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.
I don’t believe for a minute that the Prue Talbots of the world have a problem with e-cigarettes because they’re worried e-cigarettes aren’t “safe.” Nothing is “safe.” It’s a word they toss around to scare and distract people.
Nor can anyone credibly claim there are “a lot of unknowns” with e-cigarettes. There aren’t. They’re a beautifully simple device. What’s more, there have been at least 15 studies/reports/analyses illuminating what’s in an e-cigarette–which is nothing that isn’t already in a traditional cigarette, by the way, but hundreds of things that are not.
For example: There’s no tar in e-cigarettes. No carbon monoxide. No dangerous levels of carcinogens. No smoke. No flame. No ashes. No butts. Essentially, we’re looking at 5 or so ingredients in an e-cigarette.
So if it’s not about safety and it’s not about science, they have to fall back on their old familiar stand-by: THE CHILDREN! Good grief. Look, unless they intend to ban every current and future product intended solely for adults, they can’t ban this one.
And do we really have to point out that people don’t stop liking flavors the moment they turn 21? I smoked for more than 30 years. I’m an adult. I love my chocolate-flavored e-cigarette.
And that, I propose, is the real problem the Prue Talbots have with e-cigarettes: We’re enjoying them entirely too much. We’re supposed to suffer for our “sins.” We’re supposed to abstain completely. They just can’t stand it that smokers are “getting away with” something that looks like smoking (which is, of course, precisely why it’s such a great substitute)–especially a product that isn’t being produced by the pharmaceutical industry that supports every last organization that’s lobbying to have e-cigarettes taken off the market.
Honestly, I think these anti-smoker zealots have lost their collective minds. Whatever good intentions they started out with have long-since gone by the wayside. They’re every bit as deceptive and greedy as the tobacco companies (who are also threatened by e-cigarettes) ever were.
Shame on them all, and hands off my body!
Having smoked for 25+ years and tried numerous methods to quit I had totally given up on ever quitting. I purchased an e-cig to cut back on smoking and within a couple of weeks totally quit smoking in March of 2010. I now have no desire to smoke.
Much to my surprise my 2 PAD father who has smoked for about 60 years decided to try e-cigs even though no quitting method had worked for him and he had tried them all. Now 11 months later 1 pack of cigarettes last him for about a month. His doctor told him is lungs sound much better.
I think banning e-cigs would be a HUGE mistake and the FDA and government (who by the way are spending a LOT of taxpayer $$$$ trying to get people to quit smoking) to ban e-cigs.
It’s like the Egyptian uprising – we ain’t leaving because “WE” know what’s the best choice for our own health and enjoyment.
We understand that there are many groups who would appear to be against us having the right to choose vaping because of what “appears to be” unknown information. There’s a lot of stubborn people on both sides of the issue and we vapers aren’t about to go anywhere, no matter what bans are put in place or what the “perceptions” may be of the safety of vaping.
Public perception will likely change slowly, but the vaping community is growing quickly. Though not all the news that’s printed is rosie, I’ll take any news over no news and people will become more aware of vaping. And as they discover what we’ve discovered, they too will come to our side of perhaps the most important health discovery of the century!
A pack a day smoker, I used to quit smoking every year w/- any success for 20 yrs.
Patches give weird dreams and didn’t work. Gum, which is not meant to be chewed so why call it gum, pulled off my crown and didn’t work . RX had worse side effects and didn’t work. Lozenges, taste terrible and didn’t work either. Kept smoking while on all of the above.
The e cig is a god send. I bought it thinking it was another failed attempt. After a few days I no longer liked the taste of smoking. 1yr and 9months w/- smoking due to fried apple flavor of e-cig. As a menthol smoker I was searching for that taste. I found out I no longer even like menthol and cannot stand the smell or taste of a real cigarette..
No coughing and Lungs are much better. I can climb 6 flight of stairs w/- wheezing. I couldn’t climb one before.
I would rather take a chance on the unknown side effects that may be found in e-cigs some day, than the know side effects of smoking tobacco.
Like many other posters I was a long term smoker(38 years). I had tried everything and had decided that I would NEVER quit smoking. Then I tried the e-cig, I have been cigarette free for 10 months. I still have a nicotine addiction, but I am no longer addicted to cigarettes and their thousands of chemicals. Is this product 100% safe, no one claims that it is. It is a safer alternative to smoking.
I agree with another poster that they are too much hassle to be attractive to children.
I’m still trying to understand why my government(you know, the one “by the people, and for the people”) wants me to smoke myself to death.
I was a 2 pack a day smoker for over 40 years. I was pretty well known amongst my friends as a heavy smoker. I had tried the patches, gum and going “Cold Turkey”, nothing worked. One day someone told me about e-cigarettes. So, I did the research and ordered some cheap ones just to see what would happen. I breezed through the entire 1st day without craving a real cigarette. To put it mildly, I have never been so surprised in all my life. I was still somewhat apprehensive and was curious to see how day #2 would go. Same thing, didn’t crave a real cigarette at all. It was quite a revelation knowing that I now had an alternative to smoking that actually worked for me. I was so happy, I called my friends and told them about them. So far I’ve been smoke free for over 1 year and feel so much better.
To say there’s a concern that children might use these is ridiculous. What child is going to spend $50 or more and wait for an e-cig to be shipped when tobacco cigarettes are available at the corner store and at a much lesser cost? There’s just no logic to that argument. Are we actually expected to die from lung cancer just on the odd chance some child might get a hold of an e-cigarette? Besides, it’s the job of parents to keep an eye on what their children are doing, not the Federal Government. I have never seen any e-cigarette ad aimed at children, never will either.
Instead of banning e-cigs, the government should be promoting them! E-cigs produce vapor in the same way fog machines do that rock bands use during a concert. Why hasn’t there been an outcry from the government about them? Could it be because fog machines pose no threat to public health and/or loss in tax revenue? That’s exactly what I think the government motive is by wanting to ban e-cigarettes, loss of tax revenue. If I am correct, that is by definition a corrupt government. The government should help us help ourselves, don’t take away the tools we need to stop smoking.
I began smoking when I was 11 years old. I started with non filtered lucky strikes and moved to camel’s then Marlboro Reds. I am more addicted to the hand to mouth motion more then anything. I (like many others) do a ton of research on anything I do in my life. When I heard and researched on e-cigarettes I ordered one. The moment it came in, I handed one of my friends my pack of cigarettes. He asked what i’m doing i replied “You can have them, i know you smoke. I won’t be needing them anymore” this was prior to me even trying the e-cigarette. The first drag i took off of it changed my life. Now, I wake up easier. I breathe better. I no longer have phlegm in the morning and I can work out now with much more endurance. I can taste my food and my over all health has improved.
to go from 4,000 bad chemicals in my body to this has changed my over all life. Because of this technology, I may have extended my life by 20-30 years.
If this technology were taken away it would almost be as if I got a death sentence.
Ozzy Osbourne said he quit heroin easily. But cigarettes were a completely different addiction.
My doctor says he notices a much improvement in my health since i “quit smoking” that being said, i do not need a doctor to tell me I feel better. Because, I know how i feel 8)
Smoking could have killed me. Vaping could save my life.
Let me approach the topic from the position of John Q Public, middle-class, American citizen. The portion of the population that pays the vast majority of tax revenue into the public coffers. The portion of the population that keeps the economy rolling, and attempts to view all subjects in their lives with minds geared to how it will affect their daily budget, health, and most of all with COMMON SENSE.
