Electronic cigarettes banned in campus buildings, residence halls

I'd like to know what research has shown that e-cigarettes give off “noxious chemicals in the vapor expelled.” The primary ingredient used to create the vapor from e-cigarettes is propylene glycol, which is GRAS (generally recognized as safe) according to the FDA, and is found in countless everyday products, from toothpaste to ice cream to Baby Origel. It's used in asthma inhalers, for crying out loud!

E-cigarettes emit no smoke (first- or secondhand), no flame, no ash, no offensive odor. They contain no tar, no carbon monoxide, and no dozens of carcinogens. There is absolutely no scientific reason to ban their use indoors.

Score one for Big Tobacco. Central Michigan University just sent its students the message that they may as well keep smoking….

Mr. Hoffman: Go back to Shaun Holtgreive and ask him to provide you with a copy of research that shows “they give off noxious chemicals in the vapor expelled when smoked.” I guarantee you that he will not be able to do so, because no such research exists. My guess would be that the only “research” Mr. Holtgreive studied was the FDA's July 2009 press release that contained misleading and inflammatory statements about what the FDA found in the unvaporized liquid. Had Mr. Holtgreive actually read and understood the accompanying lab report, he would know that the FDA found nothing at all harmful in the vapor, and that the quantity of chemicals found in the liquid were too miniscule to be harmful. The FDA is being sued by two cigarette companies, so the agency has a vested interest in making the products look dangerous. If the vapor contains “noxious chemicals,” how is it possible that 90% of users are reporting improvements in their health–especially lung health?

As a registered pharmacist and vaper, this is disheartening. True no research exists showing that ecig vapor is absolutely safe. But, conversely, there is also NO accepted peer-reviewed data showing anything that would support noxious chemicals in expelled ecig vapor either(re: cite the previous comment regarding the completely biased and flawed FDA press release). Anyone with 2 functioning synapses and knowledge of what is actually contained in e-liquid can easily deduce that vaping must be, at the very least, several orders of magnitude safer then smoking, both for the vaper/smoker and anyone around them. Making a decision of this magnitude is one thing, lying about non-existent research to support said decision is despicable; especially when the outcome may be college students returning to a proven killer(i.e. smoking).

Good luck, i smoke my e-cig anywhere and noone knows i am doing it. It is easy to ban a regular cigarette because everyone can smell it, but baning an ecig is a whole new ballgame…

Not like it can be smelled if you're using it in the dorm room. Personally were I a student I'd continue to vape in my dorm room.

Andrew Casanova thinks these are harmful to a SMOKER????? Whatever happened to common sense?

Sorry but you really have to show us the report that says they give off 'noxious chemicals' because the FDA's own report says they don't.

This clown must be the kid we all picked on when we were young, and now he is getting back at society by banning anything and everything. The banning is his way of flexing a muscle he wishes he had in a physical sense. The school should keep an eye on him, because his actions could lead to lawsuits once electronic smokes are found to be safe. In the mean time everyone should flood the school with freedom of information requests for anything you can think of…. maybe that would give them something to do, instead of trying to keep people smoking tobacco!

Ethic soup is a classless blog written by a classless individual. You are unable to comment on the context as the author refused to publish the comments. She is an embarrassment to the blogging community. Oh, did I mention, she's a liar?

I would like this author to prove just one statement, ” many contained diethylene glycol, the poisonous ingredient in antifreeze.” Unless one of 18 or 19 cartridges is many, she is providing misinformation, no disinformation, no lying.

Half the cartridges contained nitrosamines? Did the author bother to read the actual report that the FDA based their dog and pony show? It's readily available on the internet and an honest blogger would have checked it before publishing rehashing bad hash. Yes, they do contain nitrosamines, to the same level that nitrosamines are found in your nicotine gum, lozenges and inhalers. The main reason for that is that the nicotine is extracted from tobacco which has orders of magnitude more nitrosamines than any of the fore mentioned products.

The new research that this poor excuse for a researcher quotes, in fact, proved nothing. A tobacco Nazi assumed that it could be more dangerous. However, nothing in the study drew that conclusion.

A little research goes a long way if you decide to do it.

Did I mention this troll that posted this comment is Ethic soup. How ethical is that?

