Editors Note:
There appears to be considerable interest regarding CRE’s background, please see http://www.thecre.com/tpsac/?p=1132
Given the very large public response to this post, CRE will analyze the comments and prepare a White Paper for transmittal to the FDA.
TPSAC and CTR have a lot on their agenda but eventually they are going to have to develop an algorithm for addressing the “reduced harm” provisions of the new tobacco statute. In doing so they will have to be mindful of the applicability of the Data Quality Act to the resultant proceedings. Smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes will be two issues leading the parade.
Emily Sohn–Discovery News
THE GIST
- As New York considers becoming the first state to ban electronic cigarettes, debate surrounds the devices and their safety.
- Critics worry that e-cigarettes will attract kids and create a new generation of nicotine addicts.
- The devices, which are tobacco-free, may be a safer alternative to cigarettes, say advocates.
Electronic cigarettes are handheld nicotine-delivery devices that, despite a devoted following, are currently swirling in controversy.
New York is pushing to become the first state to ban the devices, which so far remain unregulated and mostly unstudied. With cutesy colors, fruity flavors, clever designs and other options, e-cigarettes may hold too much appeal for young people, critics warn, offering an easy gateway to nicotine addiction.
But those criticisms clash with equally strong arguments for the value of e-cigarettes. The devices, which are tobacco-free, may be a safer alternative to cigarettes, say advocates, who point to testimonials from thousands of smokers who say they have used e-cigarettes to help them quit.
As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration struggles to gain regulatory control, and as safety studies remain works in progress, the debate continues.
“There really are a lot of unknowns with respect to health,” said Prue Talbot, a toxicologist at the University California, Riverside. “I don’t know of any studies in the literature which are peer-reviewed. Almost all of the studies have been paid for by the e-cigarette companies.
“E-cigarettes are often sold as safe, which is probably not true,” Talbot added. “They may not be as dangerous as real cigarettes, but on the other hand, they could be. We just don’t know.”
Electronic cigarettes typically use a rechargeable battery-operated heating element to vaporize the nicotine in a replaceable cartridge. Nicotine is usually dissolved in propylene glycol, a clear and colorless liquid that is commonly found in inhalers, cough medicines and other products.
Some e-cigarettes are made to look like real cigarettes, cigars or pipes. Others look like pens or USB memory devices. There is no tobacco involved, and no smoke either. Instead, users do what’s called “vaping.” As they inhale, they take in nicotine-filled vapor.
By isolating nicotine, e-cigarettes should carry far fewer chemical risks than regular cigarettes, said Michael Siegel, a tobacco researcher at Boston University. Tobacco contains about 5,000 known chemicals, he said, with as many as 100,000 more that haven’t yet been identified. E-cigarettes eliminate many of those ingredients.
Siegel and a colleague reviewed 16 studies that analyzed the contents of electronic cigarettes. In a paper just published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, they reported that levels of certain harmful chemicals were on par with levels found in nicotine patches and hundreds of times lower than what’s found in cigarettes.
The researchers also found evidence that vaping reduces cravings among smokers, not just for nicotine but also for the need to hold something in their hands and put something in their mouths — making the devices more appealing to them than patches or gum.
As a cigarette-quitting strategy, Siegel compared e-cigarettes to heroin needle exchange programs. It’s not that the devices are good for anyone, he said. They are just better than what they’re meant to replace.
“The relevant question is not, ‘Are these things safe?'” he said. “But are these things much safer than real cigarettes, and do they help people quit smoking? The answer to both of those questions we know is yes.”
“What New York is doing is equivalent to outlawing lifeboats on a sinking ship because they haven’t been FDA approved,” he added. “It’s a really crazy approach to public health.”
For other experts, the list of unknowns is still too large for them to consider e-cigarettes worth recommending. Some users, Talbot said, have reported problems with their lungs and throats that have forced them to stop using the devices.
And even though industry-funded studies have deemed the devices to be safe, an FDA report found levels of carcinogens and toxic contaminants that they determined to be were worthy of concern. Without regulation, Talobt added, cartridges may contain undisclosed chemicals that could end up being more toxic than tobacco smoke.
Quality control is also lacking. In a recent study, Talbot evaluated six brands of e-cigarettes acquired over the Internet. None of the devices were labeled clearly with nicotine levels, expiration dates or other information, she reported in December in the journal Tobacco Control.
Most cartridges leaked onto her hands, the study found, and all were defective in some way. Talbot also found unsubstantiated health claims on many of the company websites and print materials. One says they put vitamins in their e-cigarettes.
Other experts worry about the appeal of e-cigarettes to children. The devices are easy to buy online or in mall kiosks. They come in flavors ranging from chocolate to bubble gum. You can buy them in pink, gold or blue.
“Once a youth has decided to try an e-cigarette, there is nothing that protects him from getting addicted to nicotine by puffing this product,” wrote Jonathan Winickoff, a pediatrician at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, in a letter to the FDA. “Nicotine itself is not safe for children. Nicotine addiction is one of the hardest addictions to break.”
New York’s move is a reaction to what can’t yet happen on the national level. According to a series of recent court decisions, e-cigarettes cannot qualify as drug delivery products, said Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the FDA. As a result, the agency cannot ban them or require more arduous testing.
But even though they are now considered tobacco products, they are not mentioned in the Tobacco Control Act, either. For now, then, they remain unapproved and unregulated.
And anyone is free to buy them.
While I feel this is one of the more informed articles published on this subject, there is still some media sensationalism and fallacy put into here. If the FDA will allow tobacco cigarettes on the market when it has been proven factual that they kill so many, how can they even consider banning something that has not even caused a single documented negative impact.
The FDA, our senators and others are concerned with enticing non-smokers and our youth with the sweet candy flavors that make up the vaping liquid. Yet they allow alcohol to be flavored in the same way and be approved? They allowed the manufacturing and marketing of flavored smokeless tobacco such as SNUS and chewing tobacco. Can this too not be considered an enticement to the young generation? Can the reason they allow these products be financially motivated?
If the FDA is so concerned with our young generation becoming addicted to things that are unhealthy, why not target the fast food industry for their marketing to our children with flashy cheap toys; with the intent to turn the children into life fast food addicts. The high fat foods are also well known to to cause obesity and other more serious health complications.
They are targeting electronic cigarettes because big tobacco brings in billions of dollars of revenue to the tobacco cartels. The same cartels who pay millions in global advertising. The same cartels who pay millions to Washington lobbyists (RJR alone paid over $900k in 2006!). The same cartels who have their money trees in nearly all coffers in every state. I believe THIS is the true reason the FDA is fighting against the PV industry. It’s about money and greed more than it is about the health and well being of the American public.
I feel clean, healthy and physically MUCH better now that big tobacco no longer has a hold on my life. This is something that the pharmaceutical industry has been unable to accomplish with only tiny percentage of users. I am tobacco free thanks completely to the personal vaporizer industry!
I use an e-cig now and I am so much healthier than I was when I smoked tobacco cigs. I am 58 and I had smoked tobacco cigs for 42 years, rolled my own, never used a filter.
I had tried to quit many times, cold turkey, patches, gum, hypnotherapy, and accupuncture. … all unsuccessful. Then Mother got very sick after her open-heart surgery, and we had oxygen in the house. All 3 of us knew we had to quit.
We obtained e-cigs. I put down tobacco the day my e-cig arrived, and I have not looked back. I did not get jittery, nervous, or short-tempered, as I had in my prior attempts to stop smoking. I did not gain wait. I got healthier.
My taste and sense of smell returned really fast. I can walk up 2 flights of stairs now, instead of just 1 flight when I was smoking. (Not bad for a 58 year old grandma) I no longer need medication for high blood pressure. I do not get winded playing tag with my grandson for 20 min. These are all minor miracles for me!
I have people tell me all the time now that I look and act younger, and I attribute this to e-cigs. I feel BETTER.
Yes, they have nicotine. …but they do not have as much as smoking a tobacco cigarette. And they do not have the other carcinogens that tobacco has, no tar, no carbon monoxide, no 2nd hand smoke. They also do not have the other thousands of compounds that are in combustible cigarettes.
