Looking At The Safety Of Electronic Cigarettes – The Debate Is Never Ending
Debate about the safety of electronic cigarettes has continued since the product was first sold. Much of the information tossed about is factually incorrect but that hasn’t stopped big tobacco and big pharma from spreading the rumors.
In response to the heated debate, electronic cigarette suppliers recently formed a trade association to provide factual information about e-cigs to the buying public. Tobacco companies want to eliminate competition from electronic cigarettes and have followed an agenda of issuing warnings about e-cig dangers that have no basis in fact. The FDA conducted a very limited test of a few hand chosen e-cigarettes and then pronounced the products were not safe because trace amounts of a dangerous chemical were found in some of the products tested.
No tests were conducted on tobacco to determine whether the same substance occurred in standard cigarettes nor was any followup testing done of a larger sample of electronic products to replicate the original results.
Consumers who wonder if electronic cigarettes are safe should consider that e-cigs contain 20 ingredients while tobacco cigarettes have 599 ingredients. When smoking tobacco you inhale more than 4000 chemical compounds. Claims are made that the additives in tobacco have been proven safe as food additives by the FDA. That is true as far as it goes. Those additives have not been tested for safety when burned and inhaled. Burning changes the chemical elements of some ingredients.
Tars and additives in tobacco are known to be harmful to smokers but nicotine suffers guilt by association. The smoke from tobacco can cause various forms of cancer of the mouth, throat and lungs. Heart disease can result from smoking tobacco and use of tobacco has been associated with a lowered immune system that may lead to an increase in colds, bronchitis and pneumonia in some users.
When separated from tobacco, nicotine does not promote cancer in healthy tissues and shows no mutagenic properties. Nicotine is the reason we become addicted to tobacco and is the fix we crave when we want a cigarette.
Gums, patches and lozenges designated as nicotine replacement products have been freely available in stores for years. Originally, the nicotine patch was only available by prescription but was later approved as an over the counter product. The stop smoking products have not revealed any significant health risks in the years since they were first released.
The best e-cigs deliver a measured dose of nicotine to the e-smoker. Nicotine is provided in a safe form that soothes the smoker’s craving without the risks of smoking tobacco. The Royal College of Physicians stated they do not suspect adverse health effects will result from the long term use of nicotine.
Mary Kay Rivers is an expert in the field of e-cigarettes. Her publications about how e-cigarettes work and about the best electronic cigarette have become very popular.
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