Blistering editorial on smokeless alternatives in Forbes
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Congratulations to Steve Forbes -- for "getting it". I tried to post a comment, but was blocked by the server for some reason. This is as "mainstream media" as we can get, a publication read avidly by business people throughout America.
Excellent piece .. and good comments from Vocalek and Treece.
Excellent piece .. and good comments from Vocalek and Treece.
Oh, and please digg this one, folks - What Are These Zealots Inhaling? - Forbes.com
I was able to "join" Forbes and post a comment. Thanks for pointing out this really important piece in a major media player.
Looks like the internet is alight with stories about the dangers of Camel Orbs to children:
Camel Orbs May Lure Young Users, Study Warns - NYTimes.com
Tobacco Company's New, Dissolvable Nicotine Products Could Lead to Accidental Poisoning in Infants and Youth - April 19, 2010 -2010 Releases - Press Releases - Harvard School of Public Health
Tobacco in candy-like form can poison kids - CNN.com
Etc
The research paper in question estimates that it would take 8-14 Orbs (although less of some other products) to cause mild to moderate nicotine poisoning in a one year old child.
I'm sorry - I just don't think the danger of this happening outweighs the benefits of offering smokers safer alternatives. I saw a child put a nicotine lozenge in their mouth once - it came out almost instantly, accompanied by a look of utter disgust.
There's definitely an argument for making sure that the flavoring in these products doesn't totally mask the taste of the nicotine, but above and beyond that?
SJ
Camel Orbs May Lure Young Users, Study Warns - NYTimes.com
Tobacco Company's New, Dissolvable Nicotine Products Could Lead to Accidental Poisoning in Infants and Youth - April 19, 2010 -2010 Releases - Press Releases - Harvard School of Public Health
Tobacco in candy-like form can poison kids - CNN.com
Etc
The research paper in question estimates that it would take 8-14 Orbs (although less of some other products) to cause mild to moderate nicotine poisoning in a one year old child.
I'm sorry - I just don't think the danger of this happening outweighs the benefits of offering smokers safer alternatives. I saw a child put a nicotine lozenge in their mouth once - it came out almost instantly, accompanied by a look of utter disgust.
There's definitely an argument for making sure that the flavoring in these products doesn't totally mask the taste of the nicotine, but above and beyond that?
SJ
Great to see that someone in the mainstream understands. Maybe if more players in the game understood our plight there wouldn't be a push to ban lower risk alternatives. Heck, I was 14 when I decided to smoke and have regretted that decision most of my adult life. After trying almost every cessation aid or NRT out there, I was hopeless and desperate. E-cigs WORK FOR ME. It addresses both the physical addiction AND the habit. Nothing else out there does. When will these supposed "protectors of public health" get it?
I am about to throw in the towel. Idiots abound -- and they're tilting my world. Consider:
No, these are not nicotine pellets. They are tobacco processed to contain extremely low levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines and pressed into small pieces that in no way resemble any popular candy -- unless you have 20/80 vision and are colorblind.
I wish they were "packed with nicotine". Far from it. Each Camel Orb has between 0.84mg and 1mg of nicotine. There are 15 Orbs in a childproof package that will frustrate even a competent adult. They dispense exactly ONE at a time -- and the pack fails to deliver about three out of four attempts to obtain an Orb. Even a small child, swallowing the entire pack contents, would not be poisoned because these are designed for oral absorption, not digestion via the stomach and small intestine. I would hope the stupid kid pukes. But the child won't die. Charge the parents with neglect and leave the product alone.
If I were Senator Merkley, I'd file suit against this news outlet for putting words that stupid in my mouth. Er, you aren't that stupid, are you, senator? I mean .. really. That is one stupid statement. I'll be looking for your lawsuit claiming you were misquoted.
Now they've gone too far. There's only a 200-year history of use to study in Sweden. No headlines scream babies dropping dead from eating snus all the time. Look at Sweden and you'll see the lowest lung cancer rates in the EU, thanks to snus. You'll see a population healthier than any other thanks to decreased cigarette smoking and increased snus usage. You won't even find oral problems that sometimes occur with chew tobacco, but not with snus.
Listen, every NRT product from Big Pharma is a hazard to children. Does anyone hear shouts of remove them "for the children"? No. It's tobacco being demonized. It's a slanderous campaign of lies. And the sad truth is so many people who should be above these lies now spout them -- for money, for conformity.
For shame!
No, these are not nicotine pellets. They are tobacco processed to contain extremely low levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines and pressed into small pieces that in no way resemble any popular candy -- unless you have 20/80 vision and are colorblind.
I wish they were "packed with nicotine". Far from it. Each Camel Orb has between 0.84mg and 1mg of nicotine. There are 15 Orbs in a childproof package that will frustrate even a competent adult. They dispense exactly ONE at a time -- and the pack fails to deliver about three out of four attempts to obtain an Orb. Even a small child, swallowing the entire pack contents, would not be poisoned because these are designed for oral absorption, not digestion via the stomach and small intestine. I would hope the stupid kid pukes. But the child won't die. Charge the parents with neglect and leave the product alone.
If I were Senator Merkley, I'd file suit against this news outlet for putting words that stupid in my mouth. Er, you aren't that stupid, are you, senator? I mean .. really. That is one stupid statement. I'll be looking for your lawsuit claiming you were misquoted.
