GLADEWATER, TX (KLTV) One East Texas woman said she became terribly ill the reason? She said it was e cigarettes.

The Gladewater woman is determined to spread the word, claiming that after switching from regular cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, she fell ill. She said that she had hoped the new product would be safer, and ultimately help her quit smoking, but she never expected what happened next.

It was three weeks ago that Debbie Jean Hendrix had an eye opening talk with her husband.

“I told him, I said, ‘I don’t want to live like that,'” Hendrix said. “And he said, ‘Well, you better quit smoking.” Well, that’s when we started the e cigarettes,” she explained.

Debbie said she saw an elderly woman who required an oxygen tank because of smoking. But, just days after switching to e cigarettes, Debbie said she began to wonder about the product’s safety.

“I started feeling really kind of jittery,” Hendrix said. “And once I started feeling real jittery me and my husband went to town to eat and I got so sick I couldn’t keep anything down,” she remembered.

That’s when Debbie said she went to her doctor.

“He thought I was on drugs when I went in there. That’s how bad it was,” she said.

Debbie said she does have pre existing health issues, but she said, her doctor insisted she quit the e cigarettes.

“He would definitely say that the vapor cigarettes needed to go because they had chemical in them and he said it could be the cause from the chemical,” Hendrix said.

“From what I understand, the poisoning could take place through one of three venues,” Dr. Bill Sorensen, a health science expert, explained.

Nicotine poisoning can happen by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption.

Debbie did notice when changing the liquid on her electronic cigarette that it often leaked, causing liquid nicotine to spill onto her hands.

“You should be feeling those symptoms within minutes, maybe a few hours after the experience with the e cigarette,” Dr. Sorensen explained.

And that’s exactly what Debbie said happened to her.

“People might be thinking that it’s safer and because it’s safer I m allowed to smoke twice as much,” Dr. Sorensen said.

Though other chemicals may be gone, he said, nicotine is ever present.

It is toxic. It’s addictive. And even if you’re not poisoned by it, or even if you don’t become a little sick, you’re on the road to addiction.”

As for Debbie, she has stopped using e cigarettes.

“I do feel a little better now that I have got off of them and I wouldn’t recommend them to no one,” Debbie said.

She also said she’ll be quitting smoking completely.

The Centers for Disease Control published a report this month stating calls to poison control centers about e cigarettes have shot up from about one per month in September 2010, to approximately 215 per month in February 2014.

Many of those calls involved children, but the CDC did attribute them to e cigarettes related overdoses.

Copyright 2014 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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Cdc – fact sheet – fast facts – smoking & tobacco use

Disgust over ‘maori’ brand cigarettes – health news
Diseases and DeathTobacco use leads to disease and disability.

  • Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction), and diabetes.1
  • For every person who dies from a smoking related disease, about 30 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.1
  • More than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease caused by smoking.1

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.

  • Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.2
  • Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including an estimated 42,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.1 This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.1
  • On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.3
  • If smoking persists at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today s Americans younger than 18 years of age are projected to die prematurely from a smoking related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.1

Costs and ExpendituresThe tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on cigarette advertising and promotions.4

  • $8.4 billion total spent in 2011
  • Almost $23 million spent every day in 2011

Tobacco use costs the United States billions of dollars each year, including 1

  • More than $289 billion a year, including at least $133 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity
  • $5.6 billion a year (2006 data) in lost productivity from exposure to secondhand smoke

State spending on tobacco prevention and control does not meet CDC recommended levels.1,5,6

  • Collectively, states have billions of dollars available to them from tobacco excise taxes and tobacco industry legal settlements for preventing and controlling tobacco use. States currently use a very small percentage of these funds for tobacco control programs.
  • In fiscal year 2014, states will collect $25.7 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements, but states will spend only 1.9% of the $25.7 billion on prevention and cessation programs.
  • No states currently fund tobacco control programs at CDC’s “recommended” level. Only two states (Alaska and North Dakota) fund tobacco control programs at the “minimum” level.
  • Investing less than 15% (i.e., $3.3 billion) of the $25.7 billion would fund every state tobacco control program at CDC recommended levels.

Cigarette Smoking in the United StatesPercentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older who were current cigarette smokers in 2012 7

  • 18.1% of all adults (42.1 million people) 20.1% of males, 14.5% of females
  • 21.8% of non Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives
  • 19.7% of non Hispanic Whites
  • 18.1% of non Hispanic Blacks
  • 12.5% of Hispanics
  • 10.7% of non Hispanic Asians (excluding Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders)
  • 26.1% of multiple race individuals

Notes

  • Current smokers are defined as persons who reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and who, at the time of interview, reported smoking every day or some days.

Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes every day1

  • Each day, more than 3,200 persons younger than 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette.
  • Each day, an estimated 2,100 youth and young adults who have been occasional smokers become daily cigarette smokers.

Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.

  • In 2011 1
    • 68.9% of adult smokers wanted to stop smoking
    • 42.7% had made a quit attempt in the past year

Notes

  • See CDC’s Smoking Cessation fact sheet for more information.
  • “Made a quit attempt” refers to smokers who reported that they stopped smoking for more than 1 day in the past 12 months because they were trying to quit smoking.

References

  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking 50 Years of Progress A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .
  2. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011. Geneva World Health Organization, 2011 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .
  3. Jha P, Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, Rostron B, Thun M, Anderson RN, McAfee T, Peto R. 21st Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine 2013 368 341 50 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .
  4. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2011. PDF 325 KB Washington Federal Trade Commission, 2013 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs 2014. Atlanta U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .
  6. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Broken Promises to Our Children The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 15 Years Later. Washington Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2013 accessed 2014 Feb 14 .

For Further Information

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office on Smoking and Health
E mail tobaccoinfo
Phone 1 800 CDC INFO

Media Inquiries Contact CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health press line at 770 488 5493.