Electronic cigarettes may eventually replace nicotine gum and other smoking-cessation products as a medical tool to help addicts quit.
Leading the charge is the American-based e-cigarette company, Thermo-Essence Technologies, which has developed an advanced device that delivers controlled amounts of nicotine to users and shares the addict’s information with his or her physician, reports Reuters.
Noah Minskoff first contemplated the idea of using e-cigarettes as a medical agent after his mother died of lung cancer in 2007. At that time, e-cigarettes were just entering the market place and he wondered whether the tobacco cigarette alternative could have saved his mother’s life.
Seeking a second opinion, he sent his mechanical engineer friend, Nathan Terry, a standard e-cigarette on the market and asked him to inspect it.
Terry agreed that e-cigarettes had a great potential to function as a medical tool, but did not believe the current parts used in the majority of devices would meet the standards on the inevitable looming Food and Drug Administration regulations.
With that in mind, he decided to create a product using only American-made and high quality –grade parts. Its top-of-the-line engineering has also made Thermo Essence e-cigarettes some of the most costly on the market with a price tag of $300.
However, even the $10 e-cigarettes that can be bought at a gas station have been effective at giving nicotine addicts a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes that is still gratifying.
“People find e-cigarettes so satisfying that they do not have the urge to go back to traditional cigarettes,” says Dr. Carl V. Phillips, the science director at Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA).
He told The Daily Caller News Foundation that e-cigarettes are gaining popularity because they taste better and more effectively release nicotine that other smoking-cessation products, including nicotine gum.
Former smokers also enjoy using the devices because it simulates the motion of smoking normal cigarettes.
Terry’s e-cigarette design takes nicotine-cessation a step further by monitoring the amount nicotine the user consumes, by using a delivery component called Envi.
Users looking to wane themselves off of nicotine, will insert a sealed cartridge of the drug into the inhaler and then activate it by entering a code. The inhaler will then deliver a prescribed amount of nicotine and will automatically turn off once it has met its quota.
After each time customers have used up their allocated dose, it must be returned to its case to activate it for the next dose. During this process the user’s information will be sent directly his or her doctor, so that physician con monitor their use and better interact with the patient.
Like all e-cigarette devices, Thermo Essence has not yet been approved by the FDA, which recently announced plans to regulate the devices.
However, Terry is confident that the nicotine-cessation e-cigarette will meet the agency’s standards. If the product does meet the criteria, it will likely win some of the market share from other products designed to help smokers quit, including nicotine gum.
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