Electronic Cigarettes Safe According to Doctors?
Electronic cigarette advocate Professor Michael Siegel is a doctor, a professor, and an enthusiastic supporter of tobacco harm reduction. He is also a tireless exposer of tobacco myths that many of us e-smokers look up to in awe.
Considering the present move of major national anti-smoking groups asking the FDA to take the electronic cigarette off the market -- this despite overpowering evidence that the electronic cigarette is much safer than conventional cigarettes and much more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapy products in keeping smokers off of cigarettes -- still it really comes down to ideology vs. science.
According to Dr. Siegel, he was 'accused of having taken money' from electronic cigarette manufacturers for his statements. Many other anti-smoking advocates simply cannot understand that someone could take yp a position that opposes the orthodoxy of the movement without being on the tobacco industry side.
He admits that he can't say how safe the electronic cigarette is, "but what I can say is that it is substantially safer than the conventional cigarette. 'Inhaling nicotine' cannot be as dangerous as inhaling 'nicotine plus thousands of other chemicals', including more than 40 carcinogens. It doesn't take long-term studies to make that determination". As David Sweanor astutely points out, determining that a tobacco-free nicotine delivering product (such as the electronic cigarette) is safer than a product that delivers nicotine with thousands of tobacco smoke constituents is a fact of basic science, and anyone who challenges such a notion would probably benefit from a remedial course in all basic sciences.
Whether electronic cigarette is safer than the conventional cigarette is really a non-issue. The real questions are how effective the product is in helping smokers keep off cigarettes, how the electronic cigarette could figure into a long-term strategy for promoting smoking cessation, and what specific messages about the electronic cigarette and health would be appropriate to communicate to the public.
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