Electronic cigarettes are a safe, effective, and fun way to prevent cancer among smokers of tobacco prodcuts or people who want to suck down flavored water vapor that often doesn’t even include nicotine.
So why are so many people including folks at the FDA so hell bent on banning or heavily regulating e cigarettes?
Reason TV’s Tracy Oppenheimer cuts through the fog with the video documentary, originally released on Tuesday, October 29.
Here’s the original write up
Electronic cigarettes are creating a frenzy among politicians, health experts, and the media. Local bans on using e cigarettes indoors are popping up all over the country, andmany interest groups are clamoring for top down FDA regulations, which are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
E Cigarettes currently exist in a complete no man s land, says Heather Wipfli, associate director for the USC Institute for Global Health. Skeptics such as Wipfli worry about the lack of long term data available because the product is so new.
But according to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association s Greg Conley, calls for regulation are “a perverse interpretation of the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle holds that until all possible risks are assessed, new technologies shouldn’t be allowed to move forward.
Conley points to preliminary studies, like this one from Drexel University, which confirm these smokeless, tobacco less, tar less products are not a cause for concern or at least not a cause for the same concerns that accompany traditional cigarettes and second hand smoke.
That Drexel University professor concluded that there was absolutely no worry about risks to bystanders from e cigarette vapor, says Conley.
The ingredients of e cigarettes certainly have very little in common with tobacco cigarettes. Nicotine, the only ingredient found in both products, is mainly used to wean smokers off traditional cigarettes and is not one of the harm inducing ingredients associated with lung cancer in smokers. The other ingredients in the e juice at the core of e cigarettes are propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and food flavorings all of which are used in other food products.
All we are doing is steaming up food ingredients to create a vapor, says Ed Refuerzo, co owner of The Vape Studio in West Los Angeles. The Vape Studio is one of the many boutique e cigarette shops popping up that might be significantly affected or even shut down by both local legislation and FDA regulations.
Conley says it’s the currently unregulated customizability of the e juice that allows these small businesses to thrive. The availability of liquids is what is allowing a lot of these small stores to open and prosper because they are able to mix their own liquid and sell it to consumers without having to go through a big manufacturing process, says Conley.
The higher costs of complying with regulations would most likely be passed on to consumers, which would impact people who are looking towards e cigarettes as an effective way to quit smoking.
We re using technology, and that s what we do in America, we use technology to solve really complicated problems, says Craig Weiss, president and CEO of NJOY. NJOY is a leading manufacturer of electronic cigarettes and a donor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason TV. Weiss says that despite regulations, the potential of the industry is only just starting to be realized.
The electronic industry is growing at quite a dramatic pace. It s more than doubled each of the last four or five years,” says Weiss. “This piece of technology could have such an potential impact on the world.
For more on the industry and NJOY, watch this ReasonTV interview with Weiss
Cambodia bans smoking shisha and e-cigarettes – asia pacific – asia pacific news – asia pacific daily
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Cambodia on Wednesday issued a directive, banning the use and import of shisha and e cigarettes, which are flavored tobacco popular in the Middle East.
“With the approval from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) would like to instruct all anti drug officials and local authorities to take immediate action to stop the use and sale of shisha and e cigarettes in all images and have to seize those products from businesses,” said the directive signed by Deputy Prime Minister and NACD’s Chairman Ke Kim Yan.
“Importing and trading shisha and e cigarettes are prohibited,” the directive said.
The ban came after the NACD has observed that, in recent months, the business of importing and selling shisha and e cigarette has spread rapidly in Cambodia, especially in capital Phnom Penh and some provinces, it said, adding that such products are very attractive to young people.
“This issue has caused reaction and dissatisfaction from local authorities, law enforcement officers and the public, particularly parents and guardians,” the directive said. “The public thinks that shisha and e cigarettes are new types of drugs that are stupefying the feeling of Khmer youth.”
The directive said that the NACD had tested shisha and e cigarette samples and found that they were not addictive substances stated in the law on anti drugs, but they contained high level of nicotine that could cause more serious impact on health than cigarettes.
Shisha, typically smoked in cafes through a communal water pipe, originated in the Middle East, but has gained in popularity in much of the world, including Cambodia.
According to a report by the World Health Organization, shisha carries the same risks as any tobacco product, but since smoking sessions typically last longer, the volume of smoke inhaled can be 20 times that of a cigarette.