E-Cigarettes: Are They as Safe as the Public Thinks?

© 2016 Harborside Press® An important part of our practice in oncology is assisting patients in smoking cessation and providing them with information about factors that increase their cancer risk. Smoking accounts for almost 90% of all lung cancers and as much as 30% of all cancer deaths (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). As advanced practitioners, we can influence the incidence, disease outcomes, and mortality rates of cancer by promoting smoking cessation. Over the past 20 years, smoking cessation programs and pharmacologic agents have been utilized to aid in tobacco abstinence. It is well understood that a combination of cognitive behavioral and psychological counseling plus pharmacologic agents provides the highest abstinence rates (Karam-Habe, Cinciripini, & Gritz, 2014). Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes)—often referred to as vapes, vape pens, or hookah pens—have been touted as a method of smoking cessation. These small, battery-operated devices use an electric heater that aerosolizes liquid nicotine (Cobb, Hendricks, & Eissenberg, 2015). This liquid usually contains other compounds such as propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and flavorants. The amount of nicotine varies from much less to more nicotine when compared to regular cigarettes. These devices may or may not look like cigarettes; some may even look like a lighter or a pen, potentially enabling users to hide their nicotine use.