Carcinogens in tobacco flavoring or nicotine extraction?

[Theaxiom]

I am wondering how the tobacco flavor is procured, is it done by extracting it from actual tobacco? What kind of tobacco? Any additives? Also where does all this nicotine come from? I am just curious because if the tobacco/nicotine is extracted from actual tobacco, I want to make sure it is safe and there are none of the additives/carcinogens that are contained in the tobacco that is found in the standard analog.

[KermieD]

In order: Yes, not sure, probably, tobacco.

There are carcinogens in there, but they are more on the order of the levels in nicotine gum rather than in tobacco. This is a safer alternative than analogs, but don't let anyone fool you into thinking it's "good for you" or "completely harmless".

[yvilla]

Here you go:

The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: Comparison of Carcinogen Levels Shows that Electronic Cigarettes are Much Safer Than Conventional Ones

[Theaxiom]

Thanks very much for that article, extremely informative and it answered my questions.

[Bryan G]

Something is really wrong here, why the FDA is wanting to ban this, but has no plans to ban cigarettes is showing that there is something going on here.

[Dillan]

As far as banning cigarettes entirely, Congress reserved that power to itself exclusively when it granted the FDA regulatory power over tobacco. So we're in a sort of neverland where the FDA has the power in principle to ban ecigs, but not analogs.