E-cigarettes worry anti-tobacco groups

[mpetva]

E-cigarettes worry anti-tobacco groups - Bennington Banner

 

[Vocalek]

What is this?

He said his current supplier deals with PureSmoke, LLC, a California company, which was part of the reason he ordered that brand after doing some research. Brown said he heard of concerns about ones made overseas and wanted an American company that would back the product.

I thought all electronic cigarettes were manufactured in China.

I took a look at their site and they claim to have a unique design for the atomizer. A banner across the top of their page reads "PureSmoke donates 1% of all revenues to the American Cancer Society."

Hmm... why give money to an organization that is trying to drive you out of business?

I just left a message on the Contact Us page asking that very question. I supplied the link to the Amicus brief that the American Cancer Society joined. http://www.casaa.org/files/ALA_brief_ct._app..pdf

 

[Payne]

What is this?

A banner across the top of their page reads "PureSmoke donates 1% of all revenues to the American Cancer Society."

I guise I wont buy from PureSmoke.

 

[Victor Frankenstein]

"Store policy for us is we wouldn’t sell it to anyone under 18, just like we wouldn’t sell a non-alcoholic beverage to anyone under 21," said Jim Brown, manager of the Smoker’s Den.

What the hell does that even mean?

"Sorry kid. That bottled water is non-alcoholic. Come back when you're 21."

 

[dubd1c3]

What the hell does that even mean?

"Sorry kid. That bottled water is non-alcoholic. Come back when you're 21."

Uh, yeah, what does that mean? I think it might mean they won't even ENTERTAIN minors, as in, they won't sell any product or merchandise to any minor. Would that even be legal? They have the right to refuse service to anyone, right? Or was that before MLK?

That would be very weird to enforce as well. Carding a customer upon approach to the register regardless of merchandise in hand?

 

[tazzmann]

This kind of stuff makes me sick. I left this comment:

Well, non-smokers and anti-smokers can say what they want. People get addicted to any and all kinds of things, alcohol, caffeine, etc. It happens. Why start smoking at all? Well, why drink alcohol at all? Why drink coffee at all? Both are also addicting. So are carbohydrates. Stuff happens.

The question is "what can you do about getting off the addiction?". Well, for some of us, the answer was the e-cigarette. What I don't get is why so many people are so against them? I guess people just want to see other people die. There have been some studies done on e-cigarettes. It has been documented that there is no harmful SHS which is why cigarettes have been, so rightly, slammed upon.
If the non's and anti's would just realize that by being so judgmental and condescending that it MAKES smokers WANT to smoke more, maybe they would finally get the results they are looking for.

Anyway, say what you want, but you can have my e-cigarette when you pry it out of my cold dead hands (which should now be around about 90 years old instead of 60)! I won't trade my life because some sniveling do-gooder who has no life other than to judge others says it's bad without any kind of proof.

BTW, I don't use nicotine any more in my e-cig. Why continue to vape? I sometimes go DAYS without a vape. I like it every now and then because I am living healthier, have lost weight, exercise daily and reward myself with some snickerdoodle flavored vape. No calories. No worry.

Am I worried about my kids getting hooked on e-cigarettes or smoking? Absolutely not. Why? Because I educate them daily and they have seen the first hand effects of smoking. When my kids heard about all the whiners trying to ban e-cigarettes, my 9 year old son looked at me and said "Daddy, why are people trying to kill you?" Kids can be smarter than you think, if you take the time to educate them.

 

[Stephra]

Does this mean that the alphabet soup gang is making a run on Vermont now? Might be a good time for a preemptive education campaign!

 

[telsie]

"Store policy for us is we wouldn’t sell it to anyone under 18, just like we wouldn’t sell a non-alcoholic beverage to anyone under 21," said Jim Brown, manager of the Smoker’s Den.

What the hell does that even mean?

"Sorry kid. That bottled water is non-alcoholic. Come back when you're 21."

LOL. I'm sure "non-alcohlic beverage" was a typo.


--

Meanwhile, this part makes me want to scream:

the fear is children will use them and move on to cigarettes.

Retailer: Psst. Little kids. Come 'ere. I got somethin' tasty for ya: a nice toxic tobacco cigarette that will make you cough and smell bad. Sounds pretty good, huh?

Kids: Sounds awesome! Oh please can we have some?

Retailer: Well, if you get good grades on your report cards, I'll let you spent every cent you've saved in your piggy bank on a pack.

Vapers (in unison): Muwahahahahahahahaha. Our evil plot is working. It's working!

 

[rothenbj]

I issues the following comment-

"43 year, 2-3 pack a day habit prior to finding my first E-cig ten months ago. I didn’t plan on quitting smoking cigarettes, just cutting back (gf’s idea). I immediately dropped to less than half a pack a day after starting. That in itself made me feel better health wise so I decided I wanted to stop smoking entirely.

Six months later, I was still smoking and the number of cigarettes was inching upward. I was unhappy that I was unable to quit where other’s I communicated with on the e-cigarette-forum.com were quitting right after starting vaping E-cigs. That’s when I started looking into Swedish snus. This type of tobacco has been around for some two hundred years and has been examined extensively. It is considered extremely safe and the health studies in Sweden prove this. Two to four portions a day for me immediately got be away from cigarettes entirely and I haven’t had one in four months. I have reduced the liquid in my E-cig to nearly zero nicotine and really only use it when I have that hand to mouth “craving”. The snus is enough to take the edge off the depressive part of my personality.

If you spend any time understanding the health issues, it’s the smoke that causes them. Nicotine may keep you smoking, but it’s the smoke that makes you sick. It’s certainly not the nicotine, with known benefits, it’s not the tobacco, with other benefits derived from tobacco alkaloids, it’s the SMOKE.

The government doesn’t want to tell you that several tobacco products are orders of magnitude safer for you than cigarettes, 90-99% safer and probably closer to the top of that range. Why do they keep letting people die while hiding the truth?

The answer is simple- Big Tobacco profits from cigarettes, Big Pharma profits from cigarettes by selling highly ineffective, expensive NRT products, the alphabet soup “health” organizations (ALA, ACS et al- Big Pharma’s customer lobbying arm) benefit by continuing to receive massive “contributions form Big Pharma and our local, state and federal governments benefit in the outlandish taxes they assess to cigarettes. Everyone benefits except the smoker and his/her family and friends.

There are solutions for smoking available that can save your health and they are cheaper and more effective than what the government wants to force on you. Don’t let them control your life, keep these tools available to those that want to find them.

For the record, I have no financial interest in any tobacco company or E-cig company. I do have a sizable position in the Pharmaceutical Industry, some of which is in companies I am positioned against in this issue. They do well on improving people’s health on many fronts, just not this one."

These people drive me mad. I'd smoke a cigarette if it were 10 months ago. Thank god it's not.

 

[Kempton]

Poor muffins, they're concerned. About what, losing funding? Losing some control over the masses? Poor muffins.

 

[Andtyler2]

Great comment, Rothenbj. Your pharma connection is the kicker. Nice little twist at the end there.

 

[rothenbj]

Great comment, Rothenbj. Your pharma connection is the kicker. Nice little twist at the end there.

You just get tired of people accusing posters of being paid shills.

 

[kristin]

I made a comment as well. Love the username of that one guy "Hugh Jass". Just say it out loud - he lives up to it! LOL

Gwen Hannan said" "It's wishful thinking that this is something that will give them all of the joy, but none of the pain," she said.

She said there have been no studies on the effectiveness of the e-cigarette as a quitting tool, and added that there are multiple methods of getting free products such as patches, gum, and lozenges if a person wants to quit smoking. She said the e-cigarettes feed the addiction but appear to do nothing to treat it.
----------

1. Wishful thinking? A CASAA survey of over 2,200 electronic cigarette users tells the story - all of the joy, none of the pain. Tell them what they are experiencing is "wishful thinking" and they'll laugh. You can't hide the truth in your rhetoric.

2. What people are missing is that electronic cigarettes are NOT INTENDED TO TREAT NICOTINE ADDICTION.

You are confusing "smoking cessation" with "nicotine cessation." Nicotine use, absent the tobaccoo SMOKE, is 99% safer than smoking. Nicotine is NOT a carcinogen, nor does it cause significant health problems in most people. While addictive, it is comparable with the health effects of caffeine.

