Vaping. Under Attack.

Vaping. Under Attack.

There has been a lot happening over the last few weeks in vaping, not only here in Australia, but on a global level.
I usually stay away from these types of articles, because things change at such a fast rate, it’s difficult to keep up whilst ensuring accurate up to date information, but I’m going to make an exception here, purely because of the scale of what has happened.

The recent lung damage epidemic in the USA with hundreds of hospitalisations and at present 12 related deaths across 10 states has the world’s governments reacting with precautionary action. It’s not clear exactly how many, but in an earlier report that came out of Illinois and Wisconsin, a large portion of those affected had admitted to recently using THC products through vapourisers.

All of the details of these latest incidents are documented by the CDC on their page.

Here are just a few examples of how governments have handled this issue.

New York and many other states have plans to ban flavours
Massachusetts as well as a handful of other states have implemented a 4 month temporary ban on all sales of vaping products
India is in the process of banning vaping all together
New Zealand, once the most progressive and friendly nation to vaping has also announced an investigation into banning flavours

Just these 4 hit home very hard, and while the pretense has been that they are in direct relation to the current “health crisis”, things are not quite that simple, as much as these governments would like you to believe.

The Facts

This new threat that seems to have appeared out of nowhere has everybody jumping, and let’s face it, not without reason.
Let’s play devil’s advocate.
Many affected patients have admitted to using illegal THC or CBD products, not all, some have said that they’ve only used nicotine products. The CDC discovered that many of the products that were obtained from the patients who admitted using THC based products, actually contained “Vitamin E Acetate” upon testing. (an absolutely stupid thing to do considering Vitamin E Acetate is an oil)

Please keep in mind this was taken from the original report that came out of Illinois and Wisconsin and has now recently escalated with patients presenting across 46 states.

Looking at the data objectively, there is no definitive product causing this problem, even though we begin to see a pattern emerging.

What do you do when across 18 states, over 500 people are presented in hospitals with the same ailments, a non-viral illness in the lungs rendering them unable to breath, the common theme being that they have all used a vaping device recently or have been using them for a length of time?
You’d act on it swiftly in order to minimise any further casualties, at the same time, investigate exactly what is causing the issue.

And that is exactly what they have done, HOWEVER…

Instead of investigating and making an educated and measured response to the problem, they’ve simply knee-jerked and started banning all products from sale. Not just the products that have caused the issue, ALL PRODUCTS.

Let me ask you this.

If a bunch of people presented at hospitals across America from an illness related to inhaling the gas from whipped cream canisters (this has happened BTW), would all canisters that use gas be banned outright? Even canisters from unrelated products that were not involved? Would it be called a national health crisis?

Absolutely not, instead it would be recognised that those people affected, were misusing the product, and a national information campaign would likely be launched, in order to educate people of the dangers of misusing it, likely also resulting in a regulated approach to sales.
I’m sure the irony of that is not lost on any of you.

What exactly are we dealing with?

Here in Australia, we’ve been under all sorts of pre-regulation, stores have been forced to take products from display, advertising has been banned, and worse, the latest South Australian regulations block all internet or phone sales to South Australian customers. Businesses have had to move to other states to stay afloat, some shut down completely. All this, leaving South Australian vapers, unable to purchase products from Australian businesses online. This affects vapers living in remote areas dramatically.

People fear the unknown, and because vaping is the new kid on the block, and it is claimed that there is no evidence or studies about the long term affects of vaping, it is precisely that, the great unknown to the general population. An easy scapegoat, something to blame.

Sure, there are some other conspiracies flying about, concerning the “Master Settlement Agreement“, and of certain politicians pushing an agenda as tools of Big Tobacco, or Big Pharma, and there are some absolutely enlightening and very concerning facts that have begun to surface.

To top things off, the media being the sensationalist body that it is, is also spreading a lot of outdated or misleading information regarding this messy situation that we are in.

So we have an issue with education around these products as well as a potential threat of policy and law makers, and media having their own agenda.

The way this has all been handled is disappointing, even aggravating, considering these blanket bans, have the potential of disrupting peoples lives considerably. Businesses will close, jobs will be lost, smokers in those states will have no alternative but to go back to smoking.

What should we be doing in response?

It’s important now more than ever to educate. We know this market segment, we know first hand the benefits that vaping has introduced to our lives, it’s imperative we keep educating as many people as we can so that they can make better decisions.

Your family, your friends, politicians, state representatives, even the media, need to know how your life has been positively affected by vaping, and what these bans will mean to you.
Have a chat with your family, speak calmly and with authority, making sure to reiterate that this effects you directly, and point them to the many positive scientific reports that are available.

Here is a page of studies that lists a few you can use to silence the doubters.

Contact your representatives, email and phone your local politicians to make sure they fully understand what is going on. Not all of them actually know what is going on, on a higher level. A more informed politician might just make a more informed choice.

The media needs to be called out for their misinformation. To avoid these channels simply regurgitating existing or outdated information, articles need to be reported for inaccuracy.
If you come across an inaccurate article, the first step is to make a complaint to the organisation in question. Most have contact forms on their websites, and some even have a dedicated complaints form.
After doing this, you can make a complaint to the press council by using the form on their website.
You can also report Facebook posts by clicking the arrow at the top of their post, choosing “Report Post”, “I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook”, “Its a false news story”.

Organisations that have been tirelessly working in the background for your right to vape, need your support.
Support ATHRA (Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association), and Legalise Vaping by making contributions, or even just by spreading the word, so that more vapers are aware of these organisations.

They fight for you, they deserve a lot of support from us all.

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Shane Presser
Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.

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