BANGOR, Maine — The drive took an hour and a half but the trip to the city’s new vape shop was worth it, according to Deer Isle residents Jacob Trundy and Sabrina Hutchinson. The couple quit smoking tobacco cigarettes a month ago in favor of using electronic cigarettes, known as vaping.
“We literally drove up for this,” Trundy said Tuesday while taste-testing flavors at Vapeway, a vaping supply store that opened two months ago on Columbia Street.
The couple came to Bangor the day after the City Council’s Government Operations Committee voted 4-1 to move forward on plans to prohibit vaping in the same areas where smoking tobacco is banned.
Trundy and Hutchinson think the idea is ridiculous.
“It’s a lot better than cigarettes,” Trundy said of the electronic devices that heat vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavoring and, most of the time, nicotine into a vapor that is inhaled.
The practice’s growing popularity, the opening of the new store and the concern of city officials and health care organizations has put Bangor in the middle of the vaping debate.
“My biggest problem is they are trying to consolidate the whole e-cigarette, e-liquid, industry in with tobacco,” Vapeway manager Carl Pillitteri, a longtime vaper who also is a former smoker, said from behind the counter. “Our product is not a tobacco product. It is a nicotine product.”
Some of the flavored e-liquids on the Vapeway shelves do not even contain nicotine, he said.
“We don’t want people getting cancer and hurting their lungs,” Pillitteri said. “If you’re a smoker there are many pros to being a vaper. The biggest is: It’s not smoke and the hundreds of chemicals that come with tobacco. It’s four ingredients.”Vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, the base for all the e-liquid flavors, are used in many common products. Vegetable glycerin, also known as glycerol, is a naturally occurring chemical used in some medicines, according to the health website WebMD. The Food and Drug Administration lists propylene glycol as “generally recognized as safe,” which means that it is acceptable for use in flavorings, drugs and cosmetics and as a direct food additive, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Nicotine is a highly addictive drug that affects reward pathways in the brain, often producing pleasurable sensations, according to the National Institute of Health website. Long-term use can produce brain changes that result in addiction.
There are many vape flavors available, such as coconut, caramel and even apple pie.
“Do your research,” Pillitteri suggested to city councilors concerned about the contents of e-cigarettes.
Pillitteri also took issue with the way Patty Hamilton, the city’s health and community services director, cited a January study published in the New England Journal of Science, telling councilors that electronic cigarettes contain formaldehyde, which he says is misleading.
One of the five authors of the January report, Dr. David H. Peyton, who a chemistry professor at Portland State University in Oregon, said in an email interview that he understands Hamilton’s confusion because mainstream media have blown portions of his group’s research data out of proportion by focusing only on the formaldehyde, a carcinogen.
“We never claimed that they are more dangerous than traditional cigarettes,” said Peyton, who spent part of his youth in East Holden and briefly attended Brewer High School. “Traditional cigarettes have been studied for decades, and we are still learning more about their dangers.”
The report, titled “Hidden Formaldehyde in E-Cigarette Aerosols,” states that formaldehyde-containing hemiacetal, or formaldehyde releasing agents, were detected with e-cigarettes operated at a high voltage, but no formaldehyde was detected with low-voltage e-cigs.
“We don’t yet know all that much about the toxicities of e-cigs [and] we don’t yet know just how safe (or not) e-cigs are, and under what conditions,” he added. “It would, in my opinion, be a mistake to assume safety.”
“Our research, and that of others will hopefully be used by e-cigarette manufacturers to make safer devices,” Peyton said. “I say this because e-cigarettes are not going away.”
In fact, the popularity appears to be growing, with vaping shops and lounges opening up recently in Bangor, Portland and other Maine locations.
E-cigarettes hit the market in 2006, and the FDA issued a report in 2009 about the dangers of chemicals found in the flavored fluids, which has led to major changes in the industry in an effort to eliminate harmful ingredients, Pillitteri said.
The federal agency issued a statement earlier this year saying more study is needed, and that the FDA Center for Tobacco Products is accepting public comments on e-cigarettes and public health, supported by research and data, through July 2, 2015.
Only e-cigarettes that are marketed for therapeutic purposes — including one for erectile dysfunction — are regulated by the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, but the federal agency has issued a proposed rule to add e-cigarettes.
The electronic devices also can be used to ingest medical marijuana prepared in a highly concentrated liquid form known as “honey oil.”
Peyton said that, “e-cigs may be useful in aiding people who have had tremendous problems in quitting traditional tobacco products,” and said that he would not ban their use by adults.
“I am not currently a fan of indoor vaping. But then I’m not a big fan of total bans on e-cigs, especially in outdoor venues,” the chemistry professor said, noting that Portland State University is going smoke and e-cigarette free in the fall.
“We did report that, at lower power levels, we did not detect the formaldehyde-related products, so that people can make the choice to vape more safely,” he said later.
E-cigarettes come in all shapes and sizes and their voltage is based on their battery. Many, including the one used for the Portland State University study, feature a variable-voltage battery and a refillable tank for the fluid. At 3.3 volts, no formaldehyde releasing agents were detected, but when turned up to 5 volts, the carcinogens were detected, the report showed.
The pre-packaged e-cigarettes sold at convenience stores for around $10 apiece are regulated at 3.6 volts, and middle- and high-cost e-cigs, which range from $25 to $400, have variable voltage, Pillitteri said.
Not knowing the ingredients in the pre-packaged e-cigs is one reason why vaping supply stores, where customers can choose from a selection of liquids to refill their vape pens, are becoming more popular, Pillitteri said. A refill that costs around $7 can last a moderate user up to two weeks.
Hamilton estimated that it would take city staff about a month to draft the vaping ban proposal. The Bangor proposal comes about a month after the Portland City Council banned vaping in public places.
State law bans smoking in all workplaces, enclosed public places and outdoor dining areas with several specific exemptions such as hotel rooms designated for smoking. It also bans smoking in cars when any person under the age of 16 is present.
Smoking is allowed outside so long as the smoker is at least 20 feet from a door or window and smoke does not encroach on any place where smoking is prohibited.
Bangor may also add a provision to ban vaping in cars when minors are present.
Pillitteri said he and others plan to be at the public hearing in Bangor to voice their disapproval of the planned prohibition.
“We will let everybody know about it,” he said.
Resource: http://bangordailynews.com
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