Are E-Cigarettes Here to Stay?
Study Suggests Current and Former Smokers Are Turning to Electronic Cigarettes
July 20, 2012 — Electronic cigarettes are picking up steam — and not surprisingly, especially among smokers.
That is the main message that comes from a new study in the American Journal of Public Health.
About 40% of individuals reported they had heard of e-cigarettes, and awareness was highest among smokers. What’s more, smokers seem to be among the most likely to use e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes go by many names including vapors, personal vaporizers, and nicotine vaporizers. There are many brands, flavors, and nicotine strengths available for buy at convenience stores and on the Internet. They are not regulated by the FDA as a drug delivery device because they are not marketed as quit-smoking aids.
“This is an unproven device and we know very tiny about its long-term health effects,” states researcher Jennifer Pearson, PhD, MPH. She is a research investigator at Legacy, an antismoking group in Washington, D.C. “E-cigarettes are probably less harmful than combustible cigarettes, we do not have data to state that and cannot speak about long-term effect.”
There are many unknowns and unanswered questions, she says. For example, have they encouraged former smokers to reignite their nicotine addiction? Are current smokers using them to quit or to circumvent smoke-free indoor air laws? And how are they affecting people who have never smoked. “Are they acting as a gateway products?”
Pearson and colleagues call for greater regulation of these products until these questions are answered.
E-cigarettes resemble traditional cigarettes. They have a cartridge, a mouthpiece, a vaporizer, and an indicator light. Here’s how they work: You inhale, and the vaporizer converts a nicotine-containing solution into a vapor mist. The smoker then inhales this vapor. When the vaporizer runs out, you can buy refill cartridges.
According to many harm-reduction advocates, their main selling point is that they only contain nicotine, not all of the other hundreds of other chemicals found in tobacco. This suggests that they may be a safer cigarette.
The new findings suggest that smokers are interested and have tried e-cigarettes as cessation devices. E-cigarette manufacturers do not market their products as such. But “the word on the street is that these are cessation devices and should be used as such,” Pearson says.
E-Cigarettes May Be Here to Stay
Another issue with e-cigarettes is that you cannot always be sure what you are getting when you buy nicotine cartridges.
Pearson suggests using FDA-approved smoking cessation tools to quit smoking.
Michael Siegel, MD, disagrees. He is the associate chairman of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.
They do have an important role to play in getting people to quit smoking, he says. “Taking them off of the market would be a disaster because essentially all of these smokers would be forced to go back to cigarette smoking,” he predicts.
Related News:
- Study of genes may hold the key to improved skin care
- 7 Tips to Drive Your Guy Crazy
- New method to find novel connections from gene to gene, drug to drug and between scientists
- Liposuction: Why You Still Have to Work Out After It
- Soy Diet May Lessen Anxiety Effect Of BPA On Genes
- From getting to know to romantic relationship – what pitfalls to eliminate
- How Hard People Labour Perhaps Ascertained by Difference In Dopamine
- "Backpacking" Bacteria Ferry Nano-Medicines
- Latest updates in clinical practice decision-making in cancer care presented at NCCN 17th conference
- 1 in 7 People With Alzheimer’s Lives Alone
Details :
Submited at Saturday, July 21st, 2012 at 8:15 am on Uncategorized by ethan
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback