US DOT Bans the Use of Electronic Cigarettes on Commercial Flights

The ProVape-1 by ProVape.com
Electronic cigarette/vaporizer mod which holds a larger battery.
Shown with a 901 atomizer attached. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced a final rule that explicitly bans the use of electronic cigarettes on commercial flights. The final rule applies to all scheduled flights of U.S. and foreign carriers involving transportation in, to, and from the U.S. 

“This final rule is important because it protects airline passengers from unwanted exposure to electronic cigarette aerosol that occurs when electronic cigarettes are used onboard airplanes,” said Secretary Foxx. “The Department took a practical approach to eliminate any confusion between tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes by applying the same restrictions to both.”

FBI Offers $10,000 Rewards to Stem Laser-Pointer Incidents

Today's post was shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

The FBI has a long history of offering rewards for terrorists, bank robbers, and all sorts of scoundrels. Now it’s offering money to catch people misusing laser pointers. Twelve different offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday they will pay $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest for pointing lasers at aircraft – a dangerous practice that can temporarily blind pilots. The frequency of such incidents has risen greatly in recent years. In 2005, the year the FBI began tracking the “laser strikes,” it recorded 283. In 2013 it reported 3,960, or nearly 11 per day. “Shining a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft can temporarily blind a pilot, jeopardizing the safety of everyone on board,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We applaud our colleagues at the Justice Department for aggressively prosecuting aircraft laser incidents and we will continue to use civil penalties to further deter this dangerous activity.” The pilot program offering rewards for information leading to arrests of individuals deliberately aiming such pointers at planes will run for 60 days, officials said. “It is important that people understand that this is a criminal act with potentially deadly repercussions,’’ said Ron Hosko, head of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. The FBI offices offering the rewards are in Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City,...

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FAA to Evaluate Obese Pilots for Sleep Disorder

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from online.wsj.com

Concern about the U.S. obesity epidemic has now moved into airplane cockpits, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to enhance medical scrutiny of overweight commercial and private pilots susceptible to sleep disorders. After laying the groundwork with months of public education efforts, the FAA on Wednesday confirmed it plans to implement a new policy requiring special screening of pilots with excess weight or other factors that increase their risk of suffering from sleep apnea. To maintain their licenses, those aviators will have to be evaluated by a physician who is a sleep specialist. The FAA eventually also plans to expand the effort to identify air-traffic controllers at greater risk for sleep apnea. Once a pilot has been diagnosed with the condition—marked by sleep deprivation that causes daytime fatigue—he or she will have to undergo treatment before getting approval to return to the controls. In a statement, the FAA said the updated guidelines to physicians are designed to help pilots and boost aviation safety "by improving the diagnosis of unrecognized or untreated" forms of the sleep disorder. For private or weekend pilots especially, the impact could be dramatic. In 2011, the FAA identified about 125,000 pilots who were considered obese, making them potential candidates for testing under an expanded policy, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the largest national membership organization representing private aviators. There...

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