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• Research letter contradicts marketing materials
  Thomas Eissenberg
  Published on: 13 May 2016
• Known Fact: Electronic Cigarettes Deliver Nicotine More Slowly
  Elaine D Keller
  Published on: 13 May 2016

• Published on: 13 May 2016

  Research letter contradicts marketing materials

  • Thomas Eissenberg, Professor of Psychology

  To the editor:

  Ms. Keller asks a straightforward question: "Why was [I] so surprised to find very low levels of nicotine in the blood of subjects who had taken 10 puffs from an electronic cigarette?".

  The straightforward answer is that I, perhaps naively, was influenced by marketing materials such as this:

  http://www.ecigsadvisor.com/ecigs-review.php?keyword=ablw1

  This advertisement,...

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  To the editor:

  Ms. Keller asks a straightforward question: "Why was [I] so surprised to find very low levels of nicotine in the blood of subjects who had taken 10 puffs from an electronic cigarette?".

  The straightforward answer is that I, perhaps naively, was influenced by marketing materials such as this:

  http://www.ecigsadvisor.com/ecigs-review.php?keyword=ablw1

  This advertisement, seemingly describing all e-cigarettes and still available on-line today, clearly states:

  "Get the same amount of nicotine as a regular cigarette"

  and

  "...around 10 to 15 puffs are equivalent to the same amount of nicotine delivered by a tobacco cigarette."

  and

  "A cartridge is equivalent to about one pack of cigarettes."

  The data I report in the letter in question (Eissenberg, 2010) and those reported in the SRNT poster Ms. Keller describes (Bullen et al., 2009) clearly contradict these advertising claims. In the context of these generic claims, the data regarding the specific products tested were surprising to me. Indeed, readers who examine the Bullen et al (2009) data will likely be struck, as I was, by the consistency in results across laboratories, methods, and devices tested: neither study provides any support for advertising claims such as these.

  Interestingly, Ms. Keller is a board member of an organization called the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA; see http://www.casaa.org/about/board.asp). CASAA's press release of Jan 26, 2010 notes that "CASAA is a non-profit organization that works to ensure the continued availability of products such as electronic cigarettes and to provide smokers and non-smokers alike with truthful information about these and other alternatives." The second of these goals suggests that CASAA welcomes rigorous scientific data that reveal important product characteristics such as nicotine delivery profile. I hope that CASAA is now working to correct misleading marketing materials such as those cited above.

  Respectfully submitted,

  Dr. Thomas Eissenberg Virginia Commonwealth University

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 13 May 2016

  Known Fact: Electronic Cigarettes Deliver Nicotine More Slowly

  • Elaine D Keller, Writer

  Why was Dr. Eissenberg so surprised to find very low levels of nicotine in the blood of subjects who had taken 10 puffs from an electronic cigarette? He implies that he expected to find equal nicotine levels when compared to 10 puffs from a tobacco cigarette. However, he cited as one of his references M. Laugesen's Poster presented to the joint conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, Europe; Apr...

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  Why was Dr. Eissenberg so surprised to find very low levels of nicotine in the blood of subjects who had taken 10 puffs from an electronic cigarette? He implies that he expected to find equal nicotine levels when compared to 10 puffs from a tobacco cigarette. However, he cited as one of his references M. Laugesen's Poster presented to the joint conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, Europe; April 30, 2009. In that poster, Dr. Laugesen reports on a clinical trial involving 40 subjects who were studied during a full day's ad libitum use of one of four products: An electronic cigarette containing nicotine, an electronic cigarette containing placebo, a Nicorette inhalator, or their own brand of cigarette. The poster states, "The 16mg EC delivered nicotine more rapidly (mean tmax 19.4 minutes) than Nicorette inhalator (30 minutes) but not as rapidly as cigarettes (14.3 min)." The highest cmax of nicotine from a tobacco cigarette was almost ten-fold that of the 16 mg. electronic cigarette. Given this background information about the slower absorption of nicotine from an electronic cigarette, if Dr. Eissenberg insisted on limiting his electornic cigarette subjects to 10 puffs, he should have limited his tobacco cigarette smokers to one puff.

  This study does not prove that electronic cigarettes do not deliver nicotine effectively. All it proves is that 10 puffs from an electronic cigarette is an inadequate level of usage.

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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