Ashtray Blog: An Electronic Cigarette Blog

Enjoy Electronic Cigarettes in the Beautiful Gower

In what is probably the first electronic cigarette friendly tourist accommodation in Wales, a house offering self catering accommodation in Gower specifies that while smoking has to be done outside the house, electronic cigarettes are welcome.

The owner of the house (which just happens to be our managing director) can also supply the electronic cigarette to guests.

The house is also located in the Gower Peninsula, which was the UK’s first designated area of natural beauty and offers super walking, golf, birdwatching and water sports.

Check out www.GowerHolidayHome.co.uk for more information.

Note – for a fifty pound discount when booking your accommodation (excluding peak times such as x-mas and New Year) quote “Ashtray blog”when booking.

Fancy a change from regular cigarettes? Check out the electronic cigarette.

In a tale of politics and ignorance Suffolk legislators have been trying to stop smokers from using their electronic cigarettes in public.

Now Professor Michael Siegel has joined other distinguished scientists by writing articles in newspapers in an exposure of the move to ban electronic cigarettes.

The Professor writes:

“The question the FDA and the anti-smoking groups are asking is: “Are electronic cigarettes safe?” That is not the right question. The right question is: “Are electronic cigarettes much safer than conventional ones?” The FDA and anti-smoking groups are comparing electronic cigarettes to a solution of spring-fresh Maine mountain stream water. What they need to compare electronic cigarettes to is a Marlboro cigarette”

The article is well worth reading – and also needs digging. If enough people digg articles like this our side of the story will get huge exposure.

The link to the digged article is here: http://digg.com/d311gmO

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

It appears that the Long Island Vaping Club may have won a small victory in their battle to keep smoking e-cigarettes in public places.

Until recently, Suffolk County planned to ban the electronic cigarette.

To promote support for the ban they used emotive language, unproven claims and plain lies.

Emotive language: “…a new, high-tech smoking threat has emerged in the form of “electronic cigarettes….These devices combine the appeal of an iPod with that of candy cigarettes.”

Unproven claims:
“…kids are getting their hands on them.” There are no known reports that suggest that kids are getting their hands on them.

The lie : “”After inhaling, the user then blows out the heated vapors producing a “cloud” of undetermined substances that is virtually indistinguishable from traditional smoke.”

Source: Legislator Cooper Press Releases

In fact several studies have analysed the contents of the vapor including the FDA sponsored study. All studies have found that the toxin lower was far lower than that of ordinary cigarettes.

Heroic Effort:

The Long Island Vapers Club launched a strong resistance to the bill.

One of their strongest arguments was that the level of nitrosamines (measured at levels of about 9/1,000,000,000 in electronic cigarettes) was around the same as that found in Suffolk County tap water.

Now it appears that the law has been modified.

In an email to E Cigarette Forum user Kristin, Steve Levey, a county executive of Suffolk wrote:

“It may interest you to know that the proposed ban that would prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in public buildings has been modified and is now directed toward the sale and use of electronic cigarettes to and by minors.”

And that is a provision few electronic cigarette users have a problem with.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

Updated 22/08: We are in the middle of a battle to save an alternative to the cigarettes that kill millions of people worldwide.

The resistance to the powerful and well-financed campaign against the electronic cigarette is largely taking place on the internet – on blogs, forums and social media sites.

Links are the currency are the web. Without links, our blogs and our evidence in support of the electronic cigarette will never be found.

That’s why we are creating a list of quality electronic cigarette/tobacco blogs.

Please contact us or leave a note if we have missed a great blog.

Tobacco Analysis Blog: Professor Michael Siegel tells the real story behind the lies and exagerations of the anti-electronic cigarette industry.

Tobacco Truth Blog: Professor Brad Rodu examines and comments upon “the scientific foundation for tobacco policies and fallacies.”

E Cigarette Nationwide: The companion blog to E Cigarette National.

The Guy With the Fedora: This is a new blog but the guy is prolific – 33 video blogs in less than a month!

The Truth: Electronic Cigarettes versus Cigarettes is a very well written hub page on the electronic cigarette which takes a personal perspective. The hub gives a very good summary of the issues and has a good resource section too.

