Also, we could call ecigs 'Recreational Steam Delivery Devices' or 'Personal Vapor Inhalators' or anything else, and then rename the forum to the same thing, and it would not stop the antis one micro-millimeter. They have to stop us because their jobs and their huge incomes go down the pan if/when ecigs take over: pharma stands to lose around $50 billion a year and up*, and most of the jobs in
tobacco control will go**.
In addition, hardly any smokers who want to switch will be able to find us. In fact, it is likely that if we had called ecigs something else right from the beginning, we'd only have about 10% of our current numbers.
So, all in all, a rename of either ecigs or the forum is not going to help, and would actually be a significant negative. Sorry
-- but thanks for thinking about these issues anyway. Please join your national consumer association, donate to them if you can, attend an online meeting, and ask if there is anything you can do to help.
* Because they have a huge income from treatment drugs for sick smokers, such as chemotherapy drugs, cardiac drugs, COPD drugs and the rest; plus a significant boost to many other drug sales such as diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, all of which get a massive boost from smoking (a 1PAD smoker is 60% more likely to have diabetes than a non-smoker).
** Because when THR products are widely used, smoking prevalence all but disappears: Sweden allows unhindered access to Snus and people know that it is far safer than smoking; as a result, by about 2016 Sweden's male smoking prevalence will be 5%, and they have a realistic prospect of smoking becoming so unpopular there that disease and death will all but disappear (as Snus has no identifiable impact on health, and the health outcomes for smokers who switch to Snus are about the same as for smokers who quit totally). Not much use for
tobacco control there
