Electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes, may contain 10 times the amount of carcinogens when compared to regular tobacco, according to Japanese researchers. And even worse, they’re most popular among young people and those trying to quit smoking.

Electronic cigarette sales have blown through the roof, in fact, the industry hit $2 billion in 2013, tripling its figures from the year before. Some think that electronic cigarettes may actually surpass cigarettes in popularity within the next decade and that’s a big market to fill.

E-cigarettes work by heating a flavored liquid that contains nicotine into a vapor which is then inhaled–like cigarettes but without the smoke. Researchers have found that e-cigarettes may contain chemicals like formaldehyde, a known carcinogen used in building materials and embalming fluids.

“In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette,” said researcher Naoki Kunugita to AFP, adding that the amount of formaldehyde detected varied through the course of analysis.

“Especially when the… wire (which vaporises the liquid) gets overheated, higher amounts of those harmful substances seemed to be produced.”

Japan, like many other countries does not regulate e-cigarettes because so little is known about them. In the U.S., they’re also unregulated even though FDA is currently looking into them. Companies don’t have to list ingredients and some have been found to contain diethylene glycol, an ingredient found in antifreeze.

In August, the World Health Organization called for governments to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors warning of the risk to unborn children and young people. Additionally, a United Nations health body said they should be banned from public indoor spaces.

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Are e-cigarettes really as safe as they appear?

While a good chunk of my friends started smoking in high school, I was a late bloomer and didn’t pick up my first cigarette until my mid-twenties. It wasn’t so much the smoking itself I enjoyed, but the ritual of smoking: During this uber-stressful period of my life, there was nothing better than “going out for a smoke” and enjoying five minutes of stillness I wouldn’t have taken for myself otherwise.

After trying to quit what felt like 4,532 times, I finally succeeded two years ago with the patch. My sister is now quitting through the use of e-cigarettes (quite successfully I might add, and I couldn’t be prouder). Called “vaping,” you suck on the mouthpiece exactly as you would a cigarette. A tiny battery ignites to heat a liquid solution until it becomes vapor, which you then inhale. E-cigarettes are available in ready-to-use disposables, rechargeables, and refillables.

But with all of the controversy surrounding e-cigarettes, can we really trust them? Or are you really just trading one evil in for another?

The Good
“The pros outweigh the cons 99-1,” says David Goerlitz, anti-tobacco activist and spokesman for American Heritage International. “There are so many benefits to the e-cig it almost becomes silly to compare.” There are only about five ingredients in them, compared to the 4,600 toxins in cigarettes. According to Goerlitz, there’s been more success for people quitting with e-cigarettes than any other nicotine replacement product.

Not only are they cheaper in the long run, they help promote the non-use of traditionally harmful tobacco. “It’s not the nicotine that harms a lot of smokers, it’s the ‘smoke,’” says Goerlitz.

The Bad
The biggest problem with e-cigarettes is ingredient inconsistency between brands, and the lack of regulation is causing quite a stir. There’s also little data on whether e-cigarettes “work” as a smoking cessation device, but there’s little data to prove they don’t, either. The data itself tends to be flawed, such as the study’s too small or isn’t randomized or controlled. Without concrete data to backup claims, it’s impossible to properly regulate them.

Now that the devices have become more popular, there has been an uptick in complaints – from nicotine toxicity to cardiovascular problems – but let’s face it: Too much of anything can be harmful. “The press is saying e-cig poisonings are an epidemic, which isn’t true,” says Gorleitz. “In Ohio there was news of 60 poisonings called in on e-cig liquids,’ while failing to mention the 90,000 calls in the same year caused by other household and personal products.”

There’s also a huge concern that they’ll become a “gateway drug” for youth to start smoking real cigarettes, according to a recent study.

The Ugly
Well… they’re called e-cigarettes. “Calling it an e-cigarette gives fuel to the fire to those that think smoking is a dirty rotten filthy habit and should be stopped,” says Goerlitz. “For the majority of citizens, non-smokers look down on tobacco users as out of control, and the Anti-Tobacco Control Movement makes them feel like lepers and second class citizens.” (As someone who’s been on both sides of the coin, it’s very true.)

If they were called something else upon their arrival, maybe there wouldn’t be such a stigma attached to them. But, as Goerlitz points out, you can’t unring a bell or put toothpaste back in the tube.

With other cessation tools like medication, the patch or gum, they don’t just rid you of the nicotine withdrawal, but the habit of smoking. For me, e-cigarettes would’ve just made me want to smoke more – they don’t completely fulfill my craving and would leave me foaming at the mouth.

I’ve always wondered: Sure, you’re now off cigarettes, but what do you do to get off e-cigarettes? Our habits cut deep. But then, there’s my sister: The one person in our family we thought would never quit (she’s been a smoker my entire life) has been smoke-free now for almost a year – thanks to e-cigarettes.

Do your due diligence to find the brand you’d be happiest with. It comes down to personal awareness: Knowing yourself well enough to decide what it will take for you to break the habit for good – in your own time, and on your own terms.

How do you feel about e-cigarettes? Yay or nay?

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“The beauty of quitting is, now that I’ve quit, I can have one, ’cause I’ve quit.” – Tom Waits

As a conscious human living in America you have probably been aware for some time now that smoking is bad. It increases the incidence of lung cancer, heart disease, birth defects and dead puppies. But young adults of the 18-to-25 variety – especially those of the lady persuasion – are smoking more than any other age group, even though they’ve grown up with the most complete access to information on smoking’s attendant health risks. Seriously, is this because of Mad Men?

Health organizations and anti-smoking activists have herded American smokers out of the public sphere, hustling them away from parks, bars, restaurants, airports, federal buildings, and malls, generally for the greater good. Fewer smokers lighting-up in fewer places is good news for public health and sanitation. Yet while the number of American smokers has decreased almost by half since the 1960s, the number of young adults who smoke has remained steady for the last decade. At a certain point, anti-smoking ads featuring hundreds of ‘dead’ baby dolls stop being effective and start being ridiculous. Demonizing smoking as being its own separate brand of evil (as opposed to obesity or binge drinking) doesn’t do much to reduce smoking, although it does go a long way toward making nonsmokers feel morally superior.

Accepting that for a certain subset of the population smoking will most likely always be a popular recreational activity may be more useful in reducing its environmental impact than trying to shame smokers into hiding. The electronic cigarette, or ‘e-cigarette’, a reusable, battery-powered nicotine-delivery system is a definite step in the right direction. It’s still chocked full of all those hard-to-pronounce chemicals like acetylpyrazine and terpineol (in other words, it’s still not good for you), and its legal status in many countries is still under review. It vaporizes a liquid nicotine cartridge (rather than using fire, as a traditional cigarette), has no disposable filters to end up in the trash or on the sidewalk, and comes recommended as a better alternative to cigarettes, pipes and cigars by the American Association of Public Health Physicians.

The e-cigarette isn’t green by any stretch of the imagination. Quitting smoking, or not starting at all, is still ideal. But anything that reduces the incidence of second-hand smoke and hazardous litter is something worth investigating. Plus, you’ll still look totally cool puffing away. Don Draper might just approve.

Image: SuperFantastic

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