American Cancer Society Rep lies about Cole-Bishop Amendment to FDA e-cig regulations by Matt Rowland

In a recent letter to the editor of Florida’s Bradenton Herald, a representative of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network issued a few rather startling statements. Her name is Nancy Ambrose, and although she is identified as merely a volunteer, the letter was still published for the entire world to see by an otherwise reputable news organization.

Among the many false statements and outright lies of Ms. Ambrose, she confuses the tobacco industry with the vaping industry, fabricates a new definition of the Cole-Bishop Amendment almost out of thin air, and claims that e-cigs are responsible for 14,500 deaths in Florida.

The very first line of the letter to the editor reads,

“Senator Nelson, you need to stand up to the tobacco industry.”

Now, this would be perfectly acceptable if she had not immediately launched into a terrible tirade about non-tobacco-related products. In the second paragraph, she begins discussing what can only be assumed to be the proposed Cole-Bishop Amendment to the FDA e-cig regulations, although she seems to be completely unaware of its name. For a representative of the American Cancer Society, she needs to do her research.

According to Ambrose, the Cole-Bishop Amendment will,

“...strip (the) FDA’s authority to review new products, ones becoming increasingly popular with youth, like e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah.”

Wrong again. The Cole-Bishop Amendment would do no such thing. It is a piece of proposed legislation that would only move forward the predicate date of February 15, 2007 to the current day. All other products released to market after the new date would still be subjected the FDA million-dollar approval process.

Further in the letter, Ambrose states,

“Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death nationwide and this year alone, it is estimated that 14,500 cancer deaths in Florida can be directly attributed to it.”

While this statement may very well be “technically” true, Ambrose is cleverly including a statistic that relates to tobacco-related deaths right in the middle of her rant about e-cigs and the Cole-Bishop amendment. Nice try, Ms. Ambrose and the American Cancer Society. But we’re on to you!

Perhaps one of her more outrageous statements is the one below:

“Senator Nelson, I urge you not to fall for the industry’s latest trick to avoid critical FDA oversight…”

Latest Trick, Ms. Ambrose? It appears as if the trickery shoe is on the other proverbial foot. The vaping industry has been reading falsified news reports like these for several years now, and we have been kind…until May 5, 2016. That’s when the FDA e-cig regulations were officially announced. Get ready, Ms. Ambrose. Charlatans like you now going to be publicly exposed for your intentionally misleading statements and devious endeavors of deception.

(Related Article: CONGRESS SAVES VAPING BY PASSING FDA AMENDMENT)