My question is, why is Hollywood getting a pass for the constant depiction of cigarette smoking, as the coolest thing you can possibly do with your lungs. I just finished watching a film: Atomic Blonde. Cool movie. Charlize looks great. However there is not one 30 second sequence where someone isn't lighting up and wafting smoke about their face, like a thing of beauty.
4
No study is stronger than its weakest link - NASEMs its the gateway - wildly implausible in light of current trends & correlation vs causation fallacy -
While vaping skyrockets and the smoking prev falls like a stone the gateway still lingers in the minds of some, far beyond reality.
2
odd that Obama pro smoking government didn't figure this out...or that 400,000 died of drug overdoses as Obama promoted more drugs and freed dealers?
1
Are we now going to spend the next 50 years believing the same lies we heard from the cigarette industry?
At what point do corporations become indistinguishable from organized crime?
2
I can not believe that people still think e-cigs are bad and that they lead to smoking real cigarettes. NO teen that vapes will have any want or need to try smoking a cigarette. This is just Big Tobacco and the FDA who are spreading this FALSE information to try stop the the usage of e-cigs.
I was a 30 year Marlboro smoker at 2 packs a day who was able to quit smoking with my first e-cig. All my poor health issues from smoking were all gone within the first month of vaping. (There were several health issues). 7 years of vaping now and not ONE health issue to report and I've never felt better.
STOP the LIES !!!
4
I think the article's headline is at odds with the story itself. But it doesn't surprise me, because the schism within the public health community about vaping has been well documented. (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/health/a-hot-debate-over-e-cigarettes... And e-cigarettes are a real threat to the Big Pharma companies who market cessation drugs and the scientists on their payroll who fund research. Follow the money.
3
I understand that clean air is the best air, but some people are just addicted to nicotine. Using a Vape is better than putting tar in your lungs. It sounds like this is a safer alternative, even if it i used to quit smoking.
1
I smoked cigarettes for 40 years and tried everything to quit- gum, patch, Chantix, inhalers, etc. nothing worked.
Vaping got me off cigarettes in a month. I then dropped the nicotine concentration in my e-juice over a 12 month period to zero. I haven't had a cigarette or nicotine vape in over 4-1/2 years. I feel great and have no desire to ever smoke again.
In my case, I view vaping as the greatest smoking cessation device ever invented.
3
It is assumed everone who vapes, vapes a nicotine source. I quit smoking over five years ago using vaping. Stopped cigarettes over night. I then gradually reduced the percent of nicotine, until I was nicotine and vape free.
2
This is a no-brainer. Were there any basket studies to determine if people with some genetic variants in methylation were more likely to become addicted and advance to cigarettes? Did the results vary by gender, or by factors such as amalgam status? Since tiny amounts of toxic mercury vapor offgas with heat, and build up in those who do not methylate well, this could be a concern.
Nicotine is a memory enhancer and is harmless. This is Big Tobacco bribing politicians to alter public policy in a manner that HARMS the public. End the nanny state. Legalize, regulate, educate. All else is puritan folly.
1
Of course they are tempting young people to try smoking. Vaping devices are so much cooler than cigarettes. They are advertised on television (did that practice end?), they have super hip shopfronts like "Groovy E-Juice" and "Kings of Vape." They have fruit flavors and bright colors. And they are full of the same addictive nicotine as a cigarette, delivered in quick burst by each vape. They glow with led lights. Cigarettes are associated with death. Vaping is associated with tie-dyes, safety and polite smoking. This is the boon the smoking industry has been waiting for: A new, colorful, fun gateway to addiction.
1
Thankfully, the NAS consensus report was much more scholarly and balanced in reflecting the current state of science on e-cigs than your headline is. It seems to have neglected the "net benefit to the public health" part.
2
"A national panel of public health experts concluded in a report released on Tuesday that vaping with e-cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive"
Duh!
I am astounded that the Alcoholic Beverage Industry gets a complete pass from regulation as they market to children. Lemonade flavored "hard" drinks, Vanilla flavored Vodka, fruit flavored wine coolers are clearly intended to get children to use alcohol; where's the concern for this?
3
No mention of juuling—it’s the new high school, and in some cases, middle school trend. Cute name, better than vaping. Plus sometimes it comes laced with fentanyl and you end up in the ER fighting for your life, which is what happened to a child who thought he might just try a hit off of a friend’s device. He lived. A half dozen kids were suspended at the local high school for juuling. The devices are discrete and look like flash drives. Kids use visa gift cards to buy them online. Parents are completely in the dark about it. NYT, there’s your story!
2
I pass by "vape stores" and see folks wrapping themselves in vape smoke after spending lots of $ on these godawful things, and I wonder, have you lost your minds? Disgusting activity, and of course dangerous to your health as well as offensive to those nearby. Stop it.
1
The rush by communities, states and the feds on Vaping was more of a rush to grab revenue than any desire to protect or improve public health. Before any science was in, the Bloomberg nanny staters lumped it with tobacco- and no I do not vape or smoke.
I have heard from patients in our hospital who have long tried to quit that vaping helped them reduce or outright quit better than anything else they had ever tried and that they made progress faster with it. That should be the encouraging thing taken away, but the killjoys of the world who are always looking for a Lex Luthor jumped first screeching about the children- ignoring the fact that vaping is well down the list of public health worries in a world of kids trading Prescription Drugs at school on the playground, school shootings now so common they are widely ignored (like today), suicides and any number of other issues.
Vaping still serves a user nicotine, but not the tars and noxious chemicals of burning tobacco. It serves an addiction, but so does coffee and alcohol.
11
How does vaping stack up against the impact of THC laced gummi bears and THC laced baked goods openly sold to be attractive to not just teens, but children? i can appreciate the crazed intensity of the anti-tobacco folks, but nicotine is in no way as dangerous as THC, and the tobacco industry is downright responsible and regulated compared to todays dope dealers.
2
Um, nicotine is a toxic poison that can stop or damage your heart muscle. Cannabinoid medicines are healing people across the country. Choose your poison, but don't equate toxic nicotine with non-toxic cbd.
Of course vaping leads to smoking, and of course Big Tobacco is behind it. Why would anyone take a hit of nicotine without the pleasure of a cigarette? Tobacco use has been around in western culture for about 500 years for a reason: it feels good, until, of course, it leads to a slow, excruciating death.
E- cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive and lead to smoking. What is the purpose of creating a substitute that leads to the main product which is cigarettes? The system is made to profit off our fellow people, I say this because as the cost value of cigarettes go up so does the quantity of people who become addicted to them. E cigarettes are no different from cigarettes they are only cooler and what do teenage kids love being? Yes cool. So with this device it is only causing kids to smoke.
The idea that it is vapor does not take away from the ingredients that it contains. Studies show that young people become hooked. I believe tobacco agencies are gaining a high profit off e cigarettes. They are now creating a device for iQOS and electronic device that unlike a e-cigarette it contains a tobacco stick that does not burn. This to will be another product the tobacco company will benefit from. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 37 million Americans 15 % of adults 18 and older smoked cigarettes the number declined from 2005 to 2015.
They are always ways that the govt makes a profit.
1
Lifelong smoker here. E-cigarettes do not satisfy the craving because they have no end. At least with a cigarette, you know when it's done. E-cigs just keep going and going. Plus, they don't deliver the fix as well as old-fashioned tobacco, and they never will. It's possible to smoke cigarettes in moderation, believe it or not. E-cig addicts can't put the things down.
Unfortunately there is no such thing as "smoking in moderation". In epidemiological terms it has been proven that even reducing consumption to a few cigarettes a day on a regular basis places a smoker in a similar health risk profile as pack a day smokers.
From your remark it's clear you're using ecigarettes incorrectly, and should probably talk to someone about how to use them properly, if smoking cessation is your goal. Or just read the comments here for accounts on how it DOES satisfy the craving to smoke cigarettes, and how quickly the taste of cigarette smoke becomes repulsive to pack a day smokers who switch to vaping.
I know that for a fact as I'm currently using the one I bought 3 years ago and failed to cut out cigarettes in 2 previous attempts. Third time lucky? Or maybe I'm just more motivated than I was, and commited using the ecigarette more rigourously, from choosing the right dose of nicotine, to "putting them down". All those behaviours remain a choice, your choice.
