Electronic Cigarettes: Are They Safe?

Battery Powered Cigarettes Give The Nicotine Kick Without The Tobacco, But Lack FDA Approval

(CBS)  Electronic cigarettes are popping up in shopping malls, kiosks and online.
You might not be lighting up tobacco, but are they a safer alternative to regular cigarettes?

Doctor Jonathan Whiteson from New York University's Cardiac and Pulmonary Wellness and Rehabilitation Program talked to Early Show co-anchors Julie Chen and Harry Smith about the product.

"Are they safe?" Chen asked.

"We don't know, but we don't think so," Whiteson said.

"It's not tobacco that you're smoking, then what is it?" Chen asked.

"It's not smoking. What you're actually inhaling is a vapor. These electronic cigarettes are battery powered and they vaporize nicotine, so you're inhaling the nicotine vapor. So, you're getting the nicotine hit, but without the toxic smoke and contents of the cigarette and the tar. However, there's no proof that these cigarettes are safe. No proof whatsoever. They are made in China. They're unregulated. Certainly not approved by the FDA," Whiteson said.

Smith, who smoked in his 20's and said that the best thing he'd ever done was quit, was curious to see what the sensation was like and tried the product.

Though very distasteful to Smith now, he said that the electronic cigarettes reminded him a lot of smoking.

"We don't know if it's safe at all, period. Again, this is unregulated. We don't know how much nicotine is exactly there. We don't know how much is being delivered. We don't know the contents of the vapor. This has not been studied," Whiteson said.

"So does this mean it could be worse for you than cigarettes?" Chen asked.

"It could be. The manufacturers think it's safer, but it could be worse. We just don't know at this time," Whiteson said. "We have no analysis of the vapor."

"So why does it exist? It sounds like a gimmick. They make you think you can get off cigarettes by smoking this," Chen said.

"That's right. It's a smoking cessation product, but it isn't. Again, it's not FDA approved, it's not been tried and tested," Whiteson said.

"Does that mean you could get addicted to this, which could be worse?" Chen asked.

"Absolutely. My biggest concern is these things are marketed to younger people, to adolescents. And my biggest concern is that adolescents are going to start smoking these cigarettes thinking they're not getting any dangerous products. But the first hit of nicotine can make you addicted, and that is so concerning. We already have more adolescents than adults smoking, and the last thing we want to do is encourage them to smoke more," Whiteson said.

"What is the best way to quit smoking cigarettes?" Chen asked.

"The best way to quit is through discussions with your physician in a program that's recognized as smoking cessation, to use nicotine replacement that's approved by the FDA, either a patch, gum or lozenge and also to work on the behavioral changes, so that emotionally you can be ready to quit and you can be prepared if there are any triggers to start you smoking," Whiteson said.

[premiumecigs]

Try going to premium-ecigs.com. Great mini ecigarette at a great price.
Member of the ECA.

[wheatonview]

If you are interested in the starter kit, you can get it for less than $30.00 at: www.logiccash.com, or you can pay over $65.00 from www.ecigarettes4less.com. where they will make a profit of over $40.00, they are both made from the exact same place (China). shipping is cheaper too.

[wheatonview]

I would like to know the effects of the vapor and how it's made. however, The Doctor keeps saying that these are not approved by the FDA, I would like to know why the FDA approves real cigarettes with the 3,000 chemicals in tobacco. Is this to say that the FDA should be trusted if they are approving real cigarettes? Something to think about. btw, there is a site: www.ecigarettes4less.com, they make a $40.00 profit from each kit. shop around and buy them directly from China, which is where they come from. and buy the kit for $29.99, not the $69.99 with shipping from that site.

[elysianine]

I find it supremely disturbing that flavoring adult products with candy, fruity, sweet or mint flavors has turned into prima facie evidence of "marketing to children". If this is the case, why are such flavors still allowed in cigars, alcoholic beverages (both malt beverages and liquors), condoms, personal lubricants, etc? The likelihood of children using an e-cigarette as a "gateway" to smoking seems unlikely to me...most starter kits would be prohibitively expensive for children, must be purchased with a credit card online, and it is far, far easier to just swipe cigs from one's parents (isn't that how most kids start?) or to get an older sibling or friend to purchase cigarettes for them, than to go to the expense and hassle of obtaining and maintaining an electronic cigarette (batteries, atomizers, and cartridges/liquids). I really think that out of all the arguments being made against e-cigs, this argument bothers me the most.

