Vape shop and consumer activity during COVID-19 non-essential business closures in the USA.

Introduction: Vaping and vape shops pose risk for COVID-19 and its transmission.

Objectives: We examined vape shop non-compliance with state-ordered business closures during COVID-19, changes in their marketing and experiences among consumers.

Methods: As part of a longitudinal study of vape retail in six metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs; Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego and Seattle), we conducted: (1) legal research to determine whether statewide COVID-19 orders required vape shops to close; (2) phone-based and web-based surveillance to assess vape shop activity in March-June 2020 during shelter-in-place periods; and (3) a concurrent online survey of e-cigarette users about their experiences with vape retail.

Lessons from the sustainability movement: toward an integrative decision-making framework for nanotechnology.

The author argues that bioethicists must develop alternative approaches to facilitate the study of the conditions for the responsible development of nanotechnologies. Proponents of "sustainability" have developed a useful model to integrate multiple perspectives into the evaluation of the impact of technologies on global ecological integrity under conditions of uncertainty.

Error reduction, patient safety and institutional ethics committees.

Institutional ethics committees remain largely absent from the literature on error reduction and patient safety. In this paper, the author endeavors to fill the gap. As noted in the Hastings Center's recent report, "Promoting Patient Safety," the occurrence of medical error involves complex web of multiple factors.