For smokers who need the feel and sensation of cigarettes, but want to get away from the dangers of smoking, there are “e-cigarettes”. They are plastic or aluminium tubes that look like cigarettes, and the “smoke” looks the same, but they’re “electronic” cigarettes.
are not known, says Health Canada © CBC
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that use a liquid-filled cartridge that can contain mint, vanilla or other flavourings. The contents are vaporized into a mist that is breathed into the lungs.
Those who use e-cigarettes refer to themselves as “vapers”
In the USA, cartridges containing nicotine are available, but Health Canada has not authorized their sale here. Still, they are readily available online, and can be found in places like flea markets. Health Canada meanwhile says the safety, quality, and efficacy of the products are unknown. The agency advises Canadians not to use e-cigarettes.
It’s not nicotine itself that causes most of the harm associated with cigarettes, said Dr. Peter Selby, chief of the addictions division at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
including some containing nicotine. © CBC
“We really don’t know whether these (e-cigarettes) are meeting any kinds of standards of safety for people to inhale on them, whether they have nicotine or not,” Selby said
Francine Brunet-Fechner, a public health nurse with the Sudbury and District Health Unit agrees, saying said not enough is known about the effect the devices might have on the body.
“The problem is there are no controls on the product, so we don’t really know what’s in them, and we don’t know if they’re safe,” Brunet-Fechner said.
“It may say there’s no nicotine ( in e-cigarette cartridges), but in some products that have been tested there have been high levels of nicotine found.”
She said she’s also concerned that because the devices, in some cases, look like real cigarettes, it is “normalizing” cigarette use. Candy-flavoured e-cigarette cartridges may also be attractive to youth, Brunet-Fechner said.
In spite of such concerns, at “Esmoker Canada”, an e-cigarette store in Toronto, Mario Martinasevic says sales have almost doubled every month. Analysts think the market for e-cigarettes will surpass $10 billion in the U.S. by 2017 and that e-cigarettes will outsell regular cigarettes within a decade, said David Sweanor, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who works on tobacco and health issues
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