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.

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.”

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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.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has reported the first known U.S. case of an emerging strain of the mpox virus, according to a CDPH release Saturday.

The case of “clade I mpox” was identified in a traveler recently returned from Africa, where this strain is actively circulating. Officials with the CDPH have emphasized that the risk to the public remains “very low.”

The individual, who sought medical care in San Mateo County due to their travel history to East Africa and symptoms, is in isolation at home.

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The clade I mpox, historically associated with more severe illness than clade II — the strain responsible for outbreaks in California and the U.S. since 2022 — has shown milder clinical presentations in recent cases as long as patients receive medical care.

CDPH has informed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the case, and specimens from the patient are being sent for further laboratory analysis.

Public health officials are contacting those who may have had close contact with the patient, though there is no evidence of community transmission of clade I mpox in California or the rest of the country.

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Both clade I and clade II mpox spread primarily through close, skin-to-skin, intimate, or sexual contact. In their release, the CDPH also reassured the public that casual contact, such as in offices, classrooms, or stores, poses minimal risk of mpox transmission.

According to the CDC, the latest strain primarily spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact, and has the potential to cause severe illness and even fatalities. It emerged first in the eastern Congo.

A patient infected with mpox shows lesions on his body in Kamituga, South Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept. 20.  (Glody Murhabazi/AFP via Getty Images)

Since September, over 31,000 confirmed cases of this strain of mpox have been documented globally, with the majority concentrated in three African countries: Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as reported by the World Health Organization.

The CDC has also identified travel-related cases of this new mpox strain in countries including Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.

The CDC has issued enhanced precautions for travelers to Central and Eastern Africa, where clade I mpox outbreaks are ongoing.

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No deaths have been reported yet from this new strain, according to the CDC.

The CDPH did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

St. Louis, MO – Virtual reality isn’t just for video games. 

Some nursing students in St. Louis are using it to practice high-tech training without the need for real patients.

Goldfarb School of Nursing has integrated VR into its curriculum to give students a chance to hone skills in a different way. 

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As the demand for nurses continues to rise — McKinsey & Company projects a shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses next year — this technology is helping future health care workers prepare more effectively and efficiently.

Katie Jett, program director at Goldfarb, said virtual reality not only helps students with clinical skills but also makes learning more engaging. 

“It’s the new way that people connect and communicate, and that can be offputting to someone who is older, because that’s not the way that we connected,” Jett told Fox News.

“But when you think about how people are connecting, how adolescents and young adults are connecting, a lot of it is through virtual experiences and gaming and technology.”

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In addition to medical tasks, VR simulations help students practice their communication and bedside manner. 

Zykita Deal, a nursing student at Goldfarb, shared how she practiced delivering advice to a virtual patient. 

VR simulations help students practice their communication and bedside manner. 

“I was just talking to him about eating better, how to have a better routine with his medicines … and I was giving him a recommendation on how to not be [as] lonely, since he still has his son and they can still create meals that his wife used to make,” Deal said. 

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“He could keep his wife’s memory alive” this way, she added.

Students gear up with VR goggles and controllers to perform a variety of tasks, while instructors select responses for virtual patients, creating realistic scenarios that challenge students.

A nursing student at Goldfarb School of Nursing interacts with a virtual reality simulation while wearing VR goggles, practicing clinical skills in a virtual environment. (Olivianna Calmes/Fox News)

Lesley Schwartz, another nursing student, said the technology helps her prepare for real-world situations. 

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“There’s going to be times when the vitals are going to be conveniently close to you,” she said. 

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“There’s going to be times when you’re going to have to go get a vital cart to come into the room with. And it just kind of helps with your preparedness. When you get thrown into the virtual reality, you don’t get a brief as to where everything is.”

Nursing students at Goldfarb School of Nursing use VR controllers to simulate clinical tasks as part of their hands-on training in a virtual environment.  (Olivianna Calmes/Fox News)

Research by Wolters Kluwer indicates that 65% of nursing education programs use VR in some capacity. 

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Goldfarb combines VR training with full-body patient simulators, providing an engaging learning experience.

