The Israeli ministries are urging people to give up smoking and a recent government report has found that both the heavy smokers in the Jewish and Muslim populations in Israel are cutting down, if only by a few percentages. But methods for quitting can be fatal for some.
According to local reports, a two-year-old toddler managed to suck out and ingest liquid nicotine, the kind found in electronic cigarettes made to help people bust the habit of ingested carcinogenic tobacco into their lungs. The girl reportedly died last night in the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Karem.
The police were questioning the girls parents to see if the cigarette came from them or from another source.
There is enough nicotine in one regular cigarette to seriously harm a small child.
Living in the Middle East, I see far too many instances of people tossing cigarettes butts around the streets, parks and beaches with no regard for the public who comes into contact with them.
My two-year-old daughter is constantly picking up old butts, any that she can get her hands on, and is always trying to emulate the inhaling that she sees being done by other adults. She doesn’t understand that the butts are dirty and possibly dangerous to her.
Do us a favor – share this news of Urbin around the world – a nice-looking butt bit so people can dispose butts in style. And keep your kids away from your smoke-busting devices, patches and pills.
While Middle Eastern people are among the biggest smokers in the world, and they do so under lax smoking laws and enforcement (see some new laws and campaigns in Jordan for instance), it’s a very very sad day when children die because of our need to break the habit. Wise up people. If you smoke, do it far from the kiddies, far enough that they don’t see you or breathe your smoke.
And if you have to buy the nicotine electronic cigs to bust the habit keep them far from the reach of your little ones.
Image of electronic cigarette from Shutterstock
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist and publisher that founded Green Prophet to unite a prosperous Middle East. She shows through her work that positive, inspiring dialogue creates action that impacts people, business and planet. She has published in thought-leading newspapers and magazines globally, owns an IoT tech chip patent, and is part of teams that build world-changing products to make agriculture and our planet more sustainable. Reach out directly to [email protected]
I wont believe on these, how come that E-cigs give harm to toddler. Base what I read different stories regarding the E-cigs there is no ever post like these.
Liar, liar, pants on fire — this had NOTHING to do with e-cig’s. There is MONEY at stake for big tobacco, big pharma and governments — and level of demagoguery and arrogance is simply astonishing. The cause was chewing nicotine gun.
E-cigarettes are a cottage industry that have already helped hundreds of thousands of people to quit cigarettes and escape their poverty inducing taxation. It may take profits from the rich, but it empowers people and improves world health.
No one should be deceived by corporate greed and propaganda.
People are switching from smoking tobacco to using e-cigarettes, for nicotine inhalation, in the belief that they are safe – when there is a strong likelihood that nicotine, which has been shown to promote cancer, will continue to interact with the residual tar from smoking tobacco that remains in the lungs for 10+ years.
This means that maybe a tobacco smoker who was about to quit smoking altogether will instead switch to using e-cigarettes and as a result will accelerate an early death from lung cancer – the smoker would be far far better off by just quitting smoking altogether.
And doubtless the nicotine industry will deny that the early deaths are related to the use of e-cigarettes and will instead say that the disease was contracted whilst smoking tobacco, and that the use of an e-cigarette probably extended the life of the smoker, by switching to e-cigarettes from tobacco – whereas the reality is that the e-cigarette user has not been given a full appraisal of the risks involved.
Ideally these devices should be banned, to prevent a repeat of the smoking epidemic and its health consequences of previous decades – and if they aren’t banned they should be very very tightly controlled (similar to tobacco cigarettes) and discouraged (e.g. made subject to legislation preventing their use in public).
Smoking is not an addiction, and people could stop smoking anytime they liked – if they really wanted to. Many smokers are happy to say that they are addicted because it provides an excuse for them to justify their habit.
See here for some evidence that smoking isn’t an addiction:
http://www.thesmokelesssociety.org/Nicotine-Addiction-Facts-Part-1.html
And see here for the obvious (but only when you think about it!), and potentially huge problem, with tobacco smokers switching to inhaling nicotine in the belief that it is safe – rather than just stopping altogether:
http://www.thesmokelesssociety.org/E-Cigarette-Health-Warning.html
Most smokers quit cold turkey. In the UK the number of ex-smokers now exceed the number of smokers – so that is about 17 Million people who at one time will have claimed that they were addicted and yet stopped smoking when they decided to put their mind to it!
