No smoke, but lots of fire in debate over electronic cigarettes

September 29

By JAMES A. FUSSELL

The Kansas

City Star

When Kim Kruger dropped her cigarette while driving, she feared she’d set her car on fire. Then she remembered. Her cigarette was electronic.

Blu eCigs Health advocates worry that stepped-up e-cigarette marketing, such as this Blue eCig ad with model/actress Jenny McCarthy, will lure minors to nicotine addiction.

A few years ago, virtually no one knew anything about e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that don’t burn tobacco, but rather heat liquid nicotine into a smokelike water vapor. Today, more than 250 companies sell them in flavors such as bubble gum and peach schnapps. And now sales are set to top $1 billion.

“I can smoke them in my office,” said Kruger, of Gardner. “It doesn’t smell, doesn’t get in your hair. It’s very undetectable.”

Multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns are just now hitting magazines and coming straight into your living room. Yes, 43 years after regulators kicked the Marlboro Man off the nation’s airwaves, Big Tobacco is back on TV, with Jenny McCarthy and other celebrities trying to make smoking — or as it’s called with e-cigarettes, “vaping” — look cool. The advertising onslaught is potentially so powerful that some tobacco analysts predict sales of digital smokes could surpass conventional cigarettes in the next decade.

But a backlash is heating up:

• Last week 40 attorneys general called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products, saying the devices are marketed to young people through ads featuring cartoon characters and candy flavors. The FDA is expected to act as early as October.

• A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this month said the number of high school students who have tried e-cigarettes more than doubled in the past year, undermining decades of efforts to curb youth smoking.

• Earlier this month in Provo, Utah, an e-cigarette plugged in to charge in a car exploded and burned a 3-year-old boy in his car seat. And that’s only one of several reports of exploding e-cigarettes.

Asked to comment, FDA spokeswoman Jennifer Haliski referred to a general warning on the agency’s website: “As the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes have not been fully studied, consumers … have no way of knowing whether (they) are safe for their intended use.”

Blu eCigs, which employs the faces of McCarthy and actor Stephen Dorff, claims the most sales — $114 million in the first half of this year, according to Blu eCigs’ president Jim Raporte. It’s owned by Lorillard Inc., the nation’s third-largest tobacco company.

Now other brands, both large and small, are gearing up for a fight. Altira, the nation’s largest tobacco company, debuted its MarkTen e-cigarette in August. R.J. Reynolds, the second-largest, rolled out ads last month for Vuse, its “game changer” of a disposable “digital vapor cigarette” that requires neither assembly nor charging. (The others must be charged with devices such as a computer USB port or a car connection.)

V2 Cigs, a small Florida company, claims to be the nation’s leader in customer satisfaction, while independent brand NJoy has raised $75 million from investors such as Napster founder Sean Parker and singer Bruno Mars.

Kruger chose another independent — Green Smoke. She enjoys trying various flavor cartridges, including menthol ice and mocha mist. While the plastic cigarette is heavier than conventional smokes, everything else seems the same, she says.

But there was a problem. Instead of quitting regular cigarettes, she went back and forth between the two and actually ended up smoking more.

“There’s times when you can be puffing away getting way more nicotine than if you had just gone outside and had a (regular) cigarette,” she said. “You’re not manually counting your puffs to measure just how much nicotine you’re getting.… It’s easy to get too much. And then your body gets used to it. But I don’t see electronic cigarettes as completely negative. I think with anything there’s good and bad. I just think you need to be aware of all the facts.”

While some smokers say e-cigs have helped them kick the habit, public health advocates worry the devices may be creating more problems than they’re solving.

“The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling,” said CDC director Tom Frieden in a statement. “Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”

Adam Morris, a 20-year-old singer and college student from Lenexa, switched to e-cigs about a year ago. The flavors were great, and the product less expensive (starter kits can sell for as low as $25 but go for as much as $200, including more replacement cartridges). And they’re certainly healthier.

But since his e-cigarette gave him many more puffs per dollar, he used it more often. And since each puff was more potent, he quickly became even more addicted to nicotine.

“You get a lot more nicotine a lot faster,” he said.

At least with the type of e-cigarette he was smoking. Many brands offer varying amounts of nicotine, or, if you prefer, no nicotine.

For Morris, everything was fine until he lost the base of his e-cigarette, the most expensive part. He found he was so addicted he bought several packs of conventional cigarettes and smoked them in a day, just to satisfy his cravings.

He still smokes e-cigarettes.

“I’m going to keep doing it because as a singer, (my voice) is my main instrument,” he said. “And smoking electronic cigarettes is a lot better for me.”

Still, much remains unknown about e-cigarettes. Most are imported from China, which experts say raises concerns about quality control.

And inhaling nicotine by itself can still be harmful. Doctors say it increases blood pressure and constricts and hardens blood vessels. But it is unarguably less harmful than sucking down the tar, charcoal, carbon monoxide and 4,000 other chemicals found in conventional cigarettes that are known to cause cancer.

And a 2011 study at the Boston University School of Public Health showed that 67 percent of more than 200 smokers reported smoking less after using e-cigarettes, while 31 percent quit.

While e-cigarettes remain unregulated at the federal level, some states (not Missouri or Kansas) and cities have restricted their use, and they’ve been banned on all U.S. flights and Amtrak trains.

Next, should Internet and underage sales be banned? What about the enticing flavors attractive to kids? Should warning labels be required? And should e-cig ads be banned from TV?

“We believe future e-cigarette regulations should ensure sales and marketing to youth is prohibited,” said Raporte, Blu eCigs’ president. “That said, we believe these responsible marketing parameters can be achieved without suppressing adult access.”

Whatever happens, J.T. Marshall, a longtime smoker from Kansas City, said he’s made up his mind about e-cigs.

“I might never try them, but I just may have to invest in them,” he said. “These dang computer smokes look like they’re here to stay.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/29/4512742/the-burning-issue-of-electronic.html#storylink=cpy

No smoke, but lots of fire in debate over electronic cigarettes

Have a Solid Plan to Quit Smoking and Stick to It

Nowadays, there are many, many ways that you can go about quitting smoking. If you like, you could go cold turkey, or you could gradually cut down. Or, you could even rely on nicotine patches, electronic cigarettes, or even hypnosis! Even this is really just the tip of the iceberg and if you were to consult a doctor about help with quitting smoking you’d start to realize that there truly are tons of options that you could look at.

No matter what option you choose, the one thing that is absolutely essential is that you come up with a solid plan as to how you’re going to quit smoking – and then stick to it. This plan should outline exactly what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it by, and it should also possibly list all the reasons why you want to quit smoking in the first place – just to remind yourself in case you find that you’re close to giving in to temptation.

For example, if you’ve decided to quit smoking by gradually cutting down then you should set fixed dates as to how you’re going to reduce your cigarette consumption. Also, you should find other activities to make part and parcel of your plan – such as exercising.

Exercise can release endorphins which is part of the reason why you’re addicted to cigarettes in the first place. As such, you could ‘replace’ your addiction to cigarettes with exercise (or at least fool your body in that fashion) so that you don’t find that the temptation is that apparent.

Whatever you end up putting within your plan, once you have made it the tricky part is to actually stick to it. All too often people find that they make a plan but then end up compromising with themselves and telling themselves that it’s okay if they don’t follow it exactly. More often than not, this procrastination will continue until they finally figure out that they’ve not really gotten anywhere at all with their efforts to quit – and give up!

It should go without saying that you don’t want that to happen to you.

Due to this, you need to always follow your plan to the letter. Don’t compromise, and make it a challenge instead. If you like you could even reward yourself in small ways for sticking to the plan. So long as you’re able to keep yourself motivated and on track, your chances of actually being able to wave goodbye to smoking for life are that much better.

Remember this always, and constantly be mindful of where your plan is taking you… and what you want to achieve!

If you are serious about quitting smoking, you need to check out the ” Quit Smoking Today [http://myzing.net/quit-smoking-today-product-review_53.htm] ” program!

