News

Crutch or cure: issues surround use of e-cigarettes

Saturday, November 9, 2013
Fremont Tribune

The meteoric rise in popularity of e-cigarettes has some people scratching their heads as to whether the tobacco-less devices are a new tool in smoking cessation or a Trojan horse that could undo decades of anti-smoking campaigns.

Electronic cigarettes are devices that primarily consist of a battery, heating coil, wick and tank or cartridge that holds flavored liquid and nicotine. As a user puffs on the e-cigarette, the battery heats the coil and the liquid is turned essentially into a vapor that is inhaled like a traditional cigarette.

But e-cigarette users don’t consider themselves smokers, they’re “vapers,” and they don’t smoke – they “vape.” Many of the devices look more like a lightsaber than a Lucky Strike.

Even though the products do not contain tobacco, and do not use combustion to deliver nicotine to the user, there are a number of issues, questions and criticisms surrounding the use of e-cigarettes.

Among the unknowns are whether e-cigarettes are a solution or part of the problem, the answer to which would likely depend on who you ask.

The Fremont Area Medical Center does not support the use of the products as a tool to quit smoking because they are not FDA approved.

Dr. James Sullivan of Fremont Family Care, a clinic associated with FAMC, said smoking is a great health hazard and doctors like it when people are thinking of ways to quit. But he, as a member of the medical community, has a couple of issues with the devices.

First, he said, the devices are unregulated, and outside of strict FDA oversight and testing, there is no way to be certain how much nicotine is being delivered to the user. Another issue Sullivan has with the devices is that the liquid nicotine, the addictive part of smoking, can have harmful health effects – especially in young people and in high doses.

In traditional smoking cessation programs, nicotine in gum or patches slowly weans the user off the drug.

“The e-cigarettes design is basically the same thing, ‘let’s replace the toxic nature of smoking and inhaling that and give you back the nicotine while you quit,’” Sullivan said. “The problem is you don’t know what dose of nicotine you’re getting by inhaling it.

“We need to know a reliable dose that is getting in. For that reason we are reticent to use it,” he added. “I don’t know if a lot of people are quitting, because nicotine is the addictive part. So people are just now using e-cigarettes instead of regular cigarettes, so they’re not using it as a tool to quit, just as a replacement.”

Other criticisms of the devices have included the fact that there are no laws in place banning the sale of the products to minors, and the e-juice -- the liquid containing the nicotine -- comes in a range of flavors from traditional tobacco to gummy bears, caramel and root beer.

In 2010 the FDA, based on limited studies of samples, issued warning letters to electronic cigarette distributors for various violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act including “violations of good manufacturing practices, making unsubstantiated drug claims and using the devices as delivery mechanisms for active pharmaceutical ingredients.”

In reporting its results of those limited studies “FDA found significant quality issues that indicate that quality control processes used to manufacture these products are substandard or non-existent. FDA found that cartridges labeled as containing no nicotine contained nicotine and that three different electronic cigarette cartridges with the same label emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine with each puff.”

More at link ...

http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/crutch-or-cure-issues-surround-use-of-e-cigarettes/article_0c7c6547-458a-5d2f-8b3c-515f2c1f1c9b.html

Return to News

Tobacco Free Nebraska • P.O. Box 95026 • Lincoln, Nebraska 68509-5026 • Phone: (402) 471-2101