The FDA is asking for public comment. Please respond to the CASAA call to action. Here is my testimony.
I am commenting on Electronic Cigarettes and the Public Health; Second Public Workshop; Docket No. FDA-2014-N-1936-0003.
I feel it is important that you hear from an actual e cigarette user who stopped smoking. I believe that if the FDA values smokers quitting smoking tobacco then they should lightly regulate electronic cigarettes and let smokers easlily find this miracle. I say miracle because quitting was never even on my radar. I say I quit smoking by accident. For me, if you regulate against electronic cigarettes then you are regulating in favor of tobacco smoking addiction.
I smoked home rolled tobacco cigarettes for 42 years until October of 2014. At that time, I began using the electronic cigarette Vuse I purchased at a convenience store. I continued to smoke tobacco at close to my usual rate.
In November 2014 I moved to a cigalike I purchased from Halo Ecigarettes called the G6 using a minitank with eliquid. I was smoking 50 cigarettes a day until the G6. My smoking fell to about 25 cigarettes a day.
In December I moved to advanced personal vaporizers. These are a box mod and tube batteries and tanks which hold around 2 ml of eliquid. At the beginning of January of 2015, my tobacco smoking dropped to zero. Without effort. At that time, I was looking for eliquid that tasted most like a real tobacco cigarette. I did not like flavored eliquid.
About a month later, I began buying flavored eliquids like blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, black licorice, peach, irish cream, maple sugar, coconut, cherry, bubblegum and others. I lost my taste for tobacco. Whenever I had the temptation to smoke, there was always another flavor and / or new battery-box mod-tank combination to try so the variety of flavorings and electronic cigarette hardware has kept me away from tobacco smoking so far this year.
I vape steadily throughout the day using 18 mg nicotine liquid. Since I never had a desire to quit nicotine, I do not step down my strength. I am respectful of others and do not vape anywhere smoking is not permitted, although I believe vaping is very different from smoking.
When I can't vape, such as when flying, I chew nicotine gum. I find I have much less discomfort when I can't vape than I did when I could not smoke for a period. Its much easier not to vape now than not to smoke when I was a smoker. I think this is because there were other chemicals my body was addicted to when I was smoking and many of those 4000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke are absent from my vapor.
I have experienced subjective improvements in my health. I do not cough during the night and in the morning as I did before. When I exercise at the gym, I can feel taking full deep breaths which I could not do before. My color has improved. I just feel much better and have more energy. When I first started vaping, I sometimes felt dizzy like I was getting too much oxygen but this has subsided. There is a deeply felt happiness that at 60 years of age I've been able to do something (stop smoking) that I thought was impossible that will enhance the quality of my later years of life. At my last physical performed in the summer of 2014, I did not have any health issues.
Now I must say I feel government entities have done an abysmal job on the issue of giving the public accurate electronic cigarettes information, often being downright misleading. The Democrats in Congress have shown total ignorance on the issue and an unwillingness to learn. I think the Republicans in Congress were wise to ask the FDA for light regulation on the deeming date. The California Department of Public Health is running misleading misinformed fear-based advertising. I can understand wanting to protect teenagers from nicotine but when teenagers see the government demonizing these products they will want to try them even more. And when they try them and find they are relatively innocuous, especially with zero nicotine liquid, they will trust their government even less and laugh at it.
I would rather see the government be educated and honest. And honestly educate the public. Ideally, I would like to see reasonable regulation such as full ingredients listings on e liquid. Regulation should be used to insure public safety and the quality of the product and not as a tool to strangle a new industry so big tobacco and big pharma can dominate the market.
Big tobacco wants to look like the good guys on this issue, putting much more detailed warning labels on a product which I and they know is much less toxic than real cigarettes. If their products where the only ones available, I would still be combusting tobacco. They want the e cigarette market but they don't have the innovation or motivation to make products that would really help smokers quit. And I believe big pharma wants to kill the e cigarette industry because their products are not very effective for smokers such as me and I would buy A LOT of gum trying to quit and still fail.
I believe history will show that electronic cigarettes will be a miracle development for smokers, helping inveterate smokers like me quit when no other approach will ever work. Public health advocates would see the smoking reduction rates they want and I feel history will find these products much safer than combustion smoking.
I will find a way to get my electronic cigarette hardware and liquids, even resorting to the black market if they are severely restricted. Not because of "abuse liability", but because this product keeps me from smoking tobacco and I like how I feel not smoking.
