Hans Bader sounds like he’s getting paid by the e-cigarette industry in his Sept. 13 CNSNews.com column, which also forwards a conspiracy theory:
The FDA has banned the e-cigarettes commonly sold on the market, by either rejecting them, or delaying their approval. It isn’t enforcing the ban against the biggest brands yet, and it may eventually approve those brands for sale. The FDA’s ban on a vast range of e-cigarettes will make it harder for many smokers to quit smoking, by depriving them of alternative ways of satisfying their craving for nicotine.
[…]E-cigarettes ave lives by weaning many smokers (like my wife) off of cigarettes. If retailers stop selling e-cigarettes, that will cost many lives, because e-cigarettes are a substitute for cigarettes, which cause cancer. Curbing the sale of e-cigarettes will also enrich the powerful trial lawyers who bankroll Democratic politicians. That’s because curbs on vaping increase cigarette consumption, and rising cigarette consumption increases payments to trial lawyers under the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
[…]“E-cigarettes could replace much or most of cigarette consumption in the U.S. in the next decade,” said William T. Godshall, Smokefree Pennsylvania’s executive director. His group had campaigned in the past for smoke-free public vicinities, higher cigarette taxes, and cigarette pack graphic warnings.
“There is no evidence that e-cigarettes have ever harmed anyone, or that…nonsmokers have begun using the products,” Godshall said. Godshall rated e-cigarettes a 2 or lower on a scale of harm ranging 1 to 100, where lozenges and nicotine gums are 1 and cigarettes are 100.
When smokers switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, that reduces cancer deaths. But it also leaves greedy lawyers and state governments with less cigarette revenue.
Bader won’t tell you, but Godshall is lying. E-cigarettes have been linked to lung disease, and they have been shown to serve as an introduction to smoking for young people, who then go on to use cigarettes. And Bader’s personal anecdote aside, it’s far from clear that e-cigs are an effective way to quit smoking.
Bader actually did note some of this later in his column, but dismissed it by putting “research” in scare quotes when describing them.