FDA Lab Analysis Puts the Heat on E-Cigarettes

Spins-of-the-Day are short pieces, so space did not allow for a more extensive description of [[Diethylene glycol|diethylene glycol]], however in the Spin we provided a link from the name of the chemical to a more thorough description of it in PRWatch's tobacco portal, [[http://www.tobaccowiki.org TobaccoWiki.org]]. If you click on the link (which we provided again in this response), you will see that the second sentence the article points out that ethylene glycol is used as a humectant in tobacco, as well as in other products, like synthetic sponges, paper products, in cork compositions, and in book-binding adhesives. The information in this article about the uses and health effects of diethylene glycol was, in fact, taken from tobacco industry documents, and the industry got the information from the government-funded [http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB Hazardous Substances Databank], a division of the United States National Library of Medicine. You are welcome to contribute more information to TobaccoWiki's article on diethylene glycol, provided the information you add can be referenced to an authoritative source.

Regarding your statement that e-cigarettes are not marketed as smoking cessation devices, that is not true. While your company may not be marketing them this way, many other business are. A quick look on the Web found the [http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/243476822/Smoking_cessation_products_mini_Electronic_Cigarette.html "Smoking cessation products mini electronic cigarette"], and a Web site called [http://www.stop-smoking-updates.com/quitsmoking/cigarette-cessation/stop-smoking-methods/quit-smoking-with-electronic-cigarette.htm "Stop Smoking"] that writes that the electronic Cigarette is "a good aid in a stop smoking program." It further advises that using e-cigarettes in a cessation program can help people "give up their habit of smoking more quickly." There are also sales-oriented videos on YouTube, like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz59cKAA9wM this one] from ChinaVision Wholesale Electronics titled, "Stop Smoking: Quit The Electronic Way With E Cigarettes," that clearly promotes the e-cigarette as a smoking cessation device.
[http://greensmoke.com/ GreenSmoke.com] uploaded a video onto YouTube titled [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-StgIiL7OdI New Quit Smoking Cessation Product Try an Electronic Cigarette!] So, clearly e-cigarettes are being promoted all over the Web as cessation devices, your company nothwithstanding.

Neither Marlboros, Marlboro lights nor Marlboro ultralights have ever been marketed as a smoking cessation devices, so that claim is patently absurd.

I will allow that e-cigarettes may emit fewer chemicals than a traditional, combusted cigarette, and from this standpoint could potentially be a safer smoking alternative. The idea of pursuing harm reduction by designing a non-combusted, cigarette-like smoking device has been around for a long time, and has, in fact been created by the big tobacco companies (e.g., products like "Accord," and "Eclipse").
But whether someone is ingesting 3,900 fewer chemicals, or 10,000 or 20,000, "fewer" is immaterial. All it takes is one known human carcinogen to cause cancer. With e-cigarettes, the question is, what is the dose and frequency of exposure? Whether tobacco-specific nitrosamines come from chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes, pipes, or traditional cigarettes is similarly immaterial. The Hazardous Substances Databank still defines tobacco-specific nitrosamies as "the most abundant strong carcinogens" in smokeless tobacco and in smoke, and "major contributors to the induction of cancers."