More people puffing e-cigarettes
More American smokers are trying out electronic cigarettes, but it’s not clear whether the smokeless alternative is helping them quit smoking or increasing their chances of harming their health.
In the first-ever study done about the use of the nicotine delivering devices, results showed that about 21 percent of traditional cigarette smoking adults have used e-cigarettes, which is up from about 10 percent in 2010, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study also found that 6 percent of all adults have tested out the devices , which is nearly twice the number of users in 2010. E-cigarette use was up among both men and women and non-Hispanic Whites between the ages of 45 and 54, according to the CDC.
“E-cigarette use is growing rapidly,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, in a news release. “There is still a lot we don’t know about these products, including whether they will decrease or increase use of traditional cigarettes.”
It’s common for people to think e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to regular cigarettes, but the CDC says more research needs to be done before drawing that conclusion. E-cigarettes contain liquid nicotine that is vaporized and inhaled by the smoker.
The CDC warns that if smokers choose to puff both common and e-cigarettes, they may be raising their chances of harming their health.
“If large numbers of adult smokers become users of both traditional and e-cigarettes — rather than using e-cigarettes to quit cigarettes completely — the net public health effect could be quite negative,” said Tim McAfee, from the CDC in a statement.
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Thanks for doing this story. I am a former smoker, and I have always been intrigued by this new product. Will it be deemed as safe? And if not, what are the health dangers?
I would love to see research on second hand smoke with E-cigarettes. I notice that the smoker still is exhaling with electronic cigarettes, I would venture to guess this can't be good for the environment or the people around them.
I'm wondering how many people use e-cigarettes because they think they're safer or because they're trying to quit.
It's also interesting that an e-cigarette company advertised during the Oscars even though cigarette advertising on television has been banned for years. A new loophole?
What is especially disheartening is that the smoking addicts are "inhaling vaporized liquid nicotine." That sounds both disturbingly toxic and hopelessly unsatisfying to a confirmed smoker. After all, half the pleasure of smoking is, as one former smoker told me, "lighting up that first cigarette in the morning with one's coffee and filling one's lungs with smoke and one's belly with fresh coffee–a sensation so powerful that it's impossible to convey how delightful and satisfying and energizing it is to a person who doesn't smoke."
This same friend also convinced me it's just as difficult to give up smoking as it is to quit drinking or over-eating. Perhaps more difficult. because unlike drinking, for instance, smoking doesn't seem to compromise one's powers of paying attention, working at top capacity, and getting new ideas:
He also convinced me that by quitting smoking he had deliberately and cold-bloodedly decided that for his very young daughter's sake he was willing to weaken his powers of imaginative writing–his livelihood–and forego forever the intense pleasure of working at the very tip-top of his whole power and being that only smoking brought to the act of literary composition.
I'll never forget his look of utter contempt when I protested he was making too much of smoking–surely it was less painful than giving up alcohol?" No," he said coldly, "my life is diminished, and the promise and the joy of life seems much less bright to me. And I know that this condition is permanent." He was completely serious!
Bill Sweetland
E-cigarettes? Egads.
When are people going to realize that chemicals, in any form, are probably not going to have a positive effect on your body over time?
Stephen Dorff, famous for his roles in "Blade" and the hit television show "Roseanne" , is now the spokesman for Blu, an electronic cigarette company. Check out the noir style commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZishwAt_RM
That was so interesting story.
But nowadays most hard smokers change to e-cigs just to quit real cigarettes.
really nice post about e cigarettes