Thursday 12 December 2013

Welsh Wibble

"The land of my fathers, and my fathers can have it" - Dylan Thomas
It seems we are seeing more idiotic harm reduction deniers emerging, this time in Wales.
[Dr Julie Bishop, consultant in public health for Public Health Wales said:] "Like regular cigarettes, e-cigs should be prohibited in workplaces, educational and public places to ensure their use does not undermine all of the good work that has gone into smoking prevention and smoking cessation by reinforcing or normalising the habit."
I take it we can now safely bin the idea that smoking bans had anything whatsoever to do with protecting bar staff, then?
PHW said that in response to "confusion about whether electronic cigarettes are harmful or helpful" it had reviewed the available evidence on e-cigs to help health professionals and the public.
The word 'help' is used here in its very loosest form, as their "position statement" makes very clear.
"E-cigs mimic smoking a cigarette and some of the promotional material appears like cigarette advertisements.  There is much more work to do but anything which may reverse the progress would be a risk to population health.”
It is sometimes staggering that this kind of codswallop is retched out by people who are paid - by our taxes, of course - to bang on about how very lethal smoking is. While talking about "risk to population health", they seem to have taken no consideration whatsoever of potential benefits to population health that e-cigs will undoubtedly bring.

I'd say that is criminally negligent of them, but I'm sure some court or other will settle that particular debate in the future ... hopefully bringing with it jail time for the most egregious of these clowns.

The rest just trots out the same lame - and increasingly recognised as desperate - arguments against the smoking population choosing its own way of consuming safer nicotine without any help from overpaid public sector rent-seekers like Bishop.
“Anything that could increase their appeal to children and young adults should also be avoided such as sweet flavourings or certain packaging."
Because kids should carry on rebelling with real tobacco instead of e-cigs. And if they smoke already? Well, carry on with the fags, boys and girls, better that than put a tobacco controller out of a job, eh?
“Scientific testing has shown that the amount of nicotine – which is a poison – and other chemicals varies widely between different brands of e-cigs."
Perhaps because there are hundreds of different types of e-cig, but all of them state clearly the level of nicotine in them, you naughty disingenuous pharma shills, you.
"There is no way for consumers to know exactly what they are putting into their body. This is because e-cigs are not licensed or regulated which makes it impossible to carry out accurate tests across the board to determine whether all e-cigs are effective and safe."
Ooh, you little liars! They're regulated under 21 different EU directives.
“By issuing advice to our partners and the public on the pros and cons of using e-cigs we are hoping to provide some clarity on this confusing issue so that we can help people understand why there is concern from a public health perspective.”
Pros and cons? I saw lots of fake cons, but not a single 'pro'. You'd think they had an agenda to adhere to, or something.
[Dr Pat Riordan, Director of the Health and Healthcare Improvement Division which runs Stop Smoking Wales, said:] “Nonetheless, the scientific evidence proves that by using behavioural support services like Stop Smoking Wales, which uses a range of tested nicotine replacement products, you are four times more likely to quit smoking than by willpower alone.” 
Ah, there it is.

As if this dinosaur view of nicotine policy is not bad enough, they have compounded things somewhat by today issuing a barrage of stark staringly ignorant tweets.


In your humble host's opinion, it's worth cataloguing these crass bleatings because, be in no doubt, there will be a reckoning at some not-too-distant time from now.

Still, Dr Riordan wants to make clear that her quango is not all bad.
"The last thing we want to do is alienate smokers who are using e-cigs in good faith as a part of their attempt to cut down or quit smoking."
Too late, cupcake, I think you've just done precisely that. Vapers are learning very quickly what duplicitous, self-serving and repulsive vermin you lot are and - I would venture - have always been.

Nice to be reminded that it's still not about health, though.


10 comments:

Steve Brown said...

I quote from the above, "Scientific testing has shown that the amount of nicotine – which is a poison ..." Do these so-called 'learned' people not know that potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and many other 'innocent' plants of the Solanaceae family also contain nicotine?
Are these plants now to be considered poisonous? Detrimental to health? Carcinogenic?
It's the same bloody chemical. What makes it 'deadly' in tobacco and e-cigs but totally harmless in other widely consumed products/vegetables?

