Are Electronic Cigarettes Safe?

E-Cigarettes contain propylene glycol (or sometimes vegetable glycerin), water, nicotine and flavorings. Propylene glycol and glycerin are both common food additives and are on the FDA ‘GRAS’ list (Generally Recognized as Safe). They are approved for use in cosmetics, medicines and foodstuffs. You will find propylene glycol in such products as mouthwash, toothpaste and food additives – and it is also used to provide artificial smoke in theatre productions.

Now, it’s important to state that nicotine is a highly addictive substance. Although the jury is out on whether it is harmful or actually in some circumstances may be beneficial to the body, there is no doubt that the main harm caused by cigarette smoking comes from some of the other 4,000 or so chemicals contained in tobacco (more than 50 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer).

According to Matt Salmon, former US Congressman and current President of the Electronic Cigarette Association, available data indicates that “electronic cigarettes reduce the risk of illness and death to under 1% of the risk posed by tobacco cigarettes”.

The availablity of cartridges with different amounts of nicotine (including 0mg) means it’s possible to reduce your intake over time, thereby possibly allowing people to wean themselves off their nicotine addiction – though it’s currently illegal in most jurisdictions to market electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation device.

Are they cheaper to smoke than normal cigarettes?

The short and sweet answer is YES! An average electronic cigarette cartridge lasts for the equivalent of around 2 packets of normal cigarettes. A standard pack of 5 cartridges normally retails for between $12 and $15 – so each one costs between $2.40 and $3. As each cartridge is roughly equal to 40 cigarettes, it’s easy to see that electronic cigarettes cost less than half the price of traditional cigarettes.

Supposing you normally smoke 20 cigarettes a day and pay $5 per pack, you could save more than $1200 a year by switching to electronic cigarettes!

Of course, you have to factor in the initial cost of purchasing a kit, but it’s obvious that in a short period of time it will have paid for itself in the savings made by the low ongoing costs.

Are they legal to smoke in public?

Electronic Cigarettes give you the freedom to smoke where you want. If you’re frustrated by no longer being able to smoke in public places, electronic cigarettes can offer you a solution. They are not currently covered by smoking restrictions as they only produce vapor. This makes them legal to smoke anywhere – though you may get some strange looks from people!

Does smoking an Electronic Cigarette feel like smoking a normal one?

It feels similar, but not the same. For one thing an Electronic Cigarette is heavier than the traditional sort and although many models produce a dense vapor (you can even blow ’smoke’ rings!), the tobacco flavored cartridges don’t taste exactly like real tobacco.

What’s the difference between a Smokeless Cigarette and an Electronic Cigarette?

Nothing. Smokeless Cigarette, E-Cigarette and E-Cig are all alternative terms you may see used to describe Electronic Cigarettes.

How do you switch them on and off?

There’s no switch because you don’t need one. The device is automatically activated when you start to inhale and it switches itself off instantaneously when the airflow sensor detects that you have finished inhaling, thus using the lowest amount of battery power possible.

Help, my Electronic Cigarette has stopped working!

The ECigarettes we recommend are all reliable. If the amount of vapor produced when you inhale starts to decrease or stop altogether, first check that the cartridge is not depleted – try another one. If that doesn’t work, then it’s normally because the battery is not properly charged or may be faulty – try another battery. If neither of these solutions cure your problem, then you probably need a new atomizer.

Atomizer
Sometimes referred to as a heating element, the atomizer heats up the solution in the cartidge, turning it into vapor. On some models, the atomizer and cartridge are combined into one unit called a Cartomizer.

Battery
Electronic cigarette ‘batteries’ contain microelectronics in addition to a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The electronics are responsible for, amongst other things, switching the atomizer on and off and activating the LED at the tip.

Cartomizer
An atomizer and cartridge in one unit

Cartridge
This part of the device contains the nicotine solution, situated where the filter would be on a normal cigarette. It’s composed of propylene glycol (or sometimes glycerin), nicotine in varying concentrations and flavoring.

LED (Light Emitting Diode)
Many models of electronic cigarette contain a small light on the tip which is switched on when the user inhales, making the device look more like a traditional cigarette.

Propylene glycol
One of the components of the liquid in the cartridge, propylene glycol is heated to create the vapor inhaled by the electronic cigarette user. It is widely used in cosmetics, foodstuffs, toothpaste, mouthwash and artificial smoke generators for theatrical productions.

