Concerns Voiced by the Public Health Experts About Electronic Cigarettes
No Demonstrated Public Health Benefit
“The electronic cigarette is not a proven nicotine replacement therapy. WHO has no scientific evidence to confirm the product's safety and efficacy.”
World Health Organization, Press Release, “Marketers of electronic cigarettes should halt unproved therapy claims” (September 19, 2008)
“Makers and retailers of these products have been making unproven health claims about their products, claiming that they are safer than normal cigarettes and asserting that they can help people to quit smoking. Absent scientific evidence, these claims are in blatant violation of FDA rules. In fact, no studies have been done on e-cigarettes to date regarding their health effects or their effectiveness as cessation aids.”
Statement of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (March 24, 2009)
“We basically don't know anything about them [electronic cigarettes]. They've never been tested for safety or efficacy to help people stop smoking.”
Dr. Richard Hurt, Director, Nicotine Dependence Center, Mayo Clinic (June 2, 2009)
“We do not know yet how the ‘smoking' technology these products use affects human health. We do not yet know all of the ingredients in these products and, accordingly, the impact of those ingredients on the health of people who 'smoke' e-cigarettes or the people around them. We do not know what ingredients these products actually deliver (nicotine or otherwise) and what the risks of these products might be. We have seen no studies regarding whether e-cigarettes actually help smokers quit or, instead, delay cessation attempts by providing smokers with a way to continue their smoking behaviors when they cannot smoke a tobacco product.”
American Legacy Foundation, Statement, “Electronic Cigarettes” (May 2009)
Marketing of E-Cigarettes May Appeal to Young People
“E-cigarettes are also being marketed towards young people, who can purchase them in fruit flavors and online, without having to verify their ages.”
Statement of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (March 24, 2009)
“It looks like a cigarette and is marketed as a cigarette. There's nothing that prevents youth from getting addicted to nicotine.”
Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, Chairman, American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium (June 2, 2009)
“Finally, and of critical importance, information is not yet available as to whether e-cigarettes might actually encourage children and teens and young adults to take their first step toward smoking cigarettes, drawn in by the products' novelty and variety of flavors, including strawberry, banana and chocolate.”
American Legacy Foundation, Statement, “Electronic Cigarettes” (May 2009)
President of American Council on Science and Health says FDA Misled the Public
In a Washington Post article published Thursday, Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, the president of the American Council on Science and Health calls the recent FDA press conference on electronic cigarettes "distorted, incomplete and misleading." She further states the FDA "was violating its long-cherished tradition of sticking to sound science as the basis for its policies. And in doing so, it is putting the lives and health of millions of Americans at risk."
Strong words against the government agency charged with protecting the public from unsafe consumer products from a woman notorious for attacking industries who make unscientific or overstated health claims. One might think she would side with the FDA against e-cigarette manufacturers and retailers claiming they are a smoking cessation product or a "healthier alternative" that contains "no carcinogens" without FDA approved studies to back them up.
Instead, Dr. Whelan has the FDA squarely in her sights and says they "should be sponsoring studies to evaluate its safety and efficacy -- leaving it on the market in the interim." Among the points she feels the FDA left out are the facts that cigarettes are lethal because of their users inhalation of massive amounts of smoke. "It is the inhaled smoke that kills in so many ways -- from cancers, cardiovascular and lung disease, and more" says Whelan.
She goes on to point out the "abysmal failures" of currently FDA approved smoking cessation aids like the patch and nicotine gum, pointing out their success rates are less than 15% after one year "condemning millions of addicted smokers to a lingering death." She says the public desperately needs new alternatives, but anti smoking groups like the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and now even the FDA seem to be of the same mindset against new alternatives and "whose collective motto seems to be 'quit or die'."
Unexpected support for e-cigs from a woman whose organization has come under fire in the past for accepting funding from pharmaceutical companies. In 1982 the Center for Science in the Public Interest said of the ACSH "Through voodoo or alchemy, bodies of scientific knowledge are transmogrified into industry-oriented position statements." But it seems this time she's not siding with any drug company benefactors, the makers of the very products she says are ineffective and who stand to lose millions if smokers turn to e-cigarettes rather than their products.
Instead she says the FDA should be looking for new alternatives and thinks the electronic cigarette might just be what the doctor ordered. She points out that e-cigs have over a million users yet "the FDA, lacking data that e-cigarettes pose a health hazard, was so desperate, it called on consumers to phone in adverse side effects of e-cigarettes so they could begin to build a case against them and proceed with their intended ban. They neglected, however, to request smokers who successfully quit using the e-cigarette to also call in."
So what is Dr. Whelans final opinion on electronic cigarettes? "Any alternative acceptable to addicted smokers should be taken seriously. Instead of condemning the e-cigarette, the FDA should be sponsoring studies to evaluate its safety and efficacy -- leaving it on the market in the interim."
Read the Washington times article "FDA smoke screen on e-cigarettes" here