Proposed letter to my Senators - constructive criticism appreciated

[badkat]

Good luck with the emails. A few days ago, before the House vote, I sent emails to both my state senators as well as the House rep. Never got an answer back. Not even a form letter. I am not sure an individual is actually listened to. I've noticed, however, from times past that if an email is written kissing ...., you're put on a mailing list and get all their incumbent propaganda. Petitions seem far more influential, however, when you wish to make a point. I still email but I just don't feel as secure in my one voice as I do with a petition in common with thousands of others.

 

[Earthworm Jim]

Hello all,

I have been lurking this forum for a week or so. I bought my first PV (from a retailer in Seattle) and have another on order. I have already taken the survey, and signed the petition. Is there anything else we can do?

Jerimiah's letter goes to my senator as well. I will probable plagiarize most of his, in the one I send.

 

[leaford]

Hey everyone, I just drafted this letter. Please let me know what you think. If I have any blatant factual errors I'd like to correct them before I send this out to my Senators.

__________________________________
Senator Cantwell,

I'm writing about the upcoming vote in the Senate regarding the FDA and tobacco regulation. I know that the version of the bill being sponsored by Senator Kennedy is modeled after the House bill that just passed. However, Senator Burr has some important ideas that I hope you will support. Namely, he proposes specific language that supports the use of alternative nicotine delivery methods, including the new products referred to as electronic cigarettes.

In case you haven't heard of electronic cigarettes, let me briefly explain how they work. It is an electronic device consisting of a battery and a heating element. When activated, the heating element boils a small amount of liquid in the device, creating a vapor, which is then inhaled by the user. The experience of inhaling the vapor closely mimics the experience of inhaling smoke from a regular cigarette. The liquid and vapor contains nicotine, propylene glycol, and flavoring. These 3 ingredients are also found in regular cigarettes.

The appeal of the device is that it delivers nicotine to the user in a way that closely resembles smoking a regular cigarette, but contains none of the tar, chemical additives, and carcinogens that result from burning tobacco. There is also no offensive odor, no secondhand smoke, no fire hazard, no cigarette .... litter and no ashes.

Many people who smoke wish they had never started smoking. However, we know that nicotine is a highly addictive substance, and smoking is a highly addictive habit due to the other psychological habits associated with it. In a sense, smokers want to smoke, and don't want to smoke, both at the same time. They know it is unhealthy and that they should quit, but they also don't really want to quit.

This is the situation I found myself in. I smoked over a pack of cigarettes every day for nearly 15 years. I have tried many times over the years to quit, using cold-turkey methods, nicotine patches, etc. I was never successful.

10 weeks ago I purchased an electronic cigarette, and started using it regularly. The more I used it, the less I was inclined to use regular cigarettes. After only one week, I was using my electronic cigarette exclusively, and had stopped smoking regular cigarettes. And I wasn't even trying to quit.

I can now manage my nicotine addiction without also struggling with the devastating health effects of smoking regular tobacco cigarettes. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have the hope of never smoking a regular cigarette again.

The FDA is currently looking to ban these devices in the US. They have cited that fact that long-term studies haven't been done to study the effects of using the device. Although this is true in the strictest interpretation, it is also true that long term studies HAVE been done on the inhalation of the main ingredients used in the electronic cigarette - Nicotine is used in the Nicotrol inhaler and of course in regular cigarettes. Propylene glycol is already classified as 'generally safe' by the FDA, and is used in other inhaled products. Most experts that aren't on a blatant anti-nicotine and anti-addiction campaign will agree that basic chemistry suggests that it is extremely likely that an electronic cigarette is at least 1000 times less harmful than a tobacco cigarette.

The head of the American Association of Public Health Physicians, Dr. Joel L. Nitzkin, has written about his support for the electronic cigarette as a great way to reduce tobacco use in the general population, and has made specific recommendations for amendments to the currently proposed tobacco/FDA legislation. I urge you to read his statements on harm reduction strategy, as well as those of David Sweanor. I've included links below for these topics.

