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    Vaping, useful substitute for smoking or yet another cynical..... Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on September 13, 2019, 3:51 am

    .... manoeuvre by tobacco companies to foist continued nicotine addiction on our struggling communities and youth?

    https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2019/09/12/banning-flavoured-vaping-products-would-drive-smokers-back-to-cigarettes/

    Some countries, such as Australia, have banned nicotine containing e-cigarettes. New Zealand, like the UK and US, allow them, and indeed allow extensive advertising.

    To me, I strongly take the latter interpretation of what is happening. After millions of pounds / dollars spent on smoking cessation and several decades of continued cigarette caused death and disease, slowly, slowly, nations and communities have been reducing this noxious habit. For instance, NZ, (in 13 years, from 25% of the population smoking daily, it's now around 13%). So why on earth allow these companies to profit yet again on promoting a highly addictive and damaging drug on the community, and targeting in particular as they are, young people.

    I wrote a letter to our minister of health last week.

    Rt Hon David Clark, MP
    Minister of Health
    Parliament Buildings
    Wellington

    Dear Mr Clark.

    I rarely watch broadcast television but when I do, on the “On Demand” internet transmission, I am amazed, and horrified, to see strident advertising for vaping products. It is almost unbelievable that this product, deliberately and cynically designed to provide the user with large doses of a known addictive product, nicotine, can be advertised in this, or in any way. Nicotine is not harmless. It is as I’ve said a proven addictive substance, and we’ve known this for decades. For instance read https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/tobacco-nicotine-e-cigarettes/nicotine-addictive or as many other reports as you care to find, there’ll be thousands

    Previously nicotine “hits” came from cigarettes or other forms of tobacco consumption. The huge number of harmful compounds related to the burning of tobacco caused lung cancer, accelerated atherosclerosis, various arterial disorders, premature ageing, etc. etc. Vaping may be free of some of these effects, but various excipients and flavourings are present in the vaping medium, for which there is no scientific evidence for their total safety.

    As tobacco consumption reduces, and successive governments have spent umpteen millions to legislate and control this, we now see cynical and greedy operators pushing a new form of this addictive substance, which is particularly appealing to young people. The claims that sellers of vaping products don’t target youngsters is spurious .https://www.vox.com/2019/1/25/18194953/vape-juul-e-cigarette-marketing The claim that vaping is marketed only as an aid to stop smoking is also spurious, as is any claim to its effectiveness. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198047

    Look, I’m 72 years old, and a retired GP. I was a practicing GP for nearly 50 years and I have some understanding of the nature of addiction, of human fallibility and the connivance of drug and tobacco companies. Common sense should tell you that any product designed to deliver an easily purchased and highly addictive product is going to cause harm both to the user and the wider community. Common sense should tell you that tobacco companies are run by psychopaths who don’t give a toss for the health of the users of their products, they never have in the past, so how likely is it they will now? Common sense will tell you that psychopaths are manipulative and cynical and too often very persuasive operators who’ll find any excuse or rationalisation for their actions.

    So I decide to check up on what your government is actually doing. Unbelievably the first reference I find is this: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-vaping-quit-smoking-website-launches in which your government has set up an internet site, supposedly giving dispassionate advice on the ways that vaping might be a healthier substitute for smoking. You have no secure evidence to back this claim and you should not be making it. https://vapingfacts.health.nz/the-facts-of-vaping/ - This glossy, slick web resource might as well have been constructed by a consortium of vaping companies for its promotion of vaping as a smoking substitute. This “resource” should be taken down immediately. I believe the claims made on this page are spurious and do not reflect the reality of how vaping is marketed and the cohorts on which this marketing is targeted. The evidence is building up very quickly that vaping is far from a healthier option for smokers, that young people are vulnerable to marketing and advertising, and that vaping itself may be rather more harmful than has been realised up to now.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-28/selling-vaping-to-teenagers-at-epidemic-levels/11452036
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/04/how-two-stanford-grads-aimed-big-tech-glory-got-big-tobacco-instead/ describes how just one company, Juul, is now worth $38 billion after just four years of operation. You do not make $38 billion by merely promoting a substitute for cigarettes.
    https://www.healthline.com/health-news/vaping-may-be-causing-acute-lung-damage-in-teens - vaping associated with severe and fatal lung disease.

    Recall how long it took for the medical profession to realise how harmful smoking was, and now, 60 years later, we still have this massive problem, and tobacco companies still sell their products around the world, causing around 5 million painful, nasty premature deaths annually, each death representing years of increasing illness, pain, disability and fear.

    I realise that up to now you having been basing policies on some perhaps contentious professional advice that indicates vaping as a relatively anodyne product. I believe this evidence can be increasingly challenged. I think your first duty is to the citizens of this country and their health and wellbeing, not to the profits of vaping device manufacturers or retailers. As such there is something called “ the precautionary principle” and somehow or other, this has been forgotten in your department. I’d strongly urge you to first get urgent bans on all vaping product advertising or sponsorship. Challenge any claims as to the harmlessness of these products. Challenge any claims that they are an effective and safe substitute for smoking. Take down your misinformed web page. Once you’ve done this, urgently set up an expert review of these products, and unless they can be shown to be totally harmless, which they can’t, they should be banned altogether, and you should continue the excellent work that’s already been done to reduce and eventually eliminate smoking. (If by some unlikely chance vaping can be proven to be an effective short-term pathway to tobacco avoidance, then perhaps it could be made available in a controlled manner to specific people on a qualified doctor’s or other medical professional’s advice on a pharmacy dispensed prescription.)

    I believe, though I stand to be corrected, that the sale of of nicotine containing vaping products is already illegal in Australia. I don’t always agree with what Australia does, but in this situation, I’d urge your government to investigate and emulate Australia’s legislation.

    Thank you for your time.

    Dr John K Monro
    Martinborough

    Another resources here:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/394168/exclusive-youth-addiction-worry-as-high-nicotine-vape-juul-to-hit-nz

    That politicians and some professionals should be taken in by Juul and other similar companies beggars belief. Again, it's this capitalist creed and the cowards it makes of politicians, afraid they might yet again be labelled "nanny state" interfering with personal freedom and responsibility. If being a good nanny is showing professionalism, humane concern, appropriate discipline and knowing the difference between nagging and care, then it's time we all voted for nanny governments, we desperately need them.

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