I did email her. Haven't heard back .. and might not. It's a bit wordy, but I needed to explain a lot of basics. Here 'tis:
Jennifer,
Please permit me to expand comments about e-smoking, because I feel the "test' being set up will result in large failure rates and stamp a promising technology as useless.
I've been an e-smoker since the first of this year. I own an e-pipe, e-cigar and mini e-cigarette. I use all of them daily, along with Swedish snus and Stonewall dissolvable tobacco bits, all to stay off cigarettes that I smoked for 50 years. Last month, I completed a 2,800-word article for Cigar Aficianado magazine on e-smoking cigars. I've corresponded with the world's top researchers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. I'm thoroughly "backgrounded" on this topic (I recently retired as a reporter for the Sun newspapers, after years at the St. Petersburg Times and The Tampa Tribune).
The man selling these makes some outrageous claims on his Web site. These products are really not about quitting, although that can be done. They are a sustainable nicotine delivery system without the 4,000 carcinogenic chemicals found in tobacco smoke. A smoker can switch to an electronic device and stay with it for a lifetime.
To date, NO studies have been completed on the efficacy of using these to quit smoking. The claim on this man's Web site that it has helped more smokers quit than any other method is simply unsupported. That's exactly the kind of claim that will quickly involve the Federal Trade Commission. The FCC will rightly say, "Prove it." There is no proof. There won't be until at least later this year, when the first studies in New Zealand are completed.
But the worst problem here is that our friendly Cape Coral seller will use no-nicotine cartridges. FYI: Cartridges from China are available at multiple nicotine levels. Most buyers opt for the "extra high" 24mg nicotine cartridges. Sales of "no nicotine" cartridges are almost zero. Inhaling water vapor will do absolutely nothing for a smoker, except drive him/her back to cigarettes. High nicotine is essential to keeping a smoker from cigarette use. Thus, the "test" will result in a failure rate equal to or worse than patches, gum and lozenges (very high failure).
Here's the medical fact on nicotine: It has never been shown to be either carcinogenic or mutagenic. In low doses, such as these provide, it has medical benefits. In high does, of course, it can kill. It's used as an insecticide. But these e-smoking devices do not provide such high doses, and smokers have become addicted to constant blood levels of nicotine. Deprive them, and they experience cravings and mood shifts.
E-smoking will get smokers to forego cigarettes ONLY if they deliver a smoker's addicted nicotine quantity. That can be done with high-nicotine cartridges. It won't be done with "water vapor" cartridges.
Please visit
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com for information on e-smoking. Visit
http://www.e-cig.com for a look at the world's top seller's offerings.
Perhaps you'll pay this no attention, but if you'd like to chat over lunch, I'm retired and can easily drive to my home town of Fort Myers from my present home in Port Charlotte. I could bring my e-pipe and e-cigar, in case you haven't seen them.
Thanks for your time,
Robert Bowden
P.S. The seller's e-cig looks like a Health brand that wholesales for $9.99. He's selling it for $200. And he'll give $10 to charity. What a nice guy.
