FYI - We're being watched

[Tezcatlipoca]

I just stumbled upon news of this funded undergraduate research project underwritten by a faculty member at UC Riverside who has a track-record of trying to get e-cigs banned (undergrad's name omitted):

In Silico Approach Using Health-based Interactomes to Analyze the Symptoms Reported by Electronic Cigarette Users in Online Forums. Working with Professor Prue Talbot (cell biology and neuroscience), the study defines distinctive health hazards associated with the use of electronic cigarettes compared with non-electronic cigarettes.

So basically what I gather from this is that the posts in this forum are being read and whatever data that can be mined from people's posts about health issues are put into a computer-generated simulation to predict destructive effects of vaping on a cellular level. Personally, I don't see the intellectual merit of reading forum posts and trying to generate scientific data from them, but that's beside the point.

In other words, we're being watched. Great! So now I can add paranoia to my list of vaping side-effects which include include more energy, clearer breathing, getting sick less often, and feeling better about myself!

 

[d9mel]

I agree, acquiring random data from individuals who are making the transition from smoking to vaping doesn't seem like a valid representation of the effects of e cig use. The majority of negative health issues that I've read on ecf have been directly related to years or even decades of tobacco consumption.
My side effects after vaping for a year have been the same; vastly improved respritory function, increased energy, reduced occurance of illness and improved blood pressure ... although I do stress about my wife finding my credit card statement sometimes

 

[Spazmelda]

So, they are going to be studying every health correlation that a new vaper makes when they switch over? Of course, as scientists, I'm sure they are well aware that correlation is not causation? And I'm sure they also know that merely quitting smoking (no matter what method) also has some side effects. And that smoking for 20, 30, 40 years before switching will cause some confusion in interpreting whether it was decades of smoking that caused a particular problem or days/weeks/months of vaping. How are they going to address those issues to construct any meaninful data, especially since there's not really a way to "follow up" or verify anything here?

My guess is that they will be able to conclude that a few people seem to have a reaction to PG or VG, that vaping causes some people to be a little dehydrated and first and to cough some at first, and that a certain percentage of people, just by statistical coincidence, happen to get a cold or other health problem at the same time the start vaping. Then they will find a small number of other health problems that they will have no way to definitively link to vaping (but will probably go ahead and do so anyway).

 

[dragonbone]

I was just saying to hubby the other day, that the docs down at my local little hospital must wonder if either I left the country or died. In the 3 years before I quit smoking completely, I was in the emergency room at least 4 or 5 times a year with severe flu and bronchitis. Then there was my severe asthma attacks that had me on the machines for 45 min at a time and other visits to fill my asthma pump prescriptions...

In the last year and a bit - since quitting - I have not ONCE been ill. Not even a sniffle, no prescription to be filled, nothing. In the last 10 years or so my asthma would get very bad in the late autumn and all during winter. Something to do with the dry air or trees or whatever. So far NOTHING last winter and nothing so far this autumn. Going into winter now and I'm running up and down the stairs everyday, with no gasping and reaching for my pump.

 

[Plumes.91]

I've recently noticed that the damn purple egg sack looking bumps on my back have grown twice their size and they are moist. Idk? I'll have to contact my dermatologist & see if its normal for someone whose quit smoking, or if it could actually be from vaping. He said they'd be gone by now. I don't know if I should recommend him here or not at this point. "Dr. Ester Tawestiel" out of Arizona.

Just Eczema he said. Now I'm getting worried.

 

[ease21]

Let said undergrad talk... people like that best serve our cause by talking, the more of a soapbox they find themselves standing on the less intelligent/credible they appear. The same as racist groups, or a foot stomping child. The medical community (even here in Canada, home of the ecig ban) in general think highly of vaping as valid harm reduction. I can say this with certainty because I'm part of a clinical study of vaping and have contact on a regular basis with doctors who are surprised at the rapid return of lung function and cardiovascular health. They have followed the group of vapers over a 6 month period so far and plan to continue for the next 18 months.

 

[Spazmelda]

Oh, I should list my health issues since vaping:

Lowered blood pressure
Lowered resting heart rate
No weight gain
No longer get bronchitis every time I get a cold.
Less shortness of breath when I exercise
No more chest pain in the middle of the night

 

[~Sue~Feb2012]

I was a 1 - 2 PAD smoker for over 40 years and by last year had starting coughing all the time. Every morning I was coughing up a lung and the congested cough all day long went on for months on end. Hence the switch to vaping. Within weeks the cough stopped! I stopped coughing up a lung! No more congested lungs from all those cumulative years of the thousands of chemicals I was inhaling daily! The amazing thing is that, apparently, my lungs are reverting to a healthy state and must be repairing themselves. I truely didn't expect such a wonderful "side effect" of vaping! I went into it thinking it wouldn't work for me but I am pleasantly surprised.

