News 3rd Dec 2014

E-cigarette use by children concerns fuelled by research

Three times as many children have tried e-cigarettes as have smoked tobacco, according to official figures.

It has reinforced concerns that using the devices could become a “gateway” to smoking cigarettes….

Exposure to secondhand smoke in cars and e-cigarette use among 10-11 year old children in Wales

This report describes changes in children’s exposure to smoking in cars between 2008 and 2014. It also includes data on the prevalence of e-cigarette use and associations with parental smoking and future smoking intentions….

The timeless metaphor of Simon Chapman

The Australian sociologist and imbecile Simon Chapman released his book about plain packaging last week. It’s called Removing the Emperor’s Clothes. Chapman seems to have missed the whole point about the emperor’s clothes which is that he didn’t have any and, therefore, they couldn’t be removed…..

E-Cigarettes – The BMJ

How should we view e-cigarettes? As a safe and effective way to quit tobacco? Or as a grave risk to public health because of their potential to renormalise and glamourise smoking, especially among young people?

The Role of Public Health in Harm Reduction

NEW YORK –The recent Wells Fargo E-Cig Forum featured two panels of public health experts: one on public health itself, one on emerging regulatory issues. Not surprisingly, both panels centered on the role of communicating the potential reduced risk of electronic cigarettes to the public…..

Anti-Smoking Groups Succeed in Undermining the Public’s Appreciation of the Hazards of Smoking

New data reported by Clive Bates and presented in Joe Nocera’s New York Timescolumn about electronic cigarettes reveal that there has been a major change in the public’s appreciation of the severe hazards of smoking in the past three years: