Just recently, electronic cigarettes have come into the smoking industry. If you not familiar with ecigarettes, these sticks resemble like the traditional cigarettes but they are tobacco free battery powered devices that vaporize the liquid solution, or the e-liquid which may or may not contain nicotine, that is inhaled by the user. E-cigarettes stimulate the smoking experience taking off the harmful ingredients such as tar, carbon monoxide, and thousands of carcinogens.

An electronic cigarette is a personal vaporizer designed and produced as supplement to tobacco cigarette smoking. The FDA actually has not approved e-cigarette as smoking cessation tool and not advertised also as such by the manufacturers because it still contains nicotine which, to some, may not be helpful in stopping their nicotine addiction. But even though not FDA-approved cessation device, e-cigs are regulated by FDA the same way it does to other tobacco products which is actually better than phasing e-cigarettes out totally.

Maybe, if you are a smoker and first timer to see an e-cig or hear about it, some of the most probable questions that would pop out from your mind are, “Is it safe?” or “Is it right for me?”. Let me enumerate some of the benefits of using e-cigs to convince you that, hey e-cig is actually a safer alternative not just because it does not contain tobacco and carcinogens that are harmful to health, but for far more reasons as well.

Benefits of E-cigarettes:

- no second hand smoke emitted making it safe not just for the user, but to the people surrounding him as well

- no lingering foul cigarette odor as the vapor produced has essentially no smell and dissipates quickly

- cheaper and money saver alternative because an e-cigarette cartridge is equivalent to 12 to 20 cigarettes

- no stained teeth and dark gums

- there are a lot of flavors to choose from

- moderated nicotine strength levels

- environment friendly because no more ashes and cigarette butts are to be disposed, saves the ozone layer depletion as well because no ignition or burning is done

However, even with these advantages laid out, there are still many individuals and organizations opposing to e-cigarette usage, or vaping. Some of the countries that totally or partially ban the use of e-cigs are Australia, Brazil, Switzerland, Canada, Singapore, Turkey, Thailand, Israel, Denmark, and other states of America too like in some parts of Tennessee, Oregon, Alabama, New Jersey, Maryland, and Kentucky. There are also ordinances prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes in specific places like indoor/outdoor recreational facilities, school grounds, and in the recent news, e-cigs got banned in airplanes and workplaces too.

For some places, admittedly yes, it is acceptable to ban vaping as part of the no-smoking policy implementation just like in places of worship and hospitals. However, banning the use of electronic cigarettes in public indoor and outdoor places touches the nerves of the individuals who switched to vaping. Every time a bill is submitted in a specific county or state, it produces a lot of commotion to the users of e-cigarettes. Why? Because these satisfied switchers found e-cigs as helpful aids, if not to quit smoking, helpul and effective substitute in tobacco cigarettes, and if banned, they might opt back to smoking which is the leading cause of lung cancer all over the world.

According to Dr. Joel Nitzkin, Chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force for the American Association of Public Health Physicians, the rise of tobacco bill, including e-cigarettes in the definition of smoking, pose a devastating potential effect to the smokers who now use electronic cigarettes. Dr. Nitzkin said that the ongoing research and quality control of the product is required to ensure that e-cigs are not contaminated by caner causing ingredients. But nevertheless, the answer to the concern whether e-cigs are harmful or not is not by implementing tobacco bill which would guarantee a defacto ban on products which are at least a lot more times safer compared to the traditional tobacco cigarettes. Dr. Nitzkin estimated that if every smoker switched to e-cigarettes, the death toll caused by smoking would fall from 400,000 to between 400-4000 which would make a great difference. And just to further point out, even if everyone in America became addicted to e-cigarettes, Dr. Nitzkin went to show that using the worst case scenario, the death toll would be 20,000, which is still a fraction compared to the current toll.

If e-cig bans would not cease, how wrecking it would be to trash the benefits of vaping and get back to the negative effects of tobacco smoking.