Whether the Electronic Cigarette is Safer than Traditional Cigarette

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Whether the electronic cigarette is safer than traditional cigarette
Introduction
Looking at CDC’s fact sheet on smoking tobacco, one is left surprised that smoking tobacco is still legal in the United States. The first fact regarding traditional cigarette smoking is that it “harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the health of smokers in general.” With this in mind, it is indeed shocking that people will continue smoking even though this information is public. Another fact from the sheet is that “cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.” The article continues to state that traditional cigarette smoking causes “more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States” (2017). Evidently, smoking causes more deaths than alcohol use, firearm-related episodes, illegal drug intake, the HIV, among other causes. This piece of evidence helps to show that traditional cigarette smoking does kill and is far more dangerous than it is often purported to be. Another obvious piece of evidence is that traditional cigarette smoking increases a person’s chances of getting lung cancer as well as coronary heart disease. Knowing the above facts, some companies decided to introduce electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes as they are commonly known. There have been several debates which appear to indicate that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. However, there is little evidence to substantiate the above and this article seeks to showcase that e-cigarettes are in fact less harmful than purported to be, and this is because of their effects on the young people, the lack of regulation of e-cigarettes, presence of nicotine and other chemicals, as well as the lack of evidence or research to substantiate the claims that they are safer than traditional cigarettes.
E-cigarettes have been reported to encourage and introduce young people to smoking. There have been questions regarding the effects e-cigarettes could have on the youth and one of them that appears to have gathered a good amount of evidence is the idea that it encourages or introduces them to the smoking habit. In their book, Stratton, Kwan, and Eaton (494) note that “among the population of teens and young adults with no history of smoking, several possible transitions in combustible tobacco use behavior may occur as a result of e-cigarette use.” The above simply means that the young people could be led to smoking because of their use of the e-cigarettes. These researchers continue to state that the young people often end up becoming people who smoke at high frequencies or people who “smoke very little on each smoking day and discontinue use shortly following initiation” (495). Regardless of the kind of a smoker a person turns out to be, the effects of the e-cigarettes on the young people are quite evident. It should be noted that the above research focused on adolescents and young adults.
The other issue that shows that e-cigarettes are not any safer than traditional cigarettes is the simple fact that the FDA does not yet regulate them. This means that the companies manufacturing e-cigarettes are not expected to disclose the ingredients they are using to make their products. It is explicitly stated in a 2010 article by the FDA that “food manufacturers are required to list all ingredients in the food on the label.” The ingredients are listed in the order of the one which is used in the greatest amount. However, the above is only applicable to consumer products that are regulated by the FDA. Products that not regulated by the FDA are not held liable to this requirement, and thus many do not reveal the content or ingredients of their products. There is thus a loophole here which can be exploited by the companies manufacturing e-cigarettes. A company can, for example, use certain chemicals which are highly addictive to help them sell more and this may remain concealed for a long time. The lack of regulation by the FDA is a major problem, and LaVito (2018) notes that public health groups have now turned on the FDA and are challenging the agency to move fast and regulate e-cigarettes. In the case of traditional cigarettes, people know the ingredients but the simple fact that the ingredients of e-cigarettes are unknown leaves a lot to be determined. So, it cannot be said with any level of certainty that e-cigarettes are in fact less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
E-cigarettes also contain nicotine and other chemicals and inhaling these directly to the lungs could be dangerous and lead to health problems. The notion that e-cigarettes contain less nicotine is often propagated by the companies that manufacture e-cigarettes. However, this could be false and them not being regulated makes it even more dangerous. The chemicals, as well as their percentages contained in an e-cigarette, is unknown and these could be harmful to a person’s lungs. Until e-cigarettes are regulated, people could be fed chemicals that are slowly killing them and making their immune system weaker. Companies have been known to take advantage of the loopholes that exist in the industry as well as in the law. So, they should not be trusted not to exploit the one that is available now. Additionally, there are numerous ways through which a person could have nicotine delivered to their system. Nicotine patches, as well as gum, have been around for quite a while, and these can help a person quench their nicotine thirst, they are less toxic compared to inhaling. In the end, the damage done to the lungs is registered regardless of whether a person smokes the traditional cigarette or uses the electronic cigarette.
There is little evidence to prove that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes and researchers and scientists have not comprehensively looked into short- and long-term effects of vaping. The assumption that they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes is a low bar, and since the legal framework, especially on e-cigarettes, is blurry, then they potentially have more effects than traditional cigarettes CITATION USN16 \l 1033 (U.S. News & World Report, 2016). Each manufacturer tries to offer the ‘best’ (as per users’ experience) product in the market in unregulated space, and it is likely that they could be using banned compounds and ingredients which are potentially worse than traditional cigarettes. Most e-cigarettes manufacturers ar...