Vol. 105 Issue 34
Pittnews.com
@thepittnews WORKIN’ AT THE BIKE WASH
Monday, September 22 , 2014
E-cigarettes give students new choices Dale Shoemaker Staff Writer
WPTS held a bike wash to raise money Sunday in the Quad. Jeff Ahearn | Staff Photographer
Two Oakland houses destroyed in fire Cristina Holtzer and Danielle Fox Pitt News Staff After a fire in the early morning hours on Friday left four Pitt students without homes, the University has intervened. At 2 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 19, Pitt police responded with city police and the Pittsburgh Fire Department to the 911 call from Orpwood Street. The fire, which destroyed 3702 and 3704
Orpwood Street, left all residents without injury, according to a Pittsburgh Public Safety release. Seven residents — four of whom are Pitt students — lived in the two homes. The residents of both houses lost all of their possessions, and two cats left in the houses died during the fire. The body of a third cat has not been found. Patrick Buehler and Rachael Greenwalt, both students in the Graduate School of Public Health who lived in one of the homes affected, stayed with Buehler’s family in the Carnegie
area after the fire, according to Greenwalt’s close friend Chelsey Engel. Greenwalt and Buehler shared their house with Melanie DiBello and Belle Gee, none of whom could be reached for comment over the weekend. Next door, three people — two of them Pitt students — also lost their home and possessions. Cara Masset, director of University News, said the University could not release
Fire
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The nicotine market’s newest competitor, the electronic cigarette, is gaining popularity among teenagers and young adults — including Pitt students. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, are batterypowered vaporizers that produce an aerosol vapor that resembles cigarette smoke. Presently, little research exists on the health effects of e-cig vapor. No evidence has suggested that the vapor contains any contaminates detrimental to health. According to a report in May by Public Health England, an executive agency in the U.K. Department of Health, electronic cigarettes first hit the market in China in 2003. In the chamber of an e-cig, the battery activates either by a button on the outside of the cartridge or by a sensor on the inside that activates when the user inhales. The battery then heats up a coil in the liquid chamber, which vaporizes the liquid. The user then inhales the vapor. The liquid is a mixture of propylene glycol, a solvent, plus nicotine and, often, a flavoring component. In the Public Health England report, researchers said this liquid “is not known to have adverse effects on the lungs.” The nicotine content of the liquid varies per producer. White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes, a company based in Tarpon Springs, Fla., that pro-
E-Cigs
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