Somebody Has Made A List

Trouble is, they’ve not checked it twice. It must be a really slow day for the opponents of vaping, though you would hardly suspect that considering how often this article appears from a variety of seeming unrelated twitter accounts.

It is a common practice unfortunately. A body, be it Government, Education whatever buys a whole bunch of accounts, or engages with someone who can “spread the word”; either way it costs money, to share on social media an article, or a link or some other piece of information, and share it repeatedly throughout a given day or days. We saw it with the whole formaldehyde “study” (which turned out to just be a letter to the editor, not the actual study), it’s happened with the shenanigans on the daft arsed “sugar tax” (and no I don’t agree with that either) and it probably happens on a myriad of other subjects too.

This “list” is of course the “10 Dangers of e-Cigarettes”. Cue the Top of the Pops music.

Number 10 – The Children™

Erm. Why the fuck should we stop? Isn’t the choice to smoke or vape ours? Fuck off.

Again with the unreasonable goal of being “safe” – nothing in this world is “safe”, everything has a degree of risk associated with it, even sleeping ffs!

I could go on about the brightly coloured alcohol bottles or the Nicorette packaging, but I won’t as it’s completely irrelevant. Have folks never heard of such a thing as parenting? Parenting is what stands between a child and “danger”; parenting is about educating the child about risk, and yes even about reward too. It sure as hell isn’t up to the state to decide.

Really? Do I need to link to the substantive review of the “lethality” of Nicotine again? Or even some detailed information on Nicotine in general? Conflating “pure” Nicotine with that contained in e-liquid is bonkers and completely irrelevant. Is e-liquid a substantial risk to the kiddies? Based on what we know, the concentration found in e-liquid is likely to not cause the level of harm mentioned in this “list”. The human body, even a young one will expel anything it doesn’t like, and it will do so in the most expedient (and often very messy) way possible.

Number 9 – Toxic Chemicals

Partially true, the vapour industry is not _directly _regulated, but it is subject to a lot of _existing _consumer regulation. As such, the ingredients that make up the “refill liquid” are generally well-known, and in the case of PG and VG are well documented.

Again. Just because something “may” cause cancer, doesn’t mean it will cause it. Me doing a dance in the morning “may” cause it to rain that afternoon, but it won’t directly cause it. Cause doesn’t necessarily mean effect. Correlation is most certainly not causation. Besides, a fair number of the “chemicals” found are at levels that are likely to have no biological effect. In other words, hardly worth worrying about.

Number 8 – Long-term safety

I don’t think I need to explain how there are several users that I personally know that have been using a vapouriser for a number of years (7+ years) with no ill effect do I? And for fuck sake, it is **not **an addiction. Call me an addict to my face I dare you.

Number 7 – More smoking

If someone finds cigarette smoke “offensive” then they, quite frankly have bigger problems. You know, the fake coughing and windmilling arms that give away the presence of a true anti-smoker zealot. People use vapourisers to not smoke. How hard is that to understand? Not to mention the delivery of nicotine via combustible tobacco is the fastest way to deliver nicotine. Vapour products are getting there, but there is this thing called “self titration” where the user knows what they need, and more importantly when they need it.

Number 6 – Ineffective

I wondered if this one would come up. Are vapour products ineffective? I would suggest that ~10+ million former smokers worldwide would belie the claim that vaping is ineffective. I would also submit that the decline in smoking prevalence wherever vaping is on the rise also points out the fatal flaw in that statement.

Also, why would a user want to “ween off nicotine gradually”? Vapour products are there to be _enjoyed. _Get over it.

Number 5 – Promotes smoking

Um what? A fair number of the “health hazards” being attributed to smoking are just that – attributed to, mostly due to laziness to investigate further or simply a lack of motivation. Smoking may cause harms sure, but those harms are far less than the propaganda would have you believe.

Since the tobacco control industry have been banging the very thin and worn out drum of “denormalisation” and “stigmatisation” it is unlikely the youth of today would view smoking as “cool”; they may view it as “rebellious” but they wouldn’t call it “cool”. Thing is, with “public health” continuing their efforts to demonise both cigarettes AND vapour products they are doing far more to make both visible and tempting as the marketing of the industry.

Also, wouldn’t it be nice if parents could actually, you know, parent?

So your teenager vapes, should you worry?

Number 4 – Misuse

Good grief! It’s almost as though they have forgotten that things like spoons can be used for getting high isn’t it? So what? If someone wants to vape liquid forms of THC then it’s their bloody choice and is nothing to do with vapour products. Besides, they’ve been doing that far longer than vapourisers have been around. Stop conflating the issues.

Number 3 – Nanoparticles

Taken straight out of the Glantzian playbook this one. Don’t they realise the make up of the nanoparticles (if they even actually exist) matter? Of course not.

Number 2 – Cancer

Someone hasn’t been paying attention have they? Just because these compounds were found does not mean that they will have a biological effect. A does not necessarily lead to B.

Number 1 – Sickness and infection

Erm. What? Am I missing something about Propylene Glycol not having antibacterial and antimicrobial properties? PG has been used in a variety of situations, such as being a carrier in asthma medication, and even in some nebulisers and a snippet from here:

Whew. There is the top ten mythical “facts” lies about e-cigarettes someone wants you to know, and are now thoroughly put in the trash where they belong.