Everyone knows that smoking is dangerous and extremely harmful to one's health. Many smokers also understand the health risks of smoking and would like to quit. But as with these things, it's not that easy. However, Electronic cigarettes have given a new hope to millions of smokers who wish to quit or are searching for a healthier alternative.
What is Electronic Cigarette?
Electronic cigarettes or E-cigarette are battery-operated devices that look like tobacco cigarette but contain water, nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol (PEG) or glycerin, and flavoring. Most electronic cigarettes are reusable devices with replaceable and refillable parts. They were intended to be a less-toxic option to smoking tobacco cigarettes, but not a treatment to quit smoking. Electronic cigarettes were first developed in China by a pharmacist Hon Lik in 2004, and are now sold all across the globe.
How do they work?
The electronic cigarette comes in many shapes and sizes with many looking more or less like a traditional cigarettes. When a person inhales through the device, the built-in microchip detects the air flow, which activates a heating element that vaporizes a nicotine solution stored in the mouthpiece. The heater also vaporizes propylene glycol (PEG) in the cartridge. When the person exhales, there's a cloud of PEG vapor that looks like smoke.
How is it better than Conventional Smoking?
Traditional smoking exposes you to 4,000 toxic chemicals (like benzene, pesticides, formaldehyde, toxic metals and even radioactive elements) which you inhale into your lungs with every puff. 40 of them are known to be carcinogens, making it an extremely risky activity causing lung cancer and other respiratory disorders.
Manufacturers claim that electronic cigarettes does not contain the toxic smoke, tar, and chemicals present in a normal cigarette. In fact, they claim that you would have to smoke as many as 1,400 electronic cigarettes to be exposed to the same amount of carcinogens as found in only one tobacco cigarette. This result in no more foul cigarette breath, yellow teeth, burn holes or ashtrays filled with short, twisted stubs.
Though it's marketed as a "safer" alternative to cigarettes and not necessarily a smoking-cessation device, many people are turning to them as a smoking cessation product. However, World Health Organization (WHO) does not consider the electronic cigarette to be a legitimate smoking cessation aid, and demanded that marketers immediately remove from their materials any suggestions that the WHO considers electronic cigarettes safe and effective. WHO also does not discount the possibility that the electronic cigarette could be useful as a smoking cessation aid in the future after rigorous, peer-reviewed studies have been conducted showing that the electronic cigarette is a safe and effective nicotine replacement therapy.
The manufacturers also say that there is no hazardous second hand smoke as the user exhales only a vapor which poses no danger to those around the smoker.
Are they completely safe?
The health effects of using electronic cigarettes are currently unknown. Several studies regarding the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine vapor are currently in progress. Here is some information and news on electronic cigarettes use:
- Nicotine present in the e-cigarettes can still keep you addicted to smoking.
- Nicotine is not the thing in tobacco smoke that causes cancer, but inhaling pure nicotine may be dangerous. Nicotine constricts arteries, making it harder for the heart to pump blood through the body. Repeated nicotine exposure contributes to accelerated coronary artery disease, acute cardiac ischemic events, and hypertension.
- These products are not regulated by any government and hence there can be quality issues.
- These products have not been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for evaluation or approval, thus no data is available for their long term usage or types of chemicals they contain. When the US FDA analyzed samples of two popular brands they found traces of toxic chemicals, including known carcinogens.
- The US FDA also found that the actual nicotine content did not always correspond to the amount of nicotine the cartridges purported to contain. The analysis even found traces of nicotine in some cartridges that claimed to be nicotine-free.
- Health Canada issued an advisory against electronic cigarettes in March 2009 stating that electronic smoking products may pose risks such as nicotine poisoning and addiction.
- The American Association of Public Health Physicians has stated that the electronic cigarette is at least a thousand times less hazardous to human health than regular cigarettes, and supports legalization.
There are many questions that remain unanswered with regards to the safety of electronic cigarettes. Until more studies are done it's perhaps a good idea to be on the side of caution and assume that they are not 100% safe.
