Comments

1
Seems cruel for people trying to quit smoking, but so many are not quitting. They continue to use e-cigs because they are still addicted to nicotine. Users assume there are completely harmless without real studies done to prove they're safe.
2
The issue is with the concentrated nicotine liquids many of them use. Nicotine is extremely toxic (LD50 is about 30-60 mg for an adult), and so those little liquid inserts are just tiny bottles of potent poison.

Add that with the fact that there is nothing regulating how much nicotine is released into the vapor, and you get the possibility for a very dangerous product.

3
Throw in a ban on Tapout shirts and Mountain Dew Kickstart and we've effectively regulated a good portion of Yakima county.
4
@2: Jesus, not this again. Don't inhale the entire contents of the e-cigarette at once. Problem solved.
5
@4: Just don't let small children near the pool unattended.

Just don't point loaded guns at other people.

Just don't drive without a seatbelt

Just don't drink alcohol and operate heavy machinery

Just check the bike lane before you open your car door

Just don't steal wages from your employees

Since all we have to do is state these things, all problems solved. Right?
6
@4 For fuck's sake, one of the great harms of prohibition is that it ends up providing inconsistent and otherwise untrustworthy products.

Certainly, any regulation is going to be viewed as too much and not enough by various factions, but when the product provides uneven dosages it's ridiculous to simply tell people to adjust their intake accordingly and call that a solved problem.
7
@5: Are you trying to argue that someone could plausibly be hospitalized or killed from the nicotine in an e-cigarette? I can see a child potentially eating or drinking the liquids or a suicidal person using it for an OD. I don't see anybody else getting hurt. There are a lot more household items that are far more dangerous.
8
@7: Yes, and those household items are not supposed to be ingested.

This is really very simple: there is a substance that is very poisonous that we accept for use in very small amounts. The devices that administer this poison should therefore be regulated by the agency that regulates other things that are similar or the same. I know you think your argument of "people will not do that" is solid, but history proves it false often.

Besides, the issue is not just the fact tht nicotine is poisonous, but that the devices that administer it should be regulated so people know how much nicotine they are getting, and it does not go over a lethal or dangerous amount. It is not even just about drinking the concentrate, but making sure the devices meet certain health/safety standards.

Very simple.

9
@8: Okay, I think I might have misjudged your argument. This is fine and reasonable. Label the devices and test them.
10
Ted, your concern trolling is duly noted.
11
@7 It may not be necessary to ingest the liquid. Pure nicotine is readily absorbed through the skin, going straight into the bloodstream. That's why patches work. The LD50 of absorbing liquid through the skin all at once might be lower due to the shock value. So, proper precautions and labeling are required for handling spillages.
12
MY GOD!! Nicotine is a scourge like none we have ever seen!!! SCREAM INTO THE NIGHT!!! Oh my bloomers!! ACK!!! Nicotine: WORSE THAN HITLER!!!!

There, that sum's up some of the comments above.
13
So commenting on the content of the post is now concern trolling, and suggesting that a commercial device which dispenses a poisonous substance/drug be regulated by the FDA both concern trolling and panicking.

Shine on you crazy diamonds.
14
@12 Seriously, nicotine is used as an insecticide. Here, verbatim, is a caution note from a discussion of natural insecticides:

"CAUTION: Nicotine liquid forms will absorb through the skin . The dust form must not be inhaled (. Use extreme caution)"

Now, hopefully, there's not enough in an e-cig cartridge to kill all the aphids on your roses, but the shit is still a powerful neurotoxin, not only to insects, but to animals and people if mishandled.
15
Switch to pot.
16
As long as they aren't making it harder to get Hash-Oil ecigs.

17
Don't forget to regulate alcohol bottle design to limit how fast you can drink so you don't die of alcohol poisoning while you're at it.
18
@17: We already regulate how much alcohol is in a drink. There are many, many laws relating to alcohol potency limits, and making proof labels mandatory so that people are not downing drinks which the alcohol content is uknown and possibly dangerous.

Sort of like they should regulate the e-cigs so that people know how much nicotine is in each puff. When it comes to accepted toxins like alcohol and nicotine, is is important that people now how much of the toxin they are getting for safety reasons.

Thanks for playing!
19
@2 Those LD50 numbers are based on dubious self-experimentation from the 1800s. More recent research puts the numbers at more than 10x the old values, from 0.5-1 mg/kg to 6.5-13 mg/kg.

