Electronic cigarettes are safer than tobacco

I can't help but feel that the letter published Dec. 4 about electronic cigarettes and the writer's belief that they should be banned indoors is a bit unfair, uninformed and downright incorrect. I feel it my duty, as an avid user of electronic cigarettes, to not let the community fall into the trend of allowing misunderstanding to become fear. There have been multiple studies done on the subject of electronic cigarette vapor safety and the safety of its second-hand vapor. All of the studies done so far have supported the idea that not only are electronic cigarettes safer than conventional tobacco products but, in fact, may pose no health risk at all to the user as well as others in the room.

Electronic cigarettes do not utilize combustion to produce vapor. They heat a liquid comprised of vegetable glycerin (I guarantee you are within 50 feet of a product containing vegetable glycerin as you read this), propylene glycol (used in the medical field for non-water soluble medications and in respiratory treatments for decades upon decades) and flavoring that have been used in foods as well as electronic cigarettes.

If you read through these articles and the studies they are talking about (links are in the articles), you'll find that not only are the amounts of nicotine and other chemicals not harmful to bystanders, but that they were, in fact, immeasurable by the instruments used to conduct the studies.

http://www.blog.modernvapor.com/vaping-news-and-insights/electronic-cigarette-air-quality-study.htm

http://casaa.org/uploads/Ecigarettes_and_Smokefree_policies.pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2012.00792.x/abstract

I also feel that it is simply incorrect, let alone unfairly biased toward unfair views of electronic cigarettes, to refer to the second-hand vapor as "smoke." It is not smoke. There is no burning. There is no fire. What you put into an electronic cigarette is exactly what you get out.

Nicotine in and of itself is not harmful. It is actually a fairly mild cousin of caffeine. The only real negative affect of nicotine is its addiction potential. which, in tobacco products such as cigarettes, is increased due to MAOIs produced through the combustion of some of the thousands of chemicals in tobacco smoke. Electronic cigarettes are, as far as the studies show us so far, about as dangerous as drinking a cup of coffee in a humid room.

I hope you take the time to read this and really look into the studies and articles I've provided you. The amount of negative coverage about electronic cigarettes lately makes me absolutely infuriated. It is unfair for these factually incorrect, ignorant claims to be circulated while the media does its best to ignore all of the positive aspects of electronic cigarettes which are, as you may have guessed, actually true. We can't say for sure, at this point, that electronic cigarettes are 100 percent safe, but they can never be as bad as tobacco. Leading people to believe that tobacco is the preferable option to electronic cigarettes will cost millions of lives, and it's up to people like me and other electronic cigarette users to stand up to all of this negativity.

Brad Ganley  •  Belleville