San Diego ABC 10News to do independent study on ecigs...

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Traver

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Yeah, as a dual alternate user, I feel like I am in a very small minority in the vaping community, yet Glantz seems to think I'm in some overwhelming majority. If I could meet Dr. G, in person, I'd have no problem setting the record straight. He has the 'dual user' thing squarely on the deception side of things and it makes me question his integrity. If we met in person or online or wherever, I would say that I find his integrity questionable on this matter, as it seems baseless in the way he perpetuates the claim around dual use.

As a vaper who is also an ex-smoker, I'd be upset with such a deception, as apparently many vapers are.

You may be in a minority on this forum but that doesn't mean you are not with the majority of e-cig users in the larger world. Does anyone have any actual facts or evidence about this?
 

DC2

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Alright, this is what I sent...

You last reply puts me in an uncomfortable position, although I’m sure that was not your intention.
I did, however, have to think on it for awhile before replying.

My first instinct was to send you about 5 pages worth of links and documentation on all sorts of various issues related to electronic cigarettes.
But I realized that it would be unusual for you to even consider reading any of it, let alone all of it.

Then I thought of picking just a few things that I thought might interest you, but there are so many issues involved that it’s hard to pick just a couple.

So in the end I decided to thank you for your time, and move on.

If there is one link I would like to leave you with, however, it would probably be this one...
CASAA - The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association

They are a non-profit organization dedicated to truthfully informing the public about smoke-free alternatives.
I am sure they would be more than happy to speak with you if you ever desire to do so, as would I if you would ever like to continue this conversation.
 
As someone who dual uses and hangs out with other dual users, the answer to that question would be a no.

I would also note that everyone I know that dual uses smokes far far less than what they used to (as I know what they used to smoke).

On the flip side, I can vape or smoke within say 10 minutes of the other activity. But I smoke so moderately now that all the anti-smoking propaganda, even by ex-smokers found on this site, means next to nothing to me. You smoked 3+ PAD and had issues with them? That's a shame. I currently smoke a pack ever 4 to 6 weeks and have very little to no issues from smoking.

Even my doctor was quoted as saying that 3 to 4 cigarettes a day simply can't hurt you (he's a realist and tends to be highly empirically oriented). Less than that--like your one to less than one--piffle.

He's also over the moon that I quit and went with the e-cig. Per him, given the choice, he'd much rather see me vape for the rest of my very long life.
 
Jan 19, 2014
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Alright, this is what I sent...

Looks like you did a pretty good job! Congrats!

The one thing I might've added is that CASAA is industry-UNaffiliated. Sadly, many of our allies such as the Nat'l Center for Public Policy Research are not only industry-affiliated, but also refuse to disclose their funding. In a political context, an industry-funded org may speak with a louder voice - since politicians do pay attention to orgs that can move money and/or votes. Cub reporters are aware of the funding issue as well, but have the reverse attitude, since they live in a world in which so many industry-funded orgs "pretend" to be "grass roots" - AKA "atroturf." (The media is slower to catch on, when it comes to BP-funded or BP-influenced researchers or parts of gov't.)

But ultimately our issue is merely one of many matters that any given media person such as a reporter or a producer may deal with on a given day. If they've mischaracterized things, or even reported outright falsehoods to the public, this is not going to bother them - unless they think that there will be some consequences.

Clearly this reporter/producer didn't know much about the subject, but felt that this particular item in their inbox was properly handled by consulting the "experts." Put concisely: "due diligence was [supposedly] done." And that's basically what you saw in the reply: "I've done my job, so don't be upset!"

The subtext is: "I was working on many other stories that day - about which I also knew absolutely nothing. Unless and until you can tell me that I didn't follow the correct procedures, I couldn't care less about whether you liked the result."

Reporters and producers spend most of their time creating paragraphs or video frames. They're not responsible for the underlying validity of the substance - other than ensuring that the results meet certain requirements. So if there are three people with letters after their names who insist that two plus two is five, this "fact" is dutifully reported. Headline: UC Professor discovers that Two Plus Two Really Is Five. (Or that the earth truly is flat, etc.)

Besides, most local media people have little time to take that kind of responsibility, even if they wished to do so. Their job (as they see it) is to "paint by the numbers," regardless of whether the impact of their reporting actually serves the public interest.

Another way to effectively combat this problem in the short term is to hit back in an arena such as the comments section, or to have credentialed (or local) people respond in (say) a missive to the editor/producer. It's interesting to observe that the comments sections in the "hit job" pieces are filled with vapers who are doing just that. This may also help to explain why the reporting in the larger outlets is more balanced and better thought through. Frankly, I couldn't see either (say) the NYT or the WSJ doing a "hit job" like this (not now, anyway) ... their people are just too savvy, and they have the time to think through what they're actually doing - in part because they don't have to churn out ten or twenty stories a week.

In the long run, I believe public opinion will eventualy shift. But in the years and perhaps decades to come, we should anticpate frequent frustrating events of this nature, especially when we're dealing with local media.
 

AgentAnia

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Excellent, elegant reply, DC2!

And now, warning, slightly :offtopic: but I want to get this out of brain and on to keyboard before I suffer a senior moment and lose the thought:

Re Slantzz and his "dual use" hypothesis: He and anyone else who moans that dual users are actually increasing their nicotine intake conveniently ignore the established fact that nicotine users self-titrate. Each nicotine user establishes his/her own "comfort" level.** This is why some of us smoked 5 cigarettes a day and some smoked 2 packs. By this established fact of self-regulation, every time a smoker vapes, that's one less cigarette (on average) smoked and that much less tar and other harmful chemicals ingested. Let's be sure to debunk Slantzz's dual use hypothesis whenever it comes up in the media!

