Smoking Tobacco Products and Electronic-cigarettes

Smoking became a staple of Southern United States culture when it's environment proved perfect for growing and harvesting tobacco. With Kentucky and North Carolina “accounting for 71% of tobacco grown in the United States,” it is easy to see how the smoking culture is so deeply embedded and loved by southerners (“Economies”). Since the birth of this relationship in the late eighteenth century, a plethora of research has shown many negative side effects of smoking tobacco, such as: cancer, increased risk for respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease, and tooth decay (“Economies”). This, along with recent bans put in place by a growing number of cities that make it a crime to smoke in public places, has paved the way for a new technologically advanced way to smoke. The electronic cigarette became widespread in the United States in 2008. Since then, their popularity and criticism have skyrocketed.

It smokes and gives the user the same fix of nicotine as a regular cigarette. “E-cigs heat liquid nicotine into an inhaled vapor, dissipating faster than cigarette smoke (Burritt).” Electronic Cigarettes are currently unregulated and are becoming increasingly popular with an expected 1.5 billion dollars in sales expected in 2014 (Burritt). They look and smoke just like a regular cigarette, but are actually reusable. A user must recharge and add new nicotine juice periodically. One user that Robin Utrecht interviewed described electronic cigarettes as “very liberating (Burritt).” That can be true for some users, since electronic cigarettes “are designed to give smokers the pleasure and feeling of smoking a cigarette, without the nicotine and carcinogenic smoke (“Keep”).”

Electronic cigarettes are becoming very popular and raising con...

... middle of paper ...

...th do not need access to electronic cigarettes and nothing has been done nationally to halt sales to anyone under eighteen. For the current time, I have to side with the opposition due to the toxicity of nicotine liquid when ingested and the lack of research surrounding electronic cigarettes even though I believe they are being overly criticized by mainstream media. This debate is very straightforward, but so complicated at the same time. There seems to be very little facts and research that could help form an opinion about electronic cigarettes in the long run. In the near future, I hope to see that change. Society as a whole needs to be informed in order to decide how to treat the rise of this new industry. With that, a solid stance could be determined and expressed through new laws and regulations targeting the tobacco companies producing electronic cigarettes.