I'm traveling on business this week and I'm currently in Independence MO in the Kansas City Metro. I woke up with a paper at foot of my hotel door with this [mostly] encouraging article on the front page. The article does well to highlight that e-cigs have helped millions quit smoking, that we do not consider the technology "safe" but rather "Safer", actually debunks the methodology used in many of those e-liquid studies which find chemicals like formaldehyde in our vapor. It also does well in pointing out the struggles vaping vaping faces including some of the dangers of an unregulated market and the responsibility of vapers to not be cloud-obnoxious in public settings, both indoors and out.
Some other issues that were touched on were how to deal with keeping nicotine out of the hands of minors - and the controversy of how many new nicotine users vaping attracts (although to me I dont see the controversy here - I'm willing to bet these people would most likely have picked up smoking instead).
Here is the link to the e-edition of the paper, but I've also quoted the entire article below.
http://independenceexaminer.mo.newsmemory.com/?_ga=1.37595808.1644807650.1444139000\
Some other issues that were touched on were how to deal with keeping nicotine out of the hands of minors - and the controversy of how many new nicotine users vaping attracts (although to me I dont see the controversy here - I'm willing to bet these people would most likely have picked up smoking instead).
Here is the link to the e-edition of the paper, but I've also quoted the entire article below.
http://independenceexaminer.mo.newsmemory.com/?_ga=1.37595808.1644807650.1444139000\
Zinke, Karl. "Are E-Cigs Safe?" The Examiner. Jackson County, MO. Oct. 6, 2015. Pages A1, A8
IN DEPTH | E-CIGARETTE POLICY
ARE E-CIGS SAFE?
Advocates and critics miles apart on health impact of vaping
By Karl Zinke
karl.zinke@examiner.net
As a cloud of vapor with an aroma more like incense than cigarette smoke hovering overhead, Kyle Constant talked about how e-cigarettes may be helping to prolong his life.
The Independence resident – and manager of an Aqueous Vapor shop at 3709 S. Noland Road – said he started smoking real cigarettes at age 11. Now at age 19 with heart disease, he says that smoking e-cigarettes – or “vaping” – has helped turn his life around.
“Speaking from experience, I have heart disease and I’m not even 20 yet, so it’s helped me,” Constant said. “I’ve been smoking cigarettes since I was 11 and I quit. I’ve been vaping for about two years and I feel a lot better. I can run better than I used to. ... Vaping has definitely made me feel better.”
If one Independence City Council member had his way, e-cigarettes would be banned from public areas just like regular cigarettes and smoked tobacco products are now as part of the Independence Clean Air Act.
City Council Member Scott Roberson, who is also a practicing dentist, says it’s likely harmful to those around the people who are vaping.
“It needs to start with the Health Advisory Board, but I would like to extend the smoking ban in public areas to e-cigarettes or vapor,” Roberson said. “Some of the research I’ve read says that a significant amount of nicotine is exhaled into the air. It’s not just innocuous to everyone around them.”
It’s been a recent point of contention in Eastern Jackson County. The Lee’s Summit Health Advisory Board brought up a possible e-cigarette ban in public places. But in a meeting on Sept. 9, the Lee’s Summit City Council voted 5-3 not to consider the matter at the time.
In March 2014, Donald Potts, a local physician and a member of the
SEE E-CIGS, A8
Noelle Hoover, right, tries an e-cigarette Monday at the Aqueous Vapor shop on Noland Road as store manager Kyle Constant looks on. KARL ZINKE | THE EXAMINER
E-CIGS
From Page A1
Independence Advisory Board of Health, made a presentation to the Independence City Council on the issues regarding e-cigarettes and advocating their ban in public areas and to restrict the sale and possession for minors.
But there are no laws in Independence, Blue Springs or Missouri concerning the sale of e-cigarettes or where they may be used.
Roberson would like the Advisory Board of Health bring it back up to the Council for a vote.
“Another one of the concerns for me is that it gets young people immediately addicted to nicotine,” Roberson said. “It’s very addictive and that’s a huge concern because it’s a wonderful delivery system.”
Eric Denmead – another Independence resident and Constant’s boss as regional manager of seven Aqueous Vapor stores in the Kansas City area – says that the harmful effects of e-cigarettes have been exaggerated.
