Technology and Gadgets Online

There’s a bit of a storm going down in the world of the e cigarette at the moment and its something that we would all do well to pay attention to. There are a number of people and organizations in the United States who want to take away your right to decide whether or not you can choose to use e cigarettes. Now, I don’t care whether you are a smoker or a non smoker, or if you even have any interest in an electronic cigarette at all, but there is something deeply wrong when a few individuals with a lot of power can make decisions which can negatively affect the lives of thousands of people just because they have a financial interest in a specific political outcome.

You see, the FDA and various other organizations such as the WHO are currently waging a battle in an attempt to stop you and I from being able to get our hands on an electronic cigarette on the grounds that it might be a little unhealthy. For a start, I don’t know anyone who is claiming that the e cig is a health product, we’re not talking about a vitamin supplement here after all. This is a device which has been marketed as a tobacco replacement, a replacement for the number one cause of preventable death on the planet. WE KNOW that tobacco cigarette are killing us in their thousands every year and for those of us who find it difficult to quit the nicotine addiction altogether a tar-free alternative seems to make all kinds of sense. So why are they trying to take this alternative away from us?

The FDA itself claims on its website that “There is no such thing as a safe cigarette” even when talking about tobacco products which are labeled as “light,” “low,” “mild”. The fact is that tobacco cigarettes are the only product allowed to be sold which will kill its consumers if they use them in exactly the manner in which the manufacturer intended. So at the moment we have a choice between the known killer with its poison count which exceeds 4000 carcinogens and toxins every time you inhale, or the E Cigarette.

The smokeless cigarette contains very few ingredients: nicotine, water, propylene glycol, and some flavor to make it more pleasant to imbibe. When used to deliver a nicotine hit you get no carbon monoxide, no tar, and it doesn’t require you to inhale any burning organic matter. Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that switching from the tobacco to the electronic replacement is probably not going to have any extra negative impact on their health. In fact, you might come to the reasonable conclusion that making that switch could possibly have a positive effect on your life. It should be your right as a citizen of a free country to decide for yourself whether or not this might not be the case when you examine the facts in front of you.

You would expect that an agency such as the FDA would only use the truth in their fight against perceived dangers which have the potential to harm the public but it seems they are not above using underhand tactics to convince us that action must be taken. On their website they have a news release that contains half truths to try and further their cause.

They open with the fact “that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze”. That sounds terrible! I certainly don’t want to be drinking any antifreeze, doesn’t that make you go blind or something? What they conveniently fail to mention is that the amount of diethylene glycol is minuscule compared to the levels in tobacco and it was only found in one out of eighteen of the nicotine cartridges tested. Its also true that there is far more of this chemical in an aspirin tablet than you will find in a contaminated cartridge. Further, according to Wikipedia the ingredient which is actually in E Cigarettes to give them that vapor effect, Propylene glycol, is used to make non-toxic antifreeze for use in drinking water systems, rather than the stuff you pour into your automobile radiator.

Sure, this substance is probably toxic to humans but the levels we are talking about are very small compared to other sources which we are all free to consume. Saying that e cigarettes contain an ingredient that is found in antifreeze when its also found in many other products which are considered safe seems like scaremongering to me.

They also state that “These products are marketed and sold to young people and are readily available online and in shopping malls.” I’ve been following the electronic cigarette for a couple of years now and I have NEVER seen a company target children with their marketing, they are always aimed solely at people who already smoke and are looking for an alternative. If they are going to make statements like that then they should really be backing them up with some evidence.

They go on to say that “They are also available in different flavors, such as chocolate and mint, which may appeal to young people”. I’m not going to argue that chocolate flavored products might appeal to young people, but they also definitely appeal to adults which is why they were created. How many kids have access to a credit card and $100 so that they can buy one of these devices on the Internet anyway? My guess is that most teenagers will find it much more convenient to purchase a regular tobacco cigarette from their local store for a few bucks.

If the FDA wants to ban this product from sale then a better angle of attract might be for it to do some studies to determine once and for all whether its safe for human consumption or not. My feeling is that what they really want is to regulate the electronic cigarette industry and start to make some money off of it. The big pharmaceutical companies will certainly want to get in on the act, after all if the e cigarette becomes as popular as it deserve no one will ever again by their nicotine continuation therapies that give no satisfaction to the user. Perhaps in the future we will even have Philip Morris selling e cigarettes to their customers who are helplessly addicted to Marlboro.