Junk science study and mass media make huge leap to claim e-cigs just as toxic as cigarettes

[Hyperspace]

Ran across a good news story on Natural News that I think is a good read.

Junk science study and mass media make huge leap to claim e-cigs ('vaping') just as toxic as cigarettes

 

[Kent C]

Interesting except, the piece is short on evidence of the main boogieman - Big tobacco. Not saying they haven't been in on some of it, just that the piece doesn't show it. Almost all their links regarding that are unspecific to their own website. That said, they get most of the rest of it right.

Big Government and the money they spend on the junk science is a better boogieman.

 

[AndriaD]

Interesting except, the piece is short on evidence of the main boogieman - Big tobacco. Not saying they haven't been in on some of it, just that the piece doesn't show it. Almost all their links regarding that are unspecific to their own website. That said, they get most of the rest of it right.

Big Government and the money they spend on the junk science is a better boogieman.

I've thought all along that BT is very far from our worst enemy in this fight, and in fact their interest in the whole affair is a great deal more "pure" and honest than any of the others' -- they're a business competitor, a completely above-board relationship, unlike the incest and corruption between big gov't, all the "charitable" orgs, BP, and all the paid-for idiots like Glantz and that guy in Australia. I really don't have a problem with BT; I used their products voluntarily, if addictedly, for many years until I found something better -- the fact that it really is better in all possible ways is precisely why they're getting into the e-cig business themselves.

Really I think they have good reason to help us fight vaping being considered a "tobacco product" -- that little thing called the MSA? If vaping products are tobacco products, then BT stands a real risk of having to continue those extortion payments indefinitely; if vaping is not "tobacco product," then they stand a good chance of seeing the end of those payments not too far into the future.

Andria

 

[Kent C]

@AndriaD Agree on all accounts. See my last post on the PBS thread....

 

[inspects]

What I don't understand is why more credible studies are not being done to debunk this junk science.....

 

[Kent C]

What I don't understand is why more credible studies are not being done to debunk this junk science.....

They are, but one thing the piece gets right is how the main stream media plays a part in focusing on the junk and not on the studies that show why and how it is junk science. And, there's a reason for that - just not a popular subject for some here, because if it were true with ecigs, what other issues for which may it also be true?

 

[Mazinny]

Not sure an endorsement from a pseudo-science and conspiracy website is helpful to the vaping cause.

David Gorski of Scienceblogs has called Natural News "one of the most wretched hives of scum and quackery on the Internet," and the most "blatant purveyor of the worst kind of quackery and paranoid anti-physician and anti-medicine conspiracy theories anywhere on the Internet",and a one-stop-shop for "virtually every quackery known to humankind, all slathered with a heaping, helping of unrelenting hostility to science-based medicine and science in general."

NaturalNews - RationalWiki
Natural News - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NaturalNews.com (formerly Newstarget) is an anti-science conspiracy website founded by Mike Adams (self-labeled "The Health Ranger") which promotes numerous alternative medicines and assorted woo.[2] Even other quacks think it's a quack site.[3]

The site particularly specializes in vaccine denialism and woo,[4] AIDS/HIV denialism,[5] quack cancer treatments,[6] and conspiracy theories about "Big Pharma"[7] and modern medicine in toto.

Furthermore, Adams supports quantum woo, specifically quantum healing[8] and quantum consciousness.[9] NaturalNews advances a hard green position, even though the site also promotes global warming denialism.[10] To top it off, Adams promotes conspiracy theories about gun control.[11]

If you cite NaturalNews on any matter whatsoever, you are almost certainly wrong.

Adams is a flat-out opponent[12] of modern medicine and opposes any medication[13] or doctor visits.[14][15] Adams calls himself a "holistic nutritionist"[16] and is a raw food proponent[17] who opposes food that contains sugar,[18] food that was cooked[19] or made to last,[20] "red" meat,[21] McDonalds brand chicken nuggets,[22] sweeteners,[23] glutamate,[24] homogenized milk,[25] bread/gluten,[26] "white" flour,[27] genetically modified food,[28] washing powder,[29] deodorants,[30] shampoo[31], and fluoride.[32]

A recurring theme is the contrast between the site's exacting criticism of evidence-based medicine and its unquestioning acceptance of the appeal to nature, New Age and alternative medicine.[33] This often involves rejection of the scientific method's application to medicine as "inherently flawed,"[34] repudiating the entire philosophy of modern medicine post-Pasteur.[35] Adams is a firm germ theory denialist.[36][37][38] Adams also conflates evidence-based medicine in general, the failings of Big Pharma, and the US health insurance system: to him, it's all a monolithic entity called "mainstream medicine."[39] The site blames the pharmaceutical industry for all vaguely drug-linked celebrity deaths rather than looking at any surrounding factors.[40][41][42][43]

The response to any alternative medicine claim, however, is blind acceptance, whether the topic at hand is homeopathy,[44] chiropractic,[45] dental woo,[46] aspartame scares,[47] vitamin woo,[48] anti-vaccination panic[4][49][50] or detox diets.[51]

 

[bigdancehawk]

What I don't understand is why more credible studies are not being done to debunk this junk science.....

