February 3rd, 2009
We wanted to address the report found on CBS News regarding the Electronic Cigarette as being an illegal product that cannot be sold.
As we noted in our recent post The Electronic Cigarette as a Homeopathic Drug, it is Instead’s belief that the device itself should not be held at customs because it is in fact a vaporizer and vaporizers appear to be legal.
The electronic cigarette has been sold in the United States for over two years now. Up until this point, ATF has decided that they do not wish to regulate the e-liquid and the FDA has not wanted to get involved as well. Now, all of the sudden they do? It is interesting that millions are flocking to the e-cig and we can only come up with one reason as to why this nonfactual report would be aired: The anti-smoking campaign is furious and the pharmaceutical companies have most likely noticed a drop in their profits when it comes to NRT’s.
Now, it does not help that some marketers are claiming this is a quit smoking product. It is not a quit smoking product. It is a smoking alternative. It allows people to switch from a tobacco cigarette to something else.
Industry wide, Safe Cig has been warned to change their content on their website and to stop advertising them as a quit smoking method. It sends the wrong message to the powers that be. However, we would like to note that Jon from SafeCig has stated that Stephanie Stahl did not even show up for her interview with him and sent a stage hand to do her work. There’s some good journalism integrity for you.
As far as the claims by the American Cancer Society and these not being tested, that is simply untrue and false statements should be ignored. As we noted in our post Clinical Trials and Testing of the Electronic Cigarette, there have been tests done of a variety of different e-liquids and they have been found to be safe. In fact, in one report, Dr. Laugessen even states that the electronic cigarette is a “safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes”.
Also, with the statement that the “problem is the vapor you see has not been proven safe”. This statement is correct. HOWEVER, the second hand smoke from a tobacco cigarette HAS been proven UNSAFE and therefore, if it can be sold legally, then there is absolutely no reason a smoker cannot make the determination for themselves that the vapor is better than tobacco smoke.
We find it extremely interesting that such a hoolala is being made over a product that is actually moving millions of people world wide from tobacco and pharmaceutical products. The only thing we can come up with is that the “big boys” aren’t getting their dimes and they are less than happy.
