Did FDA Fumble Study On E-Cigarettes?
Sunday, October 30th, 2011The e-cig controversy went viral around July of 2009 once the Food and Drug Administration released an investigation on smokefree cigarettes and their corresponding nicotine containing solution e juice identifying them as hazardous because they contained chemical substances regarded as poisonous to humans. The e cig enthusiasts fired back by appointing a prominent analysis firm to examine the FDA report and the techniques applied to obtain their conclusions. This firm found the conclusions obtained by the FDA study seemed to be invalid because the diagnostic techniques they employed had been far from those needed to produce these kinds of conclusive determinations.
So now, more than a year after, what have we discovered regarding the safety of smoke-free cigarettes? Well, quite simply, nothing has changed. Both sides of the controversy continue to claim their assertions are accurate. But in the end, the electric cigarette user remains in the dark concerning the safety and health of the electric cigarette. Let’s take a closer look at what specifically we do know.
In the interest of brevity, I won’t go into specifics about how the smokeless cigarette operates or how it’s used. It’s in essence a nicotine delivery product not unlike the doctor prescribed Nicotrol inhaler. It operates by warming and vaporizing a mix of glycerin and nicotine when the user takes a puff from the device. The Food and Drug Administration’s key point of contention (since confirmed wrong via the 2nd scientific study) is the nicotine containing liquid they examined included toxins dangerous to humans. The disagreement regarding this aspect isn’t the issue at hand. The most critical factor to notice would be the fact that the FDA very likely, if intentional or not, made a very important discovery.
In the USA, most anything we eat or drink must adhere to procedures controlled by a variety of government agencies which ensure our health and safety. We often see items which were recalled because of the smallest incompliance with proper requirements. So now why don’t we think about e-juice (the nicotine product found in smokeless cigarettes) for a moment. At this moment, you don’t see any guidelines or polices in place regulating its production, who may make it, how it is stored or even its shelf life. Essentially, you or I could go online, buy e-juice products and begin mixing it inside our kitchens with absolutely no legal requirements whatsoever. Of course for individual use this can seem acceptable. Still, I do not know of any similar product intended for human inhalation that you prepare for yourself let alone for mass consumption by providing it for sale on the web. However this is exactly what lots of e liquid vendors are actually doing.
Please do not misunderstand me. I am absolutely not saying that e-juice is unsafe. I am just saying there’s a genuine threat that because of poor regulation, a tainted e-liquid could theoretically land in the hands of an electric cigarette user. So now you will most likely consider the e liquid that is manufactured by the e-cig companies themselves? Here again, we fundamentally have the same situation. Produced for the most part in China, there is no regulation of any kind concerning how this e-juice is manufactured. In the long run, it appears consumers searching for e juice need to consider the old adage caveat emptor or “Let the buyer beware”.
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Originally posted 2011-04-28 14:37:01.










