Four poor lies presented arguing for strict e-cigarette regulation

Tom K. Grimsrud

Tore Sanner

Thought I'd share some news from the ongoing e-cigarette debate here in Norway today. Remember our friends Sanner and Grimsrud that recently published an article in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, in an attempt to convince politicians and medical professionals that e-cigarettes are the devils work and needs to be regulated to death? Well, now they're apparently trying to target the public with their lies and misinformation. They've published an article in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten's readers options section titled "Four good reasons to regulate e-cigarettes strictly" (Google translation is not that good, but you get the main points). 

There is relatively little and uncertain evidence of the usefulness of electronic cigarettes, while the indications of the potential hazards are numerous.

Yup, this is actually the ingress of their article, and it gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect from the rest of it: lies, lies, lies. They've pretty much decided to turn reality upside down and publish it as truth. I'll skip to their four "good" reasons:

1. "The use of e-cigarettes can normalize smoking and cause the decline in the proportion of smokers who quit. Many think it is worrying that users of e-cigarettes also recruited among never smokers and former smokers."

- Yeah, right... where do I start? First of all smoking is still pretty normal. Stop telling people that it's not. This is of course reality upside down. Vaping will normalize quitting, and eventually it will denormalize smoking. Then there is the fact that Sanner and Grimsruds biggest hero, Stanton Glantz, recently showed us that the quit-ratio has increased since e-cigarettes came along. Finally, their own sources (which they used in the article I mentioned in the beginning), this ASH-report to be specific, tells us that recruitment among never smokers is negligible. So, not a single true word in reason #1 there.

2. Among the never smokers that the e-cigarette appeals to, it is particularly many young people. If e-cigarettes are freely accessible, we can get a significant increase of young users with nicotine addiction and behaviour similar to smoking.

- Same lie as the first one actually. They keep saying that e-cigarettes appeal to never smokers, but again, it turns out it is not. But this one also reveals Sanner and Grimsruds real problem with vaping: behaviour similar to smoking. 

3. There is a danger of double use by enabling users to continue or just cutting down on the traditional cigarettes, and using e-cigarettes as in addition to this, believing that it is beneficial. However, only full cessation seriously reduces disease risk. Unless e-cigarettes are a step towards becoming completely tobacco free, like nicotine patches and chewable tablets are, the e-cigarette is unlikely to have any appreciable effect on disease risk.

- There are millions of people that have started out as double users before quitting completely. Some vapers might never quit completely, true, but that is not a good reason to deny people the option to try, now is it? They are trying to make it look like the e-cigarettes keeps these people smoking, which doesn't make sense at all to anyone who have tried vaping. In fact, try to google "vaping accidental quitter", and you'll find that a lot of people actually plan on double use, using e-cigs for situations where they're not able to smoke, but they end up quitting completely instead. Also, notice that Sanner and Grimsrud are recommending patches and tablets now... so maybe the nicotine isn't their problem anyway, maybe it's still that dreaded behaviour similar to smoking?

4. Although nicotine itself is not considered carcinogenic, recent studies suggest that it may contribute to cancer development and worsen the severity of cancer. Users of tobacco products such as cigarettes and smokeless tobacco have reduced efficacy of cancer treatment, and they have a poorer prognosis. Nicotine is a likely contributing factor in this picture. It may take decades before such long-term effects of e-cigarettes can be uncovered.

- So, if it turns out that nicotine promotes cancer (which I've only seen one study done on rats indicating), why on earth would that be a reason to deny everyone that do not have cancer a fantastic opportunity to quit smoking and by that avoid cancer? Makes absolutely no sense to me. I addition to that I believe this is one of the studies that Sanner and Grimsrud usually refers to when it comes to this. Have a look at how it concludes: Although nicotine might play a role, the mechanisms warrant further investigation. The study shows that users of snus (smokeless tobacco) have a moderately increased cancer-specific mortality, but keep in mind that snus is also tobacco and this study did not investigate what could have caused the increased mortality. They merely pointed out nicotine as a possibility. If you read the whole report, or just the discussion in the end, you'll see that the study has a lot of limitations. Actually it makes a lot of sense that Sanner and Grimsrud likes this study, as it contains a lot of uncertainties, unconfirmed theories and questionable conclusions... exactly what Sanner and Grimsrud wants to base their regulation scheme on.