Guess what else I found out, and this is true of just about every vapor that I have met, I do NOT like the taste of tobacco. Yes, I am addicted to the nicotine, but I deplore the taste of tobacco. I do like the taste of vanilla ice cream or almond joy bars or bubblegum. One does not have to be a child or a teenager to enjoy fun flavors.
With the average starting price of $50 for a pair of e-cigs, I do not think that they are being targeted to teenagers or children. The vapors that I know are all around my age, perhaps as young as 40.
Some smokers are able to quit using one method or another, but some of us have tried everything to no avail.
Why are you trying to ban them, while allowing much more dangerous items to be sold in drug stores, grocery stores, convenience, and liquor stores all over the country?
Why is the FDA confiscating e-cigs at customs? They have done so much good for my health!
I was a smoker of almost 40 years and the ecigarette got me off cigarettes when nothing else worked. I stopped smoking the day I got my first GOOD ecigarette. Now, there are bad ecigs out there. My first one was a No7 made to look like a real cigarette. I imagine that Talbot got several of these bad examples for her study. It came with leaky cartridges and juice got in my mouth when I tried to use it. I got a Joye product and these problems went away. Some people sell inferior products and simply want to make money off the next big thing!
As to the flavors being targeted at children? Well, as others have said, I am an adult i I prefer the flavors that are NOT tobacco. I like hazelnut and cappuccino. Go into a liquor store and the same thing applies. Liquor comes in MANY fruity flavors. Does this mean the distillers are targeting children? NO! It means adults like these flavors. Same with the colors. We all have our favorite color and buy things accordingly.
Yes, there are issues that need to be addressed. regulation as a tobacco product will force out the bad guys who only want to make a fast buck. And will also help to standardize the cartridges, packaging, etc. The bottles of juice already come with child-proof caps.
This is a good thing to come along that seems to be helping MANY! They should not be banned thereby sending users back to cigarettes which all agree are far worse for our health.
A far as safety goes I agree the with the FDA it doesn’t know anything. Not exactly a convincing argument that lung cancer is a better option. After 16 or more studies showing no serious side affects It’s a no brainer I chose to live and vape. After over 40 years of smoking it took about three puffs to quit cigarettes.
According to the Wall Street Journal electronic cigarettes are are over a a hundred million dollar business in this country. A million or more Americans use or have at least tried them. Hundreds of thousands have given up tobacco. They are sold all over this country. No wonder the makers of smoking cessation products are panicking and for reasons not entirely clear to me the anti smoking non profits have joined the drug companies in this campaign. I thought they they were supposed to be saving lives. No one including the FDA has found anything in quantities that harm us. So they have adopted the same argument of if, maybe, could be and we don’t know anything.
In the real world.
Deaths related to smoking 400,000 and up.
Deaths from electronic cigarettes 0. That’s right zero.
I was 24 yrs. old when I first started smoking and I began smoking to relieve stress. I smoked a pack a day for the next 25 yrs, made multiple attempts to quit smoking during that time as well. In 2001 my mother died of cancer at the age of 59, that was her second battle with cancer only that time she lost the battle and she smoked until her last day. I still continued to smoke even after watching her lose the battle. I am also a nurse as well, and worked for 5 yrs. as a hospice nurse, so have seen the effects that smoking can have on someone thousands of times, and yet I continued to smoke.
Then the end of February of last year I had a mild heart attack, I knew then that I absolutely had to stop smoking somehow. Over the years I’ve tried the gum (left blisters in my mouth), the patch (smoked while using those) and Wellbuterin (side effects left me unable to function). Absolutely refuse to even consider Chantix because of the severe side effects known to happen with that one.
In July of this past year my husband and I happened to see a commercial about electronic cigarettes and decided to give them a try as he also wanted to stop smoking after over 35 yrs. On July 19th our electronic cigarettes arrived, that’s the last day I ever smoked a regular cigarette. 2 weeks later my husband had his last regular cigarette, we have not looked back since then.
We both continue to use our electronic cigarettes daily and have no desire to return to smoking regular cigarettes. Our doctor is very supportive of our using electronic cigarettes as he is smart enough and progressive enough to realize that these are much healthier for us than smoking. During the past 6 months I have been able to stop using both of the blood pressure medications I had been on as well as the medication I was on for a rapid pulse rate.
Perhaps if we hadn’t been lied to for the past 30 yrs. concerning the safer use of smokeless tobacco products we would have switched over to those and possibly my mother would still be alive as well if she had had a safer alternative to use for nicotine consumption that smoking. Electronic cigarettes offer my husband and I the ability to get the nicotine that we are dependent on and also satisfy the actual hand to mouth habit as well.
Nicotine in the safer form of smokeless tobacco products and electronic cigarettes is no more addictive than caffeine is for those who simply cannot function without that cup of coffee every morning. Yes it is a stimulant and vaso-constrictor and there are some minor cardiac risks but they are hundreds of times safer to use than actually smoking a cigarette. It’s past time that the continued lies about smokeless tobacco products being just as dangerous as actually smoking be put to an end. How many more people must die to keep those lies alive?
E-cigarettes are not intended to cure nicotine addiction, they are Smoking Replacement Products. Why are such products needed? It’s no secret that smoking is harmful to health. That’s why most of those who can quit have already done so, and the smoking cessation rate has stalled. Those who felt better and healthier as soon as they stopped smoking can’t understand why everyone doesn’t just quit.
Many smokers don’t feel better and healthier when they quit. Nicotine is being studied as a treatment for depression, anxiety, adult attention deficit disorder, tourette’s syndrome, ulcerative colitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, and other conditions caused by imblances in neurotransmitters. It is also being studied as a prevention against the buildup of plaques and tangles that cause Alzheimer’s and the Lewy bodies that cause Parkinson’s.
Smokers who become dysfunctional when they abstain from nicotine may have one or more of these conditions, whether they realize it or not. There are no FDA-approved medications for some of these conditions, and the medications that do exist often come with a steep price-tag of side effects.
These products are not being marketed to children. Some statistics from a survcey of 2,217 consumers: 93% smoked for 5 or more years; 89.6% are age 25 or older; 83.3% have tried fruit, candy, or beverage flavors, and 51.9% report using these flavors regularly, often, or always.
Effective? 83.4% no longer smoke tobacco cigarettes.
Safe: Over 90% report their health has improved, with improved lung function, more stamina, and better sleep mentioned most often.
A note on flavors: Those who try a pleasant flavor soon find they no longer enjoy the taste of the “tobacco” flavors. When they try to smoke a real cigarette, they put it out after one puff. Pleasant vapor flavors appear to help extinguish the taste for cigarette smoke.
For the first time in 30 years I am smoke free, and have been for two years with the help of the e-cigarette. While I don’t use it as often as I did two years ago, I still enjoy using my e-cigarette. I strongly believe this has been vital to my success. I too have tried nicotine patches and gum more times than I remember to try quitting tobacco. Nothing has brought me such success as the e-cigarette.
I have lost my cough. When I do cough (such as illness) the mucous is clean. As a smoker that mucous was disturbing in color to put it politely. My sense of smell has returned. In fact this past spring my mind was brought back to my childhood as I enjoyed the smells of the outdoors. That is how long it has been since I’ve had a good sense of smell. My teeth are white. My fingers and nails do not have tar stains. I don’t smell like smoke anymore.
With regulation similar to cigarettes I do not understand how these will be more attractive to children. The start up cost is far higher than a pack of cigarettes. Due to this fact alone I can not fathom more children using e-cigarettes than already smoke. Regulations for under age sale need to be in place. However, removing these from a free market or all together will keep this wonderful alternative out of the hands of smokers that want to try a cleaner way of enjoying nicotine.
I invite anyone honestly and genuinely to compare the ingredients in cigarettes to those in e-cigarette liquids and say with integrity that e-cigarettes are not a better alternative. As for smokeless tobacco? Please take a lesson from the Swedes.
