I am writing to you in your capacity as a representative of the FDA, and as a compassionate human beings, as a former tobacco smoker who has quit smoking through the use of e-cigarettes. Back in May 2011, I was in a desperate place. My wheezing was bad, I had a dry cough all day, my sleep was horrible and I had little energy left for those mundane daily chores around the house. To make it even more unpleasant, my kids were constantly complaining about the ashtrays, the smell and my long weekend drives to the native reserve for cheap cigarettes. For the previous five years to May 2011 I had tried to quit at least eight times. The patches, the gums, the inhalers, acupuncture, cold turkey and the worst experience ever ƒ?? Champix. I relapsed within a couple of months with every product I tried. I believe my Champix experience was the tipping point in my failed marriage. My aggression levels, my ƒ??I donƒ??t give a damƒ? attitude, felt like an out of body experience. It was with the help of those around me who brought me back from the brink of a total calamity and convinced me to drop the Champix. The worst part, I had only managed to reduce my smoking consumption by half the whole time I was on Champix. Yet another failed attempt to quit and my 36 year, two pack a day smoking monkey still on my back for the ride. Back to my ƒ??good newsƒ? story ƒ??. I had seen him once or twice, this young guy at work (younger than me LOL) ƒ??smokingƒ?? a flashlight looking thing? Curiosity got the better of me and I went to talk to him. He gave me the whole run down ƒ??. ƒ??E-cigarette ƒ?? battery powered ƒ?? no smoke, vapor ƒ?? propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavors, nicotine ƒ?? no foul smell ƒ??. safer than cigarettes.ƒ? Wait! What? Safer than cigarettes? Funny now how I do that same presentation I got that day with such ease. I spent a week reading the proƒ??s, the conƒ??s, getting the lingo down ƒ?? stumbled on to the Electronic Cigarette Forum and I weighed my options. Continue to smoke and surely die an early death or vape and stand a chance. I chose to live. I ordered a ƒ??kitƒ?? with the help of that young guy Iƒ??d met at work. Canƒ??t say enough about how important that was to have him as a resource and as time went on the entire vaping community as a resource through online resources. I wasnƒ??t expecting a miracle when I got my first kit but that is exactly what happened. In the first week that I used the e-cigarette I ordered I smoked 10 cigarettes only ƒ??. ONLY! And by week two I smoked ZERO cigarettes and havenƒ??t had one since. Not a single tobacco cigarette since June 9, 2011! Do I still vape? Yes I do! But over the last two years I have gone from 24 mg strength e-liquids to 8 mg strength e-liquids. I attribute this mostly to the innovation of new products and they seem to be getting better every day. My wheezing has stopped, I donƒ??t cough anymore, I get a good nights sleep almost every night (life still happens) and I had tons of energy left for those mundane and not so mundane daily chores around the house. To make it even more pleasant, my kids donƒ??t complaining about the ashtrays, the smell and my long weekend drives to the native reserve for cheap cigarettes anymore either. I urge you, I implore you to do the right thing regarding e-cigarettes. For an estimated 350,000 people throughout Canada (as I am a Canadian), e-cigarettes have and continue to provide a viable alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes. They have enabled us to leave smoking behind, either on a full or part-time basis. These people are now smoking far fewer or, like me, no tobacco cigarettes at all. Figures from the United States show that in one year alone, Altria, the company behind cigarette brands like Malboro, saw a six and a half per cent decline in cigarette sales, directly attributed to a rise in the use of e-cigarettes. In Canada, RJ Reynolds and Imperial Tobacco are reporting similar losses, also being attributed to the rise of e-cigarette use. If e-cigarettes are allowed to continue to flourish, just imagine how many fewer tobacco cigarettes will be sold and lives saved as millions more people like me switch from smoking tobacco cigarettes to using e-cigarettes. The key health benefit of e-cigarettes is determined by how many smokers switch to them or use them as a staging post to quitting completely. It is therefore vital that e-cigarettes should be regulated as a consumer product so that they may be widely made available. Why are tobacco cigarettes so easily available? Many smokers have tried numerous times to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes using conventional nicotine replacement therapies and have failed, myself included, however with e-cigarettes the success rate of cutting down smoking tobacco cigarettes or stopping completely far outstrips all other approved methods combined. Here is the peer reviewed evidence, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.12150/abstract This is without anyone in the professional public health field doing anything and without spending any public money, smokers have been quitting, switching, and cutting down through the use of e-cigarettes. This is something that should be celebrated ƒ?? not a cause for concern. In my opinion, e-cigarettes are not a form of more effective nicotine replacement therapy. They are an effective form of harm reduction. There is no doubt about the potential benefits, and it is clear that implementing Tobacco Harm Reduction strategies(THR) will have greater public health benefits than promoting further nicotine abstinence. Moreover, offering people a healthier choice that they prefer is clearly ethical, unlike coercive politics that have come to dominate the approach of the anti-smoking movement. E-cigarettes deliver clean nicotine; – without the tar, carbon monoxide, and volatile hot gases of cigarettes (http://clearstream.flavourart.it/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CSA_ItaEng.pdf) – and, as a way of consuming nicotine they are pretty near harmless to health. Nicotine is not a carcinogen nor are any of the products found in an e-cigarette. Smoking a lit/burning tobacco cigarette is what delivers the 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke and at least 43 of them are carcinogenic to its user and bystanders. In short, for people like us who switch from tobacco cigarettes, the evidence is overwhelming that e-cigarettes hugely reduce risk to the user and bystanders, while satisfying our need for nicotine and the social behavioural aspects of smoking. I believe that making the informed choice of switching from smoking tobacco cigarettes to using e-cigarettes has dramatically improved my health and my chances of living a longer, healthier life. I am not alone in this belief as is evident by the growing number of new users of e-cigarettes every day. With this in mind I would like to ask members of the FDA (and Health Canada) this very simple question. Why would you want to intervene to prevent or obstruct a smoker having access to products that could potentially save his or her life? The reality is that every barrier placed in the way of e-cigarettes should be viewed in this light and with its consequences for health. Yours sincerely, Lawrence H