There’s been something of a full-court press to demonize electronic cigarettes in the media lately. The idea is to present them as a public-health menace on the same level as tobacco, thus triggering extensive regulations. Senator Durbin, along with Blumenthal, Markey, Boxer, Heitkamp, and Lautenberg, has called on the FDA to step in.
And why? Because they’re not already regulated. It’s a grim tautology that implies every aspect of our behavior should be subject to government oversight. It’s no coincidence that the politicians who have been the most vocal on this matter are also the biggest supporters of gun control in Washington DC.
It comes down to the same philosophy: meddling.
Nicotine has traditionally been delivered through tobacco, so the association between the two is hard to shake. As such, the political push is to equate vaping with smoking in order to stigmatize it.
Research on the health effects of atomized nicotine is still in its early stages, but it appears to be largely harmless [pdf]. Concerns over secondhand exposure also appear to be unfounded. Last week, the Royal College of Physicians released a paper repeating what we’ve been saying the whole time:
Despite the controversies, it is clear that e-cigarettes are far less hazardous than is tobacco. With more than a million UK smokers using them to help to cut down or quit smoking, they are proving to be valuable harm reduction and cessation products and could make a substantial contribution to reducing the burden of death, disability and poverty currently caused by tobacco smoking. Health professionals should embrace this potential by encouraging smokers, particularly those disinclined to use licensed nicotine replacement therapies, to try them, and, when possible, to do so in conjunction with existing NHS smoking cessation and harm reduction support. E-cigarettes will save lives, and we should support their use.
Yet here in the US, there are innumerable calls to restrict and tax e-cigarettes. Concerns over the sale of nicotine to minors are understandable, but I know of no proprietor who doesn’t voluntarily restrict them. In Georgia, HB 251 [pdf] is on its way to the governor’s desk, but it doesn’t go much further than punishing underage sales. On the other hand, there are initiatives in California, New Jersey, and several other states to tax e-cigarettes as much as 95%.
Politicians are doing their best to destroy one of the biggest life-saving inventions of our lifetime in the name of public health. The initiative is still in its early stages, but it’s imperative you stay in touch with your legislators on the issue.