Substance abuse has continued to remain prevalent in many countries across the world, with a higher rate in the United States as compared to other countries. Besides the primary side effects like addiction, tobacco has significantly contributed to the deaths of millions of Americans and increased the vulnerability of users to other secondary diseases such as cancer. As much as the e-cigarettes are popular among the people, it has been established that little is known about their health side effects. There is also a wide variance of perception of the potential risks and the associated benefits among the users, the health care providers, and the general public health community at large (Stier, 2019). For instance, some confirmation that there is a lower rate of addiction to the users when compared to the use of combustible tobacco cigarettes. However, this is a point of controversy.
Regulation E-cigarettes
Because of the side effects associated with electronic cigarettes in society, several measures have been put in place to keep them out of reach, especially for the children. To begin with, access to the e-cigarettes was restricted where it was illegal to sell them to people under the age of eighteen. It was also necessary that those to buy are to carry with them an identification document. There are also regular inspections and checks by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic bodies to ensure that the shop and vendors comply with the laws concerning the selling of the tobacco-related products. The governments have also gone ahead to increase the requirements for the manufacturing of the e-cigarettes, such as submitting compliance health requirements, ingredient listings, and registrations.
Benefits of E-cigarettes
E-cigarettes are associated with a couple of benefits to the consumers. They are cheaper as compared to regular tobacco products. As such, the users can easily afford several of them at ago for their use. Secondly, e-cigarettes do not involve burning, smoke, tar, or ash like the other traditional cigarettes. Unlike e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals such as cyanide that are toxic to the body (Rapaport, 2015). The above implies that a complete switch to e-cigarettes will minimize the risks of exposing oneself to toxins that can cause cancer. E-cigarettes improve the taste of food and the smell. When consumers use the e-cigarette, their senses will have an authentic scent from the realistic smoke experience. After finishing, the scent will also disappear with no burning smell on their clothes like traditional cigarettes. The persistent cough usually disappears among consumers. The behavior of hocking up phlegm and ravaging of the throat, especially every morning, goes away since e-cigarettes do not have toxins.
Public Health Benefits and Risks
There are several public health benefits regarding the use of e-cigarettes. The public is saved the burden of coughing from the presence of consumers of e-cigarettes due to the type of ingredients used like the flavors and the scent or smell. Secondly, e-cigarettes do not create smoke like traditional ones. Therefore, they are exempted from the vast majority of smoking bans like standing outside a bar to smoke in the rain. Some of the health risks associated with e-cigarettes are that it contains nicotine, which is addictive and can trigger changes in the brains of adolescents. He cigarettes also contain aerosols, toxicants, flavorings, and solvents that are potentially harmful. E-cigarettes expose the lungs to toxic substances such as those that can cause popcorn lung an irreversible lung disease (Pro et al., 2018). E-cigarettes are also associated with addiction and the use of other drugs such as cocaine pleasurable among teens.
I think e-cigarettes can be used as medicinal products in the sense that some of the ingredients that are used significantly contributed to the enhancement of the tastes of foods that the consumers will apply after that. As such, it can be used to improve the appetites of people to those who have the problem. It has also been established that they can be used to quit smoking traditional cigarettes because they are sweeter, and they reduce the addiction to carcinogens that are found in conventional cigarettes.
Regarding the above, my rationale to the opinion is that, as much as they can be used for medicinal purposes by the majority, their usage has to be regulated lest they become harmful to the consumers. Additionally, the usage of the above should be restricted to people that are above the age of eighteen years (Deborah, 2020). If the users will control the usage of electronic cigarettes, it can be of more benefits to them as compared to the disadvantages.
The potential challenges to my perspective are that failure to control the use of electronic cigarettes regarding their medicinal value will result in detrimental effects such as addiction and dependence on the same to enhance the conditions among the victims. Another challenge is that continued usage as a medicinal can lead to the usage of other drugs such as cocaine that fall in a similar category. Therefore, its consumption should be monitored and controlled by a well-knowledgeable person.