Smoking ban ignites uncertainty about e-cigarettes

Even though UCLA’s tobacco-free policy prohibits electronic cigarettes, fourth-year history student Jeremy Reynolds continues to use them on campus. Reynolds, a former tobacco smoker, said they help him curb his addiction to regular tobacco cigarettes.

“I smoke them to quit what really was a much worse habit,” Reynolds said.

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, have doubled in popularity in recent years. But their uncertain health consequences have caused administrators to ban them at UCLA, said Linda Sarna, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursingand chair of the Tobacco-Free Steering Committee.

E-cigarettes, unlike tobacco cigarettes, use a battery to ignite a nicotine fluid. The user inhales the resulting “smoke” – which is simply water vapor – though there is much debate on what exactly is contained in the water vapor, said Sarna.The devices are also sometimes used to smoke THC, a component of marijuana, or flavored water vapor without nicotine.

Some health experts, however, have said they found carcinogens in the vapor from e-cigarettes, Sarna said.

Since e-cigarettes are classified as a nicotine delivery device – like nicotine gum or patches – and not as a tobacco product, they escape many of the Food and Drug Administration rules that would apply to regular cigarettes, Sarna said.

“The issue is that there is practically no regulation currently governing e-cigarettes,” Sarna added.

A frequent smoker for seven years, Reynolds said he began using e-cigarettes about 11 months ago to help him quit.

Reynolds said he doesn’t use other nicotine products such as gum because they typically have more nicotine and don’t help with the desire to smoke something.

E-cigarettes help because his mind came to associate his nicotine addiction with always having a cigarette in his hand or mouth, Reynolds added.

While Reynolds said he continues to use e-cigarettes on campus, many of his friends – who are also using them in an attempt to quit – go off campus to use them because they are banned at UCLA.

Watch: Voices behind ‘vapes’ at UCLA

 

The ban was instituted to educate students about the harmful effects of tobacco use by prohibiting items such as pipes, water-based pipes, cigars and cigarettes, while allowing certain items, like nicotine patches and gum, that intended to help nicotine addicts quit, Sarna said.

The most pervasive issue with crafting regulations for e-cigarettes is the lack of thorough evidence on their effects, said Michael Ong, assistant professor of medicine in residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Many issues, Sarna said, come from the fact that e-cigarettes are still so new.

One key question about the product is whether or not there is a health benefit to using it, said Ong.

Should e-cigarettes turn out to be more harmful than currently thought to be, Reynolds said he would reconsider their use.

But ultimately he said he does not think e-cigarettes should be included under UCLA’s ban. Reynolds added that one can get fluid that contains no nicotine whatsoever, only water and a flavored sweetener.

“With so much variety, how can you put such a blanket ban on them?” he said.

There are also practical issues with e-cigarettes, Ong said, such as whether or not e-cigarettes should be taxed like tobacco products or taxed separately.

“These are issues that are currently being sorted out,” he said.

While there has been little national regulation of e-cigarettes, some individual agencies, communities and states have taken their stand on how they should be treated, Ong said.

In California, minors are banned from buying e-cigarettes and “vaping” (smoking e-cigarettes) on planes is federally prohibited.

“The status of e-cigarettes is still very much in the air,” Ong added.

Sarna said that she was open to change UCLA’s tobacco-free policy to permit e-cigarette use on campus should studies reflect health effects of e-cigarettes.

“If evidence can clearly show that these (e-cigarettes) are safe, then we can and should change their status under our tobacco-free policy,” Sarna said.