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Have a Solid Plan to Quit Smoking and Stick to It

Former American Lung Association President and CEO Charles Connor Joins Electronic Cigarette Industry Group

Prominent Healthcare Advocate to Serve as Primary Liaison to Public Heath Community

The Electronic Cigarette Industry Group, Inc. (ECIG), a non-profit association of consumers, manufacturers, importers and distributors of electronic cigarettes, today announced that Charles D. (“Chuck”) Connor, former American Lung Association CEO and President, has joined the organization as a Consultant. In his new role, Mr. Connor will serve as a strategic partner to ECIG, acting as the primary liaison between the public health community and the association.

“We are thrilled to have someone with Chuck’s extensive experience and public affairs expertise serve as an advisor and advocate on behalf of the e-cigarette movement,” said Eric Criss, President of ECIG. “The electronic cigarette market has grown exponentially in recent years, and what was once a niche product has transformed into an innovative alternative to traditional tobacco products. As we continue to advance the discussion around the industry with regulators, health officials and among consumers, Charles will be an invaluable asset to the organization.”

Mr. Connor most recently served as President and CEO of the American Lung Association (ALA), where he led the nation’s oldest voluntary health organization in advocating for improved lung health and the prevention of lung disease. He previously held the position of Executive Vice President and COO, overseeing all corporate functions for the Association. Before joining the ALA, he held senior communications positions with the American Red Cross, The Dilenschneider Group and the Federal Judiciary. Prior to joining the federal judiciary, Mr. Connor served for 25 years as a United States Navy public affairs officer, leaving the service with the rank of Captain. During his service, he held various roles including serving as the personal communications advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, and holding the position of COO for the Navy’s global communications program where he was responsible for the planning and coordination of Navy public affairs efforts around the world.

“As a longtime advocate of lung disease prevention and improving lung health, I am excited to join ECIG to help advance education and awareness of the e-cigarette industry,” said Charles D. Connor. “Electronic cigarettes provide the only true alternative to traditional tobacco products, offering adult smokers a similar experience without the same consequences.”

About Electronic Cigarette Industry Group

The Electronic Cigarette Industry Group, Inc. (ECIG) is a non-profit association of consumers, manufacturers, importers and distributors of electronic cigarettes. ECIG advocates for reasonable regulation of electronic cigarettes. ECIG supports strengthening laws to keep electronic cigarettes out of the hands of children. For more information, please refer to our website:www.ecigarettegroup.org.

Contact:

ICR, INC

Jessica Liddell

John McKenna

203-682-8200
john.mckenna@icrinc.com

Former American Lung Association President and CEO Charles Connor Joins Electronic Cigarette Industry Group

Electronic cigarette use in Naperville still hazy

The man and his two friends were sitting in a restaurant, puffing away on their cigarettes, with no concern about their actions.

No, they were not breaking the law. In fact, there are few if any laws that cover the kind of cigarettes they were smoking.

They were using electronic cigarettes, a fairly new and growing phenomenon that is a safe recreational substitute for smoking, an aide for those trying to quit smoking, a drug delivery system just as bad for the health as cigarettes, or all of the above, depending on who one it talking to.

“The thing was, no one said anything to us,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous, in a St. Charles coffee shop Friday. “I used one all the time for about six months after I quit smoking. I used it everywhere, and nobody ever said anything.”

But there are places where they will say something. For instance, in that very coffee shop in St. Charles, a Starbucks, an e-cigarette would not be welcome. Starbucks has a policy against their use inside their stores.

But the rules for e-cigarettes are not always so cut and dried.

“We don’t have any formal policy on it,” said John Lapinski, DuPage County Court administrator.

He said the only time it ever came up was in the jury room, where a prospective juror used one. Lapinski said court officials made their “policy’ on the spot.

“We don’t allow smokers to take a break, so, as a matter of fairness, we ask them not to use e-cigarettes, either,” he said.

Officials in Naperville reported the issue has never come up or been discussed pertaining to the Municipal Center. Similarly, the Naperville Library’s three locations don’t have a serious issue with e-smoking. Julie Rothenfluh, executive director, said the board probably would expand the tobacco ban to the surrogate smokes if they did become problematic.

In Naperville’s schools, no smoking means no smoking — even when there’s no smoke.

North Central College has expanded its prohibition on smoking inside or within 15 feet of any door or window to apply to electronic cigarettes as well. And Districts 203 and 204 have a no-tolerance rule covering all forms of cigarettes.

“The school administration is authorized to discipline students for gross disobedience or misconduct, including but not limited to using, possessing, distributing, purchasing, or selling tobacco materials or electronic cigarettes,” the policy manual for Indian Prairie District 204 states.

In Naperville District 203 schools, “e-cigarettes have had a minimal presence on school grounds,” spokeswoman Susan Rice said in an email. The board of education reviews its policies in response to changes in the law or other conditions, Rice said, but there is no indication that officials need to revisit the rules right now.

It’s not unusual to see a lack of policy among some groups regarding the e-cigarettes in public spaces, because no one is sure just what they are, or whether they pose any danger to anyone. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declines to regulate the devices, because they have not done enough study on them yet.

The FDA tried to regulate e-cigarettes as a drug delivery system, similar to other smoking cessation devices. But the federal courts struck that down, so there is, in effect, no federal regulation of them at this time.

But individual states do have some regulation. Illinois does not regulate e-cigarettes, except to ban selling them to people under the age of 18. Gov. Pat Quinn signed that law in August, and it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

The basics

E-cigarettes come in many shapes and sizes. Many look more or less like long cigarettes, others look like cigars or pipes. They all work the same basic way:

The user inhales through a mouthpiece.

Air flow triggers a sensor that switches on a small, battery-powered heater. The heater vaporizes liquid nicotine in a small cartridge. Users can opt for a cartridge without nicotine.

The heater also vaporizes propylene glycol in the cartridge, which creates the vapor or the fake smoke.

E-cigarettes contain no tobacco products. Even the nicotine is synthetic. The devices sell for $100 to $200. Refill cartridge packs vary in price depending on nicotine content, and liquid for do-it-yourself refills are sold, too.

The debate on where and how e-cigarettes should be used likely will continue, in many different ways. Fancy restaurants in New York are talking about banning e-cigarettes, not because of any danger, but because some restaurant owners think they look tacky.

But tobacco companies are hedging on the fact that they eventually will replace their product. Big tobacco companies are developing their own e-cigarette products, the largest being Lorillard, which acquired blu e-cigs in 2012 and now controls around 40 percent of the market.

Sun-Times Media staff writer Susan Frick Carlman contributed.

From The Naperville Sun, September 24

Electronic cigarette use in Naperville still hazy

5 Things You Need to Know About E-Cigarettes

ABC News By LIZ NEPORENT (@lizzyfit)

Sept. 24, 2013

The electronic cigarette was invented in the 1960s, but it didn’t really take off until a decade ago. Currently, there are more than 250 brands of “e-cigarettes” available in such flavors as watermelon, pink bubble gum and Java, and in more colors than the iPhone 5C.

The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association estimates about 4 million Americans now use battery powered cigarettes. They project sales of the devices to cross the 1 billion mark by the end of this year. Here, a look at the e-smoke trend, the good, the bad and the unknown.

E-cigarettes are battery operated nicotine inhalers that consist of a rechargeable lithium battery, a cartridge called a cartomizer and an LED that lights up at the end when you puff on the e-cigarette to simulate the burn of a tobacco cigarette. The cartomizer is filled with an e-liquid that typically contains the chemical propylene glycol along with nicotine, flavoring and other additives.

The device works much like a miniature version of the smoke machines that operate behind rock bands. When you “vape” — that’s the term for puffing on an e-cig — a heating element boils the e-liquid until it produces a vapor. A device creates the same amount of vapor no matter how hard you puff until the battery or e-liquid runs down.

How much do they cost?

Starter kits usually run between $30 and $100. The estimated cost of replacement cartridges is about $600, compared with the more than $1,000 a year it costs to feed a pack-a-day tobacco cigarette habit, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association. Discount coupons and promotional codes are available online.

