It’s Friday afternoon at Rogue Vapers, and curls of white fog are clouding the air near the register.
Through the mist, Tyler Meuret helps a customer holding what, at first glance, looks like a standard tobacco pipe. But there’s no open bowl for tobacco. Instead, the slim stem of the e-pipe includes a refillable cartridge of flavored liquid nicotine, or “e-juice.”
Rogue has been open for just six months and Tyler (whose father, Troy Meuret, is the store owner) says the store is already seeing about 100 customers per day. In a 30-minute span just after lunch, five customers come in to ask questions or stock up on the bottles of liquid that feed their habits. Two regulars have been there for hours already, hanging out in the living-room-like lounge in the back, snacking on pizza and nerding out over their shared vaping habit.
Stores like Rogue are early adopters, catering to the growing number of e-cigarette users in Arkansas and across the U.S. attracted to the devices because they contain no tobacco. First introduced in U.S. markets in 2007, e-cigarettes use a battery-powered heating element that vaporizes a mixture of flavored liquid nicotine as users draw on the device. As the e-cigarette industry has expanded — Bloomberg Industries projects e-cigarette sales could exceed traditional cigarette sales by 2023 — government agencies have scrambled to determine how the devices and their liquid components should be regulated.
Arkansas legislators passed two laws last year that stipulate who can use e-cigarette devices, but officials with several federal and state agencies say they know of no regulation that applies to the nicotine-laced liquids that create the vapor. And store owners and others in the growing industry say they’re concerned about the lack of clear rules.
In December 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that e-cigarettes and other products, made or derived from tobacco, can be regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as tobacco products under the Tobacco Control Act. Following the ruling, the FDA announced that it would pursue expanding its regulations to include e-cigarettes. The agency estimated that it would release a rule for public comment in December, but it hasn’t yet been released. FDA spokesperson Stephanie Yao said the proposed rule has been sent to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, but she could not comment on the timing of the release or the contents of the proposed rule.
“The FDA intends to propose a regulation that would extend the agency’s ‘tobacco product’ authorities — which currently only apply to cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco — to other categories of tobacco products that meet the statutory definition of ‘tobacco product,’” Yao said in an emailed statement.
Until the FDA rule is in place, the e-cigarette industry is functioning with little oversight, which worries health department officials.
Dr. Gary Wheeler, medical director of tobacco prevention and cessation with the Arkansas Department of Health, says the lack of set rules on what goes into e-juice opens up customers to a lot more risk than they may think.
“This is analogous to going down to the corner and buying cocaine,” Wheeler says. “You have no idea what you’re getting. It’s a big issue.”
Troy Meuret has similar concerns about the lack of safety standards for his industry. Troy, who opened his shop in August after years working as a car wash repairman, mixes custom flavors of e-juice in-house using food-safe flavorings. He purchases pre-mixed nicotine solution from wholesale supplier Heartland Vapes, located in Oklahoma City. The solution includes a mix of nicotine, propylene glycol (a synthetic liquid used in many pharmaceutical solutions) and vegetable glycerin (an organic compound often used in foods as a preservative).
Heartland Vapes owner Ty Miner would not disclose where he purchases the pure nicotine used to make his wholesale nicotine solution, but said that he purchases it from a supplier in the U.S.
One such supplier is Dallas-based chemicals company ScienceLab.com, which lists nicotine for sale in bulk. Website users can purchase 25 milliliters of nicotine by credit card and have it shipped to Little Rock for $227.17, which includes a $35 hazardous materials fee. The site does not ask for age verification, however, the site’s disclaimer before purchase notes that “items offered by ScienceLab.com are not to be used for the preparation of illicit drugs or for any illegal purpose as defined by the statutes of state and federal law,” and states that buyers must be 21 years of age or older and use necessary safety precautions.
To create their solution, workers at Heartland Vapes don respirators and full chemical suits to keep from absorbing the nicotine through their skin.
According to Wheeler, pets and small children who accidentally ingest e-juice liquid and adults who are exposed to too much nicotine could experience acute nicotine poisoning, the symptoms of which include increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and possible death.
Troy says he hopes regulations will soon be in place to help ensure e-juice is handled safely, mixed in clean rooms, tested to verify accurate nicotine levels and packaged with labels warning of the danger of ingesting too much.
“I don’t want anybody out there making people sick,” Troy says. “We’re trying to help people [quit smoking], not hurt them. There needs to be some regulation.”
At Rogue Vapers, stacks of printed articles sit on tables, ready to defend the ongoing arguments coming from health officials who say that until e-cigarettes have been properly studied, they should not be used. But the lack of study is used as an argument on both sides of the debate, as Troy and many other e-cigarette converts say they shouldn’t be ruled out as a smoking cessation tool until studies can prove otherwise.
Troy, a cigarette smoker for 30 years, said two weeks using an e-cigarette was all it took for him to stop smoking traditional cigarettes altogether.
“I am now an ex-smoker,” Troy says. “I’m not getting the carcinogens that come with tobacco.”
Since starting with e-cigarettes two years ago, Troy has gone from using e-juice that contained 48 milligrams nicotine per milliliter of solution to e-juice that contains just 6 milligrams nicotine per milliliter. Traditional cigarettes contain 10-20 milligrams of nicotine, according to an article by Duke University pharmacology professor Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom published by PBS.org.
Troy sells e-juice with options of 24, 18, 12 or 6 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter. Customers can also request e-juice that is nicotine-free.
James Pendergist of Arkadelphia says he has found success with using e-cigarettes to reduce his dependence on nicotine. Pendergist first switched to e-cigarettes in December with co-workers at the motor sports store where he works in Hot Springs. The group decided to make the switch from cigarettes together to cut down on the amount of time taken up by going outside for smoke breaks.
“I’m about to turn 40 and have to make a change,” Pendergist says. “I started at 18 milligrams, and now I’m at 6. I’m trying to quit altogether.”
Pendergist says the method has worked for him because it still allows him to have the physical, hand-to-mouth action that was ingrained in him from years of cigarettes. Since making the switch, Pendergist says he has noticed an immediate difference.
“I’m not out of breath as much, and my morning cough is gone,” Pendergist says. “There’s a cleaner feeling. You don’t get a film over your teeth or any odor. My sense of smell and sense of taste are both coming back.”
But doctors warn that anecdotal evidence of e-cigarettes’ effectiveness as a smoking cessation tool isn’t enough.
“The electronic devices haven’t been around long enough to be adequately studied,” says Dr. Matthew Steliga, thoracic oncology specialist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital says. “Most of the ‘good’ information we are hearing is from people who have a vested interest in selling the product and making money.”
Steliga says more research needs to be done to fully understand how inhaling the flavorings and compounds used in e-juice affects health, as well as the possible secondhand effects of e-cigarette vapors. UAMS, he says, includes e-cigarettes in the campuswide ban in place for tobacco products.
Restaurants and businesses in Arkansas may ban e-cigarettes on their property if they choose, though Troy and Pendergist say they rarely run into problems using their e-cigarettes indoors.
The only Arkansas state laws currently in place regarding e-cigarettes were passed in 2013, banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and outlawing their use on public school grounds.
Troy says he is happy to comply with the rule regarding minors, and says he hopes it will prevent more people from becoming addicted to nicotine as he is. For now, he is keeping up with the e-cigarette debate daily, waiting to hear what the next move in regulation will be as the FDA moves forward with its proposed rule. So far, he hasn’t had anyone come to him about licensing or inspection. But he expects that day will come sometime this year.
“We’re just waiting for regulation,” Troy says. “But right now, we’re expanding every day. It’s growing exponentially.”