Electric Cigarettes and the FDA
There is a definite battle going on between the Food and Drug Administration and electric cigarette companies. The FDA held a press conference in July 2009; they claimed electric cigarettes are loaded with harmful “toxins” and “carcinogens”. Basically the FDA is implicitly stating that everyone should avoid these alternatives to smoking, and continue to use tobacco cigarettes, which cause upwards of 450,000 deaths annually in the United States.
These claims are very misleading because the FDA did not do any extensive testing on electric cigarettes. They are completely trying to avoid it all together. The FDA has a reputation to sticking with sound science and protecting our community, by not following through and helping smokers find healthier alternatives, they are putting millions of lives and at risk.
The FDA has claimed electric cigarettes to be a “nicotine delivery system”, stating it’s bad and should not be used; it is the smoke that kills, not the nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive and is what hooks smokers to cigarettes, but if smokers could get nicotine without smoke it would be a huge health benefit to them. The FDA has approved other nicotine delivery systems like such as gums and patches but those are very ineffective. These patches and gums only have a 15% success rate as a cessation device for the first year, which leads smokers to return to tobacco. Smokers want what only an electric cigarette can provide; they want the cigarette feel and smoke sensation. Smokers can hold an electric cigarette, take a drag or puff, and exhale vapor that looks and feels like smoke.
The FDA seriously needs to evaluate electric cigarettes and give concerned smokers a chance to benefit from a better alternative, instead of trying to ban these new alternatives the FDA should exhaust funding’s into researching and evaluating the safety and efficacy of electric cigarettes.
Cigarettes remain and will remain the leading preventable disease and death in the United States, unless something is done to help and promote a unique and beneficial alternative known as electric cigarettes.
For more information on this issue, checkout the complete article by Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/fda-smoke-screen-on-e-cigarettes/
