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Is there a "type" of person who smokes e-cigarettes? According to a new study , yes.  Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that people living with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions are twice as likely to have tried e-cigarettes and three times as likely to be current users of the controversial battery-powered nicotine-delivery devices, as people without mental health disorders, newswise.com reports. They are also more susceptible to trying e-cigarettes in the future in the belief that doing so will help them quit, scientists said. The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid. The jury is still out on whether these nicotine-vapor-producing items are harmful.  In the beginning many thought they were much less dangerous -- or cancer-causing -- than regular cigarettes, since you weren't inhaling nicotene into your lungs. But new studies are finding that some of the flavors these e-cigs co...

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise.  But a new study has found that e-cigarettes may promote the growth of cancer much like their tobacco-laced predecessors. According to Barry Meier at The New York Times, "T he nicotine-laced vapor generated by an electronic cigarette promoted the development of cancer in certain types of human cells much in the same way that tobacco smoke does." The studies did not involve humans, just specially treated lung cells in the lab. But the findings were disturbing enough that some experts are rethinking their positions that e-cigarettes are less deadly than the original ones, simply  because they do not burn tobacco, a major source of carcinogens . The scientists reported that the cells exposed to e-cigarette vapor, like those exposed to tobacco smoke, exhibited changes associated with cancer. Meier reports that t he Food and Drug Administration, which has oversight over tobacco, "is expected to soon issue rules laying out ...

I remember years ago taping up the vent in my bathroom so I wouldn't smell the smoke coming from the apartment next door.  My neighbor was a chain smoker and the smell of it filled my apartment. Now it turns out he was a cancer risk not only for himself but for me, too. A new study has found that "third-hand" smoke, or l eftover cigarette smoke "that clings to walls and furniture is a smelly nuisance, but now research suggests that it could pose a far more serious threat, especially to young children who put toys and other smoke-affected items into their mouths," according to newswise.com. Scientists reported today that one compound from this “third-hand smoke,” which forms when second-hand smoke reacts with indoor air, damages DNA and sticks to it in a way that could potentially cause cancer. I now live in a house where this is not a problem but I remember those days clearly, having my clothes and hair smell of smoke when I -- or anyone else who lived wi...

A new study has just found that, on average, smoking clips 10 years off your life, according to a story today in The New York Times.  My mother smoked when I was a child and I remember seeing a film when I was in 5th grade showing a smoker's lungs, all black and scarred from smoking. I raced home to ask her to please, please stop smoking, and she assured me she was "checked" every year and was fine.  She continued to smoke for over 20 more years -- even going so far as to pretend she had quit, then begging to take the garbage out at a party I threw at my apartment, only to come back the dumpster smelling of smoke. My mom died a little more than a year ago of congestive heart failue at 84 so I guess she was one of the lucky ones.  Maybe because of her, I never ever picked up a cigarette.  The study also goes on to say that if you can quit by 40, you have almost a full life expectancy.  I have friends who smoked to lose weight, or keep it off, and others ...