Mourn in the USA
The response to the PHE “95%” report was mixed in the Land of the Free
-
by Dave Cross
Share on:
“Picture this — you’re walking to class, minding your own business, when you catch a whiff of some acrid smell,” writes the Indiana Daily Student. “You immediately start coughing and turn around to face the jerk who is smoking in the middle of campus, a technically smoke-free zone. This happens way too often for my taste.”
Once you finish laughing at the introduction, the rest of the article goes on to be a more reasonable approach to the subject of vaping, but the initial attitude is where the American debate now lies. Acrid smells? Vapour in a smoke-free zone? The prohibitionist arguments are being shown up for what they are: they just don’t like the look of it.
Already, the FDA has postponed its draft of rules for electronic cigarette and liquid manufacturers. The comment gathering exercise has had its deadline extended by another month despite the likes of the TCR demanding a final ruling before the end of the summer. It is fully expected that the FDA will now factor in the Public Health England report too.
American anti-vaping campaigners have grasped at the recent findings of a new study published in JAMA that suggests e-cigarettes might be a gateway to tobacco. It lends its credence on the fact that the sample surveyed was large, 2500 students, but the findings have drawn instant criticism from the American Council for Science and Health (ACSH).
ACSH state that not only are surveys one of the least reliable forms of research but that evidence from teenagers can’t be relied upon as much as adults. “It is difficult to know if, or how many, students who tried e-cigarettes at baseline weren’t going to try tobacco,” they say, “regardless of their initial exposure to e-cigarettes.”
Also, from the 2500, “only 54 study participants who had never tried tobacco regularly used an e-cigarette and that’s in the statistical noise range,” ACSH continue. They point out that no mention is made of current or future cigar use due to vaping as the authors realise how laughable a proposition it is. “This really devalues the study because these two activities are very different: e-cigarettes are inhaled and cigars are not.”
WTRF 7 News, as part of their coverage of the PHE report, cites Ohio County Health Director Howard Gamble sticking his fingers in his ears and saying: “We don't know everything that's going out. We don't know everything that's affecting our bodies. To say that there's literature that says there's nothing wrong with it is very short sided, as well as individuals who say they're good for you.”
Julia Belluz, writing for Vox Science & Health, bizarrely states: “But there are a few things this report doesn't say, and these messages have been glossed over in some of the media coverage. The report doesn't say that e-cigarettes are completely safe. (We don't know whether that's the case.) It doesn't say anything about the long-term health impact of vaping. (There are no published studies on years-long e-cigarette use.) And it doesn't say non-smokers should take up the habit.”
She goes on to quote more people resolutely refusing to listen to what the PHE’s McNeil and Fenton have to say. For the sake of American vapers and smokers, let’s hope they begin sometime soon.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
Join the discussion
World News
The US Supreme Court knocked back a flavour ban appeal, Singapore has seen a kickback to its “crackdown”, India is “doubling down” on its ban, and Northern Irish activists want to see fines doubled
-
by Dave Cross
VTA Releases New Poll Findings
The American public is being grossly misinformed about benefits of e-cigarette use to smokers and low risk of vaping, according to the Vapor Technology Association
-
by Dave Cross
AVA Shuts Up Shop
The news that the American Vaping Association (AVA) is shutting down its operations is a sign of the times in a turbulent United States
-
by Dave Cross
US Flavour Fail
A new study looking at the impact of flavour bans in the United States has shown that The FDA’s misplaced war on tobacco harm reduction is completely failing
-
by Dave Cross
