I’m reading this article about how Missouri is getting ready to pass age restrictions on vaping and e-cigarettes. Nothing new really. The same old under 18 ban. As we keep saying most vendors won’t sell to anyone under 18 anyway but a law doesn’t really hurt.
What really caught my eye about this article was the reaction of someone from the Missouri branch of the American Cancer Society.
“We still don’t know that these are safe,” said Stacy Reliford, Missouri government relations director of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “That’s our greatest concern.”
“Our bottom-line concern is that it defines e-cigarettes as something other than a tobacco product,” Reliford said. “The nicotine in an e-cigarette is derived from tobacco.”
They want vaping and e-cigs to be regarded as tobacco products even though there is no tobacco in them just because the nicotine is derived from tobacco. Now I could understand if vaping and e-cigs were without a doubt proven to be as cancerous as cigarettes but they haven’t yet. I doubt they will be but that’s beside the point. Why are they so quick to ban a device or delivery system that has helped so many people from inhaling the known poisonous cloud of cigarettes?
Maybe it’s self-preservation? If more people quit smoking then maybe fewer people get lung cancer. If cancer rates drop dramatically due to more people quitting then fewer people may donate to the ACS. Am I saying that this is a fact? No, of course not. However it is something to think about until the ACS comments or proves otherwise.
The Trench Reynolds Report 