Potential Kentucky Ban - Help with an E-mail.

[Bill Godshall]

I've known and collaborated with Ellen Hahn on many campaigns to reduce cigarette smoking during the past two decades.

Unfortunately, Ellen is a tobacco harm reduction opponent who opposes any and all smokefree tobacco/nicotine products except for ineffective gums, lozenges and patches.

But I encourage e-cigarette users to send her e-mails
ejhahn00@email.uky.edu
pointing out how e-cigarettes helped you quit smoking, while nothing else worked.

Sooner or later these folks are going to realize that the e-cigarette prohibition policies they advocate only harm people and protect cigarette markets.

[Scubabatdan]

I've known and collaborated with Ellen Hahn on many campaigns to reduce cigarette smoking during the past two decades.

Unfortunately, Ellen is a tobacco harm reduction opponent who opposes any and all smokefree tobacco/nicotine products except for ineffective gums, lozenges and patches.

But I encourage e-cigarette users to send her e-mails
ejhahn00@email.uky.edu
pointing out how e-cigarettes helped you quit smoking, while nothing else worked.

Sooner or later these folks are going to realize that the e-cigarette prohibition policies they advocate only harm people and protect cigarette markets.

He is my story I sent her:

Good day I hope that all is right in your world.
I would just like to take a moment to enlighten you to my nicotine addiction which has lasted the last 18 ½ years of my life. I picked up the smoking habit in the Army and after retiring 24 years later I was still smoking at a rate of 1 ½ packs a day. I was introduced to Electronic Cigarettes almost 5 months ago and on day 2 of using a electronic cigarette I stopped smoking real ones. Day three of using the e-cig and I did not cough anymore, day 7 my taste began returning, I have more energy and feel great! It has been 145 days since I have had a real cigarette and started out at 24mg of nicotine per ml, I am happy to say I am down to 6mg per ml and will be at 0mg soon. I cannot tell you how important an electronic cigarettes have been to me. I have tried many other methods, patch, gum, wellbutrin and all were dismal failures. The E-cig is the first product that has helped me to transition to what will be a nicotine free life. I hope you consider the hundreds of thousands of people that this product has helped and IS helping before dismissing its ability to fill the gap where other products have failed.
Thank you for listening,

Daniel J. Bateman

Dan

[raddiver]

I sent one, but just got a delivery failure back.
Oh well. I'll save it and try again later.

and mine...

Hello Professor Hahn,
My name is Rich <last name excluded for privacy>.
I was a tobacco user for 27 years. That was up until the 10th October. Exactly one month ago today.
I had tried almost all forms of cessation with the exception of hypnotism and acupuncture. Patches, gum, lozenges, Wellbutrin/Zyban/Chantix... all of them have failed for me.

Then i came across the e-cigarette. This device has made it easy to stop the use of tobacco. I understand full and well that the nicotine addiction is still present. But the thousands of other chemicals that i was taking in because of tobacco smoke are gone.
I urge that you look at the benefits to this device.

For the first time in ~25 years, i breathe easier, i sleep better, i feel better, i can taste and smell things i never could before.
If these devices are banned, the only alternative would be to go back to tobacco products. Surely you can see the issue with that.
In my opinion this will just make "Big Tobacco" stronger.

I urge you to compare what the FDA found in e-cigarettes and COMPARE them to what is found in a traditional cigarette, and i think you will be intrigued by the differences. The press statement that the FDA put out was very one sided in my opinion.
Nitrosamines: The levels indicated are equal to or slightly lower than what is found in FDA approved NRTs. Not to mention allot lower than what is found in traditional combustible tobacco. Yet the FDA never once mentioned that fact.

DEG: While they did find DEG in 1 cartridge, they FDA also failed to state that no traces of DEG were found in the vapor produced by that cartridge. With that said various vendors around the world are starting to analyze their cartridges/juice to prevent this sort of thing in the future.

If you would like my sources i will be happy to provide them, but i suspect you have better access to information than i do.

Thanks for your time
-Rich

[umop apisdn]

I sent a message to Professor Hahn. Good luck from New York. I'm posting this here so that if there's anything anyone here disagrees with, please PM me so I can email her further and address the concerns you have with her.

Dear Professor Hahn,

I am sure you've been receiving many emails lately about this. Before I go on, let me personally apologize for any extra burden on your inbox my email causes. If you do read this, it is very appreciated.

