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Debate over e-cigarettes continues to rage
by Jamie Anderson - January 25, 2010 - comments
A recent ruling by U.S. District Court has sided two electronic cigarette suppliers in their lawsuit against the FDA.
New York, January 25-- Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes as they are popularly known as, qualify to be amongst the most widely and vociferously debated concepts in recent times.
On one side is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fighting a legal battle to impose a ban on imports of these battery operated devices. It may be recalled that, last week, a federal judge has blocked FDA from stopping shipments of this new alternative to tobacco.
On the other hand are studies, funded primarily by the manufacturers of these electronic cigarettes, which term these inventions as safe.
Does not address problem of addiction
Needless to say anti-smoking groups are not praising these new devices and categorically state that these e-cigarettes in no way promote anti smoking behavior.
Anti-smoking group Quit avers, "Our concern is that, at face value, they appear to reinforce the behavior of having a cigarette. It's reinforcing the wrong habit and potentially without addressing the addiction.”
"We need to de-normalize smoking and e-cigarettes seem to role-model the wrong behavior," it added.
And somewhere in the middle are certain social groups who have called for more studies on the subject before declaring these e-cigarettes as safe or hazardous.
E-cigarettes find favor
In one of the latest studies conducted by New Zealand researcher Dr Murray Laugesen and his team, it was found that there is nothing in these e-cigarettes to be "immediately concerned about".
Laugesen’s team had conducted an in-depth research on one brand of e-cigarette, Ruyan. Laugesen study found that e-cigarettes that contained a small amount of nicotine were fairly safe, as there was about one-tenth as much nicotine per puff vis-a-vis a normal cigarette.
"Basically, in all the testing that we did we did not find anything that would make them unsafe relative to other tobacco products. Anybody can see they are much safer than tobacco and other regular cigarette products," said Laugesen.
About Electronic cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes are stainless-steel, battery-powered devices that provide vaporized nicotine without the carcinogenic chemicals usually found in cigarettes. E-cigarettes are big in America and are set to take the rest of the world by storm.
These devices are rechargeable, and come in different variants; either as nicotine-free or with nicotine. Furthermore a user can opt to buy an apple, chocolate, vanilla or coffee flavor of these cigarettes.
All said, experts opine that the present set of information and statistics available on the pros and cons of these e-cigarettes is "very limited".
Anti-smoking group Quit meanwhile remains hesitant to take a position on the safety of e-cigarettes but compliments one aspect, "The strength of e-cigarettes is that they provide nicotine without the thousands of damaging chemicals found in cigarettes and tobacco, which is certainly a good thing.”