Common sense tells me that smoking analog tobacco cigarettes is BAD for my health. The studies and evidence that support this are beyond counting. I KNOW burning tobacco and inhaling it into my lungs will KILL me, or at least shorten my life considerably. Common Sense and Logic tells me the government is still allowing the sell of these products, so my health CAN’T be the concern here for them.
Common Sense tells me that I started smoking at 16, (20+ years ago), and that I started with a well known “red” brand, quickly moving to a pack-a-day habit. This product wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t candy-flavored, and it didn’t come with a nifty toy in the package. Yet, I still started using this product, EASILY, despite it’s “government restrictions”.
Common sense tells me that well known fast food chains, beer/alcohol venders, and extreme sports companies use OBVIOUS advertising techniques geared toward minors, yet there is little to no regulation of these products. Common Sense tells me that people over the age of 18 like fruit, candy, coffee, and other flavors, and the production of these flavors could just MAYBE be geared toward them. Not some insidious underground scheme to hook minors to a drug (nicotine) which is frankly already EASY to gain access to through tobacco products. Legal or not.
Logical deduction leads me to recognize that “Big Tobacco” , the Pharmaceutical industry, and yes the US government stand to lose BILLIONS of dollars in revenue to a product proven in many studies, not just in the USA, but in well respected progressive nations (New Zealand, Australia, the U.K, just to name a few) to help a HUGE percentage of people get off traditional tobacco cigarettes and onto a system that delivers a far less harmful amount of possible toxins, (the level of which is comparable to commonly accepted products such as nicotine patches and gums), but with FAR better results. (On a personal note EVERY person I know who has tried and used a quality Personal Vaporizer has ceased to use traditions cigarettes and their health has and still does improve dramatically every day).
Common Sense tells me to recognize the need for some oversight to set standards of manufacture and material used, as well as selling practices used, with this product, but that the outright ban on the product has questionable motivations. Is the public’s health their concern? Or is their source of funds generated from the sell of a highly addictive and knowingly DANGEROUS product?
Common Sense tell me as an informed and fairly intelligent adult, it is MY responsibility, as a FREE individual, to examine and research my options and what I choose to ingest into my body. It is MY responsibility to investigate any unsubstantiated claims by a product like PV’s, and to make a free decision as to whether or not to purchase/use that product. I shouldn’t need a babysitters telling me “No no no”.
Common Sense tells me that a product that can allow me to cease the use of tobacco cigarettes, reducing the amount of chemicals and poisons I ingest every day by HUGE amounts, is a GOOD thing.
These systems WORK. These products aren’t geared toward minors any more so than traditional tobacco, alcohol, fast-food, extreme sports, etc. industries are (less so in fact). These products are an awesome alternative to inhaling poisons proven to extremely harmful, with a result that is obvious, even if it isn’t scientifically documented by the government as of yet.
In the end Common Sense tells me that telling adults that they can’t make the informed decision to use a PV system as an alternative to using something PROVEN to kill them, is telling them you care more about the government’s financial interest in this debate, than in the public’s health you were designed to protect. I have more faith in the USA than that. Don’t prove me wrong.
ive been vaping my e-cig for 8 months now leaving regular cigarettes behind. i had been a smoker for 5 years considering that im 22. i would have to say in the article, it said that is gonna lead a new generation to becoming nicotine addicts. first of all its easy to get a pack of cigarettes rather then getting an e-cig. you need to buy it online and have a credit card. other then that i feel better vaping rather then smoking. if they ban this, people would have to go back to smoking tobacco. thats just plain murder
I was a pack a day smoker for nearly 15 years. I switched to electronic cigarettes in December of 2009. I have no had the desire for a cigarette since that time. During the last year I’ve been able to taper down my nicotine content to nearly nothing, and the quality of my life has improved drastically.
I was a smoker. I smoked for 27yrs, and I’m 42yrs old now. The day I started vaping was the last day that I’ve smoked in 8 months now.
This is the longest I’ve ever quit smoking in 27yrs. Previous attempts left me hitting massive depressions about one month in and I pretty much ‘had’ to smoke again for relief. Reading over the more recent research papers concerning the psychoactive and metabolic effects of smoking outline my situation almost exactly.
Vaping has made the transition tolerable enough that I have been successful with it.
I’m also under the care of a pulmonologist for the last few years. He takes computerized diagnostic measurements of my lung function. There is an archive of my testing over several years in his office. After quitting smoking only for a few months I had him re-do the survey and overlay the data vs my earlier scans. My lung capacity is up by 25% already and the obstructive issue I deal with is alleviated to a noticeable degree already.
Does vaping repair lung function? No. Am I in FAR better health now since transitioning to vaping? YES.
I’m not a vaper that intends on quitting as nicotine does many things for me that add to my quality of life. I feel far safer vaping than entering the murky world of pharmacology used to treat many of the symptoms that nicotine handles for me. Also, in vaping, I am not a burden to my insurance company and in turn the public as they have nothing to subsidize.
As mentioned all the opposition is either based on ignorance of what is being reviewed or is being driven by lobbying money from big tobacco or big pharma. No rational person would look at the facts around this issue and make such rash judgments.
The other rather transparently insidious side to this is the political cash stream that is being lost as people transition to vaping. Guess what? It is not the state’s right to oppressively tax the people for their whimsical pork programs. You are supposed to do what is right for the freedom of your constituency, not tell us how to live our lives or to profit from it any chance you get.
Where is the legislation for people who wear too much perfume in public spaces? I have severe asthma reactions to that and yet even smoke doesn’t bother me nearly as much. Why is it that nobody addresses this issue? It’s a lot worse for me to be in an elevator or on a flight next to someone with dime store perfume on than if they were smoking.
Put this all in perspective, it simply makes no sense to rush to panicked legislation to block what is a fantastic innovation for smokers to improve their lives.
Another attempt by NY to control every aspect of our lives. I am leaving this state as soon as I am financially able!
I bought an e-cig back in November 2010. For the week following, I smoked maybe 5 analogs/day, and NONE after that (unless I was waiting for my battery to charge). To me, this is a MIRACLE! I had not previously been able to quit smoking for 35 years. Why does the government want to ban them? I say, follow the money. Less tobacco smokers, a lot less revenue for the government and corrupt politicians, not only from the smokers but lobbyists, tobacco companies, and pharmaceutical companies.
As for the appeal to children because of all the good flavors — then why not ban candy, ice cream, snacks, etc.? What about alcohol? They come in some pretty yummy flavors, too. Oh, wait, they tried prohibition. That worked out really well, didn’t it?
Leave me alone to vape as I please. It’s thousands of times better than smoking analogs. I feel better, breathe better, look better, and smell better. Go pick on some other group of people. We’ve been picked on enough.
I have been using an ecig since 2009. I had tried EVERYTHING available to quit. NOTHING worked. Nothing that was FDA approved that is. My ecig saved my life. I am disgusted that my government is trying to remove this product from my reach. The lines are so blurred between Big Government and Big Tobacco / Big Pharma that it’s almost impossible to believe that their ultimate goal is to help people stop smoking.
I am a non-smoker now. Surely, these people understand how big that is for someone like me, someone who smoked for over 20 years.
I am begging the FDA to do real, independent research on these products. I don’t know that my ecig is harmless but I know for a fact that smoking was killing me slowly. I have seen tremendous improvements in my health since I quit smoking and started vaping.
