The electronic cigarette can help smokers quit their addictions to traditional cigarettes, a study conducted by a Boston University School of Public Health professor suggested.
Pioneered by a Chinese pharmacist in 2003, the e-cigarette is a battery-powered device that provides inhaled doses of nicotine by way of a vaporized solution.
According to the February study published by professor Michael Siegel in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the e-cigarette is not as unhealthy as its opponents have suggested and that “electronic cigarettes show tremendous promise in the fight against tobacco related morbidity and mortality.”
In the study, Siegel and the other researchers conducted a survey online by asking first time users of e-cigarettes to describe how effective they thought the substitute was in helping them to quit smoking. Out of the total surveyed, 222 responded. Out of the total number of respondents, 66.8 percent were able to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked and 48.8 percent were able to stop smoking for a period of time.
The e-cigarette is about two times as effective when compared to other smoking substitutes, such as gun and patches, which yield a rate of 12 to 18 percent depending on the product, according to the study.
“What anti-smoking groups – including the American Lung Association – do not understand is that the market for e-cigarettes is current smokers, not nonsmokers,” Siegel said in an article published in The Orange County Register.
The product is now sold in most states. However, despite the growing demand, several states, including New York and New Hampshire, have restricted or banned the sale of e-cigarettes due to a 2009 Federal Drug Association report criticizing the product.
The e-cigarette is “loaded with harmful toxins and carcinogens” and its consumption can be potentially harmful, according to the FDA report which analyzed the effects of the liquid substance contained in the capsules inhaled when using the e-cigarette.
The FDA looked at 19 cartridges of the largest e-cigarette producing companies and found impurities within the samples that are known to be toxic to the human body. Their most shocking finding was Diethylene glycol, a noxious chemical substance found in antifreeze.
Although the FDA’s findings have since proved false, the American Lung Association has refused to accept the e-cigarette as a safe alternative to smoking and is obstinate in its decision, according to the American Journal of Preventative Medicine study.
The ALA agrees with FDA’s decision to restrict the drug and portrays e-cigarettes as a hoax aimed at marketing not only smokers, but non-smokers and minors as well.
“The vapor that you inhale is not without risk. It is not pure nicotine. It has with it some contaminants,” said Dr. Ira Jeffry Strumpf, a spokesman for the ALA, in an article published in The OC Register.
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