E-cigarettes – answering the burning questions

E-Cig are the invented to quit smoking. But at the same time nothing should be habituated. E-cig are not harmful if they are taken from a guaranteed store. Quit smoking and live a healthy life.

“And it’s absolutely vital that people are made aware of any potential tobacco industry involvement with e-cigarettes.” It’s also absolutely vital that you make it known loud and clear that the tobacco industry is still a minor player in this market.

Before the TPD we warned you in your blogs of the dangers of med regs but you wouldn’t listen, now we are facing a disaster with the TPD banning all the devices that work. Do you realise what will happen yet, we will be left with one industry controlling the market and that industry will be your friends from Phillip Morris. Useless and inferior cigalikes will be the only things on the market, any high quality devices will be banned and that is a fact. You need to listen to us now, the date of guilty knowledge has passed.

It’s all well and good being supportive now but where were you in 2012? The damage has been done unless Totally Wicked can win at the European Court. No one listened to us then and it seems the same thing is happening now, we are facing the destruction of an industry here that will then be handed on a plate to the tobacco industry, are you comfortable with that?

The EU did what big pharma asked it to do, yes med regs were defeated but in its place and decided behind closed doors we got med regs light. No tanks over 2ml in volume, no leaking, no tampering, consistent dose, 20 mg/ml threshold, a six month notification, emission tests etc etc. No 2nd/3rd/4th generation device can survive these regulations but we know what can and so do the tobacco industry!

So you can do all your tests, good luck to you, but it won’t matter because the deed is done and that’s thanks to your lack of support when it mattered. Tony Holden has got it spot on below, you should read that post over and over and then hopefully you’ll understand how wrong you were before and how clueless you are to the impending disaster of the TPD.

I agree, there is need for solid scientific research on vaping.

Especially to rectify all the damage that has been done by the plethora of junk science (accidental, but mostly intentional) that keeps drenching the media and influencing policy makers.

I’m writing about “Vaping and Science” from a long term vapers perpective in my blog [ https://nzillatron.wordpress.com/ ]. Please have a look and consider my points. To avoid falling into the common trap of professional tunnel vision. There I elaborate on the topics I mention here and some more.

E.g. from a medical point of view, the question “How effective are ecigs vs NRTs and how can we increase the efficacy” may seem obviously an important one. But also it most often implies the need for a rigid framework to test it with RCTs. And these RCTs then have rather poor results in direct contrast to the rapidly growing number of ex smokers turned vapers. What happended? Dismissing and eliminating factors like arbitrary flavours and a large variety of devices, inluding the free choice of nicotine content or even when and how to use it, researchers inadverted removed all those attributes that distinguish a successful, enjoyable consumer product from pretty useless NRTs. Imposing rigid medicinal style regulation on vaping–even with the best intentions–will do just the same: Render it useless. And the TPD already is giant faux pas in this direction.

You can also gain a lot of information for planning your research from the internet surveys done by forums, vapers, shops, and other scientists. Some so-called “experts” dismiss them as useless because of the self selection bias.
Biased? Sure.
Useless? Only if you are blind to what they really tell: The common traits of the most successful, active vapers. People that fear to have their choice taken away by “regulation”. To be forced to return to vastly inferior, vastly more harmful products. People like me. People who also think about the billions of current smokers who’ll never even will have the opportunity to try a superior alternative that will be “regulated” out of existence.

Avoid seemingly sensible assumptions. Ask experienced vapers. That’s what the authors of the “Freaking Formaldehyde” study should have done that kicked off a series of followup junk science.
They simply assumed that vapers will increase the power level on an adjustible device to get more nicotine. That this would be the prime reason to have adjustable voltage. This misconception lead to the false conclusion that it might be quite common to have huge amounts (but still far less than in every cigarette) of formaldehyde in the vapour.
It’s like assuming that it would be quite common to use a toaster at the highest setting, just to get the toast extra crisp. Completely ignoring the fact that the resulting piece of carcinogenic charcoal is not very palatable.

So, please do some solid research. From all of Europe, the UK offers the best chances to do real science. And have it count politically. Help the rest of Europe. We seem to be heading into an other age of ignorance where ideology, superstition and greedy lobbies dominate over sciencentific values.

Throughout this post I see no mention of you engaging with the actual experts in this field, the people who use ecigs.

We could tell you that the TPD will ban all but the least effective e-cigarettes, and those are, in the main, produced by those big tobacco companies you distrust so much.
We could tell you about the research already conducted on the liquids, about the ingredients we don’t want to see in them, and how flavours can help.
We could tell you about the relationship between coil resistance, voltage and wattage, together with wicking material and nicotine levels, and how they can change the characteristics of the experience.
We could tell you about all the work of researchers like Dr. Farsalinos, and how he has debunked badly designed, and badly interpreted research.

But you’ve been navel gazing in workshops with other groups who are equally clueless.

Instead you’re going to try to reinvent the wheel at five minutes to midnight. By the time you reach all the conclusions we’ve been talking about for months, if not years, the TPD will be in force, tobacco and pharmaceutical companies will be happy, and we will have lost the best opportunity to eradicate smoking for at least another generation.

Maybe you should be conducting research into what driving force is behind the EU drawing up legislation which will effectively ban proven tobacco cessation devices.

I wonder if CRUK have done any work into the effects of the TPD on ecigs’ ability to stop people smoking? I think it will be disastrous.

Patrick McGuire – They are normalising NOT smoking. Restricting the sale as medical products while conventional tobacco remains freely available is nonsensical.

Another issue that concerns me is that of the danger of e-cigarettes “normalising” smoking once again. If they are of use as an aid to help smokers quit smoking then it would be more appropriate if they were regulated as a “health” product in the same way as other such products.

It is interesting what the situation would now be if there was no Tobacco Control industry and researchers.Ecigs would have been allowed to develop naturally – the consumer deciding what works and what doesn’t.

We have known for decades that nicotine doesn’t kill you and that PG/VG are benign substances – the biggest threat that ecigs pose is really to the legions of TC people who are dependent on the status quo i.e. non-measurable improvements in prevalence from all their policy initiatives and cessation products.

There are now 1.1m GB ecigs quitters yet this seems to be irrelevant as TC worthies earnestly discuss ecig quitting potential.It’s here,it’s now and it’s passed you by because you’re more interested in policy and strategy than in real people actually stopping.The impact of ecigs on Tobacco Control is irrelevant – what matters is the impact on smokers and they’re quitting in droves.

Doug Taylor – Perhaps there may be a possible potential for e-cigs to be used as a gateway to tobacco use, but only of homeopathic proportions.

Sadly, any further research into electronic cigarettes and vaping is moot. From May 2016 all effective vaping devices will be banned under Article 20 of the EU TPD, defining them as tobacco products and handing the entire industry to the tobacco companies.

Do what you like. You had your chance before the TPD was signed and sealed to stand up for Ecigs. You and other orgs like you are will be the cause of people not being able to purchase ecigs in 2016.

You failed to listen for years and now you want to talk ?

Good luck with your future, we’ve had to purchase ours.

Doug, the 0.14 use figure from surveys suggests this is an unlikely problem, or as stated in BMJ “the gateway theory is utter bullshit” – D Arnott

Is there any reason you are not also researching the possible potential for e-cigs to be used as a gateway to tobacco use? This would seem to me to be a particular concern for youngsters who may be attracted to e-cigs.

Unless you can identify a cancer risk from ecigs, are you not acting outside your remit in regards to discussions of control of these products?