So, there you have it. Four poor lies presented arguing for strict e-cigarette regulations. Luckily both this last article in Aftenposten and the one from Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association have been heavily criticized in the comments section. Not only by the vaping community, but also by medical professionals and scientists who have done studies on nicotine themselves. Sanner and Grimsruds pretty weak attempts to defend themselves have also been answered and it seems like they've given up on it. It's also worth noting that these articles are published by the authors themselves in sections where the readers can express their opinions, which indicates that the publications themselves probably haven't found their articles newsworthy. It's a shame however that this isn't made clearer, especially in the last case where the target audience is the public who tends to read the headlines and possibly the ingress.  
 

Juice Review: Millionaires Menthol by Vapouriz

In addition to their US-inspired Pocket Fuel range, Vapouriz has a Premium and a Platinum range of e-juices. I guess the Platinum range is supposed to be a bit more exclusive, priced £1 higher pr. 10ml than the Premium range. They sent me one of each for review in addition to the Pink Fizz from the Pocket Fuel range. Today I'm reviewing Millionaires Menthol from the Platinum range.


Millionaires Menthol
Tested on: Kanger Sub-tank (RDA @ 0.3 Ohms, 30 Watts)

Millionaires Menthol smells like a pretty strong, icy menthol, and I guess that is what Vapouriz are aiming for as well, describing this juice as an XXL menthol not for the faint hearted. Now I've tried a few menthols, but none as strong as this one. It gives you that same icy feeling of strong menthol lozenges, the kind you still taste when you've caught a bad ass cold and all other tastes are gone. So this juice also pack quite a throat hit then. It doesn't have any twists to it, just pure menthol I guess, and if that is what you're after, this is a great option. Leaves you with the impression that you've got really fresh breath for quite a while after you've vaped it. A good choice for menthol lovers.

Thanks to Vapouriz for sending me the juice for review.

Use discount code "vapingiraffe" for 5% off

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Juice Review: Creme Anglaise by Decadent Vapours

Not long ago Decadent Vapours released a few new juices and they've asked me to review some of them. I was pretty impressed with their Djinni range og juices so of course I wanted to try these out as well. The first one I tried was a new custard flavour, Crème Anglaise. Now there has been quite a lot of fuzz about Diacetyl and Acetyl Propionyl lately, especially in custard flavours, so I asked DV a bit about this and they ensured me that all their juices are DA and AP free... they even sent me quite a few examples of lab-tests of the flavour concentrates they're using to prove it. So is it possible to make a great custard without the use of DA or AP? Let's see...

Crème Anglaise

Tested on: UD Zephyrus (0.3 Ohms, 30-35 Watts)

Smelling this juice made me think of Baileys, which I really do like to be honest. So kind of the first thing I did was to go get a cup of coffee to go with it, and I do believe that was the right thing to do. For me this juice goes extremely well with coffee, but it can also manage quite well by itself. It's just that the coffee makes it even better. Cause it is really good. And I think they've proven anyone that say you can't create a good custard without DA or AP, wrong... quite simply. DV's own description of the juice is, as usual, spot on: smooth custard, full vanilla flavour with brown sugar and some caramel. Kind of makes you think of a nice Crème Brûlée as well with the brown sugar. Definitely one of the best custards I've tried. Comes in 10 or 30ml pre-mixed, but also as 10ml concentrate. I bet this one would taste even more awesome if you let it steep for a while... problem is, once I started vaping it I had some problems putting it down so the bottle is now empty... nothing left to let steep.

Thanks to Decadent Vapours for sending me the juice for review.

Get 5% off with discount code: vapingiraffe

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Review: ONE Mod by Hana Modz

Hana Modz have been around for a while now with their quite colorful regulated box-mods. I've never owned any of the classic Hana Modz boxes, but from what I've know they've all been made from aluminum and from what I've seen on the web it's been pretty solid boxes. Quite pricy boxes as well. But now they've come up with something quite different. Although it's still a regulated box mod powered by the DNA40 chip from Evolv like we're used too from Hana Modz there are some differences, pretty big ones actually. First of all... it's made from plastic (!). This, according to Hana Modz, makes it the smallest, lightest DNA40-mod on the market. Secondly, the batteries are put in a separate case that can be detached from the main unit, and the complete kit comes with two different cases, making it possible to run with either one or two 18650 batteries. The third difference is that, at least for now, the ONE Mod only comes in two different color combinations: Black with white face and white with gray face.

Looks and feel

I have to admit I was a bit of a skeptic, I mean... plastic? And from the pictures it looks kind of ... I don't know ... cheap. It looks a bit like the battery cases don't quite line up and that the gap is uneven. But I do think Hana Modz could have done a better job on the picture cause at least the mod I have lines up quite perfectly. In my opinion it looks a lot better in real life.

