My understanding of e-cigarettes entering the scene is that they had rushed FDA approval, like most products these days. If you have the money or business connections with someone in the FDA, you can get virtually any product pushed through the approval process without the rigorous testing that was required 20 years ago.
I think the metal nanoparticle issue is serious. We don't allow construction workers or laboratory scientists to be exposed to inhalable metalic compounds because it can cause permanent lung damage, so it makes no sense to me whatsoever that a product that causes you to directly inhale these metals is met with approval by regulators.
If the FDA still conducted its own impartial trials like it used to, instead of letting big businesses provide the doctored research, I really doubt e-cigarettes would be on the market.
You've given them too much credit.
Frighteningly, e-cigarettes are not FDA approved, and neither the FDA nor the industry itself has done any substantial research.
Yes, it's pretty damn serious, and it's only one of the things that is pretty damn serious. The "spin" that takes place in the e-cigarette world is just unbelievable.
Based on everything I have seen, there is no quit-smoking aid on the planet that works better than e-cigarettes.
Imagine how bad this industry must be for me to have such a negative opinion of it, and to go from almost selling them to routinely recommending people avoid them like the plague.
Hell, I wouldn't take that chance on myself either. I relapsed due to the stress of whistle-blowing in the industry. When I quit again, I went cold turkey. I'd rather smoke tea than go back to e-cigs.
All I want is for the industry to tell the truth to customers. If they can't do that, for the FDA to step up to the plate and MAKE them tell the truth.
As I said, you cannot make an informed decision about what to put in your body if you don't know what it is.
And I get castigated as though I'm some kind of R.J. Reynolds plant. That's all part of the lie they tell: "Anyone who's against us is part of big tobacco, or part of the FDA that's losing out on all this money and they want it for themselves." Or, alternatively, as Mr. Nick just did: "They're just ignorant anti-smokers who are trying to persecute us." It's so predictable. It's the same bull**** lines every time, almost word-for-word.
They've used this line to get people to ignore all kinds of things. Here's a few I remember from my days in it:
1. Tanks that arrived smelling and tasting like noxious fumes.
2. Juices being found to contain an additive that causes popcorn lung.
3. Impure/rotten/just-not-right nicotine juice being sold to consumers even though the company knew it was bad.
I could go on forever, I'm sure. They just make it all go away with the same old lies.
It's just amazing, the bull**** they have people believing. And the reason is because a lot of the e-cigarette take-off has taken place online. It's not just the regular stuff -- forums, YouTube videos, etc. There are actual online shows about this stuff. Seriously. There are people who make a
living freelancing, reviewing, and shilling in the internet e-cig community.
It's a 24/7 bull**** stream, in a way TV commercials never could be. And everyone's making too much money to let the whole ethics thing bother them too much.
This, my friend, is what a totally unregulated, very lucrative marketplace looks like.