Many smokers, who fail to quit, fail because they believe other smokers who are telling them that it is an addiction – and as a result don’t put sufficient effort into quitting – because they are expecting it to be difficult !
E-CIGARETTES SHOULD COME UNDER THE SAME LAWS ON DISPLAY< ADVERTISING AND USE AS TOBACCO CIGARETTES.
You can choose the most suitable e-cigarette for yourself,that will provide you better experience.If you want to know more about the latest or various series of e cigarettes,you can visit http://www.povto.com .
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this site. I really hope to see the same high-grade content from you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own website now ;)|
I have just read that the child did not swallow e-cig liquid but “regular” nicotine chewing gums used for smoking cessation. Maybe you should update your post…
Where did you read this? A link would be helpful.
Normal cigerettes cause a slow and painful death to millions.
Do we see any headline stating tobacco cigerettes killed joe blogs? no we don’t as it would fill any newspaper 24/7.
What about this headline then LET’S BAN TOBACCO! !
Sorry my mistake it can’t be done as its too much of a cash cow for those in power.
Sorry, I messed up on the previous post, and there seems to be no post edit facility on here?
In my post I was trying to link to:
http://www.thesmokelesssociety.org/29-May-2013-Israeli-Toddler-Killed-By-E-cigarette.html
Using the text:
See here how this Israeli toddler was killed by an e-cigarette.
Perhaps the site administrator would be kind enough to sort it out for me please – thanks.
Sue
I am truly saddened by this death, but the one of the comments (Carmen) and the structure of the article is ridiculous
In the United States, a poison center answers a call about a suspected or actual poisoning exposure every 13.5 seconds.
Some examples of exposures in 2012
Cosmetics/personal care products
2,692
Pain medications
1,760
Cleaners
1,691
Foreign bodies
1,476
Topical medicines
1,131
Vitamins
854
Antihistamines
776
Batteries
660
Plants and mushrooms
614
Antimicrobials
528
Arts and crafts
506
Pesticides
465
Cough and cold medications
419
Now not all of these related in deaths, but it goes to show that COMMON household items can cause poisoning and anything considered toxic should be handled with care.
You wouldn’t leave your regular cigarettes in reach of a child, so why leave eliquid anywhere near? it clearly states on the bottles you purchase its a poison, would this story make headlines if the child drank bleach?
This is nothing more than neglect of a hazardous substance by the carers/parents of the child, but instead the media are twisting it to their advantage and using eCigs as a scapegoat.
We the media are using this story to remind people that smoking is bad for you and that eCigs are dangerous too.
Now I understand the reason behiind your so-inaccurate headline: You are not reporting news, you are editorializing. To use the death of a child to do that is abhorrant.
Your so-called article does not remind people that cigarettes and electronic cigarettes are dangerous. It reminds people that when adults are careless, children may suffer.
It saddens me that you seem to have fallen for the disparaging hype surrounding electronic cigarettes, which are, in fact, in the process of saving millions of lives. Hope you have a smug and happy life, up there on your high horse.
Karin: Can you explain why this child died? Deaths from oral nicotine poisoning are exceedingly rare because of the body’s natural defense mechanism–vomiting. A study of annual reports to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) were analyzed. “Over a 27-year period, and of >50 million contacts for all categories combined, 217,340 contacts involving ingestion of tobacco products were reported. Approximately 89% involved children <6 years old. One fatality was reported, however the co-ingestion of both cigarettes and diazepam complicates an assessment of a contributory role of tobacco."
Appleton S. Frequency and outcomes of accidental ingestion of tobacco products in young children. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2011 Nov;61(2):210-4. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2011.07.010. Epub 2011 Jul 29.
So what's the story? Why didn't this child's body eject the poison? Was she drugged with something like Valium like the poor child who ate cigarettes?
