18 Aug 14 - Huff Post - Can We Please Stop Being So Overdramatic About E-Cigarettes?

[Anjaffm]

Excellent article in the Huffington Post about e-cigs:


Can We Please Stop Being So Overdramatic About E-Cigarettes?

Far more posts contain very little in the way of information at all, and instead read like a bulletin from the 1950s about the dangers of rock and roll ("it's new, so let's panic and assume it will corrupt our young people and destroy humanity!")

Propylene glycol is a solvent, and there is a natural hesitation when it comes to the idea of breathing in a 'chemical'. There are over 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, nearly all of which are more harmful than propylene glycol. Yes, of course it isn't ideal and we don't know much about the long term health risks associated with inhaling it, but surely one chemical is better than 4000? Should we ban this technology just because it isn't perfect? It may well improve in the future if left to develop and expand. As Professor West says: "fear of normalisation shouldn't stop us transforming the health of smokers."


Let's follow his lead, focus on the positives and stop making it harder than it needs to be for people to quit traditional cigarettes.

I have no idea what has happened to the Huffington Post
It sure is great to see such lovely unbiased articles on vaping!

 

[Just Me]

I have a sneaky suspicion that the creeping turnaround might, just might, have something to do with BT getting on board with e-cigarettes, along with the statements Lorillard sent to the FDA about their deeming regulations, basically stating that Lorillard was into this new technology and is prepared to fight for it (my words). Maybe?

 

[DrMA]

Very nice indeed. Thanks for posting, Anja!

 

[aubergine]

Excellent article in the Huffington Post about e-cigs:


Can We Please Stop Being So Overdramatic About E-Cigarettes?

I have no idea what has happened to the Huffington Post
It sure is great to see such lovely unbiased articles on vaping!

Excellent article in the Huffington Post about e-cigs:


Can We Please Stop Being So Overdramatic About E-Cigarettes?

I like Huffpo, glad they got this right, too.

We are many, and we come from a lot of different places. That's our strength.

 

[Anjaffm]

@aubergine:
Well, I was not too crazy about Huff Post when they carried a bunch of stupid fearmongering articles on the oh-so-horrible dangers of ecigs

My "favorite" was the one by an extremely obese woman who actually had the nerve to bleat that "ecig flavors attract chiiildren" and - now get this! - "adults do not like flavors"
That is when I signed up as a commenter for the Huff Post. Because I just HAD to ask that female how on earth she got that body if "adults do not like flavors" - by subsisting on gruel and tap water?
I am afraid they never published my comment (I wonder why .. hehe... ) but at least now I am signed up as a commenter to the Huff Post

Disclaimer:
I have nothing against chubby people And I am no Twiggy myself. .
But I do not go around bleating that "adults do not like flavors". I would not wear a size 14 if I abhorred any kind of flavor, eh?

 

[Kent C]

Hmmm... one other reporter than Tony Newman writes a positive piece at Huffpo!! Almost all others have been negative. Check it out...

So that's a good note. I still detest the "Yes, of course it isn't ideal and we don't know much about the long term health risks associated with inhaling it, but surely one chemical is better than 4000?" when there are actually long term studies of both PG and VG in factories that make them, showing no harm done. You'd think that just once, a reporter (not just at HuffPo) might be curious enough to look, rather than just parroting the 'we just don't know' line.

And O₂ is a "chemical"

 

[Anjaffm]

Hmmm... one other reporter than Tony Newman writes a positive piece at Huffpo!! Almost all others have been negative. Check it out...

So that's a good note. I still detest the "Yes, of course it isn't ideal and we don't know much about the long term health risks associated with inhaling it, but surely one chemical is better than 4000?" when there are actually long term studies of both PG and VG in factories that make them, showing no harm done. You'd think that just once, a reporter (not just at HuffPo) might be curious enough to look, rather than just parroting the 'we just don't know' line.

And O₂ is a "chemical"

Kent, dear....
WE know all the facts. But the general Huff Post reader does not.
The general Huff Post reader has been fed complete fearmongering manure and "adults do not like flavors, think of the chiiiiiiildren!" nonsense.

Now, I do believe even a person with no flipping idea about ecigs might just be able to wrap their head around the fact that 1 chemical is better than 4000

That author is talking to people who have absolutely no flipping idea about the matter - but a lot of preconceived (pre-fed) notions.

I think the article is great when you consider the audience.

 

[Kent C]

I think the article is great when you consider the audience.