I am asking you to help me keep my ability to buy electronic cigarettes and the nicotine liquid they use. I am very scared that if this product is banned for sale in the US, I will end up returning to regular cigarettes. This is something I desperately want to avoid. Personally, I know that I feel better since I started using my electronic cigarette. I have regained lung capacity, stamina, and even my sense of taste and smell. Also, every other electronic cigarette user I know of (and there are thousands just in the US) feels exactly the same way.

My suggestion is to work towards a 5-year moratorium on considering a ban on the electronic cigarette. Let's give it some time to be studied more formally before we take away a product that has given so many smokers (or should I say ex-smokers) so much hope. Thank you for your consideration.

Jerimiah Ham
Seattle, WA

AAPHP Recommendations re Tobacco Legislation H.R.1256 and H.R. 1261 March 27, 2009
Current Federal Tobacco Legislation S.625/H.R. 1180

Alternative Nicotine Delivery as a Harm-Reduction Strategy
Alternative Nicotine Delivery as a Harm-Reduction Strategy - Non-Smokers' Rights Association

That is a model others should follow.

 

[LuckyCharm]

I signed the petition, too. I think one petition with more signatures would be better than lots of littler petitions.

 

[jerimiah797]

Well I got a response from one of my senators. However, it looks like an automated response. It didn't mention electronic cigarettes once, and assumes I'm writing to support the tobacco legislation. Pretty frustrating considering the effort I took to write my letter in the first place....

I guess I'll get a reply going. This takes a lot of stick-to-it-iveness, doesn't it?

-Jerimiah

---------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Ham:



Thank you for contacting me to express your support of increased tobacco regulation. It is good to hear from you.



I am very concerned about the effects that cigarettes have on the health of all Americans, especially children. Every day 3,000 young people begin smoking and 1,000 of them will eventually die of cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other diseases related to smoking. We owe our children more than this.



You will be happy to know that during the 110th Congress, I was a cosponsor of S.625, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a bill that would provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the responsibility to regulate tobacco products. FDA regulation of tobacco is consistent with its regulation of other drugs, devices, and foods. The FDA has the authority to address issues of particular concern to public health, especially the use of tobacco by young people. This bill has yet to be reintroduced in the 111th Congress.



Again, thank you for contacting me about this issue. Should legislation regarding tobacco regulation come up in the 111th Congress, I will certainly keep your concerns in mind. If you would like to know more about my work in the Senate, please feel free to sign up for my weekly updates at Get Updates from Patty - U.S. Senator Patty Murray - Washington State. Please keep in touch.



I hope all is well in Seattle.

 

[LuckyCharm]

Don't think of it as a failure. (Although I must say I've always had a WAY better response from Murray's office than this!) At best, she's got a slew of aides who screen messages and fire off a canned response based on the issue at hand -- I used to work at Microsoft, and believe me, this is exactly how it worked there with first-tier email support. At worst, she's using some sort of software to "intelligently" determine the writer's issue, and responding accordingly.

You may just have to call her office. Emphasize to the person answering that you are NOT in support of the tobacco bill, and tell them about the reply you received. Make it very clear exactly what your intent is, and get them to promise to deliver that to the senator. If they have a fax #, try to send a fax as well.

Keep at it. Good things never come easy.

~~Cheryl

 

[jerimiah797]

Thanks for the encouragement, LuckyCharm. Although I actually meant that senator Murray's office were the ones who failed: to understand my point completely. ;-)

 

[Rickgren]

Just wondering...does the FDA approve reg cigs? I think enuff studies on Real cigs have been done to determine that they are bad for you. I'm sure when the Automobile came out,all the folks that sold horses were up in arms. Cars kill arn't safe blah blah blah. This is called progress. When a better product comes along to replace another. The big tobbaco co. should start thinking about making e-cigs. With the money they could trow at it atomizers would last forever (somehow I doubt they will) and also the consumible (e-juice). At least if they start doing that they won't have 3000 customers dying a day.

