The United States has made great strides in reducing smoking rates from 42 percent in 1964 to 16 percent today. But that progress is threatened by the proliferation of electronic cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are gaining in popularity and being promoted in ad campaigns to "re-glamorize" smoking. The manufacturers are offering e-cigarettes with liquid nicotine refills that come in flavors such as cotton candy, gummy bear, cherry cheesecake, fruit punch and bubble gum that entices and targets a young demographic.
Emissions from e-cigarettes are not harmless. A study done by Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo found that e-cigarettes emit acrolein (used in weed killer), formaldehyde (an embalming agent) and acetaldehyde (an irritant and cancer causing chemical). Also, the FDA has not approved them as an effective method to quit smoking. After all, they contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Further, there are already many highly effective methods approved by the FDA to assist individuals wanting to quit, including patches, medications and counseling programs.
Other than in New York City, which recently passed regulations on using e-cigarettes in public places, the use and promotion of electronic cigarettes is currently unregulated in most of the rest of New York state for people 18 and older. E-cigarettes are not subject to the Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking in all public places and workplaces, including schools, malls, playgrounds, hospitals, restaurants and bars. They are not included in the definition of smoking, so people can use e-cigarettes anywhere and anytime. Their continued use and growing popularity among middle and high school students, in particular, undermines the public health campaign to prevent young people from starting with a deadly nicotine addiction.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly twice as many middle and high school students experimented with e-cigarettes in 2012 as in 2011, while use of tobacco cigarettes declined in the same period. If e-cigarettes prove to be a gateway to other products, leading to an increase in underage smoking, their use would represent a serious setback in the fight against tobacco-related illness.
Proposed legislation to include e-cigarettes as subject to provisions of the Clean Indoor Air Act should be approved. This legislation does not take away a right or freedom to use e-cigarettes for those of legal age. Instead, it maintains the right of nonsmokers who are the overwhelming majority in this country to be in public places without having clouds of unknown vapors being emitted. That remains the standard on which regulations and laws must be considered. Failure to protect the nonsmoking and nonvaping public is not acceptable and represents a very clear erosion of the Clean Indoor Air Act.
There are many other issues involved, including the confusion of people wondering what is allowed in public places, and the burden on property and business owners to have two sets of rules, one for cigarettes and one for e-cigarettes. The New York State Association of County Health Officials has said, "The use of e-cigarettes makes it difficult for local health departments to enforce existing smoke-free air laws."
Tobacco usage has caused millions of deaths in this country and around the world. We should not weaken the half century effort, which has been successful in reducing smoking rates and lung cancer rates. For those who wish to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking they will continue to have that right in locations where it is allowed. For those who wish to open up a new market and a new generation to addiction, every legislator should be against that.
Michael Burgess is the New York state government relations director for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network.
