Electronic Cigarette on Fox News Fox and Friends

Dr. Marc Siegel the Fox News medical contributor was on the Fox News Fox and Friends Morning show today talking about electronic cigarettes. While he has some reservations about them he also had some good things to say as well.

Dr. Marc Sigels Concerns

• Not restricted / regulated by FDA
• Kids can get at the liquid, might swallow cartridges
• Kids might start smoking ecigs and move to cigarettes
• A study linked nicotine to accelerating lung cancer
• Might work too well

Dr. Marc Sigels supports

• No tar "Tar is 90% of the problem"
• Lowers exposure to thousands of carcinogens in cigarettes
• Tastes good
• Gives users support for the oral fixation 
• Has potential "I think there is a future for this product" 

But what did he recommend for smokers "desperate to quit"? Use Zyban or Chantix, both known to have terribly dangerous side effects both mental and physical or to use the patch, of course.

He said the company was "scared" to come on and challenged them to get FDA studies of safety. He then lambasted the "company" Smoking Everywhere, I gathered, for not coming on the show to defend their product and likened them to a "street vendor" selling ecigs to kids like seedy drug dealers.

Now, I agree with the good Doctor that we need to do more to keep kids and pets from gaining access to the liquid. Concentrated liquid nicotine is not something you want your kids drinking. But I have to say I think he goes over board on his contentions that kids have access to ecigs.

For years now the argument for increased cigarette taxes has been to make them too expensive for kids. With a cost of $50 - $200 per starter kit, I just think all this "won't someone save the children" arm waving about ecigarettes is unwarranted. There is no proof that kids are using ecigs; regular cigarettes are far more available and affordable to our children and I challenge the doctor to list how many shows they've done calling to make it illegal for children to possess cigarettes. When ecigs come along, they cry "protect the children" yet anyone can sit outside any high school in this country and watch children smoke cigarettes, many of which were purchased at the local gas station, all without any fear of being ticketed or arrested. Perhaps Fox News needs to address that problem a bit more intensely.

I also think it's a low blow to allude that any ecig company, even one I don't like as much as I dislike SE, are running around in back alleys selling ecigs to kids. I don't know of any ecig company that is out there selling to kids. The market is smokers, adult smokers, not children in back alleys.

He then went on to mention a study that linked nicotine to the acceleration of lung cancer and then also said that "Tar is 90% of the problem" and admitted that without the smoke, users would be exposed to far less toxic chemicals. My question to him, which he failed to answer, is did those people in the study get lung cancer from the tar, from smoking cigarettes?

I see his point, I really do, but the vapers point that no smoke could mean no lung cancer has just as much validity. When prescribing potentially dangerous drugs doctors love to say "The benefits outweight the risks" but when it comes to ecigs they all seem perfectly happy to point out that yes, smoke causes cancer and ecigs have no smoke, but nicotine might have dangers too. To us smokers that logic just boggles our minds since our current cigarettes have both and our logic seems to think that no smoke, even with nicotine, would indeed "outweigh the risks".

His other big point is that "perhaps they work too well" and you can't get off them. Well, yes, perhaps, however many smokers don't want to quit using nicotine. He would like to see no one using nicotine at all, and that's an honorable goal, however one that at this time is unreachable. I just can't agree, after the thousands of people I've heard from who claim they completely quit cigarettes and nicotine using ecigs, that his concern of "they might work too well" is one we should worry too much about. After all, there are people out there who are addicted to patches and gums, and he's not calling for any investigation of that.

Overall, I have to agree with Dr. Siegel that ecigs have potential, limit exposure to 90% of the problem with cigarettes, namely tar and smoke and thousands of toxic chemicals. I even agree that perhaps more testing is needed. But as long as the FDA makes such testing so very difficult for ecig makers, i don't see that happening in the near future. Every time an ecig maker has tried to do testing, it's been blocked by the very folks, the FDA, who are demanding more testing.

I agree our children are very important. However I disagree very strongly with the good doctor that ecig makers are targeting kids, that kids will use ecigs as a gateway to cigarettes and I think the problem of children swallowing liquid is easily solved through child safe lids and a little responsibility on the part of users. After all, how many dangerous chemicals does the average family have in their house? You don't hear the doctor calling for the removal of those. It's all just more smoke and mirrors and the anti smoking folks running their "won't someone save the children" play book.

And, my final thought, how much funding does Dr. Marc Siegel get from the makers of Chantix and Zyban? How much advertising revenue does Fox get from these companies? Could that be why this story was such big news? Is that why ecig sellers were put in the same class as drug dealers out to destroy our kids in back alleys? perhaps.... It's worth thinking on as you watch this: