Monday 3 September 2012

The Campaign To Force Vapers Back To Tobacco Intensifies

There's a scene in The Big Lebowski which always strikes me as an analogy for ineptitude displayed by the tobacco control industry towards e-cigs. You see, the canny little devices fuck up their long-strategised plan.


The whole point, you must understand, is that when you quit you are supposed to use the medical route. You quit using pharmaceutical devices or - if you really must - cold turkey, but you mustn't enjoy it. If you choose such a method, they'd frankly prefer you die instead, all things considered.

E-cigs have stumbled into this cosy little scenario and turned the former entrenched balance of power on its head. You may have noticed a few shots across the e-cig bows from anti-tobacco activists previously - in the form of misinformation, hideous scaremongery and outright lies - but the environment seems to have moved into sinister overdrive very quickly.

Today saw the Daily Mail loudly publish this scare story about e-cigs based on a huge sample of, would you believe, 32 people.
They are touted as a safe alternative to smoking, but electronic cigarettes could damage the lungs, latest research has found.

The devices were found to cause an immediate rise in airway resistance in the lungs - meaning less oxygen is absorbed by the blood.

On average the effect lasted for ten minutes, a report presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna found.
Obviously, no comparision between the effect of e-cigs and that of tobacco is described here, simply because it's not tobacco which is being demonised for a change. The fact that vaping is stratospherically less harmful than smoking must be ignored for the purposes of this 'study'.

This follows swiftly on from Facebook having purged its site of any mention of e-cigs, on the premise that they are "tobacco-related" products.


All very sudden, isn't it? Especially in light of this week's revelations from Michael Siegel of systematic conflicts of interest being held by those who are driving the attacks on e-cigs.

It looks like the war on e-cigs - that is, to have them swatted like some irritating wasp from the faces of trouser-filling tobacco control professionals - has begun in earnest.

Fortunately, vapers are not taking this big industry intimidation lying down. I'd urge you to sign this petition against Facebook's ignorant, and highly irresponsible, kow-towing to self-enriching arseholes, and bookmark this new blog detailing the level of mendacity being employed against e-cigs which is directly and disastrously dangerous to the declared goals of the public health cartel. Meanwhile, in the US, e-cig advocates have gone for the throat - and hopefully the career - of the disgusting excuse of a healthcare professional, Ellen Hahn, mentioned here last month.

So battle is now joined. Pharma interests have obviously seen enough of their profits leaking into the e-cig run-off and are employing their useful idiots to stave off the threat of smokers quitting by unapproved means. And those in favour of e-cigs are incontrovertibly on the side of the angels, while tobacco control is actively conspiring to inflict unnecessary harm on nicotine users or - to use the anti-smoking business' own exaggerative parlance - killing them.

It's never been about health, you know.


18 comments:

Jay said...

Have you seen/listened to this recent presentation? I won't spoil it for you. http://www.uknscc.org/uknscc2012_presentation_108.php?show=archive

SteveW said...

If you'll excuse the vernacular, fuck 'em
http://www.facebook.com/VaporiumAdmin
:-)
If linking is not on Dick, do please delete.

Bob Johnson said...

E-cigs compete with Chantix, a known killer, thereby defeating the entire purpose of smoking bans, the bottom line of Pfizer.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

It's very much on. ;)

Jocelyn said...

Tobacco Control - bastards! I'm thinking of boycotting Facebook now!

Smoking Scot said...

With Facebook share prices going through the floor and them reactivating closed accounts. That's some serious clout at play.

west2 said...

Seems like a fair summary. He does nod to the TCI but plays the problems down. e-cigs are on their radar, but they haven't quite got a handle on what to do yet.


I did laugh at his praise for the MHRA 'consultation'. The initial phase was a complete failure for them.

Jax said...

I have to say that I get a little thrill of “told you so” with every new anti-vaping story. Good on the vapers for taking on this vipers’ nest at such an early stage – anything which gives Tobacco Control a bit of a bloody nose has got to be a good thing – but I have to say that as far as I’m concerned they’re on their own on this one. The moment I read comments from newly-converted vapers extolling the holy virtues of vaping and using derogatory terms for “filthy, stinky” smokers and bragging about how they weren’t ever going to die from cancer (yeah, right) or heart disease (yeah, right again), they lost any support from me that they were ever likely to have had. And I know from countless comments on here and elsewhere that I’m not alone in this feeling.

As we smokers know only too well, support from people outside one’s own group is vital to stop persecution once it gets going – it was ultimately the lack of such support at even the most basic level which did for smokers five years ago. Vapers’ only hope for outside support might have come from their ex-colleagues the smokers. They certainly can’t bank on the support of non-smokers, non-vapers, drinkers or non-obese people, because anti-vaping campaigns “don’t affect them,” so basically they won’t give a sh*t. But by adopting the typical ex-smoker-turned-anti-smoker attitude, vapers lost what outside support they might have had, so ultimately they’re unlikely to make much headway against a well-funded and media-savvy bunch like Tobacco Control, because each and every argurment, counter-argument or disagreement can be easily brushed aside as partisan and biased because: "You would say that, wouldn't you - you're a Vaper!"
But if nothing else, it’s a welcome relief not to be the sole subject of Tobacco Control’s prejudice for at least a little while.

Jax said...

Oo-er! What's happened to my comment? Has it been spammised? One minute it was there, and the next ....!

Jax said...

Sorry to tag this on as a "reply" (it isn't one) but what's happening to my comments (two have now vanished). Are you not speaking to me any more, DP ...?

John Davidson said...

DP dont know if you noticed but it said COPD and Asthma subjects had no ill effects from the ecig, Only those with no lung problems,err whats wrong with that !
It makes absoluely no sence at all and makes one wonder what they actually put in the ecigs of the normal functioning test subjects!

John Davidson said...

Damn my post didnt show up!
DP did you read the part about the ecig not harming the test subjects with copd or asthma. It reall makes one think they put something in the ecig the others were smoking!

SteveW said...

Some good points, but don't tar all vapers with the same brush. Our esteemed host seems an obvious counter example.
That said, even as a vaping convert, I find the holier than thou nonsense truly cringeworthy.

John Davidson said...

Would there be a market for e-cigs if not for the bans! Of course there wouldnt be,its why the e-cig folks side with TC all to often as they push e-cigs as an alternative to NRT drugs! Yes Ive read the same B.S. of filthy smokers from the ecig folks online too. But at least we arent in prison cutting open patches and rolling the contents in with corn silks,then rolling in toilet paper just to have a smoke..

Vapingpoint said...

Hi Jax,
May I use this comment in my blog please?

Blog (still to be posted) title "Vapers be ashamed" reads.....



I have posted before to say I am a smoker who vapes, and as such, I feel for smokers AND vapers.
Here is a comment in response to THIS that saddened me.

Quote :- Here follows your comment.......(....................)
As I have said before vapers have become co-persecutors and we should be ashamed.....

Thanks, Liz

Jax said...

Feel free to use my comment on your blog, VP, but I would appreciate if you’d point out that I do recognise – as SteveW points out above – that not all vapers are anti-smokers and that many (possibly by virtue of having been smokers themselves previously) are both understanding of the unfairnesses loaded upon smokers and probably more aware than most other – so far largely untouched - disapproved-of “lifestyle followers” of the dangers of joining in with the bullies simply because those bullies appear at the moment to be the “winning side,” which makes them feel good.

I guess the real nub is that the anti-smoking-type vapers are likely to end up alienating that much-needed “outside” support which, ultimately, can only end up working against all vapers – including themselves - in the end.

Ragnar Eichmann said...

Hey Regarding the Facefuck ban. Today I find this; https://www.facebook.com/allesandre


Gratis Cigarren-Magazin
Alles André. Das Magazin. Über Cigarren. Und alles andere.Jetzt mit großem Cigarren-Portal1.230 Personen gefällt

But then, it is an advert put in by Facefuck themselves. So it looks like "one rule for you and one for us"

Furor Teutonicus said...

Hey Regarding the Facefuck ban. Today I find this;

https://www.facebook.com/allesandre


Gratis Cigarren-Magazin
Alles André. Das Magazin. Über Cigarren. Und alles andere.Jetzt mit großem Cigarren-Portal1.230 Personen gefällt

(Free cigar magazine. The magazine about cigars and everything else)

Complete with their own Facefuck site!

But then, it is an advert put in by Facefuck themselves. So it looks like "one rule for you and one for us"