Readers Write: The ongoing debate over e-cigarettes
| Salt Lake City and Los Angeles
The ongoing debate over e-cigarettes
Based on my research, I鈥檇 like to make two points that are relevant to Jonathan Zimmerman鈥檚 March 31 commentary, 鈥淎re e-cigarettes ensnaring a new generation of smokers?鈥� First, some laboratory testing has found that electronic cigarettes deliver 鈥渓ittle if any鈥� nicotine to the bloodstream. And test subjects who vaped, or used, e-cigarettes containing no nicotine still reported relaxation and relief from 鈥渃ravings,鈥� making them a great placebo. Second, some research shows nicotine, absent tobacco, to be a relatively weak drug, with similar risks/benefits to those of caffeine.
Sylvia Kronstadt
Salt Lake City
When young people see their favorite TV characters using a particular item, it normalizes that item for them. Indeed, it鈥檚 because of this that broadcasters largely refrain from using images of people smoking on TV. Following the antismoking campaigns and the 1971 ban on cigarette commercials, broadcasters got the message that depicting this behavior was not in the public鈥檚 best interest.
Now, for the first time in decades, high-profile cigarette use is back on TV. People who routinely scrutinize incidental tobacco use appear to feel very comfortable with the depiction of e-cigarettes in their programming. What does that say about the acceptability of e-cigarettes, especially when the world is still debating whether these products are safe? Furthermore, if it looks like a cigarette and puffs like a cigarette, viewers may likely interpret it as a regular cigarette 鈥� not an e-cigarette.
Consider the use of an e-cig by Jenna Elfman鈥檚 character in the premi猫re of NBC鈥檚 new family comedy 鈥淕rowing Up Fisher.鈥� Allowing the mother character to experiment with an e-cig in front of her children, even for comic effect, potentially returns broadcasters to the days when the Flintstones smoked cigarettes in product placement vignettes.
Lawmakers know there is little they can do to stop in-program depictions of e-cigarettes, which are protected by the First Amendment. It is broadcasters who will decide whether e-cigs will become a normalized part of American popular culture. Let鈥檚 hope they keep them out of our living rooms.
Michael M. Epstein
Professor of law, Southwestern Law School
Supervising editor, Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law
听Los Angeles