All scientific studies have shown reduced harm products such as ecigs and snus to be 95% to 99% safer than combustible cigarettes. Government agencies and non profit health groups-AHA,ACS,ALS etc. should be encouraging the use of smoke free products for committed smokers rather than the ineffective pharma gums and patches or the deadly chantix. A separate classification for reduced harm products should be considered and their use should be encouraged for committed smokers. It is the combustion that causes the harm to smokers and others in their presence. There is no “second-hand smoke” so there is no danger for non smokers.
I was a pack and a half a day smoker for twenty years. I tried everything to quit, at least twice. Patches, gum, lozenges, cold turkey, lollipops, you name it. Nothing worked for more than a few days. One day my fiancee mentioned trying an e-cigarette to cut back on smoking, to use as a supplement. The day I received it was the last day that I had a cigarette. That was in November of last year. I did go through most of the withdrawl symptoms, including some weight gain, the coughing up all the nasty stuff in my lungs, regaining my sense of smell and taste, etc. but now I feel better than I have in years. I can breathe better, I can taste my food, I can run without getting winded, and I don’t wake up coughing in the morning. Outlawing these devices is just hiddeous. It has been a godsend for me.
For 27 years I smoked…for 20 years I tried every method I could to quit. Jan 3 2011 I was given an electronic cigarette. I had been smoking 1 1/2 packs a day and that day only smoked 2 cigarettes, 2 the next day and the following day ( Jan 5th ) I threw away the first smoke of the day and have not touched one since. If I had been able to get this 20 years ago think how much I could have saved…in lung function and cash.
I like good flavors and last I knew they are allowed in pipe tobaccos….has the FDA found pipe tobacco, cigars, and alcohol to be completely safe? Does the fact that adults like good flavors mean adulthood is targeted to children? Are flavored alcohols targeted toward children?
Who appointed the FDA parents to the world anyway? Shouldn’t they start by outlawing Chantix which causes suicide, alcohol which kills the liver or candy which can cause obesity and tooth decay? Who is going to regulate the FDA which is targeting the children of smokers to be orphans and prevent their parents from being healthy.
No, back to a very serious subject. ALL of the ingredients in electronic cigarette juices from reputable sources are approved by the FDA for food and medical use except nicotine. The contents are publicized and even the proportions of them…do they do that for food or medicine? Allowing the FDA or ANY government agency to regulate them would do nothing more than cause the price to skyrocket making them unavailable to people like me on a budget….Not to mention our FDA and other agencies have a poor track record at best of regulating anything including themselves.
Stay out of our way and allow us as informed, responsible adults make our own choices as to what is healthy and correct for us. Just look at how many people committed suicide while the FDA approved chantix and consider the question…are they honestly more qualified to decide than I am what is best for ME and MY health?
I smoked tobacco for about 20 years, and truth be told I didn’t really want to quit smoking. Nor did I get my first eCigarette with the intention of quitting, but more of a curiosity.
After trying it, however, I decided that maybe I COULD quit. And after a few of days, I realized I hadn’t smoked any tobacco that day. Over the next couple of weeks, I did quit smoking cigarettes entirely.
It has now been 6 months, and I can’t even begin to say how much my health has improved. People have all commented on my total lack of a cough. My daily walk has almost tripled in length, and sometimes I jog instead of walk, and don’t feel winded or tired at the end – I’m considering lengthening it further and jogging more often.
My dentist instantly noticed improved gum health and much whiter teeth, as well. I think an often over-looked side effect of smoking is gum and tooth health.
Also, I actually ENJOY vaping.
First on the e-cig front, I would like to comment on the 3 points brought up on bold above…
1) NY’s decision is irresponsible and unstudied . It is totally reliant on data supplied by the FDA, of which is skewed. Using further (and far more complete) studies, it can be seen what the harm reduction really is, The numbers vary but they are(on the low)100x (to on the hi) 1000x sfer than real cigs. It is disgusting to me that NY would interfere in my civil rights, and I could comment further, but they disgust me, and it just gets me worked up thinking how foolish and unstudied those who try and run our lives are (via politicians).
2)Kid attraction? I work (part time) in a mall store kiosk selling the e-cigs.. In the 4 months (over the holidays as well) I only had one kid ever come up to me ansd ask if he could buy the e-cig…but it was for his parents, who smoke. Even a child knows these are safer. I have NEVER had a non-smoking child, or even a grown up come up and attempt to start vaping(as it is called, since there is no smoke). It is Always the smokers who either want to quit /cut down/use indoors(since smokers have been herded outside).
3)Safety. I reiterate the 100x to 1000x safer statement.
The ingredients are 3 fold. (1)Food grade Propylene glycol (80-90%) which is a slow sugar and is 90% exhaled (thus the vapor). The rest is urinated out ad lactic acid. (2) food grade flavorings (3) a level and quality of nicotine that tests out similar to the gum or inhaler, and is inherently safer than the nicotine found in cigarettes, which in itself is of no danger unless you have heart or blood psi issues. Just as if you are a coffee drinker. It is an equal stimulant.
So the MISINFORMATION campaign being driven by the FDA must be stopped, and someone needs to step up and sue the ever loving crap out of them for in themselves causing harm to us who are trying to either qut smoking or just enjoy an indoor alternative wit no 2nd hand effects.
Thanks for your time
If you attempt to hide your IP, this site will NOT allow you to post. Makes you wonder why they are SO concerned about our IP addresses? I know why.
Here is my IP..proudly shown…..
After 40 some years of smoking cigarettes, the use of electronic cigarettes(my vaporizer) enabled me to QUIT smoking. The FDA acts as if smoking toxic cigarettes is safer than e-cigs. Why?Because they make money from the tobacco industry and Big Pharma.
The FDA condones cigarette smoking as safe.
I’m 62, smoked for 46 years and tried to quit many, many times. Used most of the FDA-approved methods and some of my own. I had given up after multiple failures but tried the e-cig just to try to save a little money. On the first day I switched from a pack a day to 3 cigarettes. Stayed that way for about 2 months, then one day realized I hadn’t smoked a cigarette for days! At that point, I began to actually try to quit smoking and have been successful. It’s been almost a year now.
My favorite flavors right now are coconut creme pie, blueberry, and caramel mocha frapuccino. Once you quit smoking and get your taste buds back the flavor choices are a wonderful bonus.
I’m sure that a major search has been conducted looking for someone that vaping has harmed. Fuel for the bans and all. Guess what? They can’t find that person anywhere in the world–after years of use by millions of people globally. My horrible morning cough-fest was gone within 2 weeks. It’s OBVIOUS to any user that vaping is better for your health than smoking. It’s also cheaper, sweeter-smelling, and more fun.
It’s also a hassle, so wouldn’t worry about the youth flocking to its use. Never gonna happen. Too much fussing around.
For people who loved smoking and have switched to vaping, for people who tried to quit and failed before they found e-cigs the invention is AMAZING because it WORKS! If one is serious about curbing smoking, promotion of all smokeless products is a no-brainer.
I encourage everyone to post.
I think that Ms. Talbot should be peer reveiwed.
As a trained toxicologist, Talbot should easily be able to recognize the 5000 toxins in cigarettes?
Talbot should also be able to recognize the absence of those in E-cigs? I dont think this requires much research to invalidate most of her comments in this opinion?
The other concern is that the Big Tobacco companies and Big Pharma companies obviously have an interest in seeing that E-Cigs are NOT successful, but the folks in the FDA seem to thnk the educated people dont see this.
It would appear that the FDAs actions to date are a clear attack on public health, rather than a protective measure.
Dr. Seigel makes a crystal clear point when he states,
“What New York is doing is equivalent to outlawing lifeboats on a sinking ship because they haven’t been FDA approved,” he added. “It’s a really crazy approach to public health.”
It couldn’t be clearer?
It shouldn’t be hard for the FDA to check with Schools throughout the nation to see how many instatnces ther are of children using E-cigs. One would think they also have statistics somewhere on how many kids are and have been smoking cigarettes, now and for many years prior to the introduction of E-cigs.
Ecigs didnt start the fire, they stopped the combustion.
I think its great that the FDA has made this site available for comments and will be watching closely to see what they do with the information they receive here.
