I do try to post fairly regularly in order to rid my addled brain of the flotsam and jetsam that inevitably ends up in there. There has been a lot going on the last few days what with CDPH being completely useless. Expensively useless at that. Taking over from CDPH, the CDC are trying to do their own bit with a Twitter campaign.

How many times do we have to tell you folks, when trying to belittle ecigs on Twitter be prepared for one hell of a fight. Let me see, we had the SF “curbit”. Fail. CDPH and “stillblowingsmoke”. Big fail. Now we have “Tipstakeover”. EPIC FAIL.

It is no secret that the “much respected” Tobacco Control “expert” Stanton Glantz is to put it bluntly, widely despised by those of us in the vaping community. He hasn’t really got that many friends in the world of science either. Most, if not all of his “papers” have been analysed and pretty much discarded as junk science. He also doesn’t like us very much, but I couldn’t really give a damn about that.

The original post for tonight was going to be all about the FDA Deeming and what it means for our US Vaping brethren. That all changed a few moments ago.

Most of you should be aware of the idealistic moronic California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and their declaration that “electronic cigarettes are a public health threat”. If you aren’t, where have you been? Never mind that now, time enough for catch up later.

Try as I might, I couldn’t ignore this subject tonight. Spurred on by the UK’s Faculty of Public Health (FPH). Just in case you didn’t know, our benevolent friends at FPH call themselves “the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom.” I read that as purely bureaucratic.

Oh, I forgot to mention they are a registered charity. Of course they are, why is it that only charities have anything to say these days?

Just for once, I’m going to be taking a break from my usual style of posts and am going to try and put my science type hat on.

Disclaimer: I am not a scientist of any type, so if there are any mistakes in my interpretations below, do feel free to correct me. Politely of course!

There have been a few studies published recently that are showing that the use of electronic cigarettes are far less harmful than traditional cigarettes. But we already know this I hear you say. Yes, we do know this. Rather than being dismissed as “anecdotes” by certain figures, the scientific fact is building and it is on our side, which of course leaves those against us looking all the more foolish. Unfortunately, it isn’t stopping them. Yet.

There has been a whole slew of reports in the media and on the various “Smoke Free” Twitter accounts recently all pertaining to the recent plain packs debacle. As you may know, Australia became the first to implement plain packs back in 2012. With that implementation, those rather pleasant insane folks over in Tobacco Control kept a very careful beady eye on the rate of smoking down under.

Despite there being very little evidence to show that it is having any effect on the actual rate of smoking, instead they try to view it from the perspective of falling sales indicates fewer smokers. The Guardian reported that plain packaging to thank for Australia’s decline in smoking. Well, to be honest it is pure hubris to assume that any decline is the result of a single policy, let alone one that is going to play right into the illicit markets hands.

Just been playing a bit of catch up the last day or so to find a few little bits and pieces going on, both in the community and in the big wide world. There are some topics that I just won’t look at, not because they don’t interest me but, because I have opinions that I wish to keep to myself. That is all you are getting from me. For now.

I really wasn’t going to write this post today, but having seen some discussions on Twitter last night and again today, it did just send my blood boiling. Let’s have a look at what fired it all off.

Oh yes, keep taking a drug that has some seriously bad side effects never mind about the actual consequences because 1 in 2 will die anyway. Charming.

Now, we all know what kinds of “side effects” Champix can have. It’s pretty nasty stuff. I mean, who wants to take a pill that may induce suicidal thoughts ?

There has been a lot of discussion in all kinds of places relating to e-cig use. Various celebrities vape, and are seemingly criticized in online media particularly in the article comments. We found out recently that Nick Clegg quit smoking by vaping. You would think that with such large A-list names such as Simon Cowell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry, Johnny Depp, and so on would help to inspire a whole new generation of current smokers to at least consider switching even if they don’t actually switch.

It is kind of unusual for me to post anything this early in the day as I normally like to sit and think on what I’ve seen before actually writing anything. Today however, some antics on Twitter really upset me. I mean, close to tears upset.

The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), specifically Article 20 is a God-awful piece of democratic bullshit. Don’t believe me? Read more about it, here and here. I don’t need to, nor am I willing to go into any great detail about it.