Dale Staten

So many people are quitting smoking that there's not enough money to help smokers quit? Forgive me for saying, but that's a profoundly stupid observation. ALL states are heavily dependent on cigarette sin taxes to pad their budgets. ALL stint on smoking cessation funding.

Your little article contains health misinformation about relative risks. According to the @US_FDA, such misinformation reduces smoking cessation. And there is no longer any question about this: Nicotine vapes are much safer and help people quit smoking. So please #QuitLying.

Like this peer-reviewed academic (non-industry) evidence? 1) Cancer risk plummets when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) drops >10,000-fold. sciencedirect.com/science/ar… A more conservative estimate found lifetime cancer risk drops 99.5% (0.5% risk would be difficult to measure; difficult to distinguish from “background noise”) tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/conte… Use of nicotine vapes significantly reduces exposure to a major pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL (results of 4-arm, parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial funded by US NIH and FDA) thelancet.com/journals/lanre… Review of previous studies shows switching from cigarettes to nicotine vapes lowers risk of head and neck cancer. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3316… Excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) from e-cigarettes is “five orders of magnitude lower than that of mainstream traditional cigarette smoke, and also lower than the guideline values defined by EPA and WHO.” In other words, if cancer risk from smoking is 100%, then cancer risk from nicotine vapes is 0.001%. sciencedirect.com/science/ar… “The preponderance of [e-cigarette] products having [cancer] potencies <1% of tobacco smoke.” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2877… “NNAL exposure among youth who vape [nicotine] is much lower than among those who smoke and indistinguishable from youth who do not vape or smoke.” Note: 77% of those youth vapers were using disposable vapes. tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/conte… 2) Cardiovascular health improves when smokers switch to ecigs According to the American Heart Association, smokers who switch to nicotine vaping have a 7-fold lower risk of stroke; their heart health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers; and they have a 30%-40% lower risk of cardiovascular events than people who continue to smoke. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/… ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1… Systematic review and meta-analysis of 63 studies: “...short-to-medium-term transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes may improve blood flow and blood pressure... There is lack of evidence supporting any association of e-cigarette use with cardiovascular diseases and cardiac dysfunction or remodelling." Exclusive vapers had no significant differences in heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) compared with non-users, and lower HR and BP than smokers. heart.bmj.com/content/early/… They “experienced positive cardiovascular impact after both a 3- and 6-month period” including significant improvement in flow-mediated dilation, peak cutaneous vascular conductance responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside, and mean arterial pressure. These benefits were exactly the same for e-cigarettes and NRTs. bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.co… “We did not find a significant difference in the cardiovascular risk of exclusive e-cigarette use compared with nonuse of cigarettes and e-cigarettes.” [i.e., nicotine vapers’ cardiovascular risk is indistinguishable from non-smokers and non-vapers.] Study funded by NIH & FDA. ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/… Exclusive use of nicotine vapes (“e-cigarettes”) was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of self-reported incidents of diagnosed cardiovascular disease over a 5-year period, whereas exclusive cigarette smoking is. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; academic.oup.com/ntr/advance… Smoking cessation showed positive cardiovascular impact within 3 days, and the effects did not differ between nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapies (e.g., nicotine patch or nicotine gum). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; and academic.oup.com/ntr/advance… 1,179 heart attack patients followed for 41.7 months. 710 participants who smoked at baseline, but switched to e-cigarettes over the next year, had 57% lower odds of subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events compared to those who continued smoking (11.4% vs. 22.3%). sciencedirect.com/science/ar… Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and blood pressure control, improve, and significant weight gains associated with cold turkey smoking cessation do not occur. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2784… Blood vessel health improves significantly jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.… nature.com/articles/s41569-0… sciencedirect.com/science/ar… sciencedirect.com/science/ar… 3) Lung health improves when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Lung cilia recover full function (these cilia remove solid particulates, bacteria and fungal spores from healthy lungs; cigarettes damage lung cilia function). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… Respiratory tract infections drop dramatically dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/… Longitudinal analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, an observational cohort study that surveyed 5,653 US adults ≥18 years, shows “Switching completely from past 30-day use of cigarettes to e-cigarettes had short-term beneficial associations with functionally important respiratory symptoms similar to quitting tobacco completely.” sciencedirect.com/science/ar… thelancet.com/journals/eclin… They have 20% less cough and 30% less phlegm than smokers who quit with nicotine patches or gum. nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/ne… Data from 9,000 adults aged ≥ 16 years: “Exclusive e-cigarette use was not associated with higher odds of wheezing compared with never-use, and it was linked to substantially lower odds than exclusive cigarette smoking.” link.springer.com/article/10… Analysis of 19,000 people found 65% of smokers with asthma and 76% of smokers with COPD reported improvement in respiratory symptoms after switching to ecigs. mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4/4356… COPD smokers’ lung health and quality of life improve dramatically (participants followed for 5 years). “COPD exacerbations were reduced by approximately 50% in patients who stopped or considerably reduced their smoking consumption after switching to vaping.” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… Asthmatic smokers experience “Significant improvement in asthma control and quality of life” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3196… pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2701… mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/5/4965 discoverymedicine.com/Riccar… mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905… What about never-smokers who vape nicotine? 'No detectable changes in lung health' of never-smokers who vaped nicotine for up to 4 years nature.com/articles/s41598-0… Studies that looked at both cardiovascular and lung health: 2022 review by University of Michigan researchers: When smokers switch, risk of acute cardiopulmonary events drops rapidly; long-term use leads to lung health benefits, especially among asthmatic and COPD smokers. No cancer risk found. mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905… E-cigarette users who never smoked, followed for 3.5 years: No significant health changes in blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, lung function, respiratory symptoms, exhaled breath nitric oxide or carbon monoxide; and “no pathological findings could be identified on high-resolution computed tomography of the lungs, and no respiratory symptoms were consistently reported in the e-cigarette user group.” nature.com/articles/s41598-0… E-cigarette users’ health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are Harmful or Potentially Harmful Substances (HPHS) measured at high levels in smokers. “When compared with people who never smoked, E-cigarette smokers [sic] had similar blood concentrations of VOCs.” archpublichealth.biomedcentr… In adult COPD smokers: “Diastolic blood pressure and airway resistance improved after e-cigarette use.” (short term study) psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d…

My good friend @phil_w888 posted dozens of studies showing 'flavor' prohibitions increase use of deadly cigarettes, esp. among young adults. (own-goal for Tobacco Control) What about e-cigarette taxes? Coercive taxes imposed to protect teens. Do they? @mikepesko THREAD 👇