Since the 2016 publication of Nicotine Without Smoke, UK health authorities have been promoting vaping as a smoking cessation aid for their citizens.
Scientists, health authorities and doctors in the UK issued statements and reports to help people see the deception about the 2019 vaping related lung injuries (EVALI).
Dr. Britton calls out the deception
When asked about the USA authority’s reaction to EVALI, Dr. Britton said that it was “complete madness.”
Smoking experts in the UK spoke out against the misinformation spread about EVALI and continue to encourage smokers to choose harm reduction.
We can argue that Canada’s reaction has been and continues to be madness because our authorities are discouraging smokers from harm reduction and therefore encouraging continued smoking.
Smoking kills over 40,000 Canadians and over 400,000 Americans every single year! How many North Americans have been diagnosed with a chronic smoking-related disease because they didn’t know they had an effective and safe harm reduction option?
Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable disease & death in North America. Yet, health-related authorities and nonprofits in Canada and the USA, blame nicotine vaping as the cause of the lung injuries and demand stricter restrictions on tobacco harm reduction.
Utah remained true to the evidence as the balance of health authorities and media lied to the public. Dr. Aberegg identifies the false self-reporting by lung injury patients: people are afraid to say they used illegal drugs.
The pervasive message in North America is that we have to ban vaping because their is a ‘youth vaping epidemic’.
In Great Britain, vaping is recognized as a significant harm reduction strategy and is promoted by their public health. Yet, less than 2% of 11-18 year olds vape more than once a week.
WHERE is the youth vaping epidemic in Great Britain?
Youth experiment with adult activities, this is why 52% vaped “to give it a try”. Cigarette smoke is far more addictive than nicotine vapour and far more harmful. Since smoking tastes gross, perhaps the flavours in eliquid are preventing them from becoming smokers.
Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs wrote a referenced paper about EVALI. It is the perfect document to enlighten health professionals about how they have been deceived about tobacco harm reduction.
The Canadian federal government controls the sale of cannabis products and taxes the sales.
On October 19, 2020, during the EVALI outbreak, THC cartridges were approved for sale. The fact that EVALI was caused by illegal THC cartridges could have an adverse effect on legal THC cartridges sales revenue.
Nicotine eliquid was blamed.
HC acknowledges the cause
In December 2019, Health Canada (HC) was questioned by CBC as to the cause of EVALI because the Gov’t of Canada approved the sale of THC cartridges during the EVALI outbreak. HC clearly communicates that they understand EVALI is cause from illegal THC carts and not from nicotine eliquid.
In late February 2020, the CDC closes the case on EVALI because they had identified the source, took action and the injuries disappeared.
However, over a year later the Health Canada, Vaping-Associated Lung Illness, page states: “The cause or causes of cases in Canada is still under investigation.”
March 2021 Health Canada website: “In Canada, most cases of vaping associated lung illness do not appear to have been associated with the use of THC-containing products.”
When reading this statement, consider that Health Canada relied on patient self-reporting during a time that THC carts were illegal. They did not conduct biopsies, product analysis nor toxicology screening.
As of March 2021, the Government of Canada’s webpage on EVALI mentions nicotine 5 times but only mentions vitamin E acetate just once.
This is the source of information that all provincial health authorities and all Canadian health professionals would consider to be the most current, unbiased and accurate.
Due to the deception that nicotine vaping was the cause of EVALI, sales of the new cannabis products were not interupted but how many vapers switched back to the most lethal form of nicotine: tobacco cigarettes?
During the investigation into the cause of EVALI, governments, health-related nonprofits, health authorities, medical professionals, anti-smoking groups and media repeatedly claimed that vaping was injuring people without specifying that the injuries were caused from illegal THC cartridges.
Over and over again, they included nicotine eliquid in their conversations, statements and announcements. A false narrative that blamed tobacco harm reduction (vaping nicotine eliquid) for the lung injuries spread throughout the public and the health community.
First case of EVALI in Canada
Dr. Chris Mackie, the medical officer for the Middlesex-London Health Unit in Ontario declared the first of 19 cases in Canada. His diagnosis was lipoid pneumonia. Countless headlines, articles, TV news programs and experts repeated the narrative and blamed harm reduction.
For weeks, Dr. Mackie continued to blame nicotine vaping for the lung injury during interviews with media. Anti-smoking agencies across Canada and the US demanded banning flavours in eliquid making tobacco harm reduction less attractive to smokers.
A 2016 study “Respiratory infections and pneumonia: potential benefits of switching from smoking to vaping” concluded vaping cannot cause lipoid pneumonia. Water based vapor cannot cause a oil based lung injury.
Dr. Chris Mackie, the medical officer for the Middlesex-London Health Unit in Ontario declared the first of 19 cases in Canada. His diagnosis was lipoid pneumonia. Countless headlines, articles, TV news programs and experts repeated the narrative and blamed harm reduction.
A 2016 study “Respiratory infections and pneumonia: potential benefits of switching from smoking to vaping” concluded vaping cannot cause lipoid pneumonia. Water based vapor cannot cause a oil based lung injury.
For weeks, Dr. Mackie continued to blame nicotine vaping for the lung injury during interviews with media. Anti-smoking agencies across Canada and the US demanded banning flavours in eliquid making tobacco harm reduction less attractive to smokers.
Daily, health authorities & media deceived the public about EVALI. Experts repeatedly referred to vaping as causing the injuries without specifying that it was illegal THC cartridges that was hurting people. They repeatedly include vaping nicotine eliquid in their discussions!
Dr. Tereza Martinu, respirologist, was a guest on media. She admitted that vitamin E acetate was found in all the EVALI biopsies & is used in THC concentrates. She suggests that inhaling nicotine through vaping may be the cause. Then she encourages people to use nicotine inhalers.
Question: since vaping has been around for 10 years, why the sudden outbreak of EVALI? Dr. Martinu’s answer was there was such an increase in vaping that there are now enough cases to see it. She failed to give the percent of increase or the time frame.
With endless resources and funding, the government is fully capable of reviewing the evidence on vaping. Yet, they are still deceiving the public by blaming nicotine eliquid for EVALI. Eliquid has been legal & regulated in Canada since May 2018.
The United Kingdom (UK) promotes vaping for smokers. They are different than most of the world because they reviewed the science on vaping before the global narrative got to them. The deceptions were so pervasive that even their citizens became misinformed.
The misinformation has convinced the public that eliquid is a source of EVALI. An increase of 13% of the people believe that vaping is MORE harmful than smoking, The public now demands tobacco harm reduction bans.