Article on e-cigs from Pittsburgh Post Gazette

[cbrite]

Not exactly sure where I should post this, but maybe it can be moved if it is not in the right place.

http://www.post-gazette. com/news/health/2014/02/03/THE-ALLURE-THE-DANGERS-OF-E-CIGARETTES/stories/201402030018

E-cigarettes carry allure and dangers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

[BillyWJ]

So much to vent about, what ridiculous article.

"Because they are not proven methods to help people to quit smoking, e-cigarettes are being marketed to current smokers as an efficient means to get a jolt of nicotine, even when smoking is prohibited. That's led to dual use, raising the concern that e-cigarettes are making it easier for people to continue smoking."

Utter nonsense. I think we all know at this point, no matter what we prove, and prove them wrong about, they will come up with new "concerns", no matter what. Dual use. *rolls eyes* And, what about the FDA allowing Nicorette to be used safely now WHILE SMOKING? Oh, that's different, because it gets absorbed by different parts of the mouth than what we absorb nicotine with, right?

"It's used in food, but we don't inhale food usually. This is different, and it is a known irritant and so we don't know at this point" if it has other health effects, said the professor at Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health."

Yes we DO inhale food. It's called SMELLING it.

Gotta stop here, it's all nonsense.

 

[ScottP]

I would say that is a fairly truthful and balanced story. Although I still seriously doubt that a non-smoker that does start vaping is then going to switch to cigarettes. No one goes from something that tastes great to something that tastes horrible. So I find anyone that call e-cigs a gateway to be completely ignorant.

 

[ScottP]

Oh one part that I did find totally wrong was this:

And should people be inhaling the food additive, propylene glycol?

"It's used in food, but we don't inhale food usually. This is different, and it is a known irritant and so we don't know at this point" if it has other health effects, said the professor at Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Which is completely wrong:

Propylene Glycol has been used as the aqueous-based chemical additive in asthma inhalers and nebulizers since the 1950s, with no serious side effects known. PG, because of its water-retaining properties, is the compound of choice for delivering atomized medication. It is also a common diluent for injectable medications, constituting 40 percent of the intravenous form of Phenytoin, an anti-seizure drug.

 

[Ohms Lawbreaker]

Some reporting and some facts and some Don't Know's from sources. Where's all the good propaganda and bad propaganda?

As an editor I wouldn't find anything wrong with this article, but the higher-ups might say, "Spice it up with some celebrity vapers and some political blow-hards." How one feels about the content, that's up to the reader. Cheers to the reporter.

 

[retired1]

Moved to Media and General News.

Also, as a reminder: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...g-links-junk-science-other-rubbish-posts.html

 

[RosaJ]

Really? Dual use? It sounds like the writer of the article is not aware that patches and gum were released for unlimited time use by the FDA in April of last year. And, I know of people who wear the patch and smoke at the same time, talk about a nicotine double whammy!

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

Really? Dual use? It sounds like the writer of the article is not aware that patches and gum were released for unlimited time use by the FDA in April of last year. And, I know of people who wear the patch and smoke at the same time, talk about a nicotine double whammy!

This is truly dual use, using two sources of nicotine at the same time.

E-cigs are used instead of.

Think it would do any good to point that out to the ANTZ?

 

[Vocalek]

This is truly dual use, using two sources of nicotine at the same time.

E-cigs are used instead of.

Think it would do any good to point that out to the ANTZ?

To be fair (although they don't seem to try very hard to be fair to us), I think they are talking about the folks who regularly use e-cigarettes in non-smoking situations, but who still regularly smoke conventional cigarettes.

The one thing they are ignoring is the fact that such dual users tend to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke. Smoking reduction may have a viable role as a step toward smoking cessation. Both my husband and I reduced our smoking before we quit.

 

[Bill Godshall]

I called the reporter David Templeton this morning expressing my disappointment (especially with the word "dangers" in the headline), and sent the following Letter to the Editor at letters@post-gazette.com

In sharp contrast to the sensationalized headline E-cigarettes carry allure and dangers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette claiming e-cigarettes are dangerous, the scientific and empirical evidence consistently finds e-cigs are 99% less hazardous than cigarettes, have helped more than a million smokers quit smoking, have replaced more than 2 billion packs of cigarettes, and pose no risks to nonusers.

Even better, virtually all e-cigs have been consumed by smokers, or by former smokers who switched to e-cigs. Although plausible, there’s no evidence that any nonsmoker (youth or adult) has ever become a daily vaper. All teen surveys (including CDC’s) have found that smokers were at least 20 times more likely than nonsmokers to report past month e-cig use.

But since 2009 when Big Pharma front groups convinced Obama’s DHHS to ban e-cigs and US Customs agents seized nearly a thousand shipments, the FDA and CDC have falsely claimed e-cigs are target marketed to youth, are addicting children, are hazardous, are gateways to cigarettes, can renormalize smoking, and haven’t helped smokers quit.

Thankfully, the DC Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Judge Richard Leon’s 2010 ruling striking down FDA’s e-cig ban as unlawful after Smokefree Pennsylvania filed an amicus brief supporting the e-cig company plaintiffs and opposing FDA’s ban.

Since losing that lawsuit, Obama’s DHHS has stated its intent to impose unwarranted tobacco regulations that would either ban e-cigs again or give the e-cig industry to Big tobacco.

But demonizing and banning e-cigs protects lethal cigarettes at the expense of public health.

E-cigs give smokers another option besides “quit or die”.

Bill Godshall
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
BillGodshall@verizon.net

If anyone else sends a letter to the Post-Gazette at letters@post-gazette.com
please note they must be less than 250 words.

 

[AgentAnia]

Dual use is what RosaJ's people do, i.e., smoking a cigarette (or vaping) while wearing a nicotine patch.

Alternate use is smoking a cigarette some of the time and vaping some of the time. (I have yet to see anyone vaping an ecig and smoking a cigarette at the same time.)

Can we please be careful about not confusing the two terms and using the appropriate one for what we mean? (And call out the ANTZ who use "dual use" incorrectly?)