Ask yourself why, if so many ex-smokers were able to quit using this product, why would the FDA want to ban them without doing real research first. I have always been told that smoking will kill me, in a disgustingly slow and painful way. Now I am being told that I shouldn’t use my ecig because they don’t know if it is safe or not.
Hmm … sure death or unknown side effects. Which product are the FDA trying to ban again? The one that causes sure death? Of course not.
Once Big Tobacco gets in on the ecig market and Big Government figures out how to tax it, then you’ll be seeing tons and tons of research on how much safer the ecig is compared to a cigarette. You’ll see.
2 1/2 packs a day for 30 years. I had accepted the fact tobacco was going to kill me. Now I have hope thanks to e-cigs. I just wish my wife would join me, but she is a nurse and takes everything the FDA presents as fact. We’ve lost enough lives and money due to smoking. It’s time the FDA joins us and provides the regulation needed to a assure this wonderful gift from China saves as many lives as possible.
I am a 54 yr old HWM. I had smoked Tobacco Cigarettes for over 40 years until I made the switch to an Electronic Cigarette Sept 22, 2010.
Since that date I have not smoked tobacco cigarettes and have Vaped using an E-Cig. During this time, my sense of taste and smell have become more keen. I no longer have the morning smokers cough, not do I have Smokers Hack anymore. The availability of the various flavors have assisted in my not gaining additional weight from no longer smoking.
I enjoyed smoking tobacco, but dislike the smell. I always tried to be a polite smoker and remove myself from others.
I firmly support the idea of the Electronic Cigarette!
Claims being made by those uninformed individuals based on the selective reading need to be reviewed and I ask that they educate themselves more on the subject and get more feedback from those who actually use the products
The claims of children getting involved with the E-cig are groundless based on the self policing being done by the current suppliers and vendors. Of the vendors and suppliers I have dealt with, all have warnings and require the purchaser to be over the age of 18.
I started smoking at 13.
I continued smoking for well over 23 years.
I tried quitting with chantrix (which was awful and terrifying),the patch,the gum,hypnosis,cold laser therapy, acupuncture………..
None of these worked and none of them ever would have.
Like many of the others,I enjoyed the sensation of smoking as well as the cocktail of chemicals in the smoke.
Last June I found electronic cigarettes.
I had high hopes for them but wasn’t really sure if they would work.
To my surprise I stopped smoking the day I received them.
I know I am not alone in my success.
I no longer cough, wheeze or have problems running up and down flights of stairs.
I can’t even imagine a world where I would be forced to stop using these,they have worked when nothing else would.
If urging people to stop smoking is really about health then by removing a successful alternative is something I would consider a death sentence.
I was a smoker for over ten years, and have just celebrated my one year anniversary of being tobacco free. I tried cold turkey, I tried gum, patches, intimidation, everything. Nothing worked for me, so I went out on a limb and tried the electric cigarette with amazing results. Within a week of using the electric cigarette (we call it a vaporizer to avoid any association with cigarettes) I had quit smoking.
The vaporizer is a battery powered device that emits a vapor which contains nicotine. By simulating the action of smoking, and providing nicotine in small doses, the vaporizer is effective in getting people to quit smoking. You might be under the misconception that the vaporizer is just as dangerous, but that opinion is uneducated. The smoke in the cigarette is what kills you, not the nicotine. True, nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, and an addictive substance, but is about as harmful as a cheeseburger. Are we going to ban cheeseburgers next? A vaporizer does not produce any second hand smoke, and does not contain any toxic ingredients.
I believe that the only motivation to ban vaporizers is financial. If the FDA helps ‘Big Tobacco’ squash the electric cigarette, like the ‘Big 5’ held back production of the electric car, it should be ashamed. By banning the vaporizer, we would be taking a huge step back in OUR effort to get people to quit smoking. We are all on the same side, we just want people to quit killing themselves with toxic chemicals and killing their families with second had smoke.
PLEASE speak up on behalf of the vaporizer using community if you actually want people to quit smoking. PLEASE do not ban the electric cigarette, or support those who plan on making them illegal. There is no reason to make them illegal, none whatsoever.
I have quit smoking, and with the help of the vaporizer, have helped many people quit smoking: my mother, my brother, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, my other brother-in-law, three co-workers, and two family friends. We are a supportive community that is doing the best we can to offer people a safer alternative to smoking, and it REALLY WORKS!
Thank you for your time, and remember, we are all on the same side.
Started vapeing a year ago. Have not used tabbaco after three days of buying my first e-cig. I can walk farther then 50 feet without being out of breath. My dentist asked me if i have been useing some kind of tooth cleaning device. I have tried to stop smokeing a lot of times with all the aproved metheds, no luck .I find it very hard to understand why the F.D.A. is dragging thier feet about classifying e-cigs as a tabbaco product. This is the future of smokeing,get used to it.We will not stop vapeing,even if it means makeing our own device’s. i understand the fda’s fear that vapeing MIGHT be bad for us. If i have to choose between MIGHT be bad and with out a doubt will kill you, if you dont mind i’ll go with might be bad. By the way, i love vapeing a lot of differant flavors,so please stop with the enticing kids with fun flavors thing,it’s just not true. When e-cigs are outlawed then only outlaws will vape. You dont have enough room in jail for all of us. Stop stalling and do the rite thing.
I am NOW an ex-smoker – After 25+ years of cigarette use and, having tried ALL of the highly ineffective, high cost and completely inadequate products (yet highly profitable) served up by Big Pharma and “approved” by the FDA for tobacco cessation. I’m am left wondering why the FDA is NOT acting in OUR best interests by targeting e-cigarettes as dangerous without a word towards banning the real danger, cigarettes? The conclusions derived from their independent studies are CLEARLY intended to misrepresent, confuse, and obfuscate the real issue: that the combustion of tobacco products and resulting smoke ARE harmful to human health as proven by nearly 450,000 deaths annually within the US?
E-Cigarettes are a MIRACLE life-saving technology that only an IDIOT would ban and the “Quit or Die” anti-tobacco movements are ridiculously impeding my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
E-cigarettes are here. There here to stay. In one form or another, legally or otherwise, this product will continue to exist and will continue to save lives regardless of who oversteps their authority in an attempt to remove this technology from those that use it.
We are now calling out the medical establishment to offer actual, factual, REAL proof that this product is harmful, or that it won’t lead to cessation, or that our children will start using e-cigarettes, facts that I know from first hand experience are utterly and completely FALSE. Medical ethics have been THROWN out the window with false testimony, biased opinions and conclusions, and weak study premises doled out by the ALA, AMA, ACS, ASH, and the FDA (to name a few).
The lines are being drawn with those opposing e-cigarette technology losing credibility each and every day as finding afer finding proves this technology to be IMMENSELY safer than traditional tobacco use. At the end of the day, which side of the fence will you be on? If I were a doctor, I would be hard pressed to oppose this technology based on the simple fact that if the “masses” lose faith in the medical establishment, isn’t more damage being done? There are 47 million current US smokers remaining – well enough needed to expose the fraud.
As doctors, you have the Hypocratic Oath to follow, a standard of ethics for the medical professional. This in no means can be interpreted to include hypocrisy.
I apologize for the rant – but this is simply the most unbelievable, ridiculous, and harmful ‘anti-movement’ I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.
Please, leave ME and my FAMILY alone to vape, or not to vape. It’s my right!
In our current economy which has millions of abled bodied longer living adults, so many people out of work, the only growth industry is Health Care and it’s minding and mining your business in every area of our health and lives. We have never had so many living and barely breathing people over the age of 45 at one time in the history of the United States of America. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. The only production and export from this country to the world now and for the foreseeable future is Agriculture, which is surprising, when it was manufacturing for over two hundred years.
