The Lancet has published a letter from three French academics arguing for a clampdown on e-cigarettes on environmental grounds. The authors give the game away early on by saying the quiet part out loud...
With the vape market mainly owned by the tobacco industry, it is legitimate to question whether vaping is more eco-friendly than smoking... [my emphasis]
Leaving aside the question of whether the vape market is mainly owned by the tobacco industry in reality (it isn't in the UK), the implication is that it would be illegitimate to "question whether vaping is more eco-friendly than smoking" if it was owned by someone else. Why? An environmental issue is an environmental issue, regardless of who makes the product.
Or could it be that the authors are not particularly interested in whether e-cigarettes are eco-friendly, they are just opposed to everything the tobacco industry does?
Fortunately, vape waste is a preventable environmental disaster, but for this disaster to be averted, disposable e-cigarettes must be better regulated.
'Disaster' is a bit of a strong word for vape pens going into landfill, isn't it? Still, what's the solution?
In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned flavours other than tobacco and menthol for pod or cartridge-based e-cigarettes. Unfortunately, the FDA's policy does not include disposable e-cigarettes.
Flavour bans! Of course! The very policy anti-vaping fanatics have been calling for ever since Mike Bloomberg handed out $160 million to NGOs to "fight flavoured cigarettes". What a happy coincidence that this policy will somehow make e-cigarettes more eco-friendly!
For the environmental consequences alone, this position should be re-examined.
Yeah, the environmental consequences. Sure. That's what you're bothered about.
The same people wrote a letter to the Lancet in 2018 warning about people using e-cigarettes to consume cannabis. Guys, stop going round the houses and just admit that you don't like vaping.
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