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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MARCH/APRIL 2015
TMA REPORT
important for us to understand the impact,
particularly on youth, before we allow the
full-fledged spread of these e-cigarettes
and then later have problems that we have
to deal with.”
…The
California Department of Public
Health
(CDPH) on January 28 released
a report saying that e-cigs emit toxic
chemicals, get users addicted to nicotine
and are a “community health threat” that
should be regulated like tobacco products.
Professor Michael Siegel of Boston
University’s School of Public Health said
that the CDPH report is heavily biased and
cherry-picks studies that agree with its
position while ignoring studies that don’t.
He notes that the report’s conclusion
that “[t]here is no scientific evidence that
e-cigarettes help smokers successfully
quit traditional cigarettes or that they
reduce their consumption” is based on
only one observational study conducted
by Dr. Katrina Vickerman, which included
many smokers who were not using e-cigs
in their attempt to quit and was not even
designed to examine the efficacy of e-cigs
for smoking cessation. The report did not
consider any of the three clinical trials—
two led by Dr. Riccardo Polosa in Italy
and one led by Dr. Chris Bullen in New
Zealand—that provide the most rigorous
scientific information currently available
on the efficacy of e-cigs.
…On his personal blog entitled “The
Counterfactual,” Clive Bates points out
that commentators, including the CDC,
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,
The
New York Times
and
The Guardian,
are
highlighting the
rise in calls to poison
control centers in the U.S.
regarding
e-cigs and e-liquids over the past several
years, from 271 in 2011 to 3,957 in 2014.
He says that increase can be explained by
the rapid rise in vaping and “the increased
fear about these products arising from
the negative publicity and fear-mongering
in the press and by ‘public health
organizations,’” adding that when put into
context, e-cigs and e-liquids represent
only 0.06 percent of nearly 2.6 million calls
to the poison control centers in 2013.
…Commenting on the recent peer-
reviewed letter in the
New England
Journal of Medicine
by researchers
from Portland State University (PSU),
which said that formaldehyde was
detected when they ran a vaporizer
at a high voltage and concluded that
a heavy user of a vaporizer at the
high voltage was 5 to 15 times more
likely to get cancer than a longtime
smoker,
The New York Times
’ op-ed
columnist Joe Nocera wrote that the
study “fits right into [the] dynamic” of
“many in the public health community
treat[ing] e-cigarettes as every bit as
evil” as cigarettes, and of anti-tobacco
activists “irrationally embrac[ing]” any
news suggesting that vaping is bad for
health, resulting in the decline in the
percentage of smokers who believe
e-cigs to be safer than combustible
cigarettes from 84 percent in 2010 to 65
percent in 2013, though the conclusion
drawn by PSU researchers is highly
misleading given that people do not
vape at a high voltage because of the
horrible taste caused by overheating
the e-liquid.
…The
U.S.
Federal
Aviation
Administration is advising airlines to
consider banning e-cigs in checked airline
luggage
, noting that e-cigs have started
two fires since August 2014.
TBI