Charles A. Gardner, PhD
@ChaunceyGardner
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Developmental Neurobiologist. 25 yrs in global health, working in govt, UN multinationals, diplomacy and philanthropy. Evidence always wins... eventually.
New York, NY, USA
Joined January 2018
ONE-PAGE POLICY BRIEF.Summary: smoking kills people; #SaferNicotine helps smokers quit; US teen #vaping has dropped 50%; teens do far more harmful things far more often. And #SaferNicotine taxes and prohibitions protect cigarette sales and cause deaths.
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Reprehensible! I am an ex-smoker. I quit by switching to e-cigarettes. Others quit with nicotine patches, gum or snus. U-Haul will no longer hire any nicotine user, including ex-smokers who quit by switching to vastly safer products - even a nicotine patch. BOYCOT @uhaul.
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@bigcontentguy Teen use of Zyn is nearly nil. Almost all its sales are to adults. And there is no biologically plausible reason to think that Zyn is any more harmful than nicotine patches or nicotine gum, which teens don't use. Why crack down on something that isn't causing any harms?.
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So let's assess. Dozens of US drug busts for bootleg cannabis vape oils over the past 3 months. Testing shows vitamin E acetate, pesticides & fungicides (one which breaks down to cyanide). 87% of lung illnesses ADMIT using THC. @CDCgov still confused.
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US VAPERS.Flavor bans are NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. If they do go into effect, DO NOT mix tobacco or unflavored vape liquids with commercial flavorings (e.g. from grocery stores). Find expert advice. Do not go back to smoking. I'm telling you this because @CDCgov won't.
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@TheAthletic 40 year of epidemiological studies from Sweden show #snus has no health risks at all. It does not cause cancer, heart or lung disease. So what the hell are you smoking?.
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MY father died 7 years ago from COPD after smoking 2 packs a day for most of his life. If I could go back in time and hand him an e-cigarette, I believe he would be alive today. For those of us who have experienced death from smoking, this is very very personal.
My grandmother died of lung cancer, then 2 weeks later my mom died of COPD. Both were cigarette smokers. You @realDonaldTrump are pretty much saying that is ok. I wish #vaping had been around to help them. I smoked for 26 years and vaping works. #vapingsavedmylife #ivapeivote.
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Many, if not most, adult vapers choose to taper down nicotine over time. I'm not sure why, but they do. Heroin users all tend to go the opposite way. So much for "as addictive as heroin." That has ALWAYS been BS.
If nicotine in vapes is so addictive, how come it’s standard practice (in our clinical experience) for users to comfortably titrate down? We never see people transitioning to stronger liquid once they’ve got the strength right. Yet the ‘addiction’ thing’s become a given #madness.
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@WHO Please provide peer-reviewed evidence for this claim that vaping causes seizures "typically within 24 hours.". If you cannot do this, then please delete your tweet. NOTE: I have searched the literature and cannot find one study showing higher risk of seizures.
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@greentexts_bot It's weird. Public compassion for people who use traditional cigarettes is now FAR lower than for people who use opioids, alcohol, cannabis. .
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(1).Updating this thread: Anti-vaping organizations are the ONLY entities advertising nicotine vapes ("e-cigarettes") to teens. First example:.@truthorange @truthinitiative
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@SecAzar @POTUS @FDACommissioner Well. Then we'll know whether a flavor ban reduces teen vaping. Good, because right now it's just a guess since there is no data showing such a ban will accomplish its stated goal. It's an assumption that infantilizes teens and ignores 13.8 million US adult vapers.
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In future, when trying to deceive the public, please declare your massive conflicts of interest. "In the first two quarters of 2019 alone, the American Lung Association received $182,000 from Pfizer, the maker of Chantix, a smoking cessation drug. ".--@mbsiegel.
While the e-cigarette industry tells smokers falsely that switching to their products is safer and can help them quit, we are urging the urging smokers to “Quit, Don’t Switch.”
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@peachcrises Alcohol kills 178,000 Americans every year according to the CDC. Cigarettes kill 480,000/year. If death is the measure, cigarettes are 2.7x more "disgusting.". Are nicotine vapes less "disgusting"? In 20 years of use, no one has ever died from inhaling nicotine vapor.
