Should the government discourage a technology that can save your life because someone else might suffer ill, though nonlethal, effects from using the same technology foolishly? That's the crux of Washington's debate over electronic cigarettes (also known as "vaping").
Research and personal testimonials from our vaping acquaintances persuade us of several things: E-cigarettes appear to be the most effective means for weaning smokers from the cancer-causing combustible tobacco. Fruity-flavored vapor boosts the likelihood of quitting smoking altogether. And publicity is important for persuading smokers to shift to vaping.
Yet moves are afoot in Washington to limit publicity for e-cigarettes and limit access to fruity flavors because they might lure youthful users. (For the record, one co-author of this column smoked a few cigars four decades ago. The other tried a few cigarettes and puffs of e-cigarette vapor out of curiosity. For both of us, the appeal of nicotine is a mystery.)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe cigarette smoking as the world's leading cause of preventable death. Dr. Alton Ochsner first made the connection between tobacco smoke and lung cancer in 1939, and mountains of evidence have confirmed the hazards. Yet National Center for Health Statistics data show 14 percent of the population still chooses to smoke (or lacks the willpower to stop).
E-cigarettes originated in the 1960s but achieved wide popularity only in the past decade. In 2016, over 15 percent of adults reported having tried e-cigarettes. Previously, smokers were merely advised to reduce cigarette consumption and fight the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine addiction, aided, perhaps, by largely ineffective nicotine gum or patches.
E-cigarettes offer a different cessation strategy. Sophisticated electronics satisfy smokers' cravings for nicotine and pleasure from inhaling. But the delivery mechanism — vapor rather than smoke — virtually eliminates, rather than merely reduces, inhaled carcinogens. Whether the ex-smoker vapes indefinitely or eventually gives up all tobacco products (including e-cigarettes), carcinogen intake plunges instantaneously.
Unfortunately, some teenagers and others will begin vaping when they might otherwise have abstained from nicotine altogether. Of course, absent e-cigarettes, some youthful vapers would have turned instead to cigarettes. The follies of youth are notoriously resistant to legislative remedies.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is charged with protecting Americans' health. Recently, the FDA, and specifically Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, have moved to limit aspects of vaping deemed most attractive to younger non-smokers — namely, those fruity flavors and the products' presence on social media.
