World Vape Day 2020
Thoughts on World Vape Day 2020
An Open Response to Heralds of the FDA’s Deeming Regulations
What those heralding the newly announced FDA deeming regulations ignore is the fact that while subjecting e-cigarettes and other reduced harm products to draconian measures, cigarettes continue unabated. By the very law ostensibly designed to curb smoking’s harms – cigarettes continue unchanged. To be sure, oversight would be welcome. Indeed, the vapor products industry argued for reasonable regulations, measurable standards, and effective controls. They were ignored. Instead FDA has chosen to impose requirements on reduced harm products that cigarettes were…
Can Vapers move Public opinion?
A recent discussion posed a question regarding the likelihood that the current movement among vapers to influence politics could actually have the intended effect. This straightforward question has a rather layered answer. The first layer, generating enthusiasm, is the intent behind motivating people with the notion that they can make a difference. The analysis is correct in that influencing the election of a presidential or even a federal senatorial vote is a far reach. However, influencing a house of representative,…
We Didn’t Ban Automobiles…
Harm reduction is a range of public policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with human behaviors. In 1968 53,000 people a year died in auto accidents as the first seat-belt laws were passed. Fifty-three years later we have reduced the death rate by 62%. We didn’t ban automobiles; we reduced the harm from using them by getting professional help from credible source. Just as seat-belts, airbags, and anti-lock brakes all work to reduce the causes of harm in…
Advocacy, Opposition, and the Vaping Truth
While I understand the concern that certain members of Public Health, Tobacco Control, and the Media are expressing; they are, like so many members of the legislature and the public, jumping to conclusions based on flawed data points. The studies exhibited are often notably presenting information that takes no account of the risk reduction between e-cigarettes and the smoking they replace. Several studies have designs that have no relationship to real world application, often exaggerating the exposure so significantly that…
How to Argue FOR Vaping
One of the most difficult things about this disruptive technology is how to defend it against the naysayers who are, like the Luddites of old, trying to destroy what they do not understand. It is frustrating beyond tolerance at times, to hear our lifesaving technology reduced to being perceptually more harmful than smoking itself. Those of us who have been on the front lines face endless repetition of the same pseudo-scientific lies and misrepresentations at every turn. We are besieged…
The Real Dangers of Teens Inhaling Vapor
Electronic cigarette use is becoming more prevalent in society as more smokers choose this alternative to eliminate the harms of tobacco use. Teenagers are experimenting with electronic cigarettes as part of their normal growth and development. Risks of harm from electronic cigarettes are orders of magnitude less than for tobacco cigarettes. Teens who smoke cigarettes should be encouraged to stop. Teens that experiment with electronic cigarettes are at lower risk of harm, though the behavior should be discouraged with truthful…
Seriously!?
I’ve been watching and reading the newsfeeds and publications again. Whew! What a wild couple of weeks it has been. Tobacco Companies support E-cig regulation… The largest tobacco companies on the planet want regulation of vapor products? They are the reason that e-cigarettes exist! First the surgeon general said smoking was bad, which is true. Smokers began trying to quit. When most weren’t able to cold-turkey we got “help” from Big Pharma with their version of nicotine replacement. Upping the…
Criticism of WHO FCTC COP#6 (for which I’ll either be sued or go straight to hell)
The graphic in this article is contested by the World Health Organization (WHO). It originally appeared in a blog by Clive Bates in two articles he wrote here and here, critical of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Sixth Session, Provisional Agenda 4.4.2 document. They believe they have the right to quell free speech because the graphic inappropriately subsumes the authority and integrity of the World Health Organization. Well too bad. When the…