E-cigarettes criticized
Responsible parents who seek to safeguard the health of their children should greet with alarm the news that the number of teenagers using e-cigarettes tripled in the past year, 13 percent of young people found to have been using the product in 2014, no doubt enticed to do so by the powerful lure of peer pressure and the desire to rebel, to live dangerously and enjoy forbidden fruit.
The cover story of the nicotine pushers is that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative than traditional cigarettes and that they help people to quit. The reality is that they are a new drug addiction to which millions of individuals are being attracted and potentially addicted before they reach the age of majority.
It is expected that the Food and Drug Administration will announce in June that it will regulate e-cigarettes. Let us hope that it is not too late to stop the spread of this potential new menace by those who seek profit at the expense of human lives.
Tobacco companies are behind the surge in e-cigarette use, insidiously targeting the product to children just as they done throughout the years to push traditional cigarettes. The tobacco company executives came before Congress in 1994 and each one testified under oath that nicotine is not addictive. Would any reasonable person trust a tobacco company to tell us what it good for us?
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair