Vicious Antz
Antz, as vapers have termed the collection of anti-vaping campaigners, are still on the move. The time to keep our powder dry has gone.
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by Dave Cross
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Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and former mayor of New York, is already responsible for attacks on vaping in the city so good they named it twice. Ignoring science, Bloomberg lumped ecigs under the same heading as smoking and made false links between it and tobacco companies. Not content with fighting imaginary foes in his home state, Bloomberg has linked up with the Gates Foundation to attack smoking in Uruguay of all places.
“We are in this to help countries that can't afford to defend themselves against an industry which will try to kill a billion people this century. If that isn't a noble cause I don't know what is. You can talk about saving society but you have to translate that into action,” said the man who is considering running as the Conservative party’s Mayor of London candidate in 2016.
Many would support the notion of fighting tobacco companies who are targeting markets in developing countries, but it is the ties he forms between smoking and vaping that concerns those who see electronic cigarettes as a route out of cigarette addiction; something that should concern vape shops within Greater London especially.
Meanwhile health experts in Tanzania are pushing for a total ban on all tobacco-related products that, according to them, includes electronic cigarettes. “These are very toxic and sometimes other ingredients are put in, which are lethal to our lungs and brain,” claimed Ali Mzige, a family health consultant. It is evident that the tobacco industry isn’t the only body of people bent on exploiting developing nation populations with disinformation.
According to Wikipedia: “A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from farther away. Several ant species even use ‘propaganda pheromones’ to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves.” Maybe it is time people involved in promoting the use of electronic cigarettes as part of a harm reduction policy consider how we get the Antz to fight among each other?
As commented upon by Doctor Farsalinos, not only do the Antz perpetuate myths and half-truths but when they attempt legitimate research it is frequently flawed. “Many people will consider it a joke,” says the doctor, but the joke will be on vaping if we continue to allow them to sting us.
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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