stigmatization in Nigeria. Strategies such as culturally appropriate dementia awareness campaigns and formal long-term care policies are urgently needed to help strengthen informal dementia caregiving in Nigeria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (23) ◽  
pp. 237-250
Author(s):  
Anatolii Morozov ◽  
◽  
Tetiana Morozova ◽  
Inessa Rutkovska ◽  
◽  
...  

Introduction.The main environmental risks posed by roads are population depletion (deaths on roads) and barrier effects (habitat fragmentation). Barrier effects - animals avoid crossing roads, which leads to a decrease in the size and quality of habitat, optimal population size, reduced ability to find food and partner, increased genetic structuring and local extinction (Forman et al. 2003; Andrews et al. 2015; van der Ree et al. 2015). These risks against the background of other stressors, in particular the presence of invasive species, pollution, pesticide use, climate change, plant and animal diseases, may threaten the survival of populations.This issue is especially relevant for herpetofauna due to their biological characteristics. In particular, reptiles and amphibians move slowly, are too small (for drivers to see), do not avoid roads, and in cold periods roads attract amphibians (thermoregulation) because the coating absorbs and retains heat (Case and Fisher 2001; Jochimsen et al. 2004).The principle of ensuring ecological continuity is to identify priority efforts to mitigate environmental risks for animals and reduce the negative impact of the transport complex as a spatial barrier and source of pollution by introducing a number of technical means (eco-crossings, screens, embankments, landscaping). As it is not possible to change the environmental risks on all roads and for all species at present, it is necessary to identify the most vulnerable species, assess the risks to populations and the need for mitigation based on analysis of road density and traffic intensity.Problem Statement. With the advent of land transport there was a progressive environmental problem - the transformation of landscapes, it first appeared in countries with developed road infrastructure in Western Europe and the United States, and quickly spread around the globe (Ellenberg, et al., 1981; Fetisov, 1999; Zagorodnyuk, 2006, Ilyukh, Khokhlov, 2012). Numerous publications by both foreign and domestic authors are devoted to the study of the impact of transport infrastructure. Special attention of European authors is paid to the study of the phenomenon of fragmentation of natural ecosystems. In Europe, there is a network of experts and institutions of IENE, which is studying the possibility of implementing preventive measures for landscape fragmentation, promotes the development of transport infrastructure in accordance with environmental requirements, by creating a safe, environmentally sustainable European transport infrastructure.The ecological trail of the road network significantly exceeds its length (Vozniuk, 2014). This is due to the effects of, in particular, mortality on the roads of mammals, reptiles, reptiles (Forman et al. 2003), landscape fragmentation (roads divide the area into isolated areas, with low populations (sometimes below the minimum), so such populations lose genetic diversity and may become extinct locally), the loss of habitats of species and a decrease in the level of connectivity. In addition to these obvious effects, noise and vibration pollution are added, which inhibit the ability of reptiles, birds and mammals to detect prey or avoid predators (Forman et al. 2003), disturbed light regime (Rich and Longcore 2006). Roads contribute to the development of soil erosion processes, the spread of invasive and introduced species (300-800 seeds/m2 per year are transported to roadside ecotones by vehicles (Von der Lippe and Kowarik 2007), which contributes to the formation of local pseudo-populations), create obstacles and sources. (Forman et al. 2003).Purpose. Substantiation of the principle of ecological continuity regarding the negative impact of transport infrastructure on natural ecosystems and search for possible ways to minimize and prevent such impact.Materials and methods. The main research methods are the application of theoretical general scientific approaches to study: analysis and synthesis of international and domestic scientific and theoretical works, EU documentation (charters, design requirements), Ukrainian legal framework, literature sources; collection and analysis of statistical data to identify the dangers of the impact of road infrastructure on biodiversity and determine the value of the natural landscape.Results. The result is an analysis of the scientific literature on the negative impact of transport infrastructure on animals, systematization of the main impacts for the preparation of methodological documents for organizations planning and designing transport infrastructure in Ukraine to reduce the negative impact.Conclusions. The principle of ensuring ecological continuity is to minimize the negative consequences for the environment. In particular, by leveling the spatial barrier of the public highway. When laying a road through natural ecosystems, it is necessary to build transitions and passages for animals. In this case, their density and type must correspond to the natural rank of the territory. The construction of crossings for animals should be mandatory for all types of roads that cross ecological corridors. This is especially true for smaller roads, completely devoid of any transitions for animals, noise shields (on such roads are more likely to hit animals). An important point is the need to plan preventive methods at the planning stage of road construction. The analysis of the European experience shows that the negative impact of transport infrastructure on biota can be solved by consolidating the efforts of road transport specialists and specialists in the field of nature protection.Keywords:motor road,wildlife crossing, biodiversity, road infrastructure, ecological continuity