When Hana Modz say it's the smallest, lightest DNA40 mod on the market, I believe them. It is extremely light, even with a battery in it. With the one battery case attached it almost feels like it's empty, which makes it really pocket friendly.

There is kind of a rubberised coating on the mod, making it feel less plastic than it actually is. I suspect it might wear off if you keep the mod in your pockets like me. Honestly I don't really care if it does, cause even if it doesn't look bad, it's not a piece of art (like some mods really are). It's made for using, not for looking at :)

There are a couple of issues with the battery cases and the lid that goes on them though. The lids are held in place by some really small tabs that kind of clicks in place. Now these will probably get a bit rounded when you put the lid on and off. On my double battery case my lid kept popping off already on one of the sides. There is barely enough room in there for the batteries so they put pressure on the lid from the inside. I tried to fix this by cutting out just a little of the plastic on the inside, making a bit more room for the batteries and that fixed the problem. However I then encountered a new problem: the battery case doesn't "click in" on one of the sides. I suspect this is because there is now not enough pressure from the inside so I've probably cut out to much plastic. In other words, for it to work properly it needs to be a pretty tight fit, but if it's to tight the lid might start popping off. Hana recommends LG batteries, but I've used VTC4s, and that may (or may not) be causing the problem (maybe the LGs have slightly thinner wrapping or something like that).

I watched another review of this mod and it was suggested there that they could have made this lid out of aluminum instead. Not sure if that would solve the problem though as the case itself would still get worn. Still, even thought it's not clicked completely in it is kind of held in place on the other side, and my single battery case still clicks in perfectly ... for now. I guess it's not that big of an issue, and I'll do some more testing with different batteries, but contacted Hana Modz about it anyway and they offered to send me a replacement lid straight away.


In everyday use

I'm not going to go into detail about the DNA40 features here. This mod of course have all of them. The mod fires quite easily, just a slight touch of the fire button. It even fires if you press below the fire button squeezing the plastic inwards a bit. So it's quite important to remember to click 5 times to lock the device when you put it in your pocket. The adjustment buttons require a bit more force.

I've found myself charging the batteries externally, alternating between the double and single case. The built in charger is a bit on the slow side but it's good to have it there just in case. Also, charging through the USB-port you don't have to take the lid of the battery case so it will probably last longer. In any case I think Hana should add a couple of spare lids in the package.

Despite the issues I described above I've found myself using the mod a lot, and I really like the feel of it. As I said it's really light and small and it is actually the only device I have that I've found myself checking different pockets for.

Conclusion

The concepts and ideas implemented in this mod is great. I love it. And the price is just $109 for the full kit, and I'd say it's worth it. There are however some issues that I think Hana should try to fix. Being made out of plastic is what makes this mod so small and cheap I guess, but it also means it's not as durable as mods made out of metal. Still I think it is worth the money, and maybe Hana Modz will come up with some improvements to strengthen the weak points a bit, making it more durable. I couldn't resist sending them a couple of suggestions on improvements :) Also I would like to see the option of buying extra battery cases.

This has quickly become my most used mod. Recommended!

Use discount code "vapingiraffe" for 5% off

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The device was sent to me at a discounted price for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Juice Review: Pink Fizz by Pocket Fuel

Pocket Fuel is Vaporiz' US-inspired exclusive range of e-liquids. From what I can see right now it consists of 2 juices, Black Jack (aniseed/licorice) and Pink Fizz (strawberry/champagne). Sounds like 2 pretty tempting combos, and Vaporiz was kind enough to send me the pink one that looks like it's aimed mainly at the female vaper segment. Oh well, I love strawberries so I'll let that one slide :)

Pink Fizz 
Tested on: Fuze dual-coil clearomizer from Vaporiz (1.6 ohms on Ego-style battery)

Opening this bottle of juice it does not smell very strong, but squeezing the bottle a bit you get a pretty fresh strawberry smell. Doesn't smell to sweet actually, and when vaping it this is confirmed. It's pretty sweet but not too sweet, and you get a quite fresh, fruity strawberry with some "fizz", just like you'd expect from the description and name. Actually the description is pretty much spot on, this is not a very complex juice with undertones of this and that. Fresh strawberries with bubbles, and a pretty fresh summer juice in my opinion. If you're tempted by the description, my guess is that you like this one.

Thanks to Vaporiz for sending me the juice for review.

Get 15% off with discount code: giraffe15 (log in to use)

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.