Most Americans over 45 years of age, are awakened to the knowledge of having been sold out by our own leaders. Now, we will live with health care as a parasite like driven economy, where the ill and aging will create jobs for those who are also becoming ill from the effects of poisons in our environment, our foods, our air, water and of course cancer and other illnesses generated from generations of poor starchy diets, bad pharmaceuticals, and couch potato-ism and the bless it Automobile and all the bi-products and the insatiable desire everyone to have that four wheel freedom of passage.
Cigarette smoking a major contributor of the deaths of several previous generations and would have and will be also that of a large segment of the B Boomer generation. If they didn’t bomb scare us to death, and make us fear the Commies, Security and prosperity is guaranteed to the few self chosen powerful’s behind boardroom doors, with their large real-estate holdings, and off shore drilling and investments. Land titles banks and the money making health-care industry or excuse me “the evile empire”, future security is now only possible, for so many fewer working class American people, that an agriculturally driven economy will be all this country needs to sustain itself as a less powerful entity, no longer needed as the world’s fighting force for freedom, which I believe statistically is now a fact, China and India have moved into the number #1 and number #2 economic world power positions, all manufacturing of most the world’s poorly made products we largely consume and rely upon are coming from the far east. Including e cigarettes, a miraculous invention that would have an aging populace on the verge of recouping it’s health gaining in numbers and likely to have one more sit in and valiant demonstration in DC and Capitals around the 50 States, another opportunity for the biggest pain to big money interests, we can again change history. As was done with freedom marches, Civil Rights in the Southern States and elsewhere, Equality in the home and work place, the recognition that Rape is a crime, and bullying now! The ending a most unpopular, deadly and beyond costly War that of Viet Nam. This is the generation we the boomers no longer in our baby bloomers, that have been more politically active, more culturally persuasive and have had to FIGHT against the “Establishment” FDA hm? from day one!!! Passively marching to our own beatings with wooden clubs, tear gassed, all while protesting unselfishly for a better way of life for a humanitarian forward moving shift of progressive change. This generation had enemies and battles within our own “free-country’s” borders, more than most previous generations, outside of Suffragettes who claimed all American Women’s Right to Vote, and now to decide what goes on with her body, which is a little chaotic, if you think about it. Those that fought to defend our freedom all those that died and endured crippling in both world wars, famines, dust bowls, polio, dyptheriah and of course the depressing, hunger lines of the Depression, in our short history, The United States of America, the Boomers have done more on a humane revolutionary scale to bring about a rebirth of American Can Do Spirit, even freedom of spirituality, raised consciousness and a holistic interest in having an active role in our own health care choices and concerns. Like a natural childbirth as apposed to forceps and and instant C sections, a big financial boon to the lives of people and a hit to the money making medical merciless empire.
As we speak, all of us, with a growing and healthier voice getting larger by the minute in numbers are we vapers, if we’ve had to be accepting of so much shaming and blaming over our spoon fed smoking, being ostricized, left to wither into poor breathless weakened stock, not to mention those others the second hand victims, out-casted from public and private places, the loss of the local family restaurants, with orange stained formica table tops, neighborhood taverns, standing in below freezing temperatures, making not enough money to smoke let alone deal with it’s health consequences. Ridiculed by the high brow self made Medical Marvel Ministers of health by grabbing this countries wealth, made to feel like villains for our addictions/afflictions and the lying denials of them by the tobacco lobbyists, coerced into helping the rich fat cats increase, from their production of mucus and coffin nails, we are obviously tired of old wheeze and cough, awakening to life’s last gasps of precious breath, and my own blackened lungs are “…..dying to get better”, here too.
“Sometimes (all times)………..all I need is the air that I breathe and to love you……..” …The Hollies
With the collective wisdom of our middle ages we have awareness, and are knowledgeable too. We have been scolded, shamed warned and taxed for a quite some time about the hopeless perils that lie ahead for smoker’s who bare in silence but for the cough, a stoic despairing, of one of the planets most addictive substances ever to rise from the earth massly farmed and produced with so few profiting so well from the demise of so many, for more than the last 30 years, burning tobacco habitually is the scourge and petulance a blight, a sad ending for endless numbers of families. Thieving and duping by very powerful wealthy barrens of lands, who have covertly injured millions upon millions, so boldly with lively colorful advertisements, buy two packs get one free sales ads of hideous proportions, disguising there brutal cowardliness and greed.
These are not desperate pleas, this a large segment of the world’s population having an awakening to something new and better in the market place, a choice to live well and of course longer and more robustly, it is much more threatening, to a fast food fanny establishment of generation, children of joy sticks, who have been raised by strangers instead of Mother’s. The FDA, and other highly positioned bureaucracy’s that have no interest financially or otherwise in mere human interests and that’s plain to see. This govern-mental health department that supposedly oversees all public safety and health concerns, has freshly dug dirt and a shovel a waiting behind their backs, and by all accounts they don the executioner’s cloak and money making daggers of the biggest money interests thriving today in America. As the planet turns and burns hotter, we will walk our talk to a stonewalling of what? Not heard by our very own elected officials the FDA, making it seem to be some vane dream a throw back to infancy, born of an era of expansion and development, from which there has been a big bad twist in the opposite direction. Neo-democracy contains very little of the aforementioned as though the people by the people and for the people is a dream of antiquity and man/woman made beguile. Our country produces most of all the tobacco for this entire planet of choking smokers and polluters. Many generations have come and gone since the American Indians traded tobacco to the European Settlers, nearly three hundred years ago. Sometimes I wonder is this is the real price for those who must never be forgotten, a Genocide of Indigenous tribes people, The American Indians of this vast, plentiful and fruitful land on the great North American Continent. To coin an old hippie phrase “Karma”, with no disrespect for the devine influence of the far east in many religious forms practiced everywhere in the world. I wish to pass along my gratitude to all of you for your sincerity and generosity of sharing and giving others a clearer and better understanding of burning tobacco and all the it’s dreadful threats, if we this generation can do anything such as parent our own children, without so many overbearing moralists that believe in drugs to cure every unhappy thought, and profit off of the misery of masses of huddled and befuddled cravours, for being who we are and have always been a powerful action and satisfaction consortium in very large numbers, talking bout my generation. I give thanks to the WW I and WW 2 veterans, that gave it all, so the 1946 – on childhoods of a lot of us, could be so blessed as they were,. For having had a great and free early education in a public school that was safe from guns, and having had teachers I know I respected. These gifts given to me and you, the right to a good education, rich or not rich, fostering our abilities to read, write and reason.
