Electronic cigarettes: Who needs them?
As I walked through Town Center Mall in Boca Raton with my 15-year-old, a guy at a kiosk asked us if there was a smoker in our family who sought an alternative.
He was peddling electronic cigarettes, which deliver nicotine in a cigarette shape without tobacco smoke. My daughter disagreed with me, but I couldn't help but think he was sending a subtle message to teens that there is a new kind of cigarette out there that is "healthier."
How timely that the FDA announced last week that electronic cigarettes are close to poisonous. They not only contain cancer-causing nitrosamines; they have diethylene glycol, the toxic ingredient in antifreeze.
Unfortunately the FDA is not taking smokeless cigarettes off the market. In the meantime, watch out as mall workers try to lure you in with claims, such as this description on the Smoking Everywhere website, that you can avoid "the fire, flame, tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide, ash, stub, smell and all the other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes." Right, instead you can inhale a different set of cancer-causing chemicals.
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