E-Cigarettes Vs Traditional Smoking

In recent history, people’s perception of smoking has greatly changed. Just half a century ago, nearly half of men in the United States smoked and tobacco companies were being advertised publicly. Today’s landscape has greatly changed, as public awareness of the harms of smoking traditional cigarettes have been brought into light (The Pros 14). A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2014 the rates of smoking among adults in the United States was only at 16.8% (Tyler). While the use of traditional cigarettes has fallen drastically in the last decade, their electronic counterpart has been on the rise. Just five years ago, in 2011, e-cigarette sales reached $500 million (Hemphill). As the popularity of electronic …show more content…
In spite of the supposed health benefits of electronic cigarettes, people looking to quit smoking may be being misled with misinformation. Despite their use as a means to help smokers quit using traditional tobacco, cessation of smoking is not guaranteed by the use of e-cigarettes (Gray). Even with the lack of tar and toxic additives that traditional cigarettes contain, electronic cigarettes still carry the most addictive ingredient of traditional cigarettes, nicotine. E-cigarettes have also been found to contain known cancer-causing chemicals. The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis in 2009 tested 19 varieties of e-cigarettes. In their study, they found a majority of these cartridges contained certain cancer-causing chemicals (Hemphill). Other evidence from the American Physiological Society shows that vapor from electronic cigarettes, even when “nicotine-free”, led to damage of the lung cells (Brooks). This evidence, while appearing quite negative, is still an improvement to the damage caused by traditional cigarettes. Boston University’s School of Public Health’s 2010 study showed that the level of carcinogens, cancer causing agents, in electronic cigarettes was up to 1,000 times lower than that of traditional tobacco cigarettes (Hemphill). Compared to traditional tobacco cigarettes, the health benefits of electronic cigarettes …show more content…
put an end to cigarette brands advertising on television and radio (Rabin 76). In a study released just this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2014 that, on average, seven out of ten teenagers in the United States had been exposed to e-cigarette ads, with TV and movies being one of the leading contributors (Caffrey). If the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act ban was altered to include electronic cigarettes, a decrease in use, especially in children who are easily influenced by advertising, would