If you have any questions or desire additional information, I would be happy to provide any additional answers and information you desire.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
Christopher Marshall
I am commenting on Electronic Cigarettes and the Public Health; Second Public Workshop; Docket No. FDA-2014-N-1936-0003.
I feel it is important that you hear from an actual e cigarette user who stopped smoking. I believe that if the FDA values smokers quitting smoking tobacco then they should lightly regulate electronic cigarettes and let smokers easlily find this miracle. I say miracle because quitting was never even on my radar. I say I quit smoking by accident. For me, if you regulate against electronic cigarettes then you are regulating in favor of tobacco smoking addiction.
I smoked home rolled tobacco cigarettes for 42 years until October of 2014. At that time, I began using the electronic cigarette Vuse I purchased at a convenience store. I continued to smoke tobacco at close to my usual rate.
In November 2014 I moved to a cigalike I purchased from Halo Ecigarettes called the G6 using a minitank with eliquid. I was smoking 50 cigarettes a day until the G6. My smoking fell to about 25 cigarettes a day.
In December I moved to advanced personal vaporizers. These are a box mod and tube batteries and tanks which hold around 2 ml of eliquid. At the beginning of January of 2015, my tobacco smoking dropped to zero. Without effort. At that time, I was looking for eliquid that tasted most like a real tobacco cigarette. I did not like flavored eliquid.
About a month later, I began buying flavored eliquids like blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, black licorice, peach, irish cream, maple sugar, coconut, cherry, bubblegum and others. I lost my taste for tobacco. Whenever I had the temptation to smoke, there was always another flavor and / or new battery-box mod-tank combination to try so the variety of flavorings and electronic cigarette hardware has kept me away from tobacco smoking so far this year.
I vape steadily throughout the day using 18 mg nicotine liquid. Since I never had a desire to quit nicotine, I do not step down my strength. I am respectful of others and do not vape anywhere smoking is not permitted, although I believe vaping is very different from smoking.
When I can't vape, such as when flying, I chew nicotine gum. I find I have much less discomfort when I can't vape than I did when I could not smoke for a period. Its much easier not to vape now than not to smoke when I was a smoker. I think this is because there were other chemicals my body was addicted to when I was smoking and many of those 4000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke are absent from my vapor.
I have experienced subjective improvements in my health. I do not cough during the night and in the morning as I did before. When I exercise at the gym, I can feel taking full deep breaths which I could not do before. My color has improved. I just feel much better and have more energy. When I first started vaping, I sometimes felt dizzy like I was getting too much oxygen but this has subsided. There is a deeply felt happiness that at 60 years of age I've been able to do something (stop smoking) that I thought was impossible that will enhance the quality of my later years of life. At my last physical performed in the summer of 2014, I did not have any health issues.
Now I must say I feel government entities have done an abysmal job on the issue of giving the public accurate electronic cigarettes information, often being downright misleading. The Democrats in Congress have shown total ignorance on the issue and an unwillingness to learn. I think the Republicans in Congress were wise to ask the FDA for light regulation on the deeming date. The California Department of Public Health is running misleading misinformed fear-based advertising. I can understand wanting to protect teenagers from nicotine but when teenagers see the government demonizing these products they will want to try them even more. And when they try them and find they are relatively innocuous, especially with zero nicotine liquid, they will trust their government even less and laugh at it.
I would rather see the government be educated and honest. And honestly educate the public. Ideally, I would like to see reasonable regulation such as full ingredients listings on e liquid. Regulation should be used to insure public safety and the quality of the product and not as a tool to strangle a new industry so big tobacco and big pharma can dominate the market.
Big tobacco wants to look like the good guys on this issue, putting much more detailed warning labels on a product which I and they know is much less toxic than real cigarettes. If their products where the only ones available, I would still be combusting tobacco. They want the e cigarette market but they don't have the innovation or motivation to make products that would really help smokers quit. And I believe big pharma wants to kill the e cigarette industry because their products are not very effective for smokers such as me and I would buy A LOT of gum trying to quit and still fail.
I believe history will show that electronic cigarettes will be a miracle development for smokers, helping inveterate smokers like me quit when no other approach will ever work. Public health advocates would see the smoking reduction rates they want and I feel history will find these products much safer than combustion smoking.
I will find a way to get my electronic cigarette hardware and liquids, even resorting to the black market if they are severely restricted. Not because of "abuse liability", but because this product keeps me from smoking tobacco and I like how I feel not smoking.
If you have any questions or desire additional information, I would be happy to provide any additional answers and information you desire.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
Christopher Marshall
