Check out the "Web Extra" pieces. I commented in this one: Extra: Smokeless Tobacco & Cigarettes - 60 Minutes - CBS News
CBS News 60 Minutes segment on smokefree tobacco
- Thread starter Bill Godshall
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Those are really great additions to the basic 60 Minutes report. Each is excellent, and we can only hope smokers desiring to quit find them, and take heart in them.
I used snus four years ago to quit cigarettes. Six months later, I began e-smoking (January 2008). For those struggling with quitting, I can only say that there is NO LAW requiring the use of one exclusive device or alternative. Use the ones you want, in combination. I e-smoke with a snus portion in place, then hit some nasal snuff when the mood strikes me. And the first thing I do each morning is pop a Stonewall dissolvable in my mouth, as I do after every meal.
E-smoking will never fullfill all my needs and cravings. But it does fullfill the habit part of cigarette smoking, while snus takes care of the nicotine. My 50-year habit/addiction can be satisifed by using all alternatives with full knowledge that there is no single magic bullet that will allow all individuals to easily end an unhealthy practice.
I can still feel the glow of this positive piece promoting harm reduction. In the "fair and balanced" world of professional journalism, we could not have asked for a better report.
I used snus four years ago to quit cigarettes. Six months later, I began e-smoking (January 2008). For those struggling with quitting, I can only say that there is NO LAW requiring the use of one exclusive device or alternative. Use the ones you want, in combination. I e-smoke with a snus portion in place, then hit some nasal snuff when the mood strikes me. And the first thing I do each morning is pop a Stonewall dissolvable in my mouth, as I do after every meal.
E-smoking will never fullfill all my needs and cravings. But it does fullfill the habit part of cigarette smoking, while snus takes care of the nicotine. My 50-year habit/addiction can be satisifed by using all alternatives with full knowledge that there is no single magic bullet that will allow all individuals to easily end an unhealthy practice.
I can still feel the glow of this positive piece promoting harm reduction. In the "fair and balanced" world of professional journalism, we could not have asked for a better report.
- Apr 2, 2009
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Although worried before seeing the segment, I thought it was quite impressive.
Karl Fagerstrom did an excellent job informing how snus was a far less hazardous alternative to cigarettes, while Stahl / 60 Minutes accurately pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Swedish smokers have already quit smoking by switching to snus.
The dual usage claim (i.e. using both snus and cigarettes might be more hazardous than just using cigarettes) is absurd and nonsensical (as every time snus is used, one less cigarette is smoked), but the abstinence-only prohibitionists have been saying it for the past decade. The prohibitionists also claim (but not on the 60 Minutes segment) that snus also should be banned because youth who use snus might switch to cigarettes.
In contrast, Karla Sneegas (from Indianapolis who used to work for the IN Dept of Health, and who I now think is a tobacco control contractor of the IN Dept of Health),
made the same unsubstantiated claims (they're target marketing to youth) that she's been making for the past three years ever since Reynolds started marketing Camel Snus.
Too bad Leslie Stahl didn't ask Sneegas why Sneegas hadn't reported her alleged violations of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (as target marketing to youth is strictly prohibited by the MSA) to the State AGs for legal action. Also, it would have been helpful if Stahl had asked Sneegas why Sneegas hadn't reported her alleged violations to the FDA (as the new FDA tobacco law also prohibits tobacco companies from marketing to youth).
At an anti tobacco conference in 2007 on Other Tobacco Products (where I wasn't permitted to speak, but only lots of harm reduction opponents), Sneegas similarly alleged that Reynolds was target marketing Camel Snus to youth by making the package resemble a cell phone. During that conference, Sneegas refused to answer my question inquiring whether or not health progessionals had an ethical duty to truthfully inform smokers about less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes. Instead of answering it, she simply ignored me, and then asked if anyone else had any questions.
I was interviewed by Leslie Stahl (for a segment that ran back in 1999), and I worked with the same producer made last night's segment on snus. I'll ask her to consider doing another segment on e-cigarettes.
Karl Fagerstrom did an excellent job informing how snus was a far less hazardous alternative to cigarettes, while Stahl / 60 Minutes accurately pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Swedish smokers have already quit smoking by switching to snus.
The dual usage claim (i.e. using both snus and cigarettes might be more hazardous than just using cigarettes) is absurd and nonsensical (as every time snus is used, one less cigarette is smoked), but the abstinence-only prohibitionists have been saying it for the past decade. The prohibitionists also claim (but not on the 60 Minutes segment) that snus also should be banned because youth who use snus might switch to cigarettes.
In contrast, Karla Sneegas (from Indianapolis who used to work for the IN Dept of Health, and who I now think is a tobacco control contractor of the IN Dept of Health),
made the same unsubstantiated claims (they're target marketing to youth) that she's been making for the past three years ever since Reynolds started marketing Camel Snus.
Too bad Leslie Stahl didn't ask Sneegas why Sneegas hadn't reported her alleged violations of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (as target marketing to youth is strictly prohibited by the MSA) to the State AGs for legal action. Also, it would have been helpful if Stahl had asked Sneegas why Sneegas hadn't reported her alleged violations to the FDA (as the new FDA tobacco law also prohibits tobacco companies from marketing to youth).
At an anti tobacco conference in 2007 on Other Tobacco Products (where I wasn't permitted to speak, but only lots of harm reduction opponents), Sneegas similarly alleged that Reynolds was target marketing Camel Snus to youth by making the package resemble a cell phone. During that conference, Sneegas refused to answer my question inquiring whether or not health progessionals had an ethical duty to truthfully inform smokers about less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes. Instead of answering it, she simply ignored me, and then asked if anyone else had any questions.
I was interviewed by Leslie Stahl (for a segment that ran back in 1999), and I worked with the same producer made last night's segment on snus. I'll ask her to consider doing another segment on e-cigarettes.
I like that they discussed the concept of harm reduction. The young man they used as an example was an extreme example, so I don't think that it was particularly balanced in using him. The anti referenced candy and children, given her girth, I found myself talking to the TV about how twinkies and ding-dongs are also targeted at children. It didn't give me the warm-fuzzies I had hoped for.
Frankly I think the part where they mentioned it (the nicotine pills?) even looked like candy, showing it next to tic tacs, was something anyone who ever had a prescription of anything saw right through. They look no more like candy than tylenol or any other over the counter or prescription med. I mean if we start saying those look like candy then I guess everything small enough to put in your mouth looks like candy.
I thought that the anti-woman was also extreme ... thus the report was balanced, at the extremes. Not so good, but not so bad either. It only made the Swedish scientist look even more reasonable in my honest opinion.
Jan (* who was also talking to the tv regarding the hypocrisy of her so-called-concern for my health ... who is protecting this woman from her refrigerator/pantry? *)
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