1. On the first anniversary of the smoking ban, a bingo hall in Loughborough introduces electronic cigarettes to win back customers. BBC News UK, July 1 2008
2. Electronic Cigarettes: Are They Safe? The Early Show, CBS News, February 27 2009
3. Row breaks out over safety of e-cigarettes 3news.co.nz, July 25 2009
4. South Africa medical survey reports that 45% of South African smokers who used e-cigarettes were able to quit tobacco smoking within two months iafrica.com, July 29 2009
5. FDA smoke screen on e-cigarettes The Washington Times, August 6 2009
6. Electronic Cigarette Association Urges Congress To Make E-Cigarettes Illegal To Those Under The Legal Smoking Age Medical News Today, August 20 2009
7. Electronic Cigarette Association Urges Unbiased Evaluation of E-cigarettes as Debate Intensifies Around These Devices Reuters, November 5 2009

BOSTON, July 27 /Standard Newswire/ — The FDA recently went public with misleading information about the safety of electronic cigarettes and the marketing of the devices, not only using its clout but recruiting other prominent organizations to demonize a product that has great public health benefit potential.

A group of prominent doctors and tobacco researchers, including Dr. Michael Siegel at the Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Joel Nitzkin of the AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force, and Dr. Brad Rodu, Endowed Chair, Tobacco Harm Reduction Research University of Louisville, challenge the FDA to provide the full quantitative data of the study upon which the FDA has based its warning against electronic cigarettes. They are concerned that the FDA’s disingenuous targeting of electronic cigarettes through a biased presentation of the scientific data has had significant negative impact upon the public perception of electronic cigarettes, when the best available evidence suggests that these have shown that the devices offer great potential to reduce serious health issues among traditional tobacco smokers.

In a July 22 news release, the FDA cited the detectable presence of carcinogens and “toxic chemicals” in a “small sample” of electronic cigarette cartridges as reason for alarm, singling out nitrosamines as particularly toxic. What the FDA fails to inform the public is that detectable amounts of carcinogens are also present in nicotine replacement products such as NicoDerm CQ and Nicorette gum, both approved by the FDA, and nitrosamines that can be also found in food items such bacon and beer. This double standard and alarmist attitude has had the significant and unfortunate effect of inducing hysteria among the public, discouraging tobacco smokers from using a product which is thought to be a significantly safer alternative to traditional tobacco.

Regrettably, the FDA has used biased reporting of this small and inconclusive study, the complete results of which have not been made public, to secure the vocal support of groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium, the Institute for Global Health, and the American Lung Association in their attack on electronic cigarettes. These researchers argue that it is absurd to consider taking electronic cigarettes off the market when it is the conventional ones which have been shown to be killing people. Further, the electronic cigarette community calls for accurate and fair reporting relative to the findings and statements of prominent medical professionals in favor of this new and important technology and challenges the media to tell the other side of the story.

“The FDA’s laboratory findings actually indicate that electronic cigarettes are much, much safer than conventional cigarettes,” says Dr. Michael Siegel. “The traces of carcinogens present are also present in nicotine replacement products. The FDA and the anti-smoking groups have fallen into a huge analytical trap as they have failed to ask the appropriate question. The question they are asking is: ‘Are electronic cigarettes safe?’ That is not the right question. The right question is: ‘Are electronic cigarettes much safer than traditional ones?’”

Dr. Rodu states, “The FDA tested e-cigarettes for TSNAs using a questionable sampling regimen, and the methods that were so sensitive that the results may have no possible significance to users. The agency failed to report specific levels of these contaminants, and it has failed to conduct similar testing of nicotine medicines that have been sold in the U.S. for over 20 years. These are not the actions of an agency that is science-based and consumer-focused. These pseudo-scientific actions are clearly intended to form the justification for banning a category of products that are probably 99.9% safer than cigarettes.”

Dr. Joel Nitzkin speaking as individual states, “The newly adopted FDA/Tobacco legislation will give full FDA approval to currently marketed conventional cigarettes. The new law encourages cigarette companies to produce new “reduced exposure” cigarettes to be marketed as reduced exposure products, with no scientific evidence that such reductions in exposure will reduce risk of future tobacco related illness and death. In the context of these provisions of the newly adopted FDA/Tobacco bill — FDA should be encouraging, not maligning the manufacture and sale of electronic cigarettes, and working with manufacturers to assure the highest possible quality control.”

For more information and interviews, contact:

Michael Siegel, MD, MPH
Professor
Department of Community Health Sciences
Boston University School of Public Health
617-638-5167
Email: mbsiegel@bu.edu

Joel L. Nitzkin, MD, MPH, DPA
Chair AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force
Phone: 504 899 7893 or 800 598 2561
Fax: 504 899 7557
jln-md@mindspring.com
www.aaphp.org

Brad Rodu
Professor of Medicine
Endowed Chair, Tobacco Harm Reduction Research
University of Louisville
Phone: 502-561-7273
Email: brad.rodu@louisville.edu
http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com

Thomas R. Kiklas
Director of Media
inLife LLC
Phone: 949-250-9600 x108
Email: tkiklas@myinlife.com

Here’s an informative video from former US Congressman Matt Salmon,
the current President of the Electronic Cigarette Association:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLVlSY4fwIg

Electronic Cigarettes in the News

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVhA1GqC1lE