Wednesday 12 October 2011

Another Big (Day)Break For E-Cigs

Back in March last year, I reported on the results of an MHRA consultation on the future of e-cigs. Unusually for government consultations, the eventual proposal was entirely different to the instant ban that had previously been recommended.

Reason being that there was an incredible response from vapers describing their positive experiences. This seemed, to me at the time, to be a significant development.

As user numbers swell, government's enforcers in Whitehall are going to find it increasingly difficult to cut off vapers from an alternative to tobacco which offers massive harm reduction potential, without showing themselves up as vested interest stooges (if they haven't already, natch).

So for now, it's carry on vaping. Well, until a potential next battle in late 2012, at least.
Even that skirmish is a diminishing prospect after last month's surprise, but welcome, announcement that e-cigs were back in from the cold.

Encouraging smokers to switch to smokeless "fake" cigarettes could save tens of thousands of lives, according to a government-backed report.

In its first annual report, the BIT said the government should promote the use of "safe" alternatives to cigarettes - products which deliver nicotine in a fine, pure vapour, instead of in harmful smoke which also contains toxins and carcinogens.
Quite a turnaround.

But being featured on mainstream national TV is something else.

ITV’s Daybreak signalled a new dawn for smokers today as Dr Hillary Jones and fellow presenters discussed the benefits of stubbing out tobacco cigarettes in favour of healthier electronic cigarettes

They were commenting on the opening of a ‘Vaping Bar’ in Yorkshire where smokers can freely use electronic cigarettes, which is often nicknamed ‘vaping’ because the devices produce nicotine in the form of a vapour that can be inhaled.

Dr Hilary said: “Electronic cigarettes like E-Lites give you vaporised nicotine but no tar, so no carcinogenic lung cancer causing chemicals and no passive smoking element. People want to go to the pub and still indulge in smoking, and they can do so safely with electronic cigarettes.”

Presenters including Adrian Chiles, Christine Bleakley and Kate Garraway discussed the way in which electronic cigarettes contain only nicotine and therefore replicate the sensation of conventional cigarettes in far healthier way due to the absence of tar and tobacco.
And here's the proof it really did happen.

Can you imagine the mess, in living rooms the length and breadth of the land, as psychotic antis spluttered melon juice all over their organic muesli at the sight of Dr Hilary, darling of the health church, holding something which resembles a cigarette?

Now, E-lites are making a big deal of this (I'd be surprised if they didn't, to be perfectly honest), but the manufacturer is irrelevant.

What is very interesting is that e-cigs have dragged themselves out of the shadows and are becoming a force to be reckoned with - maybe even unstoppable now - despite the attentions of anti-smoking lunatics for whom a plaster and some chewing gum are the pharma-funded Holy Grail of tobacco control.

Just as Tom Robinson famously derided gay detractors with the line "the buggers are legal now" when it was clear that the more unbalanced arguments against homosexuality had all but been defeated. For vapers, a tipping point is fast approaching, and it won't be long before they'll be able to give a similarly proud V sign to the intolerant animals who insist on a quit or die approach to the practice of recreational - as opposed to pharmaceutical - nicotine use.

Hey, Duncan!

How's that irrational bigotry thang working out for ya', sunshine?

H/T The Campaign for Vaping in Pubs


16 comments:

Campaign for Vaping in Pubs said...

Tonight is the first 'Stay Inside' VIP Night where smokers are encouraged to stay inside the pub and use FREE ecigs. If the night is a success, CAM-VIP hopes to roll them out nation wide. It is another strand of the ecig awareness campaigns out there - BUT this one is not trying to sell ecigs, it is just trying to sell traditional pubs back to smokers!

"If you live in South Yorkshire, smoke and like a pint - leave your fags at home this evening and come along to The Anglers Rest, Wombwell, from 7pm, where I'll give you the cigs to smoke all night - for FREE - and you will not even have to go outside to enjoy them as they are legal to smoke in public places!

The Anglers Rest is Wombwell's only entry in CAMRA's 2012 'Good Beer Guide' - come along and see why it is :)

The Campaign for Vaping in Pubs"


More information can be found in the news section of the CAM-VIP website.

Russell VR Ord

Frank said...

Old Bannatyne seems a very happy wee chappie. Has he got anything good to say about anything? Feel bloody sorry for his family - if he's still got any. Ah, yes, his Father died of LC and he's carried that cross ever since, poor soul.

Well, Dougie, old son, my Mother, God bless her, died of LC at 85, smoked all her life and enjoyed it. We have no cross to bear. Pity you have.

Frank said...

Forget to mention, Vaping pubs or no, e-cigs are still crap!

S. Nolan said...

Crap e-cigs are crap. Get a decent 510, eGo, etc "personal vaporizer" and as an ex pack-a-day smoker my anecdotal evidence is they kick butt.

Campaign for Vaping in Pubs said...