I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 45 years. Tried everything to quit but to no avail over many years. On August 2, 2010 I tried a electronic cigarette, and have not touched a regular analog cigarette since. I am breathing better, no coughing, generally feeling better.
My wife smoked for 40+ years. She had bronchial asthma issues and had a spot on her lung. She needed a daily steroid inhaler to breath. Well August 7, 2010, she tried the e-cigarette. She has not touched a regular cigarette since. AND, her lung capacity has returned to normal. The spot on her lung is gone, and no more steroid inhaler for her to be able to breath anymore.
The electronic cigarette has been a true Godsend for us.
The FDA really needs to take a look at the benefits of the e cig. Political bureaucracy, big tobacco, big Pharma be darned.
My story is much the same as many others. I started smoking when I was 8yrs old. I’m almost 50 now. I smoked 2.5-3pks/day for 30 of those yrs. I switched to e-cigs over a yr ago, and the health benefits have been astounding. No more 10 minute coughing fits in the morning, no more breathing hard walking up a flight of stairs, my taste buds are back, I sleep thru the night now, and on and on and on.
I didn’t switch to e-cigs to quit. I switched to what I KNOW to be a safer alternative. I didn’t say safe… I said saf-ER. Healthy? No. Healthy-ER? Without question.
See, here’s my dirty little secret… I LIKE to smoke. Always have. I like my nicotine as much as I like my caffeine. It was the act of combustion & the plethora of chemicals in cigarettes that was killing me. The physicality of smoking… the ritual of holding it, drawing in the smoke, exhaling, smoke rings… is almost perfectly mimicked by the MUCH safer e-cig.
Switching from smoking to vaping is a no-brainer.
To place a ban on e-cigs would be an unconscionable move that would force MANY vapers back to smoking. I will vape until the day I die, and I’ll love every minute I added to my life by switching to e-cigs.
I am an adult with the RIGHT to choose a healthier alternative to smoking. Please allow me to continue to do so.
I’m going to try to keep this as short as possible- there should be no ban on E Cigs and their use should be encouraged as well as other harm reduction products such as Swedish snus by those smoker’s that wish t find an appropriate avenue to quit smoking but wish to continue the use of nicotine or tobacco. It’s the smoke that creates the major risk. TPSAC would be very foolish not encouraging these products as part of the modified risk solution.
19 months ago I started a journey of becoming cigarette free after smoking 43 years at 2 to 3 packs a day at the end. I had literally tried to quit dozens of times with every conceivable product and program except Chantix which came after I had given up trying to quit- I was going to smoke till I died.
My girlfriend wanted to try an E Cig and basically talked me into spending the money for one. I thought it was just a way to quiet her down but instead it was a way out of smoking, finally. After I started using my PV (personal vaporizer, my preferred name for the E Cig), I was down to 6 cigarettes a day and continued there for six months.
I still needed something to finally quit smoking entirely which led me to Swedish snus. There has been decades of study on this product and it is 98-99% safer than smoking. It also removed my need for cigarettes. In three days I shall celebrate my first full year without a puff on a cigarette in 44 1/2 years.
I still use my PV on occasion but more as a prop than a habit and extremely low nicotine content, if any. I use four, sometimes five 1 gram portions of snus which provides me with what I need from tobacco and I feel much, much healthier.
The abstinence approach to dealing with smoking will never work and TPSAC should know that by now. Had the government established honest information about tobacco products decades ago, I would not need to be writing today, I would have quit decades ago. I don’t want to see smokers thirty years from now saying the same thing.
Pharmaceutical company solutions work for some people (not many). Electronic cigarettes work for many others and other smokeless products work for others. All the products have the ability to get people to stop smoking. That was originally and should now be the goal. Too much money has been wasted on the illusionary abolitionist philosophy of a smoke free/ tobacco free/nicotine free world. Harm reduction IS the key to getting there and the 80/20 principle into the case looks more like the 99/1 principle, from my perspective.
I am 36 and picked up my first electronic cigarette about 1.5 years ago.. I stopped a 15yr 2 pack a day smoking habit
from day one, could do that cold turkey or by any other means. These days I only use the e-cig occasionally, but even when I used it heavily when starting out I felt better a month in.
I am happy, I feel better, I got my youthful energy back :D, and most importantly my wife and two little girls are happy… It saddens me that there is a possibility for this to be taken away from me, or anyone else that is looking for a safer alternative. Because even if one doesn’t desire to quit, there are personal proof that people are benefiting from it in one way or another. I feel if all the Nay-sayers out there got to know the people utilizing these devices and how it effected their life, they would be more understanding on the importance this is and how this would effect the people they are trying to take this away from.
I smoked for 10 years, pack a day. I found ecigs about 6 months ago and quit with ease. It was almost too easy. I tried many different quit methods like gum, patch, even chantix and nothing even made a dent in my addiction.
Ecigs work!
First of all, the FDA did not do a random sampling. There are hundreds of companies marketing electronic cigarettes. The FDA chose to test the products of two companies, Smoking Everywhere and Sottera Dba NJOY. It is not a coincidence that these are companies that had filed suit against the FDA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lower court has issued an injunction against the FDA seizing incoming products at U.S. Customs. The court’s opinion document pointed out that the FDA failed to present any evidence that anyone has been harmed by the products. The injunction was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Yet the FDA continues to waste taxpayer money filing appeal after appeal in an effort to prove that electronic cigarettes are dangerous, unapproved drug delivery devices.
When the FDA’s tests did not reveal any chemicals that present a danger to human health, the Public Relations department was enlisted to spin the results into something that sounded frightening. The words “carcinogens” and “antifreeze” were carefully selected for their shock value. Who does not fear developing cancer or being poisoned?
The information that the FDA withheld was that Tobacco-specific Nitrosamines (TSNAs), the chemicals referred to as “carcinogens” in the FDA ‘s press conference, are also found in FDA-approved nicotine products such as the patch, gum, lozenges, and inhalers. The FDA also failed to mention that the largest of quantity of TSNAs they found in an e-cigarette cartridge is approximately the same quantity as contained in a 21 mg Nicoderm patch. If 8 ng of TSNAs from a nicotine patch or 4 pieces of nicotine gum isn‘t likely to cause cancer, then it’s misleading to refer to those 8 ng in an e-cigarette cartridge as “carcinogens.”
The rule of thumb used when talking about potentially harmful chemicals is “The dose makes the poison.” Someone who smokes a pack of Marlboros takes in over 100,000 ng of TSNAs per day. Smoking has been linked to cancer, but there are no known cases of cancer linked to nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, prescription inhalers, or to the electronic cigarette at a daily TSNA dose of 8 ng.
As for the toxin diethylene glycol, although it can be used as antifreeze, it is also used on tobacco to keep it moist, so it would have been more accurate for the FDA to call it “a tobacco humectant.” But that doesn’t sound as scary, does it?
The FDA did report that it detected a quantity of 1% in one of the 18 cartridges tested. No DEG was detected in the vapor from any of the cartridges, and in fact DEG has never been detected by any other organization’s testing in the liquid or the vapor.
The cartridges hold one ml of liquid, so the quantity FDA found is 0.01 ml. How toxic is this quantity? It would take 100 cartridges to accumulate 1 ml of DEG. Most consumers use one cartridge a day. Some may use as many as 3 cartridges. The fatal dose of DEG is 1 ml per kg of body weight. So for a 150 pound person to be fatally poisoned, he or she would need to ingest the contents of 6,600 cartridges—in a single day.
Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health published an article in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of Public Health Policy. He reviewed the available evidence on the safety and effectiveness of electronic cigarettes and concluded: “A preponderance of the evidence available shows that they are much safer than smoking cigarettes and comparable in the toxicity of conventional nicotine replacement products.”
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centers-…ticle.jphp.pdf
I was a pack & half day smoker for 13 years. I have been vaping for one & half months and I haven’t even thought about picking up a regular cigarette. Please, do not take my electronic cigarette away from me!! I have never been this long without a cigarette using any other method. I can’t tell you how proud of myself I am and I beg you not to take that away from me. This solution is working for me when nothing else could and believe me I tried..