As far as if they add some tax to it, I don't have a problem with that. I'm not trying to save money......just my life. It would be nice if in 25 years all the land used to grow tobbaco was used to grow food. Big tobbaco companies were making e-cigs (and good ones) you could vape in bars while having a drink, the famouse poker games would have a nice smelling hint of coconut. Hell, I just want to see 25 years from now.

 

[reggaegrl]

If it were me, though, I think I would add something like...

The FDA has allowed the sale of real cigarettes for decades, knowing full well that they're dangerous, addictive, and cause cancer and emphysema.

Even without that, though....GREAT JOB!!! It's well written, intelligent, knowledgeable and to the point. However, our government doesn't have the best reputation for listening to anything that makes sense!

Great point, Kristy...and exactly what I added as comments when I signed the petition on this website. Of course we ALL know that it's ALL about the $$$$ and the politicians are not going to fool with the big tobacco lobbyists that do a lot of greasing!

Great letter....and I would just take all the suggestions people posted here and try to add them somehow.

I just started using ecigs Saturday and I am IN LOVE! I have tried every every single stop-smoking gimmick and nothing has workd until now. I have not picked up a regular cigarette since I fired up my first ecig!

 

[wyzardd]

I stole the letter and I'm sharing with others to send to their senators. I hope that's copacetic with the OP and ECF.

 

[jerimiah797]

Yep, that's why I put it up here.

 

[LuckyCharm]

I don't see why it wouldn't be fine with anybody. If the goal is to garner as much support in Congress on our side, I'm sure they're just glad you're writing at all! If it's a choice between you borrowing and adapting someone else's words or possibly not getting around to writing at all, that sounds like a no-brainer to me!

But it sure is nice of you to ask...

~~Cheryl

 

[jerimiah797]

I can't find my source for that. I know I read somewhere that an inhaled drug was using PG as the main carrier for the inhaler, but I can't recall if the product was on the market or just in development and clinical trials...

 

[wv2win]

Very good letter. The only thing I would change is I would remove the last sentence in the second paragraph. (These 3 ingredients are also found in regular cigarettes.) I think it is irrelevant and can confuse the overall point of your letter.

 

[OptionStud]

Well done on the letter. I think a lot of these pols are clueless about this issue. In my emails, I have tried to end with the kind of appeal they do not normally hear and you might want to adopt something similar along the lines of:

In sum, Person X, I trust you went into public service with the goal of helping people. I thus beg you to think through very carefully and objectively your position on any government ban or over-regulation of electronic cigarettes. This is a product that, even in its infancy, has already helped many to quit smoking and many others to reduce substantially their smoking habit. Nobody has died from electronic cigarettes whereas countless numbers of people have died and suffered horrible illnesses from smoking, including those exposed to second hand smoke. Please do not rush to judgment on this issue. Please do not be a part of supporting any laws that, however well intended, will have the direct and very real effect of condemning millions more to suffer and die.

 

[LuckyCharm]

In sum, Person X, I trust you went into public service with the goal of helping people. I thus beg you to think through very carefully and objectively your position on any government ban or over-regulation of electronic cigarettes.

I like this. It's an angle they might not often be reminded of.

~~Cheryl

 

[wyzardd]

Only form-letter replies from my Congresscritters. I take that as a bad sign, since they used to be good at replying if they agreed with my letter.

 

[vapordan]

I am new to the forum.. new to e-cigs about 3 weeks ago... and already frustrated as I learn more about the FDA BS that's going on.

I found this site I wanted to share with the Board here... It lets Anyone lput in thier zipcode and then instantly "Email" their representatives... I for one would think this is a good tool to promote to everyone here on the forum.

Note I tried to post the actual Url... but it wouldn't let me because I'm new I guess... so...

the site is at this address .. rallycongress.com/letter2congress/698/

For myself, If it's okay... I will borrow wording from the posted letter here and send that as my email to my senators...

I for one think a Strong EMAIL campaign through this service with everyone and their brother bombarding their senator may get some attention.