Now they've gone too far. There's only a 200-year history of use to study in Sweden. No headlines scream babies dropping dead from eating snus all the time. Look at Sweden and you'll see the lowest lung cancer rates in the EU, thanks to snus. You'll see a population healthier than any other thanks to decreased cigarette smoking and increased snus usage. You won't even find oral problems that sometimes occur with chew tobacco, but not with snus.
Listen, every NRT product from Big Pharma is a hazard to children. Does anyone hear shouts of remove them "for the children"? No. It's tobacco being demonized. It's a slanderous campaign of lies. And the sad truth is so many people who should be above these lies now spout them -- for money, for conformity.
For shame!
And on MSNBC, we learn that our good friend, a legislator heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry, the man who FIRST requested the FDA to ban electronic cigarettes, had this to say:
Way to jump right in there and protect the nicotine lozenge sold at more than twice the price of a disssolvable of the same nicotine strength (4mg)! And the lozenges are now available in a yummy cherry flavor that kids love. Teens are sure to go for the fresh mint flavor. The Commit slogan from their Web page: Tastes good, works fast.
Hey, down with free enterprise. Up with Big Pharma profits.
Way to jump right in there and protect the nicotine lozenge sold at more than twice the price of a disssolvable of the same nicotine strength (4mg)! And the lozenges are now available in a yummy cherry flavor that kids love. Teens are sure to go for the fresh mint flavor. The Commit slogan from their Web page: Tastes good, works fast.
Hey, down with free enterprise. Up with Big Pharma profits.
Couldn't agree more TBob. The cherry Commit lozenge comes in a bottle that's barely even childproof!
Unless more MSM follows Forbes lead, and calls out some of these paid shills for Big Pharma on their BS, smoke-free alternatives are in for a rough ride.
Well if you watched TB's YouTube vid on these things you'd be certain that there is a danger. I think the FDA should take hammers off the market and tested as a drug delivery device since that appears to be the only device that would get a kid into those containers.
I was so turned off by how much trouble he was having getting them out that I lost interest in them immediately. They put six or seven young men in jail in NJ for conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack on Fort Dix. The government had set them up with a criminal to push them along until there was enough evidence to have them arrested.
If you used the same standards of conspiracy on the global effort underway against tobacco users, you'd have to put many in the medical and political fields away also. Quit or die is their battle cry.
Oh, you'll love the Rodu's Tobacco Truth Blog then:
Most Americans will think that children all over the U.S. are dropping dead from accidental exposure to smokeless products. Connolly and his colleagues at Harvard, the CDC and an Ohio poison control center collected information on 13,705 incidents from the National Poison Data System from three years (2006-2008). Out of context, that appears to be an alarmingly high number.
I cant provide context on the three-year data they accessed, but I was able to review the 2008 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers (read it here). I think you will find the report informative.
It turns out that tobacco products accounted for only about 1% of the over 684,000 cases of exposure to non-pharmaceutical agents of all kinds in children less than 6 years of age in 2008.
Read the whole article at: Tobacco Truth
Most Americans will think that children all over the U.S. are dropping dead from accidental exposure to smokeless products. Connolly and his colleagues at Harvard, the CDC and an Ohio poison control center collected information on 13,705 incidents from the National Poison Data System from three years (2006-2008). Out of context, that appears to be an alarmingly high number.
I cant provide context on the three-year data they accessed, but I was able to review the 2008 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers (read it here). I think you will find the report informative.
It turns out that tobacco products accounted for only about 1% of the over 684,000 cases of exposure to non-pharmaceutical agents of all kinds in children less than 6 years of age in 2008.
Read the whole article at: Tobacco Truth
For those that didn't catch it, I think it should be pointed out that numbers cited were from 2006-2008: A timeframe where the dissolvable products were not available, so these accidental ingestions were products not sold in childproof containers!
To their credit, they did say that there was 1 case of a child having a "mild poisoning" (whatever that means) after accidentally ingesting a Camel Orb.
To their credit, they did say that there was 1 case of a child having a "mild poisoning" (whatever that means) after accidentally ingesting a Camel Orb.
While I've never seen or heard a story of a child suffering from a dissolvable, it is true that Star Scientific introduced its Ariva dissolvable in 2002, and it's stronger Stonewall dissolvable in 2004. These are blister-packaged and virtually childproof to get to.
Camel is the new kid on the block, first copying Star's patented curing process and then copying the Ariva pellet.
Camel is the new kid on the block, first copying Star's patented curing process and then copying the Ariva pellet.
Thad: U.S.!
I've been using Stonewall daily since 2004. It is, hands-down according to the new WHO TobReg report, the lowest TSNA (thus the safest, although WHO won't say it) of all tobacco products.
And that Obama suggestion has been made over and over and over, Slant. Can you imagine the President of the United States using a Chinese product with unregulated and unknown contents to pretend to blow smoke? A product that his own FDA wants banned. A product all major health agencies argue is not safe. Get real. Besides, reports are he HAS been offered one. Quite some time ago. No response. As might be expected in the real world of social pressure.
At least his cigarettes are AMERICAN.
I've been using Stonewall daily since 2004. It is, hands-down according to the new WHO TobReg report, the lowest TSNA (thus the safest, although WHO won't say it) of all tobacco products.
And that Obama suggestion has been made over and over and over, Slant. Can you imagine the President of the United States using a Chinese product with unregulated and unknown contents to pretend to blow smoke? A product that his own FDA wants banned. A product all major health agencies argue is not safe. Get real. Besides, reports are he HAS been offered one. Quite some time ago. No response. As might be expected in the real world of social pressure.
At least his cigarettes are AMERICAN.
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