The question this article poses is “How safe are e-cigarettes?”. When the hysterical nonsense is stripped away, it’s easy to see that they are certainly safer than smoking. Those of us who choose to use e-cigarettes use them as a safer, and frankly more fulfilling, alternative to smoking. My husband and I found e-cigs over 9 months ago and decided upon the first day that this was the answer for us. We switched to e-cigs for ourselves, our health, and our family. And it’s been the best decision we’ve made.
I can’t go back and change the past. If I would have known then, at 13, what I know now, I never would have started smoking. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how much these are “banned”, people will still make their own choices. For all of our sakes, and for the sakes of the children and families we have, I hope soon that the lawmakers will realize we are making the right choice, and allow us to continue making that choice.
I have no problem with limiting the sale to adults. By all means, minors aren’t equipped to make their own decisions most of the time. However, I am an informed adult, and I don’t need any other adult telling me that the choice I’m making isn’t for the best. Because frankly, a little bit of understanding and research into the actual people who use e-cigs, and not just what the media portrays, should enlighten anyone to the benefits of this alternative.
The FDA, and New York really need to do their research. They are wasting our tax dollars fighting a safer alternative to 2nd hand smoke.
Absurb!!
Refresher: Electronic Cigarettes contain ZERO smoke. Zilch. Nada.
No smoke, no tar, no stink, ….
The flavors do not attract kids. The flavors make the tobacco cigs disgusting in comparison. That’s one of the reasons we “forget” to light up a tobacco cig.
Is the FDA’s goal to keep America smoking?
Is New York’s goal to keep American smoking?
The propaganda certainly suggests that.
35 years smoking cigarettes. Developed COPD. Despairing until I found e-cigs or (as I prefer to not have any relationship to cigarettes), “personal vaporizer.”
Ditto all the ‘tried to quit – couldn’t’ comments above.
It’s been 8 weeks analog-free for me & I’m never looking back! Caramel Popcorn – yeah! Hate tobacco flavors – go figure.
Ditto the comments on the FDA’s attempts to control our right to ‘vape.’ Too much tobacco/pharma money invested in FDA for them to not fight it. Greed is the bottom line here.
FDA: Please, please get your collective heads out of your behinds and support our efforts to improve our health!!!
Congressmen & Senators: Listen to us! Read our emails! Hear us!
Do you have any formal relationship to TPSAC? None of the members appear to identify themselves at related to CRE. What is your basis for involvement in this matter?
After 52 years of smoking, I quit completely six months ago. I didn’t really intend to give up cigarettes; I was just going to use the e-cigarette occasionally when smoking was inconvenient or not allowed. I still have some cigarettes in a drawer, I think, but have no desire to use them. I can’t believe how easy it was to just QUIT.
Observing the incidence of dementia on my father’s side of the family, and the difference in age of onset and rate of decline between the smokers and nonsmokers, I had a real fear of giving up nicotine, even knowing the risks of smoking. The e-cigarette has made it possible for me to give up smoke and its dangers and keep the nicotine.
I am 67 years old. Why in the world would anyone take it upon themselves to deny me this wonderful invention “for my own good”? Just leave me alone, please.
I am a 54 year old man who smoked for almost 40 years. I tried, unsuccessfully, to quit many times using all the “approved” methods. I tried the nicotine patch, the nicoret gum, as well as the drug Wellbutrin. None worked for me. The day I started using my personal vaporizer (ecig) is the last day I smoked a cigarette. That was 2 months ago. I feel better, my cough is gone, I smell better, and taste things MUCH better. People tell me I look better too. I do not get winded like i used to doing normal things like walking to my mailbox.
Many cling to the idea that all the flavors available for ecigs are to attract kids. Well, alcohol comes in many of the same flavors. The people who bring this up make me feel that they are saying that we as adults do not like these flavors. The alcohol example shoots that down. Distillerys use this as a marketing tool to sell their “goods” as it were. I like strawberry and cherry and flavors like these and buy my ice cream accordingly. Also other foods. This is a lame attack in my oppinion. I do not drink but, I would not attack other people’s right to use it.
It is not being marketed as a smoking cessation device but rather a better option that does not have all the negative chemicals that cigarette smoke does. Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals that are known with many being known cancer causing agents. Ecigs have very little. And the ones they do have are comparable to the levels found in NRT (Nicotine Reduction Therapy) IE the patch and gum and those are due to the nicotine. Many find they do end up quitting. I hope to be off nicotine by summer at the latest. I am already lowering the amount in mine with the “juice” I buy. I am now at 12mg (the highest is 36mg I think). I started at 24mg. The only things in an ecig are propylene glycol, food grade flavoring, and nicotine. Some use vegetable glycerin instead of glycol or a mix of the two. PG is used in foods, medicines, cosmetics, toothpaste and many other things. The nicotine is plant based extracted from tobacco and is the same as used in the patch and gum (FDA approved).
As the courts have stated, all the issues being brought up CAN be addressed by regulating these as a tobacco product. They should not be banned!
OK, so my entire family has quit smoking cigarettes and have been vaping now for over 3 months, thats myself, my husband, my in-laws, father, brother, sister…all because of e cigs. We know they are safer than analogs right?? Then whats to argue? OOOOHHHHHH…wait, money, thats right. I know my state has lost hundreds of dollars already over these 3 months on just my husband and I not buying cigarettes. So is this the main issue here? Our government is not in control of this one….YET. Letsthink about Americans health here, i have heard many, many stories of people who were on death beds, then took up vaping and are now healthy and living life to the fullest with their loved ones. Cigarettes are know to kill, my mother being one of them. There is no comparison between cigarettes and vaping, they are two totally different things. One kills, the other saves lives. If they were to ever be banned, garuntee a huge black market! For sure! Im know our wonderful government will get ahold of this beautiful thing we found, vaping, and tax the hell out of it and restrict us from buying certain things, or even put our favorite vendors out of business. But thats something Ive become used to with our government now-a-days. There is nothing harmful aboutnicotine. NOTHING. It’s not what kills you when you smoke, its the thousands of other chemicals the lovely tobacco companys put it in that kill smokers. But again, its all for the money! As long as our politicians, FDA workers, everyone going against vaping gets their ridiculously high paychecks, all is good. Who cares if us Americans that pay THEIR bills are healthy or not!
I am a 40-year smoker who has been freed from tobacco cigarettes by the e-cigarette. This is nothing short of a miracle for me, and for countless thousands of others.
I am constantly dumbfounded by the argument that e-cigarettes are attractive to children, or are a gateway for youth to smoking tobacco cigarettes. First is the expense – if your minor child is able to spend $30, $50, $100, $200 or more to purchase an e-cigarette and supplies without your knowledge, then we have a serious parenting issue that has absolutely nothing to do with e-cigarettes. And then there is the flavor argument – as has been noted, adults like flavors, and the wide variety of flavors is an important factor in the high rate of success in quitting tobacco cigarettes. I much prefer the taste of Bananas Foster Coffee to that of a stale ashtray. I tried a real cigarette about 3 months after switching to the e-cigarette, just to see if I was really done with them. I couldn’t finish 2 puffs – it was absolutely disgusting. This is perhaps the greatest gift that the e-cigarette has given me, and has never occurred before in any of my previous attempts to quit. I am certainly in favor of prohibiting sales to minors, and any reputable seller already does this, regardless of the law.
As for safety, the preponderance of anecdotal reporting is extremely positive – the overwhelming majority of committed users have experienced notable improvements in their health. I have been using the e-cigarette for 15 months. Like many others, my senses of smell and taste have returned, my breathing is clear, my smoker’s cough is gone, and I have much more energy and stamina. The migraine headaches that plagued me for 8 or 9 years disappeared almost immediately after switching to the e-cigarette. Some have reported reversal of early COPD symptoms, and others have noted that they no longer require high blood pressure medication. We’re not comparing the e-cigarette’s safety to fresh mountain air – we are comparing it to that of inhaling cigarette smoke, and it is obvious that the e-cigarette is orders of magnitude safer. In light of this, I am flabbergasted at the hypocrisy of government agencies who mandate fire-safe cigarettes, with their extra helping of unknown carcinogens and which cause users to inhale more deeply, and yet seek to ban the e-cigarette.
