smoking turns you into a zombie
To listen to the anti-smoking zealots you would think that everyone who ever smoked died, or will die, a horrible death from lung cancer. Or live a miserable unhealthy life with emphysema. To listen to the anti-smoking zealots you would think that ONE cigarette will kill you. They are wrong. And, no, I am not promoting. defending or excusing smoking, even though it legal for adults to smoke - IF they can find a place to legally do it.
Today, to listen to the anti-smoking zealots, you would think that electronic cigarettes are as bad, if not worse, than traditional cigarettes. Yet, there is no credible scientific or medical research that proves this is true. In fact, there is credible evidence that e-cigs are MUCH safer than cigarettes AND an excellent tobacco cessation device.
Let's make this personal ...
I smoked for over 50 years. A pack a day. Every day. X-rays over those years showed my lungs to be 100% clear, with no medical issues showing up via chest x-ray. No lung cancer. No irregularities. How could that be if "smoking kills"? After 50 years of smoking my lungs were clear. Then, after 50 years of smoking, I discovered electronic cigarettes. I switched to "vaping" and after 50 years I quit smoking ... in 1 day. Yes, thanks to e-cigs, I stopped smoking in one day! Did it work? As of today, I have not smoked a cigarette in 13 years. Now, I use e-cigs. I vape. I don't even want to smoke a cigarette. How do I feel? Having stopped smoking and started vaping, within in a week I felt cleaner inside, I didn't stink of cigarettes, my residence and my car no longer stank from cigarettes, and I was no longer emitting deadly second hand smoke. That is still true 4 years later. And I just had a chest x-ray and my lungs are fine.
The anti-smoking zealots (and the government which is pressured by them) want to stamp out electronic cigarettes, incorrectly placing them in the same category as tobacco products like cigarettes. Again, they're wrong. Electronic cigarettes contain NO tobacco. They are NOT tobacco products. The anti-smoking zealots use the argument "children will become addicted to nicotine" and I agree - if children use nicotine they will likely become addicted to nicotine. Except that nicotine-containing cigarettes and nicotine-containing e-cigs are ILLEGAL for underage persons to buy. Therefore, if the anti-smoking zealots want to protect their children from nicotine, if they want to protect children from legal-substances-obtained-illegally, I suggest they concentrate on ENFORCEMENT OF THE EXISTING LAWS, instead of overly restricting or banning the purchase and use of a legal substance for ADULTS. That is basic common sense, something the government and the anti-smoking zealots are not using and apparently are not interested in using.
And, no, I am not endorsing the use of e-cigs, I am shaming anti-smoking zealots - and the government.
Further to the above here is a news report published in the Wall St Journal on Thursday, April 28, 2016:
"Substituting electronic cigarettes for tobacco is beneficial to public health and should be encouraged for current smokers, according to a report from the U.K.’s Royal College of Physicians.
The report, released early Thursday morning in the U.K., rejects several safety arguments marshaled against e-cigarettes in recent years. It argues that smoking tobacco is so deadly that any small potential risk from long-term e-cigarette use is outweighed by their lifesaving effects.
Among the report’s conclusions are that e-cigarettes aren’t a gateway to smoking tobacco for current nonsmokers and that they likely lead tobacco smokers to try to quit regular cigarettes when they otherwise wouldn’t.
“This report lays to rest almost all of the concerns over these products, and concludes that, with sensible regulation, electronic cigarettes have the potential to make a major contribution towards preventing the premature death, disease and social inequalities in health that smoking currently causes in the U.K.,” said John Britton, director of the U.K. Center for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham, who chaired the panel responsible for the report."