I will repeat part of my previous comment
“This is nothing more than neglect of a hazardous substance by the carers/parents of the child, but instead the media are twisting it to their advantage and using eCigs as a scapegoat.”
I repeat it for clarity as it seems you did not understand it the first time i said it, the only dangerous thing contained in this article is the neglectful nature of the carers of the child, there is more to this story than what is reported here because i honestly believe the e liquid alone did not kill the child as the bodies natural reflex would of taken over and the child would of vomited.
I’d like to see what scientific evidence you possess which pertains to how dangerous ecigs are?
Electronic e-cigarettes are dangerous and should be banned from the earth!!!!
Well that’s a stupid comment from a clearly ignorant person. Exactly how are they dangerous and why do millions, yes millions, of people use them – with not one reported instance of serious harm. Perhaps this poor girl’s parents are idiots and should be banned from having children if they are not responsible enough to lock things away. Same goes for bleach – thats deadly. Do you want to ‘ban that from the earth as well’? Muppet!
Were you born that ignorant? or did you have to work up to it?
That was over-dramatic Carmen by the way.
In the seven years that e-cigarettes have been saving the lives of smokers by serving as a substitute for the deadly practice of inhaling smoke, this is the first child death claimed to be caused by the products. The majority of child exposures to poisonous substances are from cosmetics, household cleaning products, and medications. Should all these products be banned from the earth as well? They definitely cause more fatalities than e-cigarettes (or any other type of product that contains nicotine, including patches, gum, lozenges, tobacco and insecticides for that matter.) Or do adults need to take the responsibility to keep their children safe from ALL dangerous substances?
The good news is that fatalities among children under age 6 are going down in the U.S. — From 216 deaths in 1972, down to 34 in 2008. Of these, 27 were caused by medications of some type.
Every child’s death saddens us, especially when it should have been preventable. And I applaud the sentiments and cautions expressed by the author.
But the headline is outrageous! An **Electronic cigarette** did not cause the child’s death. Inattentive and careless adults caused the child’s death. Whoever wrote that headline has needlessly vilified a new technology that is saving the health and very life of millions around the world.
Whoever wrote that headline should be ashamed.
A few notes ;
There are 33 drops per mL. Even if the ejuice was 24mg/mL, thats still 15 or more drops to kill a child. Unvaporised ejuice tastes disgusting. How a child was able to get 15 or more drops of eliquid into her mouth is very puzzling. I vape at 20+ mg/mL and even I can’t handle more than a couple of drops of unvapourised eliquid on my lips. It’s tastes horrible.
Secondly, whilst government around the world have been obsessing about “denormalisation”, “gate-way” and “dual-use”, they have been IGNORING the real issues that the electronic cigarette community has been crying out for years about. Mandotory child proof capping, manufacturing standards etc etc.
I put the blame on the governments for not having their priorities rights.
As regrettable as this incident is, so is the ever present blaming game: Too often responsibility is evaded violently by the implicated parties, by desperately appointing a scapegoat to blame for whatever tragedy has befallen them…and campaigning vehemently for its destruction !
Truth is; any decent parent can tell you that caring for a toddler is a 24/7/365-job because of the many dangers out there. Cleaning chemicals and other poisons, electricity outlets, traffic, pets, etc..etc… are all factors that endanger the smallest of our loved ones; those who are depending entirely on our ability to anticipate dangers and act accordingly.
I for one, with the all too numerous tragedies that involve small children in mind, am of the opinion that parenting should not be an automatic process. Like all similar activities that could potentially harm innocent bystanders, i advocate qualifying education as a prerequisite:
We must obtain a license for driving a car, a farming license to handle livestock, a degree to practice medicine… Why not create something similar for parents to be? A compulsory course that would cover most aspects of parenting and educate the expecting parents (rather than blame after it’s too late). Many topics come to mind; nutrition, hygiene, safety, health, psychology. With better tools in the hands and minds of coming parents, i’m convinced that we would be able to avoid many similar tragedies…