The Campaign To Force Vapers Back To Tobacco Intensifies

There's a scene in The Big Lebowski which always strikes me as an analogy for ineptitude displayed by the tobacco control industry towards e-cigs. You see, the canny little devices fuck up their long-strategised plan.

The whole point, you must understand, is that when you quit you are supposed to use the medical route. You quit using pharmaceutical devices or - if you really must - cold turkey, but you mustn't enjoy it. If you choose such a method, they'd frankly prefer you die instead, all things considered.

E-cigs have stumbled into this cosy little scenario and turned the former entrenched balance of power on its head. You may have noticed a few shots across the e-cig bows from anti-tobacco activists previously - in the form of misinformation, hideous scaremongery and outright lies - but the environment seems to have moved into sinister overdrive very quickly.

Today saw the Daily Mail loudly publish this scare story about e-cigs based on a huge sample of, would you believe, 32 people.

They are touted as a safe alternative to smoking, but electronic cigarettes could damage the lungs, latest research has found.

The devices were found to cause an immediate rise in airway resistance in the lungs - meaning less oxygen is absorbed by the blood.

On average the effect lasted for ten minutes, a report presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna found.

Obviously, no comparision between the effect of e-cigs and that of tobacco is described here, simply because it's not tobacco which is being demonised for a change. The fact that vaping is stratospherically less harmful than smoking must be ignored for the purposes of this 'study'.

This follows swiftly on from Facebook having purged its site of any mention of e-cigs, on the premise that they are "tobacco-related" products.


All very sudden, isn't it? Especially in light of this week's revelations from Michael Siegel of systematic conflicts of interest being held by those who are driving the attacks on e-cigs.

It looks like the war on e-cigs - that is, to have them swatted like some irritating wasp from the faces of trouser-filling tobacco control professionals - has begun in earnest.

Fortunately, vapers are not taking this big industry intimidation lying down. I'd urge you to sign this petition against Facebook's ignorant, and highly irresponsible, kow-towing to self-enriching arseholes, and bookmark this new blog detailing the level of mendacity being employed against e-cigs which is directly and disastrously dangerous to the declared goals of the public health cartel. Meanwhile, in the US, e-cig advocates have gone for the throat - and hopefully the career - of the disgusting excuse of a healthcare professional, Ellen Hahn, mentioned here last month.

So battle is now joined. Pharma interests have obviously seen enough of their profits leaking into the e-cig run-off and are employing their useful idiots to stave off the threat of smokers quitting by unapproved means. And those in favour of e-cigs are incontrovertibly on the side of the angels, while tobacco control is actively conspiring to inflict unnecessary harm on nicotine users or - to use the anti-smoking business' own exaggerative parlance - killing them.

It's never been about health, you know.