Posted on 06/25/2009 10:14:04 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wants to ban a smoking device that several House Republicans have trumpeted for helping them quit smoking.
The battery-operated device, known as an electronic cigarette, looks like a normal cigarette, but contains no tobacco and instead of smoke emits a nicotine vapor when the user inhales. Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) have all been spotted using the device on Capitol Hill.
But the device, which is sold over the Internet and at select mall kiosks, needs to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it is deemed safe for general use, Lautenberg wrote in a letter to the FDA on Monday.
“Manufacturers and retailers of these products claim that e-cigarettes are safe, and even that these products can help smokers quit traditional cigarettes,” he wrote.
“However, there have been no clinical studies to prove these products are effective at helping smokers quit, nor have any studies verified the safety of these products or their long-term health effects.”
Stearns shot back at Lautenberg on Monday, saying that there is no evidence that the device is harmful.
“Before the FDA takes any immediate action, it should put forward scientific evidence that these products are harmful or unsafe,” he said in a statement.
“These e-cigarettes are smokeless and do not produce carcinogens. The nicotine in e-cigarettes is controlled in a capsule that can help in smoking cessation by allowing the user to reduce gradually the nicotine level, hopefully to zero.”
Stearns has sent electronic cigarettes to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama to help them quit smoking. He’s been seen using the device in the Speaker’s Lobby, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) banned smoking two years ago. Her office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
A longtime opponent of smoking, Lautenberg authored the law that banned smoking on airplanes and a law that banned smoking in federal facilities that serve children.
I'm lit up on a 2 mg thumbnail of nicorette fruit spash, just about through with those, and haven't smoked a cigarette in about a month.
Very addictive stuff, nicotine. But I really signed on to call Lout-enberg an a-hole, which is precisely what he is. What kind of goat injections does this guy take to stay alive? I've been wondering since he returned to the Senate from the tomb, years ago.
I use an e-cigarette myself, and it’s a real life-changer. It’s unbelievable that they want to regulate these now, too.
Waxman is SUCH an idiot...isn’t it time for him to retire? He’s been in Congress for way too long, IMO.
I'm a Pilot. You're a moron ................. FRegards
How long am I supposed to wait before I don’t have to have a 370 pound guy sitting next to me on a trans Atlantic fight poking his fleshy elbows into my ribs while I’m trying to sleep?
Where the Hell is your Messiah John Banzhaf with my bailout?
That Chinese guy who invented the Ruyan after his father died of lung cancer should get a Nobel Prize.
Much more deserving than Arafat or Krugman.
The man is a genius. He invented something that I actually prefer to tobacco. Never thought I’d say that.
He’ll get rich and Statists will become poor. Unless they can use Gubmint to stop it and give them a bailout.
Maybe. But you don't see people completely consumed by cravings for caffeine. Sure, coffee is part of many people's daily routine, but the psychological dependence isn't even close to nicotine.
Or there would have been airlines that offered smoking planes for a price.
And I hope that for all those 'sensitive (blue) noses' out there, that somewhere along our rush to socialism, that they ban one of your most enjoyable pleasures, because as Eric points out in his statement where you can fill in the blanks, there's a socialist do-gooder behind every one of those statements. I don't care how 'conservative' or 'libertarian' you think you are.
“I’m a Pilot. You’re a moron ................. FRegards”
You’re not a commercial pilot! I know better than that!
“I’m a Pilot. You’re a moron ................. FRegards”
I have been around commercial pilots for 36 years....
again...you are not a professional pilot.
How can I tell? Just ask.
Try "Cincinnati" to Frankfurt, Germany with a constant plume of smoke. Or Brussels, Belgium. Gag. Add the BO from the "bath a month" club and you have a very malodorous transit. I only tolerated it because it was a business trip on the company nickel. There's no way I would pay out of my own pocket for that experience.
“Where the Hell is your Messiah John Banzhaf with my bailout?”
Yeah..I’ve been in that situation once. The gal put the armrest up between us...I put it down.
Also, the CSR placed two women...(each had to weigh 400 lbs) at the exit row. I had visions of them getting stuck in the overwing exit while attempting to evacuate.
“Try “Cincinnati” to Frankfurt, Germany with a constant plume of smoke.”
EWR to Tokyo was awful...14 hours! The Asians were the worst!
Your friends over at DU await you. Goodbye.
Ive had my ecig for about a month now - and I’m down to just 2 cigs a day in the morning vs my 2.5 packs a day a month ago. Same goes for the wife to.
I know others have done better quitting wise but still - for me I have to view that as no small victory in the whole process here.
The overall points Id make about the ecigs are these:
Ive managed to cut back this much, with hardly any effort at all, no withdrawal and no cravings worth mentioning really. Theres no smoke, the vapor does not have any smell and any worry of any type of 2nd hand exposure is nil. Its just nicotine w/ vapor - which the FDA have approved for other things as a chemical(’s) thats not altogether that harmful to you. Its at the very least - exponentially better for you then real cigs. I would also have to tout the immediate health benefits of the method of delivery of ecigs vs actual “smoking”. Lets not even mention it costs about 1/5 the cost of cigs as well. It tastes better and has no odor also.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say one should refer to the ecig as a “quit smoking” device however - as if you look at how it works that might not be a real expectation; however saying its a “smoking alternative” that undeniably is healthier (not “healthy for” but “ier”) is realistic.
The apparent ability to use it as a quitting device I think stems from the simple fact you can adjust the levels of nicotine you intake - where as very few other nicotine products allow for that and none do so while allowing all the feeling of smoking a real cig at the same time.
And I have a fellow member on the boards here to thank for it as well - although the name escapes me now for which I apologize - but it was a fellow who made a random mention of it and I asked a few questions which he gladly answered.
In the end - long term thinking here - it was one of the nicest things anyone has done in passing for me and I am grateful of the time he took to explain the ecig to me; and feel blessed that I found such an easy way to quit what I couldn’t quit with other methods.
Each day the ecig use between the wife and I is growing lower and lower without any real noticeable effort. To me - this is outstandingly beneficial and for anyone to want to take that progress away from myself or any other for some legislative political financially motivated bs is obscene at best and morally reprehensible in actual.
This post reminds me - I got to buy more Juice.
[going to give the VG a try too]
I haven’t cut down much with the e-cig but I haven’t embraced it fully yet. It is fun vaping in taverns though....
Lautenburg will never stop the e-cig, there are too many ways to make-your-own by visiting Radio Shack and a Drug Store.
Personal Vaporizers are the wave of the future for nicotine use...got one now and three more on the way...
More proof that it is all about control.
“How long was I to wait?”
Just as long as it would take some enterprising individual or group to risk their own hard work and cash to start a smoke free airline. Or you could have taken the risk yourself. You know, the rugged individualistic approach that built the greatest country on this earth.
“You’re not a commercial pilot! I know better than that!”
How is that distinction even relevant? Smoking has been banned from ALL aircraft, not just commercial planes.
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