The mists of a controversy
It’s healthier to vape, but critics say e-cigarette alternative is a gateway nicotine habit for teens
The word aptly describes the results — a fleeting puff of near odourless mist, with maybe a hint of cherry.
Vape is the term electronic cigarette users have adopted for their flavourful nicotine habit, and it appears to have staying power: in November, “vape” was declared the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year.
And the mist of vaping has proven anything but vaporous as a social and legal issue.
No, 2014 saw two sides clearly massing on the vaping front, with the first shots in the confrontation being fired.
On the one side, proponents of so called e-cigarettes point to their myriad advantages over tobacco counterparts.
They say the devices, which use small heating elements to vaporize nicotine-laden propylene glycol liquids, can deliver a cigarette’s addictive kick with few, if any, of its toxic health effects.
Though it’s the addictive component of cigarettes, nicotine is no more dangerous than caffeine on its own. It’s the carcinogenic and heart-destroying products created in the combustion of tobacco that pose true health risks.
Thus, proponents say, there are also no second-hand-smoke issues with e-cigarettes — the devices produce nothing more harmful than the same, foggy mists that waft out from rock concert stages.
And this e-cigarette-as-health-alternative argument has gained some notable support.
Dr. Peter Selby, head of addictions at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, has come out as a strong proponent.
“If this is part of a bigger plan to figure out a way to get rid of combustible cigarettes and ban them, then it’s a fantastic opportunity,” Selby told the Star this year.
“It will be revolutionary, similar to when we decided to get rid of leaded gasoline.”
But far from safe tobacco alternatives, opponents say, e-cigarettes are simply a new gateway to nicotine addiction, espe- cially among young people.
Detractors say the devices, which can vaporize nicotine-bearing liquids in hundreds of appealing flavours — can hold candy-like attraction for youth and could draw in generations of new addicts.
This belief was given ample credence this month with the release of a U.S. survey showing e-cigarette use has now surpassed smoking among teenagers in that country.
The survey, conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, canvassed more than 40,000 students. It found that 17 per cent of Grade 12 pupils said they’d used an e-cigarette in the prior month. Just13.6 per cent said they’d smoked a cigarette, the New York Times reported.
And the e-cigarettes’ cause has not been helped by Big Tobacco’s new interest. Major cigarette manufacturers, broadly assigned social pariah status, have embraced their fledgling rival with gusto and are poised to dominate an industry now valued in the billions of dollars.
Vaping’s opponents appear to be gaining the upper hand in many jurisdictions across the continent, most of which now have few if any regulations governing ecigarettes’ sale or use.
Many local, state and provincial governments are now debating or enacting laws placing age and location restrictions on e-cigarette usage.
In November, Ontario proposed sweeping new rules for the products. These would place essentially the same restrictions on electronic cigarettes that currently govern the tobacco variety in the province.