 

[Charlie C]

I love hearing these things. I am so happy for you and trust you will keep off those dreaded smokes!
You have made a very wise choice and should be proud of yourself!
Cute avatar BTW!

Charlie

 

[Lbox88]

Yep, here's my bad side effects from vaping :

-Return of sense of smell
-Return of sense of taste
-Less breathing problems
-Feel better when I wake up in the morning
-No more smoker's cough
-No more phlegm
-Severely reduced shortness of breath during physical activity

yep, can't believe how bad electronic cigarettes are and there's totally no other studies that show how bad they are also
http://clearstream.flavourart.it/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CSA_ItaEng.pdf

 

[four2109]

Good. What are you afraid of? I welcome research over BT&BP lobbying and propaganda. I don't see our vendors funding it, and this isn't going to be the only research done. Maybe we will find out why some people can't do PG, or VG. Maybe it will lead to better reduced harm products.
We don't KNOW that ecigs are safe, but believe they are reduced harm. Would you prefer to wait 70 years for another round of the "tobacco trials" on Ecigs? I hope research give us more insight into the upper respiratory and phlegm issues. There was some research into that but it stopped rather suddenly. Maybe there is a better carrier.
Using reports from online forums makes perfect sense. It sure beats the old smoking machines! We have known we were the guinea pigs all along. There is now a pool of fairly long term users.
This is from a tobacco state.
UofL research shows substituting with smokeless tobacco saves lives — University of Louisville

My (Crystal) Hua (English and biology) – In Silico Approach Using Health-based Interactomes to Analyze the Symptoms Reported by Electronic Cigarette Users in Online Forums. Working with Professor Prue Talbot (cell biology and neuroscience), the study defines distinctive health hazards associated with the use of electronic cigarettes compared with non-electronic cigarettes.

 

[~Sue~Feb2012]

I've recently noticed that the damn purple egg sack looking bumps on my back have grown twice their size and they are moist. Idk? I'll have to contact my dermatologist & see if its normal for someone whose quit smoking, or if it could actually be from vaping. He said they'd be gone by now. I don't know if I should recommend him here or not at this point. "Dr. Ester Tawestiel" out of Arizona.

Just Eczema he said. Now I'm getting worried.

OMG 8-o

I love hearing these things. I am so happy for you and trust you will keep off those dreaded smokes!
You have made a very wise choice and should be proud of yourself!
Cute avatar BTW!

Charlie

Thanks, right back atcha and your avatar is very interesting!

Good. What are you afraid of? I welcome research over BT&BP lobbying and propaganda. I don't see our vendors funding it, and this isn't going to be the only research done. Maybe we will find out why some people can't do PG, or VG. Maybe it will lead to better reduced harm products.
We don't KNOW that ecigs are safe, but believe they are reduced harm. Would you prefer to wait 70 years for another round of the "tobacco trials" on Ecigs? I hope research give us more insight into the upper respiratory and phlegm issues. There was some research into that but it stopped rather suddenly. Maybe there is a better carrier.
Using reports from online forums makes perfect sense. It sure beats the old smoking machines! We have known we were the guinea pigs all along. There is now a pool of fairly long term users.
This is from a tobacco state.
UofL research shows substituting with smokeless tobacco saves lives — University of Louisville

Off topic perhaps >>> In looking at your sig, may I ask... did you have a battery explosion?

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

Good. What are you afraid of? I welcome research over BT&BP lobbying and propaganda. I don't see our vendors funding it, and this isn't going to be the only research done. Maybe we will find out why some people can't do PG, or VG. Maybe it will lead to better reduced harm products.
We don't KNOW that ecigs are safe, but believe they are reduced harm. Would you prefer to wait 70 years for another round of the "tobacco trials" on Ecigs? I hope research give us more insight into the upper respiratory and phlegm issues. There was some research into that but it stopped rather suddenly. Maybe there is a better carrier.
Using reports from online forums makes perfect sense. It sure beats the old smoking machines! We have known we were the guinea pigs all along. There is now a pool of fairly long term users.
This is from a tobacco state.
UofL research shows substituting with smokeless tobacco saves lives — University of Louisville

I was being tongue-in-cheek when I mentioned my "paranoia," but I also welcome research over lobbying and propaganda, as long as the research is unbiased and thorough. Unfortunately, the vaping research carried out by the professor overseeing the undergrad's study is neither unbiased nor thorough, and it seems she has been on an e-cig banning crusade if you take a look through her publications of the past couple of years.

