Here is a letter from a registered nurse in Alberta to try and help with us fight bill 45 in Alberta, sorry the graphs did not come up in the pasted print on the form but I did attach the .pdf file of her letter, very well written and full of good facts.
November 30, 2014
Dear Honourable member of parliament:
Thank you for taking a moment from your busy schedule to read my correspondence. I am a resident of Westlock, Alberta. As a member of the Canadian Nurses Association, I have an ethical responsibility to facilitate informed decision making by presenting credible evidence. I take my code of ethics very seriously and as a result, I am writing you.
I came across vaporizers (electronic cigarettes) about a year and a half ago. Since that time, I have researched the science on this technology and, as a result of that research, I am of the opinion that vaping is the most revolutionary treatment for the tobacco epidemic plaguing our country. As a nurse, the monetary cost of smoking to the taxpayer ($20billion/year) is insignificant compared to the years of suffering incurred from smoking-related diseases. It not only causes suffering for the smoker but their loved ones as well. It is a horrible thing to watch your mother, over months, slowly drowning in her own lung tissue. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the world today. It kills over 37,000 Canadians every year and for every death, 20 suffer from smoking-related diseases such as heart disease, COPD and cancer.
My concern is that Bill 45 is being pushed through the law making process very quickly without allowing the voices of Canadians to be heard and without the science on vaping being considered. Smoking is a very serious population health hazard and the people of this country deserve to have all treatments for this epidemic thoroughly and comprehensively investigated. Please consider the following from my research:
1. vaping is not harmful to the user or bystander.
a. There have been numerous studies on this that have concluded that the vapor from a vaporizer is not harmful. "While passive vaping can be expected from electronic cigarette use, it may be no more injurious to human health than inhaling outdoor air or human breath emissions that occur naturally in public spaces." February 20, 2014: John Madden, A Comparison or Electronic Cigarette Emissions with Those of Human Breath, Outdoor Air, and Tobacco Smoke.
b. "Vapers should be more concerned about polluted cities than vaping" Prof. Riccardo Polosa. Puffing on a vaporizer is safer that having lunch downtown Ottawa.
c. Claims of carcinogens toxins found in some vapor are well below the levels of harm.
2. Nicotine is boosted in tobacco to make it significantly more addictive. Pharmaceutical grade nicotine found in vaporizers or nicotine patches are less addictive. This allows for a more successful transition to nicotine cessation especially because these products are in controlled doses allowing the ex-smoker can wean off nicotine.
a. A clinical trial gave smokers vaporizers to test their effectiveness. Of those smokers who switched to vaping, 70% of them were not vaping 1 year later. They were nicotine free. Compared to smokers, the quit rate is 7-14% per annum. This indicates that vaping is less addictive than smoking.
b. Ammonia compounds are one of the 600 ingredients allowed in tobacco smokes. This compound boosts the availability of nicotine to the brain through smoking faster that can be delivered through intravenous administration. Thus the smoker has a greater impact of the drug and a much more intense withdrawal which contributes to the extreme addiction of tobacco smoke.
c. Acetaldehyde is substance added to tobacco and has an antidepressant effect by inhibiting MAO in the brain making the tobacco more addictive. In an experiment with rats, when nicotine was combined with acetaldehyde the rats consumed the combination at three times a greater rate than the substances on their own.
3. Vaping is NOT a gateway to smoking.
a. For someone to switch from vaping to smoking they would be switching to something that tastes disgusting; is 100 times worse for their health; makes them stink; and is 10 times more expensive. This is just nonsense. 27% of UK smokers are using vaporizers to quit smoking because of the immediate benefits to health, social and financial impacts.
b. Data from the last few months have shown an increase in experimenting with vaping by teens. During that same period, data has shown a significant decline of experimenting with tobacco smoking amongst teens. If vaping was a gateway, we would see an increase in smoking. Vaping is in competition to smoking. Teens try things they should not and the vaping community emphatically supports age of majority for the sale of vaping supplies. Teens are trying vaporizers instead of tobacco smokes; one must look at the reduction in harm to health and the decrease in the long term addiction potential of this new behaviour.
c. Those that are using vaporizers are current or ex-smokers
4. Vaping is an effective method of quitting smoking. There are two distinct aspects to tobacco addiction: physical addiction to nicotine and ritual behaviour.
