Written by: Benit Shrestha - 21105, Grade XII
Posted on: 28 March, 2021
Fletcher Knebel once said: “Smoking is the leading cause of statistics”. That was a gesture about how smoking has a large but bad effect on humans' life to the degree that researching it had developed biostatistics and medical research. Smoking is known to cause cancer especially lung cancer as it contains a complex mixture of over 4000 chemicals and over 30 of these are known or suspected contributors to the health hazards of smoking. So, smoke companies invented electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes to avoid lung cancer risk and as a replacement to help people to quit smoking. However, there are many reasons why e-cigarettes should be banned.
First, e-cigarette aerosols contain harmful substances. For example, nicotine in e-cigarettes as well as classic cigarettes is a psychoactive substance responsible for the development of tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, coronary heart diseases, and bronchial asthma. Another substance is diacetyl which is a chemical linked to serious lung disease. Also, it contains heavy metals such as nickel, tin & lead, and cancer-causing chemicals & tiny products that reach deep into lungs. However, e cigarettes generally contain fewer harmful chemicals than smoke from burned tobacco products.
Second, e-cigarettes can cause unintended injuries because of defective e-cigarette batteries. Those batteries have caused fires and explosions some of which have resulted in serious injuries. One accident was in May 2018 when “Wake D'Elia was at home using an electronic cigarette when the device's battery malfunctioned and exploded, killing him instantly. He was 38” (Edwards, 2019). A study in 2018 said:'' From 2015 to 2017, there were an estimated 2035 e-cigarette explosions and burn injuries presenting to US hospital emergency departments” (Matthew E Rossheim, 2018). However, most explosions happened when e-cigarette batteries were being charged.
Third, the e-cigarettes potential benefit is only helping addicted smoker people to quit smoking. However, many scientists question this use. One study has stated that “The success rate of quit attempts increased by 0.098% for every 1% increase in the prevalence of e-cigarette use by smokers and e-cigarette use during a recent quit attempt, respectively. There was no clear evidence for an association between e-cigarette use and rate of quit attempts” (Emma Beard, 2016). Another study concluded that “Recent cigarette abstinence is negatively associated with e-cigarette use” (Trevor Christensen, 2014). So, FDA has considered e-cigarettes as tobacco products regulating their manufacture, trading and distribution processes.
Last, the availability and marketing of e-cigarettes attracts people especially teenagers and youth to use e-cigarettes even if they don’t smoke. FDA reported that “more than 3 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2015, up from an estimated 2.46 million in 2014” (Tushar Singh, 2016) (René A Arrazola, 2015). FDA also reported: “In 2013- 2014, 81% of current youth e-cigarette users cited the availability of appealing flavors as the primary reason for use” (Villanti AC, 2013-2014). So, e-cigarette have become a smoke product that attracts nonsmokers to try it.
That concludes that e-cigarettes may be beneficial to smokers as it is less harmful than classic smoke, but they are considered as harmful to nonsmokers as other tobacco products. Also, people can be attracted to them and become dependent on them. Also, using these devices can make quitting smoking harder. So, governments should act and ban the e-cigarettes manufacturing and their advertisements that attract people to use it.
References:
Edwards, E. (2019). The battery behind dangerous and deadly e-cigarette explosions. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/battery-behind dangerous-deadly-e-cigarette-explosions-n1032901
Emma Beard, R. W. (2016). Association between electronic cigarette use and changes in quit attempts, success of quit attempts, use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy, and use of stop smoking services in England: time series analysis of population trends. BMJ, 354. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i4645
Matthew E Rossheim, M. D. (2018). Electronic cigarette explosion and burn injuries, US Emergency Departments 2015–2017. 28(4).
René A Arrazola, T. S. (2015). Tobacco use among middle and high school students - United States, 2011-2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep.
Trevor Christensen, E. W. (2014, December). Profile of e-cigarette use and its relationship with cigarette quit attempts and abstinence in Kansas adults. Preventive Medicine, 69, 90-94.
Tushar Singh, R. A. (2016). Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students--United States, 2011-2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep.
Villanti AC, J. A. (2013-2014). Use of flavored tobacco products among U.S. youth and adults; findings from the first wave of the PATH Study.