That being said, I feel it is important for me to give you my account on this side of the story. I was a smoker for years. Throughout high school sporadically and more consistently towards my senior year and freshman year of college. I have been "vaping" (term used to separate e-cig users from traditional smokers) for over a week now and I can say I haven't had the urge to smoke since. I fully understand my addiction to nicotine and honestly accept it because I feel it makes my life more enjoyable. When I heard of a way to enjoy my habit without tar and without the 4000 or higher toxic substance found in cigarette smoke or the heavy metals found in oral tobacco, I jumped in. Of course I did the research, which took me anywhere from 3 to 6 months with varying levels of concentration before I made the decision.

I found that, while not completely safe, the damaging effects of electronic cigarettes shows to be much less than that of traditional cigarettes and the term cigarette in "electronic cigarette" is very misleading. While quality control seems to be lacking currently, fair regulation on these products would only help to make them much safer.

That being said, I would fear a ban on these devices in my state more than I would fear death. The ban would hurt the progress of these devices into something safer and would cause nearly all users to have to resort to traditional cigarettes or other tobacco products. I do not think I have to describe the effects this would cause. It not only affects users, but also helps strengthen "Big Tobacco" which like you, I wholeheartedly despise. We're fighting for the same cause Professor, but I can't fully deny my moral objection to restricting choice for consenting adults. I'd like to see myself as an ally for your cause, but I, like many others, can only do so if the tools of this war are morally acceptable.

In a way, this ban would be a death sentence, a slow and painful one caused by the tobacco products I would be forced to go back to if I were denied the right to purchase my "vaping" supplies. Knowing how I feel about the subject, I have to help my fellow Americans from Kentucky. I know if such a movement against these devices were present in my own state, which is starting to gain momentum here and New York, I would hope others from other states would help fight it too. I, speaking for many, would not be opposed to stricter regulations though. This would mean many benefits that are currently denied from manufacture in other countries and shrewd businessmen looking to make a quick buck.

I humbly implore you to reconsider your stance on these devices. I do not want to die from tobacco related causes for my habit, which is now much cleaner and promisingly healthier than the other alternatives out on the market thanks to electronic cigarettes.

I hope you find it in your heart to see where we, as responsible adults, are coming from. You'd be saving many more lives than you would from helping to ban these products in your state or country.

Again, thank you for your time reading this, I hope you've gained a little more insight to the minds of "vapers" and the effects a ban can cause. I truly appreciate it and hope your other campaigns work well.

Best regards,

J...

[ZeroNullity]

Which FDA report? There has been more than one. They apparently did find tainted e-liquid that shouldn't have contained certain chemicals. I use the word tainted because not all e-liquid has the same chemicals. At the same time the government shouldn't put bans on things willy-nilly just because they don't like the sound of it... regulation of a product is one thing and destroying it is another. The FDA don't ban peanut butter just because they found a few jars from a certain company that contain salmonella. Or ban meat because of mad cow disease. Until e-cigarettes have been proven harmful in every form beyond cigarettes they should not be banned.

[llcoolbeans]

If you live in KY, contact your state reps. Schedule an appointment, bring your PV equipment. Show them how it works. Most of the adversity is due to ignorance, educate your reps. Don't sit on your hands and complain, you might be surprised how approachable state reps are.

You may even be able to get legislation introduced or even passed protecting the use of PVs.

[Camel Crush]

So, is this nutty professor responding to any of these e-mails?

[RooksGambit]

Not to this day. I even resent it about a month ago, explaining at the top that it had already been sent once, and I was resending in case there had been an error somewhere along the line.

Still nothing. I don't expect a reply, anymore, either.

[Camel Crush]

Not to this day. I even resent it about a month ago, explaining at the top that it had already been sent once, and I was resending in case there had been an error somewhere along the line.

Still nothing. I don't expect a reply, anymore, either.

What a pathetic life one must lead to aspire only to make someone else's more difficult. But, oh, what do we know? I guess they're just trying to protect we inferior beings from hurting ourselves.

[lhaddix]

I don't think she is going to be swayed at all. I read up on her and she is an anti tobacco Nazi. Former nurse on a crusade. She does not care if you have a substitute because it's just another form of tobacco abuse to her. You are going to quit anyway, because she wants a statewide ban on anything to do with tobacco, Nicotine etc. Your best hope is that her views will be too extreme to gain much ground in Kentucky. As much as this state is taxing cigarettes it isn't going to be popular to ban them. Vaping on the other hand isn't generating revenue.