Guess we have 2 threads going with the same subject. I posted this on the other but I'll go ahead and post it here too. I went to the American Legacy Foundations website and found this that was recently released:
americanlegacy.org/PDF/Electronic_Cigarettes.pdf
They want them off the market until they are FDA approved.
Decided it was time to make a start... Letter to "americanlegacy"
"Contact Us:" americanlegacy.org/232.aspx (Can't post url's yet)
"Subject Line:" Why do you want me to die?
"Message:"
Dear American Legacy Foundation
I have been smoking a pack a day for 5 years now, I have tried smoking cessation products that are currently on the market and have managed to go 2 days without cigarettes using them before driving my wife mad. I started using a personal vaporizer (e-cig) 2 weeks ago because I was tired of smelling like an ash tray, and having my wife look upon me with disapproval. I have not smoked a traditional cigarette since my personal vaporizer has come in the mail, and I've even gone several days without using the personal vaporizer without ill effect.
I cannot help but to wonder why you would rather I and others like me to die a slow and painful death. I agree that we should educate our children to refrain from using tobacco products, what I do not agree with you on, is that "e-cigs" will cause teenagers to move to traditional cigarettes. I spent close to $150 after doing a month of research on a good, but relatively cheap product. How many teenagers could manage $150 using a credit card, have the patience to learn how to use and take care of a PV (personal vaporizer), and keep up with the payments required to buy replacement parts and liquid (some with nicotine and some without).
Even though a PV can be used for non-nicotine style vapor inhaling, the device is still only sold to individuals 18 years of age or greater. Teenagers would have a much easier time bumming cigarettes off of people, stealing them from family members, or having others purchase the real tobacco products for them.
Research does need to be done and quality control would be a bonus, however, what is known from current research is that over 400,000 people die a year because of tobacco. Tobacco IS harmful and deadly. Alcohol is deadly and addictive (Liver disease, drunk driving, etc) attributed to over 100,000 deaths per year. A prominent researcher acknowledged that more research on PVs needed to be done, however based upon scientific research that has already been done on products on the market now, PVs with nicotine vapor would be about 1% as harmful as cigarettes.
Tobacco: 400,000 deaths per year
Alcohol: 100,000 deaths per year
PVs: 4,000 estimated deaths per year IF everyone who currently smoked decided to use PVs instead
While regulation of the quality of PVs would certainly be welcome, an outright ban would be signing a death warrant to people like me who have been unable to quit for years with current products on the market. The device is currently marketed as a cigarette replacement device. The only side effect that people have found, is that people feel much better, their doctors are happy that they have stopped putting smoke into their bodies, the ex-smokers now vapers are feeling much healthier, and many people have even managed to quit without meaning to.
So please tell me why you want me to die. Your document urging the banning of e-cigarettes is irresponsible and baseless. Kids wanting to be cool or to pick up smoking will do so at the much cheaper cost of bumming, stealing or purchasing normal tobacco cigarettes. If you would like to save lives, get tobacco and alcohol banned, they are the killers. If you do not think you could manage that, perhaps supporting PV usage would help save lives. PVs need research, testing, and quality control. Banning them now will only ensure that none of that will get done in the US as the industry is small and cannot support millions of dollars and a decade of research, while millions of cigarette users will no longer have a workable alternative to harmful cigarette smoking. There is a reason current cessation products have only a 5% success rate, and that is because they do not work well.
If you truly want to save lives, please end your campaign to stop the sell of Personal Vaporizers. You would save my life only by supporting them.
Sincerely,
XXXXX XXXXX (real name in actual message)
any suggestions let me know, maybe I did bad, maybe good. I figured it was a start

. If I do get any suggestions I'll incorporate them and keep adding to the list of people to send messages too

.