I sent the following letter to all council members. If you haven't done so, please send them a letter ASAP (as they may vote on exempting e-cigarettes and/or the entire ordinance at this evening's meeting). You can also send them a note at
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From: Bill Godshall
To: Leroy Robinson ; Pamela Hickman ; Zach Adamson ; Benjamin Hunter ; Jeff Miller ; John Barth ; Aaron Freeman ; Jack Sandlin ; Jeff Cardwell ; Jason Holliday ; Frank Mascari ; Vernon Brown ; Mary Moriarty Adams ; Brian Mahern ; Vop Osili ; Marilyn Pfisterer ; Mike McQuillen ; Steve Talley ; William Oliver ; Joseph Simpson ; Monroe Gray ; Janice McHenry ; Virginia Cain ; Christine Scales ; Angela Mansfield ; Jose Evans ; Ryan Vaughn ; Maggie Lewis
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 5:44 PM
Subject: Eliminate e-cigarettes from proposed smoking ban, then enact the ordinance
Indianapolis Marion County Council Members,
Please remove electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) from the proposed smokefree workplace ordinance since e-cigarettes emit NO smoke and pose no harm to nonusers, and because more than a million smokers have quit smoking and/or significantly reduced cigarette consumption by switching to these far less hazardous smokefree alternatives.
Since the proposed smokefree ordinance would ban smoking in just several hundred workplaces (primarily bars) in Marion County (that currently allow smoking), but would ban e-cigarette use in hundreds of thousands of workplaces, the proposed ordinance could do more harm than good for public health unless e-cigarette use is removed from the definition of "smoking".
Besides, it is insincere to falsely define "smoking" as including the use of smokefree e-cigarettes, but that's what the proposed ordinance does.
As one who has campaigned to ban smoking in workplaces for the past 25 years, I've also been urging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and/or other smokefree tobacco/nicotine products since they are far less hazardous than cigarettes and because they pose no health risks to nonusers (unlike cigarettes). Although some anti tobacco extremists want to ban the use of all tobacco/nicotine products, that is an entirely different matter than banning indoor smoking.
In 2006, I coauthored a comprehensive scientific report "Tobacco harm reduction: an alternative cessation strategy for inveterate smokers" at
HRJ | Full text | Tobacco harm reduction: an alternative cessation strategy for inveterate smokers and in 2007 the Royal College of Physicians
issued a similar report "Harm reduction in nicotine addiction; Helping people who can't quit" at
http://www.tobaccoprogram.org/pdf/4fc74817-64c5-4105-951e-38239b09c5db.pdf. Epidemiology studies have consistently found that cigarette smoking poses 100 times greater morbidity and mortality risks than use of smokeless tobacco products in the US and Sweden, and the available evidence indicates that all noncombustible tobacco/nicotine products (including e-cigarettes, nicotine gums, lozenges, patches) are also about 99% less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes.
Smokers who switch to smokefree tobacco/nicotine products reduce their health risks nearly as much as smokers who quit all tobacco/nicotine usage, and several million smokers in the US have already switched to smokeless tobacco products, e-cigarettes and/or NRT products.
More than one million smokers in the US have quit smoking or sharply reduced their cigarette consumption by switching to or substituting smokefree e-cigarettes. To date, there is no evidence that e-cigarette usage has harmed anyone, which is logical since the products emit a tiny amount of vaporized nicotine (similar to nicotine inhalers that are marketed as smoking cessation aids) and water vapor. All of the dozen plus laboratory tests conducted on e-cigarettes found that e-cigarettes emit no hazardous levels of any constitutents, and that levels of nitrosamines in e-cigarettes are nearly identical (i.e. very little if any) to those in nicotine gums and patches.
