Electronic Gigarettes: What the Experts Say

ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES: WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

A collection of interviews with scientists and campaigners

By James Dunworth and Paul Bergen

This book was funded and produced by ECigaretteDirect.co.uk, The Smoker’s Angel, the manufacturer and supplier of the Smoker’s Halo range of electronic cigarettes.

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COPYRIGHT

ISBN: 978-1-921968-56-3

First published in 2012 by The Smoker’s Angel

Smashwords Edition

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any unauthorised reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

James Dunworth and Paul Bergen assert their moral right to be identified as the authors of this book.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in the interviews in this book are those of the interviewees only, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors, James Dunworth and Paul Bergen, or the publisher, The Smoker’s Angel.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Part I: Scientists and Researchers

1. Key Quotes

2. Professor Carl Phillips, advisor to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association (ASFAA)

3. Professor Michael Siegel, champion of tobacco harm reduction and author of the blog: Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary

4. David Sweanor, former Advisor on Tobacco Control to the World Health Organisation (WHO)

5. Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos, author of a study into the effects of cigarettes on the heart

6. Professor Riccardo Polosa, author of a study into e-cigarettes and cessation sponsored by the Italian Quit Smoking Association (IQSA).

7. Dr Adrian Payne of Tobacco Horizons

8. Dr Joel Nitzkin, Chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force for the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP)

9. Scott Ballin, tobacco and health policy consultant in Washington, DC

10. Dr Murray Laugesen, former principal medical officer in the New Zealand department of health and winner of a WHO medal for work in the field of tobacco control

Part II: Bloggers and Activists

1. Clive Bates, Former director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

2. Elaine Keller of The Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association (CASAA)

3. Russell V. Ord and The Campaign for Vaping in Pubs

4. Katherine Devlin and Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association (ECITA)

5. Jackie Plage from UK Vapers

6. Chris Price of the E-Cigarette Consumer Association of the UK (ECCA)

7. Kate of Vaper’s Network

FOREWORD

When James from The Ashtray Blog and eCigarette Direct approached me to write a foreword to this book, I was thrilled. I have a great deal of respect for James (and Paul Benner) and the work they’ve done collecting interviews from some of the brightest and most interesting people in the fields of health, harm reduction and the electronic cigarette industry in general.

Did I say respect? I think the word I’m looking for is jealousy. You see, James and Paul have conducted so many great interviews, that every time I think they’ve done their best work, they publish another fantastic article.

I don’t think I can say that for many bloggers out there, especially a merchant’s blog. Most merchant’s blogs have some general interest articles that have some sort of hook intended to drive visitors over to the store section to do some shopping. There’s nothing wrong with that since there are some great vendor blogs out there. However, you can tell a lot of the items posted on the Ashtray Blog are written to further the industry and vaper’s community as a whole.

Beyond the content of the blog, I can personally attest to their interest in helping the community. I started Steve K’s Vaping World with no real idea what I was doing as far as running a blog went. James was one of the first vendors to reach out to me and took a genuine interest in the site, not just because I was reviewing his product, but because he wanted sites like mine to succeed, to give the vaping community a voice.

James provided me with a great deal of insight not only into the industry and politics surrounding it, but through the entire process of blogging in general. During the early days, there were a lot of ups and downs that I got through with the words of wisdom he provided me.

Ok, so there are still ups and downs, but at least now I know how not to panic. In addition to helping me with my early blogging false-starts, the Ashtray Blog has done much more to support the electronic cigarette blogging community including running posts on their site highlighting some of the best bloggers around.

This book extends the idea of empowering the community by taking all of the great information amassed during years of interviews and putting them all in one place. Paul and James have interviewed some of the brightest people out there who understand the vast potential of tobacco harm reduction.