2
This article has a couple discrepancies. If teen smoking has gone down since 2005 as of 2015, then where is the evidence that vaping is leading to addictive cigarette smoking? Many of the surveys for youth smoking use snapshot data, so it is difficult to elute which tobacco product is actually leading to addiction. If more teens are one-time users of vapes without becoming addicted, then this could actually be a good product to avoid nicotine dependence from an early age. I do agree that it can't be good to be inhaling anything artificial, but if a teen prefers to try a vape once or twice rather than smoke a cigarette and subsequently does not become a repeat user, that seems like a success to me.
4
While we are worrying about vaping how about pushing against legalization of marijuana. Hardly a healthy habit...
1
Smoking marijuana if far better than drinking on harm reduction. You never hear about a person getting high on marijuana then beating up their spouse or kids. It works differently.
I am a vaper and get medical marijuana. I just do what I need to get though the day one way or another
Positive health improvements from vaping with xray proof my lungs are better.
Marijuana has its usages good and bad like everything in life including coffee just the user is the one in control so to speak.
1
One more thing: you vapers seem very insecure about not smoking. It's laughable. To see someone exhaling a bale-full of smoke that smells like a teenager's chewing gum, well, Hahaha...
2
Here we go again. Other commenters are upset that vaping makes you look cool. So which is it? Cool or dorky?
My husband doesn't like being made fun of any more than the next person, but the fact Is, he's much healthier with vapes than those horrid cigarettes. So how about giving people you don't even know a break and stop being so judgmental.
2
Vaping: a new sexy slang word for inhaling nicotine into your body via one's lungs. It stinks and no, it is not sexy. Use a patch and kick the habit. Please.
4
If patches worked, everyone would know about it. But they don't work for the majority of people. This report is about science based public health objectives, your irrelevant personal preferences, smug remarks and puerile attitude notwithstanding :
"troublemaker
New York 7 hours ago
One more thing: you vapers seem very insecure about not smoking. It's laughable. To see someone exhaling a bale-full of smoke that smells like a teenager's chewing gum, well, Hahaha..."
2
This article is so annoying. Nicotine is addictive. Nicotine is addictive regardless of how it is delivered into the body. Cigarettes are addictive because, along with a host of other chemicals, cigarettes deliver nicotine into the body. Vaping delivers nicotine into the body. Eggplants, green tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes all contain nicotine. It would be really, really nice if the folks studying vaping elucidated the public on what other chemicals vaping puts into the body besides nicotine. If the worst factoid the National Academies of Sciences can come up with is that vaping may prompt teens to try regular cigarettes, they are really off course. News flash! Breathing can prompt teens to try regular cigarettes. What’s the point?
11
Someone please explain to me, why/how is this worse than the use of marijuana, which, in addition to ingestion of all sorts of harmful chemicals, also causes intoxication?
Are e-cigarettes safer and less addictive than marijuana? If yes, will the Left -- and media outlets like the NYT whose readership and commentariat largely skew Left -- please tell us why it's seen as OK to legalize the latter, but demonize the former? Also, just as with e-cigarettes, will marijuana use also lead to likely future tobacco addiction? If not, why not?
(For the record, I use neither product).
5
"Vaping Can Be Addictive and May Lure Teenagers to Smoking, Science Panel Concludes"
editor's note: nicotine in its many forms _is_ addictive for many people. the rest is speculation:
"...10 studies were deemed strong enough to address the [issue]. But they did not show that using e-cigarettes caused teens to move on to tobacco, only that the use of e-cigarettes was associated with later smoking of at least one traditional cigarette."
a very low standard. maybe they also drank a beer?
...
"Whether teenage use of e-cigarettes leads to conventional smoking has been intensely debated in the United States and elsewhere."
why not look at survey data of tobacco smoking rates, which have shown decreasing or flat rates, and decreasing rates for the young? in this case, survey data seem most convincing.
...
"More intriguing was the newest report’s finding of moderate evidence that youths who use e-cigarettes before trying tobacco are more likely to become more frequent and intense smokers."
moderate evidence, such as? maybe i need to read the report.
...
"...the campaign by the agency’s commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, to slash levels of nicotine in traditional cigarettes to nonaddictive or minimally addictive levels."
if enacted, this proposal could change tobacco markets as much as nicotine vapor. other countries adopt this regulation too, or not, in which case imported contraband nicotine cigarettes could arise.
1
Consider this:
If they cut nicotine out of cigarettes then the smokers will smoke more
That would be considered a win by both Big Tobacco and Government (for the taxes)
This may also drive some to vaping which would be good for better health.
Even this report had to say that vaping was much SAFER than smoking
1
Made more attractive to teens by the use of clever presentation: colorful "crystal" packaging, "fruit" flavors, etc... Another roadmap to knowingly promoting and marketing a harmful product, tobacco, to minors.
3
It’s my understanding that a new and large developmental study indicates that we need to redefine the ages of adolescence and extend it to ages 10-24. If this is the case then let’s just change the age allowed to drive, vote, join the military and ban alcohol and tobacco from “teens”. Let’s get these impressionable and young people who are not fully formed into school, apprenticeship, civic volunteering and work programs. Problem solved!
1
Adult vapers need not feel so threatened; no one’s going to take your e-cigs away. All smokers would be better off switching to vaping as long as they also stop smoking cigarettes. If you’ve done that, great; vaping has been a big help to you. But the primary concern is with teenagers because that’s where these behaviors begin. (Very few smokers take up smoking as adults.) If youth vaping is indeed a gateway to smoking then we have a new problem, arriving just as the youth cigarette smoking rate was hitting an all-time low. This report suggests the answer is not yet clear. What is clear is that nicotine is highly addictive, especially for teens, so if teens are vaping nicotine - and many teens experimenting with vaping don’t have a good way to know what they’re exposing themselves to - it can lead to nicotine addiction and possibly to use of other tobacco products, including cigarettes, which are deadly. No, the answer doesn’t exist yet, and that’s what the report says. As for adults, although vaping is better for you than smoking, vaping may have its own health risks that we should be informed about. Unfortunately science takes a long time and no one’s vaped for 40 years yet. We’ll see.
2
The reason youth cigarette smoking has reached an all-time low may well be due to vapor products. If you look at the trend line, the two factors are nearly identical. Knowing many vapers, I find the theory that e-cigs are a gateway to traditional cigarettes highly flawed. And the numbers tell us the opposite.
3
Your speculation on the dangers of '40 years of vaping" is nothing less than fear mongering. The takeaway of the report is vaping is SAFER than smoking cigarettes.
So have you given consideration to the possibility you've got it the wrong way round? To whit, perhaps vaping isn't a gateway to cigarettes but a wall blocking potential smokers from nicotine delivery via the proven lethal cigarettes? Perhaps teenage smoking is at an all time low BECAUSE of vaping and not despite it? That is where the facts point today, despite the untruthful and alarmist headline to this article.
2
This generation experiments with vaping; our generation chose to do so with cigarettes. Both habits are unhealthy. But so o is living a risk-free life. Obviously, every teen and pre-teen should be told and warned about the dangers that come from putting any foreign substance into their bodies, especially smoke/vape that travels directly into their lungs. But even with that knowledge back then, we too, chose to take that risk.
In the end, the kids are going to have make the right decisions for themselves, no matter what the label, the media, or their parents tell them.
3
For decades we’ve allowed this, the true gateway drug, to destroy human beings in a legal wholesale slaughter. Why?
2
I can't believe we need "studies" to prove that ingesting smoke into our lungs via a device that is not strictly a tobacco product is neutral or good for our health. Smoking is addictive: the more you do it, the more you do it, and when you quit, you go through withdrawal.
Why wouldn't most kids who take up vaping become smokers? Most people who smoke weed also smoke cigarettes. Smoking anything is bad for your lungs and should be avoided like the health hazard it is.
5
"Why wouldn't most kids who take up vaping become smokers? Most people who smoke weed also smoke cigarettes."
Stunning display of dogma and stunted reasoning. Blame the US education system?
1
Because vaping is far more pleasant due to the flavorings, and you get the nicotine hit without the harsh tobacco taste (not to mention the carcinogens emitted from burning.)
