Electronic Cigarette Association

ECA President Video

Hi, I’m Matt Salmon, former U.S. Congressman and current President of the Electronic Cigarette Association. During my life, I have thought a great deal about the topic of smoking. I don’t smoke myself, and I believe people have the right to smoke. But, I have watched a family member smoke lifelong, watched them struggle with quitting, and ultimately watched the resulting emphysema and cancer.

Our country has reduced the incidence of tobacco smoking from 45% of adults in 1965 to 21% today through legislation, education and marketing restrictions. Some years ago I helped push through a new law in the state of Arizona that was among the first public smoking bans. Later in 2000, I was named Congressman of the Year by the American Cancer Society.

Despite gallant efforts by many good organizations and people, including some of my own, the reality is a lot of people – 45.8 million in the U.S. to be exact – still smoke tobacco. What this tells me … and what this should tell you … is that the two options that smokers have had for a very long time … the option of continuing to smoke tobacco at certain peril and the option to quit smoking tobacco altogether … are simply not enough to address consumer needs and to improve public health.

To that end, for the past few years I have followed a revolutionary new idea called electronic cigarettes. A board certified physician named Dr. David Baron, who has been chief of staff at UCLA Medical Center, says that he has never seen a product … ever … that stands to save as many lives as electronic cigarettes.

If you haven’t seen an electronic cigarette before, here’s what one looks like (show). It is battery-powered and looks like a cigarette. Hundreds of thousands of people around the country using them say they feel and taste like a cigarette too. Because they aren’t ignited, electronic cigarettes don’t produce secondhand smoke, or lingering acrid odor. The vapor they emit contains only 20 ingredients, all of which are considered safe for human consumption including nicotine, whereas tobacco smoke contains 4,000 ingredients including arsenic and carbon monoxide, and dozens of ingredients that cause cancer.

In short, electronic cigarettes are a significantly better alternative to tobacco smoking. As Dr. Joel Nitzkin, a nationally-recognized public health physician says, “On the basis of available research data, electronic cigarettes promise risk of illness and death well under 1% of the risk posed by tobacco cigarettes.” David Sweanor, a global harm reduction expert adds, “Anyone who thinks tobacco cigarettes are no more hazardous than electronic cigarettes should take a remedial course in basic sciences.”

You are sure to hear a great deal of buzz about electronic cigarettes. Some will be mistruths from abolitionists, or from those whose perilous or ineffective products and market share will be jeopardized. Others will seek a safe harbor through the interpretation of law or hand of regulation. I suppose competition in this form is to be expected.

Whatever is said, remember this: withholding electronic cigarettes from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke tobacco, which is the leading form of preventable death in the US and is responsible for 400,000 deaths per year … more than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires and auto accidents combined.

Whether you smoke or not, I know you recognize that message is wrong, and cannot be a good thing.

Finally, I wish I could share with you today the enormous outpouring and steady stream of stories we hear from people who use electronic cigarettes. You would hear statements like, “Thank you, you saved my life,” “Where have you been all this time,” “I feel better than ever.” Almost universally these are the words of longtime, middle-aged tobacco smokers who have not been able or willing to quit, but who are feeling the ravages of tobacco smoking and who are seeking a better alternative.

My job as president of the Electronic Cigarette Association is to help establish the industry’s standards of good practice. As our dynamic and budding industry works toward that goal, we realize that harm reduction approaches in public health, like electronic cigarettes, will be criticized for condoning an activity some have spent careers trying to eliminate. But since one in five US adults smoke tobacco, and smoking cessation products have a 95% failure rate, it is seems patently obvious that new products and innovative approaches beyond those already tried are very much needed now.

With that in mind, I hope you will join me, and the many companies in good standing in our industry, by thinking first of the needs of consumers over special interests … by putting public health ahead of stifling process … and by embracing the first true innovation in a centuries-old space. Thank you, and if you would like to share your thoughts with me, I would welcome them.

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