Siegel Worried About Body Bags
The real cost of opposing vaping is the deaths of smokers denied an alternative, claims Siegel.
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by Dave Cross
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“Scott Gottlieb testified at his confirmation hearing,” states the voiceover as the image cuts to a sign outside the US Department of Health and Human Resources Food And Drug Administration. “Senators grilled him on a surprising new priority: e-cigarettes.”
“So-called ‘tobacco alternatives’ have become a multi-billion dollar industry over the last few years. The science on their safety is still out and the FDA is expected to implement strict regulations on them – that could kill off all but the biggest players in the business.”
While the FDA has put back the date to implement the deeming rule, it is yet to scrap it and, as highlighted by one store owner, the cost implications to the industry are out of all proportion to what is sensible or proper.
Geoff Braithwaite changed his life thanks to vaping. The one-time punk had slumped into a life of smoking, over-eating and drinking too much, until he discovered the harm reduction potential of electronic cigarettes and started up his own juice line – Tasty Vapor.
He said: “Pretty much, from the beginning, I was thinking in terms of the harm reduction aspect. I know for right now, the way I feel, the way I’m breathing, the way I’m exerting myself, I’m not getting winded – there’s some definite health benefits as a result of not using the former.”
But Geoff is not impressed by the FDA’s old planned strategy: “We are looking at something in the region of $1.5 BILLION for our small business to register all of our products with the FDA.”
It’s all due to the likes of Stanton Glantz influencing the legislative process, and he is utterly unrepentant at his part in blocking harm reduction. “It’s clear that using e-cigarettes, as far as the cardio-vascular system, is as bad as smoking a cigarette,” Glantz lies. “To me, the biggest health consequence of e-cigarettes is that they’re continuing and supporting the cigarette epidemic.
Michael Siegel speaks about Glantz being one of his heroes, but now believes that Glantz has “lost all credibility as a scientist.” He describes Glantz’s research as “unscientific”, “illogical”, and “downright damaging and destructive”. The destructive nature of his work resulting in the deaths of smokers, and leaving Siegel worrying about the body bags.
The full feature can be seen in the video below:
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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