2
Nicotine has been used as an insecticide for decades . . . vaping is just another delivery system. What will it take for us to admit that inhaling nicotine is a form of self-destruction?
4
A nasty habit indeed. Glad to read that vaping is addictive, just as addictive as cigarettes. But what astounds me are the comments, especially from those who I recognize from past comments, mainly in reply to mine against the decriminalization of marijuana, against vaping for health reasons. One which struck me particularly for its absurdity, argued that it is unhealthy to breathe anything into the lungs but air. OK. Inhaling vaping smoke is unhealthy, but inhaling marijuana smoke is not. As far as I am concerned, that takes the cake in logic confounded by marijuana use.
3
The burning of plants makes soot and various amounts of carbon monoxide.
2
"Glad to read that vaping is addictive, just as addictive as cigarettes"
Did you just make that up?
2
Who cares if the panel "stopped short of declaring e-cigarettes are safe"?Nothing is truly safe. What matters is risk / reward. We owe it to our kids to not obsuscate the facts like we did with marijuana in the 1980s.
9
Lure teenagers?! I’m 66 years old....reminds of the days of reefer madness!
10
Before claiming that vapers have no reason not to switch to much more harmful cigarettes to feed their nicotine addiction, a basic question these anti vaping people should ask themselves is why those people prefer to vape over smoking and why they assume that teens who vape are too stupid to know that cigarettes pose a serious health risk.
One of the most basic reasons is the fact that vaping is very affordable while smoking ranges from being a very expensive habit to in many places being outright unaffordable to them. In NYC a pack is $13. This while a single ML. of vaping fluid provides roughly the number of puffs of a pack of cigarettes and vaping fluid can be had at 100ml. for $20 or less. That is the equivalent of 100 packs of cigarettes which would cost $500 in the cheapest states.
This in addition to major differences between vaping and smoking, such as vapers take only a few puffs at a time, or that a big part of vaping is the countless choice of flavors, as opposed to the only flavor tobacco comes in is rough and toxic smoke. Yet another major difference is that cigarettes require inhaling smoke, something that is very rough on the lungs and causes heavy bouts of coughing, headaches and occasionally vomiting in everyone who is not a regular smoker.
On the other hand it is difficult to find anything that vapers should find preferable in cigarettes to the extent that makes it worth paying hundreds of times more, in addition to seriously jeopardizing their health.
8
Why are vaping products sold to anyone under 18? If it's illegal to sell nicotine-containing cigarettes to minors, then it should be as illegal to sell e-cigarettes and their juice.
2
Considering what these groups and like groups and the media have said over time, this is equivalent to a bill of clean health.
Of course vaping is more dangerous than not vaping--you don't have to be a scientist to know that. But the real news is the admission, albeit grudging, that vaping isn't as dangerous as smoking, and it's about darn time. These sorts of folks who once insisted that secondhand cigarette smoke was more dangerous than smoke directly inhaled (that was at the height of debates over whether smoking should be banned in bars and other public places) are congenitally incapable of acknowledging any good news when it comes to smoking and vaping. Even now, they're clinging to this silly notion that if you smoke and vape, you're negating any health benefits you might otherwise realize if you quit smoking. That's ridiculous. If you vape in lieu of smoking--that is, if you smoke less because you're vaping instead, which happens with a fair number of folks--then you're smoking fewer cigarettes and that can't be anything but a good thing. And this stuff about secondhand vapor. What rot. Nicotine, by itself, isn't particularly dangerous, although it is addictive, and the story conveniently fails to say what "particulates" are in secondhand vapor. Weak, but par for the course.
8
I don't think people should be able to vape in the office. You can smell it. However I agree that the risks are different than smoking cigarettes.
i was a smoker for 20 years. i started waking up in the mornings with heavy lungs, like they were filled with gunk. i knew i had to stop smoking, so i switched to vaping. i've been off the butts since august 2017, and my lungs feel better, i don't wake up feeling like i can hardly breathe, and i don't smell like cigarettes anymore. it makes my wife happy, it's cheaper, and i'm not going broke. why do so many people think that it's so terrible? of course it's not good to put anything in your lungs, period. but, the reality is that you put things in your lungs all the time, every day. from campfire smoke to gasoline fumes. vaping is not some demon, and i'm proof that it can help people get away from smoking. a happy wife gives me a happy life, and that's all that i need.
9
Vaping (that sounds Juvenile to start with) is rude. It has nothing to do with addiction. It has to do with dirtbags spreading their choices into the air to feel a momentary high of feeling as if they altered their vicinity. All that garbage and the people that push should go into their closet like the good ole days.
No kidding? What's next, the Breaking News that: it gets dark at night?
1
Complete abstinence aside since we know that's not going to happen, it's rather shameful the lengths the tobacco industry and the government will go to try to preserve the tax dollars being collected on cigarette taxes with these "studies" and statistics. Meanwhile, it's full speed ahead for legalizing pot since they can collect more taxes and reduce prison/jail costs, lungs be damned.
3
Bingo.
Fact 1 - Cigarettes will not be banned by the government... well, unless you want another Prohibition scenario
Fact 2 - Some people will always engage in risky behavior, including smoking
Fact 3 - It would be better for these people to use a less harmful product, such as a vaping device. Burning the cigarette is what produces the harmful chemicals that cause disease. Vaping is not smoke, it is a liquid aerosol.
Fac4 4 - There has been a huge reduction in cigarette smoking from 42% in 1965 to about 15% of population. Public health officials hope to get it to 12% by 2020. Vaping-like devices will help.
8
If the amount of nicotine in cigarettes is reduced, the dopers will just smoke more of them to get their fixes, increasing their exposure to the harmful components of the smoke. Is this a good idea?
4
While I fully agree that e-devices are dangerous..they DO contain nicotine..I think the study is flawed. Kids who will be drawn to them probably would graduate to smoking anyway. The one thing that should be paid attention to is regulation an sales of the devices, just like with alcohol, cigars and cigarettes..and t regulate advertising. Unfortunately ou country’s leader seems to think regulation is a bad thing.
In a world where teens are now ingesting Tide Pods. Vaping nicotine suddenly seems mundane.
10
I'm 70 years old and I quit smoking after 50 years with e-cigs. I'm still addicted to nicotine but I'm not burning my lungs out and I can really feel the difference and my doctor at the VA thinks its a good idea too.
The idea of going from vaping to tobacco cigarettes is not going to happen - just compare the two and cigarettes are awful! They really taste bad compared to vaping.
I wish these experts would give both a try before they start saying things.
5
The article mentions the Royal College of Physicians in the UK. The "Nicotine without Smoke" report did indeed say that vaping is not a gateway to smoking. The report also said that the harm from vaping was unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from tobacco smoking. The report also said that vaping should be promoted as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking. Why did the Times not report those findings?
9
I'm glad that there is an empirical study to verify what any reasonable person would consider a totally "duh" conclusion. Perhaps these kids and their parents will take note.
The headline should have read "Vaping safer than smoking, helps smokers quit".
15
Pretty disgusting all around, but mostly that these companies would target children with their candy-coated chemicals.
And now we have a government that is not interested in protecting anyone, rolling back regulations and leaving consumers on their own.
6
I want to say...duh? I don't think anyone on Earth thinks that using nicotine in any way shape or form isn't addictive. I think the article should have focused on the social epidemic of 20-somethings thinking their "epic plumes" are cool and not just stupid and obnoxious in crowds.
1
Nicotine the evil seducer and agent of addiction offered free from the hazards of all the toxins in cigarette smoke. Oh, my, how wonderful, to enjoy the thrills and stimulation without the bad stuff to spoil it all.
Nicotine is a strong toxin which kills people when taken in amounts equal to the nicotine content in a pack of cigarettes. If you have heart disease or blood vessel narrowing or a risk of strokes, nicotine could finish you off because it constricts blood vessels. It ain't harmless. Anyone who says it is, simply has no understanding of the chemical and it's effects upon people's bodies.
1
Of course we want to protect children and there's nothing wrong with setting age limits on adult pleasures -- alcohol, smoking, driving, etc. But I can't be the only one who objects to making it all them. What about the adults in this population of 300 million? It's parents, not legislators, who should be laying down the law to their teenagers.
3
Nicotine is addictive, but to be toxic requires huge doses (ingestion that would immediately result in vomiting.) It's not nearly as dangerous as you think to adults, and the cases of death by nicotine poisoning in the medical literature are very few (and questionable.) It should never be ingested by children, however.
2
Well, well, so vaping nicotine and getting it in your bloodstream in regular doses might be addictive? Who would have thought? And then people might take nicotine via smoking? Impossible!
4
Just to be very, very, VERY clear "[a report] by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine" is absolutely NOT, in any way shape or form the same thing as a scientific study or statistical analysis.
The only reason 'Science' is in the name of the organization is to lend credibility to their particular flavor of propaganda.
You should really go actually read through the actual "reports" that they put out, because in my experience their summaries are intentionally misleading. They do this because they know that most people are not going to actually read past the headline on a report written by someone who only read the summary. These reports (usually hundreds of pages long) don't read like a real analysis of facts, but are instead more of a guide on 'how to' manipulate social media and influence people into agreeing with their often blindly-stated and unsupported thesis.
I would take any report from the "National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine" with a grain of salt. They act much more like a propaganda outlet than a reputable source of scientific information.
13
The "scientists" that work for the lung cancer industry are always looking for a new way to increase profits.
As Edward Abbey wrote about Capitalism, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
To rip off the title of an NBC series, "THIS is us."
I find it hard to believe that teenagers who pick up vaping with flavors like bubblegum or peach, will switch to normal cigarettes, which smell gross. Vaping comes in flavors and different nicotine levels. It doesn't cause the same gross breath or stink up your clothes. It shouldn't be marketed to kids and all safe guards need to be put into place to make it harder for people to get (Duh) but I don't see e-cigs becoming some gateway to smoking.
32
We are probably looking at vaping from the wrong vantage point. From the time I took up smoking until I quit, there was always some small or slight ache or discomfort in my lungs. Had I only vaped, or had the option to vape, I doubt I would started smoking cigarettes.
I have only vaped since 2011, as a near-death experience due to my smoking, strongly motivated me to never touch a cigarette again. Most of my friends who continue to smoke cigarettes have found it difficult (i.e. not satisfying) to switch to vaping.
The photo accompanying the article might seem ironic to non-smokers, but for any person trying to quit smoking via vaping, it is a very welcome photo. Forcing vapers and smokers to congregate together is extremely unhelpful.
2
"On Wednesday, an F.D.A. advisory panel will review an application from Philip Morris International for iQOS, an electronic device that unlike e-cigarettes, contains tobacco in a stick that the company says heats it but does not burn it. It releases nicotine vapor, which the company says is hazardous than smoke."
Shouldn't you mean is LESS hazardous than smoke?
My 86-year-old mother is a lifelong cigarette smoker. As mild dementia has set in, her ability to safely manage her smoking has declined. A well-meaning relative brought her an e-cigarette. Without executive functioning and a plan, however, the diminished satisfaction of vaping led to a greater use of it. A single e-cigarette can deliver the equivalent nicotine of half a pack of cigarettes. Vaping constatly, she rapidly tripled her intake and when she inevitably returned to real cigarettes, her habit had increased dramatically.
In my view E cigarettes that contain nicotine have no place. If you are a smoker, use the patch and vape (with nicotine free devices) for gesture and flavor. Otherwise you risk dramatically increasing your habit.
11
I wonder why the Editor assigned NYTimes Pick status to claims about e-cigarettes that are supported only by anectdotes - no data. I am sorry that your mother tripled her cigarette intake but the limited available data suggest that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking. Are e-cigarettes healthier than air alone? The data suggest that they are not. Are they a potential gateway to cigarettes among teens? The data suggest that they are. Are they safer than smoking? The data suggest that they are. I personally know about 20 close relatives and friends who have used e-cigarettes because most members of my family smoke. Some were teens who started vaping and switched to traditional cigarettes. Others were teens who never moved onto cigarettes. Some were long-term smokers who quit. Others were long-term smokers who could not quit. All of those stories about vaping don't add up to data about vaping. I thank the author for updating us on the science on e-cigarette use.
1
Most smokers don’t “inevitably “ return to smoking but continue Vaping or use Vaping to quit.
1
The 21/14/7mg patches along with a cheap disposable e-cigarette were all that needed in my experience in of quitting after 20 years. My advice is to stay with a disposable e-cigarette and use it only when the urge to smoke seems overwhelming. What firmly entrenched my daily vaping habit was unexpected being forced to be in close proximity to cigarette smokers and feeling stupidly tempted.
Nicotine is self-regulating. Getting too much nicotine causes nausea, headache, anxiety, etc. Your mother seems unable to endure the disruption of substituting vaping for smoking. Her reaction is similar to most smokers, who want see the e-cigarette an easy substitute for smoking.
The new Phillip Morris 'product' seems quite dangerous. The aim of the heated tobacco devices is to very approximate the experience of smoking while ensuring that users stick with one brand.
1
And how does actually smoking compare for encouraging addiction?
Take away the less harmful option, they will go back to the other option....
2
Vaping is not good. Even if smoking goes down, that does not mean vaping is OK - we don't have all the scientific evidence.
Teens vape because the taste and the lack of a cigarette smell, which gives them the ability to vape at school and places they could not smoke (so many vape a lot more than they would have ever smoked). And, most of the kids who vape don't stop there - the vast majority also smoke pot believing that, like vaping, it is harmless.
1
This remark is blowing more smoke than a 3 pack a day sailor in port on leave...
2
Fortunately, and I believe statistics bare this out, I don’t see teenagers smoking today, as they once did! In fact the decline has happily been steep! They are too busy exercising their thumbs, and by having the gadgets in their hand, the action is mitigating the need to be holding something, which probably lessens stress!
4
Did they really need to this study. We already know nicotine is addictive. It would stand to reason that teenagers would then become addicted. This article isn't telling us anything we didn't already know.
1
Congratulations you just figured out the nicotine was addicted we know that the point is to use Vapes to help people from not smoking the fact that we can lower the nicotine level slowly over time and I work in a smoke shop and I know for a fact we do not sell vape pens to teenagers it's against the law guess big tobacco companies paid for this study
2
I quit smoking and switched to vaping just over 5 years ago. I no longer use any nicotine when I vape either. My health has improved greatly. No more bronchitis, no more troubles breathing when I exercise, my sense of smell and taste is improved, my heart rate and BP has lowered where I no longer need my daily medication, and my doctor approves as well. I find it hard to believe that vaping would be a gateway to smoking. Smoking is a gateway to vaping as far as I'm concerned. There is propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG) and nicotine (if you opt for any) in e-juice, and that's it. PG and VG is consumed by just about everyone, in everyday foods, and is approved by the FDA. Those who are opposed to vaping are not educated on the subject (or fighting for big tobacco) and still look at it as smoking, and it's very far from that. Vape on!
36
Brought to you by The Vaping Council Of America!
1
The "May" in the headline is equivalent to the "may" in "marijuana may be a gateway drug." It's not grounded in anything other than anecdote and opinionated supposition. The actual study of existing research data cited here concluded that "any significant linkage between e-cigarettes and long-term smoking has not been established." Many so-called progressives are valiant champions of science and fact-based policy, until they aren't.
It is one thing to worry about the effects of long-term nicotine use. That is a legitimate issue. It's entirely another to suppose that teenagers will make the leap from vaping to tobacco smoking. Any trip to a local vape store will provide good reason to doubt that. The market is overwhelmingly for fruit and exotic flavor "ejuice," with a strong sub market for those with zero nicotine; no longer for frankly awful imitation tobacco flavors. Even tobacco flavor is evidently uncool. The nicotine levels in the most popular brands are also now lower than they were a few years back.
Instead of worrying about the unlikely and not demonstrable, public health efforts should be concentrated on regulating what flavoring chemicals are safe in ejuice and encouraging every tobacco addict to switch. Don't scare them with the suggestion that vaping is a first step to quitting -- most have tried and failed at that -- just save them from the proven hazards of tobacco use.
8
I believe in breathing clean air. Can you tell me where I can get some?
