She has watched Omahans who scrape and claw and climb their way toward zero, only to slide back down the mountain the second they smell a Marlboro.
She's analyzed the various gums and patches, the potions and pills, a few of which may enable you to quit smoking, and many of which come with terrible side effects, huge price tags and questionable results.
So reason Tammy Burns, supervisor of cardiology and tobacco programs at Creighton University's Cardiac Heart, if she appears doubtful as she watches the e-cigarette trend blowing through Omaha.
Excuse her if she appears at e-cigarettes -- the whispered promise which they are safer, healthier, a shortcut to quitting -- and worries that we might be inhaling an entire load of hot-air.
"People want it to be that magic bullet," she said. "My gut feeling? Most people who use e-cigarettes only is not going to quit."
For the uninitiated, an e-cigarette is not a smoke in any way. It's a metal device that warms liquid into vapor and offers its users a nicotine fix without the smoke, the stench or the pitch found in a Marlboro.
And for people who do not read each world I sort -- so, everyone except Mother -- before this year I wrote about a new business named Plumes, that is the epicenter of Omaha's e-cigarette craze.
And it is really a craze. Dozens upon dozens of consumers, lots of them brand new, arrive at Plumes to test the several e-cigarette flavors, as juices known, every day. They "vape" -- that is what the cool kids call using an e-cigarette -- and feel that what they're inhaling is way cleaner than cigarette smoking.
Which might be accurate, Burns says. And it could be much more complicated than that.
"This has not been examined," she says. "Not whatsoever."
Creighton does nothing but that. The university has received funds and started a 2-year study which will eventually enroll 240 participants.
The goal is to answer the following question: If people use an e-cigarette within the smoking cessation strategy, how effective are they?
"We are keeping an open mind," Burns says. "We want to look at this in a scientific way, thus we've got good data when people ask us, 'Should I attempt one of these?' "
Burns hopes that we all have a half step back from e-cigarettes and contemplate their larger implications, both to public-health and personal health, because the study gathers that data.
For instance: Smoking an e-cigarette can be healthier than smoking a real cigarette. That is definitely the gut response (the lung response?) I had when I briefly vaped a non-nicotine version of an e-cigarette at Plumes.
I am the e, and an ex-smoker - cigarette simply tasted cleaner. There's no tar, in the end, and none of the many other poisons found in cigarettes.
However the e-cigarette is mostly regarding the delivery of nicotine, the addictive substance in all types of tobacco and one that carries health hazards, Burns says.
The short research that's been done on e-cigarettes also suggests that e-cigarette users may be inhaling more than simply nicotine-fueled water vapor. Scientists have detected iron, silver, aluminum, tin, chromium and nickel, many of which can contribute to respiratory disease. They also have found modest degrees of diethylene glycol, a chemical also found in antifreeze.
Even when e-cigarettes prove to be safer than cigarettes -- and Burns' bowel tells her they are -- they will not be as safe as stopping entirely.
OWH Columnists
Columnists Michael Kelly, Erin Grace and Matthew Hansen write about individuals, places and events around Omaha. Read more of their work here.
Exactly how a lot of people will make use of the e-cigarette to get around those pesky smoking rules? After all, one of the underlying public health advantages of indoor smoking bans is that smokers often smoke less when they can't smoke in break rooms, restaurants or bars.
And how many teenagers who wouldn't have otherwise smoked will determine to attempt an e-cigarette? In the end, the sweet flavors are similar to the flavored cigarettes now prohibited in the Usa since they were so appealing to teenagers. And mother can not smell heated vapor-like she can smell smoke on your clothes.
20 per cent of Americans still smoke despite the undeniable fact that everyone knows that smoking is really, really bad for you. Although that percentage is way down from the sixties, when nearly half of all Americans consistently smoked, it is stubbornly stuck at about 20 per cent for the past few years.
Why? Because adolescents continue to take-up smoking. Burns doesn't need them to occupy vaping rather.
She understands how difficult it is for them to quit a nicotine addiction.
The Creighton smoking-cessation classes are led by specialists and utilize research-based techniques been shown to be more effective than quitting by yourself or quitting cold turkey. Most of the participants are long-time smokers. During the program, a number of them use nicotine gum or prescription medicine shown to help make stopping easier.
And yet, for every 100 people who enter any of these programs, only about 45 are still not smoking three months afterwards.
When you include the participants who dropped out during the 8 - week smoking cessation program that number falls to 25.
She's analyzed the various gums and patches, the potions and pills, a few of which may enable you to quit smoking, and many of which come with terrible side effects, huge price tags and questionable results.
So reason Tammy Burns, supervisor of cardiology and tobacco programs at Creighton University's Cardiac Heart, if she appears doubtful as she watches the e-cigarette trend blowing through Omaha.
Excuse her if she appears at e-cigarettes -- the whispered promise which they are safer, healthier, a shortcut to quitting -- and worries that we might be inhaling an entire load of hot-air.
"People want it to be that magic bullet," she said. "My gut feeling? Most people who use e-cigarettes only is not going to quit."
For the uninitiated, an e-cigarette is not a smoke in any way. It's a metal device that warms liquid into vapor and offers its users a nicotine fix without the smoke, the stench or the pitch found in a Marlboro.
And for people who do not read each world I sort -- so, everyone except Mother -- before this year I wrote about a new business named Plumes, that is the epicenter of Omaha's e-cigarette craze.
And it is really a craze. Dozens upon dozens of consumers, lots of them brand new, arrive at Plumes to test the several e-cigarette flavors, as juices known, every day. They "vape" -- that is what the cool kids call using an e-cigarette -- and feel that what they're inhaling is way cleaner than cigarette smoking.
Which might be accurate, Burns says. And it could be much more complicated than that.
"This has not been examined," she says. "Not whatsoever."
Creighton does nothing but that. The university has received funds and started a 2-year study which will eventually enroll 240 participants.
The goal is to answer the following question: If people use an e-cigarette within the smoking cessation strategy, how effective are they?
"We are keeping an open mind," Burns says. "We want to look at this in a scientific way, thus we've got good data when people ask us, 'Should I attempt one of these?' "
Burns hopes that we all have a half step back from e-cigarettes and contemplate their larger implications, both to public-health and personal health, because the study gathers that data.
For instance: Smoking an e-cigarette can be healthier than smoking a real cigarette. That is definitely the gut response (the lung response?) I had when I briefly vaped a non-nicotine version of an e-cigarette at Plumes.
I am the e, and an ex-smoker - cigarette simply tasted cleaner. There's no tar, in the end, and none of the many other poisons found in cigarettes.
However the e-cigarette is mostly regarding the delivery of nicotine, the addictive substance in all types of tobacco and one that carries health hazards, Burns says.
The short research that's been done on e-cigarettes also suggests that e-cigarette users may be inhaling more than simply nicotine-fueled water vapor. Scientists have detected iron, silver, aluminum, tin, chromium and nickel, many of which can contribute to respiratory disease. They also have found modest degrees of diethylene glycol, a chemical also found in antifreeze.
Even when e-cigarettes prove to be safer than cigarettes -- and Burns' bowel tells her they are -- they will not be as safe as stopping entirely.
OWH Columnists
Columnists Michael Kelly, Erin Grace and Matthew Hansen write about individuals, places and events around Omaha. Read more of their work here.
Exactly how a lot of people will make use of the e-cigarette to get around those pesky smoking rules? After all, one of the underlying public health advantages of indoor smoking bans is that smokers often smoke less when they can't smoke in break rooms, restaurants or bars.
And how many teenagers who wouldn't have otherwise smoked will determine to attempt an e-cigarette? In the end, the sweet flavors are similar to the flavored cigarettes now prohibited in the Usa since they were so appealing to teenagers. And mother can not smell heated vapor-like she can smell smoke on your clothes.
20 per cent of Americans still smoke despite the undeniable fact that everyone knows that smoking is really, really bad for you. Although that percentage is way down from the sixties, when nearly half of all Americans consistently smoked, it is stubbornly stuck at about 20 per cent for the past few years.
Why? Because adolescents continue to take-up smoking. Burns doesn't need them to occupy vaping rather.
She understands how difficult it is for them to quit a nicotine addiction.
The Creighton smoking-cessation classes are led by specialists and utilize research-based techniques been shown to be more effective than quitting by yourself or quitting cold turkey. Most of the participants are long-time smokers. During the program, a number of them use nicotine gum or prescription medicine shown to help make stopping easier.
And yet, for every 100 people who enter any of these programs, only about 45 are still not smoking three months afterwards.
When you include the participants who dropped out during the 8 - week smoking cessation program that number falls to 25.