Well, I knew comments were not working, so I tried using the Contact Us page. That doesn't work either. So guess what. My response is being published right here, and if Ross wants to discuss it with me, he can do it here.
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Dear Ross: I'm afraid that the CDC press release on youth use of e-cigarettes was a bit misleading. If you carefully read the complete Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (
Notes from the Field: Electronic Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2012) you will learn that it wasn't regular "use" that doubled. It was "ever use."
Ever use reflects experimentation with a product, since it includes everyone who has ever in their life tried the product, even if only one time. For example, if you took a puff from a cigarette when you were 12 and never touched one again, you are forever in the category of "ever smoker."
It may be well known that nicotine when delivered via smoke is highly addictive, but the jury is out regarding nicotine delivered from other sources. The FDA was reluctant many years ago to approve Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products such as nicotine patches and gum because they feared that non-smokers might use the products and become addicted to nicotine. That never happened.
Since e-cigarettes, like NRT products, deliver nicotine much more slowly, scientists hypothesize that the "abuse liability" of e-cigarettes also is low.
Vansickel AR, Weaver MF, Eissenberg T. Clinical laboratory assessment of the abuse liability of an electronic cigarette. Addiction. 2012 Jan 9.
Clinical laboratory assessment of the abuse liabil... [Addiction. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI
So how much regular use is going on among youth? The only question on the survey that dealt with frequency of use was "current use", which the CDC defines as having used a product during the 30 days preceding the survey--even if only one time. I think that category would more properly be called "past month use" and that "current use" should be reserved for those who use a product every day. However, the CDC didn't think it would be important to find out about daily use. So anyway, "current use" among all students in grades 7
through 12 was 2.1% in 2012. The vast majority (76.3%) of "current users" were already current smokers.
You might also want to take a look at the Results from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) available here
Results from the 2012 NSDUH: Summary of National Findings, SAMHSA, CBHSQ
Figure 4.4 shows that Past Month Cigarette Use among Youths Aged 12 to 17 has been steadily declining and reached an all time low in 2012. Figure 5.8 shows that Past Year Cigarette Initiation has also declined and also hit a record low in 2012.
It's a myth that pleasant flavors are a trick to seduce youngsters to become addicted to nicotine. The CDC did not ask youth what flavor e-cigarette they were using. But if they had asked, I can guarantee you the most frequently used flavors would be
tobacco and menthol. It's the adult former smokers who are turning to pleasant flavors after trying and failing to find a tobacco flavor that matched their favorite brand of combusted cigarette. After switching, many are reporting that they no longer like the taste of tobacco. This phenomenon may make it less likely that they will relapse to smoking.
From what I have observed, I would say that the American Lung Association is much more concerned about continued funding from the companies that make pharmaceutical smoking cessation products than they are about the safety of e-cigarette users. "We don't know what's in them" is a lie. Four of the five possible ingredients in
e-liquid are non-toxic: propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, water, and food flavoring. The only potentially toxic (in much higher concentrations) chemical is nicotine, which makes up from 0% to 4% of the volume.
If e-cigarettes are so toxic, why aren't e-cigarette users getting sick? People are getting sick and even dying from taking Chantix, not from using e-cigarettes.
I can't believe that you are relying on the outdated and debunked FDA testing of e-cigarettes. When vitally important information is left out of a report, somebody is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. The FDA "forgot" to mention that the same "carcinogens" detected in some of the samples are present in FDA approved nicotine patches and gum--in roughly equivalent quantities. The FDA also "forgot" to mention that quantity of diethylene glycol (DEG) they measured was thousands of times lower than the "no observable adverse event level" (NOAEL). Furthermore, consumers would never be exposed to DEG because it vaporizes at a higher temperature than the operating temperature of an e-cigarette atomizer.
If you really want to know what chemicals are in the vapor, read the comprehensive study by Drexel University professor Igor Burstyn. The study is available at
http://publichealth.drexel.edu/SiteData/docs/ms08/f90349264250e603/ms08.pdf
Of course, I am assuming that you are a reasonable person who would want to know, and report accurate information. If your mission, however, was to write a propaganda piece denigrating what might be the most important public health invention of the 21st century, then ignore the above.
