E-CIGARETTES: Clever Marketing or Wonder Cure

E- Cigarette is the tool to help people kick the nicotine addiction. It looks like a cigarette and glows like one. The electronic cigarette is an individual nicotine vaporizer. The most harmful thing about smoking real cigarettes is the tar and other chemicals that you consume while smoking. E- Cigarette is supposed to be healthy and safe compared to the real butt. The real question is, are e-cigarettes really a wonder cure or there is just clever marketing behind it?

The pressure to kick the butt is intensified due to smoking bans in many developed countries and also the family pressure as awareness increases. This nicotine addiction is toughest addiction to give up. Many products are available in the market as alternatives to cigarettes. There are nicotine patches, nicotine gums, prescribed drugs which are widely available, but these have not been very successful and not much written about. The latest smoking cessation way is the e-cigarettes, made in China. Also called the e- cigs have been named electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) by the World Health Organization (WHO).

They look like the real thing in size and its looks but are longer or shorter than cigarettes. Some call the e-cigs as ST, which stands for smokeless tobacco. But ST has chew tobacco and snuff. E-Cigarettes are also commonly known as Nicotine inhalers, Smokeless smokes, Vapes, E-puffs. The e-cigarette has an atomizer and when you take a drag on any electronic cigarette it will activate a sensor that will set in motion a heating element in the tube which is the atomizer. Inside the electronic cigarette there is a cartridge which has liquid nicotine. The other end of the e-cig has a LED light which acts as a mode indicator. This stuff glows when the device is in use. The heating element in the cigarette turns the nicotine into vapour with is taken in by the smoker. The liquid nicotine is available in many flavours like chocolate, cinnamon to strawberry.

Many researchers from Stanford have said that vapours from these e-cigarettes are complex mixtures and is not pure nicotine. The inhalation of such complex mixtures might not be safe. There also unexpected side effects of these smoking products like, exogenous lipoid pneumonia which is a chronic inflammatory reaction due to glycerin-based e-cigarettes. There is no proof that e-cigarettes really are effective for nicotine addiction.

They have been marketed very strongly as safe alternatives but these products may have the risk of nicotine poisoning and addiction. So it is still undecided if it really is a wonder cure or just a marketing tactic.

This novel product means different to different people. For some it is a great alternative, for regulators it is a mystery, for medical professionals they are more on the better side and for manufacturers it is way to cash in. But one thing is for sure, they are here to stay approved by regulators or not. Earlier even cigarettes were considered a remedy for stress and concentration but we all know better. The e-cigarette may take the same path once its effects are studied and understood. In the meanwhile the big company manufacturers are making big bucks and customers feel they are kicking the nicotine addiction.

Thank you, +Neha Malegaonkar!