Doctor supports people who buy electronic cigarettes

Everywhere in the United States new laws are putting smoking bans in place and are being put on the docket for voting. With the new spread of these laws and bans come the growing fascination and use of electronic cigarettes. This new product could be a solution for people that don’t want to quit smoking and enjoy smoking in public places.

It looks like a cigarette. When the tip lights up, a wispy plume drifts up after a drag. But, there is no fire, tobacco or smoke. The cigarette is fake.
“Smoking Everywhere,” a battery-operated electronic cigarette, has gotten a lot of attention at Grapevine Mills Mall in Dallas, Texas.

“With this device, you can actually enjoy smoking without the bad parts of the cigarette,” said Ohad Naim, Smoking Everywhere’s franchise owner and operator. “There is no tar, no tobacco [and] no bad chemicals that can cause you cancer.”

The electronic cigarette has been available in Europe for year. A commercial claims Smoking Everywhere “is the healthier way to smoke.”

Since it isn’t real, the e-cigarette enables people to get around the public smoking bans. The device gives a jolt of nicotine with every drag, satisfying the addiction. Whether it’s a bar, a resteraunt, movie theater or other place, people are stunned to see people smoking these new devices. Due to no smoke or harmful carcinogens being released it’s completely legal.

We had Dr. Gary Weinstein take a close look at one of these electronic cigarettes you can buy to tell us what he thought about it. “It looks like a cigarette,” said Dr. Gary Weinstein, a Presbyterian Hospital pulmonologist who treats smokers.

After being shown the device, Dr. Weinstein handed over some information that may surprise some. The health implications of these new electronic cigarettes aren’t that bad at all. In fact, without all the carcinogens nicotine isn’t much of a concern in terms of a health threat to the smokers and people around them.

“Nicotine is very similar to caffeine,” he said. “It’s a stimulant. It’s very addicting, like caffeine. But nicotine by itself is not a terrible thing.”
A big reason that products like nicotine patches and nicotine gum are widely sold and encouraged for people trying to quit smoking.

Unlike the other nicotine alternatives the new e-cigarettes give the smoker the feel of smoking a real cigarette but doesn’t expose anyone to second-hand smoke. With all these benefits it’s hard to blame smokers for grabbing these up like they’re going out of style.

The ease of use and availability had the Doctor worried however. He claims that it could get people that don’t normally smoke to buy electronic cigarettes and it could spread more easily to teenagers. However an owner of an ecigarette store says, “No, we don’t sell it for people under the age of 18,” he said. “So, they cannot use it.”

When teenagers were asked by News 8 if they would buy the electronic cigarettes they said that with a $150 pricetag it was too expensive.

But Ernest Oviedo, who started smoking as a teen, recently bought one. ”I want to quit smoking,” he said. “I like smoking, but I know it’s bad so I just want to give it a try.”

Addiction experts caution anyone not currently addicted to nicotine to stay away from the product. Electronic cigarettes have just amount of nicotine in them as normal cigarettes and can also have more. With a bigger public acceptance of the green e cigarette trend people turned off by public outrage at cigarettes might find it easier to pickup as a habit.
Categories: Electronic Cigarette News
Tags: , , , ,
0 Comments
Mar
3