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/RuyanCartridgeReport30-Oct-08.pdf
http://www.starscientific.com/404/stepanov tsna in.pdf
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/DublinEcigBenchtopHandout.pdf
http://www.casaa.org/files/Study_TSNAs_in_NJOY_Vapor.pdf
Lab Reports / E Liquid Facts / Totally Wicked
http://cdn.johnsoncreeksmokejuice.com/downloads/JCE_GCMS_Report.pdf
http://www.libertystix.com/LibertyStixLabAnalysis072309.pdf
http://truthaboutecigs.com/science/8.pdf
http://www.casaa.org/files/Exponent Response-to-the-FDA-Summary.pdf
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centers-institutes/population-development/files/article.jphp.pdf
Taylor & Francis Online :: ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE CARTRIDGES, REFILL SOLUTIONS, AND SMOKE FOR NICOTINE AND NICOTINE RELATED IMPURITIES - Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies - Volume 34, Issue 14
A Literature Review for Glycerol and Glycols for Entertainment Services & Technology Association also found no health risks to humans
http://tsp.plasa.org/tsp/working_groups/FS/docs/HSE.pdf, while new pharmacology, pharmacokinetic and toxicology studies at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X11002095 found that laboratory animals were not harmed by very high levels of propylene glycol aerosol.
E-cigarettes also have been found to contain/emit similar or lower levels of nicotine than nicotine gums and lozenges
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/2010 Bullen ECig.pdf and
http://www.casaa.org/files/Virgiania Commonwealth University Study.pdf. This indicates that e-cigarettes emit enough to satisfy the cravings of smokers, but may not emit enough nicotine to addict nonsmokers. There is no evidence that any youth or non-tobacco users have become addicted to e-cigarettes.
Many published surveys have confirmed that e-cigarettes satisfy the cravings of smokers, help many smokers quit and/or sharply reduce cigarette consumption, and provide perceived health benefits to users who switched from cigarettes.
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http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-10-231.pdf
THR2010. (tobaccoharmreduction.org) (see chapter 9)
http://ectoh.org/documents/3B.5 Ett...ation satisfaction and perceived efficacy.pdf
http://www.ajpmonline.org/webfiles/images/journals/AMEPRE/AMEPRE3013.pdf
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs): views of af... [Int J Clin Pract. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI
Electronic Cigarettes
A Japanese study similarly found e-cigarettes to be effective for decreasing cigarette consumption
SEIKATSUEISEI : Vol. 55 (2011) , No. 1 p.59-64, while a recent case study found e-cigarettes effective for smoking cessation among depressed patients
Paper: Smoking Cessation with E-Cigarettes in Smokers with a Documented History of Depression and Recurring Relapses.
A recent e-cigarette clinical trial on smokers at
CASAA.org found that 22.5% of participants remained smokefree after 24 weeks and another 32.5% of participants reduced daily cigarette consumption by 50%, including 12.5% who reduced daily cigarette consumption by 80%.
Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler has also acknowledged the benefits of smokeless tobacco, dissolvables and e-cigarettes as less hazardous alternatives for cigarette smokers at
http://www.westport-news.com/busine...-Commissioner-talks-about-tobacco-1735433.php by stating "there's no doubt that in terms of risk of death there are some advantages to that substitution."
Other public health organizations that have extensively studied e-cigarettes have also endorsed their use by smokers, including The American Association of Public Health Physicians
Regulations.gov and the American Council on Science and Health
NEJM editorial: e-cigarette users should resume smoking for their own good > Facts & Fears > ACSH.
In sharp contrast to indoor smokefree policies/laws (which are largely self enforced because of broad public support), please note that it is also impossible to enforce an e-cigarette usage ban (since the products can be used discreetly without anyone else knowing). By simply waiting two seconds before exhaling, no visible vapor is exhaled by e-cigarette users, and as such, nobody will know that anyone is even using an e-cigarette. Enacting unwarranted and unenforceable regulations also would reduce the public credibility of the Indianopolis Marion County Council.
Once again, please remove the use of e-cigarettes from the proposed ordinance's definition of "smoking", and then enact the smokefree ordinance.
Sincerely,
William T. Godshall, MPH
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15218
412-351-5880
smokefree@compuserve.com