Electronic cigarettes are marketed as a safe alternative to smoking tobacco, as well as anti-smoking aids. Last year the FDA moved to regulate e-cigarettes as drug delivery devices, but a federal judge, siding with e-cigarette companies, ruled that the FDA could only regulate tobacco cigarettes. Even so, studies have found that e-cigs contain carcinogens such as nitrosamines and diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze.
E-cigarettes as drug delivery devices
E-cigarettes are electronic devices designed to look and feel like a tobacco cigarette—they even have a little light that glows on the end when a user inhales. Inside, a battery-powered atomizer heats chemicals into a vapor that delivers a dose of nicotine. In addition to nicotine, some electronic cigarette manufacturers market e-cigs claiming to deliver drugs for erectile dysfunction and weight loss. Last fall the FDA warned several e-cig manufacturers that claims the products are anti-smoking aids are unproven. The FDA also said that the e-cig companies were in violation of federal law until e-cigs were subjected to clinical trials for FDA approval as drug delivery devices.
Light up some antifreeze
No e-cigarette company selling its products in the U.S. has conducted studies supporting their claims that e-cigs help people quit smoking. But the FDA has done its own testing. In June 2010 the agency published data from lab tests that found e-cigs to contain such substances as nitrosamines—a carcinogen—and diethylene glycol, a poison used to make antifreeze. Because e-cig companies have escaped regulation so far with the help of conservative judges, their products bear no health warnings.
E-cigarette companies dodge regulation bullet
In 2009 Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products. But that authority didn’t include banning them. In 2010 the FDA issued an order prohibiting shipment of e-cigs into the U.S. A federal judge ruled that the FDA had no authority to block e-cig imports. The FDA appealed and won a temporary stay of that ruling. However, the Washington, D.C. federal appeals court ruled in December that electronic cigarettes are a tobacco product and the FDA can’t regulate them as drugs or ban imports of so-called tobacco devices. Free of supervision or restraint, electronic cigarette manufacturers estimate that every week up to 30,000 more people start inhaling nicotine vapors, nitrosamines and diethylene glycol.
Source: USA Today, Reuters, Med Page Today
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Your article is complete tosh. I question your motivation for writing this. Unfortunately you’ll probably mislead some people and they’ll keep smoking real cigarettes instead of switching to something much healthier.
Are you aware that the level of TSNAs (carcinogens) found in the e-cigarette was 3-8 ng per cartridge? And that nicotine gum was about 2 ng per piece, the patch has 8 ng, and a single cigarette has a whopping 1400 ng? Where is your warning about the carcinogenic dangers of the nicotine patch?
Further, the FDA tested found “approximately 1%” of DEG in ONE of the 19 cartridges they tested. At the amount found, a 150 lb person would have to consume over 6000 times the amount found in that one cartridge. No other test performed on e-cig liquid has found DEG.
What a sad article.