The Big Stick Is Brought Out To Beat E-Cigs With

If this blog had a motto, it would be the much-repeated refrain "it's never been about health". 'It' being the current western obsession with banning - or hugely hindering - any substance not approved of by trouser-filling health lobbyists and snobby elitists.

Nowhere is this more blatant than the recent escalation of aggression towards e-cigs.

Rather than celebrate the fact that millions of smokers have quit - and millions more cut down their consumption - thanks to e-cigs, the tobacco control industry have instead distorted facts, spread astounding lies, and corralled their largely vacant troops into doing their damnedest to get the things banned.

Michael Siegel, himself a tobacco controller, has posted many articles detailing the corrupt campaign being waged against them, for example ...

Anti-Smoking Researchers Seem to Be Losing Basic Scientific Reasoning Skills Due to Ideology

World Health Organization Needs to Change Stance on Electronic Cigarettes; Current Position is Leading to Public Health Harm

Author of Article Attacking E-Cigarettes Appears to Have Failed to Disclose Significant Financial Conflict of Interest

European Respiratory Society Hides Multiple Financial Conflicts of Interest in Statement Opposing Electronic Cigarette Use

Researcher Who is Unsure that Smoking is Any More Hazardous than Vaping has Hidden Her Big Pharma Conflict of Interest

Electronic Cigarette Opponents Fail to Disclose Relevant Conflicts of Interest to the Public

... to name but a few.

There are a few clues up there as to where this obscene nonsense is emanating from and it looks like it is only going to get worse. And, judging from the incredible pace in recent months, it is going to happen quickly. Especially once the world's biggest tobacco control troughers get together in Seoul in November.

As countries around the world either ban, or make moves to ban, something which is proving to be a gargantuan aid to health, The WHO - unelected and proud of it - are handing out free tips for regulators in their guidance for the Seoul circle jerk (emphases mine, ENDS means e-cigs).

33. It should be noted that ENDS are products resembling cigarettes and could therefore undermine the denormalization of tobacco use upheld by the WHO FCTC. Parties are therefore invited to consider that a ban of ENDS as already undertaken by some Parties would contribute to changing the social norms regarding the consumption of tobacco products. 

34. Parties may wish to consider that strong measures to prevent further spread of ENDS could be considered under a  number of provisions of the WHO FCTC, including Article 5.2(b) which requires Parties to “adopt and implement effective ... measures … for preventing and reducing … nicotine addiction …”. Most ENDS contain nicotine, and would therefore contribute to maintaining an addiction to nicotine.

35. Parties may also wish to consider whether the sale, advertising, and even the use of electronic cigarettes can be considered as promoting tobacco use, either directly or indirectly. Regardless of whether or not ENDS contain nicotine or tobacco extracts, they are used to mimic smoking, which could be considered as a (direct or indirect) promotion of tobacco use. 

38. ... regulating them rather than banning them could grant these new products a level of legitimacy in terms of market access,

The phrase "to prevent the further spread of ENDS" particularly stands out. I mean, why on Earth would the World Health Organisation wish to see a product which is - in their parlance - saving lives, spread further, eh?

When you consider that the EU is looking like entirely dismissing the results of their own public consultation in favour of a headlong rush into banning e-cigs, it has to be considered that the appalling advice above has something to do with it.

This one is a doozy too.

36. Additionally, the use of ENDS could hamper the implementation of Article 8 (Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke) as ENDS users in public places may claim that their electronic cigarette does not contain tobacco and/or does not produce second-hand tobacco smoke.

There's no "claim" about it! They don't contain tobacco, nor do they produce second-hand tobacco smoke! This is a world-respected body producing utter bollocks here, and without even the merest hint of shame.

It hasn't stopped one of their most insane cheerleaders trying desperately to promote some kind of health scare around it, mind. And when challenged, the dangerous lunatic retreats to the usual industry tactic of treating you like a mushroom (keeping you in the dark and throwing in the occasional bit of shit).

Impossible, of course, because - as is customary with these snake oil merchants - it is hidden away where no-one can see it.

In the pursuit of self-enrichment and obsessive prejudice, the attack on e-cigs is being co-ordinated from the very top, and real harm - not the imagined stuff these charlatans have been trading on since the late 70s - could be visited on people all over the world as a result.

So I'll say it again. It's never been about health.