While browsing the Tobacco.org : Welcome site I found a new article on the e-cig. At first glance the article appears to be balanced, but once you read the buzzwords, you realize it is not balanced at all. This article is framed in negativity from the beginning of the piece. It can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/us/02cigarette.html?_r=1&hp
Cigarettes Without Smoke, or Regulation (Excerpts and my emphasis in bold):
-The battery-powered device she bought online delivered an odorless dose of nicotine and flavoring without cigarette tar or additives, and produced a vapor mist nearly identical in appearance to tobacco smoke.
-I feel like this could save my life, said Ms. Smeaton, 47, who has cut her tobacco smoking to a pack and a half daily, supplemented by her e-cigarette.
-That electronic cigarettes are unapproved by the government and virtually unstudied has not deterred thousands of smokers from flocking to mall kiosks and the Internet to buy them. And because they produce no smoke, they can be used in workplaces, restaurants and airports. One distributor is aptly named Smoking Everywhere.
-The reaction of medical authorities and antismoking groups has ranged from calls for testing to skepticism to outright hostility. Opponents say the safety claims are more rumor than anything else, since the components of e-cigarettes have never been tested for safety.
-In fact, the[URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Food and Drug Administration[/URL] has already refused entry to dozens of shipments of e-cigarettes coming into the country, mostly from China, the chief maker of them, where manufacture began about five years ago. The F.D.A. took similar action in 1989, refusing shipments of an earlier, less appealing version, Favor Smoke-Free Cigarettes.
-The flavorings include tobacco, menthol and cherry, and the levels of nicotine vary by cartridge.
-Propylene glycol is used in antifreeze, and also to create artificial smoke or fog in theatrical productions. The F.D.A. has classified it as an additive that is generally recognized as safe for use in food. But when asked whether inhaling it was safe, Dr. Richard D. Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, said, I dont think so, but Im not sure anyone knows for sure.
-Public health officials also worry that the devices fruit flavors, novelty and ease of access may entice children.
-It looks like a cigarette and is marketed as a cigarette, said Jonathan P. Winickoff, an associate professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium. Theres nothing that prevents youth from getting addicted to nicotine.
#### The fair and balanced part (seems almost like an after-thought):
Distributors of electronic cigarettes fear that a bill making its way through Congress that would give the F.D.A. the authority to regulate tobacco could be used to put them out of business as well. The bill has passed the House and could be taken up by the Senate this week.
The only American study of electronic cigarettes, now under way at Virginia Commonwealth University and financed by the National Cancer Institute, deals not with the kind of safety questions raised by propylene glycol but rather with the amount of nicotine processed by the bodies of the products users.
Another study, conducted this year at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and financed by Ruyan, an electronic cigarette company, shows that users typically receive 10 percent to 18 percent of the nicotine delivered by a tobacco cigarette.
Smoking Everywhere, a Florida-based distributor of electronic cigarettes, sued the F.D.A on April 28, claiming that the agency did not have jurisdiction to refuse the imported devices.
The F.D.A. has the power to regulate Nicorette gum and the like because it is marketed as a smoking cessation product, said Kip Schwartz, a lawyer for Smoking Everywhere. But the company says its products are a cigarette alternative for adult enjoyment and make no claims to help smokers quit, Mr. Schwartz added.
Matt Salmon, a spokesman for the Electronic Cigarette Association, which represents six distributors, said e-cigarettes delivered nothing more than a mixture of nicotine and water vapor and emitted no carcinogens. The association declined to give sales figures, but said that hundreds of thousands of people used the products and that the average age of those users was the mid-40s.
Its a really good alternative for people who smoke tobacco, Mr. Salmon said.
Cigarettes Without Smoke, or Regulation (Excerpts and my emphasis in bold):
-The battery-powered device she bought online delivered an odorless dose of nicotine and flavoring without cigarette tar or additives, and produced a vapor mist nearly identical in appearance to tobacco smoke.
-I feel like this could save my life, said Ms. Smeaton, 47, who has cut her tobacco smoking to a pack and a half daily, supplemented by her e-cigarette.
-That electronic cigarettes are unapproved by the government and virtually unstudied has not deterred thousands of smokers from flocking to mall kiosks and the Internet to buy them. And because they produce no smoke, they can be used in workplaces, restaurants and airports. One distributor is aptly named Smoking Everywhere.
-The reaction of medical authorities and antismoking groups has ranged from calls for testing to skepticism to outright hostility. Opponents say the safety claims are more rumor than anything else, since the components of e-cigarettes have never been tested for safety.
-In fact, the[URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Food and Drug Administration[/URL] has already refused entry to dozens of shipments of e-cigarettes coming into the country, mostly from China, the chief maker of them, where manufacture began about five years ago. The F.D.A. took similar action in 1989, refusing shipments of an earlier, less appealing version, Favor Smoke-Free Cigarettes.
-The flavorings include tobacco, menthol and cherry, and the levels of nicotine vary by cartridge.
-Propylene glycol is used in antifreeze, and also to create artificial smoke or fog in theatrical productions. The F.D.A. has classified it as an additive that is generally recognized as safe for use in food. But when asked whether inhaling it was safe, Dr. Richard D. Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, said, I dont think so, but Im not sure anyone knows for sure.
-Public health officials also worry that the devices fruit flavors, novelty and ease of access may entice children.
-It looks like a cigarette and is marketed as a cigarette, said Jonathan P. Winickoff, an associate professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium. Theres nothing that prevents youth from getting addicted to nicotine.
#### The fair and balanced part (seems almost like an after-thought):
Distributors of electronic cigarettes fear that a bill making its way through Congress that would give the F.D.A. the authority to regulate tobacco could be used to put them out of business as well. The bill has passed the House and could be taken up by the Senate this week.
The only American study of electronic cigarettes, now under way at Virginia Commonwealth University and financed by the National Cancer Institute, deals not with the kind of safety questions raised by propylene glycol but rather with the amount of nicotine processed by the bodies of the products users.
Another study, conducted this year at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and financed by Ruyan, an electronic cigarette company, shows that users typically receive 10 percent to 18 percent of the nicotine delivered by a tobacco cigarette.
Smoking Everywhere, a Florida-based distributor of electronic cigarettes, sued the F.D.A on April 28, claiming that the agency did not have jurisdiction to refuse the imported devices.
The F.D.A. has the power to regulate Nicorette gum and the like because it is marketed as a smoking cessation product, said Kip Schwartz, a lawyer for Smoking Everywhere. But the company says its products are a cigarette alternative for adult enjoyment and make no claims to help smokers quit, Mr. Schwartz added.
Matt Salmon, a spokesman for the Electronic Cigarette Association, which represents six distributors, said e-cigarettes delivered nothing more than a mixture of nicotine and water vapor and emitted no carcinogens. The association declined to give sales figures, but said that hundreds of thousands of people used the products and that the average age of those users was the mid-40s.
Its a really good alternative for people who smoke tobacco, Mr. Salmon said.