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Self-interest? ;)

Steve Brown said...

That is the only possible answer. The funding must be kept flowing!

Sacsonaidd said...

Allthough I was born in Wales( thankfully of Anglo-Irish parents) the self imposed misery of the Druidical classes has always plunged my part Celtic soul into the dark realms of remorse.
The God forsaken,rain sodden,sadness stained Duchy is run by a motley
coven of roundheads,levellers,Calvinists,Quakers,Druids,sheepdippers,
chapel chanters,leek nibblers,parish pump groaners and various other
neolithic left overs. How the normal Welsh tolerate these twisted Merlins
is beyond all human reasoning.They are probably waiting for some smoking ,boozing Prince LLewellyn or Mythical Arthur to deliver them from
the pointless Senedd Cynulliad Cymru (Senate)Eng. for the civilised.
Hafan Sacsonaidd

Tony said...

These people are seriously running scared. They have been peddling their crap snake oil for many years and all of a sudden there is a new kid on the block, they are positively shitting it because people will be ditching their ineffective snake oil for something that actually works.

Legiron said...

One more good reason to get an Electrofag. It upsets the Righteous. Anything that upsets those wasters has to be a good thing.

nealasher said...

“Scientific testing has shown that the amount of nicotine – which is a poison – and other chemicals varies widely between different brands of e-cigs." Drink enough water and it will kill you. Poison: 1. Any substance that can impair function, cause structural damage, or otherwise injure the body.



I'm really getting seriously pissed off with these rent-seeking scumbags.

truckerlyn said...

“Nonetheless, the scientific evidence proves that by using behavioural support services like Stop Smoking Wales, which uses a range of tested nicotine replacement products, you are four times more likely to quit smoking than by willpower alone.”



What a load of codswallop! You are not four times more likely to quit smoking using NRT that by willpower alone! As I have said before, you will only give up smoking if your REALLY want to, which means that your mind and brain have to agree with what you mouth says! If you REALLY want to give up smoking then NRT may be a psychological crutch, as could many other things be, but ultimately you will succeed if you want to.


As for the Quit Smoking's idea of giving up - a few weeks, is it, without smoking, then you are cured, never to smoke again? Poppycock! All that piece of 'scientific evidence' does is make their quit smoking figures look good and 'prove' that NRT works!


Unless they are completely stupid (ok, they probably are) then they are perfectly aware of this fact, as are the pharmaceutical companies, but God forbid big pharma should lose any revenue stolen from the NHS or individuals on such a sticky wicket!


Liars, fraudsters, conmen/women, the lot of them and the only place any of them should be is prison - well there could perhaps be better places, ones not as comfortable as prison, such as Hell!

Blad Tolstoy said...

It's a small country with no real economic clout trying to show it's as concerned and progressive as anywhere else. Small minded chi'n gwybod. This dripping unctuous concern is, of course, now commonplace everywhere and the product of corruption combined with socialism and a sickening outbreak of putrid "old womanism."


I'd like them all to die by red hot poker!

Cymru am byth ... Weithiau

Dragonmum said...

Thanks for the plug saxonaidd, don't hold back!!! Principality not Duchy by the way. Right, well that said, I haven't watched the debate as I know all too well what to expect - I have after all had correspondence with the Plaid MEP who
merrily spouted her ill- or- uninformed views on tv some time ago. Lung disease of all kinds has been endemic in Wales forever; coal/steel/copper the major industries historically, plus climate and very high smoking rates have all been contributory factors. Coal and copper have gone and if these A.Ms could just think this thing through then smoking could go the same way; I have a dream: Carwyn Jones stands up in the Senedd and declares Wales to be the first EU country to embrace the Electronic Smoking Substitute. Industry would get grants to settle here, the economy would boom and Public Health would
blossom like the rose - we all have our dreams. Now if Nye Bevan was still with us he'd have gone for this one big-time. Many letters are on their way to AMs
for all the good it'll do!