Hempstead Horrorshow
The Town of Hempstead in the state of New York has announced plans to ban “flavoured vaping” in a spectacular display of ignorance
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by Dave Cross
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According to latest statistics, one in five high school seniors is a current cigarette smoker and, almost unbelievably, “in 2015, 8.6% of high school students were current cigar smokers 11.5% of boys and 5.6% of girls.”
Historically, when it raised the age of tobacco product purchase to 21, the previous Town code stated: “Reduce the exposure of our youth to disease-causing toxins in secondhand smoke and in chemicals emitted from electronic cigarettes. E-cigarettes are now the primary form of tobacco use amongst teens.”
It made the most ridiculous claims: “E-cigarettes and similar devices pose health hazards and may contribute to youth smoking and reduced cessation, regardless of nicotine content, since the devices contain or produce chemicals other than nicotine known to be toxic, carcinogenic and causative of respiratory and heart distress. E-cigarettes and similar devices look identical whether they contain nicotine or not, and as a result, their use not only normalizes e-cigarette use, but also renormalizes tobacco addiction and use of tobacco products like combustible cigarettes.” [link]
Announcing the measure, King Sweeney nasally introduced a line of people spouting the same nonsense the ‘mothers who lunch’ Parents Against Vaping tweets. The video is available for viewing on King Sweeney’s timeline – but it’s not worth the time or effort [link].
Given Hempstead’s location, the ban will have almost zero impact on those who vape who wish to continue – but it does add to the negative press that deters smokers from switching and reducing their exposure to harm.
When the history of tobacco harm reduction is written, will those pushing the ban in The Town of Hempstead be held to account?
Related:
- CBSN New York – [link]
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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