Stranger Than Fiction! Electronic Cigarettes Vapor & Precancerous cells
Despite the fact that the electronic cigarette industry has gone from relative obscurity to a multibillion-dollar business, governments and politicians around the world still continue to play down any positives. Just within the last few days we have seen the FDA using issues of alleged nicotine poison to attack the industry, we have seen the Welsh government in the UK looking to ban electronic cigarettes in public and each day sees yet another attempt by US state authorities to introduce vaping taxes thwarted by the masses. So, are we now at the stage where politicians have been crying wolf for so long that the general public is immune?
It is not difficult to find an array of untruths, misconceptions and blatant lies which have been used time and time again to criticise the electronic cigarette industry. While some governments will plead their innocence, very few have been willing to come forward and support an industry which some experts believe is the best chance in living history to combat tobacco cigarette addiction.
Medical trials
Only last week we saw the publication of a medical trial which used precancerous cells from a tobacco cigarette smoker to check how these cells would develop when in constant contact with electronic cigarette vapor. However, very few of the headline publications “remembered” to confirm that these trials used precancerous cells, i.e. cells which had already shown signs of cancer development, as a base point for the impact of electronic cigarette vapor. So, what would you expect to occur?
Nobody has ever suggested that electronic cigarettes are 100% safe (what particular pastime, diet or exercise regime is 100% safe?) but to use precancerous cells as a means of testing the impact of electronic cigarette vapor just does not seem right. Whether or not the electronic cigarette vapor had a positive or negative impact on these precancerous cells is beside the point because surely the test should have been to see whether “normal cells” move to the precancerous stage when exposed to just electronic cigarette vapor?
Another myth which will be misunderstood?
If you do a quick search of the Internet you will see many articles commenting upon this medical trial and the fact that electronic cigarette vapor “helped” precancerous cells, already on the verge of mutating into cancerous cells, complete their journey. Would there have been a different result if water vapor had been used? Would there have been a different result if hot air had been used? Many experts have suggested the fact that these cells were already moving towards the cancerous stage meant that the clock was ticking and they would reach this frightening conclusion whatever substance they were exposed to.
In just a few weeks many people will forget the underlying terms of the medical trial, they will remain blissfully unaware of the state of these cells before the test began and they will see this as the “truth”, i.e. electronic cigarette vapor created cancerous cells. This is just one of many myths and untruths that have over time seemingly developed a “truth element” to them despite the underlying evidence suggesting otherwise. The industry has fought back in the past, continues to fight the fight but this will be a long-term battle and one which will require heart and soul.
Tiberius
