Pregnancy On Their Dime
The anti-vaping lobby tells pregnant women not to vape.
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by Dave Cross
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MOD was created to fight the scourge of polio. Once the disease had been all but eradicated it faced a dilemma, it had worked itself out of a job. Facing disbanding and trips to the job centre, the organisation gave itself a new mission to carry on until there were zero birth defects in the world. In league with the Centre for Disease Control, they obtain a sizeable amount of money from the pharmaceutical industry.
MOD’s position on electronic cigarettes is clear prior to this week’s press release, it’s like reading a statement from misinformation specialist Stanton Glantz:
- “Just like regular cigarettes, you can become addicted to e-cigarettes.”
- “It can cause nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) and vomiting.”
- “You can be poisoned by liquid nicotine if you drink it or absorb it through the skin.”
- “A small amount may be harmful, even deadly.”
- “They may have flavours, like cherry or bubble gum. All of these things may make them seem fun and appealing, especially to children.”
The University of Maryland carried out the invisible survey, interviewing 316 pregnant women. It discovered that “nearly three-quarters of the women who had tried e-cigarettes believed they were less harmful than tobacco.” Amazingly it also unearthed an amazing revelation: “most of these women also said that e-cigarettes could help them stop smoking.” What’s surprising is that they consider this a bad thing.
Citing animal experimentation, Edward McCabe, MOD’s medical director said: “Nicotine alters brain development.” He added: “Some e-cigarettes contain chemicals and heavy metals such as tin, chromium and nickel, which might harm a foetus. It's not in the best interests of the companies making these products to provide this education. We would hope that there would be other sources of education.”
It is surprising that he is unaware of the American Vaping Association’s official position on the matter given that they say: “While the use of smoke-free nicotine products is generally far less hazardous than smoking, pregnant women should refrain from using all nicotine products, including FDA-approved products like the nicotine patch and gum.”
Lead researcher, Doctor Katrina Schafer Mark claims that misconceptions are common among pregnant women, but has only served to reinforce the negative misconceptions with her unpublished study. While they may pose a danger, electronic cigarettes clearly offer reduced harm according to peer-reviewed studies.
McCabe expressed his hopes for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start regulating vaping as soon as possible, without loopholes, an opinion shared by his colleague Stanton Glantz: “Given that the White House has blocked eliminating menthol from cigarettes for years despite strong evidence, including from the FDA’s own analysis that doing so would protect public health, I am not holding my breath.” Many in the vaping community wish that he would give it a try.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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