The decision in a 2011 federal court case gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate e-smokes under existing tobacco laws rather than as a medication or medical device, presumably because they deliver nicotine, which is derived from tobacco. The agency has hinted it will begin to regulate e-smokes as soon as this year but so far, the only action the agency has taken is issuing a letter in 2010 to electronic cigarette distributors warning them to cease making various unsubstantiated marketing claims.

For now, the devices remain uncontrolled by any governmental agency, a fact that worries experts like Erika Seward, the assistant vice president of national advocacy for the American Lung Association.

“With e-cigarettes, we see a new product within the same industry — tobacco — using the same old tactics to glamorize their products,” she said. “They use candy and fruit flavors to hook kids, they make implied health claims to encourage smokers to switch to their product instead of quitting all together, and they sponsor research to use that as a front for their claims.”

Thomas Kiklas, co-owner of e-cigarette maker inLife and co-founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, countered that the device performs the same essential function as a tobacco cigarette but with far fewer toxins. He said he would welcome any independent study of the products to prove how safe they are compared to traditional smokes.

The number of e-smokers is expected to quadruple in the next few years as smokers move away from the centuries old tobacco cigarette so there is certainly no lack of subjects,” he said.

The jury is out. The phenomenon of vaping is so new that science has barely had a chance to catch up on questions of safety, but some initial small studies have begun to highlight the pros and cons.

The most widely publicized study into the safety of e-cigarettes was done when researchers analyzed two leading brands and concluded the devices did contain trace elements of hazardous compounds, including a chemical which is the main ingredient found in antifreeze. But Kiklas, whose brand of e-cigarettes were not included in the study, pointed out that the FDA report found nine contaminates versus the 11,000 contained in a tobacco cigarette and noted that the level of toxicity was shown to be far lower than those of tobacco cigarettes.

However, Seward said because e-cigarettes remain unregulated, it’s impossible to draw conclusions about all the brands based on an analysis of two.

“To say they are all safe because a few have been shown to contain fewer toxins is troubling,” she said. “We also don’t know how harmful trace levels can be.”

Thomas Glynn, the director of science and trends at the American Cancer Society, said there were always risks when one inhaled anything other than fresh, clean air, but he said there was a great likelihood that e-cigarettes would prove considerably less harmful than traditional smokes, at least in the short term.

“As for long-term effects, we don’t know what happens when you breathe the vapor into the lungs regularly,” Glynn said. “No one knows the answer to that.”

Do e-cigarettes help tobacco smokers quit?

Because they preserve the hand-to-mouth ritual of smoking, Kiklas said e-cigarettes might help transform a smoker’s harmful tobacco habits to a potentially less harmful e-smoking habit. As of yet, though, little evidence exists to support this theory.

In a first of its kind study published last week in the medical journal Lancet, researchers compared e-cigarettes to nicotine patches and other smoking cessation methods and found them statistically comparable in helping smokers quit over a six-month period. For this reason, Glynn said he viewed the devices as promising though probably no magic bullet. For now, FDA regulations forbid e-cigarette marketers from touting their devices as a way to kick the habit.

Seward said many of her worries center on e-cigarettes being a gateway to smoking, given that many popular brands come in flavors and colors that seem designed to appeal to a younger generation of smokers.

“We’re concerned about the potential for kids to start a lifetime of nicotine use by starting with e-cigarettes,” she said.

E-cigarettes can not be sold to minors yet vaping among young people is on the rise.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found nearly 1.8 million young people had tried e-cigarettes and the number of U.S. middle and high school students e-smokers doubled between 2011 and 2012.

5 Things You Need to Know About E-Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes stub out no-smoking signs

By Jen Wieczner

Thanks to electronic cigarettes, it may now be easier to get away with smoking on an airplane than with using a cellphone. The devices are beginning to reverse decades-long efforts to ban smoking in public places, experts say, and may also be contributing to a rise in underage smoking, marijuana use, and other illegal activities.

E-cigarettes, which use liquid nicotine solution and batteries in place of paper and flame, emit vapor instead of smoke, and don’t produce the telltale cigarette odor or ash. Proponents say that makes the devices a discreet (and less harmful) alternative o smoking, enabling people to smoke whatever they want, wherever they want, without attracting attention.

But lawmakers and public health officials fear that e-cigarettes are helping tobacco sneak back into non-smoking zones as well as the hands of children. And because it’s hard to determine what’s actually in the devices, they also worry that e-cigarettes may not contain nicotine at all, but illegal drugs.

Goodluz / Shutterstock.com

“Do you want to see a 15-year-old with a vaporizer making like he has an e-cigarette but there’s grass in it, the liquid version of marijuana?” says Massachusetts State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat, who authored a bill prohibiting youth from buying e-cigarettes and adding the devices to public and workplace smoking bans. “You could vaporize anything if you put it in liquid form,” Sanchez says.

Now that 20 states, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana, Massachusetts and others are bracing for the arrival of dispensaries, which often sell cannabis solutions for vaporization. While marijuana vaporizers have been on the market much longer than e-cigarettes, there is debate over whether the products can (or should) be used interchangeably to inhale either pot or tobacco. The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, which represents that industry, says none of its members make marijuana paraphernalia: “It’s a whole different animal altogether,” says CFO Thomas Kiklas. That may be beside the point, as marijuana vaporizers and electronic cigarettes are indistinguishable. Some companies are even marketing vaporizers for both purposes. Rapid Fire Marketing RFMK 0.00%  , for one, makes the CannaCig vaporizer, but is rebranding the device to appeal more to tobacco users than cannabis users, says spokesperson Rick Lutz. “The reality is, whether it’s cannabis or tobacco, it can be used in a vaporizer in order to convert what normally is smoke into a vapor,” Lutz says. “You could conceivably walk out of a restaurant, have cannabis and the effects of cannabis, without the smoke.”

Click to Play

Thanks to electronic cigarettes, it may now be easier to get away with smoking on an airplane than with using a cellphone. Jen Wieczner reports on Lunch Break.

Indeed, the ability of e-cigarette users to “vape” undetected everywhere from office buildings to bars to airplanes, where smoking is generally banned, has prompted efforts to regulate the new industry. Under current Massachusetts law, “in the hallway of the school, I can’t light up a cigarette, but I can light up my e-cigarette,” Sanchez says, adding that he wouldn’t even be able to prevent members of the House public health committee, of which he is chairman, from smoking during meetings in his office.

Concern over e-cigarettes has especially focused on youth, who in many states can buy the products without being carded, while sales of traditional cigarettes and tobacco are restricted to ages 18 and over. The number of minors who have used e-cigarettes more than doubled to almost 2 million middle- and high-school students between 2011 and 2012, according to a report last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But where laws do restrict smoking, some people are using e-cigarettes to openly flout them. While actor Alec Baldwin was kicked off a flight in 2011 after defying the electronic device ban by playing smartphone game Words with Friends in the airplane’s bathroom, passengers report that they’ve had no problem smoking an e-cigarette in plane lavatories—or in their seat, for that matter. Rob Fontano, owner and president of Fort Myers Vapor, which sells high-end e-cigarettes out of its Florida showroom as well as online, says he has used them in more than 20 airports, including Chicago O’Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth without being stopped—even while waiting in line to board and in airplane restrooms. “I have a pilot for a customer who will use it in the cockpit from time to time, on a major airline,” he says.

Smoking has been banned on U.S. flights (and their bathrooms) for more than a decade, with penalties ranging from thousands of dollars to arrest, but electronic cigarettes have landed in a legal gray area. While the Department of Transportation believes the existing rule also applies to e-cigs, it proposed an amendment in 2011 to explicitly prohibit them, says spokesperson Bill Mosley, “as there has been some confusion over whether the department’s ban on smoking includes a ban on use of e-cigarettes.”

But until the DOT puts an official ban on the books (it plans to by mid-2014, Mosley says), e-cigarette users are coming up with their own rules, or leaving enforcement up to individual carriers. American Airlines’ non-smoking policy also prohibits the “activation” of e-cigarettes, but some European airlines may allow them.“They’re not banned on airplanes at this point—it’s a wandering policy,” says Kiklas, the e-cigarette industry spokesman. “E-cigarette users can use the e-cigarettes on a plane just by holding it in their hand.”

Fontano, for his part, says he primarily hides his use on planes as a courtesy to other passengers. “If somebody saw a cloud of vapor on an airplane and didn’t know what it was, they would probably lose their mind,” he says. “I don’t really recommend using them on an airplane, but you could, and people do.” Indeed, in response to Fontano’s recent blog post on the subject of plane “vaping,” a commenter by the name of Mike B. wrote on Aug. 5, “I vape on planes all the time. I choose a window seat and am inconspicuous about it.” He’s used e-cigarettes on a dozen planes in the past few months, he bragged in the post: “I don’t even worry about it.”

From Market Watch

Sept. 21, 2013, 7:27 a.m. EDT

Electronic cigarettes stub out no-smoking signs

E-cigarette Sales Surpass $1 Billion As Big Tobacco Moves In

E-cigarette revenue is expected to double to over $1 billion in 2013.

“If the technology continues to innovate the way that it has been, in 10-15 years from now, we are the replacement to big tobacco,” says Andries Verleur, CEO and co-founder of e-cigarette maker V2 Cigs.

By now, you’ve probably seen someone puffing on an e-cigarette – a plastic tube which lights up as it turns a liquid into water vapour to simulate smoke, providing the nicotine and sensation of smoking. With revenue from e-cigarettes expected to double this year to over $1 billion and up to $1.7 billion by some estimates, the makers of these plastic addiction sticks are gradually burning away at the $80 billion sales of tobacco, with e-cigarette sales predicted to pass traditional cigarette sales by 2047, according to Bloomberg Industries.

Although the health effects of e-cigarettes are still to be determined – the ood and Drug Administration is reportedly preparing to regulate the devices – smokers have not been deterred from buying the light-up devices.

V2 Cigs expects to exceed $100 million in net sales and claims to be the world’s largest online retailer of e-cigarettes. NJOY, which raised $75 million in funding from the likes of Peter Thiel and Sean Parker currently controls 40 percent of the U.S. electronic cigarette market, its CEO told Bloomberg.

Most e-cigs are produced in China, where pharmacist Hon Lik, founder of e-cigarette maker Dragonite claims to have invented them a decade ago.

“Our products are usually about a third of the cost [of traditional cigarettes],” said Verleur, who tried his first e-cig in Prague before co-founding V2 in Miami, Florida, growing it from three people to 200 staff. “It is possible there could be further taxation which could level the playing field, but in 90% of markets that has not occurred.”

E-cigarettes are hooking customers with low price tags and increasingly pervasive advertising campaigns – for the first time in 43 years, cigarette ads will return to TV as second-largest tobacco U.S. manufacturer Reynolds American RAI -0.02% Inc. plans a national rollout of its Vuse e-cigarette.

Despite impending regulations, analyst suggest it’s a growing industry – according to ratings agency RPT-Fitch, consumption is expected to grow 40%-50% in the next year, while Citigroup C -0.62% predicts e-cigarettes will have a $3 billion market segment by 2015.

“We went from a 0% share in the tobacco market to a 2% share in the U.S.,” Verleur reflected.  “This will be our fourth year of pretty much tripling sales year over year.”

V2 is now  expanding into European distribution centers to serve customers in the EU, India, Africa and Middle East – critical expansion considering the region’s appetite for the products, with over 1.5 million Britons smoking electronic cigarettes according to the Guardian. Locally, V2 will also be expanding into 35,000 stores, including Hess gas stations in the U.S.

“Whereas in 2012, our business was 80% online, by the end of this year online will probably only generate between 60-65%,” Verleur predicted. “I would project by summer of next year online would be less than 50% of the business, not because online is retracting but because retail is growing even faster.”

Despite Verleur’s sunny forecast, the glory days may be numbered for these small players, as big tobacco hopes to smoke out the vapor upstarts. In April 2012, Lorillard Inc, the third-largest tobacco manufacturer in the U.S. purchased Blu ECigs for $135 million and has since boosted distribution of the product to more than 80,000 stores, according to the Wall Street Journal. This August, the largest cigarette maker in the U.S., Altria Group Inc., started selling its MarkTen e-cigs, reports Bloomberg. Imperial Tobacco Group Plc., Europe’s second-biggest tobacco company, recently announced plans to buy Dragonite International Ltd. (329)’s electronic cigarette unit for $75 million.

And with big tobacco comes big ad money. According to the New York Times, Blu eCigs brand spent $12.4 million on ads in major media for the first quarter of 2013, compared with $992,000 in the same period a year ago. Lorillard intends to spend $30 million on marketing and celebrity endorsements this year for Blu eCigs.

To the concern of parents, e-cigarette use has doubled among teens. Last year, 10% of high school students said they tried e-cigarettes, up from 4.7% in 2011, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. regulations on e-cigs would bring America in-line with other countries – the U.K. determined e-cigs should be regulated to ensure quality, while France plans to ban e-cigs from public venues.

Still, Verleur maintains the future is vapor.

“We’ve been very, very profitable and the company does continue to grow – electronic cigarettes are here to stay.”

E-cigarette Sales Surpass $1 Billion As Big Tobacco Moves In

>The Real Dangers of Smoking And Your Shortened Life Expectancy

By Kathy Robinson –

There are people who feel smoking is just some kind of hobby that smokers have. Studies by the AMA, the American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society show that smoking is a major contributor to premature death. Did you realize that smoking not only poisons the smoker, it also causes the deterioration of the health of those around the smoker, especially children whose organs are still in the stage of development?

Worldwide it is accepted that cigarette smoking is a main agent of preventable premature death. One in five deaths in the United States can be linked to cigarette smoking. Statistics show that 400,000 people from 1996 through 1999 died per year in the US as a result of smoking. Smoking is directly attributable in cases of lung cancer, coronary heart diseases, and chronic airway obstruction. Do you have any of these diseases? Or are you just starting to develop some of these problems?

Even if we discount deaths that are attributable to second-hand smoke, we see that smoking males and females average a loss of 13 to 14 years from their life expectancy. At this pace of tobacco consumption, approximately 6.4 million children will prematurely lose their lives. The economy will have to accommodate the expenditure of over $100 billion in annual health care costs in addition to the loss of productivity due to the higher death rate and medical expenses. The causes of lung cancer, emphysema and chronic bronchitis are in direct relation to smoking. Wouldn’t you agree that is a massive amount of money that could be better used elsewhere?

Cardiovascular disease is recognized as the leading cause of death in the U.S., and again tobacco use is shown to be a significant contributor. Surveys show the deaths of 65,000 women from lung cancer and 85,000 men from lung and bronchial disease are directly related to smoking. This can be interpreted as meaning that smoking is much more injurious to your health than many people believe. This data should stand as a statutory warning to people, however they continue to ignore the warnings and return to their smoking habit. Are you one of these people?

There are people who wish to quit smoking, and countless new attempts at quitting are made every day. As many people resolve every New Year to quit the smoking habit as do those who go for weight loss. These people must be encouraged and every effort must be given to support their desire to quit and start the road to a healthier life. Do you want to be around to watch your grandchildren grow up?

If you are ready to take that step and possibly saving your life, click here for a program that talks of a 98% success rate, one that eliminates the cravings from day one. Try it, it can’t hurt and it can certainly help extend your life.

I can speak from experience when it comes to quitting smoking as I smoked for well over half my life. However I quit smoking, and I did it the first time I tried. There is absolutely no reason why you can’t give up too. It’s time for you to take that major step right now. To help you quit, sign up for the email course on How You Can Stop Smoking [http://www.HowCanYouStopSmokingg.com] which has already helped countless people quit their smoking habit.

