YAY! It worked! Here it is folks if anyone is interested in reading it...
Your Comment Tracking Number: 1jx-82wp-btc5
DATE: 1/3/2013
RE: Docket No. FDA-2012-N-1148
Dear FDA,
My name is Lisa Forir and I would like to share my success story with you. July 13, 2011 was the day I SAVED MY LIFE! This was the day that I quit smoking cigarettes and started vaping e-cigarettes. I started smoking at age 25 due to a very stressful job environment. I tried to quit many, many times over the years, to no avail. I used ALL of the "FDA approved" smoking cessation products - Zyban, Chantix, the patch, nicotine gum - NOTHING WORKED! Of course, I tried cold turkey too - no way. All made me terribly irritable, anxious, cranky, depressed and basically unable to function. So, I gave up - told myself I could not do it and resigned myself to being a smoker for the rest of my life. Then one day I read an article online that lead me to the ECF - Electronic Cigarette Forum. This is an amazing forum which contains a wealth of information about the benefits of vaping e-cigs - and a community of hundreds of thousands of EX-SMOKERS who have sucessfully kicked the habit by making the switch to e-cigs. So I did some research and decided to try to quit smoking one more time. I AM SO GLAD I DID! It was so EASY! The day I received my first kit I knew - THIS WAS GOING TO WORK. After three days I threw away my cigarette case and a half-carton of cigarettes - and I NEVER LOOKED BACK. There were no side effects, no irritability, no depression - just great tasting liquid (NO MORE HARMFUL THAN ANY OF YOUR "FDA APPROVED" NICOTINE CESSATION PRODUCTS) which produces clouds of harmless water vapor and satisfies every urge I have to smoke. And all of the different flavors available help me too because it gives me choices, keeps it fresh for me, and KEEPS ME AWAY FROM CIGARETTES!
And who would have imagined that 540 DAYS LATER (today) this 47 year old, 20 year, 2-1/2 pack a day smoker would still be smoke free. It is truly a MIRACLE. And since I quit smoking and started vaping, my asthma has improved, I don't have heart palpitations anymore (which my doctor told me was most likely a precursor to heart disease), I no longer cough my head off every day, I can laugh without having a coughing fit that leaves me barely able to draw a breath - and not only that - I don't stink like cigarette smoke and I don't taste like an ashtray! I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of my accomplishment! I KNOW that I will be smoke free FOREVER thanks to vaping electronic cigarettes.
I sincerely hope that you will take into consideration all of the comments you are receiving in regards to Docket No. FDA-2012-N-1148. My comments, personal beliefs and my appeal to you to please do the right thing and keep electronic cigarettes available to all who want to quit smoking and save their lives can be found below.
I do not think there should be a time limit on using NRTs - I believe it would be much better to raise the amount of nicotine each piece provides than to have people use multiple types of products. It is also my belief that e-cigarettes would be less effective in helping people quit smoking altogether if the nicotine content was regulated by you and lowered.
I BEG YOU FDA - please do NOT propose the "deeming" regulation because it would ban these life saving devices and even if you, FDA, exempted e-cigarettes from the provisions in Chapter IX, it would still raise the prices and reduce accessibility to many of us who would then be FORCED to go back to smoking and back to slowly killing ourselves.
And finally, PLEASE remove ALL of the information from your website that is either false, inaccurate or misleading. This false information ALREADY has too many smokers believing that vaping e-cigs causes cancer and that is only because your website FAILS TO DISCLOSE that the liquid used in electronic cigarettes is NO LESS HARMFUL THAN ANY OF YOUR "FDA APPROVED NICOTINE CESSATION PRODUCTS".
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my comments.
Sincerely,
Lisa A. Forir
Ex-Smoker, Former-Smoker, NON-SMOKER
St. Louis, Missouri