While vaping is probably harmful in some respects, what harm it causes remains to be proven. It seems to me that we've condemned it by analogy to cigarette smoking, and maybe good old fashioned Puritanism.
I don't vape, but I do a lot of other things I know are harmful. As long as I don't hurt anyone else, that is my right. If we condemn vaping without evidence, I fear our credibility will suffer.
I doubt that it's good for anyone, but evidence would be good to have.
8
Cessation was one area where the committee’s report did give the booming e-cigarette industry some good news. It pointed out the benefits for smokers of tobacco-based cigarettes who are trying to quit.
This pack a day (for fifty years) smoker read about vaping in the NYT almost two years ago; had my last cigarette that very day after buying a vaping kit, then, after three months of reducing the amount of nicotine until it reached negligible levels, quit vaping as well. It wasn't just easy, but super easy.
22
I had the same experience. 45 years of smoking, lots of coughing. Stopped from one day to the next thanks to e-cigarettes. And no more nicotine after 6 months. It was easy... why would you want to stop others from benefiting from this as well!
10
The tobacco industry is getting into vaping. No surprise there.
There will always be an industry to support nicotine delivery. It’s up to us to decide if makers of vapes are allowed to market to teens.
Let’s not confuse the issue for our kids. We should advise them not to take up vaping, period. Telling them it’s safer than smoking would be a disastrous public health message.
5
In smoking you'll find the word smoke, in vaping you'll find the word vapour. Smoke is the product of combustion, generating thousands of toxic compounds, while vapour contains one of the least addictive and components found in cigarette smoke.
So the panel's conclusions are a great step forward in public health, notwithstanding the hysterics of science denial.
Regards.
7
So... telling the truth to these kids would be a disastrous public health message?
1
Disastrous or honest public health message?
If e-cigs are safer than smoking then it's a lie of omission not to tell people that.
Public health messages should be honest and not based on lies and scare tactics.
Reefer madness is a case in point. The public health folks lose credibility if there messages are based on lies.
10
Smoking isn't a problem just for teens, it's a health problem for a lot of people.
It will continue to be a health problem for everyone as long as it is legal, reasonably priced, and easy to find. Change one, or all of those, and you'll see the number of people who start smoking decrease. You probably won't see it eradicated, but why do we allow a product to be so easily attainable that only has terribly negative health effects?
5
Are you advocating Prohibition? Than has a very poor record. education has cut smoking, so do more of it.
1
Quitting smoking was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life. Anything that contributes to the possibility of smoking should be labeled what it is: a deadly danger. Nicotine is addictive, but so are all the rituals associated with smoking: Kids think they look cool and sophisticated, part of the inside crowd or, paradoxically, an outsider. Smoking was such a part of my life that everything was associated with having a cigarette. Either I had just had one, was about to have one, or was smoking one, which meant that every reward, disappointment, need to mull something, study, cover up nervousness—everything was bound up with smoking. Quitting was a nightmare. It was as if my closest friend had died. But even though I was tortured by wanting a cigarette every second for the first months, I stopped getting bronchitis every time I had a cold, my acne cleared, I felt energetic, physically warmer, and something I hadn't understood before, I had more time. I haven't smoked for 30 years, but I know that if I had one cigarette, I could be back on the death train again and fighting to get off it.
Vaping is a trap. All the rituals that lead to addiction, with or without nicotine, are a part of it, and it should not become an accepted social activity. Nobody has to smoke cigarettes and nobody needs to vape, and studies on which is better, smoking or vaping, lead people to believe that it's all a matter of choice.
The only reasonable choice is not to do either.
13
The only reason the anti-smokers are against vaping is because it looks like smoking.
"More intriguing was the report’s finding of moderate evidence that youths who use e-cigarettes before trying tobacco, are more likely to become more frequent and intense smokers."
What kind of evidence is moderate?
What about the many who vape juices with no nicotine present what does their moderate evidence say about them? I am one of many who moved to vaping to quit cigarettes and am much happier and saving money as well.
The anti smoking groups have won their war against tobacco and they are trying to weild power is other areas of society.
14
People tend to consult their feelings before they investigate the facts where they have already determined what their feelings happen to be. The issue is using vaping to absorb nicotine. The issue is whether that is a problem. Nicotine is not a harmless chemical. It is a toxic substance.
1
Now they are talking about nicotine, really If that were true they would say it. Why haven't they attacked all prodoucts with nicotine in them starting with Nicorette and other products. Oh but that does not look like smoking does it? Are there to be not individuals thinking but having the do gooders who want to decide for me think for them.
3
This is like saying that children who drink root beer will graduate to drinking a 12 pack of beer a day because root beer has the word beer in it. Do do any of these scientists realize that virtually all e-liquid has an option with zero nicotine? And that nicotine reduces the flavor of the liquid? The only people I’ve ever seen buying liquids with nicotine are smokers trying to quit.
12
Okay then. Please explain to me why someone would buy a liquid to vaporize in a little stick or container that looks like a juice box and suck the flavored air into their lungs. On purpose.
It's kind of the opposite of looking cool.
1
I am a smoker. Tried the vape cigarettes and had my heart rate increase so much I called my cardiologist.
They don't say what else is put into these various flavors. I think it's too many chemicals and we don't know yet about second hand Vapes! Took years to realize cigarettes were bad for non-smokers.
I don't smoke around loved ones and I understand my daughter's concern about vapers smoking around her ( pregnant) and her young son.
2
Drugs, booze, tobacco----when you look at the pro health anti addiction groups they do have a split among them.
There are those that hate the idea of any kind of smoking (drinking or drugs) and there are those mainly or solely concerned with the health impact of these activities.
If you read the article it's a great suggestion that e-cigs are much safer than regular smoking and are a significant help in quiting a very difficult addiction.
The fact that kids should not be buying them is a selling law enforcement issue. As the article clearly says it "may" in time prove to be a health issue for these kids it might not.
For tobacco smokers wanting a safer alternative e-cigs are certanly that.
6
Vaping is the only thing that enabled me to stop smoking cigarettes. In order to make the shift I had to force myself to shift my addiction from smoke to vapor. The vapor tastes good and is clean. No bad breath no smoky smelling hair clothes room etc. After the shift the smell of cigarette smoke disgusts me. I absolutely disagree that anyone who becomes a Vaper first would have any desire to shift the cigarette smoking. Vaping saves lives and money.
19
Perhaps a clinician can answer this question.
If the person vaping is infected with the flu virus, does the exhaled vapor cloud present a medical threat to people in the vicinity?
1
there is no difference- vaping does not increase the viral load of flu.
1
It would be no different than someone infected with the flu virus breathing around you. The vapor simply allows you to see their breath, similar to that on a cold day.
2
More than say, breathing...?
2
Still more dangerous for the young people are the old movies run in TV where almost everybody, including the stars of the movie smokes. No cigarette advertisement could do better than these movies to impress and induce younger people to smoke !
1
I've learned that each vape "pod" contains that same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. It's interesting that people keep talking about how it's safer than cigarettes - forget that, vaping has to be looked at independently. How can a child sit in a class and learn if all she is thinking about is how fast she can duck into the bathroom at school and vape? That's the problem with any addiction that powerful, it takes over your life. It's not "as bad" as being addicted to heroin folks, OBVIOUSLY, but who wants a 14 year old who can barely function and every bathroom and locker room filled with vape smoke?
1
"I've learned that each vape "pod" contains that same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes"
FALSE!
The amount of nicotine in either open or closed vape devices depends entirely on the user. This is one reason is performs so well as a cessation device.
7
Nicotine is not some happy substance that is so pleasurable that users just cannot give it up. It's a stimulant which can be habit forming, but it's also a toxin that can kill a person in the amounts contained in one pack of cigarettes.
Please cite scientific evidence. I do not think this is true.
2
So I guess banning them in public places turns out to have been based on nothing but hype? No ill health effects after all?
6
Is vaping and smoking an e-cigarette the same. What about vaping marijuana? Any research on that?
Hours and hours of personal of research. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.
It smells much less. It's gentle on your lungs and throat.
Journal article to appear at 4:20 pm some day in the distant future.
