The letter I sent (and posted to their FB page):
Mr. Hass
I read your most recent press release regarding the safety and effectiveness of electronic cigarettes with great interest. As a former smoker (half PAD for 25 years), and current electronic cigarette user, I find your stance against electronic cigarettes both disingenuous and dangerous.
We all know the dangers of tobacco. They are well documented, despite years of the tobacco lobby insisting that cigarettes were safe, or that the science “was in doubt”. I lost my own father to lung cancer just over a year ago.
Rather than call for further study into what seems to be a possible solution for smokers, you seem content to deal in “what-ifs”. From your release:
“may contain ingredients that are known to be toxic”
“could be potentially harmful"”
“potentially harmful”
“may lead more young people to start smoking”
Wouldn’t asking for further research clear up this question of whether or not electronic cigarettes are harmful be more beneficial? We know the dangers of smoking on not only smokers, but those around them. My wife and daughter are breathing better since I’ve quit – and I never smoked around them.
You point out that there are many proven ways to quit smoking. I have also tried them all – wellbutrin, champix, gum, patch, inhaler, cold turkey. None stuck. This chart shows that the success rate for all methods is abysmal:
File:Smoking cessation-West&Shiffman.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia What did work for me (and many others) is the use of an electronic cigarette.
Based on this, I would refer you to research being done in more forward-thinking regions (all emphasis added is by myself):
The E-Cigarette has numerous links to studies of all sorts regarding both e-cigarettes and the liquid used. Of note:“Of over 50 priority tobacco smoke toxicants, none was found in any but trace quantity. Nicotine is safe used as medicine. Propylene glycol has been used on bedfast children in 1942-43 as an aerosol germicide by University of Chicago researchers, without adverse effect. All up, we find the Ruyan e-cigarette safe in the common meaning of that word, and much safer than smoking tobacco. The FDA and other drug regulators will hopefully keep the e-cigarettes on sale (as in the UK), while further research can be conducted and suitable approvals applied for. Simply banning e-cigarettes will simply consign thousands of e-smokers back to smoking tobacco and an early death. “
As well, “The (electronic cigarette) shows promise as a device that might aid cessation. Trials to assess long-term cessation outcome and safety are needed.”
Another study, looking at “objective measures of smoking cessation are reported for smokers who quit successfully after using an E-cigarette.”
Journal of Medical Case Reports | Abstract | Successful smoking cessation with electronic cigarettes in smokers with a documented history of recurring relapses: a case series The study finds: “The most important message from this case series is that these smokers, with a documented history of recurring relapses, were able to quit smoking and to remain abstinent for at least six months after taking up an electronic cigarette. Although the present findings cannot be generalized, high quit rates would be desirable in a population that generally responds poorly to smoking cessation efforts.”
European cardiologists weigh in:
ESC | About the ESC | ESC Press Office | ESC Press Releases | Electronic cigarettes do not damage the heart saying that “Smoking a tobacco cigarette had important hemodynamic consequences, with significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and in heart rate. In contrast, electronic cigarettes produced only a slight elevation in diastolic blood pressure.” and that “currently available data suggest that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful and substituting tobacco with electronic cigarettes may be beneficial to health”
I must again ask – why is the CLA so opposed to electronic cigarettes, then? If people can be moved away from tobacco, isn’t that good for their health? For the health of others around them? Isn’t it preferable to have a smoker switch to such a device, rather than face the almost certain end result from cigarettes? Canada has a chance to be a world leader in this sort of research. Rather than demanding that Canada take its place as that leader, and demanding research be started and made a high priority for the health and safety of smokers and those around them, you seem content to push methods that most e-cigarette users have tried and failed to quit with.
I must urge the CLA to reconsider its position on this matter. Be a leader in this matter, not a follower or a spectator.
Sincerely,
CdnBison