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Soma Patra

Nine out of the last ten recessions in the United States have been preceded by an increase in the price of oil as noted by Hamilton [Palgrave Dictionary of Economics]. Given the small share of energy in gross domestic product this phenomenon is difficult to explain using standard models. In this paper, I show that firm entry can be an important transmission and amplifying channel for energy price shocks. The results from the baseline dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model predict a drop in output that is two times the impact in a model without entry. The model also predicts an increase in energy prices would lead to a decline in real wages, investment, consumption, and return on investment. Additionally, using US firm level data, I demonstrate that a rise in energy prices has a negative impact on firm entry as predicted by the DSGE model. This lends further support toward endogenizing firm entry when analyzing the effects of energy price shocks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Frey ◽  
William J. Hall ◽  
Jeremy T. Goldbach ◽  
Paul Lanier

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and pansexual (LGB+) individuals have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Minority stress and sexual identity stigma are posited as the primary social determinants of LGB+ mental health disparities. Discussions in the literature have questioned the impact of sexual identity stigma in a world increasingly accepting of sexual minorities. Additionally, the LGB+ population in the United States South is often overlooked in American research. This article details a qualitative study exploring experiences related to sexual identity stigma among adults who identify as LGB+ in the United States South. Semi-structured interviews with 16 individuals were analyzed using content analysis. Six thematic categories of stigma emerged from participants’ experiences: (a) navigating an LGB+ identity, (b) social acceptability of an LGB+ identity, (c) expectation of LGB+ stigma, (d) interpersonal discrimination and harassment, (e) structural stigma, and (f) relationship with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Findings suggest that sexual identity stigma remains a common experience among these Southern United States participants. Further, thematic categories and subcategories primarily aligned with extant theory with one exception: Intracommunity stigma, a form of stigma emanating from the LGBTQ community, emerged as a stigma type not currently accounted for in theoretical foundations underpinning mental health disparities in this population.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 886-892
Author(s):  
Angela M. Haeny ◽  
Samantha C. Holmes ◽  
Monnica T. Williams

With the increased desire to engage in antiracist clinical research, there is a need for shared nomenclature on racism and related constructs to help move the science forward. This article breaks down the factors that contributed to the development and maintenance of racism (including racial microaggressions), provides examples of the many forms of racism, and describes the impact of racism for all. Specifically, in the United States, racism is based on race, a social construct that has been used to categorize people on the basis of shared physical and social features with the assumption of a racial hierarchy presumed to delineate inherent differences between groups. Racism is a system of beliefs, practices, and policies that operate to advantage those at the top of the racial hierarchy. Individual factors that contribute to racism include racial prejudices and racial discrimination. Racism can be manifested in multiple forms (e.g., cultural, scientific, social) and is both explicit and implicit. Because of the negative impact of racism on health, understanding racism informs effective approaches for eliminating racial health disparities, including a focus on the social determinants of health. Providing shared nomenclature on racism and related terminology will strengthen clinical research and practice and contribute to building a cumulative science.


2021 ◽  
pp. 145-159
Author(s):  
Т. Д. Polidi ◽  
A. Y. Gershovich

The article presents the results of an operational assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the change in the gross urban product (GUP) in 17 metropolitan areas of Russia with a population of more than 1 million people in 2020. The goal of the authors was to try to answer the most actual questions nowadays (early 2021): how deep was the fall of the largest agglomerations economies in Russia and abroad; did the corona crisis have a more negative impact on the largest metropolitan areas then on the rest of the economy? In order to answer these questions, two main tasks were: 1) to assess GUP in 17 largest metropolitan areas of Russia; 2) to consider foreign estimates of the GUP in 2020. For foreign comparisons, the authors use the first published data on changes in GDP and gross urban/regional product in the United States, Canada and Australia. The assessment of GUP in this work is carried out through the assessment of the component of employee compensation and then the transition to the GUP indicator on the assumption that such a ratio of compensation of employees to GDP in a city equals the average of the said ratios for the 17 metropolitan areas. The assessment showed that the real GDP growth rates in 2020 were negative not in all metropolitan areas, and in most of them economic losses turned out to be less than those of the Russian economy as a whole.