A nursing student practices clinical skills in a simulated hospital room using virtual reality technology at Goldfarb School of Nursing. (Olivianna Calmes/Fox News)

“It brings fun to learning and that way you’re not just always sitting behind a desk and hearing someone talk,” Deal said.

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Jett plans to expand the program, incorporating more advanced nursing scenarios to further enhance student training.

The number of people living with diabetes worldwide has quadrupled in the past two decades, with 830 million people diagnosed as of 2022, as published this week in The Lancet.

That’s more than four times the number of people who had the disease in 1990, according to a Thursday announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Among the people with diabetes, more than half are not taking medication to control it, the above source also noted.

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The prevalence of the disease has grown more quickly in low- and middle-income countries, where there is also the least access to treatment.

Diabetes directly led to 1.6 million deaths in 2021, with nearly half of them occurring before 70 years of age, WHO stated.

Another 530,000 related deaths were attributed to kidney disease.

Why the spike?

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) outlines the following four reasons for the increase in diabetes rates.

1. Diet

“Eating a diet high in fat and processed sugar can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” the ADA wrote.

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In particular, the organization recommends drinking water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages.

2. Lack of physical activity

“Being physically active less than three times a week can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” the ADA states.

Experts recommend that American adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, along with at least two days of muscle-strengthening exercises.

3. Being overweight or obese

Although excess weight increases diabetes risk, the ADA notes that many diabetes patients are at a normal weight or only moderately overweight.

In 2022, one in every eight people in the world were living with obesity, according to the World Health Organization. (iStock)

In 2022, one in every eight people in the world were living with obesity, according to WHO.

4. Family history

“Having a parent or sibling with type 2 diabetes can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” the ADA noted.

In a Thursday press release, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attributed the “alarming rise” in diabetes to the “increase in obesity (compounded by the impacts of the marketing of unhealthy food), a lack of physical activity and economic hardship.”

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Rising obesity rates and high-sugar diets go hand in hand, experts say.

“Poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles are at the heart of this spike, especially for vulnerable populations who often face challenges such as not being able to access and afford healthy food, an issue that has only further been exacerbated by inflation,” said Dr. Arti Masturzo, chief medical officer at CCS, an Ohio-based company focused on simplifying holistic chronic care management for patients.

“Having a parent or sibling with type 2 diabetes can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” the ADA noted. (iStock)

“Healthy food is expensive, as are gym memberships, which means that not all people can afford them — or get to them if they live in rural areas,” she told Fox News Digital.

Jessica M. Kelly, a registered dietitian nutritionist with Nutrition That Heals in Pennsylvania, also pointed to convenience foods as a potential culprit. 

“The number of adults living with diabetes has likely increased due to the ease and prevalence of ordering convenient foods from the comfort of home,” she told Fox News Digital.

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An increase in sedentary lifestyles is also a key contributing factor.

“We’ve become increasingly more sedentary as a society for a whole host of reasons, from increasing work hours to too much time spent using technology, like social media,” said Masturzo.

Diabetes led to 1.6 million deaths in 2021, with nearly half of them occurring before 70 years of age.

Around one-third of adults worldwide did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity in 2022, according to WHO.

Family history, age and ethnicity can also raise diabetes risk.

What needs to change?

“To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action,” WHO’s Tedros wrote in the release. 

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“This starts with enacting policies that support healthy diets and physical activity and, most importantly, health systems that provide prevention, early detection and treatment.”

To reduce diabetes rates, Masturzo calls for regulators to “step up and ensure that they enforce healthy food options.”

The American Diabetes Association recommends drinking water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages. (iStock)

“Many other countries are far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to such regulations today, particularly in relation to food additives and food labels,” she emphasized. 

“As a country, we must also identify new ways to encourage food manufacturers and fast-food restaurants to make healthier food more affordable for all.”

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Kelly recommends that diabetes patients work with a registered dietitian who can help them create “sustainable nutrition practices that support blood sugar control and management.”

“To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action.”

Increased physical activity will also help to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, she added.

In tandem with Thursday’s call to action, WHO also announced the launch of a “global monitoring framework on diabetes” to give countries guidance in measuring and evaluating diabetes prevention and care.

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“By tracking key indicators such as glycemic control, hypertension and access to essential medicines, countries can improve targeted interventions and policy initiatives,” WHO wrote.