Another cross post - will work on the others later. Come on guys! We have GOT to get real, and real soon. Hearings are on Tuesday morning so today's the time to get your testimony in if you can or cannot attend the hearing.
SB 2495
I am writing to express my deepest concern with the recent bills pertaining to vaping devices. I would like to offer some facts in regards to "e-cigarettes".
Is it smoking?
Calling an e-cigarette a smoking device is erroneous. There is no burning, and there isn't any secondhand smoke concern. To call the water vapor from a vaping device "smoke" and banning it accordingly, is akin to telling a warm eskimo on a very cold day to quit breathing or you'll take him to jail - because he's obviously "smoking".
Banning vaping devices wherever smoking is banned is impossible to enforce. There is no smoke, no odour, no residue on walls, nothing.
Is it dangerous?
"E-cigarettes" have been around for years. I guarantee you that if there was even one single meaningful scientific study that indicated that vaping is dangerous to either the user or anyone around him/her, then Pfizer, the Heart Association the Lung Association and all the others would have been all over it like fleas on a dog.
In fact all these companies/"organizations" in spite of their major funding sources from pharmaceutical and tobacco funding have already been rejected at federal level.
Why does vaping exist?
If you look at the chemicals in a legally approved tobacco product, you will find arsenic, MOAI's, (anti depressants), nail polish remover, ammonia, formaldehyde and on and on. These add-ins are designed to make quitting nearly impossible. They are available to anyone over the age of 18. Sure, there are those who have quit but the majority have found it a huge challenge and have failed time after time.
I can personally attest to the uselessness and ineffectiveness of pharma smoking cessation products. I hear often of 3-pack-a day, 50 year smokers finally being able to quit with vaping when all the other products have failed.
Vaping has allowed many of us ex-smokers to be just that. Yes, there may - or may not - be nicotine in vaping products. But there is also nicotine in over the counter smoking cessation products that have had years to prove themselves and failed dismally. In fact there are prescription inhalers that have MORE chemicals in them than vaping liquid, - and are approved for children over the age of 12! Yes! 12!
Aren't flavors designed to encourage children to try this?
No. Vaping is a harm reduction program. The flavors are for us ex-smokers who are afraid that sticking with "tobacco flavorings" will just encourage our reversion to smoking cigarettes.
As adults we have the right to choose the flavors. Alcohol is being sold in many flavors and cocktail blends nowadays. It is designed, marketed and, in my opinion, much more attractive to a teenager than a boring old bottle of vodka or gin on a shelf used to be.
Let's not forget that vaping itself can be quite an expensive endeavor. Sadly, the cost of trying [edit:] illegal things [end edit] is cheaper.
In summary, while the usual suspects can point at dwindling number of smokers, it isn't through anything they have personally accomplished. It's because more exciting possibilities have presented themselves to the younger generation. Sadly these options are just as, or more deadly even than cigarettes.
Vaping has proved itself time and time again to be the very best harm reduction product on the market and one which has proved life saving for those of us who used to smoke and may well be why the folks of Pfizer and the "smoking cessation sponsorships" of big tobacco companies are so desperate to see it go away.
I sincerely request that you consider the health benefits to us older folk who have finally found a way out from life threatening cigarettes and thank you so much for reading.