There is no reason to discontinue nicotine use when there is no SMOKE, as there is such an insignificant risk of harm to the user when the smoke is removed. If people feel that the risk of nicotine use is so significant (even at 1% risk,) they may as well go after coffee/energy drink users next, because they have the same health risks of ecig users.

3. The American Lung Association, FDA and other groups keep telling us that ecigs were found to contain carcinogens. What they DON'T tell people is that the levels were found to be at acceptable FDA levels - the same as found in the FDA-approved nicotine patch. Why are they hiding this fact from the public and making ecigs sound worse than they are? What are they trying to hide and WHY??

The fact the matter is that while ecigs are NOT a nicotine cessation treatment, they are a proven smoking REPLACEMENT for hundreds of thousands of users. They allow people who need or enjoy nicotine to get it without all of the toxins found in tobacco smoke.

Incidentally, I have been smoke-free since 8/09 after 20+ years of smoking. My husband, brother and sister-in-law are also smoke-free because of switching to electronic cigarettes. My mother-in-law and my mother were able to not only quit smoking, but they found it much easier to to quit nicotine use altogether (because they WANTED to, not because they HAD to) by using ecigs.

We are SMOKE-FREE and improving our health. We still continue to gain the benefits we get from nicotine in a 99% safer manner, because ecigs are an excellent substitute to what we were used to as smokers.

The question is, why do people have such an issue with nicotine use when it's neither a danger to the user nor to bystanders?? If it's not hurting me and it's not hurting you, why do you want us to quit?? Over the 1% risk we are taking? What about your use of choclate and sugary sweets, caffeine in coffee and energy drinks, that Big Mac that satisfies your craving, that bungie jump, ski hill run, scuba dive, airplane ride or drive to the mall (which has more than a 1% risk to your health?) If you can keep doing all of that, why do you have such a problem with our nicotine use? Just because it's deemed an "addiction?" Well I have news for you - for many of us it's now a CHOICE instead.

So, to all of you people insisting we quit nicotine, too, I ask you - why should we? Why does it bother you so much, even though we are NO LONGER SMOKING??

 

[Andtyler2]

Way to go, Kristin! At some point all of these thoughtful AND passionate commentaries have to give some of those folks pause.

 

[sherid]

I have been posting on Topix for 3 years now. The posts from various shills like Hugh Jass and many others are frightening. Some are obviously paid posters from anti smoking groups. There is no end to the lengths that these people will go to control smokers and now vapers. I have said many times, and many disagree with me, BUT the fight against anti-smoking and the fight against anti-vaping is the same battle.

 

[rothenbj]

Am I missing something or did my post disappear from the comments? I just reviewed the list and found mine absent, but I saw it yesterday. Maybe E-cigs have caused blindness.

 

[kristin]

Am I missing something or did my post disappear from the comments? I just reviewed the list and found mine absent, but I saw it yesterday. Maybe E-cigs have caused blindness.

I don't see it there either! Copy it from this thread and repost it to see what happens! I don't know why it would be moderated?? Maybe it was the link to ECF that flagged it?

 

[bassnut]

My opinion only:
I think it's counterproductive to "flame" commentators who disagree with us in these venues. When they become defensive that can't understand what we're saying. They don't really read our comments for content. They become defensive and start to knit-pick at a line or two, out of context, for criticism.

Stay cool and informative. Some may become defensive. They're usually the least informed. There's nothing we can do about that but we stand a better chance of being heard if we remain respectful but firm.
I don't have any kids but I was once a belligerent adolescent. My parents patiently tried to impart unto me their wisdom but I argued with them constantly.
After a few years I discovered they were right so apparently I was listening.

There are probably many other people reading these comments. They are also forming opinions based on what they read.
They may walk away with only one idea: "Vaping ecigs makes you hot-headed and mean". (They might be right )
Thanks to all who commented just the same. I'm glad I'm on your side.

 

[Vocalek]

Excellent advice Bassnut. Sometimes what I do is to draft a snide, spiteful, sarcastic response to a pinhead, then I erase that and write something cool-headed and logical. Works for me.

 

[Vocalek]

Am I missing something or did my post disappear from the comments? I just reviewed the list and found mine absent, but I saw it yesterday. Maybe E-cigs have caused blindness.

Did you check all the pages of comments? They are only displaying 20 comments per page.