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