I just found an article written by the World Health Organization (WHO) which seems to be concerned with manufacturers and marketers of electronic cigarettes for marketing the devices as nicotine replacement therapies or for making other, “unapproved therapy claims.”

In a nut-shell the real story is firstly that some manufacturers and marketers of the product are falsely stating that the WHO endorses the products as a nicotine replacement therapies. Secondly the WHO says that scientific testing is not yet complete to prove that the products are safe and effective. You can read what the WHO wrote about this at their official website and you will see what I mean.

Despite the WHO making some fairly responsible statements just to set the record straight, the online mass media contingent decided to blow the article completely out of proportion as usual. They took things that the Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, Douglas Bettcher, said completely out of context rearranged them to miraculously come up with their own bogus claims. Some even suggested electronic cigarettes are “poisonous.”

What Douglas Bettcher actually said was, “If the marketers of the electronic cigarette want to help smokers quit, then they need to conduct clinical studies and toxicity analyses and operate within the proper regulatory framework.”

The WHO did NOT say that electronic cigarettes are “poisonous” or “toxic” at all.

The official WHO article also goes on to say, “WHO does not discount the possibility that the electronic cigarette could be useful as a smoking cessation aid. The only way to know is to test.” This statement was left out of every single derived news story I saw.

OK, lets pick on the WHO here for a second though because while they have to do their job, once you take a step back some of their statements in the article seem silly .

First, why would marketers of these products want people to quit smoking? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the marketers to just get people to switch to get their nicotine from electronic cigarettes instead so they can make money off refill cartridges? I mean, doesn’t the ink jet printer industry make more money from selling ink than printers?

Second, if one is concerned about their health do you think they will feel more comfortable smoking a regular cigarette with the 4000+ chemicals or the electronic cigarette that is mostly water and nicotine? According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-cigarette electronic cigarettes are 80%-95% propylene glycol and a few other substances most of which are used in medicines, cosmetics, food, toothpaste etc.

Third, probably the worst thing the WHO article said about e-cigs was, “The electronic cigarette is not a proven nicotine replacement therapy.” Yeah like the gum and the patch aren’t notorious for not working. How proven is that? My family has gotten way more mileage out of their NJoys than all that other stuff combined and believe me they have tried it all.

So there you have it folks. Stuff like this always happens when new and exciting good things like electronic cigarettes hit the market and people are presented with the opportunity to change. Yet another reason I wanted to start this blog. I know that once someone runs some tests on e-cigarettes they will definitely find that the devices are probably among THE BEST nicotine replacement therapies out there!