Worth Reading this Weekend (October 23rd)

It's Friday again and time for some new links to keep you busy reading this weekend.... just to make sure you're not bored :)

• Last week I mentioned I've been discussing regulations with Sanner and Grimsrud. One of the main points we've been discussing is nicotine. Sanner and Grimsrud claims that nicotine, by itself with no tobacco present, is highly addictive and can cause cancer. No documentation have been provided. I've written a bit about this before and I also found a couple of quite interesting articles on the subject this week here and here. 

• Dick Puddlecote has written a great post on "The Inconvenience Of Proving Harm":

So, it would appear that 'public health' has set its sights on convincing governments to ban e-cig use in public not by proving harm actually exists, but by "continued monitoring of public perception" to "guide clean air policy decisions" in favour of prohibition.

• NHS have updated the E-cig advice on their website to reflect the PHE-report: NHS Updates Ecig Advice.

• Many of you might have seen the story about a guy claiming his e-cig burned a hole in his lungs that was published here (among other places). Snopes.com was also pretty quick to cover the case... from a slightly different angle :) Dr. Farsalinos also commented on the case on Facebook: 

A case of spontaneous pneumothorax, for which SMOKING (current or past) is a risk factor, is presented as "burning hole in the lung" (a term which sounds like a joke) caused by e-cigarettes.
It is never too late to stop the misinformation.
I feel sorry for the patient, not only about his episode of pneumothorax but mostly because he is probably convinced to quit e-cigarette use and relapse to smoking!!!

• Christopher Snowdon have some words on cheese: Action on Cheese 

• And finally, a video that will make you happy: Former health committee chair Kevin Barron MP backs E-cigs

Have a nice weekend!