Are e-cigarettes turning teenagers and young adults into nicotine addicts?
Electronic cigarettes have become a lightening rod for controversy among experts in the medical profession, with studies supporting their potential to help some smokers quit, while others believe that the electronic devices may serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction by luring teen smokers.
Simply put, nicotine is a highly addictive compound, whether delivered as a vapor or through combustion as a regular tobacco cigarette. It raises your heart rate and blood pressure, and has a direct effect as a stimulant on your central nervous system.
With their alluring colors, flavors and packaging, and without formal FDA regulation of packaging, advertising and distribution at this time, experts and critics have legitimate concerns about Big Tobacco’s ability to mold and influence the delivery of nicotine to teens. And, as Big Tobacco continues to invest greater sums in production and distribution of electronic cigarettes, gaining a greater foothold in overall revenues, critics are now more concerned than ever.
With e-cigarettes presently accounting for nearly 2 billion a year in revenue, big tobacco companies are entering the game in greater numbers. In fact, the maker of Camel cigarettes is scheduled to begin distribution of an e-cigarette by the end of this month. And a subsidiary of Altria, the maker of Marlboro, plans to enter the field later this year, along with Lorillard, the manufacturer of the leading US e-cigarette brand, Blu.
“It has been beneficial for helping people to stop smoking tobacco cigarettes but turning e-cigarettes into an entry port for young people is shameful,” said Klaus D. Lessnau. MD, FCCP a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
As both a concerned parent and a physician, Lessnau is adamant that intervention and education by parents and teachers is essential in order to prevent future generations of teens from becoming nicotine addicts before they graduate from high school.
“My 15 year old daughter tells me that some of her friends smoke e-cigarettes frequently,” Lessnau explains, “and to make this possible is dishonest behavior from greedy companies.”
“That is the very reason that the FDA should regulate e-cigarettes. It remains unscrupulous to use electronic cigarettes to turn teenagers and young adults into nicotine addicts,” adds Lessnau.
While e-cigarettes may certainly have a role in promoting harm reduction—reducing the risk of lung cancer and heart disease and helping some chronic smokers eventually quit–the potential for nicotine addiction developing in teens deserves a spotlight in the national conversation, especially among parents and teachers.
FDA regulation of all aspects of the production, distribution, as well as a strict ban on all advertising of the liquid nicotine devices must come sooner than later, Lessnau believes.
E-Cigarettes: Turning Harm Reduction Into Harm Addiction?
Last edited {1}
Comments (0)