In one of the most ill-advised and irresponsible recommendations in a few days is the call for a complete ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes by Oregon physician. Currently, most nations are considering the audience that would ban the sale of e cigarettes to minors. However, to this physician, that is not enough. He wants to see a ban on the use of electronic cigarettes to anyone. The physician claims that electronic cigarettes are addictive products with a host of potential hazards and no known benefit: should not be allowed on the market until a clear proof is obtained that it won’t hurt minors.
Unfortunately, in his commentary, the physician didn’t call for a similar ban on traditional cigarettes, in spite of a host of documentations on the dangers that smoking causes, including serious effect on children. Why a special treatment for tobacco cigarettes, which kill millions of people each year globally, over electronic cigarettes, which have killed nobody in the world?
The physician suggests that the main objective of electronic cigarettes is to generate money by increasing the number of new nicotine addicts and dismissing withdrawal symptoms in the available addicts. However, if that is the case, then why is the physician not calling for the ban of nicotine patches, because their aim is to make money for pharmaceutical companies by dismissing withdrawal symptoms in the available addicts?
The physician fails to acknowledge that e cigarettes have an exceptional public health benefit: they help smokers cut down on smoking, quit smoking and reduce the level of nicotine addiction. Additionally, the physician fails to provide any evidence that electronic cigarettes generate new nicotine addictions-there is currently no evidence to support his argument.
It is unfortunate for health official to lie to the public, challenges decades of education about the dangers of smoking and discourage tobacco addicts from quitting. Because of narrow devotion to an ill-advised and deeply entrenched ideology, the author wants to mislead the public without any evidence to support his call. Sad!
