Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Opening Pandora's Cigarette Box

The latest rage for people trying to quit smoking is the "E-Cigarette," an electronic, battery powered nicotine inhaler.  They're shiny and snazzy looking, but they are more dangerous than people think.  You're essentially ingesting nicotine and despite the absence of tar and other additives that are commonly found in regular cigarettes, nicotine is still a dangerous substance.  You can still become addicted to it, quite easily too.  Plus, there are other carcinogens and hazardous chemicals in the E-Cigarettes.

But even that aside, there's another fold to the problem.  Kids can legally purchase them at many places.  There are no regulations to prevent that, much like smoking devices that kids can purchase online, without question.  And the things are even seemingly marketed to kids, by coming in colorful presentations with "flavors," like cherry, strawberry, vanilla and cookies & cream milkshake.

The powers that be forced cigarette companies to stop using Joe Camel years ago, because the cartoon character was seemingly appealing to children, but "flavored," nicotine bullets in colorful packaging are "good to go?"  I'm confused.  And fearful we're going to see a huge rise in cancer for the kids of this generation, that are using these things.

I'm going to venture a guess that the E-Cigarette, while initially designed to aid smokers hoping to stop the habit, figured out it could be turned into a marketing tool to hook a younger demographic and increase sales.  Voilà, it worked.

Have you used E-Cigarettes? Have you seen kids using them?  What are your thoughts on them? Drop us an email!


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