Possibly the Most Dishonest Anti-Vaping Screed of All Time

[Nate760]

Thinking for oneself has never been popular in humankind... it's what got a lot of "heretics" burnt at the stake. Humans seem appallingly eager to accept truth from A Book, or someone who lived 2000 years ago, but think for themselves? 95% don't know how, so those who do, must be EVIL! Or at the very least, insane!

If there's one common thread that runs through all human civilizations, it's that the people who wield political power will always discourage the common folks from thinking independently. The ruling class always seeks to control what information is disseminated, and through what channels. It's not an accident that the two most politically disruptive inventions of all time are the printing press and the internet.

 

[DrMA]

Speaking of disruptive, so are ecigs: http://www.ijdp.org/article/S0955-3959(14)00100-5/abstract

 

[Ace64]

What a country we live in.... anybody can form a committee and say anything....

Are you old enough to remember:

In 1984 Tipper Gore created Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Led by eight politicians wives, the committee held rock music accountable for the increase in rape and suicides among 16 to 24 year olds in the previous three decades, citing such artists as AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne and Blur Oyster Cult.

 

[AndriaD]

Speaking of disruptive, so are ecigs: http://www.ijdp.org/article/S0955-3959(14)00100-5/abstract

Outstanding article! I just tweeted it. Whoever wrote this really has a head on his/her shoulders!

Andria

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

Speaking of disruptive, so are ecigs: http://www.ijdp.org/article/S0955-3959(14)00100-5/abstract

Well worth reading and the pdf download is now on my usb drive for future use.

 

[DrMA]

Outstanding article! I just tweeted it. Whoever wrote this really has a head on his/her shoulders!

Andria

Authors are at the top of the linked page:

• Gerry Stimson - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Knowledge-Action-Change, United Kingdom
• Betsy Thom - Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom
• Paddy Costall - Knowledge-Action-Change, United Kingdom

And this is the crux of the issue:
«Disruptive innovations lead to more than changes in industries and consumer behaviour: they challenge existing power relationships and established wisdom, and are associated with changes in attitudes as different groups vie for ownership of the issue in the public mind [...].»

 

[AndriaD]

What a country we live in.... anybody can form a committee and say anything....

Are you old enough to remember:

In 1984 Tipper Gore created Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Led by eight politicians wives, the committee held rock music accountable for the increase in rape and suicides among 16 to 24 year olds in the previous three decades, citing such artists as AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne and Blur Oyster Cult.

I remember it well, and remember LMAO at it. It's also what cost Gore my vote; I didn't like Dubya, but I figured anyone stupid enough to be married to a woman as stupid as Tipper was just not presidential material.

Andria

 

[Nate760]

Disruptive innovations lead to more than changes in industries and consumer behaviour: they challenge existing power relationships and established wisdom, and are associated with changes in attitudes as different groups vie for ownership of the issue in the public mind.

When one person or group of people becomes accustomed to exercising total control of a sociopolitical narrative, and accustomed to the power that goes along with it, they will never willingly cede that control. It must be taken from them.

 

[Nate760]

I remember it well, and remember LMAO at it. It's also what cost Gore my vote; I didn't like Dubya, but I figured anyone stupid enough to be married to a woman as stupid as Tipper was just not presidential material.

When the PMRC came out with their "Filthy Fifteen," my friends and I made it our mission to own every album on the list, and I imagine other kids all over the country did the same thing. Talk about a goldmine of free publicity.

When they came out with the "parental advisory" stickers, every album that had one automatically became cooler. Bands that previously had no objectionable content on their records immediately started writing vulgar/profane material, because as far as their target audience was concerned, that little sticker was a badge of honor that guaranteed tens of thousands more album sales than they would otherwise have garnered.

 

[AndriaD]

When the PMRC came out with their "Filthy Fifteen," my friends and I made it our mission to own every album on the list, and I imagine other kids all over the country did the same thing. Talk about a goldmine of free publicity.

When they came out with the "parental advisory" stickers, every album that had one automatically became cooler. Bands that previously had no objectionable content on their records immediately started writing vulgar/profane material, because as far as their target audience was concerned, that little sticker was a badge of honor that guaranteed tens of thousands more album sales than they would otherwise have garnered.

At the time, I was 23, and I just thought it was hilarious. Later, after I became a mom, I saw perhaps a tad more benefit in such antics, but my opinion remains that it's a PARENT's job to police such things, not some puritanical group of designer-dressed ladies -- there was a really awful band with a really awful CD that I took away from my 12 yr old son and DESTROYED -- Limp Bizkit or some stupid crap like that. The profanity was just ungodly, but that wasn't the worst -- it had no musically redeeming value whatsoever. My son was perturbed with me about it, but later, when he heard some of that "music" (I use the term loosely), he thanked me for not letting him listen to anymore of that "awful crap," as he put it.

Andria

 

[Nate760]

At the time, I was 23, and I just thought it was hilarious. Later, after I became a mom, I saw perhaps a tad more benefit in such antics, but my opinion remains that it's a PARENT's job to police such things, not some puritanical group of designer-dressed ladies -- there was a really awful band with a really awful CD that I took away from my 12 yr old son and DESTROYED -- Limp Bizkit or some stupid crap like that. The profanity was just ungodly, but that wasn't the worst -- it had no musically redeeming value whatsoever. My son was perturbed with me about it, but later, when he heard some of that "music" (I use the term loosely), he thanked me for not letting him listen to anymore of that "awful crap," as he put it.

