Recovering The SelfA Journal of Hope and Healing

Guest Blogger

E Cigarette Popularity Increases Despite the "Quit or Die" Policy of Health Organisations

Guest Blogger: Roxanne Peterson

Let’s start by defining our terms a little here. The American Cancer Society stated last year sometime that it has a “Quit or Die” policy, though reporting on the matter made it less than clear whether that statement referred to the use of tobacco or the e cigarette. What is clear is that the e cig itself, which has in the past been subject to attacks over its previously unlegislated status, has been positively endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians (London) and is now being used by smokers from all walks of life.

Insofar as tobacco use is concerned, if you don’t quit it will kill you. That’s pretty much a given. The e cigarette is a different kettle of fish entirely. Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 plus ingredients, many of which are either unpleasant or downright harmful to the human body. The e cig contains roughly 40 ingredients, all of which are independently safe for human consumption.

Health organizations in general have expressed concerns regarding the unregulated nature of e cigarettes (that’s changing); and the fact that they may be advertised pretty much without restriction. The basic concern seems to be that the e cig could appear attractive to people who have never smoked, particularly children – in which case a whole segment of the population previously untouched by the evils of nicotine will start vaping away without realizing the harm they could be doing to themselves.

That’s a position that wants a little clarification. E cigarettes contain nicotine, which is harmful to humans. Therefore, any non smoker using an e cig is either doing so on the erroneous assumption that the device is harmless: or is getting into drug use (remember, nicotine is a drug and a very addictive one at that) with full knowledge of the harm it can cause.

The idea that children and non-smokers will be attracted by the advertising for e cigarettes is by turns silly and offensive, depending on where you sit. Personally speaking I think I’m big enough and ugly enough to make up my own mind about advertising. We all know that companies selling stuff try to make that stuff as appealing as possible to their target market, right? That’s how stuff is sold in the first place. Now as far as I can see the target market of the e cig is the smoker who wants to save his or her own life.

Nothing seems particularly evil there, nor yet does it have anything in it that looks attractive to children. No more than tampons or condoms are attractive after they’ve been advertised – which is to say, they’re attractive as hell to their target audience but not really to anyone else.

In the case of e cigarettes, no matter how hard the manufacturers try, an e cig is nothing more nor less than a coping mechanism for nicotine addiction. It looks cooler than addiction management drugs dispensed by rehab clinics for barbiturate addictions: but essentially that’s what it is, and no amount of advertising can hide it. Smokers are drawn to the e cigarette because it represents a lifeline first and a lifestyle choice second. For a non smoker to find e cig advertising attractive, they’d have to be the kind of person who would deliberately opt for a substitute hit rather than the real thing.

Let’s be honest here. If you’re going to rebel and try smoking you’re not going to go out and spend upwards of £60 on an e cig starter pack. You’ll spend £6 on a pack of cigarettes.

Author’s Bio : Roxanne is associated with various health institutes as their freelance and staff writer. She has been linked with some of the best electronic cigarette companies and is been offering various ways to stop smoking and switch to electric cigarettes.

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0 thoughts on “E Cigarette Popularity Increases Despite the "Quit or Die" Policy of Health Organisations”

  1. Natalie says:

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