From: Andria Duncan
To: FDA Center for Tobacco Products
RE: FDA, Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189, Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 0910- AG38
I smoked for 39 years, anywhere from 3/4-pk a day, all the way up to, at one point, 3 pks a day. I tried to quit at least 4 times, either cold-turkey or using "the patch," but all I ever managed was to cut down on smoking; I never could entirely quit -- until I found e-cigarettes. I first quit using e-cigarettes in Feb 2014. In June 2014, I suffered acute appendicitis, and thanks to having been smoke-free for 110 days, my lungs were entirely clear and I did not suffer a single complication from 45 minutes of general anesthesia, and was discharged the same day as my laparoscopic appendectomy, which would definitely not have been the case if I had still been a pk-a-day smoker; they would have kept me in the hospital for at least 2 or 3 days for "breathing treatments."
Unfortunately my long-standing IBS meant that I suffered extreme nausea and vomiting for 4 days after my surgery, which meant no food, no vaping, and very little to drink, for 4 days, which led to extreme cravings for cigarettes. So I gave in and smoked, and it took me a month before I could finally lay the cigarettes down again and return to full-time vaping. This lets me know that I cannot stop vaping for quite some time, if I want to remain a non-smoker, and I do not mean those pitiful cigarette-lookalikes sold in drug stores and convenience stores, I mean a REAL Personal Vaporizer "Mod" (PV) which delivers sufficient vapor, flavor, and nicotine to make abstaining from cigarettes a simple matter.
Without the use of one of these types of PVs, it is just about certain that I would return to smoking, and thus shorten my life by many years. The cigarette-lookalike type of e-cigs are insufficient in vapor, flavor, nicotine delivery, and battery life, and though I started out with them, I have no intention of ever using them again -- they're just not enough. I don't really care what you approve or don't approve; I have quite a few PVs, including the mechanical type that can be kept in functional operation for many years, and I have quite a few rebuildable "tanks," which means I will NEVER be subject to your idiotic ideas about what is "sufficient" for a smoker to abstain from smoking, nor to your greedy and stupid hand-over of the e-cig market to Big Tobacco.
I also have a considerable quantity of high-strength nicotine stored in my freezer, so if you do attempt to give the entire e-cig market to Big Tobacco or Big Pharma, and thus make flavored e-liquids either non-existent or too expensive for regular people to buy, I will make my own, or I will buy it from an "unapproved" source, which yes, could be dangerous, but probably not half as dangerous as buying ANYTHING that Big Tobacco sells. The FDA has known about and approved all the many poisonous chemicals that Big Tobacco has been putting into cigarette tobacco for many years, and now you think you have some right to "regulate" the only thing that has ever worked to help people quit those poisonous cigarettes? I disagree; you do NOT have that right, and I will NEVER acquiesce to having my salvation "regulated." I will also never buy e-liquid from the industry that has put every poisonous thing they can think of into cigarette tobacco, just to keep people addicted to them.
The FDA's current campaign to regulate e-cigarettes is nothing but a greedy, downright evil ploy to allow Big Tobacco to continue to earn obscene amounts of money from the death and disease of American citizens and others around the world, and thus to continue making those obscene payments, per the "Master Settlement," in order to be ALLOWED to profit from the death and disease of millions. It is also a ploy to keep Big Pharma earning obscene amounts of money on the drugs used to treat all those smoking-related illnesses, which obviously will be far less necessary if millions of people switch from smoking to vaping. The FDA is not fooling anyone into thinking that it actually cares for the welfare of all these smokers and vapers; if the FDA cared one whit for the health of Americans, e-cigarettes would be REQUIRED, they would be given out for free by doctors and pharmacies, and there would certainly be a lot fewer drugs like Chantix on the market!
I will continue to vape using my own choice of e-cig equipment and liquids, no matter what stupid regulations you attempt to foist on the American people, because to do otherwise would mean I would almost certainly return to smoking and thus ensure the destruction of my health and a far earlier death than would be my lot without cigarettes.
The FDA should do what it's actually MANDATED to do, protect Americans from DANGEROUS drugs, not relatively-harmless ones like nicotine, and get out of bed with Big Pharma and Big Tobacco.
