The Future of Smoking: Gone with the Wind?

Advances in technology revolutionize one of Americans' most divisive habits.

WASHINGTON – A new electronic cigarette that purports to eliminate the usual hazards associated with cigarettes– cancer, secondhand smoke, bad breath and odors – could change the future of smoking, according to traditional smokers and store owners who have used and sold the product.

Not everyone, however, is sold on the electronic cigarette. Though the product claims to eliminate the inherent health risks of cigarettes, some balk at the idea of smokers having free rein in airplanes, hospitals and other public spaces.

The electronic cigarette or “e-cigarette,” as referred to by users, is a battery-operated, nicotine inhalant device, created to simulate the cigarette experience, without the harmful side-effects to the user or others.

Because e-cigarettes do not emit any cancer-causing smoke and are flameless, creators and sellers are touting them as a way to get around the smoking ban already effective in most public areas, including airports and hospitals.

[img_assist|nid=147|title=An Electronic Cigarette sold by SafeSmokes.net|desc=An e-cigarette. The left part (white) is the battery, the middle part (white with small hole) is the atomizer and the right part (brown) is the mouthpiece and cartridge. Source: Wikipedia|link=node|align=right|width=300|height=183]“I need to know, is it true? I have to be certain that the air that’s contaminated won’t affect me,” said Julissa Giron, 22, a restaurant server.

Billy Iglehart, 41, of Chandler Ariz., is the store manager of DJ’s Smoke Shop, one of the only smoke shops in the United States that sells a version of electronic cigarettes.

The best reception that I think that we’ve had on [e-cigarettes] has been with the older crowd," said Iglehart. "They are using it as a means to smoke healthier and to get around the statewide bans that are currently being implemented, as far as smoking in restaurants and planes.”

Annette Scheaut, 46, the store manager of DJ’s sister store in East Mesa, Ariz., uses the Crown7 herself, and has already taken it out in public places where smoking is normally forbidden.

Crown7's are the only brand of electronic cigarettes currently available for sale within the United States.

“I took it on the airplane with me; I used it in the airport and nobody said anything to me," Scheaut said. "I figured they would come up and say, ‘You can’t smoke,’ but I didn’t have a problem.”

At Scheaut's store, most of her e-cigarette customers tend to be older. "They don’t want to give up their habits, but still want to smoke while they’re playing bridge,” she said. “They just want to be able to smoke wherever. That’s it, because no one is going to tell them where they can and cannot smoke.”

Some, however, aren’t convinced that electronic cigarette users should be allowed to smoke anywhere they want to, health risk or not.

“Not at church, I don’t even go to church, but if I was at church (and somebody was smoking an e-cigarette), I would be offended,” said Ashley Welles, 16, a D.C. high school student who was wearing a rock and roll t-shirt while riding the metro.

Traditional smoking venues, however, such as restaurants and coffee shops, did not create an issue for Welles. She explained that smoking is a reality that she deals with every day, “My friends smoke," she said. "I don’t even notice it anymore.”

Smoker Jeff Spayd, 18, is one of Welles’ friends, and expressed intrigue at the idea of not being discriminated against due to his habit. By not having to leave a restaurant or exit a public building for a cigarette, Spayd said the product would be worth the investment.

Spayd listed school and the movie theater as two unconventional places he would like to try an e-cigarette.

“If you can be allowed to smoke in the metro, then they’ve hit a gold mine," said Mike O’Neil, a metro bus operator in his 50s. He said he would not be offended by electronic cigarette smokers on his bus, and he would tell his co-workers about the product, so they could use it too.

D.C. transit officials declined to comment on employee or patron use of an electronic cigarette in the metro or on the bus, citing insufficient knowledge of the product.

Similarly, the superintendent of Congressional buildings, which includes Senate offices, the Capitol building and House offices, declined to comment on whether the electronic cigarette is a product that would be allowed in the Capitol’s rotunda or on the floor of the Senate.

Don Harrington, with the Arizona Department of Health Services, is cited on Crown7’s Web site as stating that electronic cigarettes would be allowed in public places with a traditional smoking ban.

“If they have no tobacco in them, as we’ve heard they don’t, they would be allowed, simply because they would fall outside the regulation of what the law includes,” he said.

The Center for Disease Control, the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids and Dr. Scott J. Leischow, president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, declined to comment on whether they agreed with Crown7’s statements.

Official statements made by the Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau and the Food and Drug Administration are cited on Crown7’s Web site: “Crown7 is not a product that warrants the involvement or oversight of either government entity. The FDA notes that Crown7 does not fit the classification of products that it governs.”

The Web site also makes note that the Tobacco and Taxation Bureau has “formally determined that the TTB has no regulatory interest” in the electronic cigarette “because it does not contain tobacco.”

Although an electronic cigarette is initially an investment, starter kits for the Crown7 and similar products range from $79.99 to $250.00, the long-term savings can be substantial.

Scheaut said her main reason for using an e-cigarette was financial. “It’s cut my [traditional] smoking in half. It’s economical for me to use.”

She added that although some of her patrons use an e-cigarette as a means to help them quit smoking, “a lot of them want to substitute half and half (traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes) because of money.”

Although there are slight variations between models and makes, the basic technology involved in an e-cigarette is the same. A rechargeable, lithium-ion battery encased in stainless steel powers the cigarette and is activated when the user inhales. The action produced by users sends a solution of nicotine and propylene glycol through an atomizing chamber, creating a nicotine vapor that can be ingested and then exhaled.

Cartridges of nicotine, equivalent to one to two packs of cigarettes, are replaceable and range between $1 and $3, depending on the brand and concentration of nicotine.

One of the first e-cigarette versions was created under the supervision of the China Health Care Society and Beijing’s Health Care Department. The e-cigarette’s vaporized nicotine is odorless, carcinogen free and contains no air pollutants, according to e-cig.org, a Web site geared towards informing potential users and promoting the product.

It is currently being touted by e-cig.org as “all the fun of nicotine, less the toxins in cigarettes.”