Electronic Cigarettes Should Not Be Regulated By Our Government

The use of electronic cigarettes, or “vaping”, is slowly growing to be a problem to our government. Vaping is starting to take over the smoking industry, so the government feels the need to step in and regulate it somehow. Electronic cigarettes, or “vapes”, should not be regulated by our government. The juice that these electronic cigarettes contain consists of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, and pure nicotine. More propylene glycol in the juice makes for more flavor, and more vegetable glycerin makes for more vapor production. Vapes should not be regulated because they are one thousand times safer than traditional cigarettes, there is no “second-hand smoke” emitted by them, and they help people cut down the amount of cigarettes they smoke. However, nicotine is a drug and can increase blood pressure and heart rate in humans when used in excess amounts.

“In 2000, a Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik invented the modern electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette” (Hemphill). The Food and Drug Administration wants to put electronic cigarettes under the same regulation as traditional cigarettes. “In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis tested 19 varieties of e-cigarettes manufactured by two vendors, NJOY and Smoking Everywhere. The scientists found that tobacco-specific nitrosamines, known cancer-causing chemicals, were detected in all of the cartridges of one brand, and two of the cartridges from the other” (Hemphill). “Critics of the FDA study responded that the detected harmful chemicals were measured by researchers at levels approximately one-millionth of the concentrations believed to be relevant to human health. Further, according to the results of a 2010 study by researchers at Bost...

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...Prue Talbot of the University of California, Riverside, found another type of nanoparticle in the vapor from e-cigarettes: Analysis revealed a high concentration of heavy metals and silicates. It turned out these metal nanoparticles came from the heating element, which consisted of a nickel–chromium wire coated in silver and soldered with tin. During exposure to the heating element, the e-liquid appeared to pick up bits of metal, which then were carried in the aerosol” (Arnold).

Electronic cigarettes, or “vapes”, are not one-hundred percent safe, but they are one-thousand times safer than traditional cigarettes, there is no nasty smoke emitted from them (Hemphill). In fact, there is no smoke emitted from them at all, it is just vapor. Electronic cigarettes ultimately can help people quit smoking traditional cigarettes and should not be regulated by our government.