We talked about regulation.
On which front do you think the regulation needs to occur?
Does it need to happen on the manufacturers
who are making the juices that go into these cigarettes?
Maybe they need to put safer chemicals,
or I mean, I don't know if there are safe chemicals,
in general, to be inhaling,
but maybe safer products to inhale.
Does regulation need to come on the marketing,
where you can only market in a certain way,
or on the consumers.
Um, you can only buy and you can only use it in these certain places.
I think it could occur at all those levels.
I think it actually needs to.
I think the idea that in the manufacturing process,
to create some set of standards,
some way that within an electronic cigarette product,
the public knows what goes into it
and what is actually being burned.
And that type of information, I think,
should the government,
the government should regulate how that is provided to consumers.
I think the idea of marketing is a little more complex here.
Uh, I do think they should not be marketed to children.
I would be very concerned,
and I know there are reports of electronic cigarettes
with bubble gum flavors and other flavors
that are clearly geared towards a younger population.
Teenagers, maybe even younger.
This is a device that, at minimum, provides nicotine,
which is an addictive substance, to the brain.
And as I said, if you're gonna start someone off on that product
who's not already smoking,
that's not a public health service.
There's clearly a negative, a potential negative, impact
and I think that children need to be protected from that.
Um, the last issue is of the consumer,
how you would regulate use of the product.
I think that's the most challenging of the three.
There's a group of folks who believe that electronic cigarettes
are inherently bad because even if they're not bad themselves,
they re-normalize the idea of someone sitting there and taking a puff.
And one of the, I think, great strides that have been made
in the public health community, in fact the community at large --
is making smoking not cool.
Over the last twenty years, it's remarkable.
When I grew up, having a cigarette in your mouth
was the coolest thing to have.
And I'm not that old.
So this is 20, 25 years ago.
Nowadays, I don't see that the case.
You're shunned.
You can't be at the restaurant,
you can't be on the airplane,
you can't be near anyone.
You smell bad.
You smell bad,
your teeth go yellow,
your skin wrinkles,
um and you're putting other people at risk for disease
with secondhand smoke,
so you are absolutely shunned.
I think the electronic cigarette re-normalizes behavior
and potentially would allow others to smoke regular cigarettes
with more impunity from a social perspective.
And so, that's an additional concern.
Not my number one concern,
but that is something that perhaps regulators need to be sensitive to
when we decide where people can light up an electronic cigarette,
which is a matter of, as you know, great debate.
There hasn't been much um regulation on that front thus far,
but you have seen cities, even Boston,
where in Boston, you can't smoke inside anymore,
you can't
This is something new.
Um, what do you think on,
this feels like very knee-jerk reaction,
very quick, no research, just going ahead and covering all fronts.
Correct.
I actually agree with you there.
I think it's a little premature.
Having information about the scientific impact
of smoking an electronic cigarette,
on the cells in your airway,
the cells in your body,
and understanding better how those cells respond to that damage,
whether they're able to repair it or not
and what types of diseases might manifest downstream of that exposure
is absolutely critical,
not only in informing the public about the choices that they're making
but informing regulatory bodies
of how they deal with the marketing of the product to kids,
whether someone should smoke in a restaurant an e-cigarette or not.
And without the data to support the health consequences of this product,
it's very difficult to make what I would consider an educated decision
in this space.
It feels like an emotional pull.
It is.
It's purely based on emotion,
and I think in this day and age,
we have academic scientists working in this space
who need time and resources to develop datasets
that would help inform that decision.
And that's what society needs to do here,
invest in the R&D, the science behind electronic cigarettes,
understanding what the product does and then make a decision.
In our society.
And there will still be emotion involved,
but is this something we want to allow children to do?
Is this something we want to allow you to do
in a restaurant surrounded by others?
Is this something where you've gotta regulate on the product
exactly what's in it?
And without that kind of data,
those decisions, I think,
are purely emotional and are not educated.