Not all that long ago much of the population smoked cigarettes. It wasn’t possible to get fresh air even in hospitals, restaurants, offices and on airplanes. Although much of the public was unaware of the health risks brought on by smoking cigarettes, some people spoke out against it. According to Google Patent Records, this led to a patent filed in 1963 by Herbert Gilbert for an alternative choice to tobacco cigarettes: the smokeless non-tobacco cigarette, a possible solution to the toxins in cigarettes. Now, electronic cigarettes are the most practical alternative to cigarettes, especially for people who are trying to stop smoking. The advertisements are everywhere: bus stops, T.V. and magazines. Those persistent salespeople at mall kiosks are always trying to sell them, too.
No ordinary “cancer stick,” the electronic cigarette (better known as the “e-cig”) is a personal vaporizing electronic nicotine delivery system. It is a handheld, battery powered device that provides the user with a dose of nicotine in a flavored liquid and possibly other chemicals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An e-cigarette is often shaped like a normal cigarette or cigar, but instead is made of metal or plastic. Some even have a tip that illuminates when the user inhales to provide the full effect of smoking, delivering satisfaction in the oral fixation and physical addiction aspects of the act.
They can appear as a variety of objects that one would never expect someone to smoke, according to Discovery News, such as a USB or a pen. They also come in attractive colors like bright pink or blue. This drives some objection from critics, who say this may be what attracts kids most and can lead to addiction to nicotine at a young age. WebMD names a few major skeptics of the device such as the Chief Medical Officer of the American Lung Association, Norman Edelman, MD, and Rita Chappelle, an FDA spokesperson. They may be called critics but only because neither of them can trust this device before extensive testing is done.
The device has a button near the mouthpiece that if you push while inhaling will deliver a dose of nicotine containing water vapor and a tangy taste. Blu cigarettes, one of the leading distributors for electronic cigarettes, offers a variety of flavors for consumers to choose from: regular tobacco, menthol, coffee, cherry, vanilla, pineapple and more. It is a new way of delivering nicotine into your system: a piece of machinery that resembles a cigarette but contains no tobacco.
There is no lingering odor with e-cigarettes, nor are there many regulations or limitations pertaining to their use since lawmakers are not able to catch up with the booming fad. Court decisions have ruled that electronic cigarettes “cannot qualify as drug delivery products,” said Jeff Ventura of the FDA. Discovery News reported that because of this, “the agency cannot ban [electronic cigarettes] or require more arduous testing.” This was shortly after the series of court rulings in 2010 that decreed the FDA could not ban the importation of electronic cigarettes from China, according to The Boston Globe. “There is no pollution of the environment with this product,” said Craig Youngblood, president of the InLife e-cigarette company. “The vapor is not the same as smoke. And for every odor-free e-cigarette cartridge people throw in the trash, smokers throw 20 smelly cigarette butts out their car windows.” Even if we disregard the physical benefits of electronic cigarettes, acknowledging that they are better for the environment is important as well.
The most alluring factor to the e-cig for cigarette users is probably the hope that they will help smokers kick the habit. The act of bringing a cylindrical shaped tube to your mouth, knowing it will deliver physical relief to your nicotine addiction probably sounds pretty satisfying to a smoker. E-cigarettes deliver a controlled amount of nicotine to the user in each cartridge, so people addicted to the substance can start at a select dosage and continuously decrease their intake. However, the device wasn’t necessarily made to curb addiction. Blu’s site states, “Blu has not been approved by the FDA as a smoking cessation device. For this reason, it should not be used to help you quit smoking.” This sounds versed, as if Blu is contractually obligated to say this so people unable to quit after using e-cigs can’t turn around and blame the company. However, they’re free to attempt to use the device to quit at their own risk.
Carmen Branca, a 2013 graduate of the State University of New York biology program on the path to medical school, has had close family members successfully quit using tobacco because of electronic cigarettes. She fully believes in the switch from tobacco to e-cigarettes.
