SAotD2: Inhaling the Unknown

E-Cigarettes might be unhealthy because…  ummm…  because…  Give me a minute here.

It’s not often we find two articles this bad in one day.

The premise of this little gem from the Guardian’s Tom Riddington (hey, wasn’t that young Valdemort’s name?) is that people who smoke e-cigarettes should be worried about their health because…  because…  well, no reason exactly, but you should be afraid!  It’s a pretty typical piece of fearmongering propaganda masquerading as medical advice.

Not only are these products not tested and regulated like proper medications – they are being targeted at the young.

You know you’re dealing with uninformed propaganda any time you read that e-cigarettes are bad because they contain “an ingredient found in antifreeze.”  That’s a lot like saying water is bad for you because it’s commonly used to cool nuclear power plants.  And then there’s the sensationalist “they’re going after the kids!” tactic, which Riddington doesn’t even both backing up with a single fact, or even a questionable example.  Apparently we’re to believe children are being targeted simply because Riddington says they are.

The article breaks out every rumor for the last several years of any questionable chemical that someone ever might have found in a e-cigarette, without ever directly addressing the issue of whether there are any real, legitimate health hazards.  I would assume the reason for that is because, despite all these people looking for health problems caused by e-cigarettes, nobody’s actually found any yet.

That doesn’t stop people like people like Riddington from wildly guessing, though, and what better basis is there for sound health decisions than uninformed speculation?

Watch out, e-cigarette smokers – you’re inhaling the unknown

SAotD2: Inhaling the Unknown