pilot study on nicotine residues in houses of electronic cigarette users, tobacco smokers, and non s

[meow2u3]

129. Public health authorities and agencies seem to use double standards against vapor products

Condoms Vs. E-Cigs and The Public Health Double Standard

Imagine it’s 1987. The HIV epidemic is in full swing; tens of thousands of adult men and woman’s immune systems are starting to wear down. Public health is in a major crisis. They know that unprotected sex is risky with multiple partners, after all this is something that doesn’t just affect one person it affects those you have sex with, and this has facilitated a nearly meteoric rise of dying HIV patients. They also know that people being people will not just stop having sex. Not only that but human beings for the most part will not have sex with only one partner during their lifetime. They need something, anything that can help slow down this epidemic. They need a stopgap of sorts. If sex is legal and humans won’t stop having sex maybe they’ll be smarter about the sex they’ll have. Enter into the equation condoms.

Condoms aren’t entirely safe. They can break, rip, tear and they do not protect you 100%. However, they protect you better than no protection at all. Imagine now if you will that there is a public health debate (actually this existed at the time). One of the most well-known and well-respected HIV researchers is at the table. He brings up condom use and HIV. He then proceeds to say this, “We know condoms are safer than unprotected sex, but it’s not 100% safe. Wearing a condom is like jumping from a five-story building instead of a 50-foot building. Sure it’s safer but it still has risks, that is why I can not support promoting condom use for the public having sex”. Imagine if the World Health Organization released a statement saying, “Condoms have not gone through clinical trials in regards to HIV, therefore condom use is just as unsafe as sex without condoms”. Imagine if the answer to the problem of HIV was abstinence and waiting. Of course, in theory, it’s the best stance to protect yourself 100%, but in reality it doesn’t work. It’s been proven over and over again.

Thankfully, most health officials didn’t take on that stance during the HIV epidemic. They understood you had to use every tool in the toolbox to save as many human lives as possible. They understood that sex is going to happen. Sadly though there seems to be a double standard when it comes to cigarette smoking. We know that humans like to smoke. They’ve smoked different substances for hundreds of thousands of years. From cave man to billionaire, smoking has been there. Like sex with multiple partners, smoking seems to be a risk we as humans enjoy taking. For health officials, cigarette smoking is an even bigger epidemic than HIV. However, unlike with HIV many health officials around the world refuse to use every tool in the toolbox when it comes to smoking.

Case in point, e-cigs. If you ask most public health officials particularly here in the USA you’ll the same response. E-cigs are undoubtedly safer than cigarettes, they’ll usually admit that much. However, they will say we just don’t have enough information on them and they have a nagging suspicion they aren’t as safe as they appear. For public health officials the mantra ‘quit or die’ is very real. Much like the mantra of many advocates against sex education or condom distribution it’s, ‘have sex with more than one partner and risk death’. With opposition to condom use and birth control these people tend to be driven by a moral issue with sex. This type of thinking usual irks and annoys public health officials. Scientist and public health officials say abstinence only advocates can’t see the forest for the trees on this issue. People have and always will engage in risky sex.

That’s why it’s so shocking that with e-cigs the issue public health has a problem with most seems to be a moral one. These public health officials outright say they do not want to renormalize smoking. They do not want to create a new generation of smokers using e-cigs. Think about this, they’re saying they it has nothing to do with e-cigs being safe or unsafe. They simply do not want someone simply using a product for the sake of enjoyment. Sounds a little familiar to those who simply oppose sex doesn’t it?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/condoms-vs-e-cigs-public-healths-double-standard-jonathan-burger?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish

This guy just said what I've been trying in vain to explain for months: why is condom use OK among liberals to prevent the spread of STD's and HIV, but it's not OK for smokers to switch to vapor products? Tobacco control puritans are treating vapers like religious absolutist treat people who have sex for fun.