What do we know about e-cigarettes?

Guests: Andrew Strasser, Michael Siegel

E-cigarettes are gaining popularity fueled by images of stars and hipsters puffing on them.  Electronic cigarettes contain a battery that heats the liquid nicotine turning it into a vapor which the smoker inhales.  Manufactures claim that “vaping,” as it’s called, is safer than regular cigarettes but the FDA has warned that the health effects of these relatively new products are still unknown and some studies have found carcinogens present in the vapor.  Currently the FDA is deciding how to regulate e-cigarettes. So what do we know about e-cigarettes?  How are they being marketed?  And can they be a useful tool for public health?  Marty is joined by ANDREW STRASSER, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, where he is the director of its Biobehavioral Smoking Laboratory and MICHAEL SIEGEL, a professor of Community Health Services at Boston University School of Public Health.