“They help people get off smoking that have been smoking for decades like some of my family members who were more than ‘a pack a day’ smokers for a long time,” Branca said. “Just from switching to e-cigs, they have significantly decreased their chances of heart disease, lung cancer, and a shorter lifespan. There are all different variations and strengths so people quitting can limit the amount of nicotine they’re taking in and slowly wean themselves off the drug.”
Many people believe making the switch from tobacco cigarettes to vaporizer cigarettes is one foot in the right direction down the road to quitting. However, Derrick Jackson of The Boston Globe disagrees. He said e-cigarettes are “just another way to keep people addicted to the smoking industry, period.” This makes sense because the basic purpose for using e-cigarettes is to ingest nicotine in a “cool” method that sends the drug rocketing straight to your brain. Some cartridges claim to be nicotine free, just going through the motions without getting the actual fix, but there have not been enough studies to know if these claims can be trusted. For all we know, big e-cigarette distributors like Blu could be putting nicotine in “nicotine free” cartridges or putting higher levels in than they advertise just to get users more addicted to nicotine. I’m not trying to birth any conspiracy theories, but it is in the best interest of e-cigarette producers to keep their clientele crawling back for more, and until regulations are put on importation and distribution, they can be making up their own rules as they go along.
Branca has personally seen success stories from the switch to e-cigs but is not naïve to the downsides. “The attractiveness of this cool, new fad is the draw that kids have to it,” he said. And this is the fear many who oppose the device share as well. The bright colors and pretty lights are enticing to young people who can only hope the “nicotine free” label is not lying.
For the most part, any past or present smokers who I know say they initially started smoking cigarettes for stress relief. It’s an action someone can do that they have complete control over. However, it has been proven that smoking is bad for one’s health, but apparently so are e-cigarettes. “Electronic cigarettes, seen by many as a healthy alternative to tobacco smoking, do cause damage to the lungs,” Medical News Today reported. Scientists from the University of Athens in Greece conducted research concluding that inhalation of electronic cigarettes immediately increased airway resistance of users, meaning it would be more difficult to breathe. This experiment showed immediate results of e-cigarette inhalation, but almost no research has been done testing long term effects of electronic cigarette usage. If temporary increased airway restriction is the only downside of electronic cigarettes, then they are, in my opinion, the go-to choice for smoking anything, period.
It never crossed my mind that something remotely related to a cigarette would be harmless or even good for someone, but I must say it is much better for smokers as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes. The combustion present in traditional cigarettes, the culprit of smoke production, is the real danger when it comes to tobacco cigarettes, according to WebMD. Tobacco cigarettes contain cancer-causing agents that affect the smoker as well as bystanders. With tobacco cigarettes also comes 4,000 toxins including 43 carcinogens, according to Craig Youngblood, president of the InLife e-cigarette company.
Electronic cigarettes are not perfect for users on a road to a healthy life, but if said users are just searching for a healthier alternative to a stress relieving activity, electronic cigarettes can be the answer. Addiction is a bitter foe that nearly always wins the war within the mind and body of a smoker. If nicotine users must use at all, electronic cigarettes are less harmful to the user and the environment.
I like seeing archived articles reprinted from the mid century just for sh*ts and giggles. But, this is 2016. We know now that e-cigarettes are very safe. We know they are effective smoking cessation devices. As we saw with the patch and nico-gum, we are not seeing teenagers becoming addicted to them. Public Health England in August of 2014 released a review of over 180 e-cigarette studies and they say the very safe e-cigarette does not present any harm to the user and none to bystanders. They go on to recommend e-cigarettes be used for smoking cessation and ask that the demonizing campaigns stop.
A troubling phenomena has reappeared though. And that is the health charity’s administrators are running old time demonizing campaign against the very safe e-cigarette. Its the old see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, but let us say they are evil just in case we can garner more operating funds. Our health charity industry and local governments that were involved in the Master Tobacco Settlement of 1999, have seen their future income shrink from an expected $250 billion to $150 billion from tobacco cigarette sales. The e-cigarette has been very disruptive to who base their budgets on cigarette taxes.