Convince the Recommenders

[Vocalek]

I believe that the FDA is reactive rather than proactive. Three non-profit health organizations gang up with a "kids" anti-tobacco group and issue a joint statement calling on the FDA to pull them off the market. Other strong voices join in such as the American Legacy Foundation.

Let's flood these groups with our comments. Tell your story.

The American Legacy Foundation has an online form at Contact Us - American Legacy Foundation


Here is what I submitted:

I am appalled at your policy "Unless and until the FDA determines that e-cigarettes are safe and effective, they should be taken off the market." Tens of thousands of us have found them to be effective as a substitute for ALL of our tobacco cigarettes, after failing to achieve smoking cessation with all the FDA-approved nicotine weaning products. Some even risked their lives and sanity using the FDA-approved-as-safe Chantix. Those of us in this category require sufficient levels of nicotine to maintain mood, memory, and concentration. If you get your wish and e-cigarettes are taken off the market, you are condemning us to go back to tobacco to avoid cognitive impairment. Read the 12000+ comments at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-life-saving-electronic-cigarettes-available.

Like me, many thousands of e-cigarette users are reporting improved lung function and blood pressure. We are at a loss to understand how you can possibly believe that smoking tobacco is SAFE for us to do during the years that it takes for government-sanctioned clinical trials to be conducted.

Their policy statement can downloaded from ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES 05/07/2009
http://www.americanlegacy.org/PDF/Electronic_Cigarettes.pdf

Please list contact information for other organizations that claim to be concerned about our health while calling for e-cigarettes to be pulled off the market.

Let's let them hear us loud and strong.

 

[Stubby]

You can give it the old college try, but I'm very pessimistic about success. I really hate to bring such doomsday news (I really am an optimistic person) but the groups you want to target have been the heart of the problem all along.

The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association, and The American Lung Association have been corrupted by money. To a large extent these groups are funded by big Parma. They have long ago given up any right to be called public health advocates. They are really advocates for Big Pharmaceutical companies. They are the ones pushing the "quit or die" approach to tobacco/nicotine.

If you read there literature there isn't one mention of tobacco reduced harm. Of all the many public service commercials you may have seen on TV about smoking there has not been one mention off reduced harm. The american public has been kept in the dark and you can place the blame squarely on the not-for-profit public health advocates.

I think they should be forced to give up there not-for-profit status. A good lawyer could make a very good case for it.

 

[ladyraj]

The American Legacy Foundation was founded on...tobacco money:

From Wiki: "The American Legacy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that was established in March 1998 as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between a coalition of attorneys general in 46 states and five United States territories and the tobacco industry. It is funded primarily by payments designated by the settlement."

So....the tobacco companies and the consumers of tobacco are funding a war against themselves. Hopefully e-cigs will not find itself in the same position of funding a charity to ban the product one's sells. Check the Wiki statement again....46 State AGs were on board for this foundation...the same methodolgy is being used again.8-o

 

[sherid]

I don't know about others, but the act of even visiting anti smoking sites makes me queasy and full of rage. Besides that, you would NEVER see your comments posted there. You have to pay to even read the articles at ASH.

 

[ladyraj]

Hey Sheri...I noticed the "trade info for dollars" mentality when I first began researching about 3 years ago. There are so many other sites that freely give out info that I was immediately suspicious of ASH.

 

[TropicalBob]

Makes me want to upchuck when I think of the charity dollars I donated to those sell-out organizations in years past. They never had "my health" as their primary interest. They are every bit as self-serving and perpetuating as any bloated government bureaucracy.

Change their minds? You could send them the entire dictionary and they'd continue on in their own best financial interests.

We cannot win them over. Don't waste your effort.

 

[BigJimW]

Makes me want to upchuck when I think of the charity dollars I donated to those sell-out organizations in years past. They never had "my health" as their primary interest. They are every bit as self-serving and perpetuating as any bloated government bureaucracy.

Change their minds? You could send them the entire dictionary and they'd continue on in their own best financial interests.

We cannot win them over. Don't waste your effort.

I agree with this. And I've always been preaching that they are only in it for the money. Which is why the only honest organization I ever work with is the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The rest can kiss my .....

I stopped trying to convince these ignorant fools for the very reason Bob states. It's a big waste of time. Now I'm just spreading the news via news releases, YouTube videos, and a news blog that hopefully people will find and see for themselves the real truth to the matter.

 

[ladyraj]

I support the Military, VA, and St Jude hospital for children. The rest all seem to have an agenda that is being directed at me...an evil nicotine user who evidently abuses children and the populace at large by my existence. I can barely tolerate the war on tobacco...and now these groups are using the same rhetoric to win the war on e-cigs, obesity, global warming,...etc. Every person on this planet has a vice, everybody will die of something, you may as well choose your poison.

 

[nojoyet]

I support the Military, VA, and St Jude hospital for children. The rest all seem to have an agenda that is being directed at me...an evil nicotine user who evidently abuses children and the populace at large by my existence. I can barely tolerate the war on tobacco...and now these groups are using the same rhetoric to win the war on e-cigs, obesity, global warming,...etc. Every person on this planet has a vice, everybody will die of something, you may as well choose your poison.

Yes. Nowadays I only donate to the Salvation Army and otherwise to specific emergency relief efforts. The rest line their pockets first and many are making peoples lives miserable with campaigns to rule out whatever is declared to be bad.
Those who fancy themselfves as warrior heroes against a growing variety of issues not to their liking would do well to remind themselves that life is still the leading cause of death everywhere - even for them.
I see the anti-smoking group's actions, in particular, as a sanctioned form of bullying, disgusting behaviour. Then we wonder why there is schoolyard bullying.