E-cigarettes have been available in the United States since 2007. According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 2014, nearly 9 percent of U.S. adults had tried an e-cigarette, and more than 3 percent were current users.
“E-cigarettes are currently the most commonly used tobacco product among youth,” the CDC reported. “In 2014, more than a quarter of a million young adults who had never smoked a cigarette used e-cigarettes.”
Electronic cigarettes are handheld electronic devices that deliver nicotine in the form of a vapour. The idea is that they provide a low-risk alternative to smoking conventional cigarettes. The e-cigarette industry started in China, but it’s now global, with manufacturers in the U.S., Canada, the UK and elsewhere. For more information you can check RELX Pods.
There are a few different types of e-cigarettes, but the two main categories are disposables and reusable models that can be filled with nicotine solution or “e-liquid.” Both types use a battery-powered heating element to vaporize the e-liquid, which is often flavored. The resulting vapor is inhaled from an opening at the end of the e-cigarette, much like smoking from the end of a traditional cigarette.
“E-cigarettes contain fewer numbers and lower levels of harmful chemicals than regular cigarettes,” according to Dr. John Spangler, professor in the department of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “But we don’t know what other harmful chemicals may be present in them.”
Electronic cigarettes are comprised of four parts: a mouthpiece, a cartridge, a battery and a heating element called an atomizer. When the user inhales on the mouthpiece, it activates the battery-powered atomizer. This vaporizes liquid nicotine inside the cartridge. For more information you can check Hexa Pods.
The nicotine in e-cigarettes contains traces of other chemicals known to cause cancer, but it’s unclear whether they’re at levels high enough to have any effect. As for other ingredients in e-cigarettes, some are safe while others have not been reviewed by health authorities.
Health experts are concerned that e-cigarettes could hook new users on nicotine and lead them on to more harmful products such as conventional cigarettes. There is also some concern that they could be used as a gateway drug for children and young people who don’t smoke to try traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars.
The FDA is currently studying e-cigarette safety and effectiveness as a smoking cessation aid. Because it hasn’t yet determined whether these products are safe or effective, it hasn’t approved them for sale in the U.S. Meanwhile, manufacturers are advertising them as safe alternatives to smoking without providing scientific evidence to back up their claims.
