The Food and Drug Administration, commonly known as the FDA, has promised regulations on electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes. Though the state of Utah has already banned e-cigarettes in the same places as cigarettes, other states are not enforcing similar laws. Vaping, terminology for using an e-cigarette, has emerged as a trendy and efficient way to smoke, despite warnings from various studies and experimental data. The rumored protocols the FDA will place on e-cigarettes are harsh, and they should be. Though the FDA has confirmed that rules will be enforced, there is no estimate on how long this will take. If the general timeliness and effectiveness of the administration is used as a reference, this will take a long time. It is simple: E-cigarettes should be treated as cigarettes.
Freelance writer Claire Lower perfectly summed up e-cigarettes compared to cigarettes: “Stepping in cat poop is better than stepping in dog poop, and both are still terrible options.” E-cigarettes have been promoted as a “healthy” alternative to cigarettes. Ironically, the FDA has forbidden e-cigarette companies from promoting their products as wholesome, probably because they are not. Promoting them as such is an attempt at justification, giving consumers in the target market a valid reason to partake in their product.
The vaping community would counter by stating there is a lower concentration of carcinogens in e-cigarettes. But the vaping obsession is a relatively new movement in the United States, and the growth in popularity has given researchers little time to conduct effective studies. However, the research that has been done is not favorable for e-cigarette users. Bill Chameides, former Dean of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, lists several carcinogens present in e-cigarettes, like formaldehyde and nitrosamines, as well as metals like lead. Even though these are less detrimental than the thousands of pollutants in cigarettes, they are detrimental nonetheless.
That is why there is such an issue with people like Michael Siegel of Boston University claiming that e-cigarettes “are a health product.” No, they are not. A health product actively improves the mental or physical soundness of an individual. Based on their level of carcinogenic substances and addictive potential, e-cigarettes contribute to the progression of neither physical nor mental health. When compared to cigarettes, pretty much everything on this earth will seem wholesome and nutritious. This is why marketing companies have strategically snuck cigarettes into every conversation about e-cigarettes — paralleling the two products diminishes the perceived negative effects of electronic cigarettes.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) decided to pair cigarettes and their electronic counterparts during a recent study. Although e-cigarette companies have been comparing the two for years, they vocalized discontent and claims of inaccuracy when JAMA did the exact same thing. This is probably because JAMA crushed the business model they struggled to create. In JAMA’s study, it was determined that use of e-cigarettes highly increases the chances of cigarette use later. It found that 25.2 percent of Los Angeles high school freshmen who had already used e-cigarettes would become cigarette, cigar or hookah smokers by the end of their sophomore year, and 9.3 percent of freshmen who had not used e-cigarettes became smokers of the tobacco products listed. All this time, e-cigarette companies have falsely claimed their products are healthier than tobacco products. They failed to mention e-cigarettes might provoke the use of tobacco just one year later.
The whole movement is obnoxious. Vaping is being portrayed as a contemporary, beneficial form of inhaling toxins. In reality, such a thing does not exist. If the goal is to quit smoking, then actually quit. Do not begin using another inhalant that also contains nicotine. Addiction does not treat addiction, and vaping is not healthy — despite what marketing agents would like us to think.
