Hearings at the General Assembly

[SteveD3]

Was briefed on this for work this morning. (Odd too, as I'm a tech reporter. But I'm also the only one to vape.) Thought I would share. If they allow press into the GA, then I will get to attend for coverage, not sure yet.

-Steve

Dr. Brad Rodu (Dr. Brad Rodu | Heartland Institute) , senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, will testify on Wednesday, September 19 before the Indiana General Assembly’s Health Finance Commission on tobacco harm reduction.

Dr. Rodu, the Endowed Chair in tobacco Harm Reduction Research at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, will testify before the commission about:

* how smokeless tobacco use is 98 percent safer than smoking cigarettes – not nearly the same risk, as is often presumed;

* how Sweden has a high rate of smokeless tobacco use, the lowest smoking rate in Europe, and the lowest rate of lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases in Europe;

* how common smoking cessation programs and products in the United States have a very low record of success compared to other tobacco harm reduction strategies.

 

[Hoosier]

That's cool. I wonder which commission member(s) invited him?

 

[SteveD3]

I'd like to know that as well. At least they are willing to hold hearings on the issue. I'm trying to track down Dr. Rodu's book on the topic. He published a series of reports on his work, and research from all over. Should make for good reading.

 

[Hoosier]

I'm thinking that a member or three would like others to hear about to his research and it will be interesting to see how many of them actually listen.

The timing of it has me wondering what is going on behind closed doors too.

 

[SteveD3]

Interestingly, they didn't allow press at the meeting. Not sure if that was intended, or because I didn't give proper notice or something. Not sure what went on, and no one had any idea if the details would be made public.

 

[Hoosier]

Yep, that's interesting...

Makes me go, "hmmmmm".

 

[capt.n.coke]

Thanks for the heads up Steve (even though I missed it from not being on ECF often lately.)

I'm curious about your perspective on getting some THR/ecig related media exposure. It seems like its very hard to make it news. I thought I had something after the channel 6 guy tapped my shoulder at the Beech Grove ban, but with no amendment, there was no news. Hmm... What does it take to make ecigs newsworthy? (just me ranting because I want to see more exposure, but cant see a path to make it happen.)

-C

 

[SteveD3]

Keep in mind, while I am a working journalist, my focus is cybercrime, information security, and related topics. (In short, I write about hackers and the vendors who try and stop them.) Interestingly, I noticed there is a cybersecurity board on here (I'll keep my opinions to myself), but I digress.

In my experience, the reason that I haven't been able to push an e-cig / vaping story through is a lack of awareness.

For example, I was in L.A. and S.F. two weeks ago. In both places editors noticed me vaping away and asked me about it. The topic of a science story came up, due to the potential health angle. The catch, not enough e-cig users are available to discuss the topic with authority in a given area.

The general PV user doesn't know the science or tech, nor do they want to learn. Retailers only know the sales points, and have nothing to back their claims. In the US, the 2009 study is the only one of "worth" because it was widely circulated. The published journals and the like are skipped over because the reporters don't have the time to absorb the data and work it into something the public can follow.

Of all my peers in the west coast and out east, I'm the only one who uses a PV. The others smoke and think I have a neat toy. The idea that there is a story in the making within the PV world isn't even a thought for them. Consider that Gawker did a story on e-cigs recently, and in my editorial view, it was awful. It only focused on the consumer side, and did nothing about the rest of it.

On the upside, I'm planning to work out a time to meet and interview Dr. Rodu, and get a copy of his research. The email I quoted then has contact information for the Heartland people, so that's a major inroad. That in itself will be the start of the story. But even then, there is more to the bigger picture. For example, the liquid. No vendor I've spoken to, aside from one major commercial vendor - who isn't all that popular for their juice - will speak to the press about their process; such as how the juice is made, safety standards, recipes (without giving away the farm), and the like. This is in addition to the cybersecurity side of the story.

TL;DR: Sorry for the long response. IMO though, the reason that e-cigs are not newsworthy boils down to awareness.

 

[capt.n.coke]

Thanks man, I appreciate your insight. And now that I read that and think about, yes, awareness is at the root of it. Which leads me to thinking about "the club" and what are our goals with it. General public awareness...

-C

 

[SteveD3]

I'm a bit of an evangelist these days. Already, I have turned several people on to PVs as I travel. Granted, I can only be directly linked to new PV users in four cases, as I was there to get them started and show them how to use their devices and explain the basics.

Still, given that e-cig users are a small set of the smoking populous (some 50 million people smoke in the US alone), it's entirely a grass roots effort. There is a split in the harm reduction lobby camp, some favor PVs others lean towards snus. In the end, policy is dictated by the insurance lobby, and that is why we have the issues we do today.

If a news story was to appear, feature length (so 2-3,000 words at the least), what should it cover? The raw data and things I could think of would fill a website on it's own, and there are plenty of knowledge dumps online, but some of them are outdated.

 

[capt.n.coke]

Hmm, that's hard to say. Sometimes I see stories that are just "Hey this shop in this small town sells some alternative..." There was TV coverage by the Lexington crew because of the "Hahn incident..." (familiar?) An ecig legislation "win" was almost news on WRTV6 in the Beech Grove smoking ban...

There needs to be some event or trigger that really makes it local newsworthy. A legislation win, or a large meetup, or some debate or something with a more known group like Smoke Free Indy... something... (just spitballing here...)

-C

 

[TheBoogieman]

IVAQS finally done. Peer Reviewed and Published.

PR:
New E-cigarette Study Shows No Risk from Environmental Vapor Exposure

The Study can be found here:
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/08958378.2012.724728

TheBoogieman

 

[junkman]

That Gawker article is what made me look into ecigs. Granted nearly all gawker stories are awful though.

I guess actually it was the comments to the article that got me here.

 

[Hoosier]

Well, if Gawker can get displaced former Corydon residents here, it's a good thing.