**As I see it, either intentionally or un- he is implicitly equating nicotine with addictive drugs {MODERATED} where the user builds up tolerance and has to increase dosage over time to achieve the desired reaction.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program....
 
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DC2

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We need to get a researcher to do a study where they look at cotinine levels in dual users vs. smokers vs. exclusive vapers. You scientists get right on that m-kay?
That's a good idea.

Anything that can shut up Stanton Glantz would be welcome.
Well, welcome at least by anyone that cares about people's lives.
 

Spazmelda

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That's a good idea.

Anything that can shut up Stanton Glantz would be welcome.
Well, welcome at least by anyone that cares about people's lives.

Eh, he's a lost cause. Nothing will shut him up, but it might get some people to realize he should be ignored. As a scientist myself, he's an embarrassment to the profession.
 

DC2

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Eh, he's a lost cause. Nothing will shut him up, but it might get some people to realize he should be ignored. As a scientist myself, he's an embarrassment to the profession.
I think you are being too kind when you label him as "an embarrassment to the profession".
I have much harsher words I would use to describe him.
 

rico942

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Read this whole thread with great interest. For me, its a local news story, and affects me directly ...

Two things occur to me on reflection:

Local news media people love to meet with informal gatherings of residents to relate their story, makes for interesting interviews, the kind that generate catchy teasers and draw in viewers. Probably wouldn't be hard to get a number of San Diego area vapers to sit down in a restaurant with the 10 News reporter, or even another one from a competing station ...

My story is simple, 46 years of smoking, no intention to quit, switched to vaping and left tobacco behind, much improved health, NO "dual use", never even considered that ...

Secondly, my first degree was in broadcast journalism, and I do remember some of what I learned. In my opinion, the really sensational story here is not some junk science and the continuation of smoker persecution, that's old stuff. The reporter who has the gonads to follow the evidence, and expose the reasons why vaping bans are suddenly popping up like mushrooms, over a device that only contains benign substances, that guy will have a real scoop ...

Either way, any responsible news report should conclude with the obvious fact that vaping is here to stay, the internet makes it impossible to suppress the knowledge necessary to build PVs, and will provide sources for the juice, despite corruption and greed ...

As a good friend of mine says, "They didn't "Tucker" it soon enough." ...
 

rothenbj

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Eh, he's a lost cause. Nothing will shut him up, but it might get some people to realize he should be ignored. As a scientist myself, he's an embarrassment to the profession.

I think it's a disease effecting many of the Cal. tobacco researchers as well as a few in Kentucky.
 

Spazmelda

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Secondly, my first degree was in broadcast journalism, and I do remember some of what I learned. In my opinion, the really sensational story here is not some junk science and the continuation of smoker persecution, that's old stuff. The reporter who has the gonads to follow the evidence, and expose the reasons why vaping bans are suddenly popping up like mushrooms, over a device that only contains benign substances, that guy will have a real scoop ...

I agree, and I'm sort of surprised and not surprised at the same time that nobody has delved much into this in the media yet. I hate to think that investigative journalism is dead, but it sort of seems that way. Are the reporters not wanting to do the work, are the stations/outlets not approving the stories, has tobacco control got everyone so brainwashed that they just can't see this side of the story, has it become too taboo to question tobacco control? It's hard to believe that people who should interested in digging for details are glossing over the whole money aspect of this issue.
 
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<snip>
**As I see it, either intentionally or un- he is implicitly equating nicotine with addictive drugs {MODERATED} where the user builds up tolerance and has to increase dosage over time to achieve the desired reaction.

This particular link was too dreadful for me to post today in my round-up (besides I had bigger fish to fry) ... Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
cvs-pharamacies-end-sale-cigarettes-including-e-cigarettes-until-fda-regulation-important

This is an important symbolic step because it further send the message that tobacco is no longer part of civilized society and reinforces the fact that the cigarette/tobacco (which are increasingly the e-cigarette companies) are not legitimate businesses. As the federal RICO lawsuit against the cigarette companies (described in our book Bad Acts) established, the companies are racketeers, who are still under court orders designed to inhibit their ongoing "enterprise" to defraud the public. No legitimate business should be selling their products, something Walmart, the world's largest purveyor of cigarettes should consider.

In other words, Dr. Glantz believes that your local vape store which might sell Blus (even if it doesn't sell tobacco products), is at minimum not a "legitimate business," because it's associated with the "criminal enterprise" known as Lorillard.

Is he also talking about "criminal enterprises" such as Johnson Creek which go to great lengths to sell safe and high-quality e-juice?

Even if he doesn't believe the latter (and I wouldn't put it past him), it looks like everyone who works for Green Smoke is now part of a "criminal enterprise," since GS is now owned by PMI.

Hard to see Blu and GS employees as "Goodfellas," isn't it?
 
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navigator2011

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I agree, and I'm sort of surprised and not surprised at the same time that nobody has delved much into this in the media yet. I hate to think that investigative journalism is dead, but it sort of seems that way. Are the reporters not wanting to do the work, are the stations/outlets not approving the stories, has tobacco control got everyone so brainwashed that they just can't see this side of the story, has it become too taboo to question tobacco control? It's hard to believe that people who should interested in digging for details are glossing over the whole money aspect of this issue.

Almost like everyone is under the spell of some sort of collective hypnotism.
 

rico942

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There's an enormous irony in the fact that the very people who promote this lunatic witch hunt against nicotine users are doing so with technology and devices developed in the last century, by inventors, scientists, and engineers who nearly all smoked tobacco ...

They need to study their own history a bit more, and recognize the fundamental hypocrisy of demonizing a substance while using the very tools to which it contributed ... :confused:

Another angle for a clever and creative reporter to pursue ...
 
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