ACT to restrict e-cigarette use

I’ll start this off by saying I hate smoking and refuse to partake, however…

It’s an interesting one. I always thought the issue with smoking was not the addictive nature of nicotine and the difficulty involved with quitting, but instead with the health risks related to cigarettes (lung cancer, etc) and other mediums which people get nicotine from, such as chewing tobacco (mouth cancer).

It is all the other things you need to consume while getting your nicotine hit which are most harmful and which cause such a burden on our health system.

If you could get the nicotine, without the harmful by-products, then nicotine becomes no different to caffeine.

So, by all means ensure that there are not significant health issues caused by vaporizing tobacco in an e-cig. But if it is found to be a relatively harmless conduit for nicotine, then it should be allowed or even encouraged.

Grimm said :

rosscoact said :

Tobacco companies want people to remain addicted to nicotine and whether the delivery system is tobacco or an e-cigarette is irrelevant to their bottom line.

What difference does that make? What’s happening here is discouraging people from using a much healthier alternative to smoking tobacco. It seems very counter productive to the feigned concern governments have about the health impacts of smoking tobacco.

It’s not just tobacco companies that want people to remain addicted. Taxes on tobacco are a cash cow.

The difference it makes is that it’s not a ‘quit smoking’ initiative, it is a ‘stay addicted so that you can go back to smoking’ initiative and as such shouldn’t be encouraged.

rosscoact said :

Tobacco companies want people to remain addicted to nicotine and whether the delivery system is tobacco or an e-cigarette is irrelevant to their bottom line.

What difference does that make? What’s happening here is discouraging people from using a much healthier alternative to smoking tobacco. It seems very counter productive to the feigned concern governments have about the health impacts of smoking tobacco.

It’s not just tobacco companies that want people to remain addicted. Taxes on tobacco are a cash cow.

Ha ha ha, good luck! They can’t even enforce current smoke-free areas….

Grimm said :

Seems somewhat counter productive.
Really don’t see how this “normalises smoking”, considering it’s not smoking. I’m not sure what health risks water vapour pose to other people either.
People are using these things in an effort to quit smoking. I don’t know of a single person, nor have I ever heard of anybody taking up using an e-cigarette for the cool factor. Forcing people who are trying to quit to go and use these things in designated smoking areas is making it even harder for them to quit, and exposing them to second hand smoke.

If Governments REALLY cared about the health concerns of smoking and actually wanted people to quit, they would probably be doing more to get these things approved by the TGA and encourage their use. The reality is they have to be seen to be doing something about smoking, yet not really doing anything much while continuing to reap the huge tax rewards it generates.

Special…

Tobacco companies want people to remain addicted to nicotine and whether the delivery system is tobacco or an e-cigarette is irrelevant to their bottom line. I don’t know what the figures are about people quitting smoking through teh use of e-cigs but lets face it, the only way top quit is to actually quit.

Personally I prefer that an addict uses an e-cig because it is less offensive to sucking in their second hand smoke.

Anyone who thinks that e-cig suppliers are not trying to make them cool has never been overseas

Seems somewhat counter productive.
Really don’t see how this “normalises smoking”, considering it’s not smoking. I’m not sure what health risks water vapour pose to other people either.
People are using these things in an effort to quit smoking. I don’t know of a single person, nor have I ever heard of anybody taking up using an e-cigarette for the cool factor. Forcing people who are trying to quit to go and use these things in designated smoking areas is making it even harder for them to quit, and exposing them to second hand smoke.

If Governments REALLY cared about the health concerns of smoking and actually wanted people to quit, they would probably be doing more to get these things approved by the TGA and encourage their use. The reality is they have to be seen to be doing something about smoking, yet not really doing anything much while continuing to reap the huge tax rewards it generates.

Special…

Aligning the legislation with NSW is a great idea – the legislation around tobacco can be confusing, as there is regulation by all three tiers of government. Anything to simplify the law is good for smokers (and good for everyone). Although it didn’t get up in NSW, banning e-cigarettes in smoke-free areas is a good idea. Part of the basis for smoke-free area legislation is to de-normalise smoking, and also assist those quitting to be exposed to less environmental tobacco smoke.

The point was well made by Jeremy Buckingham when he used an e-cigarette in the NSW Parliament in May – at the moment, it’s not against the law for your child’s teacher to be using an e-cigarette in class, or your GP to be using one in the middle of a consultation. Although they may be helpful as a quit aid (and the jury is still out on that point), the lack of regulation around these products is appalling.

“The consultation told us there is concern within the community about the possible health risks of e-cigarettes,” Mr Corbell said.

AWESOME let’s just go with people’s gut feelings and the “possible health risks” instead of examining the scientific evidence and ongoing research.

E-cigarettes will be lauded as the public health invention of the 21st century, mark my words.