Electronic Cigarettes Contain Toxic Chemicals

Smoking cigarettes, whether the real thing or their electronic counterparts, is a bad idea.  Actually, who knew that there were such things as electronic cigarettes?  The fact that such a thing exists illustrates how big of a problem smoking is.

In case you’re not a regular reader of the site, I’ll give you a Cliff Notes version of my tobacco products/cigarettes position.

• Smoking is bad
• You shouldn’t smoke
• It’s a legal product/habit
• If you want to smoke, go for it
• Politicians, health advocates and civilian do-gooders who want to tax or control tobacco products rather than ban them, are exponentially worse than the tobacco companies

So back to the story about electronic cigarettes.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say they have found cancer-causing ingredients in electronic cigarettes.  Needless to say, the manufacturers of these ersatz lung killers claim their product is safe, safer in fact than tobacco coffin nails.

These electronic cigs produce a nicotine mist that’s absorbed directly by the lungs, without the smoke. Yummy!

Those who favor electronic smokes may not be thrilled to learn that among the chemicals found by the feds include an ingredient found in antifreeze, nitrosamine and found nicotine in products advertised as being nicotine-free.  Oops According to a story that appeared on the Associated Press’ Health and Wellness newswire, among the brands tested were Smoking Everywhere and N Joy.

A group called the Electronic Cigarette Association said the FDA’s testing wasn’t up to par and therefore couldn’t reach “any valid and reliable conclusions.”  I don’t know about you, but if I was fake puffing on some electronic cigarette I don’t think I’d think there was an acceptable limit of cancer causing ingredients.  If I were going to get cancer from smoking, I’d at least want to get if from smoking the real thing.

The federal laws governing tobacco but don’t pertain to electronic cigarettes, but regulators have tried to prevent this product from reaching consumers. The FDA is being challenged over their attempts to regulate this product and have been taken to court by the manufacturers.  It should come as no surprise that most of these products – a health and safety hazard – are made in China.

As a result of this development there is a movement in the US Senate to ban this product until they can be proven to be safe.  This situation is ironic in that the same elected officials who have no problem taking tax revenues produced by sales of cigarettes and other real tobacco products have sprung into action in order to ban their electronic imitators.