I want to know why the people that are fighting against e-cigarettes want us all to go back to smoking cigarettes so badly? Are they Pro-Cancer, one might ask? Are they against a Healthier World? I do not understand why they are fighting so vigorously to abolish such a helpful and effective smoking cessation tool!
I had an argument this weekend with a fellow Soldier's Spouse on Facebook about vaping and e-cigarettes. Someone had posted a comment on a social page for us spouses in the area we live in here in Germany. She was inquiring about where she could buy e-cigarettes because her husband chews tobacco and she is hoping to help him quit by switching. A lot of people had posted that she should go to the local army "shoppette" (the military's on-post gas station). I had replied to the post saying that if I were them I wouldn't get the e-cigarettes from the gas station, because they are cheap and not the "REAL" e-cigarettes that us vapors know and recommend to our fellow smokers' turned vapers'.
I proceeded to tell the lady of a place on the German Economy that she could go to acquire an E-Go e-cigarette for fairly cheap and that the man stocks e-liquid there as well and they can get it with or without nicotine.
Then this woman that I had the disagreement with decides to post and say that she has heard that smoking e-cigarettes are bad for you and that they also contain nicotine and so and so forth. This really made my blood boil, but then she went on to post a link to an article she had read, http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/smoking-cessation/10-facts-about-e-cigarettes.htm#page=0. She also went on to say that her husband has been smoke and nicotine free for 130 some-odd days and that he did it just by signing up for a smoking cessation forum! Well, good for him, I'm happy that it helped him, but I didn't see the point of her throwing that out there and seemingly bashing my helpful advice because she didn't think it was worthy.
What really bothered me tho was that she didn't know anything about e-cigarettes, she had probably just google'd that article as we were posting back and forth, but felt the need to speak on the subject anyways, without prior knowledge. I understand that there are different ways that work for some people and not for others. Thing that frustrated me the most was that I was just posting another alternative to this woman's question, and felt attacked by this woman who seemed to think she knew more than me. So I sent them all a link to my website, here. lol
Now I have nothing against anyone I have spoke of here, I just am tired of people bashing something they know nothing of. If you don't know about it at least do your research first. I have been researching and following the study's that have been done on e-cigarettes since I started vaping, and granted I'm new to it, but I've immersed myself fairly well into the community so far.
Anyways, enough ranting lol has anyone else had a disagreement like this with someone who doesn't vape? Let me know I'm wondering if I'm the only one who can get a little catty about vaping. lol
Which leads into the article below... Louise Ross has made such an effort to help smoker's turn to vaping, the healthier alternative. And I for one applaud her and the truth she speaks, she definitely tells it as it is, and it's good we have her on our side :D I for one will be following her on Twitter :D (Her Twitter handle is underneath her article).
Thanks for reading #VapeHeads!
Vapor Vix
Guest blog by Louise Ross: Whose health are we talking about?
Intro by Clive Bates. You may remember Louise Ross’s brilliant first outing on this blog: Let there be light!. Louise runs the NHS Stop Smoking Service in Leicester and she was full of optimism for the potential of vaping to help smokers quit smoking. She has carried on the mission and inspired and enthused many others. But here, in a new guest blog, she explains her anger and ‘speechless sadness’ at the damage caused by WHO when it published its report on ‘Electronic Nicotine delivery Systems’ (e-cigarettes) in August – criticised in full in my detailed report and letter to COP6 delegates.
The good thing is that Louise has renewed determination. She is an example to us all… and the truth will eventually prevail.
Louise Ross’s guest blog starts here…
Whose health are we talking about?
Only a few months ago, our Stop Smoking service was getting a huge amount of interest from people who wanted to know how they could use ecigs to switch from smoked tobacco. They told us how they had tried and failed with licensed products, or how they had managed for a few weeks or months, and then gone back to smoking again, after some bad news, or at a time of stress. We also talked to people who had never even considered stopping smoking before, but had heard from friends that ecigs had done it for them, and wanted to know more.
Some signed up with us, and quit with their vaporisers, some tried it and found that it wasn’t what they were looking for, and chose licensed products, to see if that worked for them any better. For some it did, and I’m pleased that we can support people to choose what works for them, rather than take a prescriptive line about what they must use.
And then it all seemed to change. Just around the time we had planned a lot of public-facing events for Stoptober, the WHO report came out, followed by media headlines and scare-stories about how vaping ‘might’ cause numbers of smokers to increase, and that experts were ‘concerned’ that youth smoking may rise. In among all the headlines, extra urban myths had entered the public consciousness, it seemed. In late September, we stood at a market stall, giving out Stop information and telling people what we had to offer. ‘No, I’m sticking to smoking’ was what they told us, over and over. ‘I’ve seen it on telly, it’s safer to carry on smoking.’ Illogical though this mind-set was, it seemed impossible to shift. My team reported the same thing at their workplace events: a general fear of quitting smoking combined with relief that carrying on smoking is actually endorsed! By experts!
Somewhere, something has gone terribly wrong, and the opportunities presented by alternative nicotine delivery devices, so promising earlier in the year, have been casually damaged by a risk-averse body of people whose responsibility it is to improve health, and by a section of the media industry that sells more papers by frightening people.
I’m waiting for a good news story from nationally respected bodies who I know are working on a reversal of this, but until then, all I can do is keep making sure local people know that Stop is there to support them to get smokefree, and work at repairing some of the damage done by people who would do well to listen to the many positive stories told by vapers, who know that they will never go back to smoking.
At first I felt just impotent anger, then speechless sadness. Now I’m back on track, determined to add my voice to this unfathomable battle. I’m doing it because I want more people to see more birthdays.
Louise Ross
Stop Smoking Service Manager
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Twitter: @grannylouisa
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