@Frank

Ecigs were cr@p when I started smoking them (vaping) over 2 years ago, but as with all technology, they are improving all the time.

However, nothing beats the smell of a good old cigar or a briar full of pipe tobacco :)

Dick Puddlecote said...

As S Nolan says, the eGo or Tornado (interchangeable) are pretty good. Or mine is, anyway. But that's my opinion - some like 'em, others don't, we can't all be the same no matter how much the government keeps thinking we are. ;)

Pat Nurse MA said...

I don't have a problem with e-cigs unless I am forced to use them and I fear by describing them as an "alternative to smoking" that one day I will be - especially if the media establishment and Govt is pushing them as a good thing.

They are, of course, " a good thing" but not if one day tobacco consumers have no choice but to use them. If vapers stand by us - as too many do not - I will stand by them.
Judgement reserved for now

Anonymous said...

Cigs never caused me a rosy red nicotine rash. Nicotine patches caused me a blistering red rash. Nicotine gum and lozenges, if I'd take too much of it, resulted in red rash starting up in a few spots on my body. Started using the e-cig with 18mg nicotine and the damn thing was so powerful it caused a red nicotine rash worse than what the patches caused which came in direct contact with the skin. It might be that for some people there's going to be an allergic reaction to pure nicotine intake by ecig, which is similar to snorting crack-cocaine vapor than it is to smoking natural herbal tobacco. That may be one down-side the vaping industry is trying to hide but anectdotally, I know it's the cause of rash for myself.

Anonymous said...

"Another Big (Day)Break For E-Cigs"
Or another step away from ever having the choice to smoke tobacco in a pub(and perhaps towards smoking anywhere)again? Yes lets have plastic fag nights in pubs too, just to make sure the pub industry never support real choice again. Nice too for Dr Hilary to be able promote the idea that smokers are really just nicotine addicts needing a (neat nicotine)fix. Whereas normal smoking of course has no benefits whatsoever. ASH are probably quietly pissing themselves.
Smokers who promote vaping might want to think back to CAMRA supporting the smoking ban. Using e-cig is of course up to the individual, but promoting the vaping cause while campaigning against smoking prohibition is frankly,nuts.
Andy

david said...

Real ale and fake fags....ludicrous.

'Stay inside night' is clearly an e fag marketing stunt. Cashing in, some might say...

This

http://www.eccauk.org/

is registered to the address on the CAM-VIP site

'ECCA is the single most important stakeholder in tobacco harm reduction in the UK.'

timbone said...

A word of support for Dr Hillary Jones, if I was gay I would shag him. No, seriously, this guy is sound as a pound. He is not afraid to be realistic, and is prepared, and ready, to say things which he knows could be controversial. I remember reading an article of his in the Express, supporting the benefits of sunshine. Yes, that is correct, he said that 30 to 45 minutes of unprotected exposure to strong sunshine was good for you, then cover up.

I love this guy, but I am not gay and neither is he, so it remains philial.

FOOTNOTE: I reckon if me and Hill were socialising in my front room, (not the back room), and I wanted a smoke, he would say go ahead, it does not bother him, (ie SHS).

Frank said...

When I choose to smoke in my home, guests put with it or piss off.

Campaign for Vaping in Pubs said...

@ david

The Campaign for Vaping in Pubs makes NO money from selling ecigs - in fact it does not make money,,,it is a passion of mine as a smoker who harks back to the good old days of community pubs.

ECCA is a recently formed consumer association that I have been roped into being vice-chair and treasurer of the steering committee. I am a consumer of ecigs and eliquid and I want to make sure that we are not getting ripped off by any dodgy vendors out there. Again, I put in a lot of work for no money.

If smokers want to pick a fight with me, then bring it on because I've got nothing to hide and I am not a businessman, I'm just a smoker who vapes and I want the best for nicotine users of all types and of course, The Great British Pubs.

Russell VR Ord

david said...

Russell, do you accept the passive smoking studies that were used to enable the smoking ban? ECCA don't appear to have much of an opinion about this. But for some of us, this lies at the heart of why the ban is unnecessary. And why some of us are not over keen to see e fags being promoted as an alternative to real cigarettes inside pubs.

david said...

I might add that I don't really have a problem with e fags (other than stated above). In fact, I have used several different kinds myself. They are excellent for those those wishing to cut down or even quit smoking. And generally cheaper, with no duty payable to those who take great pleasure in persecuting us. They certainly have a role to play, but I'm not comfortable that their use in pubs reduces to chances of getting an amendment to the blanket ban.

Campaign for Vaping in Pubs said...

David I do agree that 'false' science and propaganda is responsible for changing peoples established attitudes. At some point the general public will become wise to this manipulation, but until they do, I 'smoke' legally in pubs.

If the wo(man) in the street wants to fight the smoking ban, I will support them BUT I'm buggered if I'm going to stand in the freezing cold when it is p@ssing down with rain, when I can have an ecig inside and join in the pub banter.

Russell VR Ord