Hello,
I would like to say a few words concerning potential legislation concerning the "e-cigarette." There's quite a bit of misinformation about, and I would be remiss if I didn't do my part to inform my legislators. Please indulge me, because this is quite useful information, and it comes from a position that you may not hear from your other constituents.
E-cigs have been around for about ten years, surrounded by a mix of mystery and suspicion. Rumors abound concerning just what they are, and the FDA is apparently puzzled as to just what to do with them. A misconception is that an e-cigarette's working fluid is some sort of "liquid nicotine." Actually, it's nearly entirely propylene glycol, with a tiny (and variable) amount of nicotine and flavoring added to it. Vaporized propylene glycol is in fact the very technology that is used in fog machines; so this is not tech that is breaking any new ground -- merely its utilization, and its battery-powered miniaturized scale.
I have never smoked cigarettes, and I've used an e-cig for years, using unflavored pure propylene glycol. I would also enthusiastically recommend non-nicotine vaping to anyone and everyone, even those who have never even thought about a cigarette before.
Here's why: they aren't cigarettes. They aren't smoking. They are the diametric opposite of smoking -- vaping makes you healthier.
The key is that the e-cigarette is a method to easily and cheaply breathe propylene glycol vapor. And propylene glycol vapor was proven seventy years ago to be an air sterilizer. It wipes out bacteria. It wipes out viruses.
The more we can push that concept, and divorce the mental connection of e-cigs to tobacco cigarettes, the better off we'll all be. Yes, one can add nic to the propylene glycol, and blammo! you're off tobacco cigarettes, with their concomitant tar and carcinogens. One can then dial back the nic until you're nic free. Great! But merely tying e-cigs to smoking cessation is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
Learn your history -- all the research has already been done, decades ago. Don't be swayed by the "nicotine vapor" line that's been around for years, when the whole point of the e-cig isn't (or shouldn't be!) the nicotine at all, but the propylene glycol. And vaporized propylene glycol has been thoroughly vetted, tried, and then forgotten about, for decades.
You need, as our representatives in government, to distance the e-cig from the tobacco cigarette as much as you possibly can. Sure, it can help one quit smoking, but it's so, so much more than that. I want to live in a world where everyone vapes delicious, vaporized non-nicotine propylene glycol all day long, and seasonal coughs, sneezes, sniffles, influenza and pneumonia are so rare as to be an extraordinary occurrence.
Thank you for your time.
Bill Thompson.
references:
THE BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL VAPOR ON MICROORGANISMS SUSPENDED IN AIR.
(http://jem.rupress.org/content/75/6/593.abstract and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2135271/pdf/593.pdf)
I would like to say a few words concerning potential legislation concerning the "e-cigarette." There's quite a bit of misinformation about, and I would be remiss if I didn't do my part to inform my legislators. Please indulge me, because this is quite useful information, and it comes from a position that you may not hear from your other constituents.
E-cigs have been around for about ten years, surrounded by a mix of mystery and suspicion. Rumors abound concerning just what they are, and the FDA is apparently puzzled as to just what to do with them. A misconception is that an e-cigarette's working fluid is some sort of "liquid nicotine." Actually, it's nearly entirely propylene glycol, with a tiny (and variable) amount of nicotine and flavoring added to it. Vaporized propylene glycol is in fact the very technology that is used in fog machines; so this is not tech that is breaking any new ground -- merely its utilization, and its battery-powered miniaturized scale.
I have never smoked cigarettes, and I've used an e-cig for years, using unflavored pure propylene glycol. I would also enthusiastically recommend non-nicotine vaping to anyone and everyone, even those who have never even thought about a cigarette before.
Here's why: they aren't cigarettes. They aren't smoking. They are the diametric opposite of smoking -- vaping makes you healthier.
The key is that the e-cigarette is a method to easily and cheaply breathe propylene glycol vapor. And propylene glycol vapor was proven seventy years ago to be an air sterilizer. It wipes out bacteria. It wipes out viruses.
The more we can push that concept, and divorce the mental connection of e-cigs to tobacco cigarettes, the better off we'll all be. Yes, one can add nic to the propylene glycol, and blammo! you're off tobacco cigarettes, with their concomitant tar and carcinogens. One can then dial back the nic until you're nic free. Great! But merely tying e-cigs to smoking cessation is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
Learn your history -- all the research has already been done, decades ago. Don't be swayed by the "nicotine vapor" line that's been around for years, when the whole point of the e-cig isn't (or shouldn't be!) the nicotine at all, but the propylene glycol. And vaporized propylene glycol has been thoroughly vetted, tried, and then forgotten about, for decades.
You need, as our representatives in government, to distance the e-cig from the tobacco cigarette as much as you possibly can. Sure, it can help one quit smoking, but it's so, so much more than that. I want to live in a world where everyone vapes delicious, vaporized non-nicotine propylene glycol all day long, and seasonal coughs, sneezes, sniffles, influenza and pneumonia are so rare as to be an extraordinary occurrence.
Thank you for your time.
Bill Thompson.
references:
THE BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL VAPOR ON MICROORGANISMS SUSPENDED IN AIR.
(http://jem.rupress.org/content/75/6/593.abstract and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2135271/pdf/593.pdf)
