"Particulates" in E-cigarette vapor - another fabricated issue

If it looks the same it's the same thing right? No!

The gateway argument and the risk of life-long nicotine addiction has been the e-cigarette opponent's (and Public Health's) best friend for a while, but this might be about to change... nah... who am I kidding? They'll be best friends forever. What I mean is that it should change, cause these arguments are getting weaker every day. I've written some pieces (here and here) on nicotine lately, questioning whether this dreaded drug really is addictive, and on Sunday I wrote that one of the biggest e-cigarette opponents, the CDC, have released their latest numbers and those pretty much debunks the whole gateway theory.

So what do our dear Dr. Glantz and his friends do when the bogus arguments they keep feeding their fellow e-cigarette opponents is starting to wane? Do they change their mind and say "sorry we're out of arguments, you guys were right"? Nah... they just manufacture some new issue. This time they are concerned about "ultrafine particles" or "particulates" in e-cigarette vapor.

The really, really short version of their new issue is this: "Inhaling a lot of fine particles has been shown to be a health hazard. E-cigarettes produce a lot of fine particles". The really, really short reason this is bullshit is this: "There is a big difference between inhaling solid particles and liquid particles (that should be called droplets)". For a much longer and very good explanation I highly recommend reading Clive Bates' latest blog post. Or, if you're in a bit of a hurry, or just want a simpler version, Carl Philips has written a simple version on his blog. Actually I recommend reading both when you have the time.




photo credit: EnvironmentBlog via photopin cc