Article On Physorg.com

[juliery]

This is the link...http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-evidence-e-cigs-safer-cigarettes.html

Here is the article.....(if you go to the url there are related articles worth reading)

"Evidence suggests e-cigs safer than cigarettes, researcher claims

December 16, 2010

In a new report that bucks the concerns raised by the Food and Drug Administration, a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) (sph.bu.edu) researcher concludes that electronic cigarettes are much safer than real cigarettes and show promise in the fight against tobacco-related diseases and death.

The review, which will be published online ahead of print this month in the Journal of Public Health Policy, is the first to comprehensively examine scientific evidence about the safety and effectiveness of electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes, said Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at BUSPH. The battery-powered devices provide tobacco-less doses of nicotine in a vaporized solution.

"Few, if any, chemicals at levels detected in electronic cigarettes raise serious health concerns," the authors said. "Although the existing research does not warrant a conclusion that electronic cigarettes are safe in absolute terms and further clinical studies are needed to comprehensively assess the safety of electronic cigarettes, a preponderance of the available evidence shows them to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes and comparable in toxicity to conventional nicotine replacement products."

The report reviewed 16 laboratory studies that identified the components in electronic cigarette liquid and vapor. The authors found that carcinogen levels in electronic cigarettes are up to 1,000 times lower than in tobacco cigarettes.

"The FDA and major anti-smoking groups keep saying that we don't know anything about what is in electronic cigarettes," Siegel said. "The truth is, we know a lot more about what is in electronic cigarettes than regular cigarettes."

Since coming onto the market in the United States more than three years ago, electronic cigarettes have proven to be controversial. The FDA has threatened to ban the sell of e-cigarettes and six national anti-smoking groups – the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Legacy Foundation, and Action on Smoking and Health – have also called for the removal of electronic cigarettes from the market.

Their concerns are that the FDA has not evaluated any e-cigarettes for safety or effectiveness, that the devices contain dangerous chemicals, and that they are marketed toward children. In December, however, a federal appeals court ruled that the FDA should regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products rather than as drug-delivery devices, such as nicotine-replacement patches or gum. The latter undergo much more stringent FDA regulations.

"Taking these products off the market would force thousands of users to return to cigarette smoking," Siegel said. "Why would the FDA and the anti-smoking groups want to take an action that is going to seriously harm the public's health? The only ones who would be protected by a ban on e-cigarettes are the tobacco companies, as these new products represent the first real threat to their profits in decades."

The report also reviews preliminary evidence that electronic cigarettes can be effective in suppressing the urge to smoke, largely because they simulate the act of smoking a real cigarette. E-cigarettes might also offer an advantage over traditional nicotine delivery devices, the authors argue, because smoking-related stimuli alone have been found capable of suppressing tobacco abstinence symptoms for long periods of time."

Provided by Boston University Medical Center

[juliery]

I LOVE how the FDA and these lawmakers just dismisses any evidence that flies in the face of their premise....because they are in bed with the tobacco giants. Pathetic.

[juliery]

oh, and as an aside.....what about this garbage about cigarette packaging having to display graphic images of warning? To warn off kids? ahahahahahahaha, have they NOT seen the video games these same kids are playing? Teens these days have seen so much blood and gore, do they really think seeing someone hooked up to machines, dying of some dread disease frightening??????? I honestly don't think most kids could care less about stuff like that. The stuff that is on regular tv these days and they think some image is going to bother kids? Just shows HOW out of touch they are. As far as older smokers, give me a break, many of us have KNOWN people who have died from smoking related illness/disease. What about all the medical professionals that smoke that have seen patients day in, day out, dying from these diseases? Trying to scare someone with a horrid picture doesn't work.....they have already tried that with billboards. I have yet to meet a single person who has quit smoking from seeing a picture of someone, no matter how awful they look, dying of anything. Heck, I have known and seen people who unhook themselves from oxygen to go have a smoke, many won't stop even WHEN they have serious smoking related illness/disease.

FINALLY we have something, that just by virtue of lack of combustion, is already safer than cigarettes helping us, but they want to take it away. AND we are supposed to believe this is out of concern for our safety and/or health??? Yeah, right.

[easilyamused]

and what about the fact that more teens are turning to smoking tobacco through a hookah which they believe to be a "safe" alternative to smoking? i cannot believe the college i went to actually allowed a student to give a demonstration of hookah use and talk about its purity, which uses charcoal to ignite, although they claim the water in the hookah purifies the chemicals in the tobacco...

the e cig is not being targeted to kids, the hookah is, so why is no attention being brought to that device?

[juliery]

I don't think they consider that as much of a draw because it is less portable. I mean not like you are gonna use a hookah driving down the road. Plus they aren't sold at malls and gas stations. Not to mention it is not a new device, it is an ancient device actually. I think that is a totally different thing because it doesn't resemble a cigarette. I mean how many people smoking cigarettes have you ever known that switched to a hookah? I don't personally know any.

THE ONLY reason they are going after this is because it is starting to seriously cut into tobacco sales and therefore tax revenue from tobacco sales. It just irritates me that they try to act like this has something to do with concern over health when anyone can plainly see it doesn't. This is the FIRST device I can think of, at least in my lifetime, that poses a real threat to the tobacco industry....THAT is what this is all about. And think about it, if the tobacco industry was seriously affected, that would mean loss of jobs in the form of tobacco farmers, workers, all the way down the line....PLUS combined with the lost tax revenue.

There is a HUGE incentive for the FDA to classify this as a tobacco product for that reason alone....because then it would be taxed as a tobacco product, thus a sin tax. If it was classified as a medical device they don't make all that sin tax money. It is all about greed, like most other things involving the government. It is so insulting that they think we are all dumb enough to not realize what this is about.

[easilyamused]

ahhh thats a good point, because the hookah is also being used with tobacco so that device would not cut into big tobaccos profits even though it is also used for smoking dope, and yeah here in oregon it is sold in some gas stations, all sorts of drug devices are legal for sale in this state