NYC Disregards Science In Fight Against Vaping
New Yorkers’ health is the biggest losers in the City Councils’ fight against e-cigarettes this week.
On the 9th of August, the council voted in favor of a reduction in some vape shops that are allowed in the city and also to stop new vape stores from setting up shop. This will have an adverse effect on a number of small business owners who are looking to use tobacco to compete legally.
Even more catastrophic, as a direct result of slashing some vape shops in the city, smokers will have fewer options when it comes to where to shop for their favorite replacement to cigarettes. Of course, there is still the alternative to buy online. Regardless, they would still be missing out on the treasured advice and guidance in selecting products that will optimize their chances of going clean.
Majority of the vape shop owners where erstwhile smokers of cigarette who had a chance at quitting because they disregarded the guidance of naysayers and quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes. They eventually went on to become entrepreneurs whose businesses thrived when smokers decided to call it a day. As it stands, the odds of both failing are high.
Cigarettes can be very addictive and we know the constant battle that people have to face with their addictive behaviors daily. But smokers looking towards e-cigarettes are being advised against such due to the wrong information that is been peddled around by once-trusted groups like the American Heart Association and America Lung Association. Both groups have been very vocal and instrumental to the support of the vape-shop ban.
Big Pharma, which supposedly finances such groups, are worried that these carking vape shops are slowly phasing out their highly inefficient and FDA-approved anti-smoking products moribund.
The council is either grossly misinformed or have simply refused to acknowledge the fact that vape-shop staffers, with their vast knowledge of the products and real life experiences, have all that it takes to be highly beneficial, precisely for chain smokers who have been unsuccessful with other options.
Furthermore, vape-shop employers do not cost taxpayers a cent (unless we factor in the tax-revenue that is lost from cigarette sales) unlike funded health counselors who are largely ineffective, cost taxpayers a fortune and are already prohibited from giving smokers authentic details concerning e-cigarettes.
The irony here is, instead of encouraging vape shops, the city wants to crack down on them.
Fortunately, Uncle Sam is moving in the other direction, finally. If not, the Obama-era regulation would have prohibited virtually every e-cigarette that has been used to quit smoking. However, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb reckoned during the unveiling of a new federal approach, “The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes — the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended,
The FDA’s new comprehensive approach to nicotine regulation envisions a world “where adults who still need or want nicotine could get it from alternative and less harmful sources.” Only if they reside in New York City, where vape shops would be as antiquated as pay phones.
It’s not only the Trump FDA rooting for e-cigarettes to help smokers quit. In July, UK health agency on Public Health in England unveiled its long expected tobacco-control plan, which Is seeking to drastically slash smoking amongst 15-year-olds by 5% from around 8% to 3% or less and to reduce adult smoking by a further 3% to about 12%.
The plan advocates for “permitting innovative technologies that minimize the risk of harm,” and also to “maximize the availability of safer alternatives to smoking” – e-cigarettes, being a perfect example here.
As opposed to New York, England is seeking to “seek to support consumers in stopping smoking and adopting the use of less harmful nicotine products.”
PHE even widely advocated that vaping should not be added in “smoke-free legislation and should not routinely be” prohibited in workplaces. Also, in 2013, via the “smoke-free” law, vaping was vetoed in New York City, which emanated no smoke, not just in restaurants and bars, it was also rejected outdoors at beaches and parks.
It’s not even as if vaping is only effective in helping Brits quit smoking. Just last month, a National Institutes of Health-funded study, using data from the US Census Bureau discovered that “the substantial increase in e-cigarette use among US adult smokers was associated with a statistically significant increase in the smoking-cessation rate at the population level.”
Both the US and UK governments acknowledge that lower-risk nicotine products are effective tools that can be used to greatly reduce the amount of smoking-related diseases to rates that have never been achieved before. On the other hand, New York City legislators are bent on irresponsibly regulating responsible vape retailers out of business. What are they Smoking? Or maybe the city’s staggering cigarette taxes are impairing their judgment.
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