As e-cigs grow more prominent, so too do people’s concerns and support.
Carolyn Khurshid, the department administrator of chemistry and biochemistry, tried just about everything to quit: “hypnosis, cold-turkey, nicotine patches, inhalers and gum,” all of which didn’t work.
“I have hated myself for being weak and unable to quit smoking,” Khurshid said. “I have never known a single smoker who doesn’t want to quit. Want to know how hard it can be to quit? I cared for my mother while she was dying from metastasized lung cancer. That’s right, it’s that strong. It can be that hard.”
After many false starts at quitting, she only hoped for the best when she decided to give electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, a shot. To her surprise, Khurshid noticed it started to work. In addition to being cheaper than cigarettes and offering a variety of flavors, she even began to regain a sense of taste and smell since she started the act of “vaping.”
The FDA has not yet regulated e-cigs. The long-term effects of the product are also not yet known. But early reports say the flavored nicotine vapor, induced from heated coils reacting with the liquid, has less adverse health ailments than traditional cigarettes and is one of the most effective products helping people quit smoking.
“People who judge smokers just don’t get it,” Khurshid said. “I am the first to admit that I’m an addict. But everyone, I don’t care who you are, has a crutch, some are just more dangerous than others.”
But, when Ohio University puts its tobacco ban in place for the 2015-16 academic year, it could ban the product in classrooms and on campus.
University officials have said they are unsure how students will be punished under the ban and if e-cigs will be included under its tobacco ban.
A growing market
Sales of e-cigs grew from about $500 million in 2012 to an estimated $1.5 billion in 2013, according to a Washington Post article. That’s still a fraction of the declining $100 billion in sales in the cigarette market.
Blu has become the biggest distributor of e-cigs in the United States. Not just promoting an adversary for cigarettes, but also a means of recreating the act of smoking in places traditionally no longer reserved to puffing cigarettes.
“We started selling them about a year ago,” said Jennifer Pierson, an employee of Union Street Market, 26 W. Union St. “There was a demand for them from our customers, so we decided to get them.”
Health
Carson Wagner, assistant professor and director of the ViDS Effects Lab, said a ban on e-cigs would be counter intuitive to the university’s goal to decrease the number of smokers on campus.
“I would say don’t ban the solution,” Wagner said. “With regard to the e-cigs, they seem to be banning the solution. It’s not the cigarette that causes the cancer, it’s the smoke.”
Wagner pointed to a recent study conducted by Robert West of the University College London. The five-year study concluded that cigarette smokers trying to quit are 60 percent more likely to report success if they switch to e-cigs than if they use nicotine products like patches, gum or willpower.
Cynthia Hallett, executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, disagrees.
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Based in California, Hallett says her organization is not “anti-cigarettes,” but believes that workplaces and public areas should be smoke free and not expose bystanders to giving deadly toxins.
“Both cigarettes and e-cigs give off second-hand smoke, and both contain toxins and contaminants,” Hallett said. “Even e-cigs can lead the way to deadly particles that produce heart disease and palpitations. Not just cancer.”
OU wouldn’t be the first campus to enforce these rules, Hallet said. But she believes it’s important for campuses to have a smoking policy.
“Enforcement is really what we’re talking about here,” Hallett said. “Self-enforcement, through communication, posters and some of fiancé, whatever the case may be, that’s half the battle.”
Still Amanda Swope, OU Campus Care nursing supervisor, finds the evidence inconclusive.
“I believe that vaping can still be addicting as you can choose to have nicotine or non-nicotine liquid in the cartridge that fits in the e-cig. I have only heard that people do feel as though they can breathe better and overall feel better when vaping instead of smoking,” Swope said. “It is hard for me to say that one should choose one over the other as there is not enough information on vaping. But we do know that smoking does cause many health problems.”
Vaping in the classroom
Wagner began vaping in his classroom a year or two ago. Professors determine if e-cigs are allowed in their classrooms, but university policy bans e-cigs from laboratories.
“One day, I was sitting, and it just hit me that it is the nicotine that can boost short term memory,” Wagner said. “Which includes thinking through your RTM, which is triggered through the act of smoking or vaping.”
Wagner has only received one complaint from a student for vaping in class.
“I am more productive at work with my e-cig,” Khurshid said, who also vapes in class. “I am more focused, calmer and happier. I cannot prove this; it’s just my experience.”
Wagner has discussed his thoughts on the potential ban to friends and colleagues, he hasn’t filed an official complaint with the university.
“I know that, because I started vaping, I smoke a lot less, and the effects of that have been very noticeable,” Wagner said.
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