Doctor doctor, give me the news

Seems like my plan of taking a few days out have gone awry with some olds. There’s been an alarmist survey on teen e-cig use, covered in delightful depth by Clive Bates. By the way, the study that the news articles refers to hadn’t actually been published yet at time of print.

The piece of olds I’ve been looking at has gone a little unnoticed. All well and good, means I can write this in relative peace 😉

If you haven’t seen it yet, the article is here and it contains pretty much every piece of alarmist, scaremongering drivel, all wrapped up with a bow.

Interesting Times indeed.

The article is written in support of the updated CDC campaign - CDCTips: Tips from former smokers, which as we already know is in full support of the disgraceful CDPH campaign so most of the information in this piece can easily be dismissed as propaganda.

Pretty much every other article I’ve seen gets something wrong when detailing what e-cigarettes are, for once an article gets it (mostly) right.

Once again, e-cigarettes and the retailers of these devices are being compared directly to the Tobacco Industry. “Big Vaping” anyone?

I suppose being given a label makes it easier for the anti’s, despite the inconvenient fact that “Big Vaping” doesn’t actually exist. Neither does “Big Tobacco” when all is said and done.

It’s a label created by tobacco control & public health activists to make both industries seem like the boogeyman that hides in your wardrobe ready to pounce at night before you go to bed. Well that’s fine and dandy, if they want to label us, we’ll take that label and make it our bitch.

Just to touch on the last sentence in that picture, nicotine is not addictive, despite the claims of “public health”.

If you didn’t facepalm reading that as I did, I’ll be a little disappointed. They specifically mention the thoroughly debunked formaldehyde study which, as we all know, is only significantly present when the device is used way past what us mere humans can actually inhale. Morons.

An amusing side-bar here, the article refers to laminate flooring not meeting emission standards for the exact same thing. Formaldehyde, whilst nasty can be found in a lot of places. Are they trying to portray themselves as stoopid?

Nicotine. There is much known in the realms of science about nicotine, including the fact that it is a stimulant, it is found in the Nightshade family of plants, it has some potential benefits for certain neurological problems. Above all, Nicotine is not, by itself, addictive.

Technically, nicotine is not significantly addictive, as nicotine administered alone does not produce significant reinforcing properties - Guillem et al 2005

I won’t go into the “poisonings” side of this as Dr Bernd Mayer has already done so, and it is well worth a read.

The US Surgeon General does comment that “adolescents, pregnant women and women of reproductive age” should be cautious with regards to nicotine use (i.e. smoking and the smokeless alternatives). I find it hard to disagree with that statement. Be cautious, but heck if you happen to be pregnant and feel like tooting on a blueberry flavoured e-cig I won’t stop you.

I’d be willing to bet that the likes of Gregory Conley, Bruce Nye (the vaping guy), Robert West and all the other harm reduction advocates are cringing right about now. Once again, the article beats the tired old drum of “nicotine is addictive” and my personal favorite “may be a gateway to the use of conventional cigarettes”. I’ll come back to those in a moment, but if you are like me you’ve probably already muttered one word beginning with “B” and ending in either “T” or “S”.

The meta-analysis is of course the one conducted by the insane Frampton Stands. Of course, this fine upstanding honest idiotic researcher dismissed some information that wouldn’t lend anything to his preconceived ideals, so his conclusion is that e-cigs goes against everything that we know already.

smokers who use e-cigarettes are about 30% less likely to quit smoking than smokers who do not use-ecigarettes

Ah, the bottom line. Whenever an article like this springs up, they always mention money in some way shape or form and it is always in relation to “Big Tobacco”, and now the ANTZ are trying to pin the “Big” label on vaping.

Let me be crystal fucking clear here, if e-cigarettes are regulated as per the various proposals that are around, vaping as we know it will be dead and buried. That hands vaping over to the tobacco industry who, as we all know, don’t really like ecigs at the moment. The loudest ANTZ are playing right into their hands, instead of proffering a substantially less harmful alternative that actually works they work to smear and demonize what has been called a revolutionary product. A product by the way that has done more in the hands of us mere mortals to reduce smoking rates worldwide in the last five years than they have in the last fifty fucking years.

All it takes is for us the vaping community, is to continue to stand up and make our combined voices heard, and in one loud clear voice…

Bullshit.