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>The Real Dangers of Smoking And Your Shortened Life Expectancy

How to find the best electronic cigarette

Cigarettes have experienced an interesting history. For a time, they were incredibly popular; so much so that even physicians would recommend them to patients. Then came the studies and investigations into their addictive and carcinogenic nature. People were dissuaded to continue or even start at all. Yet, the social appeal of smoking has proven to be extremely permeating. Fortunately, technology has come to help assuage our fears of. Electronic cigarettes (or eCigs for short) purport the ability to smoke without inhaling the numerous toxins in a traditional cigarette. The market for these devices is booming– so much so that it may be difficult to navigate. Powersmoke.com, for instance, has a vast number of eCigs to choose from. Here are 3 easy steps to narrow your search and choose the best eCigarette for you:

1. Price:

First things first, you need to determine what your budget is. Some smoking apparatuses will cost you no more than 30 USD. Others can be quite pricey and extend well beyond 60 USD. You need to determine all of the costs and look for the best deal. Do they come with extra items that will be necessary down the road? Replacements? A charger? How expensive will it be to ship? All of these considerations should be undertaken before finalizing your purchase.

2. Usage:

How often you intend to use the eCig is a definite factor in selection. Do you use it often? Sparingly? If it’s the former, then you need to definitely consider your purchase; cost shouldn’t be the only precluding factor. If you intend to use it often, then you’re going to need a sturdy apparatus. Something that can take some abuse and moderate wear and tear. Furthermore, if you intend to use it often, you’re going to want to look at battery life and charge time. All are crucial considering that you won’t be able to smoke it while it charges.

3. Nicotine:

Nicotine isn’t a mandate with eCigarettes. In fact, there are a number of different flavors and mixtures that don’t require nicotine in them. Furthermore, you get to control the amount put in the mixture. This also presents a critical choice for purchasers. On the one hand, many people like the nicotine high without the carcinogens. Others may simply like the aesthetic of smoking. Choosing the option that’s best for your needs will narrow your choice significantly.

From http://www.powersmoke.com/

How to find the best electronic cigarette

E-cigarette Use More Than Doubles Among U.S. Middle and High School Students From 2011-2012

September 18, 2013  –

More than 75 percent of youth users smoke conventional cigarettes too

The percentage of U.S. middle and high school students who use electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, show that the percentage of high school students who reported ever using an e-cigarette rose from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 10.0 percent in 2012. In the same time period, high school students using e-cigarettes within the past 30 days rose from 1.5 percent to 2.8 percent.  Use also doubled among middle school students.  Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigarettes.

“The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D ., M.P.H.  “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug.  Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”

The study also found that 76.3 percent of middle and high school students who used e-cigarettes within the past 30 days also smoked conventional cigarettes in the same period. In addition, 1 in 5 middle school students who reported ever using e-cigarettes say they have never tried conventional cigarettes. This raises concern that there may be young people for whom e-cigarettes could be an entry point to use of conventional tobacco products, including cigarettes.

“About 90 percent of all smokers begin smoking as teenagers,” said Tim McAfee, M.D ., M.P.H ., director of the CDC Office on Smoking and Health.  “We must keep our youth from experimenting or using any tobacco product. These dramatic increases suggest that developing strategies to prevent marketing, sales, and use of e-cigarettes among youth is critical.”

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are battery-powered devices that provide doses of nicotine and other additives to the user in an aerosol. E-cigarettes not marketed for therapeutic purposes are currently unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA Center for Tobacco Products has announced that it intends to expand its jurisdiction over tobacco products to include e-cigarettes, but has not yet issued regulatory rules. Because e-cigarettes are largely unregulated, the agency does not have good information about them, such as the amounts and types of components and potentially harmful constituents.

“These data show a dramatic rise in usage of e-cigarettes by youth, and this is cause for great concern as we don’t yet understand the long-term effects of these novel tobacco products,” said Mitch Zeller, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These findings reinforce why the FDA intends to expand its authority over all tobacco products and establish a comprehensive and appropriate regulatory framework to reduce disease and death from tobacco use.”

Although some e-cigarettes have been marketed as smoking cessation aids, there is no conclusive scientific evidence that e-cigarettes promote successful long-term quitting. However, there are proven cessation strategies and treatments, including counseling and FDA-approved cessation medications.

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of dis­ease, dis­ability, and death in the United States, responsible for an estimated 443,000 deaths each year.  And for every one death, there are 20 people living with a smoking-related disease.  To quit smoking, free help is available at  1-800-QUIT NOW  or http://www.cdc.gov/tips.

Under the Affordable Care Act, more Americans than ever will qualify to get health care coverage that fits their needs and budget, including important preventive services such as services to quit smoking that are covered with no additional costs.  Get ready today for the new Health Insurance Marketplace. Visit Healthcare.gov or call  1-800-318-2596  (TTY/TDD  1-855-889-4325 ) to learn more. Open enrollment in the Marketplace begins October 1 for coverage starting as early as January 1, 2014.

E-cigarette Use More Than Doubles Among U.S. Middle and High School Students From 2011-2012

What Makes Smoking Such an Addictive Habit?

The New Year is upon us. Once again, millions of smokers will attempt to start anew and quit smoking for the betterment of their health.

However, what most find is that it’s no easy task to quit this highly addictive habit. It often takes several attempts at quitting smoking before one can finally kick the habit for good.

This is the way that cigarettes were designed. Cigarettes, as you probably well know, contain an addictive substance called nicotine. Nicotine acts as a stimulant, and there is also evidence that it works on the pleasure center of the brain.

It does this by stimulating the production of serotonin, which is a “pleasure chemical” that is made by our body. In short, smoking makes us feel good. It helps people to relax, and this in itself is an addictive quality.

What makes it even harder, without some sort of help in the form of a nicotine patch or herbal smoking cessation patch, is the way your body reacts when you stop smoking.

When you stop smoking, your body actually expects that extra serotonin production. If you’ve been smoking for a very long time, it makes matters worse.

Your body stops making serotonin on it’s own when you smoke, because nicotine kind of “takes over” the process for a while. In other words, your own ability to make serotonin essentially becomes impaired when you smoke for long periods of time.

This is why so many people experience irritability when they quit smoking. It’s also the reason that so many smokers experience weight gain when they stop smoking.

In addition to making you feel good, the extra serotonin your body makes when you smoke also suppresses your appetite.

When you take this away, your appetite goes up significantly. Also, because you don’t have that “oral fix” where you have something in your mouth a lot (instead of food), you tend to want to fill that void with eating food.

One of the biggest reasons so many people are afraid to quit smoking, even though they know the habit is detrimental to their health, is the weight gain. Because so many other smokers experience this as a side effect of taking away cigarettes, it’s a good bet that you may have the same problem.

Today, there are a lot of smoking cessation aids that can help ease you into the process of becoming a healthy “non smoker”.

There are e-cigarettes now, which make you feel like you are smoking a cigarette. Most of them produce some sort of vapor that is inhaled into the lungs. It may or may not be infused with nicotine.

These are a novel approach since they address both the physical, nervous habit by letting you hold something in your mouth, as well as the addictive chemical portion of the habit.

There are patches, which are affixed to the skin in a non-conspicuous area. These patches continuously release either herbal or natural ingredients into the skin. These ingredients are absorbed and enter the blood stream.

Patches are meant to ease the symptoms of smoking cessation that people find so troublesome. These symptoms include extreme irritability, increased appetite, alertness, and even a mild depression due to the absence of excess serotonin.

If smokers feel like they need something extra potent to quit smoking, or they’ve had numerous troubles trying to quit the habit in the past, they may opt for a prescription.

Some doctors will prescribe a mild antidepressant to help smokers quit who are having a lot of trouble. This may help by reducing the likelihood of lapse due to mood swings, but it really should be a last resort.

Danna Norek owns and contributes editorials to several blogs and websites in the field of natural health, beauty and self improvement. Information on how you can make quitting smoking much easier on yourself without adding more synthetic chemicals into your body, can be found at Natural Quit Smoking Products and additional information on the various natural smoking cessation products can be found here at Stop Smoking Aids [http://herbal-therapeutics.com/stop-smoking-aids.html]. Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health.

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What Makes Smoking Such an Addictive Habit?

E-cigarettes: Healthy tool or gateway device?

If the tiny sample of smokers in a new study in the British journal Lancet are any indication, electronic cigarettes might be slightly more effective than nicotine patches in helping people quit smoking.

Great, right? Except another new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests more children and teens are trying them.