The interviews encompass nearly the whole spectrum of electronic cigarettes. There are academics with distinguished careers in smoking prevention. Interviews also include scientists and medical professionals who have conducted studies to determine the effects of electronic cigarettes. You know, the studies prohibitionists seem to forget about or deny the existence of. Also featured are interviews with regular people who formed grassroots movements to fight for their ability to continue to use one of the most promising developments in tobacco harm reduction.

This book should prove a useful resource for anyone interested in understanding both sides of the (unnecessary) electronic cigarette controversy. Perhaps it might be something handy to throw at naysayers who are still convinced e-cigarettes are somehow just as bad as traditional cigarettes.

I know as a blogger in the industry, I’ll have a copy handy for reference. And you wonder how I could be both jealous and thrilled at the same time.

Steve Kryworuka

(Steve’s Vaping World)

INTRODUCTION

Back in 2009 we were feeling a bit depressed.

The year before, or Managing Director Jean and I had discovered electronic cigarettes.

It seemed like a miracle product - a device which looked, tasted and felt like a regular cigarette, but one that carried a tiny fraction of the health risks of tobacco cigarettes.

But, in 2009, the electronic cigarette came under attack by groups saying that the electronic cigarette had not been proved healthy.

It was around that time that Paul Bergen, a tobacco harm reduction researcher who helped run the tobaccoharmreduction.org site, got in contact with us.

He wrote to point out that the science was solidly in favour of electronic cigarettes, and that much of the opposition came from anti-nicotine fanatics keen to see an absolute prohibition on smoking - even if that meant banning alternatives that were 99% (or more) safer than regular cigarettes.

We suggested an interview with him - which you can read here - that became the first of a series of interviews with scientists and experts on electronic cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction which has been unmatched anywhere else. (Incidentally, our communication also led to collaborating on the first survey (in the world) of vapers which ended up being published in the Tobacco Harm Reduction Yearbook 2010).

Crucially, none of these authors were paid for these interviews and, to our knowledge, almost none of them receive or have received payments from electronic cigarette companies (the exception being Murray Laugesen, who was paid in 2009 to carry out an analysis of an electronic cigarette.)

Millions of dollars in funding are available to scientists and campaigners willing to take a position that supports big industries opposed to electronic cigarettes.

The scientists and interviewers featured in this book chose to do something else - they chose to speak out about a device which they believe has the ability to save many millions of lives.

PART I

SCIENTISTS AND RESEARCHERS

1. KEY QUOTES FROM THIS BOOK

Professor Carl Phillips:

I think there's absolutely no doubt that it [the e-cigarette] is a safer alternative to regular cigarettes. – (click here to read this quote in context)

Professor Michael Siegel:

Inhaling nicotine cannot be nearly as dangerous as inhaling nicotine plus thousands of other chemicals, including more than 40 carcinogens. – (click here to read this quote in context)

David Sweanor, former advisor to the World Health Organisation on Tobacco Control:

"If there is anyone who believes cigarettes are no more hazardous than e-cigarettes I’d recommend a remedial course in basic sciences." – (click here to read this quote in context)

"The key issue in looking at safety is that it is a relative concept; we need to look at the safety of any activity compared to some alternative. Rather than the unattainable standard of ‘safe’ we should be thinking in terms of ‘safer’. Despite the risks associated with soccer, I would, for instance, prefer my children play soccer rather than play with live hand grenades." – (click here to read this quote in context)

Dr Murray Laugesen, former principal medical officer in the New Zealand department of health and winner of a WHO medal for work in the field of tobacco control:

The product is safe, efficacious, and possibly effective in stopping smoking. – (click here to read this quote in context)

Professor Riccardo Polosa, Managing Director, PhD, Director of the Institute for Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology of the University of Catania

"Each individual smoker should find the best way to reduce or eliminate his or her own smoking. In theory, at least for westernised cultures, vaping is a far better option than smoking. And it could save millions of lives." – (click here to read this quote in context)

Dr Adrian Payne, Tobacco Horizons

"I think it’s reasonable to