Good News For Vapers From the National Institute for Healthcare Excellence

Good News For the Global Vaping Community

Ready for some good news for vapers? If you're an ex-smoker who has made the healthy switch to e-cigs get ready to have a NICE day. Research and studies about the health benefits of "nicotine without smoke" are continuing to pile up and the latest evidence will reassure you that you've made the right move to leave the tar-encrusted, cancerous world of combustible tobacco behind you.

In the click-baiting, hot-button world of the internet, where misinformation about vaping and e-cig use abounds, the positive news from the United Kingdom's NICE is a breath of fresh air for all of us in the vaping community. So grab your best box mod and fill the tank with your favorite Velvet Cloud VG e-liquid, put your feet up, and settle in for a pleasant read. First, we'll check out the good news from NICE, take a look at the panic about teen vaping along the way, then we'll all have a good laugh about some of the anti-vaping hysteria making the online rounds this summer.

E-cig Recommendations From NICE

"The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care." That's the stated mission for this institution in the UK, and the dedicated e-liquid artisans at Velvet Cloud salute their honesty in promoting e-cigs as an effective quit-smoking tool.

To see such transparency and respect for the facts is encouragement we all needed as we face off against the tidal wave of anti-vaping propaganda surging around the internet these days. NICE provides healthcare guidance based on "maximized use of evidence" and up-to-date policies, publications, and procedures.

NICE issued a guideline last March of 2018 titled "Stop Smoking Intervention and Services". In their informative guide in section 1.5, the NICE research committee offers guidance on the use of E-cigarettes to stop smoking combustible tobacco products, and the institute makes clear the reasons for their recommendations including:

The evidence indicates that e-cigs are substantially less harmful than traditional smoking.

Many people have found that e-cigs are helpful to quit smoking cigarettes.

Tobacco smokers should not be discouraged from using e-cigs for smoking cessation based on evidence from 2 United Kingdom reports including the results of studies from Public Health England as well as the Royal College of Physicians.

Vaping Recommendations From the Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians didn't pull any punches when they examined the hard facts in their study "Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction". At the top of the list of their key recommendations, they state "Smoking is the biggest avoidable cause of death and disability, and social inequality in health, in the UK." Here on the other side of the Atlantic smoking-related diseases affect 16 million Americans causing 480,000 deaths per year, with 41,000 due to second-hand smoke, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

We'd like to point out here that there is no such thing as "second-hand vapor" risk. Being in the same room with a VG e-juice vaper is equivalent to being in the kitchen with a boiling tea kettle. But getting back to our classroom at the Royal College of Physicians.

The esteemed doctors follow up by acknowledging that the provision of nicotine delivered free of the harmful components of tobacco smoke can prevent the majority of harmful hazards caused by smoking. The physicians noted that health hazards from vaping are "unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco" and even that minimum risk of long-term hazards (if any) will be reduced as e-cig technology advances and improves.

The Royal College of Physicians was also quick to put a dunce cap on the prevailing internet hysteria that e-cigs and vaping might be a gateway to tobacco smoking for youngsters, stating:

"The available evidence to date indicates that e-cigarettes are being used almost exclusively as safer alternatives to smoked tobacco, by confirmed smokers who are trying to reduce harm to themselves or others from smoking, or to quit smoking completely."

And that segues nicely into our next story which comes to us from a delightful Forbes article by Sally Satel who specializes in posts about "issues at the intersection of medicine and culture." Sally's title doesn't pull any punches either:

While you'd never know it from her unpretentious byline, Sally Satel is superbly qualified to provide the thought leadership so sorely missing in the public debate about vaping. Sally is a psychiatrist specializing in addiction medicine and a lecturer at the Yale University of Medicine. In her article she spotlights the moral panic being created by the mainstream media.

As the author of Brainwashed - The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience, Dr. Satel is quite adept at debunking the type of deceptive pseudo-science which we now see deployed by anti-vaping activists. And while we happen to be on the topic of JUUL...

Why JUUL May Not Be So Cool

In our recent blog post, we explored the JUUL phenomenon, the popular e-cig which makes up 55% of the vaping market. While the artisans at Velvet Cloud are happy to see the dent which JUUL has made in Big Tobacco's customer base by attracting folks to the healthier vaping option we must point out that JUUL is not the healthiest method for sustained worry-free vaping. For the smoker looking to step down his nicotine intake while saving a few bucks, JUUL's tiny disposable e-cigs are certainly not a solution to be pursued.

But we have other reasons for pointing out JUUL's shortcomings aside from the fact that the price is 13 times higher than Velvet Cloud's vegan-friendly, high VG e-juices. JUUL pods contain an astounding 50 mg of nicotine per .7 ml pod, equivalent to smoking an entire pack of tobacco cigarettes, and there is no choice concerning that intense nicotine dosage.

For smokers looking to step down from their nicotine addiction, JUUL may be more harmful than beneficial. Open bottle vaping e-liquids are a much better option, and high VG e-juices are the best option of all. At Velvet Cloud, all of our 60 ml unique e-juice blends are available with your choice of nicotine content from 12, 6, right down to 0 mg. But we have one other objection to JUUL.

JUUL uses a PG base for their e-juice, propylene glycol. At Velvet Cloud, our artisan blenders have a rule that "nothing weird" makes its way into our vegan-friendly, GMO-free, gluten-free e-liquids. In our view, PG certainly qualifies as "something weird", and any vaper seeking a worry-free vaping experience should avoid JUUL pods or any other e-juice with high PG content.

PG e-liquids can cause allergic reactions in 1 out of 10 people with debilitating symptoms including a sore throat, headache, and nausea. As one PG vaper discovered PG intolerance may not occur right away, but symptoms can occur suddenly, even after 12 months of symptom-free PG vaping. Adam Winter of vapinghardware.com writes about his firsthand PG vaping experience, "If I so much as look at PG the wrong way, I get a nasty red rash which spreads across my upper body and face, coupled with swollen gums and VERY dry skin."

That's why all of our uniquely blended Velvet Cloud e-juices are high VG, all-natural vegetable glycerin, with no PG or any other weirdness. The only thing to spread across your face is a smile as you immerse yourself in a worry-free Velvet Cloud.

Overcoming Media Bias Against Vaping

As Dr. Sally Satel so eloquently points out in her article, the "panicky coverage" from the anti-vape crusaders has gone so far now that it's beginning to backfire. When CNN's anti-vaping minions totally ignore the evidence and wonder publicly if vaping could be the "health problem of the decade" while the NY Times chimes in with hysterical headlines such as "I Can't Stop': Schools Struggle with Vaping Explosion", red flags are raised in the minds of even the most casual observer.

Fortunately cooler heads are beginning to prevail. "Counterfactual" is an online compilation debunking the myths and misguided methods of the anti-vape crusaders. The site is dedicated to "analytical advocacy – getting beyond the rhetoric of campaigners". We were happy to see Counterfactual take on the rhetoric against vaping in their article spotlighting just how the US media is losing its mind over vaping.

Counterfactual also brings us some good news from down under, reporting on an Australian MP (member of Parliament) and his dissenting report on the vaping prohibition debate. The report submitted by Andrew Laming starts off with the common sense statement, "Life is short and shorter for smokers, just legalize vaping".

Check out the article at Counterfactual "Ten perverse intellectual contortions: a guide to the sophistry of anti-vaping activists" for a good analysis of just how anti-vaping activists define sophistry with their "clever but false arguments with the intent of deceiving."

Just reading the table of contents for the Counterfactual article is an all too rare dose of common sense. Sections include exposures of popular anti-vaping strategies such as "Playing dirty with science", and "Claiming safe products lead to more harm". The post even torpedoes efforts to play the all too common "we must protect the children" card in the section titled "The cultivation of tactical moral panics through fears about children".

For US vapers, the surge of common sense from the UK and Australia gives us hope that our own regulatory agencies and political leaders will gain the insight to overcome the media bias which is now running amok in our own society. Misreporting on vaping, the most used and effective quit-smoking tool available worldwide, truly is a perverse intellectual contortion.

Good Vaping News at US News

We're hoping that 2018 is the year when the US media finally comes to its senses about vaping and this recent report from US News and World Report is a sign that despite all the anti-vaping hype, the true facts will prevail. Thankfully, US News provided a synopsis of the recent study from none other than the National Academy of Sciences titled "The Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes". Otherwise, we'd all have to shell out $99.99 to get a peek at the venerable Academy's e-book.

While US News still lacks the backbone to fly completely in the face of their anti-vaping media contemporaries, they do concede that "the National Academy of Sciences confirms that despite the opposition to vaping by many anti-tobacco groups and state health departments, use of these products is much safer than smoking, and there are no known long-term health effects associated with vaping."

Then they immediately hedge their bets by leading off the following paragraph with a disclaimer saying "This does not mean of course that vaping is safe", before moving on to report the facts which all of us in the Velvet Cloud community have been aware of for years such as improvements in respiratory function for those with asthma or COPD, and that "switching from smoking to vaping reduces health risks across the board".

