ACSH asks the FDA to reconsider e-cigarettes

[DevilFishPhil]

"The ACSH (American Council on Science and Health) recently published a letter imploring the FDA to reconsider its negative stance on e-cigarettes."Dr. Whelan and Dr. Ross ask the FDA to reconsider e-cigarettes > News & Commentary > ACSH

I'm curious to see what/if any developments come as a result of this...

 

[Malduk]

"E-cigarettes do help people quit. The increasing evidence from anecdotal reports and clinical studies shows that addicted smokers are significantly more likely to quit cigarettes when they are aided by e-cigarettes as opposed to those cessation products approved by the FDA[1]. Furthermore, the FDA’s warning that the chemicals in e-cigarette vapor may be “unsafe” or “toxic” is not backed by evidence that trace amounts actually cause any harm; in fact, similar traces of these same "carcinogens" have been detected in other FDA-approved cessation products such as nicotine patches and gum. The difference seems to be that e-cigarettes actually succeed in getting people to quit smoking."

Good read.

 

[MisterMike]

"The difference seems to be that e-cigarettes actually succeed in getting people to quit smoking."

...and therefore threaten the government's tax revenue, both directly from tobacco sales, and indirectly from taxation on Big Pharma's revenue. If the government gets involved in e-cigs, you can dang-well guarantee that they're going to want to recoup that money. I don't want to pay something ridiculous like $4/ml of e-liquid, thank you very much.

I agree that the government should alleviate the bans and embrace harm-reduction, but honestly, the minute they do that, they start losing money big-time. If governments were really concerned about their citizens' health, they would subsidize e-cigs for smokers (perhaps by funneling tobacco tax revenue into the program) who expressed a desire to quit.

The day I pick up a government-subsidized e-cig, or even a government-sanctioned e-cig that isn't taxed to the nines is the day I go to the airport and strap myself on to a transatlantic pig bound for Ireland.

 

[DemonCleaner]

I don't think anybody stands to lose much money at all. I'd like to see some numbers on this. The fact is that some people are always going to smoke. For some, it dosn't matter wether its going to kill them, or cause them difficulty. You could hand them a million dollars to quit and they'd have to think about it. Vaping is not like smoking. The majority of smokers I know think that it's stupid and wouldn't switch even if it was proven to be safe.

 

[MisterMike]

Hmm. I hadn't thought about actually crunching numbers. Maybe you're right.

As of 2007, between 69 and 73% of a pack of cigs is tax. Let's say 70%. Average price of a pack is $10, so we'll call it $7.00 per pack in taxes. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/smoking/cost.html)

Stats Canada says that in 2010, 20.8 percent of Canadians 12 and over (roughly 6 million) smoked. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/07/29/f-smoking-statistics.html)

Let's say vaping converts one sixth of all smokers. Roughly one million. We'll say they use half a pack per day. That's $3,500,000 in tobacco tax revenue per day. Multiply that by 365, and that's $1,277,500,000 per year in tobacco taxes lost. Now, that's split between provincial and federal governments, but it's a good chunk of change either way.

For comparison, in the 2012 budget, they're cutting $2.1 billion from the Dept. of National Defence over three years, according to CBC.

Now, to be fair, I'm pulling some of these numbers (such as conversion rate and tobacco consumption rate) out of my rear-end and it could be a lot more or a lot less than that. We'd probably need statistics as far as the usage rate goes in countries where it's completely legal.

 

[kingcobra]

Vaping is wide open in the USA so there's really no need to have the FDA involved at all. It's wide open enough here in Canada as well, other than brick and mortar shops not being able to sell nicotine juice, but as we know it's easy enough to get anyway.

However, there is the issue of the FDA and HC standing in the way of the promotion of more healthy alternatives. Some people think that these agencies are interested in our health. This is truly naive though. Very, very naive. This just doesn't apply to vaping, it applies to everything they touch, which is corrupted either by bribes or just plain stupid thinking.

HC is as corrupt as the FDA is, although they are more open about it down there, where the people that run these government organizations take these posts as secondments from their regular jobs in big business. They often go back after a stint and another one takes their place.

The best we can ever hope for from governments is just to stand down, so this is perfect. Of course there is all the false propaganda that we have to deal with, but by speaking up whenever we can, we can at least try to compete with it a bit. We'll never have the media budgets and the government puppets on our side like they do but that's why we don't want to try to bring these people into the game too much, as they have the means to destroy us and will if given the opportunity.