In the News February 16th

Tuesdays News at a glance:

The Pope, Anti-Vaxxers, And Tobacco Control – The art of ignoring evidence – Public health snoopers detect vapour aerosol at vape conference and fake a particulates scare – Analysing Air Quality….at a Vape Convention – Ecig Benefits for Surgery Patients – Through with Chew Week: Don’t Be Fooled – Nicotine is not addictive – How a softly-softly approach could make Big Tobacco turn over a new leaf – E-Cigarettes Could Be Behind Sharp Rise Of Successful Attempts To Quit Smoking – In the debate about vaping, asking the wrong “right questions” – That’s Chutzpah – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest – Tuesday, 16 February 2016

The Pope, Anti-Vaxxers, And…

Tobacco Control – Dick Puddlecote

We are surrounded by policies designed not to stop us doing things, or stigmatise us, but to encourage us to do them more safely. In the case of addictions, where people find it genuinely very difficult to resist temptation, this surely makes sense.

Which is what makes the attitude of so many public health professionals to vaping so baffling….

The art of ignoring evidence

Vaping Giraffe

This week, or actually the last couple of weeks, I’ve had to count to 10 several times to avoid bursting out in a tirade of swearing and name-calling that would probably have ended with some of my colleagues making some phone calls and me in a mental institution. Luckily I was able to count all the numbers from 0 to 10 (I’m a computer geek, we always start at 0), not ignoring any one of them. So I was fine … after a while….

Public health snoopers detect vapour aerosol

At vape conference and fake a particulates scare – Clive Bates – The Counterfactual

In an apparently clandestine operation, undercover public health snoopers ventured into a vape conference carrying concealed air-quality monitoring equipment. They detected … wait for it … e-liquid aerosol in the air. This secretive operation is reported (where else?) the journal Tobacco Control.

Let us examine its scientific and policy claims….

Analysing Air Quality….at a Vape Convention

Paul Barnes – Facts Do Matter

Thanks to a fellow advocate, a new study has been brought to my attention and it is all about the myth that is secondhand smoke or in this case secondhand vapour. It is yet another blatant attempt to persuade policy makers that vaping in enclosed spaces is a bad thing, which we all know is bantha poo-doo….

Ecig Benefits for Surgery Patients

Mawsley – Planet of the Vapes

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was ranked as the best hospital in the whole of the United States. Number one out of 5,000 hospitals, ranking in the top ten in all bar one category. It is outstanding that they have pioneered work with electronic cigarettes in the face of the vocal pharma-funded opposition.

Through with Chew Week: Don’t Be Fooled

Brad Rodu – Tobacco Truth

Chewers and Dippers: It’s the third week in February, which means it’s time for you to be badgered by the annual Through with Chew public relations campaign. Across the nation, tobacco prohibitionists are publishing unscientific and unsubstantiated claims about smokeless tobacco. Here are recent examples…

Nicotine is not addictive

Kevin Crowley – Blasting News

No conclusive evidence, clinical trials, or studies exist showing dependence to nicotine alone.

The claim of nicotine having addictive properties is well accepted by professionals in the health and medical fields, but is not supported with definitive clinical evidence. Smokers have been told they are addicted by health professionals around the world. This tactic has a term called “proof by assertion.”

How a softly-softly approach could

Make Big Tobacco turn over a new leaf – The Conversation

Making and selling cigarettes may not be an edifying business, but it is a very lucrative one. In 2013 the profit of the world’s top six tobacco companies was US$44.1 billion – equivalent to the combined profits of Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, General Mills, FedEx, AT&T, Google, McDonald’s and Starbucks. The problem is that this profit is made almost entirely from a product that kills many of its long-term users…

E-Cigarettes Could Be Behind Sharp Rise

Of Successful Attempts To Quit Smoking – Guy Bentley

E-cigarettes could be behind the sharp increase in the number of people in England who have successfully quit smoking.

The Smoking Toolkit Survey which provides information about smoking and smoking cessation in England has released figures showing the success rate for people trying to quit smoking jumped from 14 percent in 2011 to 23 percent in 2016 – a rise of nine percentage points.

In the debate about vaping..

Asking the wrong “right questions” – Carl V Phillips

Making the rounds today is this post at The Guardian entitled, “In the polarising debate about vaping, we’ve forgotten to ask the right questions”, by Alex Wodak. You can read a quick Wodak biosketch, about his history as an Australian drug policy reformer of a certain stripe, at the Guardian or on Twitter. I find this piece quite interesting, both because of the good things that is says and in how and why it fails to fulfill its stated mission.

That’s Chutzpah

Longrider

Dick Puddlecote sometimes regales us with the more bizarre antics of the anti-tobacco crowd, but today one just takes the biscuit.

Okay, so the world consists of chemicals, but being a 7th cousin to someone or other seems to make a difference, somehow – it means she is disabled. Anyway, it gets better. Being so sensitive to a bit of burning leaf in microscopic quantities, she wants to use the vile Twitter to name and shame those who partake of a perfectly legal activity…