Electronic Cigarette Effects

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that cigarette smoking accounts for 90 percent of all lung cancer in the U.S. Nicotine is as addictive as cocaine and heroin. The tar in cigarette tobacco increases smokers' chances of cancer and emphysema while the carbon monoxide may lead to cardiovascular disease. Electronic cigarettes--which look like tobacco cigarettes and contain nicotine, but not tobacco--seem like they would be a safer alternative than traditional cigarettes. The battery-operated devices contain pure nicotine that the user inhales through a cartridge. As of 2010, however, few studies have focused on the effects of electronic cigarettes and the product is the subject of controversy.

Difficult to Inhale

• In 2010, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, used smoking machines to measure the amount of suction required to inhale nicotine from electronic cigarettes. They tested five brands and with one exception--Liberty Stix--the electronic cigarettes required more strenuous suction than tobacco cigarettes. Moreover, according to the university's website, researchers found that "the aerosol density dropped after the first ten puffs, requiring still stronger suction thereafter to produce aerosol." The effect may be that users of electronic cigarettes would have to use more cartridges and puff more often to get the desired level of nicotine.

Questionable Nicotine Delivery

• After researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University used human smokers to test electronic cigarettes in February 2010, the leader of the study, Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, concluded, "They are as effective at nicotine delivery as puffing on an unlit cigarette. These e-cigs do not deliver nicotine." His team reached this conclusion after monitoring and comparing the heart rates and nicotine levels of smokers after inhaling tobacco cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

Youth Marketing

• The FDA announced in a 2009 press release that electronic cigarettes may contain harmful chemicals and that manufacturers had not proven their safety. Nevertheless, companies that make electronic cigarettes sell them online and in shopping malls, marketing them to young people as a safe alternative to cigarettes. Misinforming youth about the potential consequences of electronic consequences could have dire effects on public health.