It’s Not Smoke It’s Vapor
So why then is there a fight to regulate, strangulate and eradicate this industry? Could there be any other reason besides what I’m sure you’ve already guessed? Money.
Vaping saves lives. Millions of people around the world have used vaping as a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. So why is the government and the FDA so determined to restrict the market and in essence shut the vaping industry down?
There are many misconceptions about vaping that the public has taken as truths. One being that there are hidden ingredients like antifreeze and formaldehyde in eLiquid. There are actually three ingredients in vape liquid, vegetable glycerin (found in most food products), Propylene glycol (the main ingredient in Albuterol and other asthma inhalers) and lastly Nicotine, which in itself has been found to be as bad for you as a cup of coffee. On the other hand, there are over 1,000 toxins in a single cigarette.
According to Derek Yach, anti-smoking activist, executive director of the Vitality Institute and former World Health Organization officer, there are 1.3 billion smokers in the world and roughly 6 million smoking-related deaths per year. Going even further; for every death, there are 20 smokers suffering from tobacco-related diseases. So let’s do the math then. 6,000,000 x 20 = 120,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros. One hundred twenty million people are currently suffering from smoke related disease. I’ll let that sink in.
Have you ever watched as someone suffered with lung cancer from years of smoking cigarettes? I have. It wasn’t long ago that I went to visit my uncle, Richard Tidwell, in the hospital after he had suffered a stroke. He had been having regular chemotherapy treatments for the cancer the doctor had found in his lungs. We thought the treatments had been working, but we couldn’t be more wrong. The stroke itself was brought upon by the cancer spreading to his brain. He smiled when I entered the room so he did indeed recognize me. A brief moment of relief washed over me, until he tried to speak. When he did, his words were jumbled as if he were a toddler. You could tell that he knew what he wanted to say but was incapable of producing the correct words for his thoughts. Frustration was clearly seen on the mask of a smiling face. More than that was the pain he suffered with, but even then his beautiful spirit could not be corrupted. Our hopes of him recovering from this diminished when the doctors asked if we could make a plan for home health. Not more than two weeks later when a family member went to check on him was he found dead in his home. From that moment, I knew I wanted to quit smoking but didn’t know how I was going to without some help. I was addicted to cigarettes and vaping saved my life.
In March 2014 a statement (Original Article was Removed – Reference Archive: “What you need to know about electronic cigarettes”) made by the Royal College of Physicians website states:
‘the main benefit of e-cigarettes is that they provide inhalable nicotine in a formulation that mimics the behavioral components of smoking but has relatively little risk… Switching completely from tobacco to e-cigarettes achieves much the same in health terms as does quitting smoking and all nicotine use completely.’
So why then is there a fight to regulate, strangulate and eradicate this industry? Could there be any other reason besides what I’m sure you’ve already guessed? Money.
Approximately 2.2 billion dollars was spent on e-cigs in America alone last year. Compare that to the $85 billion cigarette market. With such a drastic difference you would think that big tobacco companies wouldn’t even bat an eye; however, in doing so you would be thinking wrong. Each smoker that switches equals less money going toward the cigarette market. According to notblowingsmoke.org, cigarette shipments decreased by 6.45% in 2010 and 5.6% in 2011. As more and more people catch on to the benefits of vaping, even more people follow suit. In essence, the tobacco industry and their cancer sticks are doomed. But where does the FDA and government come into play with all of this? Did you know that states borrow from the expected excise tax that tobacco revenue is expected to incur? It poses a problem then when the profits are not as high as expected. The money to pay the debt isn’t there. We could go even further into how much money is made by big pharma (pharmaceuticals) on the cancer generating tobacco industry, but that is a story for another time.
So who profits off of the vaping industry? The typical business in the industry could be described as “mom and pop shops.” Meaning that everyday men are offering jobs to countless throughout the country while having a means to provide for their own family. In extreme success stories where a brand has taken off, the American Dream is being realized. The new rules that the FDA is trying to enforce would require that all juices and devices would require approval. According to the Wall Street Journal, one estimate of the approval process would require such extensive data that it could cost these businesses anywhere from $2- $10 million dollars. The new regulations would guarantee the demise of about 99% of all companies in the industry. So who then would be able to afford such an astronomic price tag? Funny you should ask. Japan Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are all scrambling to find a dog for this fight. The European Newsweek of 5/27/15 reads: Big Tobacco Fights Back: How the Cigarette Kings Bought the Vaping Industry. Coincidence? I think not.
So what can we do to stop this? HR2058 provides a change in the date of the grandfather clause to allow all newer products to continue to be manufactured without the rigorous demands of the FDA’s new regulations. If you care at all for a vaper or smoker who you’d like to see quit, please help to stand against these new regulations. Be aware of the call to action posts that the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives association and NotBlowingSmoke.org keep us regularly updated on, email your congressmen and phone the white house. Big business and big government will kill the vaping industry if we do not stand together. Let your voice be heard.
