Thursday, April 25, 2013

Turkish Health Ministry Would Rather People Smoke Real Tobacco Cigarettes than Non-Tobacco Electronic Ones?

According to an article in the World Bulletin, the Turkish health ministry is planning to ban non-tobacco electronic cigarettes while allowing the real ones to continue to be sold unimpeded.

According to the article: "The Health Ministry is planning a national ban on electronic cigarettes at a time when the sale of the devices is booming, officials from the ministry have said. According to bureaucrats from the ministry, the import and sale of e-cigarettes will face an across-the-board ban, as will advertisements for the products. ... The Health Ministry says the products are essentially not different from analogue, or conventional, cigarettes. ... Electronic cigarettes are increasingly popular in Turkey among smokers who either want to quit or cut down on the habit."

The Rest of the Story

Why would a public health body prefer that smokers use real tobacco cigarettes than non-tobacco electronic ones which drastically reduce exposure to carcinogens and other toxins?

And how is it that a public health agency cannot tell the difference between fake cigarettes and real ones? No - it is not true that electronic cigarettes are "essentially not different from analogue, or conventional cigarettes."

It is particularly unfortunate that the health ministry plans to ban electronic cigarettes because according to the article, these devices have become increasingly popular in the country "among smokers who either want to quit or cut down on the habit." Why would the health ministry want to put the kabosh on that?

I'm convinced that part of the reason why many countries are taking nonsensical actions like this one against electronic cigarettes is that the FDA put out false propaganda in 2009 warning of the dangers of these products and has never retracted that misleading information.

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