U.S. Forces Ban
U.S. Armed Forces have banned the sale of vape products from all the shelves of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and the Navy Exchange
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by Dave Cross
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Navy Exchange is a retail store chain offering goods and services to active military, retirees, and certain civilians on Navy installations in the USA, overseas, and aboard ships. The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is the retailer on Army and Air Force bases around the world.
The U.S. Department of Defence is reporting that it banned the sale of vape products worldwide due to “1,299 lung injury cases and 26 deaths … related to e-cigarette or vaping product use.”
The AAFES removed all of its products from sale to service personal at the end of September and the Navy Exchange followed suit at the beginning of October.
Demonstrating brains and the capacity for excellent decision making, Public Health Service Captain Kimberly Elenberg, director of Total Force Fitness for the undersecretary of defence for personnel and readiness, said: “The vapour that users inhale can contain ultrafine particles, carcinogens, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals. Vaping is not harmless, and researchers are still trying to understand the long-term impacts and health effects from inhaling the vapour.”
An official speaking on behalf of the AAFES added that flavoured e liquids had been removed from sale as the Food and Drug Administration held concerns about the appeal of flavour luring underage customers to vape.
Ignoring the stupidity of the assertion, the question has to be posed: if a military base can’t prevent the sale of a 10ml bottle of juice to an underage buyer then should it be trusted to carry out any function whatsoever? Maybe it was the manner in which the question was posed to the U.S. Department of Defence, but they failed to offer up an explanation.
"E-cigarettes generally contain less chemicals compared to traditional products like cigarettes, but since the long-term effects of vaping are unknown and not understood, there is not enough information at this time to make a determination on whether it is safer or healthier than other tobacco products,” Captain Kim continued.
The clue, dear Cap’n, might be in the fact that there is no tobacco in eliquid or combustion taking place in the atomiser.
Doctor Donald Shell holds the candidacy for one of the longest job titles in the world. Shell, the director of disease prevention, disease management and population health policy and oversight in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defence for Health Services Policy and Oversight, said: “Even if the ingestion of nicotine is deemed safer through vaping than through traditional products, nicotine itself is still a dangerous chemical. Nicotine is an extremely addictive, naturally occurring toxic chemical derived from the tobacco plant that affects the nervous system and the heart.”
“Nicotine is a teratogen, as it is capable of causing birth defects. Other developmental or reproductive toxicities associated with the use of nicotine are unknown. While current information regarding nicotine as a carcinogen is inconclusive nicotine is highly addictive, and young adults and adolescents are especially vulnerable to its addictive properties.”
It is appropriate that the Department of Defence employs a person of such weapons-grade stupidity. Allowing service personnel to place their lives at risk for their country is one thing – to place the lives of those who smoke in direct danger because they are no longer able to easily source reduced harm products? That’s criminal neglect.
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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