Vapers Digest 4th July
Tuesday’s News at a glance:
ASH’s 10th Anniversary Begging Letter – Final thoughts on the smoking ban – The smoking ban ripped the soul out of this country – Wisconsin Hears Lung Association Lies – FDA’s Vaping Regulations Will Hurt Smokers Trying to Quit – Harm Reduction Over Cessation – St Albans MP fears warnings about vaping could dissuade smokers – Please, Can We Have Some More? – PMI paying people to help smokers quit – NSP Daily Digest
ASH’s 10th Anniversary Begging Letter
Dick Puddlecote
As others have noted, the 10th anniversary of the most spiteful and damaging social engineering exercise England has ever seen – otherwise known as the smoking ban – slid past with surprisingly little fanfare from the tax-spongers in tobacco control. What there was of it, though, was mendacious cobblers as is to be expected.
What I found most curious, though, was the strange approach taken by ASH. Instead of relying on the reams of execrable and scientifically worthless junk research they and their pals routinely peddle, they chose instead to release a strange report referring to polls they have commissioned over the years from YouGov.
Final thoughts on the smoking ban
Christopher Snowdon
As several bloggers have noted, the smoking ban anniversary passed relatively quietly. Aside from a fake statistic from Public Health England, no fresh junk science was released. The BBC put as positive a spin on it as they could and ASH announced that the smoking rate had fallen in the last ten years, implying that this was due to the smoking ban. It was not, of course. There was no decline after the smoking ban and the drop in smoking prevalence since 2012 is mostly attributable to vaping.
The smoking ban ripped the soul out of this country
Brendan O’Neill, Spectator
It is 10 years since smoking in public places was banned in England. Ten years since officials decreed that we could no longer light up at work, in restaurants, in pubs and even at bus-stops. Ten years since you could follow your Tiramisu with the satisfying throat hit of a drag of nicotine. Ten years since pubs were fuggy and convivial, packed with hoarse ladies telling stories and old blokes propping up the bar rather than shiny-haired new dads wearing a baby in a sling and wondering whether to treat themselves to buffalo wings or mac’n’cheese balls. Seriously. Babies in pubs. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Wisconsin Hears Lung Association Lies
Mawsley, Planet of the Vapes
Following the release of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, demonstrating that teen smoking rates continues to plummet – and, this time, has been accompanied by a drop in teen vaping rates too – Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) covered it and invited the American Lung Association (ALA) to comment. They did, and told lies.
Dona Wininsky, director of public policy for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin, has been banging an anti-vape drum wherever she can, for years. Back in March, she was still at it: “They’ve been promoted by the industry as nothing other than harmless water vapour, but we have plenty of scientific research now to know that they have chemicals in them. Some of them are carcinogens; they have heavy metals in them and they are not simply harmless water vapour.”
FDA’s Vaping Regulations Will Hurt Smokers Trying to Quit
Eric Boehm, Reason
Electronic cigarettes are now the most popular technique used by Americans who want to quit smoking. But that pathway could close later this year, thanks to shortsighted federal regulations that effectively prevent innovation.
When Congress passed the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, few electronic cigarettes were on the market. Under the terms of that law, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have the authority to approve or deny any new tobacco products introduced after February 15, 2007, while products that had been on the market before that so-called “predicate date” would be free from the new level of scrutiny.
Harm Reduction Over Cessation
Yahoo News
Over the weekend, the ban on smoking in food establishments along Orchard Road’s highly saturated stretch beamed from the ST headlines. It stirred the nation. The cause, for a “smoke-free future”, stirred the people.
Responses ranged from outrage to offence to acceptance to jubilation. The news itself might act as a precipitous foreshadowing of what the public consultation’s finale on 10 July might be, but more importantly, reveals the problematic ideas that have been passed under the calls for public wellbeing.
Help us stop the persecution of #vapers in #Australia! #YourStoryCounts international #vapefam. #eCig/#THR/#nicotinehttps://t.co/UWpH6xqnAY pic.twitter.com/tWBxiVbLav
— The Vaper (@vaper_the) July 3, 2017
St Albans MP fears warnings about vaping could dissuade smokers
The Herts Advertiser
The European Union’s new tobacco directive aims to treat public health warnings about e-cigarettes in the same way as smoking.
The EU Commission argues that because e-cigarettes contain nicotine, it is harmful to people – adding: “The long-term effects on e-cigarettes on public health are not yet known.”
However St Albans MP Anne Main said that approach could dissuade people using e-cigarettes as a stop gap for quitting smoking – and thereby prevent them from giving up all together.
Please, Can We Have Some More?
Paul Barnes, Facts Do Matter
Now that we’re into the 11th year of the most spiteful and damaging social engineering exercise England has ever seen – otherwise known as the smoking ban – I found myself rather bemused by how innocuous the anniversary was.
I wrote about the impending anniversary ahead of time, planning to write another piece on the day; but as these things go, that never happened. It was unsurprising to see the usual cobblers being spouted by various social media accounts using the hashtag #smokefree10.
PMI paying people to help smokers quit
Diane Caruana, Vaping Post
Last year PMI made headlines when Andre Calantzopoulos, the company’s CEO said that he would like “to work with governments towards the “phase-out” of conventional cigarettes”. Additionally Peter Nixon, the Managing Director for UK and Ireland had said, “We want to move towards a smoke-free future and a lot of that is incentivising people to move across from cigarettes to something that is less harmful.”
Naturally, many are sceptical that the aim of such statements is ensuring the visibility of Philip Morris’ harm reduction product, iQOS. However the big tobacco company persists in pointing out that it really wants to stop selling cigarettes and turn the business into a sustainable one. ‘We are absolutely serious – one day we want to stop selling cigarettes,’ said Peter Nixon.
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