Is this Big Tobacco's death rattle?

Have a look at what Deborah Arnott says about the decline
in smoking. (Thanks to the Ashtray blog for the illustration)

Yesterday, my friends at the Ashtray blog published a great post asking "Are e-cigs leading to a drop in smoking rates?". It's not possible to prove that e-cigarettes are causing the rise in successful quit attempts we are seeing right now, but the fact that this rise seems to have started when ecig sales exploded certainly suggests it. The numbers presented in the Ashtray blog also goes a long way in disproving the gateway theory.

What really got me thinking in the article was what the tobacco marketing executive applying for a job that Smokers Angel advertised said when asked why he wanted to leave his job:

The tobacco industry is dying – everyone is leaving.

Are the lobbying for bans on open systems and the new horrible warning labels on Big Tobaccos e-cig brands really a final desperate attempt to keep their sinking ship floating? Is this the death rattle of Big Tobacco? Has this marketing executive realized that the e-cigarette revolution cannot be stopped?

I think he might have. I think what he fears is this: Even if the WHO, FDA and all the other anti-ecig organizations and people (Big Tobacco included) manages to slow down the revolution, even if they manage to ban ecigs, there will be ways for people to keep vaping and the number of vapers will increase. There will be black markets and there will be ways to avoid the bans. Because there are now huge communities perfectly capable of providing it's members with nicotine e-liquid and vaping equipments and no way to stop them from doing so. And the research will continue, and evidence will keep showing that e-cigarettes are not killing people, but saving their life. At some point the anti-ecig movement will have to pull up their white flag and admit they were wrong, and that no-one have died or gotten sick from e-cigarettes in years. It is just a matter of time and how many lives they are willing sacrifice on Big Tobaccos altar in the process. And seeing this, I don't blame the guy for wanting to get out as soon as possible.