A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on e-cigarettes, which was meant to be critical of advertising and marketing and to point out how such forces make self-care difficult and confusing. I received a number of spirited comments from readers. A few people suggested that the piece had not been well researched. Given these responses, I thought it would be worth doing more research and writing about it again.
Unfortunately, there remains very little research on electronic cigarettes. To date, I have not been able to find any studies in major medical journals that have addressed their safety.
As you may know, the FDA has been denied the ability to regulate this product and earlier this week appealed this decision. At issue is the FDA's assertion that e-cigarettes are a drug and fall under their jurisdiction. The FDA has tried to ban their importation, saying that their safety cannot be guaranteed if not regulated.
Despite the lack of empirical research, an article on Marketplace provides a number of different perspectives on e-cigarettes. For fans of the product, the story ends with a quote from a representative of E-Cigarettes National, who says that this product has been found to be safe based on studies in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. However, the American Lung Association points out that safety has not been established and wants them taken off of the market.
Sanjay Gupta on CNN offers a more equivocal view, and says that we don't really know how safe e-cigs are.
And that is the point that I want to make about e-cigarettes, we simply don't know if they are safe. Hopefully we will find out. Additionally, I am aware that many topics addressed on the blogosphere create enormous anxiety when answers to a question are not known. When articles do not provide definitive answers, there tend to be a lot more negative and even hostile comments. This is understandable. Ambiguity is hard to tolerate. Regarding e-cigarettes, people who desperately want to find a safe alternative to smoking are predictably upset when someone suggests that they might not be safe. And in general, it is very difficult to not know the answer to complex questions that make us anxious. It is especially hard to tolerate not knowing when we are trying to make decisions regarding our health. Sadly, although a lot of health information provides the illusion of certainty, none of us can know for sure if we will get sick (or not) and live a long life (or not). Bad things happen to good people and bad things happen even if we do everything right. That being said, we can hedge our bets by trying to take care of ourselves as best as we can. Though I love the idea that e-cigs can be safer (as I grew up in a culture of smokers), we just don't know much about their safety, except that there is no second hand smoke and maybe that is a good enough reason for now to not reject them outright. But to be honest, I really don't know the answer.
