There has been a lot of disinformation and misinformation about electronic cigarettes and how safe they are over the last few years. The first big issue was that not enough tests have been carried out to be able to tell how safe, or harmful they are. Since then there has been many tests carried out, and testing is carried out on a regular basis. How long though before the establishment or people against electronic cigarettes start listening to this growing volume of data?
According to: these reports there is a large amount of scientific and empirical evidence that is continuing to grow and consistently shows that electronic cigarettes:
- are 99% less hazardous than tobacco cigarettes.
- are consumed almost exclusively by smokers and ex smokers who quit by switching to electronic cigarettes.
- have helped several million people to quit smoking and/or sharply cut down.
- have replaced about 1 Billion packets of cigarettes in the US alone in the past five years.
- are more effective than FDA approved nicotine gums, lozenges, etc that are used for helping to quit smoking, or reduce cigarette consumption.
- pose fewer risks than FDA approved Verenicline (Chantix).
- pose almost no risks to non users.
- have not further normalised cigarette smoking.
- have never been found to create nicotine dependence in any non smoker.
- have never been found to precede cigarette smoking in any daily smoker.
These are facts that have been generated through consistent testing over the years that electronic cigarettes have been publicly available. America always seems to lead the way in so called moral issues, and there often is a whiff of hypocrisy or conspiracy in large corporation affairs.
President Obama’s FDA administration in 2009 revealed a policy to deceive the American public about electronic cigarettes and defend the FDA’s electronic cigarette ban to seize nearly 1,000 products by claiming they don’t want the public to perceive e cigarettes as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes.”
In July of 2009, the Presidents appointee, FDA Deputy Commissioner Josh Sharfstein held a press conference defending the electronic cigarette ban (which was unlawful according to two lawsuits by two separate companies whose products were seized). The FDA’s electronic cigarette laboratory findings were misrepresented to scare the public to believe that electronic cigarettes are carcinogenic and toxic. They also claimed falsely that electronic cigarette companies were targeting the underage market, and it was alleged (without any evidence) that electronic cigarettes are getting children addicted and act as gateways to actual tobacco cigarettes. They also claimed that electronic cigarettes do not help smokers to quit.
Thankfully all 12 federal appeals court judges upheld Judge Richard Leon’s ruling, and struck down the FDA’s electronic cigarette ban as unlawful. This at least was a triumph for market competition and common sense.
But the FDA, instead of correcting many false and misleading claims about electronic cigarettes have further misrepresented the scientific data on e cigarettes to lobby for their recently proposed ‘Deeming Regulation’, which will protect the tobacco market by banning 99.9% of all electronic cigarettes, effectively handing over the e cigarette market to the Big Tobacco corporations.
Instead of protecting the tobacco companies (under the guise of protecting children), public health officials in America have an ethical duty to truthfully inform smokers and vapers that electronic cigarettes are far less hazardous alternatives to tobacco cigarettes, and they should keep them legal and affordable. All real public health advocates support smokers switching to e cigarettes and keeping electronic cigarettes in all of their guises legal. Is this a conspiracy generating by the billion dollar tobacco industry? Who knows. But if anyone has ever seen the Russell Crowe film The Insider, then they will know the extraordinary lengths these tobacco companies will go to, to keep their billion dollar machines running.
Author: Kevin Ewbank
Avid vaper & co-founder of SmokShop
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