The Bumpy Road of Vaping: Strong Debate Over Effectiveness and Safety

According to reports from Al Jazeera, the rapid short-term growth of e-cigarettes has sparked a strong debate over their effectiveness and safety. E-cigarettes have emerged on the market as a means to escape the harms of traditional cigarettes, and they should fulfill the duty of eliminating those harms. However, in reality, manufacturers have dramatically changed the role of e-cigarettes to market their products. Under the clever marketing strategies of e-cigarette manufacturers, more and more young people, including minors, have started using e-cigarettes.
In the United States, senior executives of e-cigarette manufacturers have even been summoned to the Senate for hearings. E-cigarettes avoid the harms of traditional cigarettes by using batteries to power vaporizing devices that produce nicotine vapor, allowing users to experience the pleasure of smoking without inhaling tar, thus reducing health risks.
However, researchers have found that the variety of e-cigarettes is appearing online at an alarming growth rate. Monitoring e-cigarettes online from August 2012 to January 2014 revealed that an average of 10 new cigarette brands and 240 different flavor styles appeared each month.
Experts believe this result clearly shows that "manufacturing healthy alternatives to traditional cigarettes" is no longer the primary interest of e-cigarette manufacturers. Instead, the focus has shifted to "how to provide consumers with different flavors to meet their needs and enhance their purchasing desire."
A survey of 26,000 citizens from 27 EU countries concluded that in 2012, approximately 29 million people in EU member states used e-cigarettes, including those who tried e-cigarettes briefly.
The rapid growth in e-cigarette sales is closely tied to aggressive marketing by manufacturers. In the United States, executives of e-cigarette companies have been called to hearings for advertising that allegedly entices minors to smoke.
In fact, manufacturers often package e-cigarettes as healthy, harmless guardians of health in their advertisements, using a variety of flavors to enhance consumer purchasing desire and thus expand sales.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2012, there were 1.78 million middle and high school students in the U.S. using e-cigarettes, a number that doubled compared to 2011. Additionally, a report from the American Legacy Foundation indicated that in 2013, 14 million children viewed e-cigarette television advertisements, and 950,000 children read their print ads.
Despite executives arguing that the target audience for their advertisements is adults, the questioning senators clearly do not accept this reasoning. They pointed out that advertisements are equally appealing to both adults and minors, and that manufacturers have released various "flavors that seem more suitable for young people" (such as vanilla and cherry). Some senators even told executives, "Don't say you don't care about kids... you will regret it," and "I am ashamed for you."
In fact, the controversy surrounding e-cigarettes even includes their "existential significance." In June 2014, 129 public health officials and medical experts from 31 countries jointly wrote to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, questioning the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation.
The letter pointed out that because the nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes is concentrated in small cartridges, any device malfunction or external damage could pose a significant threat to human health and safety. Furthermore, there is already ample evidence that using e-cigarettes still exposes users to carcinogens and reproductive toxins, and claims of e-cigarettes being harmless to the human body are unfounded.
Moreover, the letter also mentioned that the smoking cessation effectiveness of e-cigarettes is very limited, and there is currently no conclusion on whether e-cigarette therapy is superior or inferior to traditional nicotine therapies. The "smoking cessation argument" is merely a guise used by e-cigarette manufacturers to expand their market share and increase their sales.
Experts have suggested to WHO that current restrictions on traditional cigarettes should also be applied to e-cigarettes. These policies include: banning e-cigarette companies from advertising in any form, using simple product packaging with warning images and text, and increasing e-cigarette tax rates. Only through legalization can better ensure people's health.