Vape It Outside

KAILIE HYDE
THE SIGNAL

Battery-operated cigarettes, also known as electronic cigarettes, are treated the same as traditional cigarettes on UHCL’s campus.

Even though e-cigarettes emit a vapor instead of smoke, David Rachita, interim dean of students, reinforces that e-cigarettes are included in UHCL’s smoking policy.

“In our policy, it says ‘or other smoking devices,’ and we consider it to be a smoking device, whether it’s emitting smoke or vapor,” Rachita said.

As stated, the current smoking policy on campus prohibits the following:

• 2. 1. 2 lighting a pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind or any other smoking material, equipment or device;
• 2. 1. 3 emitting or exhaling the smoke of a pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind or any other smoking material, equipment or device.

“We are not saying that you cannot have them on campus,” Rachita said. “We are saying to use them in designated smoking areas.”

Last month, Rachita sent an email to UHCL faculty informing them that e-cigarettes can only be used outside in smoking designated areas. Faculty are allowed to ask students who do not comply to leave the classroom. If a student refuses to leave, faculty may call Rachita or campus police.

“I am well aware of the arguments by e-cig users that believe it is not a smoking device,” Rachita pointed out in the email. “My argument is that they emit (or vapor) a mist/fog/cloud and odor that is highly annoying, particularly to those with allergies, the very behavior is a disruption to the class/teaching and the product is not FDA approved.”

Stopcancerfund.org, an organization that works to analyze scientific research to prevent and treat cancer, states that e-cigarettes are battery-operated devices shaped like cigarettes that provide an alternative way to receive nicotine, the addictive chemical found in tobacco. They work by heating a liquid cartridge containing nicotine, flavors and other chemicals into an inhalable vapor.

E-cigarettes can be dated back to the 1960s when inventor Herbert A. Gilbert developed a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette. However, it wasn’t until a decade ago that e-cigarette purchases sky rocketed. An ABC News health facts report states that The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Association estimates about 4 million Americans now use e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, making it the main difference between regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Stopcancerfund.org reports, however, that tobacco is not the only ingredient in cigarettes that causes cancer or other health related concerns. Sara Exler, administrative and research assistant for Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund, along with fellow researchers, states that e-cigarettes contain some of the same chemicals that regular cigarettes do.

“An FDA study found that many contain some of the same cancer-causing chemicals as regular cigarettes,” Exler said.

Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund argues that there are no long-term studies on the health effects. Therefore, consumers do not know the potential risks of e-cigarettes or if there are any benefits, such as a safe alternative to help quit smoking.

“The people who defend e-cigarettes say that they will help smokers cut back or even quit, but e-cigarettes have not been tested or shown to be effective for this use,” Exler said.

As Rachita points out, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency responsible for protecting public health by assuring the safety and efficacy of human drugs, medical devices, the nation’s food supply, cosmetics, etc., has yet to approve e-cigarette products.

In 2009, the FDA found that e-cigarettes contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol (toxic compound found in antifreeze) and tobacco-specific impurities such as nitrosamines (carcinogenic to humans). A carcinogen is any substance or radiation that is an agent involved in causing cancer.

This year, ABC15 Investigators tested two brands of e-cigarettes, Smoking Everywhere Platinum and Mistic, and found traces of metals such as copper, tin and nickel. In ABC15 News Investigations, scientist Dr. Prue Talbot stated that these particles can be toxic for the smoker as well as dangerous for second-hand smokers.

Rachita believes harmful chemicals do exist in e-cigarettes, requiring them to be a part of UHCL’s smoking policy.

“What I tell students, regardless of what the industry says, they are emitting a vapor,” Rachita said. “The FDA has not ruled yet as to the contents or the safety of that vapor,” Rachita said. “What sources are saying is that whether you’ve got the nicotine cartridge in there or not, it’s still emitting some kind of harmful fumes, different chemicals.”

E-cigarettes also raise concerns for the nation’s youth. Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund reports that more and more people, young people, will try them and become addicted to the nicotine.

“We know, for instance, that the number of middle and high school students who have tried e-cigarettes doubled in 2012,” Exler said. “And this statistic greatly underestimates their use because most teens don’t even know e-cigarettes as ‘e-cigarettes;’ they call them ‘e-hookahs’ or ‘hookah pens’ or ‘vape pipes.’”

In addition to the health-related concerns, Rachita also voices disturbance and allergy concerns.

“The very reason why we came up with the designated smoking areas was to attempt to get the odor, the fumes, the smoke, away from the doors, so that you, a person of allergies, does not have to deal with it,” Rachita said.

In an effort to keep UHCL’s community, faculty and students safe, Rachita believes that there is a cause to regulate e-cigarettes on campus by enforcing the smoking policy. Students who do not comply with the smoking policy face penalties.

“There are no police walking around, looking for smokers,” Rachita said. “It’s more of a community enforcement. Everyone is accountable to the standards of the community. If someone refused, they could be responsible for the same violations and accountable to the sanctions as any other violation that we have.”

Those sanctions/violations could include: a written warning, restrictive privileges, disciplinary probation or suspension.

To make the smoking policy more apparent, Rachita and the Student Life Council shaped a new, more detailed smoking policy. The University Life Council, which is made up of faculty, staff and students, has approved the new policy. University Council, chaired by the president, is reviewing the new smoking policy this week for approval.

If the new smoking policy is approved, it will state: “smoke,” “smokes,” or “smoking” includes: “emitting,” “exhaling,” “vaping,” or “chewing” products or materials that include but are not limited to pipes, cigars, cigarettes of any kind, or any other smoking material, water pipes, smokeless tobacco, smoking/non-smoking devices, electronic cigarettes, snuff, chewing tobacco, and any non-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nicotine delivery device.”