Be Wary of Misleading Headlines on E-Cig News Stories

Are e-cigarettes safe?  Well you might not think so if you base your view on the headline of a story recently published by the 'aboutmyarea' website. The story details the fact that one particular brand of e-cigarette available in the UK (called 'e Health Cigarette') is currently under a European safety recall due to the fact that its battery charger may pose a danger. Unfortunately, the headline accompanying the story was misleading, as it read: "Could Your Electronic Cigarette Send Your House Up In Smoke?". Another news wire also reported on the same story with the equally daft headline "Alert over electric cigarette hazard". 

Now we don't mean to get on our soapbox here, but it needs to be stated that headlines are important, in so much as plenty of readers tend to form their entire opinion about a topic simply by reading those headlines. Many readers never even go as far as reading the body of the article itself. The headlines about this story have done a great disservice to electronic cigarettes, by wrongly implying the e-cig device itself could start a fire. In reality, when a quality e-cigarette is used in accordance with the instructions and with the supplied batteries, there is almost no fire risk at all.

In this particular case, the problem is not with the e-cigarette, but with the faulty charger being supplied with it by this manufacturer. According to the safety recall, this defective charger could pose a danger of arching, overheating or electric shock. In theory, if this charger overheated it could potentially start a fire. Trading Standards in Yorkshire is encouraging users of this brand to heed the recall after a market stall in East Riding was found selling them.

E-Cigarette Safety

In terms of fire hazard, we'd like to set the record straight here, by stating that quality electronic cigarettes are extremely safe. The devices themselves use only low-voltage batteries which pose no risk of fire under normal circumstances. As with any battery-operated device, they could explode if overheated, but the danger of that is no greater than with your laptop, MP3 player or smart phone.

In addition, the fact that electronic cigarettes do not produce any burning embers or ash makes them inherently safer than tobacco cigarettes. How many stories have we read over the years of house fires being caused by careless cigarette smoking? With electronic cigarettes we have not heard of any such stories because they don't exist. You could fall asleep in your bed with your electronic cigarette in your hand (as many of us probably often do) and no harm will be done.

The fire safety issue is but one reason why smokers should consider giving electronic cigarettes a try. But if you need any further motivation, just consider the following:

• e-cigs are far cheaper than the equivalent amount of tobacco
• e-cigs do not leave behind the foul odours of cigarette smoke
• e-cigs can be used virtually anywhere
• e-cigs don't produce any dangerous second hand smoke
• e-cigs don't contain the thousands of chemicals found in tobacco smoke, only nicotine