President Barack Obama has quit smoking this week according to his wife Michelle. Johnny Depp plays Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart, meets Elise, an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. In the new movie The Tourist, Depp “lights up” an electronic cigarette throughout the film and explains all of the benefits to Angelina Jolie on a train.

Electronic cigarettes boast of no carcinogens, no cigarette butts, no second hand smoke, no smelly cars and homes and restaurants, no yellow teeth and no tobacco. Statistically an estimated 25.6 million men (25.2%) and 22.6 million women (20.7%) of persons living in the United States are smokers, says the American Heart Association. Smokers are pilloried for smoking tobacco. They struggle with the social and health stigmas associated with their smoking habits.

E-Cigarettes Hit Electronic cigarettes are the all new electronic smoking alternative that looks and feels just like a cigarette, but instead of burning tobacco and producing smoke, it vaporizes a nicotine liquid called e-liquid into a tar free, and odorless vapor.

The vapor is exactly like smoke and is produced automatically during every puff of the electronic cigarette. It does this using an airflow sensor that detects every drag of the e-cigarette. Once activated, a red led light at the end gradually starts to glow reddish orange to resemble the look and experience of smoking a real cigarette. The electronic cigarette experience is so close and identical to the real thing that many smokers make the switch after the first try.

Electronic cigarettes are tar free, odorless, do not produce smoke, second hand smoke, or carbon monoxide. They never have to be lit, they do not produce cigarette butts or ash, they will not smell up a house or car, and they greatly reduce the risk of fire. They can save a substantial amount of money when compared to buying traditional packs because only refillable cartridges are purchased which are much cheaper overall.

These “E-Cigarettes” can be smoked just about anywhere and one can even choose the desired level of nicotine delivery. Electronic cigarettes are becoming more and more popular every day within the smoking community and are becoming known as a highly accepted, smoker approved, alternative to tobacco.

One of the main benefits of the electronic cigarette is that it does not produce second-hand smoke. Instead of smoke it produces a tar free and odorless nicotine vapor. Real cigarettes ignite and burn plant matter such as tobacco leaves along with paper and other chemicals. When smoke is produced by burning tobacco leaves, carbon monoxide is also produced. Carbon monoxide hinders the ability of the blood to carry oxygen when inhaled. Inhaling smoke, no matter the substance, is bad for you. When you combine the 4000+ chemicals that are found in cigarettes the long term effects have proved to be devastating.

However, a study in the took a hard look at e-cigs. The study measured electronic cigarettes’ effectiveness as a cessation technique. Researchers at Boston University sent surveys to 5,000 people who had bought e-cigarettes. Of the 216 qualified respondents (mostly male, lifetime-smokers who had tried to quit in the past), nearly 70% replied that they’d cut down on the number of cigarettes they smoked after six months, and 30% said they’d quit.

In September 2010, the FDA sent five warning letters to e-cigarette distributors for “unsubstantiated claims and poor manufacturing practices.” But a few months later, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA does not actually have the power to regulate e-cigarettes as a drug, Bloomberg reports. Which means for now, the agency can only restrict the marketing of e-cigs, not their sale.

The electronic cigarette utilizes newly introduced atomization technology to bypass the need to burn tobacco. The electronic cigarette rapidly heats up a specially blended liquid nicotine solution, and the rapid heating of this liquid causes vaporization and will change the state of matter from liquid to vapor. The user then inhales the vapor just like they would normal smoke. The benefit of this is that there is no combustible smoke, what looks like smoke is actually the liquid that has been vaporized.

Source: American Journal of Preventative Medicine

Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.