The implications of both these studies means electronic cigarettes have been getting a lot of attention lately. Just what e-cigarettes are and what role they should play in helping people quit smoking depends very much on who you speak with about this topic.

Smoking is still the leading cause of avoidable death in the United States. The devices are not one of the FDA-approved methods to help people quit, but many people are using them this way. A growing number of scientists are studying them to see whether they may be a way to end an epidemic.

The topic, though, remains as polarizing a health issue as sex education or diet sodas.

An e-what?

The e-cigarette was actually developed by a pharmacist in China.

The pharmacist, Hon Lik, was a three-pack-a-day smoker. That was nothing unusual — more than 300 million people in China are regular smokers. But when Lik’s father, who was also a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer, Lik decided he had to come up with an alternative that wouldn’t kill him.

Most scientists believe nicotine itself, while highly addictive, is not what causes cancer for smokers or for the people around them who breathe their second-hand smoke. Instead, it’s the toxic chemicals that are created when tobacco and filler products burn that are dangerous.

If there was a way to get nicotine addicts their fix without the burn, you just might avoid the health problems. Nicotine then becomes as harmless as any other addictive substance, such as caffeine, some experts say.

So Lik developed an e-cigarette — a device that uses a small battery to atomize a pure liquid solution of nicotine. Nothing is burned. There is no ash. There is no smoke. There is nicotine, and then there is flavoring added for taste.

Essentially the person using these inhales a kind of vapor that looks like fog from a fog machine. A recent review of all the scientific research done on e-cigarettes by Drexel University professor Igor Burstyn concludes “current data do not indicate that exposures to vapors from contaminants in electronic cigarettes warrant a concern.”

In plain language, Burstyn concludes: “It’s about as harmless as you can get.”

“I wouldn’t worry at all if someone was smoking one of these by my kids,” Burstyn said. “From a pure health perspective, these are not as bad as a cigarette.”

E-cigarettes came to the U.S. market around 2009. The CDC now estimates about one in five Americans have tried smoking an e-cigarette — that’s about 6% of adults who smoke.

There are e-cigarette stores, but now you can also buy them online or in convenience stores. Some look like regular cigarettes; some look like pens or thumb drives.

First you buy a starter kit, which costs between $40 and $130. In the kit is the e-cigarette, a charger and a few cartridges. The cartridges typically last as long as a 20-pack of cigarettes and sell for around $10. You can also buy a bottle of e-liquid to refile the cartridge yourself.

The anti-e-cigarette camp

Critics point out e-cigarettes come in kid-friendly flavors such as gummy bear, atomic fireball candy and cookies and cream. It makes them worry that e-cigarettes will become a gateway to encourage kids to develop a lifelong nicotine addiction — or worse, try the real thing.

Only about 20 states specifically forbid the sale of e-cigarettes to children.

Tobacco use has been on the decline with kids; it’s about half what it was in the mid-1990s. But the latest CDC study shows a growing number of middle and high school students have tried e-cigarettes.

One in 10 high school students surveyed said they had tried e-cigarettes last year. That’s double the number from 2011. One high school in Connecticut banned them after the principal said administrators dealt with at least one incident involving e-cigarettes every day.

CDC director Tom Frieden characterized this trend as “deeply troubling.”

But as far as risky behavior goes, it’s still a tiny fraction of students. The survey showed about 3% of these kids said they had used one in the last 30 days. By contrast, 39% of students said they drank some amount of alcohol in the past 30 days, 22% binge drank and 24% rode with a driver who had been drinking.

The real problem is that 88% of adult smokers who smoke daily said they started when they were kids, according to the CDC. Kids who start down the path to using e-cigarettes may stick with them for life.

“So much is unknown about them and what the long-term complications could be with their use,” said the American Lung Association’s Erika Sward. “Bottom line, we don’t know what the consequences of using them are, and we are very troubled that kids would find them attractive.”

E-cigarettes are unregulated in the United States; no laws make manufacturers tell you what you are actually inhaling. The unknown is one of the many qualities of e-cigarettes that the American Lung Association doesn’t like.

It’s “a complete unregulated Wild West,” Sward said. She wants the FDA to move quickly with regulatory oversight, which she says would make manufacturers disclose what the actual ingredients are in each of the 250 or so brands available.

In 2009, a FDA test on a small number of e-cigarette samples found “detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.” They found diethylene glycol in one cartridge at a 1% level; this is an ingredient used in antifreeze and can be toxic to humans in large quantities. Diethylene glycol is also found in some dental products and in some pharmaceuticals.

After that study, the FDA banned the sale of e-cigarettes. They warned e-cigarette smokers that they were inhaling “toxic” and “harmful” chemicals. However, in 2010, a court ruled that “the FDA had cited no evidence to show that electronic cigarettes harmed anyone,” and stores could go on selling them.

The early e-adopters

On the other side of the debate are the passionate supporters of e-cigarettes. Many who use them say it is the first thing that has helped them stop using cigarettes — something more than 90% of smokers fail to do with any of the existing FDA-approved methods. There are blogs and message boards dedicated to them. And there are countless impassioned testimonials from the people who use them.

Florida resident Craig Lashley says they’ve changed his life.

“I got tired of being like that little kid in ‘Peanuts’ who had the cloud of smoke following him all the time,” Lashley said. “I didn’t like the way I smelled when I smoked, and I didn’t like what smoking said about me, especially to kids.”

He discovered the e-cigarette about a year ago and hasn’t smoked a regular cigarette since.

He says he smells better, feels better and spends a lot less — about $10 a week on e-cigarettes. He used to spend about $45 a week on regular cigarettes.

“I like the feel of blowing smoke,” Lashley said. “It seems to me like (e-cigarettes are) a healthier alternative.”

A growing number of respected physicians and scientists agree, and they say these products could end a major health problem.

“Electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-containing devices offer massive potential to improve public health, by providing smokers with a much safer alternative to tobacco,” the Royal College of Physicians says. “They need to be widely available and affordable to smokers.”

The latest study, published in the British journal the Lancet, examined whether people who used them as an alternative to smoking would abstain from using regular cigarettes.

The New Zealand authors studied the behavior of 657 people who were trying to quit. One group got nicotine patches, another got nicotine e-cigarettes and others got placebo e-cigarettes without the nicotine.

Over a period of six months, only a tiny fraction of the people in the study actually quit smoking.

People using the nicotine e-cigarettes quit at a slightly better rate compared with those using the patch, though. Some 7.3% using the e-cigarettes abstained from smoking traditional cigarettes compared with the 5.8% who stopped with the patch. About 4.1% stopped with just the placebo e-cigarettes.

It was such a small number of people who quit that the authors concluded “more research is urgently needed to clearly establish their overall benefits and harms at both individual and population levels.”

Dr. Michael Siegel, a physician who has spent the past couple decades working on tobacco control initiatives, has been surprised by the negative reaction to e-cigarettes from so many people in the public health sector. Siegel says the studies he’s done have shown e-cigarettes are a help.

“True we don’t know the long-term health effect of e-cigarettes, but there’s a very good likelihood that smokers are going to get lung cancer if they don’t quit smoking,” he said. “If they can switch to these and quit smoking traditional cigarettes, why condemn them?”

Siegel theorizes the e-cigarettes might look too much like smoking.

“It’s ironic the very thing that makes them so effective … drives the anti-smoking groups crazy. But what makes them so effective is it mimics the physical behaviors smokers have, which is something the patch can’t do.”

Siegel does believe there is an urgent need for more regulations.

Ray Story, founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, agrees. He says his association has also pushed for age verification legislation.

“When you have these companies trying to promote these as something they are not, and you have stores that sell them in the candy aisle, you are going to have a problem,” Story said. “If they are officially categorized as a tobacco product, you get an automatic age verification put in place.

“Nicotine is addictive, and we want the federal government to create guidelines and a structure that will confine these to being sold as adult products.”

Lashley says no matter what the debate, he will continue to spread the e-cigarette gospel to his fellow adults.

So far, his co-workers have been receptive to the idea. He used to be the only one with an e-cigarette on smoke breaks. Now he says he’s got more than a dozen colleagues doing the same.

