Ecigs Worse than Cigarettes Says Local Man

[Arnie H]

Recently, I Had on my Ex-Smoker T-shirt and had my E-cig with me in public when a man approached and we started taking. Whilst discussing vaping and E-cigs he made a most astonishing statement. He said to me:

I heard that ecigs were worse than cigarettes!

I was horrified! And although I didn't think to ask him where he had heard this (I was too busy trying to counter and correct him), I thought to myself later, who is going around saying such things? What intelligent, educated, anti-nicotine zealot would dare say something like this? And if this one man is going about believing this sort of thing, might there be others who were similarly mis-informed?

It was as though someone had said to me that "they had heard that the Earth was indeed flat, and that the reason sailing ships disappeared over the horizon was because they had fallen off the edge of the world!" I could not believe what I was hearing. Was I in fact H.G. Wells? And if so, where was my time machine? What year was it?

 

[xtwosm0kesx]

ECF is terribly depressing today...

 

[Vaslovik]

He's telling your what he claims to have heard, but it's more likely the prejudice he's already front-loaded with. I've had people tell me that too, and that was always the case. They know nothing about it but their prejudice, so they want to come at you with that. Such people are best ignored, you aren't going to convince them of anything because they aren't interested in the facts.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I work in the casino industry and experience flawed logic and uninformed but strong opinions all the time (in both vaping and gaming). I usually will try to correct/counter the error. If they aren't receptive to the guidance I drop it quickly and try to change the subject. A stubborn ignoramus isn't worth my time or effort.

 

[Ripshod]

Seems to me the people who quit cigarettes a few years ago without the benefit of an e-cig always have a lot to say against them. They see e-cigs as a weakness because they had the strength to quit without.

Could they just be jealous??

(Strictly my opinion, not derogatory)

 

[Smokingnomore]

As Ron White says " You can't fix stupid".

 

[scott58]

I hear it a lot also, however in August i'll be smoke free for 5 years. I have no problem telling them the difference in the way I feel now as opposed to the way I felt back then. The same stairs I use to be out of breath at when I reached the top I can take 2 steps at a time now and not miss a beat. vaping has improved my health by an easy factor of ten and it's not something they can easily argue with.

 

[HoseGarden]

Ecigs Worse than Cigarettes Says Local Man

what does Out of Town Man have to say?

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Most of the negative opinions I've received have been from people that never were smokers. That being said, I must admit that I had a quite skeptical (almost negative) opinion of PV's up until about a year ago. I saw friends and acquaintances vaping to quit smoking, but most of them were still smoking. It made no sense to me- why pick up another habit? I didn't know what was in the juice, but I figured the FDA would eventually say it was worse than smoking and the fad would die out (not that I trust the FDA, but that's another story). For several years I didn't bother looking into it. After a friend of mine successfully stopped smoking completely using a PV I decided to learn more. I realized that most of the failures were caused by people not using a little bit of diligence. Keep your PV charged, juiced and in good working order and it's not a problem.

 

[Stosh]

 

[AndriaD]

Seems to me the people who quit cigarettes a few years ago without the benefit of an e-cig always have a lot to say against them. They see e-cigs as a weakness because they had the strength to quit without.

Could they just be jealous??

(Strictly my opinion, not derogatory)

Yes I think that's it exactly -- I saw a tweet today on someone's blue bird I was following, that said something like "You quit smoking with no pain? Well then you have to start back so you can do it right!" That was totally tongue-in-cheek but I think that's EXACTLY what these idiots are saying, that because it didn't cause us any pain to quit, then we haven't "really" quit.

My mom gives me a lot of this stuff; recently I called her out about it, and told her she was just flat-out jealous because it was so hard for her and easy for me. She said, "nooooooo, I'm GLAD you quit, but..." (yadda yadda that can't be good for you - you're supposed to stop the cessation - everyone else does etc). So I finally just said, it's NOT cessation, it's REPLACEMENT. And it might NOT be "100% safe" for 100% of everyone, but it's 99.99% safer than smoking!

I quit drinking almost 22 yrs ago, the "old-fashioned" way -- AA -- go to meetings and don't drink! And it was hard at first, very hard. But if they came out tomorrow with an e-alcohol equivalent to e-cigarettes, I would stand up and cheer! All those poor suffering alkies wouldn't have to suffer the way that I did, just to stop killing themselves! That would be AWESOME, IMHO.

But then I'm not a small-minded person.

Andria

 

[Astron]

It's crazy. The FIRST two close friends (!!!) I told about my quitting via vaping had something to say about PG and antifreeze. It's like their knee-jerk instinct was to berate/question my attempt to quit.

Thankfully one of my friends is now so psyched that I quit smoking, she suddenly only has positive anecdotes about what she's seen first-hand from one other vaper she knows. The other friend is still a smoker, but she is younger than me, and probably thinks she is going to live forever (as I did at her age).

 

[wv2win]

Recently, I Had on my Ex-Smoker T-shirt and had my E-cig with me in public when a man approached and we started taking. Whilst discussing vaping and E-cigs he made a most astonishing statement. He said to me:


I was horrified! And although I didn't think to ask him where he had heard this (I was too busy trying to counter and correct him), I thought to myself later, who is going around saying such things? What intelligent, educated, anti-nicotine zealot would dare say something like this? And if this one man is going about believing this sort of thing, might there be others who were similarly mis-informed?

