BBC R4 'You and Yours' 28/02/13

[davetherayon]

By chance this came on while I was sat in the car with a Vamo in my face : You and Yours - one of the articles, toward the end is about ecigs. It features the reception a vaper got in various places in Manchester (generally favourable) and a pretty positive reportage overall, including some good news about places that allow vaping; for instance East Midlands Trains do, so toot toot while the train toot toots! The report was marred by a series of BMA and other talking heads whose opinion boils down basically to : well, it looks like smoking so it might encourage ex-smokers to light a stinkie (doesn't make them ex-smokers does it), and well, we don't know if it's 100% safe cos we haven't done any tests, so ban it Just In Case (they haven't tested a lot of things, so ban everything that's not been tested thoroughly).

Overall the article was pretty good in showing the positive reception vaping is getting in public places, lets hope the health nazi's don't spoil it with their addiction to nicotine gum and patches 'solutions'.

[doodlebug]

I submitted a complaint to Ofcom about allowing Dr Death... sorry, Dr Nathanson to run her mouth off with no balanced opposing view represented from a suitably qualified expert (you know, an 'ex' is a has been, and a 'spurt' is a drip under pressure?):

stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-u...gramme-epg

Here's what I've submitted:

The article on electronic cigarettes featured some dangerously ill-informed statements from Dr Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association. It was littered with inaccuracies, including inaccurate and misleading statements about the safety profile of electronic cigarettes.

The BBC failed to provide any balance or challenge to Dr Nathanson's reference to debunked American testing from 2009, or the fact that her advice would lead the million UK smokers who have made the switch to ecigs to return to smoking - a shocking public health tragedy, were it allowed to happen.

As Professor John Britton told the BBC just last week:

"If all the smokers in Britain stopped
smoking cigarettes and started smoking e-
cigarettes we would save 5 million deaths in
people who are alive today. It’s a massive
potential public health prize.”

The BBC must not be allowed to broadcast such biased, inaccurate and dangerous articles with tragically ill-informed 'experts' such as Dr Nathanson.

I trust that Ofcom will ask the BBC to broadcast an apology, and to ensure balance is provided in better-informed future broadcasts.

Thank you.

Also, Matt from Gluggles sent his own in:

I am contacting you to complain about the dangerous information broadcast about electronic cigarettes on the You & Yours programme on Radio 4 on 28/2/13.

The article contained incorrect information from Dr Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association which was left unchallenged.

Her views on e-cigs run against the academic consensus, and people like Professor John Britton, who heads the Tobacco group on the Royal College of Physicians has said that an e-cig is about as harmful as a cup of coffee and can save 5 million lives in the UK alone.

The FDA study from 2009 that Dr Nathanson cited has been widely discredited - as well as the fact that e-cigs today have changed dramatically from those on sale in 2009.

This feature was dangerously misleading. If it has disuaded smokers from switching from smoking to e-cigarettes it could be responsible for them becoming seriusly ill as a result.

I hope enough vapers and public health experts will complain to the media on every occasion when this happens. They MUST report accurately, and we must hold them to it. The alternative is just too dangerous!

Cheers,

Katherine

[rojeans]

I'm looking forward to when World in action or similar do something to show up these so called professionals and the corruption that's apparent. Wile there are those like us that have a vested interest in vaping. Those against are putting lives at risk to save their own skins and income.