This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Mindful that cigarettes have lost much of their allure, and still in need of replacing the generation of customers who have either kicked the habit or died trying, the American nicotine cartel has rolled out a shiny new trick for getting its hooks into another wave of young people.
They are called, in keeping with the modern appetite for all things electronic, e-cigarettes.
There is reason to hope that some people can use e-cigarettes to slowly wean themselves away from their dependence on old-fashioned cigarettes. There is evidence that switching from burning tobacco leaves to vaporized tobacco extracts can help even a long-time smoker step down to lower levels of nicotine on the way to quitting altogether.
But bridges go both ways. And there is reason to fear that the so-far unregulated manufacture and marketing of e-cigarettes will introduce many people to a lifetime addiction and fail to properly assist others who are struggling to quit.
New numbers from the Utah Department of Health show an alarming growth in e-cigarette use by children and teenagers, even though it is illegal for them to be possessed by, or sold to, people under the age of 19. About a third of those surveyed in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades say they have tried e-cigs, and more than 20 percent now use them regularly.
Statistics also suggest that e-cigarettes' potential as an aid to kicking the nicotine habit has been oversold. Some 60 percent of those who use e-cigarettes still smoke cigarettes, too.
A big part of the problem is that there is no state or national process for confirming that e-cigarette vapors, as sometimes claimed, contain lower levels of nicotine than traditional cigarettes do. We also have no clue what other chemicals are emitted in those vapors and find their way into the lungs of users and bystanders alike.
Today, Utah does not require that the retailers of e-cigarettes have the same kind of license, or pay the same kinds of taxes and fees, that the sellers of cigarettes have long been burdened with. That means that if a convenience store or smoke shop is caught selling to a minor, which should be the focus of all such rules, there is no license for the state to yank away. That needs to change.
The Davis County Board of Health laid down some rules for e-cigarettes last winter, and other health departments around the state are pondering what to do.
Utah lawmakers should do what they can to empower those local health departments, require that those who sell e-cigarettes be licensed and policed and, above all, not be swayed by a shiny, battery-powered machine that, for all we know, is just a 21st century coffin nail.