How about the medical mafia stay OUT of the world's markets! STOP using our uneducated elected officials against us! We're on to this, and physicians really should educate THEMSELVES, follow the money. If ordinary citizens who number in the millions can figure this out, so can the white coats. It goes right back to a brilliant marketing scam for big pharms own nicotine!

How can delegates to the World Medical Association be so ignorant of the published research on the relative risks of smokeless tobacco products compared with smoking? Lee and Hamling found that, for studies published since 1990, the RR for smokeless use was 1.28 (CI = 0.94-1.76). This means that no significant oral cancer risk has been detected in users of modern smokeless tobacco products.

Why don't they know that switching to a smokeless product is much more effective at helping smokers stop using the deadliest form of tobacco? Switching as a method for achieving smoking abstinence works well in countries where smokers are told the truth about relative risks--for example Ranstrom and Foulds reported that 66% of Swedish men who used snus as their quit method achieved lasting success. In the U.S. where the government and anti-smoker organizations promote the lie that all forms of tobacco carry equal risk, smokers are not interested in switching.

The AMA and WMA likes to pretend this means that all smokers will quit all forms of tobacco in the near future, but the fact is that most just keep smoking until serious permanent damage sets in. The success rates for government-approved smoking cessation treatments are 7%.

Electronic cigarettes, too, have much higher success, helping a minmimum of 31% of consumers to become abstinent from smoking (Siegel). Several studies show that over 90% of users report improved lung function and elimination of wheezing and coughing. Many electronic cigarette consumers tried 10 times or more to quit using the approved smoking cessation treatments.

There is no evidence that quitting all use of nicotine brings any additional health improvements beyond those engendered by abstinence from smoking.

The WMA is pursuing a course of action to keep smokers on the wheel of misfortune. Smoke, use approved treatments, quit for a while; repeat ad infinitum. Who does this help? It certainly doesn't help the health of smokers.

Some have become so concerned with sterilizing our environments that the decrease in the number of smokers has increased the incidence of chilhood asthma by 500%. Coincidence? Not. The revelation that tobacco is good for you is stymied by the pharmaceutical industry’s plan to substitute the natural and relatively inexpensive tobacco plant with their overpriced and ineffective nicotine replacement therapys. Reported in non-mainstream media: An Owensboro bioprocessing group is working on a new vaccine for the human papillomavirus that’s made with a tobacco protein. Smoking lowers Parkinson’s disease risk. Severe Gum Recession, Less Of A Risk For Smokers. Twin Study Supports Protective Effect of Smoking For Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease Is Associated With Non-smoking. Smoking protects against Alzheimer’s Disease, Smoking protects against Ulcerative Colitis. Children of mothers who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day tend to have lower odds for suffering from allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, allergic asthma, atopic eczema and food allergy, compared to children of mothers who had never smoked. Kids of smokers have LOWER asthma! ‘Villain’ nicotine slays TB. Carbon Monoxide May Alleviate Heart Attacks And Stroke – Carbon monoxide is a by-product of tobacco smoke. Smoking Prevents Rare Skin Cancer. Smoking Reduces The Risk Of Breast Cancer. Nitric oxide mediates a therapeutic effect of nicotine in ulcerative colitis. Alzheimer’s Disease Is Associated With Non-Smoking. Tourette’s Syndrome, even schizophrenia and cocaine addiction are disorders that are alleviated by tobacco. Big pharma knows all of this, it’s all about wiping out the competition and money!

When did your anti-smoking campaign become an anti-tobacco campaign? Was it when people who stopped smoking using non-pharmaceutical products cut into your bottom line? The harm is from the SMOKE. Whether it comes from burning tobacco, wood, fields, or fuels (internal combustion engines). So smokeless products are (by definition) an improvement in healthy living. The tobacco industry is not promoting electronic cigarettes. People use them as an alternative to smoking, and in so doing they STOP smoking, something they were unable to do with the ineffective pharmaceutical products previously available. This really is not complex, just simple logic. Your association should be ashamed that they are not embracing harm reducing smokeless products.

If the WMA cared at all about the health of mankind they would be encouraging smokers to switch to smokeless tobacco products. The studies have already been done which prove conclusively that smokeless tobacco products are much, much safer than smoking. Electronic cigarettes in particular have helped millions to completely quit smoking. For decades smokers tried the useless patches, gum and prescription meds in an effort to quit. Electronic cigarettes should be embraced and promoted by any medical professional. Not likely to happen though, is it? Not much money to be made from a healthy population.

I challenge Dr. Ardis Hoven to present proof that these products are being marketed to anyone under the legal smoking age. Name the tobacco companies that are doing so. Show us the examples. The US Master Settlement of the states' lawsuits against tobacco companies prevents tobacco companies from taking any action to advertise their products to children. State and Federal laws prohibit sales to children. Dr. Hoven has made very serious accusations. If he has any proof, he should report those companies to the state Attorney General where the crime was committed.

I also challenge Dr. Hoven to present data showing the age brackets of the customers purchasing these products. We have data showing that 86% of electronic cigarette consumers are over age 30, with 31% over age 55. All previously smoked, and 91% had attempted to stop smoking before trying e-cigarettes, with 67% trying four or more times and 21% trying 10 times or more. I am 65 years old, smoked for 45 years, and fall into the "tried 10 or more times to quit" group. Thanks to switching to an electronic cigarette, I have been smoke-free for over two years.

Millions of e-cigarettes have been sold since 2004, and there have been no deaths and no serious adverse events reported. As a result, people like Dr. Hoven have no facts to support for their campaign to rid the world of all the alternatives to smoking that could reduce risks of smoking-related diseases by up to 99%. So they must resort to propaganda and truth-bending.

The WMA should stop to recall the oath that they swore on becoming doctors. First do no harm.

I would also love to hear Dr. Hoven's explantion of how smokers will be harmed by switching to tobacco products that do not deliver tar, carbon monoxide, particulates and thousands of chemicals created by the process of combustion.