[marlena405]

I have been using the e-cig and so has my husband. I can not see how it is worse then smoking tobacco cigs. I love the e cig! I can breath a lot better now I have more energy. I will never go back to tobacco!

[premiumecigarette]

Electronic Cigarettes: Are They Safe?
Yes, Because of lots of benefits of that
- no tar, no tobacco
- conclude your intake of nicotine ? ideal to little by little reduce your smoking habit
- no yellow teeth or fingers, no smelly clothes, no second-hand smoke
- up to 75% cheaper than traditional smoking
- You can now smoke indoors safe and free from the smoking bans

Mainly its tastes, feels and looks like any other traditional cigarette.

[DC-TECh]

Ok I have been smoking since I was about 15
I have stopped a few times during High School.
But ever since then It has been harder due to all the excess chemicals the FDA allows and our CORRUPT USA GOVERNMENT Allows to be put into tobacco products.
you say china is corrupt?
Look at your US Government.
I AM A Bloody american and regret being associated with you people that think our country is not corrupt.
We no longer have rights or control due to you idiots.
nobody understands what they are voting on.
if you think you do. have you read the full bill? you do know its about 100 pages for each bill more or less.
you only get to see 1-10 paragraphs.

nicotine yes is deadly.
patches contain nicotine.
Many other things do also. including insecticides etc.

The president is already banning flavored Tobacco.
Which I cant complain about. I have been trying to stop smoking for many years. Not Easy. It was alot easier Stopping Meth Coke & Marijuana.
Yes I use to do drugs also. i stopped those easy. but tobacco is not easy.
Many of you thinking its simple to stop dont know what addiction is.
I have been researching these ecigs and After reading all this. I will be purchasing 1 within the next few days.

I Did not have craving for smoking when i was in philippines. but in the usa I constantly crave it...

Can you explain why?
I Can
They dont induce all there food products with chemicals like the USA Does.
look closely at your ingredients.
is organic always organic?

i dont mean to offend anyone but you need to realize the truth of the matter. and the facts in life.

Every country is equal in corruption problems and more.
why do we goto war?
Its not because of threats from other countries
its for financial gain & Control of the people in the USA..
Think Do your Research First.

Im done with this comment.
I dont care who knows who i am.
im just fed up with the idiots in the USA especially political.
if i could afford to leave the country i would give up my rights to be a citizen and leave.
especially if i could control and live as good there as i do here.

[zman24]

Well said man
I too, as well, am sick of the ignorance displayed by the American people
Most are arrogant, unaware, and think that they're the best and no one in the world is better

[Jerbs59]

e-cigarette on Cruise Ships

Just returned from a 12 day sailing in which I used my SmartSmokerUSA e-cigarette. The ship was smoke free with the exception of a small corner in the pool area. I was able to use the my SmartSmoker everywhere! The entire ship was amazed and the smokers were busy ordering their own SmartSmokerUSA e-cigarettes at every port stop (Internet Cafes). My husband and I were able to vape in our cabin, etc... What a difference it made for the trip! SmartSmokerUSA was so happy with the business that they have a special discount code for Cruise Ships. Use the discount code howard . I am not sure how long the code will be active. The Cruise Line's attitude is proof that the e-cigarette is gaining acceptance in spite of the attempts to stifle it!

P.S. I used my e-cigarette during the 8 hour flight home w/o incident. Nobody seemed to notice.

P.P.S. I have done a 360 on the possibility that the FDA will OK the e-cigarette. I belive they will see the light and will not ban them. The acting Director Dr. Sharfstein, a Baltimore resident and prior Health Comm. of Baltimore City is a forward thinking man. I believe he will do the right thing.

[Benz8275]

FDA take notice. This is a great analogy that deserves attention. How many devices, drugs, etc... were once banned only to be found OK?

I really think some people neeed to get a life. The nicotine vapor is created by heating the nicotine. Nicotine inhalers have been around a LONG time... I used one over 10 years ago.

Afraid that they are NOT safe? Uh huh... so cigarettes, with carcinogens and poisons ranging from arsenic to cyanide ARE safe?

Further I think the opnions here are contradictory. 'Afraid more kids will smoke' , 'There are more adolescent smokers than adult smokers'. Ok pinch me if I am missing something this demographic already exists and has nothing to do with the ecig.

One option the ecig gives you that conventional cigarettes do not if the choice to smoke something nicotine free.

So instead of giving an addicted population a safer alternative (which was done by the way wiith methadone (also addictive) for other addicts), lets just let smokers keep inhaling poisons as well as the new generation of smokers.. GMAB.. Who IS paying you folks?

