The Newest E-cig looks remarkably simular to a real cigarette.
Is hazed up Hollywood since the silk screen was first illuminated, its deeply rooted in popular culture, and is a both a fad and an addiction, it’s the cigarette. If you can remember the first advertisements for cigarettes you would see that they are full of glory and promises of all the best benefits, in class, popularity, sexuality, and even health.
As some Camel ad’s proclaimed “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” And another bearing the statement “As your dentist I would recommend Viceroys.” And even “20,679 physicians say Luckys are less irritating.” The FDA and surgeon genera have promoted awareness about the dangers of cigarettes; in short, cigarettes kill or claim your lungs. Now on every box of cigarettes sold you will see “Smoking kills” on the outside of the box, in Canada boxes include a grotesque picture of mouth cancer plastered to the outside of the box.
Today there is a new buzz in the tobacco world in the form of the electronic cigarette, or e-cig. The E-cig proclaims itself to be healthier than smoking regular cigarettes. The E-Cig looks like a regular cigarette, colored the same way, but it is plastic and is battery powered. Nicotine is provided for the buzz in the form of a liquid that is heated and emitted as vapor for inhalation. A mini led light illuminates on the end as a user takes a drag, imitating burning tobacco embers. Exhaling the vapor gives the appearance of smoke.
The vapor however is not harmful to the user or those who would have previously been “second hand smokers”. With the E-cig you can even smoke indoors at public places. It seems to be all too great, a cigarette minus the flame, ash, tar, smoke, and carbon monoxide. As one site selling the E-cig claims:
“While smoking tobacco exposes smokers to the risk of contracting cancer or emphysema, the electronic cigarette does not
contain toxins that are as harmful as the ones in tobaccos.”
Note the play on words used here, it does not say that using the E-cig will prevent smoking related cancer or emphysema, yet that is what it implies. This statement simply says that the E-cig “does not contain toxins that are as harmful as the ones in tobaccos.” And do you remember the vague statement the tobacco industry use to feed us after health claims due to product use arose wasn’t it something like “there is no sufficient evidence to claim that a (cigarette) battery-operated cigarette-look alike is harmful to anyone.” Again I pulled this from a site that sells the E-cig.
If you are skeptical, you are not alone, as so is the FDA. The E-cig is not regulated or approved by the FDA. The CEO of Smoking Everywhere, an E-cig manufacturer gave this statement to the FDA, I have bolded key words to note: “There are no ingredients in our e-cigs that can cause cancer. However, it is a pretty new product, so we are not 100 percent sure of the side effects at this point… But we haven’t heard of any negative side effects yet, but we are pretty sure they are safe.”
The question is users are willing to gamble their health on this new product.
“Nicotine is not the thing in tobacco smoke that causes cancer, but inhaling pure nicotine may be dangerous,” said a doctor out of the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.
However even skeptical doctors agree that the E-cig is a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, which causes 90 percent of lung cancer deaths. The question is just, how safe are they? And the truth is, that data is not yet available as the first generation of users is just now emerging and will act as the test study for the health effects of this product.
The FDA has approved of the nicotine gum and patch, so if you’re thinking of quitting those methods are regarded by the highest authorities to be the safest.
Let me know if you have had personal experience with the E-cig and what you think of it.
Sources:
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-13/health/ecigarettes.smoking_1_e-cigs-nicotine-replacement-electronic-cigarettes?_s=PM:HEALTH
http://www.electricsmoke.com/e-cig-health-benefits-of-electronic-cigarettes/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2009/12/is_that_right_e-cigarettes_are.html
Images:
http://www.priceit.in/price-of-electronics/starhilo-e-cigarette-price-in-india/
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/06/business/media/20081006_CigaretteAd_Slideshow_ready_8.html
http://laughingsquid.com/the-e-cigarette-an-electronic-cigarette-that-helps-you-quit-smoking/
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/06/15/ad-more-doctors-smoke-camels-than-any-other-cigarette/