I gave up a 14 year, pack and a half per day habit by switching to e-cigs. Am I still addicted to nicotine? Yes I am, but I’m addicted to Mountain Dew too. Neither one is going to kill me. Burning tobacco was definitely going to kill me or at the least make my dying day very miserable and torturous.
I’m thankful everyday for e-cigs and how they’ve changed my life for the better.
The FDA needs to back off and stop wasting our tax dollars trying to take a wonderful tool like this away from us.
How “safe” are e-cigs? I do not know .
How effective are they for quitting cigarettes? Very
Do they appeal to children?Well, to 14 year olds, maybe, until they turn 15 and get the learner’s permit for driving. 2 to 4 year olds, yes, they are into everything anyway. 20 to 30 somethings, they don’t really care for them. I guess they haven’t started feeling the effects of smoking on their bodies. It is not “cool” yet as they are still indestructable. 40 +, now there is your market!
They have a little wisdom, knowledge and experience under their belts and gravitate to the e-cig in increasing numbers.
Anyone is free to buy them, but not every one can afford them.
As far as unapproved and unregulated, they are approved by me and regulated by me in my household.
Regulation comes about based on ignorance and fear. The fact that the FDA has actually overstated the findings is proof enough.
I had smoked for 21 years — over half my life. I had tried to quit many times using the approved over-the-counter NRTs and cold turkey. I failed every time and had resigned myself to the fact that I would continue to be a smoker until it killed me. Then, by chance, I came across a vendor selling electronic cigarettes, and my life changed. I smoked my last cigarette four days after buying it.
I am now approaching the 2-year anniversary since my last traditional cigarette thanks to these devices. I am breathing better. I can taste things. I can smell things. My blood pressure is down. And I no longer reek of smoke.
But if they are taken away, I will most likely return to smoking. Why? It’s a combination of the habit and ritualistic aspects of smoking (after 21 years, it is totally ingrained into who I am, and I have no desire to change it) and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the nicotine. I enjoy nicotine in the same way I enjoy caffeine. I have no desire to quit either. But I do desire a cleaner delivery system that doesn’t include 400 ‘approved’ ingredients (including specially treated fire resistant paper and glue) and release an additional 4,000 chemicals through the process of combustion (including carbon monoxide).
Don’t even know where to start on this issue…
I was a smoker of 25+ years. Tried EVERY “approved” quitting method and none of them worked. Chantix actually had SEVERE negative effects (and I got off lightly..didn’t kill me), which are well known…and yet it is still “approved”.
Saw a popup add for a Personal Vaporizer (electronic cigarette) and figured why not…seemed like a logical solution. Took care of the physical AND mental addictions. Here I am 22 months later and have not touched, or even really had the desire to pick up a cigarette.
Problem with all of the other NRTs out there is that they do not address the MENTAL addiction at all. They are only looking at half of the picture, and as such have a HUGE failure rate. (98% long term)
The latest numbers from the CDC: 443,000 deaths, 46.6 million adult smokers…nearly the same numbers from results back in 1991. So nearly 20 years with “FDA approved” methods with nearly NO gain. To quote Albert Einstein: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I don’t see any different results with the current methods.
The success rates of the current NRTs:
7% success at 6 months
5% success at 12 months
2% success at 20 months
2%!!! That is what the government agencies are accepting as a successful smoking cessation method.
Recently there have been 3 surveys measuring the success of Personal Vaporizers:
The first study was an online survey of e-cigarette users from the Tobacco Harm Reduction Yearbook 2010. Out of 303 subjects surveyed, there was a 79% success rate.
Second survey: Etter JF. Electronic cigarettes: a survey
of users. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:231.
Out of 81 subjects surveyed, they found a 63% rate.
Third survey was an online survey conducted by The Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association.
Out of 2217 subjects surveyed, There was an 80% success rate.
These surveys show one thing. WORST case results were over 30 times more successful than the use of current NRTs. Best case scenario (and the largest number of subjects surveyed) was 40 times more successful,
If the current government agencies truly were looking out for the health and safety of the American public, shouldn’t they be pouring all possible resources into the study of these devices? No! Rather than performing said research of these extremely successful devices, they are condemning, prohibiting the sale and use of, and even seizing imports of these devices.
Who is the government really looking out for? Doesn’t look to me like it is the people that they were elected to represent.
Like so many others here, I was a smoker for years, 14 to be exact, and at my worst I was smoking 4 cigars a day. Smoking them, not just puffing them.
In the 4 months that I’ve had my eCig I haven’t gone back to smoking yet. I’ll grant that further testing should be done, and that the products should be regulated…but not banned. It is ridiculous to ban a product that has already been PROVEN to be far less risk to personal health and the health of loved ones simply because of studies done on a few manufacturers. Many eCig companies listen to their customers and work to improve the quality of their products.
As for the argument about these being gateway devices for adolescents and children, please tell me what has really been done to discourage kids from smoking already? I bought my first pack of cigarettes at the age of 15 from a gas station attendant. There is a world of difference between buying a $5-$14 pack of cigarettes and purchasing a $35 starter kit….and most of us know that starter kit quickly grows into wanting a device that does a far better job, which starts putting the price tag anywhere between $50-$200 dollars.
As an adult I should have the right to enjoy the flavors that I like, be they candy, fruit, beverage, or tobacco flavors. So long as the companies and vendors selling these products are adhering to the policy of not selling to minors to the best of their abilities then this should not be an issue. Otherwise, why are alcohol and tobacco cigarettes still being sold?
This device has saved thousands of lives. It has finally given an alternative that really does work, whether its simply a person’s choice to switch to something healthier or to quit all together. Its ludicrous to see how hard organizations who’ve made it their purpose to stop tobacco cigarette sales in the name of health are attacking eCigs and the host of benefits they bring with them.
I was a Smoker for 24 years. I found Vaping, the use of Personal Vaporisers (e-cigarettes), 7months ago and like many many people, I have never smoked another cigarette since the day I tried it. There are none of the 4000+ chemicals involved in the smoking of cigarettes in Vaping, my lung function has improved, I am able to breath better, exercise with greater ease and simply enjoy and healthier health state of being due to my using this product and no longer smoking cigarettes. I do my research on anything that I buy, ingest or breath in and I am fully aware of the exact ingredients involved in the liquids that I vaporize. I also make a lot of what I use myself so again, I know exactly what I am using.
Whatever happens, this technology and method of delivery for nicotine (if you choose to use it in your juice) and habit when it comes to the hand to mouth & visual of the vapor, that simulates what we as ex-smokers are so used to doing and seeing every day (often the true addiction for many of us more than nicotine), is the future and that future cannot be undone. Vaping is here to stay!
When I purchased an e-cigarette more than two years ago, I was not trying to quit smoking. I had tried for years to quit smoking using all the FDA-approved methods, never with any success. A disastrous bout with Chantix finally convinced me that I simply could not quit. I decided to try e-cigarettes in an attempt to cut back on my smoking. I was shocked that within days, I had completely replaced a 30+ year, 2+ pack a day smoking habit with e-cigarettes.
In the past two years, I’ve seen marked improvement in my health. I can take deep breaths without pain or discomfort. My morning smoker’s cough disappeared within a few months. I can run up stairs instead of having to stop halfway up to catch my breath. Now when I exercise, I stop because I’m tired–not because I can’t catch my breath. My blood pressure is now within the normal range, and I haven’t felt this good in years. My doctor tells me that the improvements in my health are what she would expect of someone who has not smoked in two years, and she is supportive of my use of e-cigarettes.
The amazing thing is that my story is far from unique.
As for the argument that e-cigarettes should be banned because they are attractive to children, hogwash. Alcohol is arguably attractive to children, but we don’t ban sales to adults; rather, we ban sales to children. Likewise, the argument that flavors might be attractive to children is rather silly. I see no governmental outcry against strawberry wine coolers simply because the fruit flavor might appeal to children. Truth be told, most people would prefer the taste of strawberry to Brussels sprouts.