I agree. Her article on how to deal with pet hair was especially good.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/hilary-wardle/how-to-deal-with-pet-hair_b_5566628.html

 

[dragonpuff]

I now have much love for huffington post this is the first time in a long time I've seen a major news outlet publish a positive story about e-cigs good news indeed!

Added note: the e-cigs they show in the pic, with the gold swirlies on them? I used to have those, back in 2009! I can't for the life of me remember what they were called, does anyone remember?

 

[Kent C]

I now have much love for huffington post this is the first time in a long time I've seen a major news outlet publish a positive story about e-cigs good news indeed!

Added note: the e-cigs they show in the pic, with the gold swirlies on them? I used to have those, back in 2009! I can't for the life of me remember what they were called, does anyone remember?

Not the first there - Tony Newman has had a few good pieces. They've all been posted here. But yeah, they're rare in what you might call the main stream media, not including Fox, which has had about 90% positive coverage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/searc...wman&s_it=header_form_v1&author_q=Tony+Newman

 

[TomGeorge]

Ill bet you the turn around for the HP has something more to do with the midterm elections than with BT, trying to get a few voters back on their side since approval numbers have plummeted

 

[aubergine]

Ill bet you the turn around for the HP has something more to do with the midterm elections than with BT, trying to get a few voters back on their side since approval numbers have plummeted

Or perhaps (I think more likely) the fact that the author's uncle vapes, and at this point probably so do members of HP staff, and their friends, and etc.; ordinary people take sides on this one as they become informed and personally acquainted with or invested in the product (or not).

Huffpo is fluffy and sensationalistic - sort of the left's Drudge. Not gonna get much gravitas in either (IMHO).

 

[TomGeorge]

Or perhaps (I think more likely) the fact that the author's uncle vapes, and at this point probably so do members of HP staff, and their friends, and etc.; ordinary people take sides on this one as they become informed and personally acquainted with or invested in the product (or not).

Thats a fair point as well. I just find it hard to believe that a handful of HP employees just start vaping at once and convince someone to write a positive article after all the negative ones that have come out of HP. But maybe the testimonials and evidence just got to be to much for them to keep lying to millions of people.

 

[zoiDman]

...

I have no idea what has happened to the Huffington Post
It sure is great to see such lovely unbiased articles on vaping!

This is what Can happen when people Write and post Comments to Author's, Editors and Media Outlets when they Publish Skewed, Fear Packed Articles.

 

[Kent C]

Or perhaps (I think more likely) the fact that the author's uncle vapes, and at this point probably so do members of HP staff, and their friends, and etc.; ordinary people take sides on this one as they become informed and personally acquainted with or invested in the product (or not).

It takes a real civil libertarian (L or R) to stand up - like Dershowitz in Skokie - for which he got much flack.... but not from me, even though I despise the group he supported then.

 

[wv2win]

Or perhaps (I think more likely) the fact that the author's uncle vapes, and at this point probably so do members of HP staff, and their friends, and etc.; ordinary people take sides on this one as they become informed and personally acquainted with or invested in the product (or not).

Huffpo is fluffy and sensationalistic - sort of the left's Drudge. Not gonna get much gravitas in either (IMHO).

It would be nice if they would pick up the phone and call their friends Harkin, Durbin, Pelosi, Rockefeller, etc and inform them they are on the side of "death" instead of "redemption". (I agree with your assessment on the article, however)

 

[Anjaffm]

This is what Can happen when people Write and post Comments to Author's, Editors and Media Outlets when they Publish Skewed, Fear Packed Articles.

Yes, I also noticed that the "we don't know what's in them" blathering by so-called "experts" has decreased considerably.
I suppose it did get on their nerves to be shown up and ridiculed in just about every online newspaper by lots of vapers who wrote time and again:

1. if you do not know what's in them, then why do you call yourself an expert?
2. I know what's in them (information, link, information, link, study, link... )
3. your claim that (insert fearmongering BS of the day) is completely wrong because (information, link, study, link... )



Oh, and for the next time that some fearmongering BS shows up somewhere again, check out Clive Bates Arguing about e-cigarettes – a Q&A

.......

ordinary people take sides on this one as they become informed and personally acquainted with or invested in the product (or not).

Yes they do.
Which is one of the reasons why "public health" would like to keep these products out of sight.

OT:
Another colleague of mine (smoker) just bought an e-cig after becoming interested in mine
/OT