A disturbing trend in the vaping industry continues. Bad journalism combined with outright propaganda by some vested interests has caused more Americans to think that vaping is bad for you.
According to a new Reuters poll, an astonishing number of people falsely believe that vaping doesn’t help people to quite smoking and even more alarming, that second-hand vapor is just as bad as second-hand smoke.
Forty-three percent said they did not believe vaping could help people quit smoking compared with 39 percent who held that view in 2015. A majority of participants – 66 percent – say that vaping can be addictive compared with 61 percent in 2015. Additionally, 49 percent said this year that it could have a similar effect to that of second-hand tobacco smoke compared with 42 percent last year.
-via Reuters
This is a trend that’s been happening for a couple of years now. Prohibitionists are allowed to say anything they want. The media loves them some terrifying sound bites. It’s a natural thing that the populace will begin to think something’s wrong.
Matters aren’t helped that vape shops and manufacturers aren’t allowed a say in this. While the FDA deeming regulations will explicitly forbid shops from saying good things about vaping and health, that particular free-speech assault has been going on for ages.
Since it lost a lawsuit back in 2011, the FDA has taken the stance that they can’t regulate e-cigarettes as medical devices as no health claims are made. But, the second a product is marketed as having a health benefit, that would put it in the medical device category.
The result is that businesses have had to quietly talk about health benefits without advertising them. Naturally if all you hear is complete propaganda with no opposing viewpoint allowed, public opinion will dip.
How else do you think North Korea is able to keep their people in the dark?
1 Comment
Travis Nibler
(05/25/16 - 11:25 am)Its all about education. When someone leaves my store they know a lot more than when they came in as a new or potentially new vaper. One thing that always comes up is that if your not replacing your habit your just supplementing it. So even if they are skeptical they will know that if they buy something that I feel would not work to quit 100% they will have an understanding why. Hardware (Power Output, Battery Life). Nic level (Also Depending On Power Output, Type of tank ETC). Flavor (Must Like What You Vape). They are all important and people need to understand why. No walmart or gas station attendant will ever deliver this kind of information.
Comments are closed.