Money. Follow the money.

 

[zoiDman]

... "a one-stop-shop for "virtually every quackery known to humankind, all slathered with a heaping, helping of unrelenting hostility to science-based medicine and science in general."

 

[englishmick]

Not sure an endorsement from a pseudo-science website is helpful to the vaping cause. David Gorski of Scienceblogs has called Natural News "one of the most wretched hives of scum and quackery on the Internet," and the most "blatant purveyor of the worst kind of quackery and paranoid anti-physician and anti-medicine conspiracy theories anywhere on the Internet",and a one-stop-shop for "virtually every quackery known to humankind, all slathered with a heaping, helping of unrelenting hostility to science-based medicine and science in general."

NaturalNews - RationalWiki
Natural News - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NaturalNews.com (formerly Newstarget) is an anti-science conspiracy website founded by Mike Adams (self-labeled "The Health Ranger") which promotes numerous alternative medicines and assorted woo.[2] Even other quacks think it's a quack site.[3]

The site particularly specializes in vaccine denialism and woo,[4] AIDS/HIV denialism,[5] quack cancer treatments,[6] and conspiracy theories about "Big Pharma"[7] and modern medicine in toto.

Furthermore, Adams supports quantum woo, specifically quantum healing[8] and quantum consciousness.[9] NaturalNews advances a hard green position, even though the site also promotes global warming denialism.[10] To top it off, Adams promotes conspiracy theories about gun control.[11]

If you cite NaturalNews on any matter whatsoever, you are almost certainly wrong.

Adams is a flat-out opponent[12] of modern medicine and opposes any medication[13] or doctor visits.[14][15] Adams calls himself a "holistic nutritionist"[16] and is a raw food proponent[17] who opposes food that contains sugar,[18] food that was cooked[19] or made to last,[20] "red" meat,[21] McDonalds brand chicken nuggets,[22] sweeteners,[23] glutamate,[24] homogenized milk,[25] bread/gluten,[26] "white" flour,[27] genetically modified food,[28] washing powder,[29] deodorants,[30] shampoo[31], and fluoride.[32]

A recurring theme is the contrast between the site's exacting criticism of evidence-based medicine and its unquestioning acceptance of the appeal to nature, New Age and alternative medicine.[33] This often involves rejection of the scientific method's application to medicine as "inherently flawed,"[34] repudiating the entire philosophy of modern medicine post-Pasteur.[35] Adams is a firm germ theory denialist.[36][37][38] Adams also conflates evidence-based medicine in general, the failings of Big Pharma, and the US health insurance system: to him, it's all a monolithic entity called "mainstream medicine."[39] The site blames the pharmaceutical industry for all vaguely drug-linked celebrity deaths rather than looking at any surrounding factors.[40][41][42][43]

The response to any alternative medicine claim, however, is blind acceptance, whether the topic at hand is homeopathy,[44] chiropractic,[45] dental woo,[46] aspartame scares,[47] vitamin woo,[48] anti-vaccination panic[4][49][50] or detox diets.[51]

Thanks for this post. I never came across the word "woo" before. I just spent a fun hour poking around RationalWiki, which I also never came across before.

 

[AndriaD]

@AndriaD Agree on all accounts. See my last post on the PBS thread....

Just saw it, and replied!

Andria

 

[EBates]

What I don't understand is why more credible studies are not being done to debunk this junk science.....

The media is so worthless in providing 'real news' that they wouldn't touch real science with a ten foot pole. BP 'owns' the network 'news' (checkout the barrage of commercials). And our 'fearless leaders' in washington and state gov are so addicted to the MONEY they would die to keep truth away from the folks they 'represent'.
Just me, I could be wrong.

 

[Mazinny]

Thanks for this post. I never came across the word "woo" before. I just spent a fun hour poking around RationalWiki, which I also never came across before.