It was as though someone had said to me that "they had heard that the Earth was indeed flat, and that the reason sailing ships disappeared over the horizon was because they had fallen off the edge of the world!" I could not believe what I was hearing. Was I in fact H.G. Wells? And if so, where was my time machine? What year was it?

Considering that there are now hundreds of print and media articles/stories on the dangers of vaping, I'm not sure why you are surprised. All the major national news organizations are anti-vaping, except for one. The following Senators have all called on the FDA to ban vaping due to the danger it presents to the public:

Sens. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Jack Reed, D-Conn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and .... Durbin, D-Ill.

I can't blame the public at large for believing that vaping is dangerous. And considering that many of us who vape are not interested in supporting the one organization (CASAA) who is trying to provide the public with factual information on vaping, we can't hold the public to that high of a standard for obtaining accurate information.

 

[Anjaffm]

I heard that ecigs were worse than cigarettes!

Best response to that:
"Yes, ecigs are worse than cigarettes. For the tax coffers"

Just think of all that money lost in cigarette tax. And the fact that smokers are said to die an average of 8 years earlier. Meaning that for every person who switches to ecigs, the government may have to pay the old age pension for 8 years longer. Never mind that you paid in all your life for that pension. The government would love to see you die early and then keep the money. Your money.

And I agree with wv2win:
Joining CASAA is a first step towards making our voices heard. The voices of the consumers.The voices of those who would love to live those 8 years longer and collect their pensions

And not the voice of greed.

 

[Fitzie]

All the media - print and television - lately seem hell bent on promoting the idea that e-cigarettes are dangerous. Since the FDA issued it's proposed deeming regs, I see this even more. I suspect that's where the public gets its information about the dangers of vaping.

Unfortunately, I don't think the vaping industry or CASAA has the money to run an ad campaign documenting the real facts related to e-cigarettes or publicizing the scientific data which backs up the beneficial health impact of vaping vs. cigarette smoking. So I have no idea how the truth about vaping will ever become public knowledge.

 

[AndriaD]

All the media - print and television - lately seem hell bent on promoting the idea that e-cigarettes are dangerous. Since the FDA issued it's proposed deeming regs, I see this even more. I suspect that's where the public gets its information about the dangers of vaping.

Unfortunately, I don't think the vaping industry or CASAA has the money to run an ad campaign documenting the real facts related to e-cigarettes or publicizing the scientific data which backs up the beneficial health impact of vaping vs. cigarette smoking. So I have no idea how the truth about vaping will ever become public knowledge.

Maybe they should start a fund just for that -- instead of contributing to a large (?) and nebulous organization, you contribute to the fund for a massive PR campaign.

???

Andria

 

[Blind Squirrel]

All the media - print and television - lately seem hell bent on promoting the idea that e-cigarettes are dangerous. Since the FDA issued it's proposed deeming regs, I see this even more. I suspect that's where the public gets its information about the dangers of vaping.

Unfortunately, I don't think the vaping industry or CASAA has the money to run an ad campaign documenting the real facts related to e-cigarettes or publicizing the scientific data which backs up the beneficial health impact of vaping vs. cigarette smoking. So I have no idea how the truth about vaping will ever become public knowledge.

This is going to be a continual problem for some time to come I fear. Big drug companies and some tobacco companies are lobbying for banning/taxing/regulating e-cigs to help keep their bottom lines in the black. I've experienced similar actions in the casino industry. The side with the more savvy social media team will hold court for a while. But also thanks to social media, the truth will get out and spread.

Edit: Also, the news loves a good "OMG you gotta stop what you're doing until you see this!" story.

 

[AndriaD]

BTW... e-cigs do crop up in public venues more often than you may think (though admittedly not nearly as often as they should!). I happened to catch a bit of this past week's SNL, and Charlize Theron was the guest host, and she did a skit in which she pulled out a cig-a-like and puffed away quite expertly, and you know non-users don't have that comfort and familiarity to be able to handle either cigarettes or their digital equivalent with any degree of aplomb, I've noticed that in movies for years. They always look awkward.

The infamous Cigarette Smoking Man on the X-Files was in fact a former smoker, and used "herbal" cigarettes in the show, and no I'm not talking about the illegal kind. You could tell that at some point he had learned to hold and handle them quite familiarly.

Andria

 

[irwink]

As if we needed more proof - more proof that the well orchestrated propaganda campaign is working. A similar disinformation campaign resulted in the criminalization of a well known herbal substance that is only now being slowly undone after decades. I would bet money that despite all our efforts history will repeat itself. I'll also bet there are many present in this forum who still believe the propaganda spread by that earlier campaign.

The method has proven itself extremely effective in the past. It will again.

 

[ut1205]

All the media - print and television - lately seem hell bent on promoting the idea that e-cigarettes are dangerous. Since the FDA issued it's proposed deeming regs, I see this even more. I suspect that's where the public gets its information about the dangers of vaping.

Unfortunately, I don't think the vaping industry or CASAA has the money to run an ad campaign documenting the real facts related to e-cigarettes or publicizing the scientific data which backs up the beneficial health impact of vaping vs. cigarette smoking. So I have no idea how the truth about vaping will ever become public knowledge.

If the media was "neutral" on the subject then that might work, but they seem to be out to destroy e-cigs. Major Media broadcast are where the "masses" get all their information and if you see it on TV then they think it must be true. Media does the same thing with politics. GW Bush, according to them, couldn't do anything right and Obama can't do anything wrong.