I've have heard of e-cigarttes in the past, but I didn't really know much about them, until I read the following article, which appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on January 25, 2010.  The copyrighted piece was written by Amanda Schoenberg, a Journal staff writer.  The article is entitled,

"E-Cigarettes: Nicotine Fix Without the Risks?" 

The article reads as follows:

"Smoking indoors without the secondhand smoke?  A nicotine rush, without the cancer-causing chemicals?  For about 3 million people in the United States, electronic cigarettes sound like a dream come true . 

Charlie Casados, manager of Smoke Source 51, started offering them at a booth in Coronado Shopping Center in July and sells 25 o 30 kits per day.  The devices may be popular with consumers who see them as a safe alternative to digarettes, but public health officials too little is known to label them safe. 

Electronic cigaretts, which often resemble traditional cigaretts or pens, have a lithium batteryk that ignites a coil, which heats a nicotine-filled cartridge.  Smokers exhale the vapor that doesn't contain the tar or carbon monoxide found in most tobacco cigaretts. 

Smokers who have switched to the electronic cigarettes say they get the same satisfaction from inhaling the nicotine that they get from a traditional cigarette. 

'It's just like smoking,' said Lynette Catt of Tularose, N.M., who first tried e-cigarettes about seven months age, and now sells them online.  'The electronic digarette is a little heavier.  There is no ashtray.  But, the sensation of smoking is just about the same.'

The kits Casados sells cost $80 to $135.  An $80 kit includes a battery, two cartridges, a case and charger.  One cartridge equals about two packs of tobacco cigarettes.  'We're doing quite well,' he said. 

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration chemists tested 18 cartridges and two cigarettes made by two companies and reported varying levels of nicotime and traces on cancer-causing nitrosamines found in tobacco.  One cartridge contained diethythlene glycol, and ingredient found in antifreeze. 

The Electronic Cigarette Association, an industry group, has said those results were too narrow to reach a valid conclusion.  If used in the proper amounts, electronics cigaretts are non-toxic and non-carcinogenic, Matt Salmon, president of the ECA and a former Arizona congressman, said in an emailed statement. 

Most are imported from China, and the FDA officials have stopped shipments from at least 20 manufacturers, claiming the products are drug delivery devices that require scrutiny. 

But, earlier this month, a federal judge in Washington D.D., granted a preliminary injuction that prevents the FDA from seizing the devices.  The judge said they should be classified as tobacco products. 

In a statement, the FDA said public health issues surrounding e-cigarettes remained a serious concern and the agency would review the decision. 

Unregulated Industry; 

The New Mexico Department of Health hasn't taken a stance on these, said David Tompkins, media stragegist for the Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control Program administered by the state agency.  Tompkins expects the state to look at clean air laws to determine how...or whether...e-cigarettes should be included. 

In New Jersey, the sale of e-cigarettes is prohibited to people under 19, and adults are barred from smoking them at work and in public places. 

This month, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit against Smoking Everywhere, Inc., claiming the company has no evidence to back up safety claims. 

E-Cigarettes remain an unregulated industry.  That means, no health warnings are required, unlide nicotine patches and gum.  But, that doesn't mean they are harmless, he said.  The tobacco industry once touted cigarettes as safe.  Social norm, he said, unregulated until this year, cigarettes were deemed 'safer' when companies added filters and created low tar and light cigarettes.   Tomkins said he worries especially e-cigarettes are slipping between regulations in a similar way.  'They're always able to make a safer way to keep public addicted, he said.  'It's deja vu.'

Tompkins also worries that young people will get hooked without realizing the potential for addiction.  Without evidence about their health impacts, consumers should be wary, said Patricia Torn, coordinator of tobacco control programs for the American Lung Association in New Mexico

The Electronic Cigarette Association says about 3 million people in the United States use the devices, which shouldn't be seen as a smoking cessation tool, but as a safer alternative to tobacco products. 

While some e-cigarette smokers...often called vapers...may still use them to try to quit tobacco cigarettes, Torn said, they may not be as effective as other products.  'If you look at the habits of smokers, that hand to mouth and inhale, exhale is an important part of the habit.  'The e-cigarette does not address that.'

Faithful vapers maintain that e-cigarettes are better than the alternative.  'I was looking for something where I wouldn't have to share my bad habit with everyone around me, especially my family, said Catt, who had tried to quit smoking tobacco several times! 

Catt supports further testing of e-cigarettes as well as FDA oversight.  'I just want an alternative for other people to be able to turn to,' she said.  'Whatever is needed to be done is make it available and safe.' 

END OF ARTICLE;

I think nasty smokers will smoke anything nowadays...cow chips...octopus droppings...this gadget that is talked about here in this article, etc. 

It's just another excuse by the nasty smoker, for not having the will-power; determination and sacrifice needed to just quit smoking tobacco...PERIOD! 

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