Here's a published study by the same team:
Mining data on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) from YouTube videos
Again, this is in no way a controlled study. It measures "puff duration" from e-cig users in YouTube videos, measured against that of cigarette smokers, and assumes that a longer "puff duration" from vaping will be more harmful to the user. I'm guessing this is based on the results of a previous article that she did: Conventional and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have different smoking characteristics

In this study, they've hooked up cigarettes and auto-battery e-cigs to a "smoking machine" with a manometer to measure the suction needed to draw smoke or vapor into the lungs. The findings were that e-cigs were potentially more dangerous because it required more force to activate the automatic batteries, and vapor would therefore penetrate deeper into the lung tissue of the user. What I find distressing is that it reflects a clear lack of understanding of how vaping or smoking actually works. What they're testing for is essentially a lung-hit style of inhaling and I don't know anyone who does that (nor do I know anyone who still uses auto-batteries). Of course, smoking and vaping are more like drinking from a straw -- we generally create a vacuum in our mouths, filling it with smoke or vapor and then then we inhale, rather than forcefully inhaling directly from the device into our lungs. What is obvious to me is that her team has never talked to anyone who vapes. The clear objective here seems to be generating models based on limited data with the end goal of getting published and having e-cigs banned. They clearly have an agenda. As others in this thread have mentioned, how can these researchers expect any type on unbiased results if they're relying on patchy descriptions of symptoms in forum posts and not looking into the medical histories of those who post or doing any type of follow-up? While this attempts to be "sciencey," it is most certainly not science.

 

[Rachy_B]

Im not gonna lie, i would LOVE to write a paper on vaping (postgrad btw!) from a social point of view! I find it fascinating! The specialised language and culture is really interesting! Whilst learning a lot for my own vaping needs, i do often contemplate a paper but i won't...yet...and when/if i do, it will be with informed consent-no skulking about in the shadows! Ethics come first as this undergrad should know!x

 

[wonderland]

This reminds me of people who try to write college research papers using Wikipedia

 

[Kaisu]

The biggest side effect I have noticed is a loss of despair. I despaired of ever quitting smoking. I am as strong willed as anyone, the less kind have called me "pig-headed" and "stubborn beyond stupidity". I quit once for 7 years, another time for 3. 6 weeks into my latest quit and I knew I would't make it. I was doomed to die or worse yet - linger for decades in the half life that a person with my pack history is destined for.
Vaping has given me hope. I dont want a cigarette and am so grateful for WTA juice and this community. How dare some ill informed snot nosed little college student try and take that away from me.

 

[user808a]

I turn into what seems to be a random colored bunny rabbit for about 5 minutes everytime I vape =p

Maybe they can find a correlation of the juice type and the bunny's color

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

Im not gonna lie, i would LOVE to write a paper on vaping (postgrad btw!) from a social point of view! I find it fascinating! The specialised language and culture is really interesting! Whilst learning a lot for my own vaping needs, i do often contemplate a paper but i won't...yet...and when/if i do, it will be with informed consent-no skulking about in the shadows! Ethics come first as this undergrad should know!x

I can forgive a little ethical slip from an undergrad, but the professor in charge should really know better... as should the journals that are publishing her works!

This reminds me of people who try to write college research papers using Wikipedia

It happens with alarming frequency, I'm afraid!

 

[damthisisfun]

YO Undergrad - if you snooping around this post - PM me and I will give you some stuff to write about - cant post it here......let me give you a hint - I am a 45 yr old male and I seems like I am 18 again - get the drift - lol...............

 

[Mediaguy]

I came across that in a search as well...

Ms Hua and her mentoring professor must not have conducted any actual research prior to writing the abstract or proposal for that paper, and since University Chancellors can be just as ignorant as the rest of us about any one thing, it must have sounded like a great idea... those nefarious nicotine delivery devices must not be good for you. Reminded of ducks, I think: if it looks like a cigarette and it puffs like a cigarette, it must be... ??

I read here Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity: 2012 Chancellor that Ms Hua actually got the fellowship - won't she and her mentor and the provost and Chancellor be disappointed when they scour the boards and forums and blogs and conduct actual (though ostensibly nothing more than cohort study) research, and find their theory entirely invalid, and unprovable.

Have any of you seen anywhere they post about ill-effects of ecigs, secondary and/or long-term consequences, unpleasantness, complaints in any sort of general form, about e-cigarettes?

(Ooops I might have just given the Tobacco COINTELPRO people an idea!)