Big Tobacco, doctors, scientists & “independent’ activist groups in cahoots!

It’s tragically unsurprising to see confirmation that tobacco firms have bankrolled scientific papers playing down the risks of children vaping as part of a secretive lobbying campaign to boost e-cigarette sales and try to block public health measures aimed at protecting young people.

The Times newspaper has conducted a spectacular investigation revealing all (link at the bottom).

Most of the British public have been more than a little dismayed at the ease with which vaping entered the UK market – seemingly unopposed – and within a few short years locked its grip on a new generation of youngsters who sunk quickly into nicotine addiction.

Are we shocked that certain doctors, scientists, and so called independent activist groups are funded by or linked to Big Tobacco? Sadly we are not. What is shocking is the scale and scope of the misinformation and lies they spread and how deeply within our public health system they spread their tentacles. And that’s an important question; in how many other ways has public health policy been manipulated and influenced by Big Tobacco and the nicotine industry.

As a senior Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator and Global CEO of Allen Carr’s Easyway I’ve spent the last 10+ years warning of the inevitable impact that vaping would have on youngsters and I take no pleasure whatsoever in saying, “I TOLD YOU SO!”.

Everyone from Public Health Enzgland, ASH, and those at the reigns of the NHS parroted, “There’s no evidence to suggest that vaping poses any threat to youngsters”.

Yet anyone with the slightest inkling of how Big Tobacco and the nicotine industry work – a cross between Latin drug cartels and south London gangsters – knew! And I do mean “KNEW” what was going to happen.

Whether it’s the billion dollar disgrace of JUUL vapes in the USA who were caught red handed targeting youngsters (rather than the smokers they claimed to want to help) or the Elfbars peddling cotton candy and gummy bear flavours in their child-friendly disposable vapes – they have only two objectives; to addict youngsters to nicotine and keep them addicted.

The Times investigation revealed that

• Cigarette manufacturers have funded research papers questioning the risks of youth vaping. They have then been cited as evidence in government consultation responses by tobacco-funded campaign groups.
• Hundreds of British doctors have attended pro-vaping smoking cessation training sessions run by an NHS doctor who has taken millions in funding from Philip Morris International.
• Tobacco giant British American Tobacco helped run a “grassroots” campaign that presented itself as the voice of ordinary vapers, which has sought to influence government policy in apparent breach of global rules on tobacco lobbying.

Tobacco industry-linked organisations have spent years playing down the risk of young people taking up e-cigarettes and challenging advertising restrictions, flavour bans and price increases — measures aimed at getting vapes out of the hands of under-age users.

The efforts appear to circumvent strict restrictions on tobacco industry efforts to influence public health policies and boost sales of e-cigarettes, which have become an important source of new customers and revenue for cigarette manufacturers.

Scientists, doctors and campaigners with links to the tobacco industry have run training sessions for UK doctors, written scientific papers with favourable results, produced educational materials used by health organisations and taken part in political consultations.

This sounds more like the deception, misinformation, and downright corruption that one might expect in a state knee deep in kleptocracy rather than the United Kingdom.

What other aspect of the nation’s vaping policy (and general health for that matter) has been corrupted by this kind of scurrilous shenanigans?

Read full article in the times

Read more about teen vaping: spotting vaping & helping them quit