Public health threat

Russia’s Ex-Chief Sanitary Inspector Exposes E-Cigs as National Security Threat

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes for short, are small handheld devices which vaporize flavored liquids (which usually, but not always, contain nicotine) for their users to inhale. The use of e-cigarettes is sometimes referred to as 'vaping'.

Tobacco companies and e-cigarette proponents insist that vaping poses a far lesser threat to one’s health than smoking and do not produce the so called ‘second hand smoke’. However, their opponents argue that e-cigarette vapors do in fact contain carcinogens and that these devices actually help increase the number of smokers instead of decreasing it.

Gennady Onishchenko, Russian MP and the country’s former Chief Sanitary Inspector, told RIA Novosti that these devices pose a serious public health threat in Russia, but that unfortunately many of his former colleagues care more about the economy and investments.