I am putting together a Hall of Shame for legislators who protect the tobacco cigarette marketplace by sponsoring legislation to outlaw the sale of safer smoke-free alternatives. The lies told in the "Justification" sections of these bills are outrageous.
What's worse, when constituents write to sponsors of these bans to let them know that they are using e-cigarettes instead of smoking, the sponsors defend their position with responses like this:
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So continue inhaling smoke. We also don't know for sure the amount of nicotine in each tobacco cigarette and certainly don't know the amount delivered in each puff, but surely they have to be safer because they have been around a lot longer. We don't know all of the 4,000 chemicals that are created by the process of combustion, but let's worry more about vapor that contains a handful of ingredients Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA. Yeah, right, that makes sense.....
NOT.
Here's another:
Uh-huh. The health effects of smoking, at worst, are known, and the news isn't good. But Linda has her fantasy that all smokers will one day just slap on a patch and quit for good, provided that in the interim she can prevent smokers from switching to another product that is less harmful, but still enjoyable.
Submit your own nomination, along with a quotation from a message you received from that person or a quote from a news story or press release that demonstrates that persons lack of knowledge about the product or persistent belief in fantasies. Nominations are not restricted to legislators. There are plenty of folks who are supposed to be protecting public health who are trying to get rid of the most effective tool of the century for actually achieving improvements in public health.
What's worse, when constituents write to sponsors of these bans to let them know that they are using e-cigarettes instead of smoking, the sponsors defend their position with responses like this:
--NY Assemblymember Daniel J. O'Donnel, District 69
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So continue inhaling smoke. We also don't know for sure the amount of nicotine in each tobacco cigarette and certainly don't know the amount delivered in each puff, but surely they have to be safer because they have been around a lot longer. We don't know all of the 4,000 chemicals that are created by the process of combustion, but let's worry more about vapor that contains a handful of ingredients Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA. Yeah, right, that makes sense.....
NOT.
Here's another:
-- NY Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, District 67
Uh-huh. The health effects of smoking, at worst, are known, and the news isn't good. But Linda has her fantasy that all smokers will one day just slap on a patch and quit for good, provided that in the interim she can prevent smokers from switching to another product that is less harmful, but still enjoyable.
Submit your own nomination, along with a quotation from a message you received from that person or a quote from a news story or press release that demonstrates that persons lack of knowledge about the product or persistent belief in fantasies. Nominations are not restricted to legislators. There are plenty of folks who are supposed to be protecting public health who are trying to get rid of the most effective tool of the century for actually achieving improvements in public health.
