Monday, April 28, 2025

October 16, 2013

This Is Why Anti-Smoking Lobbies Are Shouting Down E-Cigarettes

Organisations like the WHO, the British regulator MHRA and other health-oriented NGOs are all putting in as much effort as they can to spread the bad news about e-cigarettes. They've even gone so far as to publish false information about e-cigarettes, backed up by fake surveys. So what gives?

As we know, e-cigarettes provide the smoker (or, the “vaper”, as some call themselves) with a potent hit of nicotine, with a dash of flavour. Simple, quick and easy.

But for some reason, organisations like the WHO, the British regulator MHRA and other health-oriented NGOs are all putting in as much effort as they can to spread the bad news about e-cigarettes. They’ve even gone so far as to publish false information about e-cigarettes, backed up by fake surveys. So what gives?

The truth is, the non-profit groups are often funded by pharmaceutical groups – and these pharmaceutical groups are making a killing on things like those patches that don’t work, or that herbal tea that doesn’t work. So what’s the end product? Cigarette markets are protected, the market for anti-smoking patches are supported – and smokers keep smokin’.

This month, the FDA is to decide on whether or not to put e-cigarettes in the same regulatory framework as cigarettes (a different set of rules exists for “approved” anti-smoking products, like stupid patches). Thing is, if e-cigarettes are placed in the same regulatory framework as real cigarettes, restrictions will be such that smokers might as well just smoke the real thing.

[Source: Forbes]