When Wayne Gilmer wanted to cut back on cigarettes about seven months ago, he ordered a trendy product to help him out. It didn't involve a patch or a pill, and it looked like a regular cigarette.
The item? An electronic cigarette.
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The federal Food and Drug Administration has warned that e-cigarettes may contain toxic chemicals and increase the risk of nicotine addiction among young people.
"They are poorly studied," said Dr. Tim Sherwood, who treats patients with lung cancer and other illnesses as a thoracic surgeon at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg. "And there is no true regulation regarding their production or distribution."
For Gilmer, who had smoked for 45 years, the experiment with e-cigarettes didn't go well.
The amount of nicotine in the product he tried felt like too much, he said.
"It made my lungs raw," the 55-year-old Spotsylvania County resident said. "I really didn't like it."
Gilmer also said he developed headaches after trying e-cigarettes. He's now in a smoking cessation support group and
takes Chantix, a prescription anti-smoking pill, which has helped.
"I've been four months now without anything, without needing to smoke," Gilmer said.
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But health officials locally and around the country are skeptical of the product's safety and say people who want to give up cigarettes shouldn't consider e-cigarettes a good option.
'PEOPLE ARE MISLED'
FDA research on two popular brands of the product found traces of toxic chemicals, including ones known to be carcinogenic, the agency reported. Also, the FDA said nicotine levels were different than what the label claimed in some products.
Eletta Hansen,
tobacco treatment specialist at Mary Washington Hospital, said she worries about the lack of conclusive research into the products' safety.
"For me, the downside is that people are misled by advertising and invest in a product that we do not know works," Hansen said.
Hansen said she'll offer support to people who want to give the devices a try [Better than nothing], but she will recommend only FDA-approved methods to those trying to quit.
"To quit smoking they have to believe in the method," Hansen said. "So if they believe in it I will support it, but I cannot endorse the use."
. . .
"For some, they say it works," Hansen said.
"But others say it makes them want to smoke more."
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Dr. Thomas Eissenberg at Virginia Commonwealth University has studied electronic cigarettes.
"I would not recommend those or any new products until I know they are safe," Eissenberg said.
He said he "definitely" thinks the products should be regulated by the FDA.
"It is clear right now that we have products with variable content," Eissenberg said. "We just don't know what they could be contaminated with."
Sherwood, the thoracic surgeon, is also concerned about the chemicals in electronic cigarettes and does not recommend the
devices to patients.
"There are chemicals in it that we know to be detrimental to the human body," Sherwood said. "Patients think that since it is not the 4,000 plus chemicals in cigarettes it's safe."
But much is unknown about the products, he said.
Sherwood is also concerned about teenagers who may begin smoking e-cigarettes and get hooked because they think the devices are safer than traditional cigarettes.
The devices do not violate Virginia's ban on indoor smoking, according to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. But, Sherwood said,
"I have to believe there is some secondhand smoke with these. The problem is that we don't know what secondhand effects they produce."
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The bottom line, according to Eissenberg:
"We don't have the data to believe they are safe, and we don't have the data to believe they are not. This is not the kind of wait-and-see experiment I want to see the American people participate in."
