KSTP News: What are 'e-cigarettes?'

[kcrlshell]

This is an OMG moment. That was a nice TV report, but the next one will be about rich, underage high school "children" becoming addicted to nicotine courtesy of a technie cig toy from China (available in flavors children love: banana, chocolate, melon, cherry and apple).

Seriously, it is Bad News if high schoolers start puffing e-cigs. How many reasons can we hand anti's to ban e-cigs? This one makes the short list.

I have to admit when I learned (again from my son) that e-cigs come in these fruity flavors, my first thought was 'what? are they marketing these things specifically to children?' I haven't received my order yet, so I can make no judgement on how the flavorings add to the experience - that is, if the tobacco flavored ones taste awful by comparison to strawberry et. al. But I've been smoking for decades. I like tobacco taste and ordered tobacco flavor. The fruity flavorings do seem to smack of "luring the innocent", and I'm sure it will be a major point in any anti e-cig argument.

Another poster mentioned that it was likely the kids already smoking anyway who were trying the e-cig, and that's completely correct...the kids he mentioned were smokers already. Is there any evidence of non-smokers picking up an e-cig? It would be interesting if that started happening. Personally I don't view an e-cig as any sort of smoking cessation aid, but rather (and finally!) a smoking alternative, that hopefully is less harmful while giving a similar experience.

Forgive me for mentioning tangent topics here, but I've been reading about the Senator who wants to ban e-cigs until there is testing. Well, I'd hate to see them banned...just as I've discovered them, but wouldn't we all like some good research done on the short and long term effects of inhaling the PG/VG and other elements? And just as important, would a bit of a spotlight on e-cigs help improve the reliability in manufacturing? I've been reading over and over again about batteries failing just days or weeks after purchase. I've bought all kinds of electronics with Li-ion batteries (cameras, cellphones, etc) with perfectly reliable batteries - sure an occasional exception, but the batteries almost always work. Why are the batteries for these things so bloody unrealiable? I hope e-cigs are a success, but they're going to need to be reliable and convenient for that to happen.

LOL...so there's my rambling OT thoughts!

 

[D_Struct]

Forgive me for mentioning tangent topics here, but I've been reading about the Senator who wants to ban e-cigs until there is testing. Well, I'd hate to see them banned...just as I've discovered them, but wouldn't we all like some good research done on the short and long term effects of inhaling the PG/VG and other elements? And just as important, would a bit of a spotlight on e-cigs help improve the reliability in manufacturing? I've been reading over and over again about batteries failing just days or weeks after purchase. I've bought all kinds of electronics with Li-ion batteries (cameras, cellphones, etc) with perfectly reliable batteries - sure an occasional exception, but the batteries almost always work. Why are the batteries for these things so bloody unrealiable? I hope e-cigs are a success, but they're going to need to be reliable and convenient for that to happen.

It's not that the community wouldn't like testing. Not at all.

We've been begging for any type of study done on the juices, and, when one comes along, it gets promptly posted for everyone to see, whether it be good or bad.

We all want testing done. We all want to know if what we're using is, indeed, more or less safe than traditional cigarettes.

We just don't want the devices and juices we need to be stripped from us while labs come to that conclusion. We want testing done concurrently with the ability to continue using them.

 

[Idahojo]

This is an OMG moment. That was a nice TV report, but the next one will be about rich, underage high school "children" becoming addicted to nicotine courtesy of a technie cig toy from China (available in flavors children love: banana, chocolate, melon, cherry and apple).

Seriously, it is Bad News if high schoolers start puffing e-cigs. How many reasons can we hand anti's to ban e-cigs? This one makes the short list.

I fnd it very interesting that you never hear people accusing the alcohol industry of trying to attract children with all the different fruity flavors i.e. apple martinis, pina coladas, strawberry daquiris, etc. Look how many flavors of vodka, brandy, and liqueors you can get. It's always one-sided. Why is the alcohol industry so protected? Money, lots and lots of money.

 

[Vicks Vap-oh-Yeah]

I fnd it very interesting that you never hear people accusing the alcohol industry of trying to attract children with all the different fruity flavors i.e. apple martinis, pina coladas, strawberry daquiris, etc. Look how many flavors of vodka, brandy, and liqueors you can get. It's always one-sided. Why is the alcohol industry so protected? Money, lots and lots of money.

The alcohol industry had its trial - Prohibition. It's not about the money in alcohol's case, its about precedent. Lawmakers tried to outlaw it, and American's showed their outrage, so much that a new ammendment was instituted to reverse the previous.

So they can't vilify booze again.

 

[TropicalBob]

The Prohibition experience very much explains why no ban of tobacco is being proffered. Nor will one be.