2
In April 2013, I published an online article warning that e-cigarettes would become the future of nicotine addiction. I also warned that unregulated TV advertising for these products would lead to greater youth trial, adoption, and addiction. My prophesies five years ago have proven accurate.
This New York Times article does not address how e-cigarette companies have dusted off marketing plans from the 1960's for tobacco cigarettes, employing some of the same strategies and tactics to market e-cigarettes. Those successful strategies included enlisting Hollywood celebrities to pitch cigarettes through TV ads, making cigarettes appear cool, rebellious and sexually seductive.
Actors Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin extolled the virtues of tobacco cigarettes back in the 1960's. Today, Hollywood stars Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy have promoted the sublime satisfactions of vaping. Now 11 percent of high school students are using e-cigarettes and the percentages will grow.
Does any intelligent person not understand the underlying marketing plans of Big Tobacco, despite the industry's perennial assurances that they do not target kids under 18 with advertising? According to the CDC, seven in ten middle and high school students were exposed to e-cig ads in 2014 across all media.
The FDA can confront this threat to the long-term health of today’s teenagers by banning TV advertising for e-cigarettes, just as Congress wisely banned tobacco advertising beginning January 2, 1971.
10
The government should inform people of the actual risks from using nicotine to the extent that the evidence supports. They should not try to use narratives nor anecdotal means to convey this information. The reason is that advocates can use counter narratives and anecdotal means to counter such arguments. Using smoking as a good example. Two thirds of smokers do not die of diseases correlated to smoking. For every example of some person who is taken down by cigarette smoking it's been shown that there are those who smoke into advanced old age without any apparent ill effects. The numbers do not lie and they well illustrate the risks when presented clearly and simply. If you smoke you double your chances of ending up disintegrating with diseases like cancer and cardio vascular ones, in return for a mild stimulation that you can receive with exercise and better breathing, etc, but only one-third of smokers actually die due to the habit.
1
Here are numbers from the CDC:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
We needed a scientific panel to tell us this?
I'd much rather kids vape then smoke cigarettes. Camping doesn't have near the amount if chemicals as cigarettes. But, big tobacco has seen their bottom line affected so they will be using their lackeys in government to make it harder to vape.
What a bizarre article. It notes multiple times that there's no evidence of adverse health effects of vaping, and little evidence correlating vaping with smoking later on, and yet the headline and much of the article pretends the opposite.
The fact is that most people vaping have no nicotine in their vape smoke at all, and there's zero evidence that all the rest of the vaping chemicals are bad.
NYTimes, please stick to the facts rather than the government's agenda.
23
The article really demonstrates that there is a tendency to demonize vaping at all costs. I suspect some of that effort is paid for by the tobacco industry. The article headlined the statement that vaping might lead to smoking, then later stated there is no proof that it does, and in fact several studies show that it does not. Full disclosure; I smoked for 63 years with many attempts to quit, until I tried vaping. I started vaping six years ago, and have never gone back to smoking. All of the smoking related health issues I was experiencing have gone away. At least for this former smoker, vaping has had a positive health benefit.
73
Not all have gone away. You still use tobacco and all the things that come from it are still in your lungs. Your post is denial at it's most vibrant.
The tobacco industry has huge incentives to glorify vaping. Philip Morris is moving into iQOS and it's a major money maker oversea, they are trying to bring it to the US, and they need the US stamp of being 'safer'. Yeah, the article concluded that vaping is healthier than cigarrettes, and that's helpful for you, a smoker. But for a never smoke person, vaping can be presented in a way that induce them to try smoking. So benefit to you, but a burden to the entire society,
Yes, that is an easy one to realize - More importantly, teenagers and parents should be made to realize that those e-cigarettes bring them closer in contact with smoking marijuana at young ages - It has been shown in numerous studies in past few years to actually change the development of brain. One commonality among teens smoking (esp before 16yrs of age) is shown in Cat Scans included in a recent study that I think this newspaper NYT published in the second half of 2017.
In two recent studies focused on these ages, about 80% or more that start smoking marijuana before the age of 16, have lifelong battles with insomnia that begins in your 30's, particularly "maintenance insomnia", the kind that wakes you up in the middle of the night. I unfortunately am one of these people, started in my 13th year of joyous living and curiosity - cut short. Friends think it is fun and adventurous, and a spiritual awakening can be had with it I admit - but for teenagers the dangers are not worth it. Real time bonding with a loving parent or mentor is key to the biological connections that guide and nourish young people with confidence and support to reach for those magnificent dreams of youth.
4
Tobacco companies are buying the vaping manufacturers which tells it all. They know they can get people addicted to vaping. They can put the same additives in the vaping liquids that they do in cigarettes if that is what it takes to keep customers. The flavors which are forbidden in cigarettes abound in the vaping liquids. There have been other studies that show that for teens, vaping leads to smoking cigarettes, while some adults use them to quit. The tobacco companies are already trying to get approval for a nicotine heating device without the vapor for the sole purpose of getting and keeping addicted customers. There is no medical benefit to ingesting nicotine, which is a powerful insecticide. There is no reason to ingest a poison. Nicotine still affects the circulation even if it is not smoked. Evidently, smokers and future smokers like to play with gadgets or they would all be wearing nicotine patches.
27
Oxygen is a grave fire risk and moreover, at high concentration also a grave health risk over time.
Ban Oxygen!
2
You ingest poisons every day; many are essential for your health. It's really only the dosage that matters.
1
You go first.
Vaping does not pose the hazards of cigarette smoke but many who use e-cigarettes think that using them has no health risks. It’s because there is a popular myth that sellers are trustworthy and would not deliberately hurt other people. Therefore, all efforts to discourage people from using cigarettes by government are politically motivated and are unnecessary.
2
Vaping is the only way I was able to quit smoking. Also there are studies that suggest the opposite, as teen smoking rates have gone down. I assume that also means teen vaping rates have increased, though.
4
The key word here is "may." I quit smoking two months ago and now vape. I have no cravings for cigarettes and have not smoked one cigarette. May be these people should study former smokers who now vape instead of speculate on what teenagers MAY do.
20
@Susan
You haven't quit smoking, you have merely changed delivery systems of your favorite drug. You are still addicted to Nicotine. While cigarettes contain tar and other substances we know cause cancer, what is in vape smoke is unknown and its long term effects are also unknown.
3
@Bruce in smoking you'll find the word smoke, in vaping you'll find the word vapour. Smoke is the product of combustion, generating thousands of toxic compounds, while vapour contains one of the least addictive and components found in cigarette smoke.
So not only has Susan factually STOPPED smoking, she's certainly better off for it, as this panel report confirms.
Congratulations to Susan! :-)
1
Beg to differ. Vaping is not smoking. No smoke is inhaled or exhaled when one vapes. That is why studies should be done on smokers that switched to vaping.
1
Vaping MAY lead teenagers to smoking.
I MAY get hit by a bus crossing the street today.
Or, I MAY have tagliatelle alla Bolognese for dinner tonight.
Nicotine is the most addictive common substance known, but, in and of itself (in the absence of smoke and chemical additives), is not actually known to be harmful in "normal" doses.
Vaping is a safer way of delivering nicotine than cigarettes.
It would be better not to be addicted to nicotine, but if you are, you are better off vaping than smoking.
I don't really think there's much news here.
41
The tagliatelle alla Bolognese dinner tonight is significant news, Eric.
I trust you'll prepare enough for all of us.
8
I was using the word "may" to indicate an unlikely event.
Ain't no way I'm having Tagliatelle alla Bolognese tonight.
It's just as well. Nobody outside of Bologna, and under the age of 70, knows how to make it right anyway.
Maybe it's time to start checking airfares...
Prior to switching to vaping early last Summer, I was a pack a day cigarette (American Spirit Organic blue...very strong).
I was skeptical that vaping would reduce my cig addiction. Since switching, I have not had even a minute urge to smoke tobacco, and in fact, now dislike the odor of burning cigarettes, and am very happy to not exude smokers stench everywhere I go.
E-liquid is available in varying amounts of nicotine. The standard amounts of nicotine are 6, 3, or 0 milligrams, which give vapers who want to quit nicotine the option to wean themselves off of nicotine altogether, if desired.
