The Safe Cig Electronic Cigarette Implores The World Health Organization To Join Their Fight Against Tobacco On World No Tobacco Day

LOS ANGELES, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a highly public effort to compel the FDA and the World Health Organization to recognize, and act on, the opportunity that the electronic cigarette represents for helping to end the tyranny of tobacco inhalation, The Safe Cig, an electronic cigarette company, has published an open letter to the World Health Organization in The New York Times.  The provocative letter, which challenges the FDA's current stance on electronic cigarettes, also potentially makes the company a target for "big tobacco" in its quest to maintain its strong-hold over the world's smoking population, and the hard-fought political safe-haven that it enjoys amongst the world's regulatory agencies.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110531/PH11182LOGO )

The letter, addressed to The World Health Organization, draws attention to the 8.6 million people worldwide living with a serious illness caused by smoking tobacco, and further highlights the staggering 96 billion dollars in annual medical costs associated with the effects of tobacco consumption in the US alone.

"There was no way we were letting another year go by with over six million senseless deaths when we know we can help"   CEO of The Safe Cig, John David Cameron.

Cameron believes he and his team have developed a transparent, common sense, tobacco-free alternative to cigarette addiction. The Safe Cig contains just a few simple ingredients: water, food flavoring, vaporizing fluid and nicotine. Conversely, tobacco cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals (notoriously including arsenic and formaldehyde), over 50 of which are known carcinogens. It is important to point out that, despite misconceptions, nicotine is not considered to be a carcinogen. Some new studies are even calling nicotine a "wonder drug." (Graham. M, Researchers Light Up For Nicotine The Wonder Drug, Wired, 6.20.07 )

"We don't want non-smokers to pick up our product. And, unlike the big tobacco companies who have been repeatedly penalized for advertising to children, we take age controls absolutely seriously.  We are simply seeking to provide a better alternative that still lets people enjoy the social act of smoking -- which is a primary part of the addiction" Cameron

Last month the FDA announced it would not challenge the United States Court of Appeals decision (Sottera, Inc. v. Food & Drug Administration, April 25 2011) to not regulate electronic cigarettes as drug devices unless they are marketed for therapeutic purposes. Instead, the FDA reported that it is developing a strategy to regulate this emerging class of products as tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Marlboro Monopoly Act).

We do not believe that electronic cigarettes are "tobacco products," and therefore we do not believe that they should be regulated as such.

The letter in the New York Times further implores The WHO to develop an independent commission to research and explore the electronic cigarette as a life-saving alternative to tobacco inhalation, specifically with the goal of inciting regulatory change. The Safe Cig is not alone in this effort-- in 2009 The American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) wrote a letter to the incoming director of the FDA beseeching him to reconsider their current outlook towards electronic cigarettes and retract their condemnation of the electronic cigarette. The AAPHP also outlined that the FDA's laboratory findings on similar products already enjoy FDA approval.

"According to statistics, tobacco disease is much more prevalent in the poorest communities -- so hear me: those of us who can afford to stand up and help, must!" Cameron

NO ASH. NO TAR. NO SMELL. JUST VAPOR.

www.thesafecig.com

Contact: Joni Rubin
[email protected]
p) 310 650 1999

SOURCE The Safe Cig