One colleague, though, complained about it.

“He said ‘I’m sick of all these people smoking electronic cigarettes,” Lashley said. “When I asked him why he said. ‘Simple, now I can’t bum any off of them.’ ”

By Jen Christensen, CNN

updated 7:36 AM EDT, Fri September 13, 2013

E-cigarettes: Healthy tool or gateway device?

E-cigarettes raise new questions about smoking

When a friend sitting at my kitchen table pulled out what looked like a cigarette, I was about to direct her to the front porch. But then I realized that what she was blowing was an odorless vapor, not smoke. It was an electronic cigarette.Electronic cigarettes come in a variety of shapes and models, but most consist of a battery, a heating element, and a liquid that contains nicotine, propylene glycol and flavorings. The heating element warms and aerosolizes the liquid, turning it into a vapor the user inhales. Smoking an e-cigarette (called “vaping”), gives users a nicotine hit without exposing them, or those around them, to tobacco smoke. The lack of odor is one of the biggest selling points, says Craig Weiss, chief executive of NJoy electronic cigarettes.

Though e-cigarette makers do not make safety or health claims, many users assume that eliminating the smoke of burning tobacco also eliminates the harm. “There’s no question that e-cigarettes deliver fewer [toxic substances] than conventional cigarettes, but the question of how much less is still not clear,” says Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco. Though sales of e-cigarettes are expected to reach $1 billion this year, with many different brands available. vaping is new enough that there haven’t been many studies done yet — certainly none of the large-scale, randomized trials that would be necessary to offer conclusive answers about the safety of e-cigarettes, Glantz says.While there’s little doubt that electronic cigarettes expose users to far fewer carcinogens and irritants than conventional cigarettes, the ingredients found in the liquids can vary greatly from product to product, says behavioral scientist Alexander Prokhorov at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “The companies improvise to come up with new flavorings and every time they introduce a new flavor, you don’t really know what’s in it,” he says. An analysis by researchers at the FDA found very low levels of nitrosamines, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol — chemicals associated with cancer and other health risks — in some electronic cigarette products, but the levels were a tiny fraction of what a smoker would get from a tobacco cigarette.

Unlike tobacco cigarettes, electronic cigarettes aren’t currently subject to regulation in the United States, which means their ingredients aren’t standardized. The FDA is working on a proposed rule to regulate the devices, wrote agency spokesperson Jenny Haliski in a prepared statement. Though the FDA did not provide a timeline for regulation, Glantz suspects political pressure makes regulation unlikely to happen anytime soon.

For now, researchers are trying to get a handle on the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes. “It’s a new product, and there’s still a lot we don’t know,” says Pallav Pokhrel, a public health scientist at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. For instance, it’s unclear what effects electronic cigarettes may have on smoking initiation among youth or cessation among current smokers.

Some electronic cigarettes allow users to adjust the amount of nicotine they’re getting, and even adjust it down to zero over time, and it seems plausible that a device that lets people reduce the amount of nicotine they’re consuming could help them cut their dependence, Prokhorov says. However, right now there aren’t good studies to show that they outperform existing nicotine cessation products, nor are they FDA-approved for this purpose.

Lauren Odum, a pharmacist at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, recently published a review of the scientific literature on using e-cigarettes to quit smoking. “We came up with a lot of anecdotal evidence from patients saying that these are very helpful, but it’s mostly surveys and the data is skewed, because people who have a positive experience are more likely to report back,” she says. “The ones who weren’t

Odum works at a smoking cessation clinic and says that patients have told her that e-cigarettes helped them quit or cut back on regular cigarettes. “One of the reasons that people like them is that they don’t have to stop the smoking habit,” she says. “They still get the hand-to-mouth motion and they still get the nicotine, which is the addictive component.”Nick Capodice never wanted to stop smoking: “I really loved smoking. I loved the act of it, the taste of it — everything” says the Brooklynite. He had no intention of quitting. But after his father was diagnosed with cancer, Capodice spent three “miserable” months attempting to give up cigarettes, before giving up. He didn’t try vaping in hopes of quitting smoking altogether, but after a few e-cigarettes, he lost his urge for tobacco. He hasn’t smoked in more than 16 months and has tapered down the amount of nicotine he’s using in his e-cigarettes to zero.

But not everyone who uses e-cigarettes stops smoking — NJoy’s Weiss says that most of his company’s customers also use tobacco cigarettes — and some public health researchers worry that vaping may actually prevent some people from kicking their nicotine habit if it allows them to get their fix in circumstances where they can’t smoke. Another concern is that e-cigarettes might be a gateway to traditional cigarettes for kids, getting them hooked on nicotine, Prokhorov says. (A report last week by the Centers for Disease and Control found that use of e-cigarettes among middle and high schoolers doubled between 2011 and 2012, with about 1.78 million students having tried them, among whom 160,000 had never used conventional cigarettes.) Finally, people who would never smoke a regular cigarette might take up the habit if they think that electronic cigarettes are safe, says Odum.

But Richard Carmona, who crusaded against tobacco during his term as U.S. surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, views e-cigarettes as a potential tool for improving public health. About 20 percent of Americans smoke, and the number of smokers has hit a plateau, Carmona says. “We still need to do more research,” he says, but “this is the first thing I’ve seen in years that has promise for decreasing tobacco use in our country.” Carmona, who recently joined the NJoy board (it’s a paid position), says that the company is committed to conducting and publishing the research necessary to answer the important scientific questions that remain about e-cigarettes.

By Christie Aschwanden, Published: September 9 in The Washington Post

E-cigarettes raise new questions about smoking

Nicotine Replacement Therapy Smoking Cessation

By Barry Lutz –

Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT, is a smoking cessation method. When asked while people will not quit smoking, the fear of related withdrawal symptoms was the number one reason for many people. If you quit smoking today, nicotine would still be in your body for as many as four more days.

Why is nicotine such a problem for quitting smoking and leading to withdrawal problems? Because nicotine, which is found naturally in tobacco, is very highly addicting. Quitting smoking is all the more difficult, because the smoker has developed a dependency to the nicotine. So even though you very much want to quit smoking, and want to quit today, the related withdrawal symptoms like headaches, dizziness, sleeping problems, anger, and even depression can make it impossible to do so.

Nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT, is a method of quitting smoking by using a product that will deliver nicotine into the bloodstream on a reduced and diminishing dosage than the smoker is getting from cigarettes. The nicotine in the NRT products also do not have the same toxins that are found in cigarette smoke.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy And The American Heart Association

The American Heart Association believes that nicotine transdermal patches and other nicotine substitution drug products, such as nicotine gum, can help smokers quit when used as part of a comprehensive smoking cessation program. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has been shown to be safe and effective in helping people stop using cigarettes when used as part of a comprehensive smoking cessation program.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy Products

NRT products are available as gums and patches over the counter, and there are sprays and inhalers where you will need a prescription. What is important to continue to remember is that nicotine replacement therapy is still using nicotine, and thus it is very important that the smoker does not cheat and continue to smoke while using it. If this was the case, then the amount of nicotine is going to be increased to possible toxic levels, and increase the nicotine addiction problem.

The nicotine replacement therapy approach allows the smoker to quit with less nicotine withdrawal problems, while also allowing for the smoking habit and anchors to be discontinued. This is important to note, because smoking can be both a physical and a psychological addiction issue, and NRT is only going to aid by getting rid of the craving for nicotine – not the underlying reason for why the person is smoking.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy Success

The goal in using nicotine replacement therapy is to stop smoking completely. If you plan to take nicotine medications begin using them on the day you quit.

Quitting smoking is typically going to cause withdrawal symptoms, and the smoker knows that the way to get rid of these is by smoking a cigarette. Therefore, getting nicotine in another way like from the nicotine replacement products is a way to get rid of the problems from withdrawal while quitting smoking.

NRT and its more gradual approach than quitting immediately, allows the smoker to focus on addressing the psychological issues that are going to be necessary to keep them from starting to smoke again, instead of the physical pain and discomfort from the nicotine withdrawal. Adding counseling, or using a program like Quit Smoking Today, can increase the success of the nicotine replacement therapy.

