Happy Friday my fellow GUSsacks! I hope you had a great week, and have a wonderful weekend lined up! As we all well know, there is a lively and passionate discussion going on out there right now about the relative benefits and risks of e-cigarettes as opposed to tobacco use. But now an anti tobacco advocate, a bona fide expert with over 30 years of experience is speaking out, and he’s sounding a warning siren. But first a word from our sponsor.
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The name of this expert is David Sweanor, and I’ll introduce him in a moment. And his warning call is simple. With so many anti smoking advocates attacking e-cigarettes so vehemently, they are actually giving aid and comfort to big tobacco. According to a recent article in The Daily Caller;
Adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottowa and special lecturer with the division of epidemiology and public health at the University of Nottingham, David Sweanor spent more than 30 years fighting tobacco. He was even a pivotal force in persuading the Canadian government to introduce bans on cigarette advertising, higher taxes and smoke-free public places.
But now, Sweanor has split from many in the anti-smoking movement because he supports e-cigarettes.
“There’s a very strong abstinence-only part of what’s going on in the anti-smoking movement. I think it’s one of the most counter-productive things that we’ve ever seen,” Sweanor told Regulator Watch Saturday.
His warning can be summed up with a paraphrase on an old axiom, “It’s the smoke stupid!”. His concern is that the anti smoking activists are becoming distracted, they’re screaming about an alternative delivery system for nicotine, and taking their eyes of the main ball, the hazards and harmful effects of cigarette smoking. He explains;
“We’ve known for decades people smoke for the nicotine, they die from the tar, they die from the smoke. That the nicotine itself, that the dosage level somebody’s looking for is not particularly hazardous so it can be usefully compared to caffeine.”
Sweanor, who also worked for the World Bank and the World Health Organization to push tobacco control measures worldwide, explained lots of people consume substantial amounts of caffeine, but they do so in a way that causes very little harm.
“If we got our caffeine by smoking tea leaves rather than brewing tea, that too would be killing us not because of the caffeine but because we’d be sucking smoke into our lungs.”
Once smoke is no longer a factor, the overwhelming majority of problems associated with cigarettes are eliminated, according to Sweanor.
No matter what your opinion of the safety or lack thereof of e-cigarettes is, this is nothing but clear headed thinking. The simple fact is that it is NOT about the nicotine, the nicotine is addictive, and it’s what makes you smoke, but the nicotine by itself is not inherently harmful, and other than elevating the heart rate, it does not by itself cause deadly diseases. That’s done by the tar and the 6000+ toxins released into your body by the burning process and the chemicals released by the superheated filter fibers. Making so much noise about the safety or lack thereof of e-cigs just gives Big Tobacco cover. Let’s just turn the noise down, wait for the scientists and medical researchers to do some testing, and find ways to make the systems and juices safer instead of clicking our heels three times and wishing the whole thing away. Go back to the real bad guys here. But why listen to my dumb, laymans ass prattle on. Professor Sweanor summed it up so much more effectively than a shitkicker like me ever could;
He went on to explain that “people went after them [cigarette companies] the way that dragons attract dragon slayers. It’s just an evil entity and you’re going to go out and destroy it, and I think some lost sight of the public health component of this.”
Sweanor fears that if lawmakers and public health activists continue to advocate for heavy restrictions on e-cigarettes, it’ll send a message that vaping is no less hazardous than smoking. This would then result in fewer people switching, therefore, continuing the risks of smoking-related diseases.
Now, that’s the way you sum it all up! Look, I’m not suggesting e-cigs are some kind of Pollyanna, there are real risks associated with their use, but I honestly believe that those risks are significantly lower than with traditional cigarettes. So, let’s just shut up, roll up our sleeves and do the work. Do the damn testing. Find the physical components for the vaping chambers and coils that produce the fewest possibly negative components. Test the liquids and flavors and additives in the juice, and get rid of or replace with safer alternatives the ones that produce harmful chemicals. In other words, make it as safe as humanly possible, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. And whatever we do, don’t cast them as a Darth Vader to the Galactic Emperor of Big Tobacco.
In short, never, ever forget who the real destructive influence in this equation is. e-cigarettes can at least be made safer, burning tobacco is by it’s nature harmful and destructive, and nothing can change that. Even if you removed the filters and additives and went back to the good old days, the tar released from the burning process alone is toxic, it can cause both cancer and emphysema, there is no way to make tobacco “safe”. And let’s please never forget that.