Despite recognition, the concerns about e-cigarettes might not be all they are cracked up-to be
Last year we wrote on the health hazards related to e-cigarettes, commonly referred to as "e-cigarettes". The devices are billed as "healthy living" products and as a tool to help smokers quit their habit. Advocates say that because e-cigarettes just give smokers a vapor with nicotine and no chemicals, they are comparatively safe.
Those claims might be wrong, though. Last March, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited imports of the products, which are mainly produced in China. The FDA wants to research health issues. Particularly, the FDA discovered that chemical formulas for the smoky vapor often contained dangerous components; at least one manufacturer used diethylene glycol as an essential constituent, a compound commonly used in antifreeze and noxious to humans.
Today a new study adds to the doubts about e-cigarettes, suggesting that they are about as successful at delivering nicotine as smoking on an unlit cigarette. Dr. Thomas Eissenberg at the Virginia Commonwealth University headed the study. When using both electronic and conventional smokes the study involved 16 participants and extensively monitored nicotine levels in the body and heart rates.
The analysis, the first study of e-cigarettes to be conducted by U.S. physicians, found that almost no nicotine was actually shipped by the devices and instead customers were actually inhaling a nicotine-devoid hazardous vapor of compounds like diethylene glycol or nitrosamines, a group of cancer causing nitrogen compounds.
Describes Dr. Eissenberg, "They are as effective at nicotine delivery as smoking on an unlit cigarette. These e-cigs don't deliver nicotine.
The research was financed by the National Cancer Institute and will soon be published within the journal Tobacco Control, an item of the British Medical Journal Group.
Nicotine has some valuable health effects, especially for the mentally ill, therefore it is disappointing that e-cigarettes appear unable to provide the compound.
Regardless of the mounting criticisms, several e-cigarette users stand by the item. Jimi Jackson, a former tobacco smoker in Richmond, Virginia, who sells electronic cigarettes, comments, "I smoked 37 years, so when I found them, I was, like, 'Thank, you Jesus.'"
The FDA is presently being sued by a firm called "Smoking Everywhere" that imports e-cigarettes from China. The company wants the FDA to lift the prohibition on e-cigarette imports. The business's court filings disclose just how popular the devices are -- the organization sold 600,000 e-cigarettes in a year via the business's network of 120 vendors in the United States.
Why should the Food And Drug Administration lift its ban? Based on Washington lawyer Kip Schwartz, representing "Smoking Every where", "We are on the brink of going-out of business, and that's why we are suing the FDA in U.S. District Court."
Last year we wrote on the health hazards related to e-cigarettes, commonly referred to as "e-cigarettes". The devices are billed as "healthy living" products and as a tool to help smokers quit their habit. Advocates say that because e-cigarettes just give smokers a vapor with nicotine and no chemicals, they are comparatively safe.
Those claims might be wrong, though. Last March, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited imports of the products, which are mainly produced in China. The FDA wants to research health issues. Particularly, the FDA discovered that chemical formulas for the smoky vapor often contained dangerous components; at least one manufacturer used diethylene glycol as an essential constituent, a compound commonly used in antifreeze and noxious to humans.
Today a new study adds to the doubts about e-cigarettes, suggesting that they are about as successful at delivering nicotine as smoking on an unlit cigarette. Dr. Thomas Eissenberg at the Virginia Commonwealth University headed the study. When using both electronic and conventional smokes the study involved 16 participants and extensively monitored nicotine levels in the body and heart rates.
The analysis, the first study of e-cigarettes to be conducted by U.S. physicians, found that almost no nicotine was actually shipped by the devices and instead customers were actually inhaling a nicotine-devoid hazardous vapor of compounds like diethylene glycol or nitrosamines, a group of cancer causing nitrogen compounds.
Describes Dr. Eissenberg, "They are as effective at nicotine delivery as smoking on an unlit cigarette. These e-cigs don't deliver nicotine.
The research was financed by the National Cancer Institute and will soon be published within the journal Tobacco Control, an item of the British Medical Journal Group.
Nicotine has some valuable health effects, especially for the mentally ill, therefore it is disappointing that e-cigarettes appear unable to provide the compound.
Regardless of the mounting criticisms, several e-cigarette users stand by the item. Jimi Jackson, a former tobacco smoker in Richmond, Virginia, who sells electronic cigarettes, comments, "I smoked 37 years, so when I found them, I was, like, 'Thank, you Jesus.'"
The FDA is presently being sued by a firm called "Smoking Everywhere" that imports e-cigarettes from China. The company wants the FDA to lift the prohibition on e-cigarette imports. The business's court filings disclose just how popular the devices are -- the organization sold 600,000 e-cigarettes in a year via the business's network of 120 vendors in the United States.
Why should the Food And Drug Administration lift its ban? Based on Washington lawyer Kip Schwartz, representing "Smoking Every where", "We are on the brink of going-out of business, and that's why we are suing the FDA in U.S. District Court."