EDITORIAL: Vaping is trending, but is it safe? - Meriden Record-Journal

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JAN. 5, 2014 AND THEREAFTER - FILE - This Monday, Oct. 13, 1997 file photo shows a cigarette vending machine in a bar in Montpelier, Vt. A law passed by the Legislature banned all cigarette vending machines in the state as of August 28, 1997, but Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell ruled that enforcement of the law would begin in March 1998. On Jan. 11, 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released an emphatic and authoritative report that said smoking causes illness and death - and the government should do something about it. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)


Vaping is trending, as they say — but is it any safer than smoking? Not necessarily, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is concerned.

Cigarette smoking is generally down, both across the country and in this state. A 2015 DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey of 16,219 randomly selected Connecticut adults showed that smoking had dropped off by five percentage points over three years. The same survey showed that more people in the 35-to-54 age group are at least trying to quit.

The younger adult (18 to 34) segment of smokers, however, can be strongly attracted to electronic smoking alternatives: new forms of nicotine delivery that don’t involve burning, instead using battery power to vaporize a liquid that usually contains both a flavoring agent and nicotine.

“It seems to resonate more with them,” Yale professor of psychiatry Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin told a reporter. “It’s a technological product at this point, like their iPhones. They can charge it, or play around with the flavors.”

It’s a new subculture, really, with its own technology and its own jargon, and the marketers are out there in force to take advantage — with in-store advertising and websites that cater to this evolving youth market. The devices themselves come in a pleasing array of colors and have a pleasingly high-tech look. The “juice” comes in flavors including Rainbow Candy, Cappuccino, Peppermint Twist, Rum and Cola and hundreds more.

A recent glance at the website for V4L (which means, without apparent irony, “Vape 4 Life”) reveals a vast array of E Cigarettes, Vape Starter Kits, Vape Juice, Accessories, Advanced Accessories, and the E Juice Flavor of the Week: Sweet Orange.

While it may be encouraging to think that many of those trying e-cigarettes are simply trying to quit smoking, it is not at all encouraging to speculate as to what message the adolescent, not-yet-smoking population is receiving, especially with ads that seem to target a young demographic.

“Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine,” warns the CDC, “which causes addiction, may harm brain development, and could lead to continued tobacco product use among youth.” Furthermore, “spending to advertise e-cigarettes has increased rapidly since 2011,” and most middle- and high-school students are exposed to such ads.

So, without even considering the reports of e-cigarettes that have exploded, they are not “safe,” by any reasonable meaning of the word. The states may be taking reasonable measures to regulate this new “vaping” industry, but we fear that it won’t be any more effective than their efforts on smoking cessation.

The CDC again: “In fiscal year 2016, states will collect $25.8 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements but will only spend $468 million — less than 2 percent — on prevention and cessation programs. Currently, only one state (North Dakota) funds tobacco control programs at CDC’s ‘recommended’ level. Only four other states (Alaska, Maine, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) fund tobacco control programs at even half the recommended level.”

This is not a good track record, and Connecticut has not distinguished itself in this regard. But at least Meriden’s Smoking Cessation Program is back in business, at the Health Department. Phone: (203) 630-4003 or email Geralyn Laut, smoking cessation counselor: [email protected]. The program is free.

 

LOL, not necessarily safer than smoking right? I love the choice of words, at the same time it's really hard to understand how they can compare vaping with tobacco, something that everyone knows is bad.

 

^same. I love how the author worded everything. Although I guess some or most research would say that e-cigarette is safer than traditional cigarette -it's just that it's not safe too.

 

Tobacco industry is being pretty clever in making the association between e-cigs and cigarettes about being harmful, but that's hardly true as they are completely different products.