Quit smoking today [http://www.quitsmokingtodayaids.com/] is something that all smokers want to do and have even tried to do, but for so many it just doesn’t seem possible. Quit smoking today and wonderful things are going to happen – come to Quit Smoking Today to learn how [http://www.quitsmokingtodayaids.com/].

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Nicotine Replacement Therapy Smoking Cessation

Harmful Chemicals Found in Cigarettes

As smokers, little attention is paid to the harmful chemicals found in cigarettes or chose to ignore them. Smokers usually think about the other minor benefits that we can overcome in other ways. Benefits like how it can help them cope with stress, calm them down, relax after a long hard day, a comforter.

Do you know or have you ever wonder, that cigarettes are one of few products which can be sold legally which can harm and even kill you over time!

Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals with at least 400 poisonous and more than 50, cancer-causing ones.

Three of the most widely known chemicals are nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide.

Nicotine

Nicotine is a strong poisonous and addictive drug. It acts as a stimulant causing heart rate and blood pressure to climb. Not only does it increase the stickiness of blood in you, it also decreases your blood vessels diameter thus increasing the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

It is the main ingredient in insecticides.

Tar

Tar is a black and sticky residue used to cover road surfaces. It clogs up the lungs and causes lung cancer.

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas. This is the same gas found in car exhaust smoke. Carbon monoxide interferes with our respiratory (breathing) and circulatory (heart, arteries, and veins) systems.

It robs your body of oxygen making your heart work harder. Overtime, you get swollen airways thus letting lesser air into your lungs.

That is why smokers suffer from shortness of breath and lack of stamina.

Other harmful chemicals found in cigarettes smoke:

Acetone

Used in nail polish remover and paint stripper.

Arsenic

Deadly poison found in rat poison.

Ammonia

Used in dry cleaning industry, also used to boost the impact of nicotine in cigarettes.

Benzene

Benzene can be found in pesticides and gasoline. It is present in high levels in cigarette smoke. Can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, unconsciousness. It is a known carcinogen and is associated with leukemia.

Cadmium

Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal that is used in car batteries. Smokers typically have twice as much cadmium in their bodies as nonsmokers.

DDT

A pesticide used to kill insects.

Formaldehyde

Chemical used in preserving dead bodies. Known to cause cancer, gastrointestinal, respiratory and skin problems.

Hydrogen Cyanide

Hydrogen cyanide was used to kill people in the gas chambers in Nazi Germany during World War II.

The list goes on and on and it will be too long to list out all the harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke here.

The harmful chemicals found in cigarettes can cause or lead to but not necessary restricted to asthma, blindness, cancer, respiratory diseases, headache, nausea, dizziness, affect the reproductive system.

Of course smoking is a personal choice and it is OK if you suffer but don’t bring it onto others. Spare a thought for the non-smokers, your loved ones.

You may argue the fact that there are some who suffer the same diseases even though they are non-smokers and not subjected to all the harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke. However, have you ever thought that you may be one of the contributing factors?

Wilson is an ex-smoker, here to share his views on methods to quit smoking and help those trying or thinking to kick the addiction. It’s tough to quit smoking but it can be done.

It’s never too late to quit smoking, don’t give up and the key to your success is you

Find out more information, help, tips and guide at http://www.myquitsmokingsecrets.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wilson_Chia

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Harmful Chemicals Found in Cigarettes

Controversial e-cigarettes as good as nicotine in helping smokers quit

Published September 09, 2013 -  Smokers who switch to electronic cigarettes to try to kick their habit are at least as likely to succeed in quitting or cutting down as users of nicotine patches, according to research published on Sunday.  The findings come less than a week after a government study found that the use of e-cigarettes has doubled among teenagers.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers compared electronic, or e-cigarettes, with the more standard nicotine replacement therapy patches.

They found levels of success were comparable, with e-cigarettes – whose effects are a subject of intense debate among health experts – more likely to help smokers who fail to quit cut the amount of tobacco they use.

Some experts fear e-cigarettes may be a “gateway” to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking, while others view them as the most useful method yet of cutting back and helping would-be quitters.

While the argument rumbles on, smoking continues to kill half of all those who indulge in it.

Tobacco is responsible for 6 million deaths a year and the World Health Organisation estimate that number could rise beyond 8 million by 2030.

As well as causing lung cancer and other chronic respiratory conditions, smoking is also a major contributor to cardiovascular diseases, the world’s number-one killer.

‘Useful weapon’

The study, published in The Lancet medical journal and presented at a conference in Spain, was the first to assess whether e-cigarettes are more or less effective than nicotine patches – already recognised as useful in helping people quit.

“While our results don’t show any clear-cut differences… in terms of quit success after six months, it certainly seems that e-cigarettes were more effective in helping smokers who didn’t quit to cut down,” said Chris Bullen of New Zealand’s University of Auckland, who led the study.

“It’s also interesting that the people who took part in our study seemed to be much more enthusiastic about e-cigarettes than patches, as evidenced by the far greater proportion of people… who said they’d recommend them to family or friends.”

Bullen’s research team recruited 657 smokers who wanted to quit smoking and divided them into three groups.

They gave 292 of them 13 weeks’ supply of commercially available e-cigarettes, each of which contained around 16mg of nicotine. The same number of participants got 13 weeks of nicotine patches, and the remaining 73 got placebo e-cigarettes containing no nicotine.

At the end of the six-month study, 5.7 percent of participants had managed to completely stop smoking for that period.

Bullen said that while the proportion of participants who quit was highest in the e-cigarettes group – at 7.3 percent compared to 5.8 percent on nicotine patches and 4.1 percent on placebo – the differences were not statistically significant, so the results were that the two products were comparable.

The study also found that among those who had not managed to quit, cigarette consumption was markedly more reduced in the nicotine e-cigarettes group, compared to both other groups.

Some 57 percent of people using e-cigarettes had cut their daily number of cigarettes smoked by at least half after six months, compared to just over 40 percent of the patches group.

Ann McNeill, a professor of tobacco addiction at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said the findings should persuade health experts to embrace e-cigarettes as a useful weapon in the battle against smoking.

“Electronic cigarettes are the most exciting new development in tobacco control over the last few decades as we have witnessed a rapid uptake of these much less harmful products by smokers,” she said in an emailed comment.

“The popularity of e-cigarettes suggests that we now have a product that can compete with cigarettes, thus heralding the first real possibility that cigarette smoking could be phased out.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/09/e-cigarettes-as-good-as-nicotine-patches-in-helping-smokers-quit/#ixzz2ePFiWfUo

Controversial e-cigarettes as good as nicotine in helping smokers quit

Keep E-Cigaretts Free from Regulation

I respond to the editorial “E-cigarettes need careful analysis” by Bloomberg View in the Aug. 22Dispatch.

The American Association of Public Health Physicians views electronic cigarettes as similar to other nicotine-replacement therapy and recommends them as a harm-reduction method for those who have failed to quit by other means.

Other means of smoking-cessation aids (nicotine replacement therapy devices) such as gum, lozenges, patches, inhalers and sprays are on the market and readily available to those who want to quit smoking. All these contain nicotine, but none are regulated as tobacco products.

So why should the e-cigarette by treated differently?

The perception that e-cigarettes should be considered a tobacco product because “they look like the real thing” is not a valid measuring stick by which to pass judgment. It’s a plastic tube with a battery on one end and a liquid-filled cartridge on the other.

There is no tobacco, no fire, no tar, no burning paper, no odor, no non-biodegradable butts, no dirty ashtrays, no harsh chemicals and no second-hand smoke.

There is vapor, but it is more steam than smoke. Other than appearance, there is very little comparison.

My suggestion, then, is that we rename the e-cigarette an electronic personal vaporizer and refashion it to resemble a Pez dispenser.

If these devices no longer look like a tobacco cigarette, perhaps others will realize there is no comparison, and all the confusion and controversy over electronic cigarettes will be put to rest.

JANIS SHARP

From The Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 5, 2013

Keep E-Cigaretts Free from Regulation