Yeah.. Right. Less healthy than traditional Cigarettes? BS. The Nitrosamines mentioned in the report.. are.. found in comparable levels as those found in the Patch and gums (OMG Why YES.. Nicotine Patches and Gum.. have Just as much of those horrible.. terrible scary cancer causing Nitrosamines found in real cigarettes as the E-Cigs do. OMGOMG)

Handy guide to the quantity of nitrosamines in a one-day supply of products that contain nicotine:

16 mg. e-cigarette liquid (1 gram) – 8 nanograms
24 mg. Nicotine patch (1 ea.) – 8 nanograms
4 mg. Nicotine gum (10 pieces) – 20 nanograms
20 Full-flavor Marlboros (1 pack) – 110,000 nanograms

Personally, my money is on the real cigarettes for the title of “most likely to cause cancer.”

If users are inhaling the vapor more deeply as the day goes on, it doesn't appear to be harming their lungs. Multiple surveys show that 90% of users experience improved breathing and lung function. I've been using one since March of 2009 and my wheezing has disappeared, along with the productive morning cough.

Mr. Hoffman should really learn to conduct appropriate and accurate research. Any researcher worth an ounce of his weight in water understands the necessity of separating mere conjecture up to and including intentional misinformation from well-founded and proven research. Our institutes of higher education are failing our youth miserably if this article by Mr. Hoffman is any indication. Do your homework correctly, and then write something more than the complete waste of space your post obviously was.

You can ban these all you want, but you can only enforce it if you actually SEE a person doing it. That's the kicker ain't it? I can smoke all day long in any hall, the dorm room, the library, ANYWHERE, and unless you actually see me doing it you'll never know. Good luck with that.

So, with this “educated” persons view (and I use the word educated with a whole lot of sarcasm because there is so much misinformation in his post), hot coffee would have to banned from indoors and X amount of feet from a door because it steams and could, maybe, be putting caffeine into the air.
AND THESE PEOPLE ARE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN!!!

I would love to see the “research” that shows what noxious chemicals are in the vapor. This has to be about the most pathetic attempt at journalism that I have ever seen. Reporters get the facts and cover all the angles, not regurgitate bad science and misinformation by the FDA. I can tell you that I personally have contacted the MDCH and asked them for copies of the research used to support the claims made on their website – they cannot because it doesn't exist. (well, given the fact that they abruptly stopped responding to my emails when I asked for the data was the dead giveaway that they couldn't back up their assertions).

you also gotta love how the only opinion they asked for was from a student, who not only probably knows even less about the e-cigarette than the author of the article, but also isn't even a smoker.

Bad job Michael… Your ignorance is staggering.

Can you please provide a link to the research that shows a noxious chemical in the vapor? All of the information that I have read indicates there are no “noxious” chemicals in e-cigarettes so I am very curious to what noxious chemical is in the vapor expelled when smoked.

I've had problems as an E-cigarette user, as well. I've even had an E-bay auction removed when E-bay decided they were “Basically a cigarette or tobacco product” Being told I can't use them at indoor places such as bars and restaurants, even when the use of E-cigarettes are not subject to any state of federal no-smoking laws, because they contain no tobacco, and no combustion is involved in using them. They even come with a card explaining they are no subject to no-smoking laws, and are completely lawful to use in designated no-smoking areas! The only thing the user exhales is 99% water vapor! Steam! Since when is water vapor a health hazard? Even nicotine itself isn't hazardous to one's health. The hazards of tobacco use come from the carcinogens and tar produced by burning tobacco! Not the actual nicotine. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about E-cigarettes simply because using one gives off the appearance of smoking, although there's no smoking involved! Most of the people who tell you you can't use an e-cig in their establishment, have never even heard of one. They assume you're smoking and exhaling harmful carcinogens simply because it looks like the user is smoking, when in reality, what they're using is harmless. Can't count the number of times I've used mine somewhere like a bar, and had a concerned busybody go and report to the management that I'm “smoking” inside. Then I'm asked to stop, and when I try to educate them, I'm just shot down and made to stop because the people telling me to do so don't even understand what an E-cig is!

Why the hell do we apply the precautionary principle in cases where it is counter productive, and fail to apply it in cases that could be potentially devastating?

they do NOT give off any toxins in the air. get your facts straight.

LIARS! They have PROVEN that no harmful chemicals are expelled, because they don’t CONTAIN any. I will not be attending CMU I guess.

Why would anybody be using a fog machine in the first place? I’m assuming you just work for a company that imports this crap.