Tobacco News

A new manufacturer has set up shop in Castleton. The company makes electronic cigarettes. But the Vermont Health Department says e-cigarettes may not be a safe alternative to smoking.

Vermont Vapors is the newest addition to Castleton Corners, selling one of the newer nicotine products on the market. Linda Barker and her family opened their storefront this March, making and selling e-cigarettes, flavored liquid nicotine and accessories.

“We said we’re going to start up a business just keep it small and its taken off,” said Barker.

An e-cigarette is a metal product that holds liquid nicotine and when smoked it gives off a vapor instead of smoke.

“I did know what they were at first, my friend had them,” said Nicole Fothergill of Rutland.

Fothergill said she was concerned about how the liquid nicotine compared to the nicotine in a normal cigarette.

“She was inhaling it like 3 puffs at a time, I don’t know how much nicotine is in those three puffs, so it could be like 3 cigarettes or a half a cigarette you don’t really know,” she said.

“I think they’re weird, I don’t know why they make them when you can just smoke these. they’re not healthier for you,” said Chris Louras.

He didn’t understand the product, but said he did know some people who used it as a way to try and quit smoking.

Linda Barker said once she tried an e-cig, she never turned back to tobacco.

“I was smoking over 2 packs a day, I was smoking a lot. So I got my first electronic cigarette. And by the end of the night I wasn’t lighting a cigarette. And its been almost a year,” she said.

While electronic cigarettes have helped the Barker family quit smoking, the Vermont Department of Health say e-cigarettes are not a proven method of quitting, and while they have yet to conduct any studies on this product, they say their stance would depend on those results.

Department of health officials told us while they don’t have a for or against the product it doesn’t mean it’s harmless.

“It is new, and we just started getting information about Vermonters using the product, and thinking that it’s safe to use and so we just want to make sure people are taking caution knowing that it hasn’t been proven to be safe,” said Sherri Lynn of the health department.

Louras said while he thinks he’ll stick to regular cigarettes he isn’t against trying an e-cigarette.

For more information about electronic cigarettes and how to quit smoking click on the links below.

wcax.com, June 17th, 2010