“Cold Turkey” was a very funny movie highlighting the agonies and ecstasy’s of addiction with smoking, in the late sixties, an all star cast. An early movement against the evils of smoking tobacco began right after Lucille Ball died of Lung Cancer. Another epic novel, one of the most brilliant stories a true irony, the tale of tobacco and it’s absurd ill begotten start, a very humorous, wildly satirical way of communicating in words, the historical/hysterical tales of this Country’s earliest days. A ribald account of the western European invasion and the gracious and brave Pocahontas. Martyrs of the scoundrel tobacco dealing crooks whose Ancestry has nothing to do with now, that triggered, the emergence of our Early American Economy, a boon preceding but vying for importance with the 1840’s Gold Rush, and the striking of oil, out west in this, land of liberty, this great big country……………the book, THE SOT WEED FACTOR BY JOHN BARTH. “Power corrupts absolutely”. All anyone has to do to be a “Free” and a “Thriving” American is to believe in what is right, don’t give up and be ready for to fight! Happy Martin Luther King Day. With conscience, if we must accept nicotine, forced upon us with happy grown ups on television smiling and puffing proudly, even in the 1970’s I would take 20 minute breaks from clerical work, elavator down to the street level from skyscrapers of the San Francisco Financial District, and be solicited by the Tobacco, Cigarette conglomerates innocently offering the public trial packs, little 5 cigarette packs, and I was barely past the age of 21. They would have pushed that evile dope my way, even if I had been under that age. I remember having a day dream while suffering from a horrific cold/virus that had gone bronchial, I wished there was a safe way to smoke, because I had an emotional and physical addiction to nicotine already for over eleven years, since I began smoking at twelve. It was a permissive era, and child raising was out of parent control in the mid to late sixties. Nicotine is not in and of itself evil, it is the smoking and burning of it too helpless excess that is! Many times, I have been party to conversations with other seasoned smoker’s, we have suspected and said, over these 45 years of smoking, that we believe other addictive chemicals have been added during the growing processes of tobacco and into the papers and filters, as well? They burn so fast, and you feel like you just must do it again, so soon after. Salt Peter to keep the soldiers from going ape….. All kinds of evil about smoking tobacco products.
………”Cigareets and Whusky and Wild Wild Women…..they drive you crazy they drive you insane………….”
Worrying about what teenagers will do to rebel against hypocrisy is absurdity. E-cigarettes and the deliverance, the exodus from the hells and smells of smoking of a huge populous, will do more positively for any impressionably disposed youth’s and their growing curious minds.
The libertarian in me is screaming at the idea of the government imposing a prohibition on yet ANOTHER substance. Even if electronic cigarettes were only 1/2 as safe as regular cigarettes. Then they are still 1/2 as safe as regular cigarettes! all i know, is that I have not had a cigarette in over 2 years now, and i couldn’t be more happy about it.
The studies will come, and the data will speak for itself. I personally do not need a full time babysitter. Banning electronic cigarettes would be like banning seatbelts from cars.
After one month, myself being a twenty-year pack-a-day smoker, I am down to less than five cigarettes-per-day. I love smoking (not just nicotine), and this has been the first time in my life that quitting has been within reach. E-cigarettes are a wonder product. Their inventor should get a Nobel science prize for the lives this will save.
To make this short would be an injustice.
To begin, I began smoking at the age of 12. Stealing cigarettes from my parents was easy. By 14 I smoked a pack a day. I am now 23 and ten years of smoking has definetly impacged my life. Running was impossible, I was tired all the time, and not to mention the lack of tastes and the horrible stench I reeked off. When I got married, I xaid I’d quit. I tried the patch, no sucess. I tried that,several times, along with nicotine gum and even chantix. Still a smoker of two to three packs a day after the age of 16to 21. Then, I heard about electronic cigarettes.
I got my first ecig from a friend as a gift. The best gift I have ever recieved. I used the prefilled carts for a while and researched information till I was blue in the face. I used my ecig for two months while still smoking. The number of actual cigarettes I smoked slowely decreased to about a pack a week instead of 2 or 3 a DAY. Then I quit complete use of traditional cigarettes around six months, after buying a better model (a joye 510). I began nuying diferent strengths of nicotine to see where my comfort zone was. I now vape 24mg nicotine in a rainbow of flavors .
To be clear, I wanted to quit smoking for my wife, then my son, and then myself. I wanted to feel healthier, be able to run around with my boy, taste food and most of all, to just be able to breathe. But in all honesty, I didnt want to loose the sensation of smoking. To relax without them seemed impossible. But my e cig alowed me to continue, comfortably, having my nicotine fix without the smells and taste and second hand smoke and carcinogens found in the cancer sticks I smoked so religously for ten years.
My doctor says my lungs are performing better than he has ever seen in the past five years, I feel more rested and awake, and can play with my 3 yr old son without feeling like dying. That in it of itself is the greatest benifit to me.
If I were still smoking traditional cigarettes my quality of life would be greatly reduced, as would tje contents of my wallet.
I spent on average 70$ a week on traditional cigarettes. I now spend about 35$-50$ a MONTH on dcigarette parts and juice and am completly satisfied. I have now been using an e xig for 11months. And I have never felt better.
Please learn the facts, please dont be a ney sayer without realizing how life changing these devices really are.
John M. Simon
Baltimore, MD
I am the mother of two, Son 24 “smoker” and daughter of 12 that’s begged me for over 5 years to please stop smoking for numerous reasons. I will be 51 this year June of 2011.. I smoked for 36 years.. yeap minors could buy smokes when i first started. So i do believe in laws to keep minors from the purchase of tobacco products. BUT! I also believe in E -Cig’s,and E-Mod’s and they work! after trying most of everything on the market and failed. I found a more satisfying way to kick the habit of smoking tobacco. I am happy to say I have been tobacco free since 11/22/2010.. So I can speak for millions in my shoes, find a way to keep them on the market regulated, it could save millions of lives .
I am a 33 y/o woman, who has been using electronic cigarettes for a year now. I had smoked for 20 years. I tried everything imaginable to quit. Including all of the FDA approved smoking cessation products. Nothing worked. Nothing.
Then I heard about electronic cigarettes. I tried one. Within a week, that’s right a WEEK, I was done with tobacco cigarettes.
Immediately, I noticed I was feeling better. I could breathe better, I could smell and taste better, and over this past year, I haven’t been ill nearly as much as when I was a smoker. I even lost a few pounds. I can honestly say that I haven’t had a single negative side effect from electronic cigarettes, only positive.
Also, my favorite flavors are the candy flavors, specifically chocolate cheesecake. It just kills me that all of these 3 letter acronym organizations think that adults cannot enjoy candy flavored products. They think that they’re ONLY designed for children. That line of thinking is the absolutely ridiculous.
The FDA needs to stop thinking with their wallets and start listening to the people.
It has been almost 2 years since I started vaping with the electronic cigarette. Almost 2 years without a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. To this day I am still amazed that I no longer smoke cigarettes. I felt sure I would go to my grave being a smoker.
My son has schizophrenia and, before using the elctronic cigarette, was smoking 3+ packs of cigarettes each day – chain smoking all day long.
A recent study of smoking and schizophrenia showed that approximately 80% of people with schizophrenia smoke cigarettes. This is more than 3 times the rate of the rest of the population. This fact alone is very telling about how this particular group of people rely heavily on the smoking habit to cope with the daily issues of stress and anxiety
My son and I currently use electronic cigarettes and are much healthier now. No more morning coughs, sustained colds with bouts of bronchitis, or shortness of breath. I can now walk up a flight of stairs and sing songs with my granddaughter and not get short of breath. Absolutely amazing!
My son no longer has coughing fits or has that gray look about him. When he was smoking he did so abstractedly. He was constantly burning holes in his clothes and the furniture. Because the electronic cigarette has no ash and does not burn it is a great relief to both my husband and I not to worry about a possible fire from a burning cigarette.
If electronic cigarettes are banned I know without a doubt we would revert back to smoking cigarettes. It’s not only the nicotine that keeps us addicted, but also the mental release of stress and the hand-to-mouth habit. The electronic cigarette effectively simulates that habit and, in my opinion, is a much safer and cleaner alternative to smoking cigarettes.
We may never get to the point to actually debate the harm reduction potential of e-cigarettes, unfortunately.
