Dear Vendor

[Vocalek]

Please let your US customers know about an opportunity to be heard by the general public. The TV show, The Doctors, featured e-cigarettes in a positive light back in 2009. Now, they are asking former smokers to share their "best tips and tricks to quitting cigarettes and staying off for good."


Tell Us Your Story


You, of course, do not need to (and probably should not) use the word "quitting" in getting the word out to your customers. You can suggest that they share their story about how they used e-cigarettes to replace some or all of their smoked cigarettes. This is a scientifically accurate description of what occurred and is not a health claim.


Imagine the impact that show might have if they talk about receiving thousands of reponses talking about the advantages of switching to e-cigarettes.


Elaine Keller, Vice President
The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association
Casaa.org - Harm Reduction

 

[LauraBolyard]

OK, I know Im a newb, but why do I see this posted so many times with no views or responses?

 

[mistinthewoods]

I'll respond.
First I've seen of it. I'll be happy to share my story. I have even given up nicotine by tapering it back periodically over the last year and a half.
I'll use the link a bit later Elain. Thanks

 

[Sedateme]

You see this posted so many times with no views or responses because Vocalek decided to spam this all over the board. Yes, it is an excellent opportunity to have our voice heard in this matter. Was it the right way to go about raising awareness of this? Not so much...

 

[Bovinia]

Thank you Elaine, for everything you do!

 

[Vocalek]

Apologies for the appearance of spam. I looked, but did not find a specific forum that is read by ALL the vendors. If there had been such a thing, I would have posted once, there. If I had a list of email addresses for all the vendors, I would have sent out message to each of them.

You haven't been a member for very long, so you may not appreciate the battle that we are in. We smoked for decades and kept hearing, "You must quit" from our doctors, from the American Lung Assocation, from the American Cancer Society, from the American Heart Association, from the World Health Organization, and many more. We tried. We tried over and over and over.

We finally found something that worked, and these groups want to ban it!

We have talked to them until we are blue in the fact, but they have their hearts set on everyone "quitting altogether". Since they fear our being able to save our health by switching away from smoking, because we are still using nicotine and they disapprove, they have to do everything they can think of to quash these products.

Tell the public that the products contain carcinogens (but forget to mention that they contain no more than is found in FDA-approved nicotine patches). Tell the public that you are "concerned" that the products may be aimed at children--even though there is zero proof of that. Tell the public that "we don't know what's in the vapor" (despite a review of 16 toxicology tests published in Journal of Public Health). Send out model legislation to all of the public health professionals across the nation, telling them to include e-cigarettes in smoking bans (Americans for Nonsmokers Rights has done this).

We need to reach the public. We have no money for advertising campaigns. This is a once-in-a-bluemoon opportunity to reach the public.

This notice first appeared in the Media and General News sub-forum on September 9. There are 27 responses. I posted it in the E-Cigarette Success Stories sub-forum, and there are 28 responses there.

This forum has nearly 70,000 members, with almost 10,000 active members. Surely we can do better than a couple of dozen stories told to The Doctors.

If you have a better idea than asking the vendors to contact their customers as a means of reaching thousands of vapers, please tell me what that might be.

 

[5cardstud]

Apologies for the appearance of spam. I looked, but did not find a specific forum that is read by ALL the vendors. If there had been such a thing, I would have posted once, there. If I had a list of email addresses for all the vendors, I would have sent out message to each of them.

You haven't been a member for very long, so you may not appreciate the battle that we are in. We smoked for decades and kept hearing, "You must quit" from our doctors, from the American Lung Assocation, from the American Cancer Society, from the American Heart Association, from the World Health Organization, and many more. We tried. We tried over and over and over.

We finally found something that worked, and these groups want to ban it!

We have talked to them until we are blue in the fact, but they have their hearts set on everyone "quitting altogether". Since they fear our being able to save our health by switching away from smoking, because we are still using nicotine and they disapprove, they have to do everything they can think of to quash these products.

Tell the public that the products contain carcinogens (but forget to mention that they contain no more than is found in FDA-approved nicotine patches). Tell the public that you are "concerned" that the products may be aimed at children--even though there is zero proof of that. Tell the public that "we don't know what's in the vapor" (despite a review of 16 toxicology tests published in Journal of Public Health). Send out model legislation to all of the public health professionals across the nation, telling them to include e-cigarettes in smoking bans (Americans for Nonsmokers Rights has done this).

We need to reach the public. We have no money for advertising campaigns. This is a once-in-a-bluemoon opportunity to reach the public.

This notice first appeared in the Media and General News sub-forum on September 9. There are 27 responses. I posted it in the E-Cigarette Success Stories sub-forum, and there are 28 responses there.

This forum has nearly 70,000 members, with almost 10,000 active members. Surely we can do better than a couple of dozen stories told to The Doctors.

If you have a better idea than asking the vendors to contact their customers as a means of reaching thousands of vapers, please tell me what that might be.

I don't think it's spam Vocalec and as I said on the other thread. You are a credit to the vaping community for all you do. I'm glad you posted this and I have sent in my story. No matter where you go there are people like you, Special people, that do all this extra work for the betterment of the community and there are those that find complaining is the only way to get attention. You should be commended for all you do for us.

 

[DC2]

Was it the right way to go about raising awareness of this? Not so much...

I think it would be wonderful if all vendors had some sort of system of notifying their customers of issues we vapers face.
Even if it was just a simple sticky thread announcing important things happening in the world of vaping.

ECF has a lot of visitors, but how many vapers are there out in the vaping world that don't frequent forums such as this?