Well, duh, we've been saying that since we founded Velvet Cloud to provide the healthiest vaping e-liquids to help smokers make the switch way back in 2011. Good thing we didn't spring for that $100 bucks. When it comes to healthy vaping we already wrote that book.

So what's hot in vaping news this summer? As promised we'll all have a laugh at the latest media shenanigans whenever vaping is involved. How's this for a headline? Sadly, a search for "vaping news" just might bring up something like this...

Vapezilla, Vapenstein, and E-Cigosaurus Rex Devastating Planet Earth!

The anti-vaping media blitz is nothing new to those of us in the vaping community, but lately, in the trend which scapegoats and demonizes vaping and e-cigs, even the sky is not the limit. A quick Google search for "vaping news" this summer shows just how prominently the anti-vaping propaganda has soared. From clickbait websites like the Guardian, to "respectable" media institutions such as the BBC, the temptation to cash in on the hot-button SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords of "vaping" and "e-cigs" is irresistible.

As we wrap up the good news for Velvet Cloud vapers, we feel compelled once again to confront the tidal wave of misinformation and media bias out there threatening our beneficial industry. We'll take this opportunity to go beyond the hysterical headlines and debunk the biased articles which lie beneath the bold print.

The hot topic in this steamy summer of 2018 is a perfect example of anti-vaping hysteria running sky-high. We'll start off with the copilot who just might redefine the term "cloud chasing" for vapers around the world.

The E-Cig That Ate Air China Boeing 737!

You might laugh at our tongue-in-cheek header here, and perhaps have a jovial SMH moment, but that might as well be the headline for the hot story dominating the vaping news at the time of this writing. Sadly, it's not so far-fetched as it seems when you take a look at the real headlines popping up so prominently on the SERP, Google's Search Engine Result Pages after a simple query for "vaping news".

Air China Vaping! : Pilots Fired Over E-Cigarette Emergency! - BBC News

Air China Pilots Fired After Vaping Sparks Mid-Air Emergency! - The Guardian

Air China Flights Cut Over Vaping Pilot Emergency! - Japan Today

We'll save you some time here, as all three stories are covering a non-event which turns out to be quite underwhelming. All the fuss occurred when an Air China copilot mistakenly switched off the Boeing 737's air conditioning system, an error committed when he actually intended to switch off the cockpit fan while vaping.

Apparently, the obviously incompetent pilot didn't want his "smoke" to find its way into the passenger compartment. Whether he's a vaper or not, if he can't distinguish between the many switches in a Boeing 737 cockpit, he has no business riding shotgun up there. If the human error had been caused by a Starbucks' almond milk pumpkin latte spilled in his lap we wouldn't expect this to be a news item at all. But since vaping is obscurely involved the media jackals are cut loose.

The reports winging their ominous way around the globe erroneously refer to "e-cig smoke", conveniently failing to observe that e-cigs don't produce smoke as combustible tobacco does. E-cigs produce VAPOR. That's why it's called VAPING, rather than "e-smoking".

In any case, when the air conditioning system is switched off in a Boeing 737, cabin pressure drops abruptly and the oxygen masks drop down. This leads to the jet making an automatic descent to breathable altitudes. The Air China jet descended to 10,000 feet according to the Guardian blurb, verified by the passengers who apparently have convenient access to individual altimeters along with onboard movies on all Air China 737 flights. The crisis was narrowly averted how? By switching the air back on and resuming normal flight operations.

Facts don't deter the cub reporters of the media from firing up the slovenly copy lying under their Jimmy Olsen headlines though. You'll notice that all three stories love to exploit the heart-pounding word "emergency". If you can work those red hot "vaping" and "e-cig" keywords into your Google-friendly header you'll be guaranteed to get some more of those coveted clicks. Add "mid-air" to the mix and you're sure to attract the rubbernecking demographic to your paltry piece of media fluff.

The Guardian adds fuel to the fire with "vaping sparks mid-air emergency", and the BBC coins the term "e-cigarette emergency". At a glance, the uninformed reader might think the pilot has tossed a smoldering e-cig out of the cockpit window where it fouled the jet's turbine causing the Air China jet to plummet to near oblivion. Or those mysterious "vaping sparks" blinded the pilots to the point where they couldn't avoid a mid-air collision.

Avoiding E-Cig Emergencies at Velvet Cloud!

For those of us in the informed Velvet Cloud vaping community, we can certainly identify with an "e-cig emergency". That's what happens when you run out of your favorite Velvet Cloud Max VG e-liquid. If you're experiencing your own e-cig emergency we can help. Velvet Cloud is ready to ship all orders over $35.00 free, so click here to get the healthiest high VG e-liquid for the healthiest vaping worldwide.