Source: CNN
Date: 2010-02-08
Author: Paul Courson, CNN

Electronic cigarettes" that vaporize nicotine juice to inhale
instead of smoke from burning tobacco do not deliver as promised,
according to research at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"They are as effective at nicotine delivery as puffing on an
unlit cigarette," said Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, at the school\\\'s
Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies.

His study, funded by the federal National Cancer Institute, is
the first by American doctors to check the function of so-called
"no-smoke tobacco" devices . . .

The latest clinical evidence suggests users are not getting the
addictive substance they get from smoking tobacco. "These e-cigs
do not deliver nicotine," Eissenberg said of the findings he
expects to publish in an upcoming issue of the British Medical
Journal.

This past summer, Eissenberg recruited smokers without prior
experience using e-cigarettes to volunteer to use two popular
brands of the devices for a set period. The 16 subjects were
regularly measured in a clinical setting for the presence of
nicotine in their bodies, their reported craving for conventional
cigarettes, and certain physiological effects such as a change in
heart rate.

"Ten puffs from either of these electronic cigarettes with a 16
mg nicotine cartridge delivered little to no nicotine," the study
found.

But the units may deliver hazardous chemicals, according to
preliminary checks by federal regulators.