2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110246
Author(s):  
Raphaël Charron-Chénier ◽  
Louise Seamster ◽  
Thomas M. Shapiro ◽  
Laura Sullivan

Student debt in the United States has had a disproportionate negative impact on black and Latinx borrowers. We argue that analyses of plans proposing student debt cancellation should therefore foreground their potential impact on racial equity. To do so, we use data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances and model the impact of debt cancellation on four key policy outcomes (reach, impact on the most vulnerable borrowers, borrower wealth gains, and impact on racial wealth gaps). We examine universal policy designs as well as designs that incorporate an income eligibility threshold as a means of targeting benefits toward less affluent borrowers. We find that cancellation amounts ranging from $50,000 to $75,000 yield the most desirable outcomes, especially when paired with a relatively low household income eligibility cutoff at between $100,000 and $150,000. Such policies would cancel roughly half of all outstanding student debt without substantially expanding the racial wealth gap, while still reaching a large majority of borrowers and leading to substantial wealth gains, especially for black households.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5198
Author(s):  
Martin Barrett ◽  
Kyle S. Bunds ◽  
Jonathan M. Casper ◽  
Michael B. Edwards ◽  
D. Scott Showalter ◽  
...  

In many ways, intercollegiate athletics represents the ‘sustainable’ front porch of higher education. The high-visibility, high-impact nature of elite-level college athletics make athletic departments a central player in the sustainable development journey. However, not all athletic departments respond to this responsibility, nor are all responses uniformly successful. According to national reporting frameworks, an increasing number of universities in the United States are choosing to involve their athletic departments in university-level sustainability governance structures, but the benefits and limitations of this remain unclear. Using the theory of loosely coupled systems, and more specifically, the voice of compensations (which views loose coupling as an unsatisfactory state), the purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions of athletic department engagement in shared sustainability governance, and, thus, a whole-of-institution approach. Semi-structured interviews with sustainability office personnel were conducted and analyzed, and the findings imply that shared sustainability governance has the potential to focus the attention of athletic departments toward sustainability, as well as to reaffirm shared values. Yet, to maximize the impact of athletic departments toward the sustainable development goals of a university, sustainability office personnel suggest the deployment of additional change levers, in a multi-dimensional fashion, as supplementary coupling mechanisms. These would include more rigorous sustainability goals (top-down), continued collaboration on ‘low-hanging fruit’ initiatives (lateral), student-athlete engagement (bottom-up), and the development of an internal sustainability framework (inside-out).


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Elaine Sullo

A Review of: Jacoby, J., Ward, D., Avery, S., & Marcyk, E. (2016). The value of chat reference services: A pilot study. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 16(1), 109-129. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2016.0013 Abstract Objective – To investigate student, instructor, and librarian perspectives of chat reference service in the context of first-year undergraduate students conducting research for an introductory composition course. Design – Focus groups, individual interviews, and surveys. Setting – A large, public university in the United States of America. Subjects – 57 library reference providers, 36 instructors of an introductory composition course, and approximately 936 undergraduate students in certain sections of the introductory composition course who were assigned a specific research project. Methods – In spring of 2014, all participants were invited via email to respond to an anonymous chat transcript of a librarian interacting with a student working on his or her research project. Study participants could participate via a brief survey or by taking part in a focus group or individual interview. The invited instructors were asked to forward the invitation to the students in their sections, and reminder emails were sent two weeks after the initial email. Main Results – Nine instructors, 24 students, and 25 library reference providers participated in the study, representing a response rate of 25%, 3% (estimated), and 44%, respectively. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of key themes that were derived from both the focus groups or individual interviews and the survey questions. The themes were: students as novice researchers, question negotiation, open and closed questions, instruction, speed and convenience, customer service, and referrals. The theme of “students as novice researchers” is based on student comments related to their frustrations of being inexperienced researchers, as well as librarian comments on strategies for helping these students. Opinions regarding the traditional reference interview, including specific techniques that made the interaction successful, were categorized as “question negotiation.” The “open and closed questions” theme focused on feedback on the types of questions used by librarians in the reference interview. Several components related to chat and instruction were encompassed within the “instruction” theme, including whether those participating in the study were conscious of librarians providing instructions via chat and whether it was deemed valuable; the impact of a library instruction session in which students participated; and identification of missed teachable moments during the chat. The “speed and convenience” theme represented thoughts regarding the balance of instruction and librarian support of news skills, with the student expectation of having their question answered quickly and efficiently. The “customer service” theme focused on the service quality of the reference transaction, while the “referrals” theme encompassed thoughts related to whether students were referred to subject specialists, writing specialists, instructors, or if there was a lack of a referral altogether. Conclusion – Based on the research results, the authors highlighted the importance of the interconnectedness of teaching that is done in the classroom, in library instruction sessions, and on the reference desk, as all three types of instruction should align. Furthermore, because students are open to instruction via the chat service when they are creating and revising their research question and delving into subject research, chat can be viewed as a key teaching and learning opportunity.


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