I'm not sure that this new nicotine delivery method is any less obnoxious than cig smoking to non partakers, except for eliminating cig smoke odor, but I'm sure most would agree that the smell is far less obtrusive. I hope most vapers will use the same discretion in vaping locations as they would have when smoking cigarettes.
Is it good? No. Obviously, the best thing to inhale is clean air, but vaping is a huge step up from inhaling and broadcasting tobacco smoke.
58
Good for you!
7
Your last sentence brings up a good point. Clean air. This past summer in Seattle we had such smoky air due to British Columbia wildfires that it was like fog in the air. We were told to stay indoors if older, infirm, etc. due to the conditions. My apartment smelled like a campfire for weeks after the air finally cleared. The evils of second-hand smoke.
Absolutely spot on. You should be surgeon general.
Ecigarets made it very easy for me to quit smoking and I have never been tempted to return. The difference in my breathing post smoking (but using e cigarets) is quite noticeable. I farm from convinced that ecigarets are completely safe, but they are a HUGE improvement over cigarets in every respect except the pleasure of smoking them. Secondary smoke is virtually non existent. No tars. No chemicals (unless you prefer the flavored ones). E cigarets are a vastly superior nicotine delivery system. The question, really, has to do with the safety of nicotine itself. One more thing: I am sure studies are eventually going to show that the average e cigaret smoker ends up inhaling more nicotine than a cigaret smoker.
5
Isn’t it time that a fixed date be set for the end of sales for all nicotine products? 31 December 2019 seems like a good date. Nothing else will stop children from becoming nicotine addicts. Existing addicts need to be helped as well to become clean and money needs to be invested in this. But nicotene kills.
10
I doubt tobacco companies are ready to stop earning millions in profits. Hence e-cigarettes and the like. They make money from slowly killing their customers.
Of course the prohibition of booze and the war on drugs have worked so well why not add in tobacco?
Then we could have have three totally failed very expensive "wars" that have led to so much criminal activities, not just two.
In 1964 almost 50% of all adults in the US were smokers of tobacco
Today it less than 15%
That's public health at work not prohibition
10
Nicotine does not kill. The only people are at risk for adverse effects of nicotine are pregnant women or people with high blood pressure. If a person were to O.D. On caffeine it would make them ill. The same is true of nicotine. Nicotine does not cause cancer. Do your research like o did before I switched from smoking cigarettes to vaping.
2
A. No, study finds no such thing. I would pose this question: Is it that teenagers who vape may try cigarettes, or is it that the teenager who would try cigarettes is also likely to try vaping?
B. Study after study I see the same thing. Vaping is not smoking. We have found nothing yet that seems bad for people with vaping, we just don't know. And it sure looks like smoking.
Finally, I find it curious that the one thing that those opposing vaping have actually pointed to that is more than "sure looks like smoking", nicotine and its possible addictive effect, seems to raise no concerns when we talk about lozenges. Which again leads me to the same conclusion. Smoking is bad, vaping looks like smoking, ergo, vaping must be bad, even if we find no actual reason for it.
21
I really don’t understand this headline. Why emphasize something that even the researchers say is “unknown”. Isn’t this the actual core of the story:
“When it got down to answering the questions about what the impacts on health are, there is still a lot to be learned,” said David Eaton, of the University of Washington, who led the committee that reviewed existing research and issued the report. “E-cigarettes cannot be simply categorized as either beneficial or harmful.”
4
I cannot accept the idea that it's healthy to put anything other than clean air in your lungs. Vaping may be safer than cigarettes, but it is not safer than smoking nothing. Whether it's tobacco, pot or some artificial vapor, the lungs must deal with pollutants they were not designed to handle. It's bad enough to have to breath polluted air; don't make it worse with any sort of smoking.
77
nowhere does it say that it's healthy. it says that reports indicate e-cigarettes are LESS DANGEROUS than traditional smoking. you never breathed in a good campfire smoke? never inhaled any gasoline fumes in your life? your lungs deal with a lot of stuff that you don't even think about. nobody said these things are healthy.
4
its not smoke its vapor, hence the term vaping. Think of it as breathing in a steamy shower room. same thing except some vape fluid has nicotine which is the same category as caffeine. Should we all stop drinking coffee too? its only deemed ok because its socially acceptable.
2
I smoked for over 20 years & vaping allowed me to quit. In fact the first day I started vaping, was the last cigarette I ever smoked. Within 4 months I had reduced the nicotene to zero & a month later I quit vaping too. Now I am completely cigarette & vape free, for over 3 years.
Im glad I took advantage of this amazing technology before some one banned it.
1
I know the jury is still out but as a former smoker who switched to vaping, I can personally attest to the massive increase in quality of life I experienced once I switched from cigarettes to a Juul. I regained my sense of smell, my lung capacity is way up, I can exercise again, sleep better, better circulation, stopped smelling like smoke all the time etc. even if it turns out vaping has negative health impacts, it's clearly better than smoking.
18
"More intriguing was the report’s finding of moderate evidence that youths who use e-cigarettes before trying tobacco, are more likely to become more frequent and intense smokers."
So what? How do we know that people who might try vaping might be the same who would try cigarettes? Since vaping HAS been declared SAFER, it may very well be that rather than being a gateway to tobacco, vaping may be a wall protecting people from ever smoking, improving public health overall. Until a study addresses this point I am highly dubious of the importance of the nicotine consumption via vaping versus nicotine consumption via cigarettes which is LETHAL.
Further, addiction is highly individual so if vaping products were restricted how many would simply smoke cigarettes instead? Nothing in the article even brings up the question let alone addresses it.
"This report makes very real the concern that e-cigarettes may well increase the use of combustive tobacco products.’’
The" concern that e-cigarettes may well increase the use of combustive tobacco products.’’ is real regardless of the report, and yet the report amkes no statement about the concern and so clears up nothing. The unfounded remark appears to be written to be misunderstood as a conclusion of the report, and as such is simply a manipulative tautology displaying an underlying agenda. It might as well have been written by the tobacco industry itself to promote tobacco products, for all the value it has in promoting public health.
13
So the headline blares and the article leads by saying vaping MAY put teenagers at higher risk of switching to cigarettes, but only later mentions PROOF that "the devices are safer than traditional smoking products and that they do help smokers quit, citing conclusive proof that switching can reduce smokers’ exposure to deadly tar, numerous dangerous chemicals and other carcinogens."
Rather selective reporting, imo.
26
And the writer goes on to contradict themselves: "The report also cited conclusive proof that the devices are safer than traditional smoking products and may help smokers quit, citing conclusive proof that switching can reduce smokers’ exposure to deadly tar, dangerous chemicals and other carcinogens...The report also said the evidence was limited on whether e-cigarettes were effective for quitting smoking."
This article is horribly written.
1
Why would Phillip Morris be allowed to even participate in the Vaping industry after what they’ve done in regards to regular tobacco?
Teenagers will dwhatever is the big fad of the moment and Vaping for non smokers is a fad. Saying Vaping leads to tobacco addiction is like saying beer consumption leads to heroin addiction.
3
Except that nicotine is the addictive substance in both products.
"Vaping Can Be Addictive and May Lure Teenagers to Smoking, Science Panel Concludes"
How can this byline be published? There is simply is NO such conclusion made in the reports as written in this article. The takeaway is vaping is safer than cigarettes, and as such can lead to further public health objectives among those who might otherwise smoke tobacco products.
Prohibition on the other hand, has never lead to overall positive health outcomes, and has created much more dire social outcomes.
21
Actually, there was a precipitous drop in teen smoking corresponding to the increase in vaping. And no, it wasn't the same as the gradual decline that's been observed for many years -- and it wasn't present in states that banned kids from buying vape pens. This is usually overlooked in the typical e cigarette hysteria article.
From what I've seen personally, the opposite of what is feared is often the case -- kids experiment with smoking and then moving to vaping.
If a kid does move from vaping to smoking, it's obvious that they would smoke more because they already have a tolerance to nicotine. But he would likely have been a smoker before, because the same group of high-risk kids is involved.
I think the bottom line is that vaping is the best answer we have ever had to eradicating smoking (not some attempt to reduce nicotine, which will lead people to smoke more with even more danger or create a black market). Kids are making the less bad choice here and some adults are able to switch to vaping as well.