a. The ritual behaviour of smoking is repeated 87,000 times a year for a pack a day smoker. This ritual is coupled with the nicotine hit to the brain and enforces the addiction.
b. Smokers experiencing a 12 hour period of abstinence from smoking reported withdrawal symptoms. They were given tobacco cigarettes but were not told the nicotine had been removed from the tobacco. After smoking these smokes, they reported a decrease in withdrawal symptoms, indicating that the ritual behaviour of smoking is a significant aspect of smoking addiction. Vaping satisfies this aspect of smoking addiction.
c. A recent clinical trial reported a 34% quitting smoking rate when smokers who were not interested in quitting were given vaporizers. Cold turkey quitting method is 7%. Use of nicotine patches coupled with counselling claims a 14% quit rate. Vaping is the most promising method of eradicating the tobacco epidemic.
To summarize, vaping is a less addictive and less harmful alternative for smokers. It is safe to use around others. Smokers are choosing this method of quitting smoking because it not only satisfies the nicotine addiction but, uniquely, the ritualistic behavioural component of tobacco addiction. Vaping is an activity almost exclusively of smokers; we see no evidence of non-smokers becoming addicted to vaping. Recent evidence suggests that it is twice as effective as the nicotine quitting smoking aids currently available in the pharmacies.
The promising data on vaping should be considered in the regulation of these devises to ensure the maximum benefit to the public. We should carefully consider the potential positive health impact of utilizing these devices to improve population health outcomes. Hasty zealousness to treat vaping as a tobacco product, restrict their use in public and remove the flavours is irresponsible and could jeopardize the ability of these products to significantly reduce in the number of Canadians addicted to tobacco.
I implore you to please advocate for a balanced approach to Bill 45. The scientific evidence in its entirety must be considered in the regulation of vaping to avoid suppressing the full potential of
this technology. Please allow those Canadians who have quit smoking by switching to vaping to tell their story. Please allow the Tobacco Harm Reduction Association of Canada and the Electronic Cigarette Trade Association of Canada to prepare and present the evidence. A balanced approach to regulation on vaping has the potential to greatly improve population health outcomes.
Respectfully,
Kellie Forbes BScN, RN
November 30, 2014
Dear Honourable member of parliament:
Thank you for taking a moment from your busy schedule to read my correspondence. I am a resident of Westlock, Alberta. As a member of the Canadian Nurses Association, I have an ethical responsibility to facilitate informed decision making by presenting credible evidence. I take my code of ethics very seriously and as a result, I am writing you.
I came across vaporizers (electronic cigarettes) about a year and a half ago. Since that time, I have researched the science on this technology and, as a result of that research, I am of the opinion that vaping is the most revolutionary treatment for the tobacco epidemic plaguing our country. As a nurse, the monetary cost of smoking to the taxpayer ($20billion/year) is insignificant compared to the years of suffering incurred from smoking-related diseases. It not only causes suffering for the smoker but their loved ones as well. It is a horrible thing to watch your mother, over months, slowly drowning in her own lung tissue. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the world today. It kills over 37,000 Canadians every year and for every death, 20 suffer from smoking-related diseases such as heart disease, COPD and cancer.
My concern is that Bill 45 is being pushed through the law making process very quickly without allowing the voices of Canadians to be heard and without the science on vaping being considered. Smoking is a very serious population health hazard and the people of this country deserve to have all treatments for this epidemic thoroughly and comprehensively investigated. Please consider the following from my research:
1. vaping is not harmful to the user or bystander.
a. There have been numerous studies on this that have concluded that the vapor from a vaporizer is not harmful. "While passive vaping can be expected from electronic cigarette use, it may be no more injurious to human health than inhaling outdoor air or human breath emissions that occur naturally in public spaces." February 20, 2014: John Madden, A Comparison or Electronic Cigarette Emissions with Those of Human Breath, Outdoor Air, and Tobacco Smoke.
b. "Vapers should be more concerned about polluted cities than vaping" Prof. Riccardo Polosa. Puffing on a vaporizer is safer that having lunch downtown Ottawa.
c. Claims of carcinogens toxins found in some vapor are well below the levels of harm.