If you're going to try to use science, use it correctly.
20
Jesus christ, what a bunch of whiny assholes here in the thread. The FDA deals with purity and safety regulation for things we ingest. Why in the fuck shouldn't they be testing and verifying the safety, purity and labeling of these devices and the oils used in them?

Have any of you idiots ever read The Jungle?
21
@19: The CDC claims about 50-60 mg for an adult is the estimated lethal dose, from a 1969 study, right about where my original numbers where.

Also, the variance in the study you are using is crazy: .5 mg/kg - 13mg/kg?

That gives us a range of 40 - 1040 mg...seems fishy.
22
...for an 180 pound adult, I should say.
23
Theodore Gorath says, ": We already regulate how much alcohol is in a drink. There are many, many laws relating to alcohol potency limits"

Oh, is that so? Who regulates how much booze my bartender pours into my glass? It seems you know about as much about alcohol as you do about e-cigarettes.
Here's a link to one of many liquor store websites where you can buy 190 proof grain alcohol:
http://www.theliquorbarn.com/everclear-g…

It always astounds me when people post "facts" which are so easily proven false with a ten second Google search. They just dream up "facts" to suit their ideological agendas.

How would you determine "how much nicotine is in each puff"? There are big puffs and little puffs. There are puffs which are partially or entirely expelled out of the mouth and/or nose without being inhaled into the lungs. I suppose you could count each puff you took during the course of a day, then carefully measure how much e-juice you'd used, then divide that by the number of puffs, and then maybe you could determine the average amount of nicotine per puff. An utterly pointless exercise, but it could be done because the nicotine content of e-juice is clearly stated on every bottle. That's another fact you could have discovered had you spent a minute with Google. You can order it in concentrations ranging from 0-36 mg/ml. I have spilled 36 mg/ml nicotine on myself several times without suffering so much as a rash. If you tried to drink it, one little taste would be so awful that you would immediately stop. If you were trying to poison yourself, you'd almost certainly vomit it up before a lethal dose could be absorbed.

Opinions like yours would be laughable if other people didn't take them seriously and use them as a reason to support the draconian regulation of products which are saving many lives. As millions of people all over the world have been using them for years, you can be sure there would be screaming headlines and blogs proclaiming their dangers if they were causing significant harm to anyone.

But please carry on as before, as I know you will. After all, we can't let those pesky little facts interfere with our ideological narratives.
24
Theodore Gorath says, ": We already regulate how much alcohol is in a drink. There are many, many laws relating to alcohol potency limits"

Oh, is that so? Who regulates how much booze my bartender pours into my glass? It seems you know about as much about alcohol as you do about e-cigarettes.
Here's a link to one of many liquor store websites where you can buy 190 proof grain alcohol:
http://www.theliquorbarn.com/everclear-g…

It always astounds me when people post "facts" which are so easily proven false with a ten second Google search. They just dream up "facts" to suit their ideological agendas.

How would you determine "how much nicotine is in each puff"? There are big puffs and little puffs. There are puffs which are partially or entirely expelled out of the mouth and/or nose without being inhaled into the lungs. I suppose you could count each puff you took during the course of a day, then carefully measure how much e-juice you'd used, then divide that by the number of puffs, and then maybe you could determine the average amount of nicotine per puff. An utterly pointless exercise, but it could be done because the nicotine content of e-juice is clearly stated on every bottle. That's another fact you could have discovered had you spent a minute with Google. You can order it in concentrations ranging from 0-36 mg/ml. I have spilled 36 mg/ml nicotine on myself several times without suffering so much as a rash. If you tried to drink it, one little taste would be so awful that you would immediately stop. If you were trying to poison yourself, you'd have to drink 3 or four teaspoons and would almost certainly vomit it up before a lethal dose could be absorbed.

Opinions like yours would be laughable if other people didn't take them seriously and use them as a reason to support the draconian regulation of products which are saving many lives. As millions of people all over the world have been using them for years, you can be sure there would be screaming headlines and blogs proclaiming their dangers if they were causing significant harm to anyone.

But please carry on as before, as I know you will. After all, we can't let those pesky little facts interfere with our ideological narratives.
25
Sorry for the double post. I'm not sure how that happened.
26
Kinison, there are hundreds of studies. You can read all about them here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/1…

The bottom line is that there is no reliable data to support the notion that e-cigarettes pose a significant health threat to anyone. And they are clearly vastly safer than smoking cigarettes, which is the whole point.

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