With all due respect, the Michigan Health Department is terribly misinformed about electronic cigarettes. It is now estimated that 1 out of 40 smokers (yes, that's over a million) have switched to this alternative. Let's consider what these former smokers have lost: tar, carbon monoxide, particles of ash, and 4,000 chemicals that are created when tobacco is burned. By losing the smoke, they have lost everything that causes smoking-related lung disease, heart disease, and cancer.

Instead, they vaporize 3 or 4 ingredients found in every home: propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerin, water, and food-grade flavoring. Nicotine is optional. Nicotine does not cause any of the smoking-related diseases.

What nicotine does cause is alertness, relaxation, stress relief, memory improvement, improvement in symptoms of ulcerative colitis, and prevention of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The Michigan Health Department should look that up.

There is no vapor emitted from the e-cigarette itself, because the devices are activated by the user inhaling. The vapor goes directly into the user's body. Health New Zealand has tested the vapor and found that it contains only one-tenth the amount of nicotine that is found in a puff of smoke, and that is mostly absorbed in the user's body. Thus, what the user exhales is essentially harmless water vapor. http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ECigsExhaledSmoke.htm

Surveys show that 90% of users are reporting their health has improved--especially their lung function, but also markers of cardiovascular health and general well-being. http://tobaccoharmreduction.org/wpapers/011v1.pdf

If users who inhale the vapor directly from the devices are experiencing improvements in their health, how in the world could what they exhale present any danger to bystanders?

It is quite unfortunate that the FDA decided to try to win a law suit by demonizing the products of the two Plaintiff companies. It's easy to mislead others when you choose to tell only part of the truth. Yes, the FDA detected "carcinogens". But is the Michigan Health Department aware of the fact that the quantity of these carcinogens is equivalent to the quantity in an FDA-approved nicotine patch?

Probably not, because the FDA conveniently forgot to mention that fact, or to put into perspective the fact that tobacco smoke contains thousands of times as many carcinogens and thousands of toxins, compared to the one substance (diethylene glycol) that is not actually toxic in the quantity that FDA detected in the e-cigarette liquid. Furthermore, neither diethylene glycol nor any substance proven to cause cancer have been found in the vapor.

By the way, the Michigan Health Department is misinformed regarding the court case, as well. The FDA has not won a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals. The FDA was automatically granted a stay, pending the outcome of the Appeal hearing in September. If the Plaintiffs win in the Appeals court, the stay will be lifted, which will reimpose the lower court's injunction against the FDA seizing incoming shipments.

In closing, I'd like to point out to the Michigan Health Department that the million e-cigarette users were not novices at the smoking cessation game. Most users tried multiple methods, including every single FDA-approved product, counseling, 12-step programs, hypnosis, acupuncture, and you-name-it, alone and in combination, to no avail. So please don't try to sell us on the effectiveness of these products. And as far as safety goes, in the 6 years that e-cigarettes have been in use world-wide, not one serious adverse event has been reported. Can the Michigan Health Department say the same about the smoking-cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban?