by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
If you're itching for a cigarette and your hands are dry, Bill Whalen said he's got just the thing for you.
Blue Whale, a company that produces alternatives to tobacco, sells a hand lotion with nicotine and a dip that's made of tea leaves.
Whalen, chief executive of Blue Whale, said his products are designed to give tobacco users an alternative they can enjoy.
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The products contain tobacco extracts in addition to nicotine, so using them is more like using real tobacco, he said.
"By replacing tobacco with tea, I think you have an alternative that makes sense," he said. "It still derives all the satisfaction they would get out of tobacco, so it's something people can use for the rest of their lives."
Eighteen chemicals are extracted from tobacco - including nicotine - and mixed with tea leaves, he said. The tea leaves give your body a similar chemical reaction to traditional dip but without the tobacco, he said.
The 18 chemicals are also used for Nicogel, a hand lotion for smokers to get their fix when it's not allowed, such as on an airplane, he said.
The lotion comes in a package of 10 doses. Each dose lasts between one and four hours, depending on how much a person smokes, he said.
Each dose has one-tenth the amount of nicotine as a cigarette, but it goes directly into the bloodstream, he said.
The dip costs about the same as a can of Skoal or Copenhagen. Nicogel costs $5.99 for a package of 10. Both products are available at Walgreens.
Whalen said that his products are not evaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration, because they are not classified as a food or a drug.
Jill Anne Yeagley, director of the Campus Office of Substance Abuse and Prevention, said she doesn't know if the products are safe.
The products should be checked out by the FDA, because working with those chemicals can be dangerous, she said.
"There are so many different chemicals in regular tobacco - and quite a few that are known carcinogens and others that are suspected - so I think when you start getting into that, it really should be evaluated," she said. "That does seem rather scary."
Whalen said that he can't claim the alternatives are safer than traditional tobacco, but the identified carcinogens, called nitrosamines, are left out.
"We don't make health claims on the product," he said. "We're just trying to explain what it is. You tell them the good (and) the bad, and you let them make the decision."
Whalen said that his products aim to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals a tobacco user is exposed to, but it's possible there are carcinogens in the products that haven't been
identified.
"All plants have certain levels of nitrosamines," he said. "By using the tea instead of tobacco, one would know they just make more sense to a user."
Student Erica Estes said she smokes one or two cigarettes a day and doesn't need an alternative.
"I just like something to do with my hands," she said. "It sounds a little scary to get an hour dose all at once."
Whalen said his products are not made to help people quit.
Yeagley said it's just another form of substance abuse.
"The idea behind the Nicorette gum is to kind of help you taper off and quit," she said. "The ideal is for people to try to get help to actually quit so that they're not addicted to the nicotine and don't need to use any of those things anymore."
Student Cody Wallace said that he wouldn't use any alternative to cigarettes, because he enjoys smoking.
"There's just something about smoking," he said.
Wallace said that the alternatives are silly, because they're the same as gums and patches.
"I see people use the patches so they can smoke at work," he said.
