Anti-smoking groups slam the device, while smokers embrace it
Monday, July 06, 2009
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Susan Albano took her first drag at 15 in a Brooklyn school yard. By her early 20s, she was addicted. By STEPHANIE SLEPIAN
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
The 51-year-old Prince's Bay woman -- who sometimes plans her day around where and when she can smoke, which even she admits is absurd -- has tried to kick her pack-a-day habit "a million different ways" ever since.
Hypnosis and acupuncture failed. She was allergic to the adhesive in nicotine patches, and Chantix -- a smoking-cessation medicine -- made her sick. Cold turkey didn't work either.
Last week, Mrs. Albano took her first puff on an electronic cigarette -- simply known as an e-cigarette.
The battery-powered, tobacco-free, nicotine-delivery device looks like the real thing, right down to the odorless vapor mist. And while e-cigarettes are being criticized by anti-smoking groups and monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they are embraced by large numbers trying to quit or avoid bans on lighting up in public.
"My sister got it first, and me and Mom are trying it now," Mrs. Albano said after purchasing a starter kit in the Staten Island Mall at the Smoke Anywhere Kiosk, a cart decorated with gold ribbons to match the product packaging, glossy boutique-style shopping bags and glamour shots of e-cigarette users who might make the Marlboro Man jealous.
"My sister had some spots the doctors thought could have been lung cancer. We just got the good news that it's not. She had a kidney removed due to cancer and we thought it was spreading. It was kind of a wake-up call to all of us."
Starter kits, which typically include the battery-powered cigarette, replaceable cartridges and chargers, range in price from $70 to $150 at mall kiosks or online retailers.
When the user inhales, a heating element is activated, vaporizing the nicotine solution, which comes in a variety of strengths and flavors.
The tip glows red, imitating a real cigarette, but without the odor or secondhand and tar-filled smoke. E-cigarettes can be used in airports, shopping malls, restaurants and movie theaters -- or anywhere a cigarette can't.
"We think this is a reliable and safe alternative to smoking," said Matt Salmon, president of the Electronic Cigarette Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing an industry on track to make $100 million this year.
"It gives smokers the nicotine they crave, but without all the known carcinogens found in combustible cigarettes."
TOO MANY UNKNOWNS?
But some see e-cigarettes as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
The American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids have joined Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in calling on the FDA to remove them from the market until they can be tested.
Critics also charge children may be attracted by the e-cigarette's novelty, accessibility and its chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, cherry or mint flavorings.
"These devices haven't been examined by any government agency," said Alberta Brescia, regional vice president of the Staten Island American Cancer Society. "We don't know how the ingredients are affecting the body.
"Many smokers who use [e-cigarettes] also continue to smoke cigarettes, and they are under the false impression that because they are smoking fewer cigarettes, it's OK to keep smoking."
The FDA has banned several shipments of e-cigarettes from coming into the country -- mostly from China, where they have been manufactured for the last five years -- saying the product is a drug-delivery device requiring agency approval before being legally marketed and sold in the United States.
There is also no scientific data documenting the safety of e-cigarettes, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
Anti-smoking groups slam the device, while smokers embrace it
But Salmon said his group's members sell e-cigarettes strictly as an alternative that allows smokers to get their nicotine in a way that is more palatable, not as smoking-cessation products that need federal regulation. They also do not sell to minors, though many non-members play by their own rules.
"There are a lot of anecdotes out there about people kicking the habit, but those aren't claims we're making," said Salmon, a non-smoker who as an Arizona congressman pushed through a state law that was among the nation's first public-smoking bans.
Some companies have taken the FDA to court, arguing the agency has no jurisdiction over e-cigarettes because they are not designed to help people quit.
"You've got special interests out there that see us as a threat or maybe even a displacing technology and they're trying to do everything they can to gear up the FDA and the powers that be here in Washington to protect them," said Salmon, noting his association is not involved in any of the pending litigation.
"Withholding the e-cigarette from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke tobacco," he said. "My feeling is government should try to help people have an alternative, not take them away."
For Mrs. Albano, an executive assistant to the CEO of Thomson Reuters in Manhattan, there is only one reason to power up her e-smoke.
"I think the concept is just perfect for people who want to quit -- and I want to quit."
Stephanie Slepian is a news reporter for the Advance. She may be reached at slepian@siadvance.com.
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