Added by Kollin Lore on February 24, 2014.
Saved under Health, Kollin Lore, Research, Smoking
Tags e cigarettes

Some say that similar to the evolution from the typewriter to the computer, e cigarettes will end smoking and tobacco use in America. Others say, e cigarettes may only increase the number of smokers at a time when smoking is being reduced. What e cigarettes actually achieves is still unknown, but what can be said is that the debate on smoking has now shifted to an entirely new topic.

Cigarette smoking kills approximately 480,000 people annually and remains the largest cause of preventable death. Thus, any debate regarding smoking is always brought to the forefront and in this day and age the question being asked is, will e cigarettes lead to more smokers or less? The answer, if found, is a crucial one.

Using e cigarettes is called vaping because instead of smoke, users are inhaling vapors. The device sometimes has nicotine, which experts in public health say is what people smoke for, but it does not have tar, the ingredient that kills people. Instead, e cigarettes contains water and flavoring substances in replace of the tar. North of the border, there is no nicotine in e cigarettes at all as Health Canada does not allow the device to be sold with this desired ingredient. The country also made it illegal to make such claims as e cigarettes help kick the habit of smoking.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University public health researcher has come out to the media claiming that critics are so stuck on the ideology that smoking is bad they can not take an objective perspective on e cigarettes. However, on the other side of the debate, Stanton A. Glantz, a medicine professor in California who was once Siegel’s teacher, says the modern cigarette will only hook adults longer to the addiction, especially now that they can get their fix indoors.

As the debate on e cigarettes goes on, the science is also still developing there is not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. However, it is predicted that in a year or two the findings will start to come out.

Currently, the debate has become a hot topic as it is expected in the U.S. that the Food and Drug Administration will soon have control over e cigarettes with the introduction of new regulations. The devices thus far do not have any oversight federally in the U.S. however, states such as New York and New Jersey have banned using e cigarettes in public areas.

Nevertheless, e cigarettes are seeing an increasing popularity across America. According to a representative at Wells Fargo Securities, in 2013 sales were almost double from sales in 2012 at $1.7 billion. It is believed that e cigarettes consumption could outnumber that of regular cigarettes in ten years already the Smoke Free Alternative Trade Association says the number of stores selling them has quadrupled over the past year.

As mentioned previously, the ingredient of nicotine, banned in e cigarettes in Canada, is a specific point of discussion. Skeptics have expressed concerns that users of e cigarettes will develop an addiction to nicotine however, researchers say that whether it does or not, nicotine is not a health hazard by itself. There are some who make the comparison to caffeine a substance that is addictive and helps stimulate ones mind, but not deadly.

More research is evidently needed and in the meantime the debate on e cigarettes will continue to rage on. For the time being, however, it can be argued that whether e cigarettes are harmful in some way or not harmful, the increase of sales of a smoking device without the fatal ingredient of tar is progress in the war against smoking.

By Kollin Lore

Sources

Long View News Journal
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Globe and Mail
NDTV

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11 million cigarettes wash up in beer

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A huge shipping container holding around 11 million cigarettes has washed up on a beach just one mile from Beer.

The vessel bearing 14 tonnes of tobacco is one of a reported 517 lost from a cargo ship in the Bay of Biscay last week.

It washed just a mile from Beer the Devon village which shares its name with the drink often enjoyed with a cigarette.

One beachgoer told the Western Daily Press “Beer always makes it hard to resist a fag, but it’s even harder when 11 million wash up on your doorstep.”

However, police are warning any wreckers ‘looking for free fags’ to stay well away.

Officers have cordoned off the beach at Seaton, where the 40ft long Maersk shipping container is floating in shallow water, and could be left aground in the high tide this lunchtime.

It contains 14 tonnes of cigarettes and the container was one

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are arranging recovery of the container, but with news of the container and the fact it could be the first of many to come ashore on the Dorset and Devon coast in the coming days police have a issued a stern ‘hands off’ warning.

“At the moment the container is still in shallow water and is floating, so is not accessible,” said a spokesman for Devon & Cornwall police.

“We will wait to see if it does come ashore with the high tide or float off again, but the police and the MCA were expecting it, and arrangements are in place to recover it.

“It was reported by a member of the public at 8.10am this morning and officers are on scene to make sure no one puts themselves at risk to recover anything.

“The contents belong initially to the original owner of the container, and then to the official Receiver of Wrecks, so anyone taking anything that washes ashore, even one packet of cigarettes, is effectively committing theft and will be prosecuted.

“If challenged by police at the scene, they have no option but to hand back what they have recovered. So the message to anyone intending to go down there looking for free fags is don’t bother,” he added.

News of the cargo ship shedding hundreds of its containers has sparked fears of a wreckers’ spree along the Dorset and Devon coast, but the Coastguard is understood to believe very few will make it to England.

“We’re told most of them would have sunk or washed up in France, but this was one that bobbed its way all the way to here,” said the police spokesman. “The police and the MCA were expecting it, we just did not know where on the coast it would arrive. It might well be the only one to make it this far,” he added.

If full, the 40ft shipping container could have had as many as 55,511 cartons of cigarettes, meaning there could be 11,102,200 cigarettes floating just feet from the beach.