This well-meaning desire to “save the children,” has the horrifying effect of throwing millions of adults under the bus. There has been absolutely no credible evidence that the use of e-cigarettes is something that has any serious appeal to children. But on the off-chance that perhaps some children might be tempted to try e-cigarettes, opponents want to ban the sale to everyone. Should we ban every adult product or activity that might carry some risk simply because it might appeal to children? Of course not. We shouldn’t be taking away an adult’s right to choose. The solution is simple: We should limit access by making sales to minors illegal.
The FDA wishes to regulate e-cigarettes as a pharmaceutical (which would effectively remove them from the marketplace indefinitely), but that ignores the reality that e-cigarettes are being used by millions of people as an ALTERNATIVE to smoking. According to our government, millions of deaths and serious health problems are associated with smoking, yet the FDA wishes to essentially ban an alternative where ZERO deaths or serious adverse effects have been reported? Insanity.
I wish our government would spend less time trying to limit the choices of adults and more time disseminating truthful and accurate information about the relative risks of various types of tobacco use.
Ok lets be real and honest about this topic, and I call it a topic cause it really is not an issue. The money grubbing, big tobacco and pharacuticle industry cuppled with politicians losing tax dollars are the issue.
Why is it when these 3 entities stand to lose alot of money, do “new issues” arise. E-Cigarettes have never been linked with any deaths or severe health problems in the 7-8 years it has been on the market. So why the issue?
Again it is because of the 3 aformentioned entities losing and the public gaining. There is a well documented link between E-Cigeretts and better health for for those that smoke and now vape.
Lets do the math:
Tobacco cigarette- over 4,000 chemicals known to cause cancer, severe health problems and DEATH
E-Cigerette- no chemicles known to cause cancer, severe health problems and death.
It’s a no brainer. But due to the tax revenue of cigarettes all the entities mentioned are up an arms. As for fruity flavors appealing to minors… give me a break. We might as well start banning all the different flavors of alcohol cause kids might be enticed to start drinking. Don’t strawberry margerita’s or pepermint schnaups sound like fun flavors that kids may find enticing to name a few?
Let’s talk about the ONE FDA claim that says something in the way of… “a well know chemical found in antifreeze is present in E-Cigarettes, dihydrogen monoxide. A potent solvent. This chemical in it’s solid form destroys living tissue on the celular level. has been known to desolve solid rock….” They use the scientific name cause they know most people do not know what this chemical is… WATER, H2O. Talk about creating a panic and an issue where there is none.
I have smoked for 21 years and i will say E-cigerettes have saved my life and my health. What is worse, using a smoking alternative that has been proven safe, or banning it’s sale and use to adults for monatary reasons forcing the publinc to revert to the DEATH causing tobacco cigarettes?… It’s a no brainer, but then again when you tale money away from the power 3 you usually lose.
I guess the next step is for them to tax the hell out of it to recoup their losses. Trust me people it’s not about “public health” it’s all about the money. Always has been always will be.
I smoked 1 1/2 packs of Newports a day for 30 years. I tried the gum, the patch, and hypnosis. Nothing worked.
On January 5, 2011 I got my ecig starter kit in the mail. At 5:00, i took my first drag, and I haven’t had a regular cigarette since. I started with a fairly high level of nicotine, and after just 6 weeks, have reduced the level by 75%. No crankiness. No anxiety. Nothing.
The tobacco companies *have* to be in a panic. The anti-smoking organizations (who get $$ from Big Tobacco) *have* to be in a panic. Governments (who get $$ from taxing the crap out of tobacco) *have* to be in a panic.
What is really amusing is what the FDA *has not* done with e cigarettes. Now think about this — if there was anything really bad that they could prove about ecigs, they would have already done it.
Do you really believe that if these things weren’t reasonably safe, that they’d still be sold at kiosks in the middle of any mall in the US?
When’s the last time you saw a kiosk in the middle of a mall selling regular cigarettes?
One thing that is not mentioned above is that there are tons of liquids for e cigs that contain *no* nicotine at all. That’s right – none. I’ll be using that in the next month. Why? Well, it just tastes good. I suspect that you’ll find that most of the folks that have switched to e cigs haven’t gained any weight. There’s a reason for that. We don’t need to ‘snack’ on twinkies or candy bars. We enjoy our cherry cheesecake with graham cracker crust, our blackberry lemonade, and tens of thousands of ‘desserts’ every day. With almost no calories. It’s like eating, without the swallowing of all the junk. Yes, we can say it to… ‘we vaped, but we didn’t inhale’…
When I learned about e-cigarettes I bought a kit, even though I was sure that within a week it would be sitting in a drawer along with the expired packages of Chantix, nicotine patches & gum that I’ve bought over the years. All remnants of failed attempts to stop a 36 year habit that began when I was barely 13. On August 7, 2010 I assembled and took a drag off of my newly-charged electronic cigarette. WOW, I thought, this might actually work. Buying that first kit was one of the best things I have ever done. I was on my way to being a non-smoker. Six months later I am happy to say that I am unchained from a terrible pack-a-day habit.
I didn’t just accept that this was better, I spent HOURS reading everything I could find online. I was absolutely stunned when I learned that the FDA was trying to ban the import of this product. HOW COULD THIS BE? It was designed to reduce harm, letting me to continue to use nicotine without all of the harmful carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. Why in the world would they be against this? It just made no sense. The more I read about the FDA, the more disgusted I became. Big Pharma makes millions of dollars by selling all kinds of smoking cessation products that have horrible success rates. Which means that smokers trying to quit not only keep smoking, filling the pockets of Big Tobacco, but also repeatedly try to quit using all of these FDA-approved methods that are not only expensive, in some cases they are downright dangerous. Just read the warnings about Chantix.
There are very vocal opponents, like Prue Talbot, who say “However, there are virtually no scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their safety”. This is despite repeated attempts by CASAA (Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association) to provide her with documentation that not only shows that studies have been done, but that the results are very positive. New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, who is sponsoring a bill to BAN the sale of electronic cigarettes to adults in New York state, says “So I did some research, I found what is in the e-cigarettes is a mystery.” NOT TRUE. The liquid contains nicotine, propylene glycol, vegetable glycol, and flavorings. All FDA approved, in case you were wondering. She has been provided this information numerous times, yet she still wants to prevent current smokers in New York from being able to choose a much safer alternative. Quit or die, these extremists have absolutely no concern for public health. Who is funding Talbot’s “research”? How much does the disctrict Rosenthal represents take in from the outrageously high cigarette tax?
I think the anti-tobacco groups are confused. No longer are they anti-tobacco, they are now anti-nicotine. What will they do about tomatoes, that contain naturally occuring nicotine? Why are they fighting a harm-reducing invention that allows the user to get nicotine without the burning of tobacco? It’s really a shame that all of these anti-tobacco groups aren’t realizing that this product could make their dreams a reality. How many Homeowners Insurers would relish the day when fires caused by “careless disposal of smoking materials” were obsolete? How many health insurers would like to stop paying for lung disease treatments for smoking patients? How many doctors would like to tell their smoking patients that they can finally substitute a healthier way to satisfy their nicotine addiction? There is something very wrong when an invention created to save lives is vilified by the very institutions that should be embracing it.
As an American citizen I should have the freedom to choose a less harmful alternative. When politicians and government agencies try to take away this right, I know they have forgotten that they are here to serve the people, including the adults who use tobacco. I find the actions of the FDA, Talbot, Rosenthal, and others who want to ban this product unconscionable. This product may not be 100% safe, but I’ll take it over tobacco any day. Banning this product is a death sentence for smokers who are unable to quit.
I smoked at least a pack a day for over 25 years. I watched my father succumb to smoking related illness and still was unable to quit. I tried many times with nicotine gum, patches and even prescription medication all to no avail. I had given up on quitting even though it had given me chronic bronchitis and many negative health effects. When I discovered electronic cigarettes I didn’t intend to quit but rather to try and cut down on my smoking. I have not smoked in over a year and a half. It was quite by accident that I quit smoking by making the switch to electronic cigarettes. I also introduced them to my sister who is now smoke free for well over a year also.