My son is almost 21 and he's never listened to anything more objectionable than Alice Cooper (what can I say, the boy has good taste). My older daughter is 16 and currently only cares about Led Zeppelin (ugh) and Bob Marley. They've never made any effort to shock or outrage their parents with their choice of music, probably because they couldn't if they tried.

 

[AndriaD]

My son is almost 21 and he's never listened to anything more objectionable than Alice Cooper (what can I say, the boy has good taste). My older daughter is 16 and currently only cares about Led Zeppelin (ugh) and Bob Marley. They've never made any effort to shock or outrage their parents with their choice of music, probably because they couldn't if they tried.

Heh... well it wasn't the profanity I found so distasteful, though admittedly, for a 12 yr old, it was a bit much. Later, as a teen, he started listening to "Disturbed," and I think it shocked HIM that I actually liked "Down with the sickness", even the very profane end of it -- and still later, he was wide-eye-shocked that I was listening to a song that I downloaded from HIS playlist -- Avenged 7Fold's "Nightmare." He was already in his 20s at that point, and I think it was right around then that he began to fully appreciate that his parents were actually PEOPLE, his dad a former hippy, and his mom a rock 'n roller since I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan when I was 3 yrs old.

Andria

 

[readeuler]

Oh, Cleveland health official! That "helplessly clueless" thing is kind of cute.

Perhaps if he keeps tilting at ecigs, we from Akron/Cleveland will forget that the OD death toll from "that which goes straight into your veins" is rising by more than 50% year over year.

But yeah. Ecigs. Definitely take the time out of your day to opine about ecigs. You should do that.

 

[Rlrick]

Ok all I just recieved a response back from Mr. Allen I will let you all decipher it.
Dear Sir,

Thank you for your message.

Please allow me to provide some perspective on my comments.

Without a doubt, tobacco is a major killer in the United States, with 480,00 fatalities a year in the United States (CDC - Fact Sheet - Tobacco-Related Mortality - Smoking & Tobacco Use)

As I mentioned in my statement, Ohio's Smokefree Law, which I personally worked hard to help pass, has reduced emergency department mean total percentage of admissions for heart attacks by almost 30% statewide, post ban, among other compounding benefits (http://www.odh.ohio.gov/~/media/ODH.../features/reportsonsmokefreeworkplaceact.ashx) . This is the gift that keeps on giving, in terms of public health impact.

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that utilizes a patches, gum or other proven methods of cessation therapy have been shown to be an effective means of helping people to break nicotine addiction (Nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation. - PubMed - NCBI).

According to the CDC, the most effective state and community interventions are those in which specific strategies for promoting tobacco use cessation, preventing tobacco
use initiation, and eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke are combined with mass-reach health communication interventions and other initiatives to mobilize communities and to integrate these strategies into synergistic and multicomponent efforts (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/best_practices/pdfs/2014/comprehensive.pdf). Ohio examples include the comprehensive smokefree law, counter marketing, peer-to-peer education, and vendor compliance checks to stop sales to minors, among others.

We will continue to protect our kids by advocating for comprehensive policies and programs that combat nicotine addiction and tobacco use initiation, in keeping with state and national public health policy.

Sincerely,

Terry Allan

 

[bigdancehawk]

The response is irrelevant to the issue.

 

[AndriaD]

The response is irrelevant to the issue.

Besides which, he's clearly a total idiot. "...other proven methods of cessation therapy have been shown to be an effective means of helping people to break nicotine addiction" -- they most certainly have not! 1%-5% is EFFECTIVE??? If my asthma inhaler was only 1%-5% effective, I'd have to live in a hospital or oxygen tent!

And how does he know that the smoking ban has CAUSED the reduction in heart attacks? He cannot know that! What is that quote... correlation not being the same as causation?

Obviously he needs to be replaced ASAP, because he has the brain of a gnat -- a gnat brainwashed by MEANINGLESS statistics.

Andria

 

[DrMA]

Unsurprisingly, a shallow and pedantic reply oozing with ANTZ slurry that conflates the dangers of smoking with all tobacco use and does not address vaping or THR.

 

[Nate760]

Not surprisingly, he made no effort to substantiate any of the lies he spewed forth in the original article. He just regurgitated a different series of ANTZ talking points that he probably read from some "Tobacco-Free Kids" pamphlet. It is unconscionable, and unacceptable, that people like this are charged with shaping public health policy.

PS - Can you imagine any other scenario in which a product that doesn't work 90-95% of the time would be routinely referred to as "effective"?

 

[readeuler]

Then I guess that explains why he felt that was an acceptable response letter. It was only 90-95% irrelevant (he did get his name right, in all fairness) and therefore wrote an effective response.

Case closed.

 

[bigdancehawk]

Then I guess that explains why he felt that was an acceptable response letter. It was only 90-95% irrelevant (he did get his name right, in all fairness) and therefore wrote an effective response.

Case closed.

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