While 3 more pages were being added to this thread, I wrote this letter to the senator.
"I realize you are anti-smoking and have worked to ban cigarettes in many areas. Smoking is bad for one's health, with over 4000 nasty things being inhaled from a lit cigarette.
However, if you succeed in getting electronic cigarettes banned, you will be driving thousands of e-cigarette users back to smoking tobacco. I am sure you are aware of the contents of the liquids used in e-cigarettes: propylene glycol, flavorings and nicotine. Nicotine is not a known carcinogen. Propylene glycol vapor was studied in the 1940s and deemed safe, and it was also discovered that it kills bacteria and viruses. This important health property was also shown in recent studies conducted in New Zealand. NASA has also studied PG vapor and cite one study where monkeys were exposed to PG vapor for 12+ months and showed no adverse effects or biological changes. You can find their report summary at
Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations for Selected Airborne Contaminants: Volume 5 and download the chapter as a pdf file by simply signing in. PG is a common ingredient in many prescription medications and is the sole ingredient of Rhinaris Nasal Spray, which is sold over the counter.
The e-cigarette device itself is simply a vaporizer.
Wouldn't it be more proactive to enlist existing e-cigarette users (note, we are not smokers any longer) into a clinical study instead of driving us back to smoking burning tobacco? Using nicotine in vapor form simply has to be less harmful than lighting up. I would certainly volunteer to be part of a study.
Unlike many drugs the FDA has approved, I feel the vapor from e-cigarettes will prove to have few side effects. Take Vioxx and Bextra for example. They received FDA approval and were subsequently pulled from the market due to deaths they caused. There are no known reports of deaths from use of the e-cigarette. A few people have reported allergies, however allergies are a very common side effect to many drugs, both prescription and OTC.
So, if I can get nicotine in patch, gum or inhaler form, and PG in a nose spray, why shouldn't I be able to use the two ingredients mixed together to vaporize when I choose?
Please rethink your request to the FDA to ban electronic cigarettes. I haven't smoked a cigarette in 67 days, and have no desire to ever smoke one again. If I have the right to choose to smoke tobacco, I certainly should have the right to choose to use an electronic cigarette, which I prefer to call a personal vaporizer, instead of tobacco.
Respectfully Submitted,"
I also found the Rhinaris nasal spray info - PG being sold to inhale! Info
here
If you google it, you'll find lots of references to it.