When i saw the link to an article from "Natural News", my instincts told me, this can't be good. When i saw links to the following articles in the same page, i just cringed :

-San Bernardino shooting has all the signs of a staged government operation ...
-China and America already at war : Tianjin explosion carried out by Pentagon space weapon in retaliation for Yuan currency devaluation
-Chipotle is a victim of corporate sabotage ... biotech industry food terrorists are planting e.coli in retaliation for restaurants anti-GMO menu
- Alan Rickman, David Bowie both victims of a for-profit cancer industry that exploits humans for money ( while suppressing natural cures )

Ordinarily i will take an endorsement of vaping from any source, but an endorsement from this site can do more harm if anything. I don't think it's a good idea for a site like "Natural News" to be linked from this website. Surely we can't be that desperate yet.

 

[skoony]

Chipotle is a victim of corporate sabotage ... biotech industry food terrorists are planting e.coli in retaliation for restaurants anti-GMO menu

I am not a bonafide tin foil hat wearing member of the conspiracy brotherhood network but I have
always harbored suspicions concerning the apparent lack of effective sanitary procedures in the
Cruise Line industry. The original Tylenol poisonings are as of yet still unexplained. I don't believe
Chipotle's problem is GMO related but, it seems awfully persistent but,easily rectifiable.
Just musing regards,
Mike

 

[Mazinny]

I am not a bonafide tin foil hat wearing member of the conspiracy brotherhood network but I have
always harbored suspicions concerning the apparent lack of effective sanitary procedures in the
Cruise Line industry. The original Tylenol poisonings are as of yet still unexplained. I don't believe
Chipotle's problem is GMO related but, it seems awfully persistent but,easily rectifiable.
Just musing regards,
Mike

I haven't followed the Chipotle story closely but whatever their problems, it surely wasn't instigated by " biotech food terrorists " whatever that means. Identifying the source of the bacteria may not be as easy as you may think :
http://gizmodo.com/the-real-reason-chipotle-hasnt-been-able-to-solve-its-e-1753180451

 

[zoiDman]

...

-Chipotle is a victim of corporate sabotage ... biotech industry food terrorists are planting e.coli in retaliation for restaurants anti-GMO menu
...

Biotech Industry Food Terrorists.

Man... I'm tell'n you. You can't make this ... Up. LOL

Oh wait, I guess you can? Because someone Did.

 

[DC2]

I've thought all along that BT is very far from our worst enemy in this fight, and in fact their interest in the whole affair is a great deal more "pure" and honest than any of the others' -- they're a business competitor, a completely above-board relationship, unlike the incest and corruption between big gov't, all the "charitable" orgs, BP, and all the paid-for idiots like Glantz and that guy in Australia. I really don't have a problem with BT; I used their products voluntarily, if addictedly, for many years until I found something better -- the fact that it really is better in all possible ways is precisely why they're getting into the e-cig business themselves.

Really I think they have good reason to help us fight vaping being considered a "tobacco product" -- that little thing called the MSA? If vaping products are tobacco products, then BT stands a real risk of having to continue those extortion payments indefinitely; if vaping is not "tobacco product," then they stand a good chance of seeing the end of those payments not too far into the future.

Andria

This post should be made a sticky.
Then all the new vapers who hate Big Tobacco can read it.

Not that Big Tobacco is the best thing since sliced bread.
But too many think they are far more evil than those who are even more evil.

 

[OldBatty]

Just remember that the only thing worse than believing all those weird conspiracy theories, is to believe none of them.

 

[sofarsogood]

I believe total world wide tobacco revenues are on the order of $800 bilion a year. Ecigs certainly could crush the business in not so many years. (exhibit A, a $50 bottle of 100mg nic can replace thousands of packs of cigarettes. THAT"S disruptive.) There's no way to threaten that kind of money without blowback. There are millions of beneficiaries. They know who they are or they sense who they are. We are hearing from them. They are howling. They are lying. Everybody knows it. We have the moral high ground. That doesn't mean we will prevail.

 

[Kent C]

I believe total world wide tobacco revenues are on the order of $800 bilion a year. Ecigs certainly could crush the business in not so many years. (exhibit A, a $50 bottle of 100mg nic can replace thousands of packs of cigarettes. THAT"S disruptive.) There's no way to threaten that kind of money without blowback. There are millions of beneficiaries. They know who they are or they sense who they are. We are hearing from them. They are howling. They are lying. Everybody knows it. We have the moral high ground. That doesn't mean we will prevail.

Re: first sentence - the same was true for buggies and buggy whips before cars; whale oil lamps before electricity; Atari and Commodore before Dell, Apple, HP, et al. Not much 'blowback' (but some, from all concerned).