By Kate Kelland and Ben Hirschler 瑜箬 选注

近年来，电子烟因其便宜、干净等优点而颇受一些人的追捧，那么，电子烟是否真的安全？烟草商一面销售大量香烟，每年引起千万人的死亡，另一面却又积极地生产香烟的替代品，他们是真为公众着想还是只为赚得盆满钵满？

Puffing on slim metal tubes loaded with pale yellow liquid, two London businessmen say they have between their lips a cure for what the U.N. calls “one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced”.[1]

Electronic cigarettes are the future, they argue. Cheaper, cleaner and cooler than smoking, “vaping”—using a vaporizer to inhale nicotine infused with exotic flavors ranging from pina colada to bubblegum—will spell the end of tobacco.[2] “After I first tried this, I left half a cigarette in the ashtray and never went back,” says ZoltanKore, who co-runs the newly opened London e-cigarette shop “Smoke No Smoke”.

“I’m not a smoker now, I’m a vaper,” says business partner Gabor Kovacs. “The awful morning coughing fits[3] have gone, and the waking up in the night struggling to breathe has gone, too.”

1. 两个伦敦商人从细细的金属管里吐出一阵烟雾，金属管里装着淡黄色的液体，他们说他们唇间的这个东西就是应对联合国称之为“世界所面临的最大公共安全威胁”的对策。puff: 喷出。

2.“蒸汽吐烟”——也就是用一个蒸发器吸入夹杂着从凤梨园鸡尾酒到泡泡糖等各种奇异口味的尼古丁——相对于吸烟来说更便宜、更干净、更潇洒，它将意味着烟草的终结。

3. fit: （咳嗽，大笑等的）突发，发作。

Such stories—and hopes of persuading the rest of the world’s billion smokers to stub out their tar and toxin-loaded cigarettes, cutting a catalogue of chronic disease risks as they do—are tantalizing for public health experts— either to the stimulant nicotine or to the behavioral habits of smoking—some say it can help smokers quit much more effectively than nicotine gum or patches.[4]

All the top tobacco companies are now placing bets on e-smokes, which some analysts predict may outsell conventional cigarettes in 10 years, raising the counter-intuitive prospect that Big Tobacco could actually help people quit smoking.[5]

Yet e-cigarettes are far from universally accepted as a public health tool; regulators are agonizing over whether to restrict them as “gateway” products to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking,[6] or embrace them as treatments for would-be quitters.

4. 这样的故事——以及劝服世界上其他十亿烟民像他们一样熄灭充满了焦油和毒素的香烟、降低一连串慢性病风险的希望——对公共健康专家来说充满了吸引力——（这些专家）不是关心兴奋剂尼古丁，就是关心吸烟的行为习惯——有些人说，相比尼古丁泡泡糖和尼古丁贴来说，这可以帮助吸烟者更有效地戒烟。stub out: 踩熄，弄灭；tar: 焦油；a catalogue of:一连串；chronic: 慢性的；tantalize:逗引，挑逗。

5. out sell: 比……卖得多；counterintuitive:违反直觉的。

6. agonize over: 苦苦思索；“gateway” products: “网关”产品，此处指与吸烟有关的产品。

A big issue is the lack of long-term scientific evidence to support the safety and effectiveness of e-cigarettes, prompting[7] critics like the British Medical Association (BMA) to warn of the dangers of their unregulated use.

“These devices may also undermine[8] efforts to prevent or stop smoking by making cigarette use seem normal in public and at work,” argues the BMA, which has called for vaping to be banned in public places in Britain, just as smoking is.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is equally wary, saying that until e-cigarettes have been endorsed as safe and effective by national regulators,[9] “consumers should be strongly advised not to use any of these products”.

Supporters of e-cigarettes scoff at suggestions they are a hazard or could be a slippery slope for previously addictionfree young people to get hooked on nicotine.[10]

There is, they argue, no evidence of any harm from nicotine consumption and it would be crazy to impose[11] tougher restrictions on e-smokes than on toxic “death sticks” that are freely available to buy on almost every street corner worldwide.

7. prompt: 激起，促使。

8. undermine: 削弱。

9. wary: 谨慎的；endorse: 批准，签署，此处意为“认定”。

10. 有人建议说，电子烟对于之前没有烟瘾的年轻人来说，可能是个灾难或是容易让他们愈陷愈深，因为这令他们对尼古丁产生依赖，电子烟的支持者对此却嗤之以鼻。scoff at: 嘲笑，蔑视；hazard:危险，危害。

11. impose: 强制实行。

Other research, however, suggests “vaping” may reduce lung capacity, and the German Cancer Research Center said lately it was concerned e-cigarette liquids contained ingredients that can irritate the airways, while poor quality products could contain carcinogens.[12]

Against this background, a growing number of regulators see a need to control standards in a largely unregulated sector.

Britain became the latest to take the plunge by opting to regulate e-cigarettes as non-prescription medicines, after finding widely varying nicotine levels and contaminants in some existing products.[13] This means manufacturers will need a license from 2016, though they will still be sold in general stores[14].

12. irritate: 使疼痛，使发炎；airway: （肺的）气道，通气道；carcinogen: 致癌物。

13. take the plunge: 冒险尝试；nonprescription:非处方药；contaminant:污染物，致污物。

14. general store: 百货店。

A few countries have banned them outright—such as Brazil, Norway and Singapore—while others are opting for varying degrees of regulation, in some cases including limits on advertising and curbs on their use in public places.[15]

“Tobacco companies seem to be playing both sides of the game by selling cigarettes that cause thousands of deaths a year but also selling products designed to reduce the harm,” says Martin Dockrell of British campaign group Action on Smoking and Health.

“There are some real risks here that need to be managed.” These are exciting but uncertain times for e-smoke pioneers facing a wave of new rules in a hitherto[16] unregulated market. ❖

15. outright: 彻底地；curb: 限制，抑制。

16. hitherto: 到目前为止，迄今为止。