john ma, aaron juchow. we also have dr. larry green from california's tobacco education and research oversight committee as well. and dr. lauren dutra from ucsf. >>> good afternoon, my name is john ma. i'm a general surgeon in san francisco and a member of the american heart association and the san francisco medical sew shied. two organizations that strongly support the increased regulation of electronic cigarettes. [speaker not understood]. the patent for the first prototype was issued in 1963. the tobacco industry was approached decades ago with the technology as a safer alternative to cigarettes. it is unclear why the tobacco industry did not embrace electronic cigarettes decades earlier if they truly believed in harm reduction deviceses. addiction to nicotine is quite difficult even with agents like the patch and gum. thereby preventing san franciscans from becoming addicted should be a top priority. electronic cigarettes are not more effective than cessation aids and should be subject to the same regulations as other q