E-Cigarettes: Alien Technology or Healthy Supplement?

There are all sorts of products out on the market made to wean smokers off a dangerous habit—the patch, the lozenge, and the gum, for example. Yet, what about the e-cigarette? Though it’s marketed as a “safer” alternative to cigarettes, and not necessarily a smoking-cessation device, unlike the other nicotine delivery products, e-cigarettes—battery-operated devices that supposedly work by heating up a liquid nicotine substance which “e-smokers” inhale as vapor—aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In fact, according to the American Medical Association, on January 14, a federal judge ruled that e-cigarettes should not be subject to FDA regulation because they are merely an alternative to traditional cigarettes, which are readily available. Medical experts counter that, though they may be marketed as alternatives to traditional cigarettes, people are turning to them as a smoking cessation product, which means that greater oversight is critical. In the midst of this heated debate, however, a researcher from the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University decided to put two brands of e-cigarettes to the test, to see just how they stack up against actual cigarettes. His findings, published in the February issue of the journal Tobacco Control, suggest that the e-smokes fail to deliver much nicotine, or help reduce cravings.

Read more: http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2010/02/15/do-electronic-cigarettes-actually-work/#ixzz0hNhAs3fe

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