FDA Lab Analysis Puts the Heat on E-Cigarettes

by Anne Landman — July 24, 2009 - 12:28pm
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Their websites have names like SmokeAnywhere.com and SmokingEverywhere.com, and manufacturers of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are touting that their products are "cheaper than a cigarette," have a "cool design," come in "different flavors" and are a "tar-free option" to traditional cigarettes. The website of E-Cigarettes National boasts that its new electronic cigarettes have "eliminated over 3,900 chemicals for the smoker that is looking for a smart alternative," and one site even advertises it as a "health cigarette." But the heat on electronic cigarettes is growing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation, Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis (DPA) recently purchased samples of e-cigarettes and analyzed cartridges from them for nicotine content and the presence of potentially cancer-causing tobacco constituents. DPA found one percent diethylene glycol -- a toxic ingredient used in antifreeze -- in the cartridge of one cigarette. Half the samples tested contained tobacco-specific nitrosamines, which are known human carcinogens. All but one of the e-cigarette cartridges labeled as containing no nicotine did, in fact, contain low levels of nicotine. And three different cartridges with the same label were tested and found to emit "markedly different amounts of nicotine with each puff." DPA suggests the findings indicate "that quality control processes used to manufacture these products are inconsistent or non-existent." E-cigarettes are currently manufactured, advertised and sold without FDA oversight.

Main Source: 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, News and Events, Public Health Focus, July 22, 2009

Comments

money

Submitted by anna (not verified) on August 20, 2013 - 9:00pm.

the only reason why the governement is against ecigs is because so much of the money our government makes is from tax from cigarettes. they cannot tax the ecig yet the way they tax tobacco because it is not tobacco. the ecig is substantially less expensive and way healthier for you. that is what everything is based on in our country: money. so if the government is loosing money by us CHOOSING a safer alternative, of course they are going to try to ban it with every excuse and as much propaganda as they can.

e-cig

Submitted by lauri (not verified) on September 9, 2013 - 7:17pm.

Boy you hit on the nose about government interference. It always comes down to the almighty dollar.

Where are your values?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 21, 2013 - 9:03am.

The way I see it, ecigs pervert God's purpose for electronics, which is to enjoy music, not to suck nicotine.

FDA is wrong on electronic cigarettes!

Submitted by ecigarette (not verified) on January 16, 2011 - 7:13pm.

I have to say that my health is so much better after I switched to - I mean this ecigarette is the way to smoke!

The FDA make me laugh

Submitted by IanVaper (not verified) on November 11, 2010 - 3:51pm.

I truely believe that the FDA could find oxygen in outer space!
They do look after our interests but sometimes are blinkered by the benefits and have a need for over control!
I use electronic cigarettes and I also eat beef, there could be risks we don't know about for both products butit doesn't give the FDA the right to take a tiny sample of products and make a judgement on that!

great article by the way

It's a shame the FDA has

Submitted by Rafi Goldmeier (not verified) on October 31, 2010 - 5:29am.

It's a shame the FDA has taken such a hard stance against the ecig industry.

I think smoking electronic cigarettes is a pretty good solution. It might not be perfect, but it is far better than smoking tobacco cigarettes and is more effective to help people quit smoking completely.

The FDA should be embracing the electronic cigarette industry, and trying to improve it, make it better and even safer, rather than hindering it.

Great solutions

Submitted by Eka (not verified) on July 5, 2010 - 6:19am.

I think this is an effective solution to start a stop real smoking cigarettes. Although I've never tried to use the E-cigarettes, this seems very worth to try. thank you for this solution.

I recommend to my foreign

Submitted by Theonerx (not verified) on October 14, 2010 - 3:07am.

I recommend to my foreign colleagues to start with a conservative approach and then, if you want to spend more high-frequency trading thay can do that later, once they acquire a little more experience.

wow ... just ... wow

Submitted by Thomas Wright (not verified) on July 4, 2010 - 11:51am.

Really? I come to PRWatch to find and article I thought I would be able to trust on ecigs - and it's vague and discounts the FDA Laboratory's professional spins and lies? On top of that, it's a year old article - and it's obviously a bad representation of information - and it's still on your website? You just went from 10 to 3 in trust-ability for me.

The wrong question

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2009 - 8:39am.

I believe that the entire situation boils down to the FDA and popular "news" media asking the WRONG QUESTION.

You should not be asking "Are E-cigarettes safe?"

You should ask "Are e-cigarettes SAFER than traditional ones?"

Write the FDA, phrase the question like that, as I did, and expect the following answer...
"We are unwilling at this time to quantify the safety of electronic cigarettes as compared to traditional cigarettes."

There is some simple, 1st grade math that you can do to answer the question though... Is 4-7 carcinogens less than 75+? orrrrrr, 7<75? Is it more likely for you to dodge 7 bullets or 75? easy answer, easy question.

The "quit or die" mentality doesn't work. nicotine addicts have a lower success rate at quitting than heroin addicts. Less than 6%. At least just let us have the safeR fix.