Good NY Times article today

[curious8]

Though the headline reads "Use of E-Cigs Rises Sharply Among Teenagers", it's actually a very well balanced article and suggests rise in teen vaping may be responsible for 25% teen reduction in smoking cigarettes - check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/h....html?emc=edit_na_20150416&nlid=53545873&_r=0
[h=1][/h]

 

[squee]

But the data also told another story. From 2011 to 2014, the share of high school students who smoked traditional cigarettes declined substantially, to 9 percent from 16 percent, and use of cigars and pipes ebbed too. The shift suggested that some teenage smokers may be using e-cigarettes to quit.

The decline in cigarette use among teenagers accelerated substantially from 2013 to 2014, dropping by 25 percent, the fastest pace in years. The pattern seemed to go against the dire predictions of anti-tobacco advocates that e-cigarettes would become a gateway to cigarettes among youth, and suggested that the devices might actually be helping, not hurting. The pattern resembled those in Sweden and Norway, where a rise in the use of snus, a smokeless tobacco product, was followed by a sharp decline in cigarette use.

“They’re not a gateway in, and they might be accelerating the gateway out,” said David Abrams, executive director of the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies, an anti-tobacco group.

It's actually a good piece with actual facts in it. Too bad many people will only read the headline

 

[Moonbogg]

That was a good article. I can't believe it came from anywhere in the state of NY. I'd be honest here about my opinions regarding vapor products and youth, but I'll just get bashed. Screw it, here it is anyway.
Its good that young people use vapor products instead of smoking, but its also bad that young people are using a nicotine product at all. E-cigs have a techy, trendy, sub culture and hobbyist appeal to them that make them attractive to young people, even if they don't smoke. So, that's bad. The thing is though, we live in a world of tobacco evils, and if you take away the lesser of them, then the greater evil will prevail. No one wants young people to develop nicotine habits of any kind, but they will do it, and when they do, it better be a vapor product and not a cigarette.

 

[philoshop]

.....except that it's not smoking, and it's not actually a tobacco product.

 

[Kent C]

Reason magazine - Jacob Sullum - on the same survey today:

Smoking and Vaping Keep Moving in Opposite Directions Among Teenagers - Hit & Run : Reason.com

A better read, imo:

"Part of the problem is that the CDC and the ALA, like the Food and Drug Administration, count e-cigarettes as "tobacco products," even though they contain no tobacco. These opponents of smoking also seem strangely oblivious to the lack of combustion. Yet these two factors make e-cigarettes dramatically different from smoked tobacco, to the point that it makes no sense to group them together. One might as well call nicotine gum and patches "tobacco products."" (my emphasis).

 

[curious8]

Hey Kent, they're both good reads, imo

 

[Kent C]

Hey Kent, they're both good reads, imo

You're right. I should have substituted 'from my view' for 'imo'

At least I didn't snark out on the NYT like some do on other media by being 'so surprised'!!

 

[Stubby]

That was a good article. I can't believe it came from anywhere in the state of NY. I'd be honest here about my opinions regarding vapor products and youth, but I'll just get bashed. Screw it, here it is anyway.
Its good that young people use vapor products instead of smoking, but its also bad that young people are using a nicotine product at all. E-cigs have a techy, trendy, sub culture and hobbyist appeal to them that make them attractive to young people, even if they don't smoke. So, that's bad. The thing is though, we live in a world of tobacco evils, and if you take away the lesser of them, then the greater evil will prevail. No one wants young people to develop nicotine habits of any kind, but they will do it, and when they do, it better be a vapor product and not a cigarette.

Tobacco, in whatever form and in whatever place or time it was introduced has always become popular and widely used. People are getting something out of it they like so continue to use it. Believing we can reach a tobacco/nicotine free world is nothing more then a utopian fantasy.

The best approach is to educate the public that there are ways of using tobacco and nicotine that are significantly less harmful then inhaling smoke. Then people can make rational choices based on their own preferences. It is the lie that all tobacco/nicotine products are equally risky that is killing people.

 

[Bill Godshall]

I thought the NY Times article was terrible (for vaping and for objectivity), but very good if you support the FDA deeming regulation (which would ban >99.9% of e-cigs).

 

[Kent C]

Tobacco, in whatever form and in whatever place or time it was introduced have always become popular and widely used. People are getting something out of it they like so continue to use it. Believing we can reach a tobacco/nicotine free world is nothing more then a utopian fantasy.

The best approach is to educate the public that there are ways of using tobacco and nicotine that are significantly less harmful then inhaling smoke. Then people can make rational choices based on their own preferences. It is the lie that all tobacco/nicotine products are equally risky that is killing people.

1000 "likes" and something I've posted from time to time Smoking's history dates back to as early as 5000–3000 BC, and has been as common in many cultures as currency, religion, and like other drugs, it was used as a medicine, esp. painkiller for tooth and ear aches, poultice for wounds, aches and a pains, and insect repellant.

Unfortunately, along with currency, religion, drugs and tobacco, another thing that all cultures have is 'people who know what's best for others' And unfortunately, they are just has hard to get rid of, as the things they're trying to get rid of. But like them, wrt them, I'm in favor of eradication.