“I think many who are against it are woefully undereducated on it,” Denmead said. “There’s been tons of studies that disprove what some people say about what second-hand vapors do. What we try to do is properly educate on how to use the vaping materials. Because of the disinformation, it’s been kind of an uphill battle.”
Denmead says many studies show that it is not harmful as a second-hand danger.
“I’m the kind of guy who reads about something for six months before I buy it, but there’s been multiple studies – big, long collegiate studies – that the second-hand vapors are not harmful,” he said. “One of the studies out of the U.K. this year that there were no effects directly from exhaled vapor. It had no carcinogens, nothing that was harmful.
“And a couple of these lab studies, it didn’t take into account the experience of those vaping when they tested the equipment. They use that equipment to the point of failure, where it was burning the coils inside. Then it would emit formaldehyde, but burn anything and you will inhale formaldehyde. Any person who use it properly is not going to be inhaling that. We teach them how to refill the tanks and when to get the wicking material changed so it works properly. If you don’t do it correctly, you’re going to get a bad, burnt taste, and no one will continue to do it if they’re getting that.”
Constant and Denmead aren’t opposed to businesses banning e-cigarettes, if the owner of the business chooses to do so. They also say they understand why non-smokers wouldn’t want it by them in a restaurant.
“Restaurants, that makes sense, because I don’t want to smell apple or whatever when I’m eating my filet mignon,” Constant said. “Nowadays, since the vaping community has grown and the knowledge inside the vaping community has grown, there is a fine line between being respectful and not being respectful. I agree with maybe inside restaurants, but things like Royals games, open events, I don’t agree with unless you’re being super obnoxious with it, then I would understand that. Smaller places I could see, but bigger, open places, not so much to me.”
All local school districts, including Independence, Blue Springs and Fort Osage, have policies that ban the use of e-cigarettes the same as regular cigarettes on campus. Fort Osage also has a policy applying the same to teachers and employees that it adopted in June 2014 and revised that September.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts an annual survey of tobacco use among middle and high school students. In April it reported that use of e-cigarettes among high schoolers rose from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014. And it tripled among middle school students from 1.1 percent to 3.9 percent. But traditional tobacco use - cigarettes and cigars - declined at the same time.
Constant and Denmead say e-cigarettes are a benefit for public health in that it helps people quit smoking.
“We respect people’s right to clean air. We’re not going to press that on someone,” Denmead said. “But comparing e-cigarettes to regular cigarettes, there’s an infinitesimal risk with vaping. It’s a great alternative to regular smoking.”
Andrew Warlen, director of the Independence Health Department, said in a statement that his department can’t recommend e-cigarettes as safe.
“Although electronic cigarette aerosol is likely to be much less toxic than cigarette smoking, the products are unregulated, may contain low levels of toxic chemicals, and have not been proven to be effective as cessation devices,” Warlen’s statement said. “Based on available evidence, electronic cigarettes cannot be recommended as a safe alternative to smoking.”
Roberson agrees.
“It can help if you want to quit smoking, but you’re still addicted to the nicotine,” Roberson said. “It’s a little step, not a big step. Whether it’s real cingarettes or e-cigarettes you have to want to quit first. You can wean yourself off of it with lower doses, but really nobody can quit unless they want to. Like any addicition, it’s a step but it’s not the answer.”
Roberson also brings up that e-cigarettes could be used as a delivery system for other, more harmful drugs like marijuana, methamphetamine, hash oil, cannabinoids and ........
“I, myself, have received emails asking me to buy cartridges for marijuana products to be used in e-cigarettes,” Roberson said. “That’s just one of multiple things that could be used in them. Nearly anything can be inhaled into the lungs.”
Roberson also would like the age for purchasing cigarettes and e-cigarettes to be raised from 18 to 21 like alcohol. There are also concerns about the e-cigarette companies possibly marketing to young people with flavors such as bubble gum and gummy bears. State Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs, filed legislation in December 2014 to require child-proof packaging of electronic cigarettes. It was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Nixon on July 8.
“Through the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, safety problems for our children are occurring due to contact with the liquid formulation used,” Solon said in a press release at the time. “Accidental ingestion of nicotine is very dangerous to children and can be deterred by requiring childproof safety packaging.”
Cody Watson tries an e-cigarette Monday at the Aqueous Vapor shop on Noland Road. KARL ZINKE | THE EXAMINER
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