There are issues that affect all of us, such as the S1403 bill to tax electronic cigarettes as much or more than real ones.
Imagine the impact we could have if the vendors were able to notify and possibly even mobilize their customer bases.

I hope every vendor is monitoring the Legislative News subforum here and keeping an eye out.

Things like S1403 are direct threats not just to their livelihoods, but to all vapers everywhere.
We have more strength in numbers than we realize, but we need to use our voices.

Vape on!!

 

[BuzzKill]

I have NO problem with this being posted here ( she is not selling anything ! she is trying to HELP US ! )

I will go over and reply as well Vocal

BTW I have NO problem saying I QUIT because I DID ! and so have MANY others .
.

 

[BuzzKill]

I smoked Marlboro cigarettes for 37 years , I tried to quit using the Patch , Gum , inhalers and finally CHantix ( Bad stuff man !!! ) NOTHING worked nothing , once I had on 2 patches and still smoked ! BAD Idea .
I recently broke my heel bone in an accident , it is a bad injury so I found a specialist , he said " I will not do the surgery if you SMOKE " so I googled quit smoking and found the E-CIG , I bought one and within 3 days I had cut down from 1 1/2 PAD to about 5-8 cigs a day !! WOW is all I could say to myself , I did more research and found a better model ( bought a cheap one ) and within 1 month I had QUIT completely .

I have been cigarette free for over 2 years now .

THe FDA tried to BAN these devices , they saved MY LIFE ! not sure about the gov. logic they tell us not to smoke but do not back the things that WORK !



MY REPLY !

 

[salemgold]

I appreciate that Vocalek has taken her time once again to make sure that the vapers of this forum know about any issues that arise and could work against us and also the issues that could help us.

Thank you very much again and I will add my 2 cents also.

 

[Vocalek]

I have NO problem with this being posted here ( she is not selling anything ! she is trying to HELP US ! )

I will go over and reply as well Vocal

BTW I have NO problem saying I QUIT because I DID ! and so have MANY others .
.

Absolutley right! We consumers can say whatever we want without fear of repurcussion. Vendors, however, cannot say that their products help folks to quit smoking or ask customers to say that. Due to a sticky little technicality, saying that your product helps people quit smoking is viewed as a health claim by the FDA.

If a vendor makes a health claim, the FDA can step in and tell them to stop selling until they have spent $800M on clinical trials to prove their "new drug" is safe and effective.

What I find ironic is that the same rules don't apply to everyone. Those lovely little pills and gadgets that we threw away our hard-hearned money on can get away with making claims that their products can help you stop smoking. And even though they don't work at all, the FDA looks the other way. Oh wait! I just figured it out. The FDA wants to smack down e-cigarettes not because they don't work, but becuase they DO work. Too much competition for Big Pharma. CigArrest is small potatoes, and since it doesn't work people will be back to buy patches, gum, and lozenges that work only slightly better.

 

[BuzzKill]

Absolutley right! We consumers can say whatever we want without fear of repurcussion. Vendors, however, cannot say that their products help folks to quit smoking or ask customers to say that. Due to a sticky little technicality, saying that your product helps people quit smoking is viewed as a health claim by the FDA.

If a vendor makes a health claim, the FDA can step in and tell them to stop selling until they have spent $800M on clinical trials to prove their "new drug" is safe and effective.

What I find ironic is that the same rules don't apply to everyone. Those lovely little pills and gadgets that we threw away our hard-hearned money on can get away with making claims that their products can help you stop smoking. And even though they don't work at all, the FDA looks the other way. Oh wait! I just figured it out. The FDA wants to smack down e-cigarettes not because they don't work, but becuase they DO work. Too much competition for Big Pharma. CigArrest is small potatoes, and since it doesn't work people will be back to buy patches, gum, and lozenges that work only slightly better.

Lots of products make claims that are not true and can not be proven , they are sensitive to NO SMOKING but look at the health food market and all types of organic pills etc. ( take Progene for example ) they are all over the place and get away with it , I would have no problem stating that my products Help people reduce or quit smoking if ECF would not ban me for it LOL !

In fact I think that is EXACTLY what we should do and take it to court and make the FDA PROVE that we are wrong.

 

[hairball]

Mike is there anyway you could send Vocalek's message out in a newsletter? Just a thought....

 

[Baldr]

This notice first appeared in the Media and General News sub-forum on September 9. There are 27 responses. I posted it in the E-Cigarette Success Stories sub-forum, and there are 28 responses there.

This forum has nearly 70,000 members, with almost 10,000 active members. Surely we can do better than a couple of dozen stories told to The Doctors.

I filled out the forum and sent my story to The Doctors. However, I didn't really see any need to post here on the forums "I posted to The Doctors".

I think there are probably many others who did respond, but didn't post to ECF about it.

 

[salemgold]

Well before reading this post many of us knew nothing at all about it

Mike is such a rebel! I think thats one of the things that I like most about him LOL

 

[BuzzKill]

Well before reading this post many of us knew nothing at all about it

Mike is such a rebel! I think thats one of the things that I like most about him LOL

LOL they used to call that a " trouble maker " !

 

[5cardstud]

LOL they used to call that a " trouble maker " !

What do you mean they used to? They still do.

I appreciate that Vocalek has taken her time once again to make sure that the vapers of this forum know about any issues that arise and could work against us and also the issues that could help us.

Thank you very much again and I will add my 2 cents also.

Your posts are always worth more than 2cents Salem.

 

[BuzzKill]

5CS did you get a SMART phone ?? if so you are gonna be all over the place LOL ! tapatalk etc.

 

[Rosco]

Thanks...again Elaine.

I submitted my story as well. The fda does not want to have me on TV.