The Future of E-Cigarettes
I was reading an article about how British American Tobacco (BAT) is lauding the future of e-cigarettes as being a boon for public health. They have created their own predictive model which shows the health benefits of using e-cigarettes rather than standard tobacco products like cigarettes. The claim is that smoking related deaths by 2050 would have decreased by 32%.
This is an impressive figure, however, one has to consider that the purported purpose of using e-cigarettes was to wean people off tobacco products and to become smoke free. Interestingly, this does not seem to be the way it has worked out. People are choosing to use e-cigarettes because they are “safe” and they continue to use is as their prime delivery system of nicotine.
This was not the purpose at all, and if I may be a little blunt BAT and other tobacco companies are now like the pusher of heroine who then decides to open a methadone clinic. In other words, they are working both sides of the street. Also, it is BAT producing this research. I am sorry, but the tobacco industry as a whole has been less than honest about their own funded research in the past, why should we should we accept that these findings are valid. The Department of Heath, independent of the tobacco lobby should be undertaking these studies, before we start talking about e-cigarettes being a benefit to public health.
The reality is the best way to be a non smoker is to be a non smoker, no e-cigarettes no substitution of any kind for nicotine. Hypnosis is one way to achieve this, but even cold turkey in my view it better than replacing one negative habit with another.