[lmaomostly]

I am a recovering cocaine addict. I have not touched the stuff in 10 years. I quit on my own. I consider myself a fairly strong woman. I smoked for 23 years. I have tried time and time again to quit. I have tried the patches. I've tried the gum. I've gone to the smoking cessation classes at the hospital. Not one of these things helped me to come even close to quitting. I have watched friends and family quit. I've seen many of them start again. The ones who held strong, I have envied, but they have been few.
I first saw the electric cigarette in the first week or so of March. I had been coughing a lot and had a cold for several weeks that I couldn't quite get over. I have always been a migraine sufferer and in the last several years have been suffering from chronic headaches. I tossed the idea of the e-cig around to my husband. He agreed I should try it. The only kit that I knew about at that time was the Njoy-Npro which was 79.99 plus 10 cartridges for 19.99. I was nervous about trying it and wasting more than 100 dollars on another thing that was not going to help me. I took the plunge right before Easter and bought the kit. I put it off until the Tuesday after. Since then I have smoked ONE tobacco cigarette and that was on the first Thursday. I am not coughing anymore!!! I have had ONE headache in over 8 weeks. That in itself is a miracle to me. I have had daily headaches for 5 years. I smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I am currently vaping less than 3ml a day of 6mg nicotine juice(which is the lowest you can buy). I never ever want to smoke another cigarette again. I pray every day that one of the big corporations that CLAIM to care so much about smokers quitting will put some money into researching the ecig and prove what those of us who have already made the switch believe. That ecigs ARE a better alternative to smoking. I pray every day that MY government does not allow the ecigs to be inaccessible to me. I pray every day that if they do, that I succeed when before I could not and that I don't pick up another tobacco filled cigarette. I never want to smoke another one. I believe the ecig is going to save my life.

I must add that I don't feel that the ecig is marketed to younger people. Most young people can't afford to shell out 75 to 100 bucks to TRY something, at least not as easily as 5 bucks for a pack of smokes or 20 bucks for gum(if they just want the nicotine high). Further more, I was more worried about having the nicotine gum in my home than the ecig. Seems to me that kids would be much more likely to sneak your gum than your ecigs.

[itsjustme1111]

If Phillip Morris had announced they'd developed a new cigarette which delivered pure nicotine contained none of the dangerous chemicals in traditional cigarettes, completely eliminated second-hand smoke and even did away with the inherent fire danger because it was battery operated, we'd be having a parade in their honor.

Then, oddly enough, I discovered that Phillip Morris had in 1989 with the ?Accord? smoking device. The differences between the Accord and the electronic cigarette seem pretty slim with one exception: Unlike the electronic cigarette, smokers hated Accord.

The entire conversation is about the bottom line - to insist it is anything else is simply disingenuous and to believe otherwise is simply ignorant. The holier than thou rabid anti-tobacco sector - who I respectfully wish would butt (pun intended) out of my life and get on with gnashing on their fat-laden Big Macs - refuse to step off their soapbox and admit that this is the closest to a win-win situation that we're ever going to see. If even a part of their true mission was to protect children from the evils of second-hand smoke they'd be putting their money where their mouth is and passing out free electronic cigarettes on every street corner.

I just hope that the people involved truly realize that if they don't choose to embrace this far healthier option, they are ultimately responsible for the deaths of millions of people who, despite many attempts have failed to quit smoking with the more politically correct (read cash cow), yet inadequate and ineffective versions of 'smoking cessation' products.

I wonder how these arrogant, judgmental souls can sleep at night.

[Jerbs59]

SURGEON GENERAL MAKES MISTAKE: TOBACCO CIGARETTES ARE GOOD FOR YOU!

GREAT NEWS!! After years of medical research that indicated smoking was responsible for many of the diseases suffered by man including CANCER, HEART DISEASE, EYE DISEASES,and LUNG DISEASE it has been determined to be wrong!!

The Surgeon General announced today during a visit to Mars that previous medical research showing that smoking tobacco cigarettes is harmful to human health was flawed. Further, it appears that smoking is actually healthy and contributes to longevity. The 4,000plus ingredients contained in a cigarette are nourishing and healthy. Announced concurrently with the great news about tobacco cigarettes is that the new Electric Cigarette has been discovered to be harmful to your health and responsible for heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and eye disease. Further, the nicotine contained in the Electric Cigarette is responsible for under age smoking, use of illegal drugs, and increased crime.

