So you disagree with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And the FDA Commissioner. And the Director of the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). And the Acting Director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. And 15 past-Presidents of the SRNT...
What if you're wrong?
The only "health crisis" is that 10,000 US professionals who currently employed in the field of tobacco control are becoming redundant. Like a vestigial organ in the body of public health.
Nicotine gum is a smoking cessation tool. It is, literally, candy. But teens don't use it. And Big Pharma does not make tobacco-flavored gum. Why? Because they know no adult who is trying to quit smoking would ever use that. It comes in fruit, fruit-medly, cinnamon, mint and menthol flavors...
US teen use of JUUL has dropped to near nil. Teen nicotine vaping dropped 74% over the past six years. As f 2025, just 3.8% of kids experiment "at least one time in the past 30 days." Daily use is near nil: 1.4%. So?
Big Tobacco vigorously denied smoking caused cancer when they knew it did.
Big Tobacco Control (eg @profglantz.com) denies nicotine vapes safer than smoking when they knew it is.
What’s difference? @jgitchell.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social @algore09algor.bsky.social @igas2.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/09algor/...
@melissasweetdr.bsky.social @crikey.com.au @squigglyrick.bsky.social @alexwodak.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social
No one claims "safe."
Nicotine is an immunomodulator. It reduces inflammation. So if a nicotine-free vape increases inflammation (as your one study seems to show), a nicotine vape may not.
What if (just hypothetically) you're wrong? In that case, your advice is discouraging smoking cessation. Cigarettes KILL PEOPLE. So that's bad. Very very bad.
Weirdly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just weighed in on this. What if they're right?
www.imf.org/en/publicati...
US youth nicotine "addiction" is at a 50-year low. So I have to assume Corte Madera policymakers are being lied to. Why ban something that is vastly safer than cigarettes while leaving deadly cigarettes available in every corner store and gas station?
HERE is how to quit vaping. It's not rocket science. Tobacco control researchers would know this if they talked with informed ex-smokers who have quit by vaping.
They don't. Ignoring and excluding the voices of the very people who you CLAIM you want to help is reprehensible. Grotesque. 😠
The CDC just dropped numbers for the first half of 2025. Smoking has dropped to 9.4%. Lowest level in 80 years.
It is very strange that public health "experts" are not celebrating this good news. Not even informing the public.
If you do a systematic evidence review of #JunkScience studies that fail to control for harms due to past smoking, it's garbage-in-garbage-out. Shame on you for sharing this lethal health misinformation.
Dual use is not one thing. It is adults who smoke and sometimes try a vape. And adult vapers who sometimes still have a cig. But mostly people who are "on the journey to quit smoking." I'm not sure why you have this vendetta against the most popular smoking cessation tool in America.
The UK is giving 1 million free nicotine vapes to adults who smoke. 58% of recipients quit smoking completely.
Former UK colony: 100 million Indians smoke deadly cigarettes or bidis. On the advice of WHO, India banned ecigs but kept deadly cigarettes and bidis legal and widely available... 😕
How does a complete ban on something that almost no teens use help teens? NOTE: FDA just released 2025 numbers. Teen nicotine vaping dropped from 5.9% to 5.2%. Teen use of nicotine pouches remains very VERY low.
Have the good citizens of Corte Madera all gone insane? US teen nicotine use has dropped to a 50-year low. Daily use is near nil, so "addiction" is near nil. Both NIH and CDC surveys agree on this. #FactCheckMe:
monitoringthefuture.org/data/bx-by/d...
www.cdc.gov/media/releas...
Your post is snarky. I get that. But it troubles me to know how many Americans have no idea what CDC surveys actually show. And no idea that NIH and FDA both know (and puliblicly say) nicotine vapes are much safer than cigarettes.
If THIS continues to happen, America will be healthier. A lot healthier. Less lung cancer. Less cardiovascular disease. Less lung disease.
These changes in adult use would happen faster if FDA authorized the fruit, dessert and candy-flavored vapes that most adults actually want.
Nicotine gum is not available in tobacco flavor. Why? Because Big Pharma knows that no adult would ever use that to try to quit smoking.
~85% of teens who vape use 'flavored' vapes. But teen nicotine vaping dropped 74% over the past five years. Obviously, 'flavors' DON'T "appeal to youth."
I'm pretty sure that's another dumb move. It IS in the right direction, but not enough. Ask Big Pharma why they don't make tobacco-flavored nicotine gum. Then ask the National Confectioners Association (NCA) what percentage of all candy sold in the USA is eaten by adults (spoiler: 50%).
Imagine if teen use of bicycles dropped 74% over just 5 years.
What would you conclude about the honesty or sanity of someone who claims "bicycles are popular with teens"?
Welcome to the weird world of tobacco control where teen use can drop 74%, and "experts" STILL claim "popular with teeens."
Both nutrition & tobacco control are dominated by epidemiologists rather than a focus at-the-bedside.
Epidemiologists are lured by paternalistic utilitarian solutions that may violate Moral Principles.
At-the-bedside leads to Moral Principles: Beneficence; Nonmaleficence; Truth-Telling; Justice.
Sales of combustible cigarettes in Japan fell >50% within 7 years of heated tobacco products going on legal sale. This is unprecedented anywhere else in the world & happened without support from government @chancethegardener.bsky.social @jgitchell.bsky.social @algore09algor.bsky.social
US teen "current use" of e-cigarettes has dropped 74% since 2019. Only 1 in 20 now experiment "at least one time in the past 30 days." Only 1 in 71 vape daily (1.4%).
But anti-vape zealots continue to claim "teen use is rising," "epidemic," and "whole new generation addicted."
i.e., THEY LIE
Shaming (stigma) is not an ethical health intervention Jane. It is a horrendous violation of Do-No-Harm.
Anti-smoking and (now) anti-vaping campaigns also violate another ethical principle: Truth-Telling.
MUST READ...
Well done, Charles. Here is my post on my analysis with recommendations on how best to accelerate progress (save more lives!) going forward:
bsky.app/profile/cdou...
Teen use of deadly cigarettes dropped 90% after 2011, to near nil. Teen nicotine vaping dropped 74% over the past six years to a 12-year low.
This IS what CDC/FDA surveys show. All good news. But this good news is an existential threat to thousands of tobacco control professionals.
Nicotine vapes ("e-cigarettes") vs. THC vapes are two entirely different things AG Tong. Different devices, liquids, people and purposes.
US teen nicotine vaping is NOT a "growing danger" to youth. It has plummeted to a 12-year low according to CDC/FDA surveys and also NIH-funded surveys.
