​Transferable competencies are especially important to job s…

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​Trаnsferаble cоmpetencies аre especially impоrtant tо job seekers with limited work experience.

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Reаd the fоllоwing twо аrticles, F.D.A. Seeks Restrictions on Teens’ Access to Flаvored E Cigarettes and a Ban on Menthol Cigarettes and Do E-Cigs Help People Quit Smoking—Or Make Them Start? Then, write a position paper in which you make a claim related to the problem discussed in both articles: The availability of e-cigarettes to young teens. Include the following in your position paper: An introductory paragraph of at least 100 words that includes a thesis statement which clearly states an arguable claim based on the issue above At least three body paragraphs of at least 500 words total in which you include the following: Evidence in support of your claim that is derived from the two articles Appropriate citations to the evidence used from the two articles below An anecdote used as evidence in support of your claim A clearly identifiable counterargument and refutation   F.D.A. Seeks Restrictions on Teens’ Access to Flavored E-Cigarettes and a Ban on Menthol Cigarettes by: Sheila Kaplan and Jan Hoffman The New York Times March 30, 2019 The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced a series of restrictions aimed at combating a growing public health menace — flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products that have lured young people into vaping and smoking. And in a bold regulatory move, the agency said it would move to outlaw two traditional tobacco products that disproportionately harm African-Americans: menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. The proposed menthol ban would be the most aggressive action the F.D.A. has taken against the tobacco industry in nearly a decade, and it was notable given the Trump administration’s business-friendly approach to regulatory issues. But the proposal is likely to face a protracted legal battle, so it could be years in the making. The effort to cut off access to flavored e-cigarettes stopped short of a ban that the F.D.A. had threatened in recent months as it sought to persuade e-cigarette makers like Juul Labs to drop marketing strategies that might appeal to minors. The agency said it would allow stores to continue selling such flavored products, but only from closed off-areas that would be inaccessible to teenagers. Some 3.6 million people under 18 reported using e-cigarettes, the agency said. “Almost all adult smokers started smoking when they were kids,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said in a statement. “Today, we significantly advance our efforts to combat youth access and appeal with proposals that firmly and directly address the core of the epidemic: flavors.” Still, the plan to sequester flavored e-cigarettes in stores, rather than ban selling them, was surprising to many people since details of a stronger proposal leaked out widely from the agency over the past week. Members of Congress sent out news releases, praising the agency for a ban that did not materialize. Federal law already prohibits the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes to anyone under 18. But lawyers said the agency did not have the legal authority to impose such a ban without going through a long, complicated process that would have inevitably ended up in court. In trying to navigate between public health concerns about nicotine addiction among teenagers and a reluctance to heavily restrict e-cigarettes that can help adult smokers quit, Dr. Gottlieb urged manufacturers to police themselves. “We hope that in the next 90 days, manufacturers choose to remove flavored ENDS products”— referring to the devices — “where kids can access them and from online sites that do not have sufficiently robust age-verification procedures,” he said in the statement. The mere threat of a ban, which he suggested two months ago, led e-cigarette makers in recent days to announced plans of their own that go beyond what the F.D.A. laid out on Thursday. Juul Labs, which is by far the largest e-cigarette seller, said the agency’s plans would not change its decision, announced this week, to suspend store sales of its flavored pods, except for mint, menthol and tobacco, and to shut down its social media promotions. In addition, the company said it would toughen its online age-verification requirements. But it left the door open to resume sales at thousands of convenience stores, gas stations and other outlets across the country, if the retailers use age verification technology, including scanning customer IDs. Public health advocates said they were disappointed with the F.D.A.’s new vaping measures. “Does this mean a simple curtain with a sign like we used to see at the entrance to the pornography section of video stores?” asked Matt Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Azim Chowdhury, a lawyer who represents vape manufacturers and vape shops, said that one way for the shops to continue to sell all flavors without walling off displays was to restrict entire stores to consumers 18 and older, a policy that many of his clients were already following. “The F.D.A. seems to be recognizing the value that these products have for adults,” he said. “My clients don’t want kids to use them either. But adults enjoy flavors, too.” Dr. Gottlieb insisted that the restrictions were akin to a ban. “This policy will make sure the fruity flavors are no longer accessible to kids in retail sites, plain and simple,” he said. “That’s where they’re getting access to the e-cigs and we intend to end those sales.” When asked whether a fair interpretation of the new rules might be that convenience stores could sell flavored e-cigarettes as long as the products are under the counter, out of sight and inaccessible to minors, Lyle Beckwith, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a trade group, said that he had no comment on that possibility.     Do E-Cigs Help People Quit Smoking—Or Make Them Start? by: Darshak Sanghavi The Washington Post January 19, 2020 The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed new regulations on electronic cigarettes—setting off a new, furious debate over what’s become the most controversial subject related to tobacco control. E-cigarettes are the rechargeable devices that allow you to inhale nicotine in a propylene glycol vapor, which can be blown out with the look and feel of real smoke. Companies market them as a safer alternative to smoking, while their advocates say they can help people quit. The sales pitch seems to be working. From 2008 to 2012, sales jumped from 50,000 units to 5 million. The new FDA regulations would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and regulate how much nicotine the devices can contain. Analysts warned that restrictions could slow the industry’s growth, retarding innovation. But the announcement drew some expressions of relief from manufacturers, which feared more aggressive restrictions. “I like the overall tone,” Jason Healey, president of blue e-Cigs, told USA Today. Miguel Martin, president of LOGIC, the second-largest seller, said “I’m encouraged by it.” Anti-tobacco activists seemed a bit more anxious. Under the proposed regulations, e-cigarette companies could continue offering flavored versions, advertising the products on television, and selling them online. “It’s very disappointing,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor at the Center of Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. E-cigarettes raise real some safety concerns: Nicotine itself can be highly toxic in large doses and, already, several thousand poisonings from e-cig refills have been reported. But the big worry for public health advocates, including the major medical societies, is what e-cigarettes would mean for the use of regular cigarettes and other forms of smoking. Rather than help people to quit, public health advocates fear, e-cigarettes might encourage more people to start. Tobacco use remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of death. It leads to a half-million causalities and costs $100 billion in health care each year, killing far more people than high blood pressure, obesity, violence, or alcohol abuse. Tobacco’s harms include numerous diseases, including preterm births, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, residential fires, and sudden infant death syndrome. Today cigarettes are subject to extensive regulation—they cannot be flavored, sold to minors, advertised, or be promoted as having any health benefits (for example, for weight loss). Meanwhile, local and state governments have banned smoking in many public areas. As a result of these restrictions and many other public health actions—higher cigarette taxes, advertising restriction, minimal-age purchasing laws, systematic efforts to de-emphasize smoking in movies and TV shows, and other campaigns—there had been a remarkable reduction in smoking rates, as documented by the Centers for Disease Control. But it’s important to understand exactly how this reduction took place. It is almost entirely the result of fewer and fewer people smoking in the first place. According to the American Lung Association, the percentage of “never smokers” increased from 48 to 72 percent of the population over the past 50 years, accounting for almost the entire decline. In contrast, the number of former smokers—that is, people who quit—has remained stagnant. The key to tobacco control, it turns out, is cutting off the supply of smokers in the first place. Despite years of research, tons of spending on everything from nicotine patches to nicotine gum, and admonitions from physicians, no one has figured out a great way to help smokers quit. E-cigarette advocates insist their products can work better—and the companies have marketed them that way. The campaign may be working. One survey of North Carolina doctors found that 35 percent recommend them to their patients as quit aides, and 13 percent erroneously believe the FDA already approved them for this purpose. But for all the anecdotal evidence that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking actual cigarettes, the best studies today find little to no evidence e-cigs help much. Some supporters defend e-cigarettes as a form of "harm reduction"—similar to needle-exchange programs for HIV prevention in injectable drug users, or methadone clinics for heroin addicts. E-cigarettes, after all, don't contain tar and other cigarette additives that cause so many health problems. But public health experts worry that e-cigarettes pose a new, distinct danger. Most smokers start the habit as children. Tobacco control advocates worry that any effort to “normalize” even the rituals of smoking, as with e-cigs, could undermine hard-won battles to ban public smoking, re-establish smoking as cool, and lead to youth-directed marketing. Already, between 2011 and 2012, the number of children experimenting with “vaping” e-cigs doubled. Little data on the long term impact of e-cigs on youth smoking exists, but many health advocates believe the FDA proposed regulations have not gone far enough, since they leave the door open to advertising and flavoring e-cigs. Thursday’s announcement isn’t the end of the story. Rather, it represents the beginning of a public comment period, during which all the interested parties—including the companies and public health advocates—can register their opinions. It will likely be years before final regulations take effect. That means e-cigarettes will continue to be available without anything like the new restrictions—continuing a vast, unregulated experiment in the nation’s public health.