American Battle for E-Cigarettes

Seductive blonde Jenny McCarthy pointedly exhales smoke from an e-cigarette [in a promotional video], even though she would be fined with a $50 ticket for doing so in every New York bar. And things are about to get worse …

Only a few years ago, the idea of e-cigarettes seemed like a godsend for generations of smokers. They would no longer have to inhale the cancer-triggering smoke from regular cigarettes, replacing it with the nicotine fluid warmed up in an e-cigarette. What makes an e-cigarette so special is its similarity to its traditional counterpart, thanks to which smokers do not have to constantly fight with their addiction, while at the same time not being deprived of their little crutch.

Just like Jenny McCarthy, a blond Playboy model well known throughout the U.S. who, in a TV advertisement, openly declares her love for smoking and disdain for kisses that taste like an ashtray. Luckily, she has just found a perfect solution to this dilemma. She makes “Blue e-cigs” sound — and look — like “blue e-sex.”

E-Cigarettes Are Like Regular Cigarettes

There has been a lot of furor over the electronic cigarette in the U.S. over the last few years. Its producers have been doubling their profit almost every year: In 2013, their revenue worked out to be $1.7 billion. If this rapid growth rate is sustained, it might be the case that regular cigarettes will completely disappear from the American market. At least, that is what e-cigarette smokers say.

However, there are some who did not take kindly to the blue boom. In December 2013, the New York City Council decided that e-cigarettes would be treated like traditional ones, which meant no smoking in public places including bars, restaurant, parks, promenades, etc. Any transgression of this law would result in a fine ranging from $50 to $250.

Since January 2014, a similar law has been implemented in Chicago; even Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the closest adviser to Barack Obama a few years ago, found himself deeply involved in passing it. Los Angeles (maybe even this month) and San Diego are said to be considering taking the same measures.

Not only in big, liberal cities is the “blue” cigarette not accepted. Bills to regulate it as a tobacco product were already passed in two states: New Jersey on the East Coast and Utah in the “Wild West.” A few days ago, a group of Democratic deputies called for Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner to request a ban on e-cigarettes in Washington.

Is E-Smoke Really Harmless?

If an e-cigarette is so healthy, why is it so discriminated against? First of all, as its opponents claim, we do not know if it is healthy at all. It is certainly much less harmful than a regular cigarette, but we will not know its long-term effects for many years. Normal cigarettes became popular in the U.S. in the 1920s; it was only two decades later that the country was plagued by lung cancer.

More importantly, e-smokers allegedly have a bad influence on teenagers.

“If we can see people smoking something that looks exactly like a cigarette everywhere — be it in a university or library — our citizens might come under the impression that we accept smoking as something normal and innocuous. This is the worst message to our children that we can send,”* claims New York City Councilman James Gennaro, one of the proponents of the new smoking policies. His view is shared by a majority of his colleagues. The result of the December vote on the ban on e-cigarettes was crystal clear: 43 to 8. One month later in Chicago, the numbers were even closer to unanimity, with 45 votes to 4.

Harmless but Addictive

As can be seen, the argument here clearly resembles the one we hear against marijuana — although e-cigs do not pose much of a health risk, teenagers will start smoking them and get hooked, which in turn will increase the possibility of [their] switching to “hard,” regular cigarettes.

A study conducted in California high schools showed that in 2011, 5 percent of students availed themselves of e-cigarettes, while a year later the number increased twofold. You can even get them in Coca-Cola flavor, which makes them even more appealing to children.

To make things worse, e-cigs, unlike tobacco products, are being advertised on the radio and TV. The Jenny McCarthy ad is displayed on ESPN, a very popular sports channel.

That is a source of concern for three scientists at the University of California — namely, Rachel Grana, Neal Benowitz and Stanton Glantz. In their report, published in December and commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), they wrote that “television and radio have been unavailable to the cigarette and other tobacco companies to market their products in the U.S. (as well as much of the world) since the 1970s. E-cigarette advertising on television and radio is mass marketing of an addictive nicotine product for use in a recreational manner to new generations who have never experienced such marketing. This pervasive marketing may have implications for existing smokers as well, as the one published study on this topic indicates that viewing an e-cigarette commercial may induce thoughts about smoking and cue the urge to smoke among adult smokers.”

Paradoxically, although at first glance e-cigarettes appear as competition for regular tobacco products, the advertisements promote regular cigarettes as well, at least according to e-cigarettes’ opponents.

What Can Lobbyists Do?

In the meantime, in Washington, lobbyists battle to repeal the bans on e-cigarettes. In the last two months of 2013, 35 visitors connected with the e-cigarette industry, including professional lobbyists, e-cigarette manufacturers’ representatives and doctors, signed the guest book of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

E-cigarettes’ advocates argue that condemning [the product] and limiting its market leaves regular smokers with no alternative. They point out that as much as 18 percent of the adult population is currently smoking, which means that half a million people die of their addiction every year.

“We have to help e-cigarettes phase out the most deadly product ever produced by humankind,”* said David Abrams, Executive Director of the Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies in an interview with The New York Times.

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.