E-cigarettes require regulation

Your editorial (“No rush to regulate e-cigarettes,” Oct. 18) ignores an important association that, when considered, strongly suggests the need for enacting legislation regulating the marketing of this product.

You correctly confirm that tobacco use is at the top of the list as a cause of physical illness and death. Statistics support this without exception. More than 400,000 Americans die each year and it is estimated that 50 percent of those who are addicted to nicotine (tobacco's addictive substance) will die as a consequence.

The general public poorly recognizes the emotional and mental aspects of tobacco use and addiction. First, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition lists substance abuse, including nicotine, as a formal diagnosis. With this considered, nicotine addiction might be the most prevalent mental disease in the world.

The e-cigarette's only purpose is that of delivering nicotine to its user. It is better than smoking only in that tars, the cancer-causing substances, are not present. Even then, nicotine causes a multitude of cardiovascular diseases.

We recognize that the use of substances, both legal and illegal, is part of the experimentation our children and adolescents employ as a means of learning life's experiences. The e-cigarette will almost certainly be used to obtain the “high” that substance use gives. Trying e-cigarettes will often lead to addiction. How long does anyone believe it will take for e-cigarettes to become another abused legal substance?

Let us hope that the FDA concludes that e-cigarettes require regulation.

Dr. Leslie E. Weber

Eastern Iowa Coordinator for Tar Wars

Coralville