Are e-cigarettes safer than tobacco cigarettes?

There is some eye-opening information by two respected researchers about the reduction of harm by the use of e-cigarettes compared with regular tobacco cigarettes, and the conclusions drawn by these researchers very strongly suggest that e-cigarettes are in fact much safer than regular cigarettes, something that the manufacturers of the new devices and that thousands of users of e-cigs have been saying for years. 

First, some info about the authors of the article: 

Zachary Cahn:


Department of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley,
UC Berkeley Department of Political Science, 210 Barrows Hall #1950, Berkeley,
CA 94720-1950, USA.


Steven Siegel:


Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public
Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
*Corresponding author

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The complete article can be found here, but for those who do not want to read the article in it's entirety, (I found it fascinating personally) I will post some background from the article and some of the conclusions of their findings. The portions taken from the article are highlighted.


"Abstract--The issue of harm reduction has long been controversial in the public health practice of tobacco control. Health advocates have been reluctant to endorse a harm reduction approach out of fear that tobacco companies cannot be trusted to produce and market products that will reduce the risks associated with tobacco use. Recently, companies independent of the tobacco industry introduced electronic cigarettes, devices that deliver vaporized nicotine without combusting tobacco. We review the existing evidence on the safety and efficacy of electronic cigarettes. We then revisit the tobacco harm reduction debate, with a focus on these novel products."

"We conclude that electronic cigarettes show tremendous promise in the fight against tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. By dramatically expanding the potential for harm reduction strategies to achieve substantial health gains, they may fundamentally alter the tobacco harm reduction debate." [underline added--ed]

Journal of Public Health Policy advance online publication, 9 December 2010;

doi:10.1057/jphp.2010.41

"....Taken together, this evidence suggests that electronic cigarettes are capable of reducing cigarette craving, but that the effect is not due exclusively to nicotine."  [underline added-ed]

What this demonstrates is that there is more to cigarette addiction than just nicotine. I think most smokers already know that nicotine is not the sole reason that so many who have tried to quit fail. The smoking habit is a very complex problem to solve because there are so many "triggers" involved, i.e. holding a cigarette, puffing on one, blowing out smoke and other things that nicotine alone doesn't satisfy.

If nicotine were the only reason smokers have such a difficult time quitting, the nicotine provided by the patch or gum would probably eliminate smoking in most cases, but it doesn't. The electronic cigarette does satisfy most, if not all, of the non-nicotine habits associated with smoking.

I can personally categorically state that I gave up my 40+ year heavy smoking habit the day I received my first e-cigarette, something I could not do when I tried the patch, gum, lozenges, hypnosis and a national quit-smoking program.

 "Thus far, none of the more than 10 000 chemicals present in tobacco smoke, including over 40 known carcinogens, has been shown to be present in the cartridges or vapor of electronic cigarettes in anything greater than trace quantities. No one has reported adverse effects, although this product has been on the market for more than 3 years. Still, the FDA struck a more ominous tone in its July 2009 press release, warning of the presence of carcinogens at ‘detectable’ levels.Yet it failed to mention that the levels of these carcinogens was similar to that in NRT products" [underline added--ed] . 

'Whereas electronic cigarettes cannot be considered safe,as there is no threshold for carcinogenesis, they are undoubtedly safer than tobacco cigarettes."  [underline added--ed] 

There's more:

"NRT is unappealing and ineffective"[nicotine replacement therapy--i.e patches, gum etc--ed]


"Pharmaceutical products for dispensing nicotine are unappealing ‘by design’ to avoid ‘abuse-liability’.Electronic cigarettes,on the other hand, were designed with the express purpose of replicating the act of smoking, without using tobacco. An investment newsletter reports that demand thus far has been explosive. Intense consumer interest in electronic cigarettes has already spawned a vibrant online community of ‘vapers’ who compare and contrast the performance of various brands and models according to their durability, battery life, thickness of vapor, and other criteria."


"No non-tobacco nicotine product has heretofore elicited such dedication among its users, suggesting the rare promise of the electronic cigarette as a smoking cessation tool." [underline added--ed]

I strongly recommend that those who want all the information provided in the article to read it in it's entirety. I believe the authors of the article make it very clear that e-cigarettes can be a very important step in ending smoking--and second hand smoke--finally. Isn't that what we all want?

The website address for the article is:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centers-institutes/population-development/files/article.jphp.pdf 

To buy e-cigarettes for yourself,or for someone you know who smokes, I recommend checking out Smoke-Light.com. That is where I buy my own e-cigs and supplies, they have been in business for years and I have found them to be a very reputable company. They also sponsor this blog, and direct you to the kind of information provided here.

Thanks for reading,

Lenny, your friendly e-cig guy

FDA RELAXES STAND ON ELECTRONIC CIGS WHILE 20% U.S. SMOKE TOBACCO

August 29, 2011 courtesy of Vapor Information and Alerts Network: Given the FDA decision to regulate electronic cigarette starter kits, which in effect, include eliquid, cartomizers, ecig, batteries, and atomizers by a standard less strict than it currently regulates nicotine delivery devices, it comes as little wonder that the U.S. smoking population hovering at around 20%, is lowering albeit seemingly imperceptibly, by increasing numbers of ecigarette vaporers and those seeking in earnest a safer way to enjoy smoking, opting thus for an e cigarette starter kit 510 or ego 510, rather than simply holding on to their addiction by being prescribed instead a nicotine delivery device.

Because the question of smoking is such a polarizing topic and because of its own stake in the outcome, the FDA would yield only that tobacco when burning spews out upwards of 4000 chemicals, while e cigs, e liquids, e cartridges employ no fire and emit only vapor, e cig proponents point out. Since electric cigarettes are not marketed as an aid to quiting smoking tobacco, the FDA resolved in late April of 2011, guided by the DC Circuit Court's refusal to grant its appeal for the stricter standard last December, the lesser standard of regulation to be warranted; however, FDA has not as yet decided on the wording of its proposal for the regulation of e cigarettes.