Do We Know How Risky E-Cigarettes Are?
From: The Regulatory Review | A Publication of the Penn Program on Regulation
E-cigarettes are less dangerous than is generally believed, posing a unique information challenge for regulators.
Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are lithium-ion powered devices that do not burn tobacco, but instead generate a nicotine vapor by vaporizing a fluid. Because conventional cigarettes have much higher levels of carcinogenic and toxic chemicals than e-cigarettes, conventional cigarettes pose health hazards—such as cancer—that are many orders of magnitude greater than those linked to these “vaping” devices. However, as a nicotine delivery mechanism, e-cigarettes, like conventional cigarettes, do create the possibility of addiction.
The emergence of e-cigarettes has generated mixed regulatory responses. Some public health officials, such as those in the United Kingdom, view e-cigarettes as a potential alternative to cigarettes and as a mechanism to foster smoking cessation, whereas many U.S. public health officials have tended to treat e-cigarettes in the same manner as conventional cigarettes. Whether and how we should regulate e-cigarettes depend in part on how people perceive the risks associated with e-cigarettes and whether these perceptions correspond with the risks posed by the product. Is the principal market failure an underestimation of the risks of e-cigarettes—which is the usual motivation for hazard warnings to boost awareness of risk—or is there a need for a different kind of informational approach to regulation of e-cigarettes?
