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Vermont Cynic > Opinion

Renewing an old addiction

By Katelyn Mohen

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Published: Monday, November 2, 2009

Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009

Envision five years from now teachers telling students not to vaporize tobacco.

However unlikely this scenario may seem now, vaporized cigarettes will become a well-known and warned-against product in the near future.

This battery-powered device resembles a normal cigarette, but an atomizer located within the gadget delivers one puff of a vaporized mix of nicotine and flavorings without certain additives and the tar of a regular cigarette.

It also produces a fine mist when exhaled that resembles that of actual tobacco smoke.

Though electronic cigarette distributers do not advertise the device as a way to cut down on tobacco intake, Matt Salmon, a spokesman for the Electronic Cigarette Association, claims “It’s a really good alternative for people who smoke tobacco.”

This is due in part to the regulating option of the device’s inner chamber where the amount of nicotine can be both increased and decreased manually by the user.

Despite its benefits for tobacco junkies, the FDA has prohibited the import of E-Cigarettes from China, the main supplier of the gadget, into the United States.

However, enough of these vaporizing products exist in the country to continue being distributed by E-Cigarette companies on the web and in malls across the U.S.

Hardly any tests or evidence have been conducted on the smokeless cigarettes, establishing a strong caution amongst health officials of the product, but no regulation from the FDA.

With its increasing popularity, the FDA holds a responsibility to the American people to conduct greater research into the E-Cigarette and the true effects it has on users.

Strict regulations must be imposed on the device to prevent its trendy appeal from influencing the young and old alike who do not need to become hooked on such an equally, if not more, addictive version of the common cigarette.

According to a representative from ECigarettesChoice.com, Electronic Cigarettes are unavailable to minors across the country as they contain nicotine.

However, this does not mean kids and teens are unable to get their hands on the tobacco gadget. As is common knowledge, anything is attainable with money and connections, and kids have always been cleverer than adults give them credit for.

Mariah Sanderson, coordinator of the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community, cites that the risks associated with smokeless cigarettes are not as severe in terms of the risk the inhaled and secondhand smoke the device creates.

Yet nicotine remains ever-present and a serious factor in the harm smokeless cigarettes are capable of inflicting on users.

Additionally, she finds it worrisome the success the Tobacco Industry has found with the Electronic Cigarette in its plight to expose and normalize cigarettes in the public eye once again.

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4 comments

LaceyUnderall
Tue Nov 3 2009 09:54
"Mariah Sanderson, coordinator of the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community, cites that the risks associated with smokeless cigarettes are not as severe in terms of the risk the inhaled and secondhand smoke the device creates."

Please let Mariah Sanderson know that she needs to research the difference between Vaporization and Combustion. She is looking for what is produced from the electronic cigarette and that IS NOT second hand smoke, but vapor. If her research leads her to believe that propylene glycol vapors are harmful to the user and those around the user, then she should be prepared to take on any industry that uses a fog machine. Also, there should then be an immediate ban for all air sanitation systems used in hospitals for disinfection AND she should alert the EPA that their 2006 statement regarding the inhalation of propylene glycol mists is wrong. She might want to be careful though considering that propylene glycol is used in a multitude of pharmaceuticals, which is why the pharmaceutical industry is not making a big hubbalub about the vapor. If an attack is launched against PG, well almost every drug and household product from toothpaste to fat free sour cream would have to be pulled from American shelves.

As mentioned above, it isn't the nicotine that is bad, it IS the delivery and unfortunately, the tobacco industry has spent the last 50 years making their delivery so bad, that well, even their customers are looking for an alternative. They have simply found one. The tobacco industry WANTS their competition banned out of existence and thank folks for spreading the fear against their most hated competition.

Anyone against the electronic cigarette, is actually FOR the tobacco industry. Most American Suppliers of the electronic cigarette are ex-smokers who found something that allowed them to continue in the action and receive nicotine, without the second hand SMOKE exposure.

Esaved
Mon Nov 2 2009 15:54
Now the argument is that the kids are so clever we can't do any thing to stop them from running out and buying these products by the millions. Last week it was that kids are such morons that if you put fruit flavors in drain cleaner they would try it. Maybe the author should try some chantix that is FDA Approved and with any luck you might do us all a favor and off yourself.
Treece
Mon Nov 2 2009 15:31
Tobacco "junkies"? That speaks volumes about this writer's feelings toward smokers and vapers, and the key word here is *feelings.* But how someone *feels* about e-cigarettes isn't as important as the scientific evidence we have about them, and all the scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that e-cigarettes are magnitudes of order safer than their tobacco counterparts.

Dr. Joel Nitzkin, Chairman of Tobacco Control, American Association of Public Health Physicians, says, "We have every reason to believe the hazard posed by electronic cigarettes would be much lower than 1% of that posed by (tobacco) cigarettes."

William Godshall, Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, says, "Denying 45 million (tobacco) cigarette smokers access to this exponentially less hazardous alternative would result in millions of preventable deaths among smokers and millions of nonsmokers continuing to be exposed to tobacco smoke pollution."

As for nicotine, as the previous poster stated, it carries about the same health risks as caffeine.

And as for "the success the tobacco industry has found with the electronic cigarette"? The tobacco industry hasn't found *any* success with the electronic cigarette, since they have nothing whatsoever to do with electronic cigarettes. In fact, the electronic cigarette is the first real threat there's ever been to the tobacco industry.

The solution to minors using electronic cigarettes (and there's no evidence that they are) is to do the same thing we do with other products intended for adults: restrict the sale to adults.

Please, let's not confuse a moral crusade with science. E-cigarettes are already saving lives, and they stand to save countless more. This is much too important to dismiss. The "tobacco junkies" you condemn are human beings.

Eric
Mon Nov 2 2009 14:17
The correct statement by eCigarettesChoice was:

Kyle claims, “Not one US electronic cigarette dealer I know of would knowingly sell to those under the legal age of smoking.”

Nicotine is to smokers what caffeine is to cola and coffee drinkers. Google the word and search for the positive health benefits associated to humans. Nicotine is only considered bad because of the association with tobacco.







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