Interesting arguments. I especially like the "save the children" one.
Facts:
1. In nearly 5 years on the world market, there have been no reports of illness or injury due to electronic cigarettes.
2. Ecig users have by and large reported improved health and breathing after switching to ecigs from tobacco smoking.
3. In a survey of 718 ecig users, 84.68% were over the age of 25 and 56.82% were over the age of 35. Consumers of these devices are NOT children nor even college age kids.
4. At least three studies (including one by the FDA) on the vapor have been done and show that the liquid does not contain the most harmful toxins of tobacco smoke - tar, ammonia, arsenic, etc - and contains such a low level of carginogens (or nitrosamines), they are at the same levels as FDA nicotine gum or patches.
5. Fruit and other non-tobacco flavored liquids are also enjoyed by the ADULTS who use the ecig and are largely attributed with the user continuing to use the ecig instead of going back to tobacco. Nearly 46% of ecig users polled (who are largely over the age of 35, mind you, not children) use a non-tobacco or non-menthol flavor. They also report that the flavored liquids made the taste of tobacco smoke repulsive to them, which makes it unlikely that they'll want to switch back to tobacco or that the non-existant, non-previous-smoker ecig users would enjoy the rank taste of tobacco smoke after only ever using candy or fruit-flavored vapor.
6. In a survey of 1,479 ecig users, 82.01% report that they stopped using tobacco cigarettes in favor of the ecig, substantially reducing their exposure to toxic smoke.
7. If ecigs are classified as a tobacco alternative instead of a drug delivery device, they will automatically be illegal to sell to minors in every state in the U.S., so no fear of selling to minors - not that they show any sign of wanting them. As someone said, they look geeky. What kid wants to look geeky? My 16 and 19 year old sons think it's great that I made the switch, but they wouldn't touch one with a 10-foot pole. (They don't smoke, either.)
8. In a survey of 344 ecig users, only .087% reported that they were non-smokers before using ecigs. This strongly indicates that SMOKERS are the consumers for this device and it is NOT attracting new consumers to be addicts, only converting the highest risk group.
9. Nicotine is a low health risk addiction without the toxins in the smoke. What is wrong with an addiction if it's not hurting anyone else and has a small (if any) impact on the health of the actual user?
10. If you ban ecigs, make them too expensive or dilute them to be as effective as FDA-approved NRTs (which have a 7% success rate after 12 months. Chantix has a 44% while being used, but it drops to less than 11% after treatment is ended) people will not simply quit nicotine. They will return to smoking tobacco.
So, what is worse? Letting the real consumers of this device (grown adult smokers) reduce the risks of their addiction to nicotine by allowing them to obtain it from a reasonably safer alternative to tobacco or forcing them to go back to smoking.
Just as a side note to the "save the children" advocates: Kids will always start smoking. Even with flavored tobacco, the largest selling flavor was always menthol for kids, so flavor bans were pointless. If they are going to smoke anyway, wouldn't it make more sense for there to be a safer alternative available for them? And even if it is, do you really think they would use it? By virtue of it being less dangerous for them, doesn't that usually turm a kid off to it in the first place? Chances are a kid will go for a menthol Kool before they go for a peach ecig. Any sane person who was ever a teenager could tell you that.
The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association has a plethora of info on reduced harm for smokers:
CASAA | The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association
Please think logically about this. This device doesn't appeal and never will appeal to kids and other non-smokers, unless tobacco cigarettes were banned. And we all know this won't happen.
So, the only people directly affected by this product will by and large be people who were already addicted to nicotine, already smoking and exposing themselves to thousands of dangerous toxins and couldn't possibly be put in harm's way by a little nicotine, propylene glycol and food flavoring.
And think of all the children who will be saved from that exposure when their smoking parents switch to ecigs, too.
Telling a smoker not to use ecigs, because they may contain "some" toxins; is like telling an obese person - who is trying to eat healthier - to go ahead and eat Ben & Jerry's, because frozen yogurt still contains "some" fat.
