Latest Vaping Scare Story Blasted By UK Scientists
Yet another anti-vape study slammed by UK scientists and this one popped up all over the mainstream media last week.
Scientists in Germany announced that vaping and the use of water-pipes [hookahs] damages users internal organs, in particular, the heart and lungs.
In fact they say smoking, vaping and water pipes increased the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease twofold – whilst lung cancer skyrockets for smokers and hookah users.
Results showing the ‘link‘ between lung cancer rates and vapers was…inconclusive…imagine my shock…
However the researchers say the scary sounding arterial stiffness increases 7 fold among vapers…
Wait…hang on a minute…I think we’ve been here before…
And yes indeed we have!
Back in November 2019 I covered vaping and arterial stiffness and imagine my shock when I find it’s the same bloody ‘scientist’…
This ‘new’ research comes from the same bloke, Dr. Thomas Münzel, of the University Medical Centre in Mainz.
He says even vaping increases the chances of cancer:
All three forms of smoking and vaping lead to increased production of free radicals in blood vessel tissue, such as superoxide.
This breaks down nitric oxide, which protects against inflammation and clogging of the arteries.
The good doctor got the ‘smack down’ over his preposterous vaping and arterial stiffness theory from a number of real experts.
These included the absolutely awesome, Professor Peter Hajek who explained scary words like arterial stiffness can be caused by many things and are relatively harmless:
Arterial stiffness is a well-known stimulant effect of nicotine that has little relevance for health.
Drinking coffee has the same effect, only greater and longer lasting (as does watching a dramatic football match).
Indeed.
New Study ‘Misleads People’
Among the experts slamming this latest research is Prof John Britton, Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies and Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, University of Nottingham, and he said:
This paper provides an unsystematic overview on evidence relating to the likely relative risks of nicotine use, and of questionable reliability: for example, that e-cigarette use increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 194% but COPD is a disease with a lead time of decades, so to attribute a risk directly to e-cigarettes – which have been widely used for less than a decade and are almost exclusively used by former smokers – is inappropriate.
Dr Nick Hopkinson, Reader in Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College London, said:
In this review the search strategy used to identify papers is not defined so it is not clear if it is a systematic review of all the evidence.
There are also a number of reasons to be cautious about measuring risk in this area and the figure in the paper runs the risk of misleading people.
It is important to note that the best evidence around vaping and blood vessel function is that in people who switch from smoking to vaping there is a substantial improvement in endothelial function.
Prof Jamie Brown, Deputy Director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University College London, said:
The approach taken by this clinical review is unclear.
The last 2016 Cochrane review on e-cigarettes found no evidence that smokers who used e-cigarettes for two years or less had increased health risks compared to smokers who did not use e-cigarettes.
Once again the so called science picked up by the mainstream media to attack vaping is studied and clinically picked apart and proven to be total rubbish…
Strange how there’s never an alternative view on these scary vape stories put forward…anyone would think there’s an agenda…
NZ Vape Chain To Roll Out In Australia!
Despite the uncertainty around the future of vaping in Australia, a New Zealand based chain of vape shops is set to expand in the country.
Shosha is New Zealand’s largest vape retailer and has plans to open up to 20 stores in Australia.
As you’re all aware, the Government of Australia announced a ban of the import of all nicotine products last week, but the July 1st deadline was extended for 6 months after a backlash from politicians, vape advocacy groups and vapers.
It might seem a crazy time to open up a chain of vape shops down-under, but Shosha spokesman, Nabhik Gupta, was upbeat and said a pilot store had been a great success adding:
There are significant variations between each country’s Government towards the sale of nicotine vaping products; with New Zealand preferring to educate consumers on their use, while in Australia they have prohibited their sale and now, their importation.
The launch of our first store in Sydney has been well received in a rapidly growing market and has given us sufficient confidence that we can scale up the export of our New Zealand retail model throughout Australia.
Once trans-Tasman travel resumes we will be able to visit these states and assess the potential of a number of retail sites and progress our international plans from there.
Maybe they know something we don’t..?
California Flavour Ban Inches Closer
As expected, the US state of California has voted to ban all flavoured vaping products.
Bill SB 793 passed with a vote of 31-4 despite campaigning by vapers and vaping advocacy groups.
If it passes into law, those caught selling or posessing flavoured e-liquids could face a $250 fine – in effect criminalizing vaping.
*bangs head on desk yet again*
The idiotic Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids were – as you can imagine – delighted.
CTFK advocacy director, Karen – oops I mean Annie Tegan said:
The California State Senate is sending a clear message to Big Tobacco that our children’s health is more important than a deadly industry’s profit margins
By taking action to end the sale of sweet minty menthol cigarettes, the original candy-flavored product, the legislature will save 17,000 precious lives, and more than $800 million in healthcare costs.
We’re now calling on the California Assembly to stand up for our kids, especially in vulnerable communities of color, and finally stop Big Tobacco’s playbook from exploiting our health for their profit
Wait…what..?
Is she now suggesting that vaping is racist..?
Is Big Tobacco and the so called ‘Big Vape’ really enticing ‘children of colour‘ to vape..?
It’s yet another low point in the anti-vape movements playbook – talk about cynically jumping on the BLM protests…
There is still one more hurdle to go and that’s the California Assembly.
It’s going to take a super-human effort to block this new anti-vaping legislation…
New Research On Nicotine Vs COVID-19
It seems likely that nicotine in some way really does help prevent patients with COVID-19 from developing life threatening symptoms.
A dream team of pro-vaping medical experts and researchers, including Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos MD and Professor Riccardo Polosa, have just released of the first ever study into the link.
It showed smokers or vapers on nicotine product had better outcomes than those none users!
The team said:
The authors calculated the proportion of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who were smokers compared to the population smoking rates.
The latter was strictly adjusted for gender and age, which clearly underestimated the population rates and the expected smoking prevalence.
The proportion of COVID-19 patients who were smokers was 3-4 times lower than the expected (population-based) smoking prevalence, even with the strictest gender and age-adjustment.
The very few smokers who ended up being hospitalized had 53-59% higher odds of having an adverse outcome compared with non-smokers.
The findings really are incredible to say the least.
Whilst not encouraging smoking, the team do think smokers should be given some form of nicotine if hospitalized with the illness:
The authors make a clear statement that smokers should be advised to quit.
However, the very low number of smokers who get hospitalized for COVID-19 highlights once again the issue of pharmaceutical nicotine having potential beneficial effects on COVID-19, a hypothesis that has been recently presented in peer-reviewed publication and that needs to be further investigated, according to the authors.
In fact, the study findings could be explained, at least in part, by the fact that nicotine intake is discontinued immediately after smokers enter the hospital, depriving them of the potential beneficial effects of nicotine.
Quite amazing when you think about it…nicotine really does seem to be a ‘wonder drug‘ in this case…
Put that in you pipe and ‘smoke’ it Bloomberg