http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/03/11/New-cessation-therapy-more-like-smoking/UPI-18501268337795
This Pharma house is working on developing a new nicotine delivery system - all well and good, that's what a Pharma house does, continuing to develop new chemical compounds to help us all live longer, more productive lives. But I'm reading between the lines, here, and coming up with some interesting conclusions all on my own.
...have been developing a method to deliver nicotine to the lungs that recreates some of the familiar sensations pleasurable to smokers.
"We wanted to replicate the experience of smoking without incurring the dangers associated with cigarettes, and we wanted to do so more effectively than the nicotine replacement therapies currently on the market," Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, says in a statement.
Bully for them. A 'safer' smoking experience is what they're after, one that emulates smoking without the actual combustion, delivers nicotine deep in the lung, and gives the smoker the feel of smoking. As an aside, I'll also read into this statement admission that the current NRT's on the market have room for improvement.
Got news for them: the Electronic Cigarette already does these things, and does them well.
Let's take a look at what's in these, though:
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20100227/new-nicotine-inhaler-may-help-smokers-quit
The device they came up with does not use fire or heat. Instead, as the smoker draws air through the cigarette-shaped device, a chemical called pyruvic acid is drawn into contact with nicotine, creating a cloud of nicotine pyruvate vapor.
Ok. Pyruvate acid. What are the known dangers of that? Let's check the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet)
"Potential Acute Health Effects:
Very hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Hazardous in case of skin contact (corrosive), of eye contact (corrosive). Liquid or spray mist may produce tissue damage
particularly on mucous membranes of eyes, mouth and respiratory tract."
Yea, I think I'd really like to be putting that in my lungs.
The new inhaler was studied by Health New Zealand, http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ - last year for Dr. Jed Rose - the results of that study are soon to be published, giving documentation needed for the Pharma House to gain approval for it through the FDA. The picture on HNZ's website shows a large, vapor-spewing device. The product hasn't even been manufactured as a cigarette-sized delivery device yet. Statements included in the study claim that the inhaler will be on the market within 3-5 years - fast-tracked through the approval process by the weight of Big Pharma.
So Pharma is developing a device that will LOOK like a cigarette, create a visible vapor LIKE A CIGARETTE, and will deliver nicotine in the lungs LIKE A CIGARETTE.
Sounds an awful lot like the PV's we use today. Where are the anti-smokers? Why aren't the ALA, the ACA, the CTFK, ASH and others denouncing these products? Oh, My, God, these might tempt children to try them. This might re-normalize the ACT of smoking. Current smokers might be confused by these cigarette-shaped objects, and light up in a non-smoking area, flooding the area with their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hand smoke! These may become a gateway to regular tobacco use!
Not surprisingly, I hear nothing.......It's amazing what the right amount of money and influence can bring you, and these anti-smoking organizations get a LOT of money from the Pharma industry.
I'm very tired of the Corporations eliminating their competiton by using our Government as the bully to do its dirty work.
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