For those of you that do not believe the news and feel that the Electronic Cigarette is a better alternative or at least no worse than the tobacco cigarette that is currently legal to buy and use, please go to the following site to buy the very best Electric Cigarette Money Can Buy-European Design, Quality, and Reliability:

www.smartsmokerusa.com

[pamelawell]

There are tons of people out there (mostly women) who are NEUROTIC and who are CONTROL FREAKS. They do NOT want smokers (who are vastly different in temperament and personality) around them! PERIOD! They want us DEAD. Of COURSE they hate this e-cigarette! They just want us DEAD.

[nataliea8881]

It seems like a no-brainer to me - 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes or a few in e-cigs. It's not necessarily safe but is certainly less harmful. Of course, nicotine should not be sold to kids - no kidding! I love mine and it worked for me. I got it from BE-SMOKE-FREE and it was only $79 which is almost half of the other companies. Works awesome and I quit!!!!!!

[churro928]

When you suck the E-cigarrete filter, the atomizer burns the nicotine liquid... and it becomes a smoke.... ok here is my question
when the atomizer burning the nicotine... does it relese the toxic? or some other chemical things?
when you blow out the smoke.. i know there is no smell , but your actually blow out the nicotine, does other people will get affect it?
those are two major point that im worried it

[m4wiyc]

Is it safe? Are the "death sticks" with all their added chemicals safe? I've been smoking for years, and with the ushering in of a product like the e-cigarette, it means that I can finally quit smoking without quiting the actual habit. Of course their not as healthy as an orange or an apple, but for people like me who have been sucked into sucking on their own demise, its still a much healthier way to getting my nicotine. I cant believe that there are those who would try to take that away from us, would you rather have us getting it mixed with rat poison and formaldehyde. Is that safe? Is it?

[Kasual_T]

If the tobacco companies were really smart, they'd get on the bandwagon and start producing the liquids for these devices. Look how big oil is suddenly "green" with companies like Shell and BP exploring solar technologies. They were smart enough to realize that the oil business has a short life ahead of it. Tobacco should realize they have a similar future. Big tobacco, get on board now and be a front runner. Your business model is not sustainable.

[MYCROFT608]

I agree with all the [above] positive comments regarding the electronic cigarette.

Studies should include serum nicotine levels [as relates to analog cigarettes] and a full spec analysis of the voapor inhaled. Having said that ...

I am sorry but the congenital idiot MD quoted in the CBS article has nothing to add to this discussion and I truly fear for his patients. A real 'concrete' thinker.

If you wish to see/understand why there is such resistance to the 'e-cig.' ... I suggest you follow the money ... JR Reynolds/drug lobbies/medicine-as-a-business types. Cynical, perhaps, but there is big money in pulmonary disease ... very big money ... Why, just imagine what so many drug companies, hospitals and MDs would do without emphysema/COPD, various cancers and the like ... Chaos!! Dogs and Cats living together ...

Real research for the greater good demands a full evaluation of the e-cig and without that ... what opinion is truly worth a spit ... mine included.

Do the research boys and girls, instead of being a childish slave to 'standard' practice ... find out ... then tell us.

DPBrown, PA, USCG/Ret.
Northport, NY

[capt12b]

As an EMS responded for 20 years (Captain Paramedic) and a smoker, I see 1st hand the harmful affects of smoking on the patients I have contact with. Since I found Electronic Cigarettes I have stopped my 2 pack a day habit & only use my electronic cigarette and LOVE it. Both the electronic cig and the real cig delivers nicotine, however, no tar, or carcinogenics are in the electronic cig. How can anyone dispute the health benefits of the electronic cig? yes its a vapor, but COPD patients and asthmatics use much heavier nebulizers with not protest from the FDA. In my shower I inhale vapor. Now that I have switched to the electronic cig, I feel much better, and I save a lot of money. Since the electronic cig contains no tobacco, there is no tobacco taxes which have risen dramatically recently. It is amazing that instead of support and and optimism that could have such a positive effect on smokers world wide, I see criticism and protest! I would expact that from the tobacco lobbyist, but I would ask the government to get behind this product and of course promote non-smoking, but as for the citizen who choose to smoke, this product provides them with all the satisfaction and with much less harmful effects.I often respond to Overdoses - people who overdose on their provided methadone which the government provides them because of their heroin addiction, yet the FDA want to criticize this product!? I ask that smokers stand up for, try, and support this technology. I am so thankful I found it. Chris