A few years ago, virtually no one knew anything about
e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that don’t burn tobacco, but rather heat
liquid nicotine into a smokelike water vapor. Today, more than 250 companies
sell them in flavors such as bubble gum and peach schnapps. And now sales are
set to top $1 billion.
“I can smoke them in my office,” said Kruger, of Gardner.
“It doesn’t smell, doesn’t get in your hair. It’s very undetectable.”
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Multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns are just now hitting
magazines and coming straight into your living room. Yes, 43 years after
regulators kicked the Marlboro Man off the nation’s airwaves, Big Tobacco is
back on TV, with Jenny McCarthy and other celebrities trying to make smoking —
or as it’s called with e-cigarettes, “vaping” — look cool. The advertising
onslaught is potentially so powerful that some tobacco analysts predict sales
of digital smokes could surpass conventional cigarettes in the next decade.
But a backlash is heating up:
• Last week 40 attorneys general called on the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products, saying the
devices are marketed to young people through ads featuring cartoon characters
and candy flavors. The FDA is expected to act as early as October.
• A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this
month said the number of high school students who have tried e-cigarettes more
than doubled in the past year, undermining decades of efforts to curb youth
smoking.
• Earlier this month in Provo, Utah, an e-cigarette plugged
in to charge in a car exploded and burned a 3-year-old boy in his car seat. And
that’s only one of several reports of exploding e-cigarettes.
Asked to comment, FDA spokeswoman Jennifer Haliski referred
to a general warning on the agency’s website: “As the safety and efficacy of
e-cigarettes have not been fully studied, consumers … have no way of knowing
whether (they) are safe for their intended use.”
Blu eCigs, which employs the faces of McCarthy and actor
Stephen Dorff, claims the most sales — $114 million in the first half of this
year, according to Blu eCigs’ president Jim Raporte. It’s owned by Lorillard
Inc., the nation’s third-largest tobacco company.
Now other brands, both large and small, are gearing up for a
fight. Altira, the nation’s largest tobacco company, debuted its MarkTen
e-cigarette in August. R.J. Reynolds, the second-largest, rolled out ads last
month for Vuse, its “game changer” of a disposable “digital vapor cigarette”
that requires neither assembly nor charging. (The others must be charged with
devices such as a computer USB port or a car connection.)
V2 Cigs, a small Florida company, claims to be the nation’s
leader in customer satisfaction, while independent brand NJoy has raised $75
million from investors such as Napster founder Sean Parker and singer Bruno
Mars.
Kruger chose another independent — Green Smoke. She enjoys
trying various flavor cartridges, including menthol ice and mocha mist. While the
plastic cigarette is heavier than conventional smokes, everything else seems
the same, she says.
But there was a problem. Instead of quitting regular
cigarettes, she went back and forth between the two and actually ended up
smoking more.
“There’s times when you can be puffing away getting way more
nicotine than if you had just gone outside and had a (regular) cigarette,” she
said. “You’re not manually counting your puffs to measure just how much
nicotine you’re getting.… It’s easy to get too much. And then your body gets
used to it. But I don’t see electronic cigarettes as completely negative. I
think with anything there’s good and bad. I just think you need to be aware of
all the facts.”
While some smokers say e-cigs have helped them kick the
habit, public health advocates worry the devices may be creating more problems
than they’re solving.
“The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply
troubling,” said CDC director Tom Frieden in a statement. “Many teens who start
with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to
nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”
Adam Morris, a 20-year-old singer and college student from
Lenexa, switched to e-cigs about a year ago. The flavors were great, and the
product less expensive (starter kits can sell for as low as $25 but go for as
much as $200, including more replacement cartridges). And they’re certainly
healthier.
But since his e-cigarette gave him many more puffs per
dollar, he used it more often. And since each puff was more potent, he quickly
became even more addicted to nicotine.
“You get a lot more nicotine a lot faster,” he said.
At least with the type of e-cigarette he was smoking. Many
brands offer varying amounts of nicotine, or, if you prefer, no nicotine.
For Morris, everything was fine until he lost the base of
his e-cigarette, the most expensive part. He found he was so addicted he bought
several packs of conventional cigarettes and smoked them in a day, just to
satisfy his cravings.
He still smokes e-cigarettes.
“I’m going to keep doing it because as a singer, (my voice)
is my main instrument,” he said. “And smoking electronic cigarettes is a lot
better for me.”
Still, much remains unknown about e-cigarettes. Most are
imported from China, which experts say raises concerns about quality control.
And inhaling nicotine by itself can still be harmful.
Doctors say it increases blood pressure and constricts and hardens blood
vessels. But it is unarguably less harmful than sucking down the tar, charcoal,
carbon monoxide and 4,000 other chemicals found in conventional cigarettes that
are known to cause cancer.
And a 2011 study at the Boston University School of Public
Health showed that 67 percent of more than 200 smokers reported smoking less
after using e-cigarettes, while 31 percent quit.
While e-cigarettes remain unregulated at the federal level,
some states (not Missouri or Kansas) and cities have restricted their use, and
they’ve been banned on all U.S. flights and Amtrak trains.
Next, should Internet and underage sales be banned? What
about the enticing flavors attractive to kids? Should warning labels be
required? And should e-cig ads be banned from TV?
“We believe future e-cigarette regulations should ensure
sales and marketing to youth is prohibited,” said Raporte, Blu eCigs’ president.
“That said, we believe these responsible marketing parameters can be achieved
without suppressing adult access.”
Whatever happens, J.T. Marshall, a longtime smoker from
Kansas City, said he’s made up his mind about e-cigs.
“I might never try them, but I just may have to invest in
them,” he said. “These dang computer smokes look like they’re here to stay.”
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