While the makers of e-cigarettes claim they are a safe alternative to smoking traditional, combustible cigarettes, the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida advises consumers to wait for reliable scientific evidence to become available before using e-cigarettes.
Just keep smoking. It's not so bad....
Here is their position statement
http
://www
.tobaccofreeflorida
.com/Contents-13
/Electronic-Cigarettes/
There are important questions about e-cigarettes that remain unanswered. Some of these questions include:
Do they encourage former smokers and current smokers who are trying to quit to reignite their nicotine addiction?
All surveys to date show that current smokers are the overwhelming majority of those using e-cigarettes. Or rather they
were when they began using the e-cigarette. Now, a large percentage of them are what you would have to consider (to use the technical term) "former smokers."
By using e-cigarettes inside places where they wouldn’t have normally smoked, current and former smokers may be increasing the amount of nicotine they’re consuming. Consequently, could e-cigarettes increase a person’s nicotine dependence?
First, tell me how much nicotine they were getting from their tobacco cigarettes. You don't know that, now do you? But there have been a few small studies that looked to see whether e-cigarettes were capable of raising blood levels of nicotine to match those of smoking. None of them found higher blood levels among e-cigarette users. There is some evidence that many long-term vapers reduce their nicotine levels compared with the level they used when they started.
But why the concern about nicotine dependence? Even if e-cigarettes did increase nicotine intake, how does that compare in your book to getting lung cancer?
(I'll take the nicotine. You can keep the lung cancer.)
Are current smokers using them to quit or to circumvent smoke-free indoor air laws?
Yes. No.
Most smokers are using them as an alternative to smoking. If they are using e-cigarettes exclusively, they no longer smoke, so in that sense you could say that e-cigarettes were used to quit inhaling smoke.
In order to "circumvent" smoke-free indoor air laws, a person would need to find a way to produce smoke in a non-smoking area. E-cigarettes produce vapor. Vapor is not smoke.
If what you really mean by the question is, "Do smokers use e-cigarettes when they can't smoke to avoid the distress of nicotine withdrawal?" then the answer is "yes." Smokers are not necessarily masochists. But by even asking this question, aren't you admitting that the REAL reason for smoking bans is to punish smokers? If not, then why do you care if they avoid withdrawal symptoms?
How are they affecting people who have never smoked?
First, they are reducing the exposure of bystanders to any toxins that might exist in second-hand smoke. Second, parents who quit smoking are now providing their children with a better role model. They are also eliminating a source of unpleasant odors from their home.
Any more questions?