My health has improved greatly since I transitioned to electronic cigarettes. My lung function has increased, energy levels improved, even my skin looks better. My sense of taste and smell have returned. My doctor has been very supportive of my transition to electronic cigarettes and is amazed at how my health has improved especially the increase in lung function. I have also reduced my nicotine consumption by more than 50% from when I started using electronic cigarettes.
I cannot fathom the notion that some want to ban electronic cigarettes while tobacco cigarettes are legal and available at every corner store. We KNOW smoking tobacco cigarettes is dangerous and kills people yet they are still sold legally. It seems hypocritical to ban the electronic cigarettes while allowing tobacco cigarettes to be sold. There is no evidence to state electronic cigarettes are more harmful than smoking tobacco. I know first hand how smoking made me feel and the health effects I suffered. I also know that my health improved greatly when I quit smoking and started using electronic cigarettes instead. I never want to smoke again and banning these devices would force many of us to either go back to smoking or seek black market products.
I fully support banning sales of electronic cigarettes to minors just as done with traditional tobacco products. I do not however see any true justification for banning sales of electronic cigarettes to adults who would possibly choose them as an alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes. I’m very thankful for my life changing experience with electronic cigarettes and hopeful that they will remain available as an alternative to smoking.
Regarding flavors, I don’t understand why some believe flavors besides tobacco or menthol should be banned. Since quitting tobacco use I found I enjoy a fruit flavored vapor over a tobacco flavor as do many of us that no longer smoke. I notice in liquor stores chocolate and fruit flavored alcoholic beverages are available. Again it seems hypocritical to suggest a ban on flavors in electronic cigarettes while flavored alcohols are sold to adults. Electronic cigarettes are also for adults and flavors are enjoyed by adults.
These products should be accepted as a reduced harm form of recreational nicotine use. Banning them would be both unconscionable and hypocritical.
I was a smoker for 29 years. The day my e-cig came in the mail I stopped smoking. The patch, the gum, the lozenges, and the pills did not work for me. I think that says it all.
Even this staid, purportedly two-sided issue is full of sensationalist claims. They obviously did their research, but if you read between the lines, this article subtly adds negative connotation to the idea of vaping. In addition, the main idea seems not to be preventing harm (or they’d ban cigarettes in the first place), but preventing children from trying ecigs. And in Arizona, they’ve already passed legislation preventing minors from buying them or using them. That seems like the correct approach, rather than an overall ban that’s driven by big tobacco and their lobbyists.
I quit a 27-year cigarette habit by using my e-cig. After I discovered e-cigs, I passed the info onto 5 of my friends and family members who also quit their smoking habit. It would be wrong for the FDA to take that away from me or anyone else.
With all the other garbage out there that is not “FDA regulated” but we’re still ingesting, I would have to wonder if the FDA banned e-cigs or even tried to slow e-cig usage, if it was an under-the-table deal.
With regards to nicotine dose contained in a series of puffs taken on a PV compared to chewing a single piece of nicotine gum. I recently ran out of nicotine for my PV and instead of going back to cigarettes I chewed a piece of nicotine gum 2mg. The dose contained in that one piece of nicotine gun made me so dizzy I had to spit it out! Never mind the price of nicotine gum. It cost me more to chew nicotine gum than it did to smoke cigarettes! What’s up with that! Nicotine by itself is CHEAP and so is gum! Thats part of the reason gum never worked for me. Gum, Patches, Lozenges all cost the same as smoking cigarettes.
I’ve been vaping for 7 months and feel great! My blood pressure is exactly perfect!! My chest doesn’t hurt anymore. I was quickly heading for certain death and at 31years old I made the switch to PV’s. I just hope it was soon enough! Every day smoking a cigarette I felt the worst depression… I used to say to myself while lighting up “I’m going to die a painfully horrible death” Now all that depression is gone, I don’t have to hide my nasty habit anymore, I feel better about myself and actually want to live and enjoy life.
If an all out ban happens the consequences will be far worse than the FDA, HC, GVMT, whatever can imagine! They’ve been lying to us for profit and there’s no forgiveness for that!
OK, all ignorance (politics) aside, I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 25 years. When I started using ecigarettes just over a year ago, I couldn’t believe how much better I was feeling after only 2 weeks. I got rid of that horrible smokers cough in which smokers know what I’m talking about, I just felt overall better physically and emotionally. And I will never look back at another cigarette again knowing how much money I spent, how bad I felt, and how much it damaged my inner system.
As far as e-cigarettes attracting the youth, come on….let’s be real about this. It has nothing to do with attracting kids to use these, it has to do with our corrupt government losing out on money from the tobacco industry that is donated to them. I mean after all, isn’t that what the U.S. government is all about…..money? greed? power?, I think so. Seeing as how they have/had candy cigarettes when I was a kid, couldn’t that possibly persuade a kid to start smoking? And seeing as you can buy e-liquid with 0 nicotine, just your choice flavors.
Just like Frazier posted, this is all about money, power and greed for the government and it has nothing to do with targeting minors. It’s a shame too because there are so many opportunities for smokers that can finally kick the habit without nicotine, or thousands of chemicals.
I have a lot to say about all this, but will try to keep it some what short. I had started to smoke at the age of 8. Thats right, because my mother was a smoker and I thought I would be “cool”. Well, I got caught and stopped until I was 12. At this time, I was able to purchase anaolgs (cigarettes) from the deli and other stores. I’m now 48 and Disabled. I had a heart atttack in ’09. At this time I had been smoking upwards of 3 pks a day. My wife was 3 or more pks a day. I stopped in Sept. of ’09 and I also got my wife to quit on Dec 25th, 2009. We both have been better off since these electronic cigarettes came into our lives. I still have to take high blood pressure medicine, but thats NOT due to vaping nicotine. Its because of stress due to my disability and other reasons. My wifes BP is PERFECT!! She has never had high blood pressure but she did have a severe cough in the morning. So bad, I thought she wouldn’t be able to catch her breath quite a few times. Now, she has NO MORE coughing. I have a little bit of a cough, thats due to having phnumonia twice in my life and be diagnoshed with CPOD before I stopped smoking with the e-cig. I can breath better and haven’t been sick (flu or cold) in a long time. My sense for taste is so much better that I don’t use that much salt, if any, any more when I cook and I stay away from all the pre-cooked foods (due to the severe saltyness).
I believe that the FDAis just wanting to keep the monies it gets from the taxes of real cigarettes. Also the states that heavely tax the tobacco products. I’m so glad to have stopped smoking and also very glad to know my wife doesn’t have a cough anymore and we are both very happy to know we’ll be around a lot longer than if we had still been smoking reg analogs.
I am a 54 year old male who smoked for 41+ years. Although not considered by many as a heavy smoker, I smoked 25-30 cigarettes a day.
In those 41 years I have tried many times to quit without success. The longer I ever abstained from cigarettes was 5 weeks after laser therapy. I have tried all the methods the health community had suggested, they all resulted in failure.
The fall of 2009 I come to find out the laser therapy centre no longer operated. To my dismay. At the end of January of 2010 I started vaping an electronic cigarette. A 2 part system that although assisted greatly, it wasn’t until I acquired a 3 part system 07 Feb 2010 that I have been delivered from the clutches of tobacco and smoking. I have been smoke free since the 8th of February 2010. I recently celebrated my smokeless birthday mere days ago.
I have switched, hence my moniker.
The big 3’s agenda is as clear as crystal. No need for guessing. Electronic cigarettes work and are a real threat to big tobacco. big pharma and government with loss in revenue. This is the truth in the matter. No one from the health community can convince me that vaping is more harmful than smoking. I do not vape as an alternate lifestyle, but as a cessation method, and it works. I have decreased my nicotine intake over time. I am healthier as well in the process. I am not going to go into long explanations here. Electronic cigarettes simply work.
… and that is a bone of contention with everyone trying to ban them. My doctor supports vaping. She is as straight as an arrow. That should say allot.
Vaping saves lives whilst tobacco continues to take them away and plague our health care system.