Electronic cigarettes deliver nicotine in vapor rather than smoke, but …
You have to hand it to entrepreneurs in the electronic cigarette business. In a time of economic recession, they are creating wealth, jobs and scores of tobacco converts.
Electronic cigarettes look like the real thing, but they are battery powered to deliver nicotine in a vapor rather than tobacco smoke.
Calls in Washington that e-cigarettes be banned from the market because of unknown health risks haven’t stopped people from buying. The smokeless smokes have been on the U.S. market for about two years, and already they are being sold in about 4,000 retail outlets, according to an industry group.
The device is simple: The battery, which resembles white tobacco-filled paper, joins with a replaceable cartridge filled with liquid nicotine solution. Draw on it like a cigarette and the battery heats the solution, producing a cloud of nicotine-enriched vapor that looks like smoke, but isn’t.
It’s clean, which has an eco-conscious appeal; no ashes, no stink, no butts littering the landscape. You can indulge anywhere without breaking no-smoking rules.
“It’s providing your body with nicotine without the secondhand smoke, without the tar and without the carcinogens,” said Mike Patrick, who sells e-cigarettes at the Smoke 51 kiosk at Beachwood Place. “This is a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes, and it’s a lot cheaper.”
“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way.” — Sebastian Cangemi, President of Liberty Stix in Willoughby
But health groups have raised alarms about the lack of safety data. The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and others came out in support of a call from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, that the Food and Drug Administration take them off the market.
The FDA says the devices are subject to enforcement action because it considers them unapproved drug-delivery devices. The agency has stopped some shipments from China, but it has not taken steps to remove the products from the market.
“We don’t know what the health effects are. It’s not been studied,” said Shelly Kiser of the American Lung Association of Ohio. “Who knows what happens when you breathe vaporized nicotine into your lungs?”
Industry frontman Matt Salmon, a former U.S. representative from Arizona, has been busy trying to fend off regulators and critics. Salmon heads the Electronic Cigarette Association, which formed in the spring. He said in a prepared statement that electronic cigarettes are safer than tobacco, and he argues the FDA has no jurisdiction to regulate them.
On a video posted on the industry Web site, Salmon says: “Whatever is said, remember this: Withholding electronic cigarettes from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke cigarettes, which is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.”
Dr. Scott Frank, director of the public health program at the Case Western Reserve University medical school, said even if e-cigarettes help people quit tobacco, nicotine-replacement products require FDA approval.
“I would never advocate for electronic cigarettes to be available in unregulated fashion,” Frank said.
None of that seems to matter to customers. U.S. sales this past year are around $100 million, and they are on pace to double, the association says.
A Willoughby company called Liberty Stix opened for business 11 months ago, and is now selling e-cigarettes to retail outlets and individual customers across the country. The company occupies 17,000 square feet of industrial park space, where four employees take phone orders and several others fill orders for shipping.
Liberty Stix, which sells starter kits for about $40, is working on deals to place the product in casinos, retail chains and military installations, said President Sebastian Cangemi.
“Where smoking bans are in effect, we do advertising,” said Cangemi.
He said he’s concerned about calls for e-cigarettes to be pulled off the market, “but hopefully they’ll look at it without fogged glasses.” The company is working with research labs in Ohio, New Jersey and Texas in hopes of showing that the devices are safer and healthier than tobacco, he said.
“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way,” Cangemi said.
Cangemi had approached Iyaad Hasan, director of the Cleveland Clinic Tobacco Treatment Center, about recommending Liberty Stix as an alternative to cigarettes. Hasan said in an interview he considered it but declined. He said part of addiction treatment is breaking hand-to-mouth behavior. “We push breaking the linkage to a cigarette,” he said. Critics also say that nicotine itself can affect blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol levels.
Daniel Vaughn, 63, heard about Liberty Stix from a radio ad. The Cleveland resident said he smoked a pack and a half of regular cigarettes a day. Like most customers, Vaughn decided to try electronic cigarettes to help him quit tobacco, even though e-cigarettes are not approved for that purpose. Vaughn said they worked, though it took several months of electronic smoking to wean himself off tobacco.
“When I first wake up in the morning, I hook in a new cartridge and puff away,” Vaughn said.
Cartridges can be bought with varying amounts of nicotine, or no nicotine at all. The nicotine is contained in liquid propylene glycol, a chemical that produces the vapor. A cartridge lasts about as long as a pack of cigarettes, and they come in flavors such as chocolate, apple, mint and coffee.
The flavorings have prompted criticism that the industry is targeting young people. Cangemi said most of his customers are older, “because they realize their mortality.”
Patrick, whose family opened the Beachwood kiosk in May, launched into his pitch to two young women who stopped by one recent afternoon.
“Will this help her stop smoking?” Martika White asked, pointing to her friend, Bianca Johnson, 22. “I want to help her stop. I’ve been talking to her about it.”
Patrick explained how it works, and then demonstrated by drawing on an e-cigarette and blowing out a vapor stream. Johnson said she’d consider it and walked away with a business card.
“Now they’re thinking about it,” Patrick said. “That’s about as good as a sale.”
© Cleveland
