Up in smoke: Are Katherine Heigl's e-cigarettes a smart way to quit smoking?

Katherine Heigl's plan to kick her cigarette addiction by turning to the electronic version of butts may just go up in smoke.

Heigl, demonstrating for David Letterman last week how she puffs on an e-cigarette, said it has worked for her where nicotine gum, nicotine patches and a prescription drug did not.
"You blow out water vapor so you're not harming anyone around you and you're not harming yourself," she said. "I'm essentially humidifying the space."

"I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s helping me not to actually smoke real cigarettes," Heigl said in an interview with Parade.

But e-cigarettes not only contain nicotine, but whatever chemicals leach out of the plastic tubing that is part of the device, Dr. Len Horovitz, internist and pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital told the News.

Electronic cigarettes, which unlike regular cigarettes don't burn tobacco, are smoked with the aid of a battery-operated device. The smoker inhales a vapor that contains nicotine in liquid, which comes in a replaceable cartridge.

"Medically it is exactly like a nicotine addiction," he says. "And inhaling fumes from the plastic tubes can be carcinogenic."

Electronic cigarettes "are not a good way or an approved way to quit smoking," says Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, medical director of the Cardiac and Pulmonary Wellness and Rehabilitation Program at NYU Langone Medical Center.

"They have never been proven to be effective at smoking cessation," he says. "There are many claims, none of which have been substantiated."

Besides the nicotine itself, some of the chemicals in the propellant that helps to vaporize the nicotine are dangerous, too, Whiteson notes.

Electronic cigarettes are not FDA approved, and aren’t currently subject to strict regulation, notes Kathy Garrett Szymanski, respiratory therapist in the thoracic center at Long Island College Hospital, where she directs the smoking cessation program.

"At this point, they are a drug delivery service," she says. "It’s a little cigarette that lets you inhale nicotine. And inhalation is the fastest route of drug delivery. I do not recommend them."

Bottom line? "It’s nicotine, it’s a drug, it’s addictive and it has health consequences," Whiteson says.

With 70% of those who try to kick the habit thwarted in their efforts, smoking remains a tough addiction to beat. But the best way to quit, Horovitz says, is with the nicotine patch and, if necessary, the chewing gum.

"These have been found to be superior to all the pills that are out there," he said. "But there is no magic way to quit smoking anymore than there is a magic way to diet."

Heigl told Letterman that she warn her daughter against the dangers of smoking.

"The one thing I would say to my kid is, "It’s not just that it’s bad for you. Do you want to spend the rest of your life fighting a stupid addiction to a stupid thing that doesn’t even really give you a good buzz?' "

nydailynews.com