If the TPSAC recommends banning menthol cigarettes, will that remove menthol flavors from e-cigarettes??
I am a GreatGrandmother and had been addicted to Black and Mild cigars.After obtaining ecigs, I have not picked up acigar since.My breathing is so much improved it is scary..I have not wanted any real tobacco since starting these.
No more 4000 chemicals of harmful carcigens..
Thank God for ECIGS….
I am 31 my husband is 33 we have been free of Big Tobacco for well over a year now. I decided to quit for myself as I felt horrible. Someone at work had an e-Cigg and let me try it. I got one, then my husband got one. He is one to say that he loves to smoke. I love the nicotine it seems to calm me. We quit once by getting hypnotized, it didn’t work for very long. We would be around other smokers and it would entice us back. My house smells tons better, my clothes, and my hair as well. I didn’t go into using E-Ciggs as a quit smoking device, I did it as an alternative which is always how I have seen it. I don’t understand why there are people out there that wont allow adults to be adults. There is no child out there that has the money to purchase these, and the patience to deal with the quirks. I personally love the flavor options and the option to pick my nicotine level. Instead of all the fighting to ban something they know nothing about, do the tests, read the literature out there that the hundreds of people have researched and taken time to write. Watch the videos, listen to the testimonies. Stop trying to control what you can’t and help instead of hinder.
Seems to me big tobacco might have their hands in the fdas pockets. Electric cigarettes have been my saving grace. After trying all the cessation products out there these have been the only thing that has gotten me off of cigarettes and to tell the truth even if it only replaces my smoking I’ll be thrilled. If you do some research and show some facts that these are bad for you then I might listen but at the moment you are trying to ban something out of ignorance. We KNOW cigarettes are bad, ban them if you need to ban something.
I have been free of tobacco cigarettes for 8 months now, thanks to e cigarettes. Within the first week I noticed that I’m no longer coughing when I wake up nor am I phlegmy.
I’m breathing easier. And my stress has gone down. I know that the FDA has yet to approve these devices, but removal of them is not the answer. This would only cause most of us who use them to go back to regular cigarettes; something that is KNOWN to be harmful. And although the FDA continues to disapprove ecigarettes they have yet to test them in a head to head comparison with traditional cigarettes.
I smoked, on and off, for about 12 years. I tried many times to quit, and had done so twice for an accumulative three years. I kept going back to tobacco though, and couldn’t stay away. I got into personal vaporizers (PVs) last year and used one for about five months. At the time, there wasn’t a lot out for PVs in terms of technology, parts, and options. After that five month period I went back to tobacco for about four more months, and then I just couldn’t stand the tobacco. I was dying for vapor.
I ended up back in the proverbial vaper’s wagon and I have been 100% smoke free for four months now, and I don’t predict I’ll go back to tobacco. The vapor is clean, tasty, and the PV itself is very customizable. There are a wide array of PVs for purchase at nearly all levels of affordability. It’s so much fun and it feels just wonderful to not have that tar and other dangerous chemicals destroy my teeth or my body.
Personal vaporizers did help me quit smoking, but they are meant to be used as substitutes, and substitutes they are! I understand that the FDA is being pressured by big tobacco companies to support their special interests, but PVs need to stay. They have been a real blessing in my life. It’s been a long time, but I can finally breathe deeply again, and it’s all thanks to PVs.
First, disclosure: I am a former smoker of 35 years & a current user of an e-cigarette. I’ve successfully converted my partner to vapor as well. I’m anti-nanny-government & pro-freedom-of-choice. I’m also VERY-ANTI-UNELECTED-regulatory-agency control of my ever dwindling liberties. That said, the “white paper” summary should consider & include the following.
The smoking population doesn’t have the numbers (clout) to defend against the overarching regulations bestowed upon them by the larger general population, and in some ways that is a good thing. But the smoking population isn’t so small that the financial arms of Big Government, Big Pharma, and Big Tobacco, can afford to ignore them. These organizations are most definitely caught in cross-purposes regarding this issue; cross-purposes regarding everything but the money.
Big Government proclaims that they’re regulating to protect our health. Big Pharma proclaims that they’re working tirelessly to prop up Big Government’s goals. Big Tobacco proclaims that they’ve changed their approach – and with the MSA – are funding Big Government’s goals. And each will suffer significant negative financial impact if smoking alternatives are adopted by a large percentage of the smoking population.
Along comes the Battery-Operated-Nicotine-Inhaler or Personal Vaporizer or “e-cigarette”. Initially ignored as a gadget or fad, the devices continue to sell & improve while the industry gathers momentum and strengthens its position in the marketplace. And the unelected authority of the FDA has to meddle. Still young and under near-constant threat, the “vapor industry” hasn’t been able to organize itself to properly deal with the over-governmental, over-regulatory USA and its unelected FDA.
It’s time the FDA settled on some realities:
• No amount of negative propaganda or negative spin can counter the practical reality that e-cigarette vapor is less harmful than smoke.
• No amount of negative propaganda or negative spin can create collateral harm where there is none.
• No amount of negative propaganda or negative spin can counter the success people have had switching, partially or completely, from traditional cigarettes.
With the business & financial interests of Big Government, Big Pharma, & Big Tobacco eliminated from the conversation, when the data & information is viewed as cold unbiased fact, there can be no basis for governmental interference with the business of the e-cigarette industry.
My tax dollars can & should be better spent on true governmental issues.
hey im a 7day cigarette free vaper i feel alot better just vapig a e cig and clothes dont smell 2packs a day smoker to vaping is best move imade and ithnk i can suceed this tie afte trying gums and patches vaping might do the trick
I am 48. Smoked for 30 years.
My story is similar to many related here, tired it all nothing worked. As of September 2009 I have had not one cigarette and as long as I my avail myself the use of these wonderful devices I am confident I will never return to smoking tobacco.
I feel all the ‘Save the Children’ propaganda is simply another fear mongering tactic used to obfuscate the genuine motivations behind the zealous efforts to ban or otherwise control my ability to continue to use devices.
From my vantage point I see the FDA as a biased, questionably influenced, autonomous bureaucracy drunk with power which they wield not in our best interest but for the interests of their partners, Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.
I’ll end with a few quotes,
Rep Tom McClintock 2009 on Tobacco Control
“M. Speaker, in every society, in every part of the world, in every period of history there is always a large group of people who simply want to be left alone to live their lives according to their own best judgment and there’s always a smaller but more domineering group who believe they’re so good at running their own lives that they are naturally entitled to run everyone else’s.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEu8juI8zs
Thomas Jefferson
“Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of
industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good
government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our
felicities.”
I have smoke for 25 yrs and have try to quit cold turkey, patches, gum, nothing work, I got to the point I would cough in my sleep when I got up.
Some times I could not even catch my breath. One day I lay them down stop because of the pain. 4 hours later I was in bad shape so I light one up.
I thought I could never stop until I seen a ad about e-cig, so I went to my computer and found ECF. Started reading about people who was able to stop after smoking for 25-40 yrs ect….
So I got a kit and have not look back. It’s been 4 months and my coughing has stop. the whizzing almost gone. My taste buds are back and I can smell items and food. It was like being a kid again.
I can go for walk and not lose my breath with in a minute. My health is so much better I really can enjoy a walk again.
Cigarettes kill and are a know killer!! Now tell me one person that e-cig has killed or any report that said they are as harmful as cigarettes. For one time in your life don’t think about the money!!
Think about how many people health that has and will get better by not banning e-cigs.
We are adults!!! Let me choose what best for me!!!!! Ban them for kids but let us adults choose what we like best and whats best for are health! Don’t let the money take are freedom!!!!!!!
I smoked for over 27 years. I am so thankful to have found e cigs as an alternative. I breath better,i have more energy,and I don’t have the same risk of getting cancer. Both my physician and dentist were pleased with this alternative.
Nobody wants to see children start using e-cigs, believe it or not, the flavors are something we adults enjoy! .We should impose the bias of anti smoking groups upon individual adults who can choose for themselves wether to use this alternative. I understand it is not 100% safe, but it’s better than the alternative.
To the FDA: stop bein bullied by lobbyists from Big Pharmacy and anti smoking lobbyists. Tell the truth. You’re “random” samples of nicotine cartridges only belonged to the two companies that filed suit against you. The amount of “impurities” were miniscule compared to the thousands found in cigarettes. You will be granted the authority to regulate these devices as tobacco products. Take that as a win, and don’t gamble with the lives that have already been spared by switching to e cigs.
Lets put big tobacco companies out of business for good! The ecig has saved my life and now I longer smoke nasty cigarettes. Yes, I still “vape” nicotine, but there are no where near as many chemicals as with traditional cigarettes. The FDA thinking that ecigs could be worse than cigarettes is ridiculous. So why doesn’t the FDA ban cigarettes themselves? Help us smokers get off cigarettes. The ecig is a life saver.
I will add another testimonial for the record. Big tobacco’s dream customer. I started smoking at 13 years of age. By the time I was 16 I had brand loyalty and an almost pack a day habit. By the time I was actually old enough to buy tobacco legally I was a two pack a day smoker. In my late 20s I started to try to quit smoking in earnest. I tried patches, gums, pills, smokeless tobacco and cold turkey and got very good at quitting smoking but I never stopped. I had pretty much given up trying to quit by my mid 30s and was often heard to say that it will be tobacco that kills me. 25 years after my first cigarette I bought an e-cigarette kit. I had no intention of using it to quit smoking. I planned to cut down on costs and be able to supplement my tobacco habit in forbidden places like bars, airports and in my home. I had agreed with my wife that I would only smoke outside or in the garage. After using the e-cig for two weeks I noticed that my 2 pack a day habit was down to about 5 cigarettes a day and the rest of the time I was using my e-cig. I still had to make the decision to quit tobacco altogether, and honestly the first month was difficult, but still much easier than other methods I had tried. In a little over a month that will have been 2 years ago. I never thought I could go 2 hours without tobacco and now it has been almost 2 years. Unless you have been there it is hard to understand how amazing that is. I smell better. I breathe better. I feel better. I can even go longer between nicotine ‘doses’ than I ever could with tobacco. Is this anecdotal? of course. Is my experience going to work for everyone. Probably not, but it worked for me and thats important to me and my loved ones.
I smoked cigarettes for 24 years. I had tried numerous times to get away from them over the last several years. I tried the patch, gums, lozenges and other “quit smoking” plans. Nothing worked. I would always end up craving a cigarette and giving in and buying another pack.
Then I got an electronic cigarette.
It felt clean. It felt good and the taste was amazing… AND I wasn’t craving the real ones AT ALL. I was addicted to nicotine… NOT the cancer causing agents and chemicals. Apparently, The FDA is fine with these 600 chemicals in unlit cigarettes (which turn into thousands upon lighting, as long as there is a warning on the label) They approve a product with over 40 KNOWN CANCER causing chemicals, to be sold in every gas station and grocery store… but are working to stop electronic cigarettes?
These devices have changed my life for the better in SO many ways. I can breathe better, I sleep better, I smell better, I can taste food again, I have more energy and I don’t STINK anymore… plus I’m saving thousands of dollars a year that I can spend on other stuff besides poisons.
The act to ban electronic cigarettes in New York just makes absolutely NO sense to me at all. I can’t find any logic in it. We all know that the FDA doesn’t REALLY care about safety… they care about control and money. If they cared about safety than real cigarettes would have been banned a long time ago. Instead they turn their heads for the BILLIONS of dollars in taxes that come in with cigarettes. I have NO problem with electronic cigarettes having warnings like real cigarettes. I think they should be kept away from minors and I need some regulation…. but banning with out testing or even TRYING to profit from this blessing of an invention is ridiculous.
Don’t they realize there are SO MANY more ways to profit from electronic cigarettes than there are from real ones?? There are not only thousands of flavors that could be sold, but they also have batteries and atomizers and tips and so many accessories and chargers. It’s a gold mine. If they are only interested in greed and money… electronic cigarettes is their dream come true, just as it is for smokers. It’s good for everyone, especially non-smokers who would no longer have to be around dangerous second hand smoke.
Maybe it’s the word “cigarette” that scares non-smokers into thinking these are actual cigarettes. They aren’t actual cigarettes. There’s no smoke. There’s nothing burning. It’s a new invention that has now been proven numerous times to be FAR safer than real cigarettes. Yet, still these bans surface in New York, with accusers crying, “Who knows what are in these things?” Well, if they had done any research they would know… because there are only 4 ingredients… what they should be crying is “Who knows what is in a REAL cigarette?” because honestly… no one knows except the tobacco companies and the FDA. We know EXACTLY what is in electronic cigarettes and we know for certain that nicotine, though terribly addictive, is not cancer causing. It’s effects are similar to caffeine.
I choose to call my electronic cigarette a “vaporizer” because in reality, that’s what it is. It’s not a rolled piece of paper with plant material in it. It’s a battery that is atomizing liquid… it feels great, is less harmful, leaves no odor and it’s changed my life for the better.
EVERY one of my smoking friends that have tried my electronic cigarette, have got one for themselves and STOPPED smoking real cigarettes. I’ve converted 6 long time smokers and they are all now free from cigarettes.
Well, my story is pretty much the same as everyone else’s. I have smoked about a pack and a half for close to 20 years, About the only difference is, I still really enjoyed smoking. Of course I knew I should quit and I was really starting to feel bad health wise. I had chest pains, the bad cough, all the normal signs. But still really hated the idea of quitting. My wife smoked and was the type to try quitting almost on a weekly basis.
I knew about the electronic cigarettes for quite a few years, but they seemed like a big inconvenience. The batteries that didn’t last long, the almost constant filling of the juice, it just didn’t appeal to me. Recently I decided to look in to it again, and found that many of the drawbacks have been fixed in the newer models of vaporizers. So I gave it a try. The first day I received my vaporizer, I went from 30 cigarettes a day, to about 3. I did that for about a week (I paid $7 for that pack of smokes, I wasn’t going to throw it away 🙂 But when that pack was gone, I was done. I haven’t had a real cigarette since. I recently bought my wife a vaporizer and she is doing the same thing. She is down to that 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, and feels she could quit too if she found a flavor of juice she really likes. I have shown all the health benefits others have mentioned, but I also have not had a migraine since I switched to the e-cig. I used to get them almost daily, and severe ones about once a week. Not any more!
Please don’t ban e cigarettes. I will have to go back to smoking if you do.
Smoked for 40 years…2 packs a day. Tried everything to quit and couldn’t until I got an e cig.
I still can’t believe it, but I have quit smoking and am weaning down on nicotine.
I feel so much better now…please, please don’t ban
It’s really quite simple. I started smoking when I was 16 years old. I’ve always loved the ‘act’ of smoking, involving fire, something in my hands to prevent “idle hands,” breathing smoke, and tasting tobacco. I could go for an hour, a work shift, even a whole day without smoking a marlboro red if I needed to, but as soon as I had the opportunity I’d light one up again because I genuinely enjoyed the ritual.
