E-Cigarettes: Turning Harm Reduction Into Harm Addiction?

Electronic cigarettes have turn out to be a lightening rod for controversy among authorities in the health care occupation, with research supporting their likely to support some smokers quit, while other folks believe that the electronic gadgets could serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction by luring teen smokers.

Basically put, nicotine is a very addictive compound, regardless of whether delivered as a vapor or through combustion as a regular tobacco cigarette.  It raises your heart fee and blood strain, and has a direct effect as a stimulant on your central nervous method.

With their alluring colors, flavors and packaging, and with out formal FDA regulation of packaging, marketing and distribution at this time, professionals and critics have legitimate concerns about Massive Tobacco’s capacity to mold and influence the delivery of nicotine to teenagers.  And, as Massive Tobacco continues to invest better sums in production and distribution of electronic cigarettes, gaining a greater foothold in overall revenues, critics are now a lot more concerned than ever.

With e-cigarettes presently accounting for almost two billion a year in revenue, massive tobacco companies are entering the game in higher numbers. In fact, the maker of Camel cigarettes is scheduled to begin distribution of an e-cigarette by the finish of this month.  And a subsidiary of Altria, the maker of Marlboro, programs to enter the field later on this year, along with Lorillard, the manufacturer of the leading US e-cigarette brand, Blu.

Electronic Cigarette Inhalation (Photo credit: planetc1)

“It has been beneficial for assisting folks to cease smoking tobacco cigarettes but turning e-cigarettes into an entry port for younger folks is shameful,” said Klaus D. Lessnau. MD, FCCP a pulmonary and crucial care expert at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

As the two a concerned mother or father and a physician, Lessnau is adamant that intervention and education by parents and teachers is vital in order to avert long term generations of teenagers from turning into nicotine addicts before they graduate from substantial college.

“My 15 year previous daughter tells me that some of her friends smoke e-cigarettes regularly,” Lessnau explains, “and to make this feasible is dishonest behavior from greedy businesses.”

“That is the very explanation that the FDA need to regulate e-cigarettes. It remains unscrupulous to use electronic cigarettes to flip teens and young adults into nicotine addicts,” adds Lessnau.

Even though e-cigarettes may definitely have a role in marketing harm reduction—reducing the danger of lung cancer and heart disease and helping some persistent smokers eventually quit–the possible for nicotine addiction establishing in teenagers deserves a spotlight in the national conversation, especially amongst dad and mom and teachers.

FDA regulation of all aspects of the production, distribution, as nicely as a strict ban on all marketing of the liquid nicotine units need to come sooner than later, Lessnau believes.

Whilst the FDA passed a rule in April of this yr to enact legislation to regulate electronic cigarettes as “tobacco products”. This would successfully ban product sales to minors,  and would include a requirement that e-cigarette businesses disclose power of nicotine and all elements.  Some come to feel that that the ongoing delay till formal passage may pose a risk to the well being and security of teens. And until this kind of a rule is adopted, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Goods does not have the authority to regulate the sale or use of electronic cigarettes as tobacco items.  This comprehensive method could really get years due to the legal concerns and several interests at stake.

And interestingly, the FDA has nevertheless to recommend advertising and marketing restrictions on e-cigarette manufacturers involving any ban on candy or fruit flavors, which are prohibited for use in normal tobacco cigarettes.

So far, 38 states, have previously prohibited revenue of electronic cigarettes to minors. This is primarily based on a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In addition, virtually a dozen states have passed some type of a ban in public places this kind of as schools and government buildings.

In accordance to a survey in 2012 launched by the Centers for Condition Management and Prevention (CDC), almost 3 % of US teens admitted to employing an electronic cigarette in the previous month.  Far more importantly, the study noted that middle college students’ use of e-cigarettes had in fact doubled from 2011 to 2012. General, that much more than 1.78 million U.S. middle and large school students had experimented with e-cigarettes in 2012.

The CDC study also mentioned that amid those youngsters who tried e-cigarettes, early 75 % also smoked a typical tobacco cigarettes, generating the argument that e-cigarettes could be an entry stage to use of traditional tobacco products.

E-Cigarettes: Turning Harm Reduction Into Harm Addiction?