Wednesday, July 22, 2009

FDA Warning About Electronic Cigarettes


If you're a smoker and you're trying to quit by using an electronic cigarette or e-cigarette, you should read this recent FDA warning letter. Let me highlight one critical line from this press release: Public health experts expressed concern that electronic cigarettes could increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people. Did you catch that? Make sure you're not fooling yourself. The FDA is concerned about the way these products are being promoted and

FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Electronic cigarettes, also called “e-cigarettes,” are battery-operated devices that generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. The electronic cigarette turns nicotine, which is highly addictive, and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

These products are marketed and sold to young people and are readily available online and in shopping malls. In addition, these products do not contain any health warnings comparable to FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or conventional cigarettes. They are also available in different flavors, such as chocolate and mint, which may appeal to young people.

Public health experts expressed concern that electronic cigarettes could increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people. Jonathan Winickoff, M.D., chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium and Jonathan Samet, M.D., director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California, joined Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, and Matthew McKenna, M.D., director of the Office of Smoking and Health for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to discuss the potential risks associated with the use of electronic cigarettes.

“The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and how they are marketed to the public,” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., commissioner of food and drugs.

Because these products have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or approval, at this time the agency has no way of knowing, except for the limited testing it has performed, the levels of nicotine or the amounts or kinds of other chemicals that the various brands of these products deliver to the user.

The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines. These tests indicate that these products contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.

The FDA has been examining and detaining shipments of e-cigarettes at the border and the products it has examined thus far meet the definition of a combination drug-device product under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA has been challenged regarding its jurisdiction over certain e-cigarettes in a case currently pending in federal district court. The agency is also planning additional activities to address its concerns about these products.
Report serious adverse events here: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.htm
CNN has a story about this too.

4 comments:

  1. They can't be any worse than regular cigarettes.

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  2. What makes tobacoo cigarettes and better than an electronic cigarette?Over 4000 different toxins, poisions & carcinagines thats found in a burning tobacoo that killes over 400,000 people just in the US, Not counting worldwide. Compared to an electronic cigarette which is mainly made of 96-99 % H20 (water) % 1-3 % nicotine which is NOT harmful since your only vaporing and not smoking. My research shows that NO deaths have been reported withing this 5 years of the making of any Electronic Cigarettes! But we know & understand that the tobacoo & pharmaceutical companies are over a 100 billion dollar industry a year & the FDA is being fairly treated from this industries by not allowing for any competitions being able to compete with well established billion dollar companies so for this reason this Industries feed the FDA so it will do everything within it's powers to stop & regulate such premature markets before it expands... I have been a tobacoo smoker myself for a long time & when I was introduced to an electronic cigarette I thought this device is either going to overcome my habit of tobacco smoking or it's gona stop me for good. Well Im here to say that it has done it's job pretty impressively by making me quit smoking for good! Now I choose Vaping with an electronic cigarette instead inhaling poison, toxic and & carcinagines into my lungs. So please think twice before you ignite another tobacoo cigarette, insted choose a better alternative for you & for others! I choose an Electronic Cigarette.

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  3. The fda is crappin their pants,feeling pressure from big tobcacco and pharmacutial special interest groups to kill the e-cig,why? $$$$$ money ,no cig profits, no tax profits, millions in maketing and research to create gums and patches,all gone. FDA looks foolish though: E-cigs are unsafe, so here is a pack of tobbaco cigarettes for you instead?!

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  4. we against fda... Smoking electronic cigarettes has so many benefits when compared to tobacco. Electric cigarette is the all new alternative smoking solution that is taking the world by storm. Moreover electronic cigarette allows to smoke a vapor that is free of carbon monoxide.

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