The Electronic Cigarette Tavern: Interesting blog, although the long paragraphs make it a bit hard going.

E-Cig Org: We have mentioned our friends in America – who were instrumental in helping drum up support for our electronic cigarette survey – before, but as one of the top ranking electronic cigarette blogs and a mine of useful information they definitely deserve a second mention!

E Cigarette Forum Blogs: The E Cigarette Forum allows members to blog, and has a page showing off members latest blogs.

Electronic Cigarette News: As the title says – the blog keeps up with the latest electronic cigarette news.

Leaford’s E-Smoker Blog: Leaford continues to keep his blog up-to-date with the latest electronic cigarette reviews.

Electronic Cigarette Store Blog: This has what we look for in a blog – going beyond mindless sales to provide interesting content. The electronic cigarette store blog provides summaries of recent news stories (inlcuding some of ours) with links to the full stories.

Vapeatron - this one just about falls into the blog category (it’s also a forum.) The site has numerous interesting posts, from one user’s experience with cops after they discovered her e-cigarette rig (involving two hours in handcuffs – fortunately she was rescued by a e-smoking copper) to how to clean an atomiser.

E Cig Forever – E Cig Forever is a new site run by a smoker of over thirty years – a smoker who is now trying to make the switch to electronic cigarettes.

Vick’s Vapor Blog – Another e-smoker share her anger at the anti-electronic cigarette campaign.

If you have a blog that goes beyond just selling/promoting the electronic cigarette and provides useful information or just entertainment, submit the url in the comments below. We’ll check out the link and if we like it we will add to our list.

Also be sure to check out our electronic cigarette directory, our list of smoking blogs and our list of electronic cigarette sites.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

Action on Smoking and Health Claims

ASH.org makes some extreme claims on their website.

1. That 30 minutes of exposure to drifting tobacco smoke can trigger a fatal heart attack.

2. That E Cigarettes pose dangers for both smokers and non-smokers.

3. That third hand smoke can pose serious risks for smokers.

4. That smoker’s breath can be harmful to health.

These claims are no joke.

Use of the Claims

They have been used to:

• enforce a system of discrimination against smokers, with smokers (not smoking) being barred from hospital waiting rooms
• as support for separating parents from their children
• to bar smokers from becoming foster parents
• to prevent smokers from seeing their children even when they smoke outside
• as support for arguments for a ban against electronic cigarettes – an alternative to a product which kills over 400,000 Americans and over 100,000 Brits per year

Under the Microscope

With such serious consequences, you would think that there would be equally serious and scientific evidence to back up the data.

Not so, according to the three scientists who examined the claims.

All three are distinguished Professors of Medicine with years of experience in their field.

Click here to see what they have to say about ASH’s claims.

Image Used was from Dick Puddleton: Smoker Apartheid Has Arrived

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A recent report in the New York Times managed to get all the facts wrong.

THOMAS H. MAUGH stated that:

1. 19 varieties of electronic cigarettes were analysed.

WRONG: Two varieties were analysed in the FDA report.

2. Many contained diethylene glycol.

WRONG: One contained diethylene glycol.

3. Half contained nitrosamines (the same carcinogen found in real cigarettes).

THE FULL STORY: Yes – but to find these they had to test at 40 parts per trillion. What was not mentioned is that cigarettes contain 300 – 1400 times the amount of nitrosamines contained in electronic cigarettes. (See a comparison by Professor Michael Siegel.)

The question is, is this just lazy journalism, or are journalists part of a concerted campaign to discredit the alternative to a product that kills hundred of thousands of people every year.

According to a medical study in South Africa highlighted by News 24 45% of smokers using the electronic cigarette were able to quit within two months of switching to the innovative new product.

Of coure, what counts is whether smokers can cease smoking for the long term. However, the results remain extremely encouraging.

The survey results found:

• 6% of smokers quit within two weeks
• 45% of smokers quit within two months
• more than half reported improved energy levels and an improvement in their appearance

All of the doctors involved in the study felt that the electronic cigarette could be an aid to overcoming all physical and psychological effects of smoking, with one doctor adding that:

“an e-cigarette is the most effective treatment method on the market for quitting tobacco smoking”.

View the full article: E Ciggies Help 45% of Smokers Quit.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

Ash Accuses E Cigarette Research of Being Compromised

In a recent letter attacking E Cigarette Direct, ASH claimed that Electronic Cigarette Companies could not be relied upon to be neutral because of their financial interest.

They also claimed that any research commissioned by Electronic Cigarette Companies was compromised.

That research includes an analysis by Murray Laugeson, former principal medical officer of the New Zealand Department of Health and winner of the World Health Organization Tobacco or Health medal and citation “for achievements deemed worthy of international recognition in promoting the concept of tobacco-free societies.”

Yet the very organisation that claims electronic cigarette research is compromised is accepting money from a major pharmaceutical company.

Funding

It’s not easy to find out where ASH’s money come from.

We know they make some money by charging for advice on how to separate children from their parents.

But their financial reports are vague on the sources of their funds.

Busted

Pfizer, though, is not.

Jim Corken, of E Cigarette National, pointed me towards this document on the Pfizer website.

ASH is the first named partner in a $47 million dollar funding programme by Pfizer.

Pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical companies have a major interest in the electronic cigarette:

1. They sell billions of dollars of nicotine replacement aids per year. (Unfortunately, these don’t work.) The market for these aids has been largely created by the Big Pharm funding of the anti-smoking movement, which has seem hundreds of millions of dollars channelled to public health organisations, much of it via the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

2. The big pharmecutical companies are evidently worried by the nicotine cessation industry, as shown by a report entitled:

E-Cigarettes Will Revolutionize The Face Of Tobacco Smoking And Could Pose A Threat To the Smoking Cessation Market

3. By removing the current electronic cigarette companies, big pharm can benefit by introducing their own version of the electronic cigarette in their future. Their huge donation to public health organisations means that these bodies are unlikely to protest.

Hypocrisy

It is standard for commercial companies to fund research into their products.

The FDA itself is funded by pharmecutical companies and, more recently, by the tobacco companies whose products kill more than 400,000 a year.

Testing organisations are supposed to maintain independence despite the source of funds.

ASH has attacked E Cigarette research because they can not reply directly to the points raised by our recent letter to the Peninsula:

1. That the electronic cigarette contains less nicotine than real cigarettes.

2. That the ingredients of the electronic cigarette are far less harmful than those contained in real cigarettes.

That they have made this accusation at the same time as receiving money from organisations with a direct negative interest in Electronic Cigarettes is simply breathtaking in its level of hypocrisy.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

We’ve been surprised by how quickly our recent press release on the Peninsula’s outrageous exaggeration about the e-cigarette has spread around the net.

ASH’s attack on us is also now gaining a reaction.

Writing about their criticism of us, Tiffany Ellis published a press release entitled:

“Is ASH practicing corruption or are they concerned about the public’s best interest?”

Reputable Studies?

One of the criticisms ASH made was that any studies conducted or commissioned by an E Cigarette company was automatically discredited.

Tiffany disagreed:

“ASH claimed that there were no reputable scientific studies that have been completed on e cigarettes, but this is not fact either,” states Teresa Peach of Ecigarettesnational.com. “There have been several studies by government accredited clinical studies labs and another by a former principle medical officer in New Zealand’s Ministry of Health and Public Health Commission, Dr. Murray Laugesen. He received a medal from the World Health Organization in 1998 for his actions toward a tobacco-free society and to say that no credible studies have been done insults his medical degree and the fact that he is an internationally-recognized authority on tobacco issues.”

Afraid not, Tiffany. He has been corrupted by our evil hands!

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

We recently wrote an open letter to the Peninsula regarding their article on the electronic cigarette.

The article in the Peninsula carried blatant mistruths, including the allegation that the electronic cigarette contains 40 times as much nicotine as a regular cigarette.

In fact, when measured per puff, the strongest e cigarette cartridges contains less nicotine than real cigarettes (Source: FDA Commissioned Report).

ASH responded by attacking our company in another letter to The Peninsula.

Strangely, given that ASH is run by a lawyer, they attacked us on the basis of Managing Director not being a scientitist and on the basis that we are a commercial organisation.

At not one point in the whole letter did they deal directly with the issues we raised.

You can see our full response to ASH here:

E Cigarette Direct Response to ASH: ASH is Dodging the Issues

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.