However, this will come at a cost -- vaping will continue to grow in popularity and so you will see an increase in nicotine dependence. This may not be a major issue as in the absence of smoke nicotine isn't particularly harmful, but as the article rightly points out, we don't know the long-term effects of vaping -- it is almost certainly safer than smoking, but that doesn't mean it's safe.
We desperately need more research on long-term effects before the habit spreads.
7
Vaping is pretty poison. It causes a condition colloquially referred to as "popcorn lung." Those who indulge in this addiction will live to regret it. I'll regret having to spend benefit or tax dollars to remediate it on their behalf.
11
No, not true. The chemical that caused popcorn lung, Diactyl was removed from virtually all e-liquids over 3 years ago.
11
@JER how do we even know what chemicals are in or not in the miscellaneous preparations consumed in this manner called vaping? Who is regulating this activity? Conventional cigarettes are loaded with all manner of noxious chemical compounds, asbestos and sugars. Does the government say anything about them? Or are they not a huge source of export revenue for the US balance of trade?
1
@JER. you still haven't sold me on vaping. Won't let it in my house or cars.
1
Duh! Let's see, the main reason to vape is to get Nicotine. . . Nicotine is an addictive poison. . . So it took an entire science panel and who knows how many $ millions to decide that vaping may be addictive?? Oh, AND might lead to smoking cigarettes? Boy there are some real sharp cookies there.
Now for the next panel and research proposal - Let's find out if prolonged vaping leads to lung cancer, emphysema, COPD, stroke, heart attack, bladder cancer, et al, just like cigarettes, but because it is "safer" it might take 25 years instead of 20 years of use. Sounds like a lifetime of research funding to me.
3
They didn't find any evidence that vaping leads to smoking, hence their conclusion that vaping "may" lead to cigarette use.
By that standard, everything that cannot be disproven must be concluded to possibly exist.
That's the "scientific" standard used by many preachers to prove the existence of God.
9
They needed a NASEM panel to figure this out? Just visit your local high school. Or talk to your teens.
Vaping is absolutely being marketed to kids and is essentially a nicotine delivery device. It's absolutely addictive.
This should be regulated by the FDA. Tomorrow. No panels needed. Just a spine and a lack of Tobacco lobbyists.
16
As the parent of a child who became addicted to nicotine through the use of a vape pen, I could not agree more. The delivery device, a Juul, is like the iphone of vaping. Kids think it is cool and it is ABSOLUTELY being marketed to kids. What self-respecting adult vapes bubble gum flavored juice? Shame on these companies, and shame on us for not regulating their sales and marketing practices immediately. It's "Joe Camel" all over again. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to learn about the effects of nicotine on the developing brain. Google it.
Can be addictive? Are you joking? Nicotine is ferociously addictive, no matter how it is delivered. And, the exhaled product contains addictive nicotine! It's a sick practice with a sick product for the sick reason of profits.
30
CK, pure nicotine is as addictive as caffeine and safer as commonly used in vaping. The intense addiction of tobacco comes from intensifying chemicals. These chemicals are not found in e-liquid.
3
Enough nonsense. This demonizing of "vaping" completely misses the point. It was meant to be a substitute for more harmful smoking. Period. In other words, it was meant for ADULTS. If no one is checking the IDs of these "teenagers," blame the storekeepers or the PARENTS. This overkill seems, indeed, to be part of yet another competitor-funded "study."
13
Not for nothing, but do you think smoking pot may have the same kind of effect?
So, someone did a study to see if people who stick objects with vapor coming off of them into their mouths might be more likely to stick other objections with vapor/smoke coming off them into their mouths. I bet the suspense was killing them to see how that would come out.
What nonsense. I am beyond tired of negative reporting (for no substantiated reason) about e cigarettes. Enough already.
8
Certainly MJ use does not put children at risk! Lol
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Since there "are no long-term scientific studies of the devices’ addictive potential or their effects on the heart, lungs or on reproduction," there is no basis to say e-cigs are less dangerous than cigarettes.
2
This is a very interesting topic. I've been using an e-cigarette for the past few weeks because my New Year's Resolution was to quit smoking, and it has helped me; cigarettes have grown increasingly repulsive since I've started vaping, and I don't have the same cravings. But most of the people I know using e-cigarettes are younger than me: freshmen in college or high schoolers. In fact, my 18 year old sister was the one who suggest I use an e-cig to help me quit. Interestingly, as far as I know, these individuals are not and have not been smokers, and are likely not vaping to ween their way off of a cigarette addiction. And since there is such little data/public discourse pointing to any legitimate longterm health defects that stem from vaping, the practice becomes much more easily rationalized.
2
Hi College Student
I think you are missing one point: The Benefits of Nicotine
Check that out
Not surprised they are taking up vaping as I know some students would chew the gum as nicotine helps with memory and focus.
As a long time smoker (lifer) heavy smoker vaping was a no a good option for me. Health wise a big bonus for me with lung xrays to show the improvement.
I am seeing on comments about lungs and nicotine but with vaping the nicotine is not absorbed in lungs but in your mouth.
Glad to see they were clear on vaping being var less harmful than smoking
1
The nicotine addiction aspect was a "given". Nicotine is physically addictive and should be regulated and phased out of consumer products. Vaping without nicotine is no big deal. The problem is the vapiding industry, just like the tobacco industry, knows that without their reliance upon physically addictive nicotine their market size would collapse. That is to say it won't necessarily disappear entirely. However it won't be anywhere near what it is today.
9
Are we going to phase out caffeine as well? Studies have shown that nicotine is not as addictive as you may think, unless it's in a cigarette full of additives.
8
Vaping may be safer (though some e-cigarettes are said to produce as many "combustion byproducts" as burning tobacco) but they are definitely more efficient at delivering nicotine to the bloodstream. Not sure this is a sound solution to the addiction problem in America.
Encouraging states to become dependent upon taxes from unhealthy behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, lottery, marijuana, sugar) doesn't seem like a good idea either.
8
You have that backwards. E-Cigarettes are far less efficient at delivering nicotine to the bloodstream. A cigarette works as quickly as 7 seconds. Vapor can be up to half an hour.
5
The opposite is true of nicotine absorption -- the vapor droplets are too large to be absorbed in the lungs so are absorbed through the lining of the mouth.
Furthermore, because they lack naturally-occurring MAOI's and tobacco alkaloids that act synergistically, e cigarettes are much less addictive than tobacco cigarettes, particularly the ones that freebase nicotine.
Also, it's wrong that e cigarettes produce as many combustion products as cigarettes. Some poorly adjusted e cigarettes produce some chemicals that occur in tobacco combustion, but in amounts that are tiny fraction of the amounts in tobacco smoke.
There has been no end of hysterical, scientifically inaccurate articles about this in the press.
16
This seems incorrect. Both delivery systems supply nicotine to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs. The main difference lies in the variations in nicotine concentration available in vaping liquids. As a former smoker and former "vaper," I can attest to the fact that both products relieve nicotine withdrawal pretty much instantly.
While I found vaping to be in most ways preferable to cigarette smoking - my clothes no longer smelled, my lungs no longer ached - it held its own list of down sides. I found myself taking drags on my e-cigarette nearly constantly, as there is no sense of "finishing" a vape like there is with a cigarette. I was also able to more easily sneak a drag in a public bathroom or in my office, places wherein I would previously not have been able to smoke. I am guessing (could be wrong) that during my vaping period I ingested more nicotine daily than when I was smoking, and the panic and discomfort that would set in when I realized I had left my e-cigarette at home was at the very least comparable to cigarette withdrawal.
I still think vaping is better for people than smoking (could anything be worse?), but let's not dismiss the troubling realities of nicotine addiction, whatever the flavor.
3
Another competitor-funded study?
Vaping is safer and cheaper. Why would teens with, presumably less disposable cash, switch to 20 times more expensive cigarettes?
Logic anyone?
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www.rimaregas.com
48
The study was funded by the FDA - it says it right there in the article. I agree with you though. I don't understand the editorial emphasis on the possibility of teens gatewaying to cigarettes when the big takeaway is that the researchers remain uncertain about harms and benefits.
15
With so many revolving doors, it's hard to pin down motives.
1
You're looking for logic from adolescents?
3