Good news for once! Positive article in Medical Journal of Australia

[Groth]

Hi! I'm a frequent contributor to the Aussie Vapers forum, and I must post this here, as this is my first post on this forum ever. I'd be happy if someone wanted to post it in the Media section;
Coming from one of the worst countries for vaping in the world, (Australia, full of snakes and ANTZ) it is a breath (?vape) of fresh air. I'll let you know when the expected horrified ANTZ response from Simon Chapman and his ilk come in.

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2012...e-smokeless-tobacco-products-and-e-cigarettes

I don't know if anyone on here has online access; (I don't) but I have the paper print article in my hot hands, I've just read it, and overall it is good! They call for relaxing of restrictions on snus and e-cigarettes in Australia, and subjecting e-cigs to lower taxes. Interestingly they call for ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) to be made to look less like cigarettes and banning the red glowing tip, like we discussed in an earlier thread on Aussie Vapers. They are a bit too regulatory for my liking, but it is a huge step from almost all other articles in the medical literature so far in Australia.

The authors are Coral E Gartner, Wayne D Hall and Ron Borland. I think many of us knew of Coral, but I haven't heard of the other two before. Intriguingly, Ron Borland is part of the VicHealth Centre for tobacco Control. I would have thought it was a hotbed for ANTZ.

In other good news they mention they are investigators on a NHMRC trial on snus and e-cigs in Australia!

Ron Borland is also part of The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project. Can we hope against hope that he may influence this body to become slightly less anti e-cig?

 

[mostlyclassics]

Crud! You have to subscribe to read the article on-line.

On-line only subscription rates are AU$90 per annum or AU$27 per week for non-Australians.

 

[Cicada]

gotta get a sub

 

[unlearnaddiction]

It is unfortunate that they want the E cigarettes to look less like real cigarettes. I am a physician and have done extensive reading on addition and how it works biologically and its origins evolutionarily. To treat addiction we need new products that look, smell, taste, feel like the drugs we are addicted to as possible. This allows for a process of unlearning addiction by decoupling the dopamine release and pleasure sensation in the brain from the drug cues. I explain this extensively in my blog unlearnaddiction.com.
I am glad to see some of my colleagues have started showing support for electronic cigarettes. I just wish the FDA and the government anti smoking groups would come around.

 

[Groth]

They are not entirely THR in their article in that they want to heavily regulate e-cigs and reduce nicotine consumption and they see this as a way to phase out smoked tobacco products entirely but one must be aware of the extreme ANTZ environment here in Australia and they might have had to be so stringent in their article in order for it to be published.

 

[Groth]

Here is the bio for Ron. He's certainly very prominent in the anti-tobacco world. Is there anyone else who is as prominent and mainstream who has put their name to a relatively pro vaping academic article in the medical literature?

from
VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control - Research staff profiles

Ron Borland PhD. MAPS
Nigel Gray Distinguished Fellow in Cancer Prevention

Trained in psychology, Ron has worked in tobacco control since shortly after joining the (then) Anti-Cancer Council's Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer in 1986. He was the Inaugual Director of VCTC, a position he relinquished in 2004 when he took up his current position.

Ron has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, most on topics in tobacco control. Ron's expertise covers much of tobacco control. He has an international reputation for his work on smoking cessation and on evaluating the impact of policy changes and programs (including media campaigns) on smokers.

Ron is one of the Principal Investigators of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation collaboration (currently active In 14 countries). This project Involves surveying cohorts of smokers about reactions to policies and programs; and collection of Information on tobacco products. His current major interests are in the development of a rational comprehensive regulatory framework for tobacco, the ITC collaboration, and on the development and Improvement of mass-disseminable smoking cessation interventions, particularly Quitlines and internet-deliverable services.

Ron developed the Quit Coach, a computer program that provides interactive personalised advice to smokers. He is also PI of our EQuit study which is exploring the value of adding telepone messaging to the Quit Coach.

Ron has made plenary presentations at national and international conferences on tobacco control, including at the 11th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Beijing, August 1997, the 14th WCTOH in Washington, July 2006; and the 13th SRNT Annual Meeting, February 2007 in Austin Texas.

Ron is an active contributor to the broader field through the Australian Cancer Society, professional societies in the area, government and semi-government committees, and through editorial advisory roles on five peer-reviewed journals that are all major dissemination sources for tobacco control. He has honorary academic appointments at The University of Melbourne (Professorial Fellow in the School of Population Health and Department of information Systems); and at Monash University. He has co-supervised research students from these and other universities