2. Nicotine is boosted in tobacco to make it significantly more addictive. Pharmaceutical grade nicotine found in vaporizers or nicotine patches are less addictive. This allows for a more successful transition to nicotine cessation especially because these products are in controlled doses allowing the ex-smoker can wean off nicotine.
a. A clinical trial gave smokers vaporizers to test their effectiveness. Of those smokers who switched to vaping, 70% of them were not vaping 1 year later. They were nicotine free. Compared to smokers, the quit rate is 7-14% per annum. This indicates that vaping is less addictive than smoking.
b. Ammonia compounds are one of the 600 ingredients allowed in tobacco smokes. This compound boosts the availability of nicotine to the brain through smoking faster that can be delivered through intravenous administration. Thus the smoker has a greater impact of the drug and a much more intense withdrawal which contributes to the extreme addiction of tobacco smoke.
c. Acetaldehyde is substance added to tobacco and has an antidepressant effect by inhibiting MAO in the brain making the tobacco more addictive. In an experiment with rats, when nicotine was combined with acetaldehyde the rats consumed the combination at three times a greater rate than the substances on their own.
3. Vaping is NOT a gateway to smoking.
a. For someone to switch from vaping to smoking they would be switching to something that tastes disgusting; is 100 times worse for their health; makes them stink; and is 10 times more expensive. This is just nonsense. 27% of UK smokers are using vaporizers to quit smoking because of the immediate benefits to health, social and financial impacts.
b. Data from the last few months have shown an increase in experimenting with vaping by teens. During that same period, data has shown a significant decline of experimenting with tobacco smoking amongst teens. If vaping was a gateway, we would see an increase in smoking. Vaping is in competition to smoking. Teens try things they should not and the vaping community emphatically supports age of majority for the sale of vaping supplies. Teens are trying vaporizers instead of tobacco smokes; one must look at the reduction in harm to health and the decrease in the long term addiction potential of this new behaviour.
c. Those that are using vaporizers are current or ex-smokers
4. Vaping is an effective method of quitting smoking. There are two distinct aspects to tobacco addiction: physical addiction to nicotine and ritual behaviour.
a. The ritual behaviour of smoking is repeated 87,000 times a year for a pack a day smoker. This ritual is coupled with the nicotine hit to the brain and enforces the addiction.
b. Smokers experiencing a 12 hour period of abstinence from smoking reported withdrawal symptoms. They were given tobacco cigarettes but were not told the nicotine had been removed from the tobacco. After smoking these smokes, they reported a decrease in withdrawal symptoms, indicating that the ritual behaviour of smoking is a significant aspect of smoking addiction. Vaping satisfies this aspect of smoking addiction.
c. A recent clinical trial reported a 34% quitting smoking rate when smokers who were not interested in quitting were given vaporizers. Cold turkey quitting method is 7%. Use of nicotine patches coupled with counselling claims a 14% quit rate. Vaping is the most promising method of eradicating the tobacco epidemic.
To summarize, vaping is a less addictive and less harmful alternative for smokers. It is safe to use around others. Smokers are choosing this method of quitting smoking because it not only satisfies the nicotine addiction but, uniquely, the ritualistic behavioural component of tobacco addiction. Vaping is an activity almost exclusively of smokers; we see no evidence of non-smokers becoming addicted to vaping. Recent evidence suggests that it is twice as effective as the nicotine quitting smoking aids currently available in the pharmacies.
The promising data on vaping should be considered in the regulation of these devises to ensure the maximum benefit to the public. We should carefully consider the potential positive health impact of utilizing these devices to improve population health outcomes. Hasty zealousness to treat vaping as a tobacco product, restrict their use in public and remove the flavours is irresponsible and could jeopardize the ability of these products to significantly reduce in the number of Canadians addicted to tobacco.
I implore you to please advocate for a balanced approach to Bill 45. The scientific evidence in its entirety must be considered in the regulation of vaping to avoid suppressing the full potential of
this technology. Please allow those Canadians who have quit smoking by switching to vaping to tell their story. Please allow the Tobacco Harm Reduction Association of Canada and the Electronic Cigarette Trade Association of Canada to prepare and present the evidence. A balanced approach to regulation on vaping has the potential to greatly improve population health outcomes.
Respectfully,
Kellie Forbes BScN, RN
