In the News 24th August

Mondays News at a glance:

A letter to the Telegraph – Thoughts, Ramblings, Opinions, the Return – The EU Versus the People E-cigs fears are just a lot of hot air – – British Public Health Officials, Unlike Ours, Tell the Truth About E-Cigarettes – Condoms Vs. E-Cigs and The Public Health Double Standard – Sunday Science Lesson: So how would you estimate how many deaths are caused by smoking? – Ecig proponents need to learn lessons from other activists – Doctor lobbies for legal ‘life-saving’ via e-cigarettes – Is Nicotine ‘Addictive’ ? – Nicotine Science and Policy – Daily Digest

A letter to the Telegraph

Velvet Glove. Iron Fist:

A ‘policy advisor’ from Cancer Research UK has written to theTelegraph to disagree with an article I wrote which argued against handing out e-cigarettes on the NHS. The letter contains a few factual errors so here’s a quick rebuttal…..

Thoughts, Ramblings, Opinions, the Return

Facts Do Matter:

Over the last few years vaping has been placed under an increasingly magnified microscope, every single aspect from safety through to perceptions have been heavily scrutinized. The consumers, that is US, have been deliberately lumped into the same bracket as smokers and subsequently have been treated no different to smokers. We’ve had scare stories about “cancer causing chemicals” and have been told that vaping is a “public health threat”….

The EU Versus the People

Bolton Smokers Club:

One of the worries (and it is a MIGHTY worry) of Public Health England is that surveys have shown that almost 50% of people have been led to believe that ecigs are as dangerous as tobacco cigs. Disregarding the idea that that may be true if tobacco cigs are pretty harmless, we can imagine the look of horror on the faces of public health grandees….

E-cigs fears are just a lot of hot air

Birmingham Mail:

Battling ex-smoker Terry Walker is all lit up after a dramatic U-turn by experts on electronic cigarettes. Terry, who puffed his way through 250,000 fags in 69 years, now satisfies his ongoing nicotine craving with e-cigarettes. And he was furious at moves to crack down – or even ban – ‘vaping’ as he believes the move would have driven many quitters back to ‘the real thing’…..

Is Nicotine ‘Addictive’ ?

Updated by @rolygate Chris Price

Is nicotine ‘addictive’? Probably not. No one can make definitive statements on this as there has never been any research in humans. No clinical trial specifically to examine the potential of nicotine to create dependence in people who have never consumed tobacco has ever been published.

Ecigarettes not anti-smoking aids, says HSE

News from Ireland

THE HSE has refused to endorse electronic cigarettes as a method of quitting smoking, despite new evidence from Britain that switching to the devices could save thousands of smokers’ lives.

Public Health England (PHE) commissioned an independent review from experts of the latest evidence about the safety of e-cigarettes. It concluded that “best estimates show ecigarettes are 95% less harmful to health than normal cigarettes, and when supported by a smoking cessation service, help most smokers to quit tobacco altogether”.

Vaping is about 95% less harmful than smoking

Ireland – The Journal

The Irish Vape Vendors Association has welcomed the new report. “This is a presentation of all the currently available evidence on e-cigarettes,” said spokesperson for the group Gillian Golden, “and the results could not be clearer. These products are a viable and far less harmful alternative for adult smokers.”

British Public Health Officials, Unlike Ours, Tell the Truth About E-Cigarettes

Jacob Sullum – Reason

This week Public Health England, an agency of the British Department of Health, published a 111-page report that unequivocally describes e-cigarettes as much less hazardous than the conventional kind and recommends them as a quitting aid for smokers….

Condoms Vs. E-Cigs and The Public Health Double Standard

Jonathan Burger – Blu

Imagine it’s 1987. The HIV epidemic is in full swing; tens of thousands of adult men and woman’s immune systems are starting to wear down. Public health is in a major crisis. They know that unprotected sex is risky with multiple partners, after all this is something that doesn’t just affect one person it affects those you have sex with, and this has facilitated a nearly meteoric rise of dying HIV patients….

Sunday Science Lesson:

So how would you estimate how many deaths are caused by smoking? – Carl V. Phillips

This continues from last week’s post. In that post, I pointed out what a death caused by smoking even means. (Recall: It technically means a death hastened by even one second. This means that basically every death in an ever smoker could be included, though this is clearly not how people interpret the figures and even those who are trying to exaggerate the number do not actually game it this way. Still, it is not clear what the claims do mean.)

E-Cig proponents need to learn lessons from other activists

Carl V. Phillips – Anti-THR Lies

Several recent conversations in the comments here, on other CASAA media, and elsewhere reminded me of the unfortunate fact that many pro-ecig activists have (a) little awareness of the history of fights about THR related to smokeless tobacco, (b) a hostile attitude toward pursuing their natural common cause with smokers’ rights advocates and those who oppose anti-smoking junk science for other reasons, and (c) a failure to understand that social cause activism is a well-worn path, and the habit of trying to reinvent it without seeking outside wisdom is a recipe for defeat…..

Doctor lobbies for legal ‘life-saving’ via e-cigarettes

Dr Attila Danko

A Victorian doctor is calling for an end to confusing and contradictory laws restricting the use of electronic cigarettes, arguing that they have the potential to save the lives of smokers struggling to kick the habit.

Attila Danko, an emergency department doctor from Ballarat, has established the New Nicotine Alliance Australia, modelled on the similarly titled British lobby group, in a bid to counter a “misinformation campaign” about the risks of e-cigarettes….

UK Government should refuse to implement Article 20 of the TPD in light of PHE report

Dave Dorn has started a petition on change.org – you know what to do… Sign it and Share it until the internet breaks!

The UK’s primary Public Health agency, Public Health England, recently published its review of ecigs in the UK. Its findings are now common knowledge, and, frequently in that document, Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive due for implementation in May 2016 is criticised. We call on the Department of Health and the UK Government to refuse to implement Article 20, as it will certainly result in nett harm to UK Public Health by preventing the uptake of effective ecigs by current smokers.

Nicotine Science and Policy – Daily Digest