NateMD is absolutely correct. We must weigh the positives against the negatives. There are millions of smokers who will benefit by switching from tobacco cigarettes to smoke-free e-cigarettes compared to the very few teens who may decide to purchase a $100, high-maintanence e-cigarette. Teens are much more likely to buy a real pack of cigarettes for $7 or real candy, not a flavored e-cigarette seen as a reduced harm option for "old smokers." And it's important to realize that any teens interested in buying smokeless e-cigarettes would otherwise be buying toxic tobacco cigarettes!
The responsible way to address this issue would be to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, not make these life-saving devices harder to buy or use for adult smokers trying to reduce their health risks.
I am an e-cigarette user and a former smoker. Because of e-cigarettes, I, my husband, my brother and his wife have not touched a real cigarette in over a year. NONE of us have experienced anything but improved breathing and otherwise better health.
As far as the flavors "targeting kids," because adult smokers wouldn't want the sweet flavors, this is an example of people talking about something they simply don't understand. The vast majority of e-cigarette users surveyed by CASAA were between the ages of 30-65, former smokers and used non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes. Since the fake "tobacco" e-cigarette flavors taste nothing like real cigarettes and tobacco smoke tastes particularly foul after one has switched to e-cigarettes, many adult e-cigarette users prefer pleasant-tasting flavors such as strawberry, grape, coffee, cola, etc. The variety of non-tobacco flavors also helps keep these adult ex-smokers from craving real cigarettes. In fact, for some, the tobacco flavors simply reinforce the desire for the real thing and they don't want that! My sister-in-law and I found that our favorite flavors are mocha cappuccino, peach, grape and blueberry. I am 43 and she is 40. Without those flavors, being limited to fake tobacco flavors, we never would have been able to completely switch from smoking. Additionally, my 19 year old niece and her boyfriend, who are smokers, didn't want to deal with the cost and fuss of dealing with e-cigarettes - which, unfortunately, is common in younger smokers. These young adults are still smoking and that is what the teens who want to emulate them are doing. The fact of the matter is, while there is no age restriction, kids are NOT choosing to buy a safer alternative - they are buying the real thing.
So, when health professionals assume and claim that adult smokers would not like these "candy flavors" (as they call them to scare parents) and that the flavors must be targeting kids, who will now buy them en masse, they couldn't be more wrong!
As far as e-cigarettes not being covered by indoor smoking bans, that is how it should be. E-cigarettes DON'T MAKE SMOKE. The bans were put in place to protect bystanders from SMOKE, not from NON-toxic VAPOR. No testing, even the testing by the FDA, has found toxic levels of any chemical nor harmful levels of carcinogens in e-cigarettes. (Everything has carcinogens, it's HOW MUCH that matters.)
So, if it isn't harming the user, how could it possibly harm bystanders?? The liquid is made of propylene glycol (a non-toxic base used in theater fog machines), non-toxic glycerin, food-grade flavorings and a small amount of USP-grade nicotine, most of which is absorbed by the user. The vapor has little to no smell, is non-irritating and does not linger in the air like cigarette smoke.
Additionally, smokers who see e-cigarette users enjoying their device indoors will be encouraged to switch to these low-risk options and ultimately, stop using real cigarettes altogether, as millions of smokers have already done. Making e-cigarette users go outside takes away that incentive and reduces the number of smokers making the switch. Isn't that the opposite of what these indoor bans intended?
There is absolutely no justification for prohibiting and very good reasons to encourage public use of e-cigarettes. Even those who are concerned that it "looks like smoking" cannot argue that it would NOT be difficult to explain to a kid that an e-cigarette is NOT smoking and it is actually an example of an adult showing responsibility for his health and the health of those around him by choosing a much safer alternative to cigarettes. Wouldn't that be better than the kids seeing that person otherwise standing in the parking lot with a lit cigarette??
