The death toll from smoking is staggering (including my own father). 8 million people die every year from smoking who.int/news-room/fact…
...including 480,000 in the USA cdc.gov/tobacco/data_s…
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Harm reduction can reduce that death toll, according to 15 past-Presidents of the world's leading professional society in tobacco control. ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.210…
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Quitting smoking is hard for many. The average smoker who succeeds does so only after an average of 30 failed quit attempts. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e0…
7 4.3 million US adult vapers are ex-smokers. But this is NOT the total number who quit smoking with e-cigarettes. It doesn't include people who quit smoking with e-cigarettes, and later quit vaping.
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Worth noting that nicotine gum and nicotine lozenges are both literally CANDY. They are available in fruit, cinnamon, mint and menthol flavors. No smoker who is trying to quit would ever buy tobacco flavor. So big pharma companies don't make that. #Duh
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The UK government health services promotes nicotine vaping for adult smokers, and teen vaping remains extremely low there. gov.uk/government/pub…
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In the USA, teen nicotine vaping is obviously undesirable, but not a “crisis.”
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Today, according to the latest @CDCgov survey, only 3% of US teens vape nicotine daily, and most of them smoked first. There is no "whole new generation hooked." That claim is a propaganda tactic, not truth. academic.oup.com/ntr/article-ab…
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In fact, US high school smoking has dropped 3X faster than historical trends over the past 8 years. Young adult smoking has plummeted as well. Both are now lowest in history.
The smoking & vaping rates in this graph are from the same @CDCgov survey that's in the news now.
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Still, politicians are gripped by a false belief that teen vaping is a crisis (misinfo funded by @MikeBloomberg & @truthinitiative). Their proposed policy “cures” are all far worse than the “disease.”
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Online sales and mail shipment bans reduce adult access (especially for adult smokers and ex-smokers who live in rural areas.
Hardly any teens (0.2%) get vape products online. So this "policy cure" just harms adults, with no effect on teens. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
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So, who is driving all this? Two huge foundations: @BloombergDotOrg & @truthinitiative. Both try to hide the FACT that teen vaping has plummeted 60%.
Both claim: 1) vaping is a gateway to stinky tobacco smoking and 2) if all vapes are tobacco flavor, fewer teens will vape
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Both US foundations utterly ignore the impact of their "policy cures" on 11 million adult nicotine vapers and 34 million adult smokers.
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So... Here is the @US_FDA's original infographic. Let's take a good look at what they told the public about the National Youth Tobacco Survey 2020 (specifically March 2020, so just before the pandemic).
(2) Next... Unless you read this VERY carefully, you will not understand frequent use, and daily use, are given as a percentage of "current use."
(3) One key to good infographics: They deliver facts clearly and need no translation.
This one from @FDATobacco needed translation. You have to do the math to find out how many US high school kids vaped frequent, or daily, in March 2020 (before the pandemic).
15 past-Presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco embrace THR. They are veterans of the fight against big tobacco. Not part of a "plot." ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.210…
A school-based education program. How well did it work? In 2001, US @Surgeon_General David Satcher placed the D.A.R.E. program in the category of "Ineffective Primary Prevention Programs." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abus…
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School-based drug "education" mistake, now being repeated with vaping.
1992: "Researchers at Indiana University found that those who completed the D.A.R.E. program subsequently had significantly higher rates of hallucinogenic drug use than those not exposed to the program."
(3) The school-based drug "education" mistake, now being repeated with vaping.
1994: RTI researchers found the program was ineffective. So D.A.R.E. leaders tried to get publication of the findings blocked. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abus…
15 past-Presidents of the world's leading Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco have issued a joint statement. It is a masterful review of evidence on nicotine vape safety, efficacy for smoking cessation, and teen use. ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.210…
15 leading public health experts who cannot possibly accused be of being "corporate shills" or "not thinking of children." All share the byline. All former presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco, THE preeminent professional society. ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.210…
(2) 15 of the world's top tobacco control experts agree:
Public health organizations, the media & policymakers focus primarily on risks to youth
15 past Presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco (THE preeminent professional society for global tobacco control) just published a broadside against #HarmReduction denial.
Perhaps @MikeBloomberg has been ill-advised? They disagree with him.
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(2) I have read the full text, but only the abstract is available to the public.