Now I’m 28 years old, and I STILL like the ritual. However for the last few weeks there has been a difference. After coughing up a great deal of tar at first I’m now able to do things that I haven’t been able to do since I was 16. I can Ice skate in frigid weather for hours without my lungs screaming for mercy. I can take very very deep breaths and even hold my breath for longer than I have been in years. I can run, I can actually taste and smell things that I never would have noticed 6 months ago.
… Yes, for the last month I have been “vaping” an e-cigarette with nicotine in it. I cannot vouch for the chemical composition of the vapor the electronic cigarette produces, as I don’t have a GCMS in my house, but I believe the results speak for themselves. And for someone my age to get away from inhaling flaming tobacco, with a substitute that tastes better, smokes cleaner, and is a “cool gadget;” is outstanding. If everyone I knew who smoked tobacco cigarettes were to switch to this “Nicotine vaporizer,” I guarantee they’d live longer, healthier lives.
For someone, be it a government agency, tobacco lobby, or even the companies that manufacture the current “quit smoking” devises, is an absolute travesty. Nicotine actually has health benefits that far outweigh the “caffeine like” side effects and toxicity.
I DID NOT quit smoking, I just switched to a tar-free, carbon monoxide free, secondhand smoke free, odorless, stainless, method of smoking that tastes better, and leaves my throat, heart, nose and lungs feeling better.
If the FDA decides to take this away from me, and the HUGE volume of people that have lived by it for the last 2 years, they’re fools. Only time and testing will prove that tobacco is what should be outlawed, and the tobacco smokers SHOULD HAVE TO resort to e-cigs. They’ll be glad they did, and the world will be a much healthier place.
I am a board-certified pediatrician. I don’t smoke cigarettes, and I’ve never tried an e-cigarette or any other type of personal vaporizer.
In my practice, I have yet to meet a child or teenager who uses e-cigarettes. I have not yet met a child or teenager who can’t wait to get their hands on bubblegum- or chocolate-flavored water vapor, either. Anecdotally, it seems to me that kids in general would be much happier with actual bubblegum or chocolate.
I do, however, see more asthma in my practice than any other single diagnosis. I also see a number of children with obesity, poor grades, and ADHD, and ALL of these chronic medical problems have known associations with passive smoke exposure. Many of the children I see with asthma don’t have parents who smoke; however, many are unfortunate enough to live in apartment buildings or other type of multi-unit housing, which are known to expose inhabitants to higher levels of passive smoke.
From a harm reduction standpoint, it is my opinion that the benefits to children when their parents or neighbors quit smoking far outweigh any theoretical risk that children might be enticed to use an e-cigarette.
Disclaimer: I do not own stock in any e-cigarette companies, or have any other financial or otherwise beneficial relationship with the e-cigarette industry.
The FDA is full of bull……… This is all about MONEY! They don’t care about safety. If they did they would encourage the use of e cigarette.
Only thing they need to do is come up with a fair tax for e-cigarette company. This industry is going to become very big.
They are acting like paid hit men instead of a government agency that cares about American citizens.
Quick points
20 year smoker
4 months non-smoker when I started vaping
Personal nicotine vaporizors or e-cigarettes were the key and I, like other posters, feel better, can do more, and haven’t looked back. Can’t say the same for all the other Nicotine replacement, FDA approved, methods I’ve tried.
FDA is bought out and have no valid arguement to support their current claims.
To use an Personal Nicotine Vaporizor you need to carry around batteries (plural), battery charger, atomizers (plural), cartridges (plural) AND nicotine juice. Typically one switches a battery 1-4 times a day and refills there cartridge as many times. Refilling is generally a hassle. Most vapers carry around a bag of things that facilitates there vape habit. You tell me how many kids will go through the effort to purchase, keep, use, maintain and HIDE, this much stuff. I would expect regular cigarettes to be far more convenient AND far more dangerous for kids.
Regulation? YES.
Ban? only if you want all the vapers to start smoking again. Thanks FDA for you support. In case no one notices that was sarcasm.
I have been an ecig user for almost 2 years. Have experienced a significant improvement in my health, as well as my financial situation.
As an informed consumer I would appreciate it if the FDA would just leave well enough alone. Lets look at a few points. I am of legal tobacco use age, and I completely understand the aspects of using an ecig. Other than that there should be no other questions the FDA has. Simply put, I am an informed consumer. For you to restrict me as a taxpaying citizen from purchasing ANYTHING is borderline communistic. I understand that you emplace industry standards, but with ZERO FDA involvement dont you think the consumer as a whole will weed out the good from the bad? Do you not believe in capitalism? Best product wins? In my eyes the FDA is an unfunded liability to me, the taxpayer, and needs to stay in its lane.
Touching on other things, where do you draw the line? Menthol cigarettes are a type of flavored tobacco, and there are more flavors of smokeless tobacco than I care to count. The argument that e liquid flavors target children is completely absurd. Dont get me started on flavored alcohol either.
The short and skinny of this situation is clear. The FDA has a few friends, big pharmaceutical, and big tobacco. The thought of saving lives by replacing tobacco with something much better is threatening to those industries, especially big tobacco.
Keep this in mind FDA, sooner or later we WILL replace the smokers that are left out there, and our numbers will be great. eventually we WILL vote you out in some way shape or form.
What happened to all the investigative journalists? It seems they are all just mouthpieces now.
“And anyone is free to buy them.” If they are 18 or older you mean?
Any 8 year old can buy ice cream. It comes in a variety of flavors, brands and is FDA approved! None of that changes the fact that it isn’t good for you. Will ice cream be next on the list of items for Prue Talbot, PhD to study?
Hi I’m 19 years old ive been smoking for 8 years on my 20th birthday in may ive had my ecig for about a month and i can say that i cant smoke normal cigarettes now my sense of taste smell is back, my mom even says there color to my face and the dark circles around my eyes are dissapearing, my boyfriend has even said that im not choking and coughing in my sleep. I started smoking at a very young age I wish i never started but now with help of my e cig im quitting. what scared me the most was i met this lady shes a good friend of mine she lost both her lungs to smoking shes had a double lung transplant and is living her life healthy now had it not been for someone giving there lungs to her she would have died. that scared the crap out of me because i am a smoker and i could just as easily happen to me thank you evilynne and thank you e cigs for the help and support you are giving me today
PS. I am canadian and we canadians and the americans should fight this appalling display of abuse of power i will not be a slave to tobacco anymore.
Make E cigs a accessable tool to quit smoking dont give in to big tobacco
Lives distroyed by tobacco: hundreds of thousands
Lives to be saved by ecigs thousands and counting
I smoked for 40 years and was a slave to cigarettes.
I can’t count the times I suffered trying to beat the addiction.
One day I did a simple web search, “nicotine addict.”
The reason for this search was because I was simply trying to find a way to win the battle.
One thing became very clear during these searches on smoking addiction.
It’s not the nicotine that kills you, it’s the smoke.
I was fortunate enough to find someone that pointed me to what I needed to “stop smoking.”
After 40 years of smoking I was smoke free in 3 days!
Without the E-Cigarette, I will be back to smoking in 1 day.
My overall health has skyrocketed and my doctor is just amazed that I was able to quit smoking.
My doctor was by my side watching me try and fail for 20 years.
This is a success that I need to watch my grandchildren grow.