Article posted Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11:38am

Many smokers believe they are breaking the cigarette habit by turning to electronic cigarettes loaded with pure liquid nicotine. When the liquid is heated it vaporizes and the “smoker” can puff away, perhaps feeling that he or she is better off not inhaling cancer-causing compounds in old-fashioned cigarettes. And maybe the substitute “cigarette” will allow the smoker to taper off the habit, since manufacturers of e-cigarettes advertise that their use “is the first step toward quitting smoking.” However, a survey of 949 e-smokers showed that after one year, only about 13 percent of them had quit smoking. Since nicotine is a poison used in many insecticides, one wonders if those who smoke e-cigarettes loaded with nicotine realize they are poisoning themselves. It might be interesting for e-cigarette smokers to try to kill insects by blowing smoke on them. (Grana et al, 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine, Mar. 24; Science News, May 3, 2014)