To: FDA Center for Tobacco Products
RE: FDA, Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189, Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 0910- AG38
I smoked for 39 years, anywhere from 3/4-pk a day, all the way up to, at one point, 3 pks a day. I tried to quit at least 4 times, either cold-turkey or using "the patch," but all I ever managed was to cut down on smoking; I never could entirely quit -- until I found e-cigarettes. I first quit using e-cigarettes in Feb 2014. In June 2014, I suffered acute appendicitis, and thanks to having been smoke-free for 110 days, my lungs were entirely clear and I did not suffer a single complication from 45 minutes of general anesthesia, and was discharged the same day as my laparoscopic appendectomy, which would definitely not have been the case if I had still been a pk-a-day smoker; they would have kept me in the hospital for at least 2 or 3 days for "breathing treatments."
Unfortunately my long-standing IBS meant that I suffered extreme nausea and vomiting for 4 days after my surgery, which meant no food, no vaping, and very little to drink, for 4 days, which led to extreme cravings for cigarettes. So I gave in and smoked, and it took me a month before I could finally lay the cigarettes down again and return to full-time vaping. This lets me know that I cannot stop vaping for quite some time, if I want to remain a non-smoker, and I do not mean those pitiful cigarette-lookalikes sold in drug stores and convenience stores, I mean a REAL Personal Vaporizer "Mod" (PV) which delivers sufficient vapor, flavor, and nicotine to make abstaining from cigarettes a simple matter.
Without the use of one of these types of PVs, it is just about certain that I would return to smoking, and thus shorten my life by many years. The cigarette-lookalike type of e-cigs are insufficient in vapor, flavor, nicotine delivery, and battery life, and though I started out with them, I have no intention of ever using them again -- they're just not enough. I don't really care what you approve or don't approve; I have quite a few PVs, including the mechanical type that can be kept in functional operation for many years, and I have quite a few rebuildable "tanks," which means I will NEVER be subject to your idiotic ideas about what is "sufficient" for a smoker to abstain from smoking, nor to your greedy and stupid hand-over of the e-cig market to Big Tobacco.
I also have a considerable quantity of high-strength nicotine stored in my freezer, so if you do attempt to give the entire e-cig market to Big Tobacco or Big Pharma, and thus make flavored e-liquids either non-existent or too expensive for regular people to buy, I will make my own, or I will buy it from an "unapproved" source, which yes, could be dangerous, but probably not half as dangerous as buying ANYTHING that Big Tobacco sells. The FDA has known about and approved all the many poisonous chemicals that Big Tobacco has been putting into cigarette tobacco for many years, and now you think you have some right to "regulate" the only thing that has ever worked to help people quit those poisonous cigarettes? I disagree; you do NOT have that right, and I will NEVER acquiesce to having my salvation "regulated." I will also never buy e-liquid from the industry that has put every poisonous thing they can think of into cigarette tobacco, just to keep people addicted to them.
The FDA's current campaign to regulate e-cigarettes is nothing but a greedy, downright evil ploy to allow Big Tobacco to continue to earn obscene amounts of money from the death and disease of American citizens and others around the world, and thus to continue making those obscene payments, per the "Master Settlement," in order to be ALLOWED to profit from the death and disease of millions. It is also a ploy to keep Big Pharma earning obscene amounts of money on the drugs used to treat all those smoking-related illnesses, which obviously will be far less necessary if millions of people switch from smoking to vaping. The FDA is not fooling anyone into thinking that it actually cares for the welfare of all these smokers and vapers; if the FDA cared one whit for the health of Americans, e-cigarettes would be REQUIRED, they would be given out for free by doctors and pharmacies, and there would certainly be a lot fewer drugs like Chantix on the market!
I will continue to vape using my own choice of e-cig equipment and liquids, no matter what stupid regulations you attempt to foist on the American people, because to do otherwise would mean I would almost certainly return to smoking and thus ensure the destruction of my health and a far earlier death than would be my lot without cigarettes.
The FDA should do what it's actually MANDATED to do, protect Americans from DANGEROUS drugs, not relatively-harmless ones like nicotine, and get out of bed with Big Pharma and Big Tobacco.