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Wait. What? US public health officials have told me for 3 months that e-cigarettes caused this sudden outbreak of lung illnesses. You mean @CDCgov finally discovered that all victims used unregulated bootleg THC oils rather than legal FDA-regulated e-cigarettes? I'm shocked.
The deaths and lung illnesses being associated with #vaping have nothing to do with legal nicotine e-cigarettes.
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@YSLstandards It's pretty simple. Adult smokers began shifting to #SaferNicotine vapes in ~2010. As with all adult products, some teens started using them too. That blew a gasket in the brains of everyone in the field of Tobacco control. So they started *pushing* disinfo about ecigs.
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@ATLUncensored Perhaps tazing a teen for using a product that is >95% safer than smoking, in an outdoor area, is evil, insane, outrageous and overkill. But that's just my personal opinion.
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News alert: I assume @CDCDirector will move quickly to advise all Americans not to eat cookies. ANY cookies.
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Your utter lack of empathy toward 3.3 million adult smokers who have quit by vaping, 5 million more adult vapers on the journey to quit, and 36 million US smokers, is reprehensible. Talk to an adult vaper. They are not corporations. They are PEOPLE.
Calling them "vaping advocates" is misleading. They are corporations. We must stop repeating the lie that vaping is better than smoking cigarettes. It's not & in @OversightDems we learned that @JUULvapor targeted young people w/ flavoring. @ParentsvsVape .
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Happy to distinguish British Lung Association evidence-based recommendations from @LungAssociation lies. Let me make this very clear. The British Lung Association just called ALA a liar. Which they are. #QuitLying indeed.
We welcome this review from PHE and the ongoing research into the use of e-cigarettes👇 E-cigarettes can be an effective way for people to quit smoking when used alongside behavioural support.
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Strange that @CDCgov has not updated this graph since 2015. They must be busy, or no longer care about teen smoking. As a good citizen, I decided to help them. The take home message: Teens should not vape nicotine, but it's obviously not a gateway to smoking.
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USA.The #VapeFam has a friend in Congress. California Congressman @Rep_Hunter buys his ‘vape juice’ from reputable dealers. Says, “I am vaping,” and “bans by some states are misguided, since users are primarily getting sick after using black market THC.
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@JeromeAdamsMD Dr. Adams: This behavior is not acceptable to 99% of the adult vaping community. Courtesy and EVIDENCE should carry the day. Some just get carried away by the fact that the entire US health establishment now seems to be trying to kill them.
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So 29-out-of-29 victims had vitamin E acetate in their lungs. THC is soluble in oil. We KNOW Vitamin E acetate was used to adulterate unregulated bootleg THC oils. Nicotine is NOT soluble in oil. E-cigarettes are nicotine-only. Time to remove the "E" from EVALI.
CDC found vitamin E acetate, an additive in some THC-containing products, in all lung fluid samples from 29 patients w/ e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury. Avoid THC-containing products, esp from informal sources.
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If you qualify, post selfies to #OldFartsVaping, a new hashtag dedicated to discouraging under-age teen vaping. Try not to look glamorous. Men and women of all backgrounds welcome.
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@ben__sperry @realDonaldTrump @POTUS @CASAAmedia @MikeBloomberg @JUULvapor Just to clarify: I don't represent industry. And @CASAAmedia represents 3.3 million American CONSUMERS, all ex-smokers who have (1) quit smoking completely with e-cigarettes and (2) have LIVED-EXPERIENCE of health benefits. THEIR voices are never heard in this debate.
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So, here is what happens when a country promotes e-cigarettes for adult smokers. The smoking rate declines at an astonishing rate. Total nicotine use also declines. Safer nicotine vaping displaces deadly cigarettes. The US @Surgeon_General and @WHO say there is no evidence.
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Please retweet. UK, identified by @BloombergDotOrg's "Global Tobacco Industry Influence Index" as the LEAST influenced by big tobacco, has taken a stand on health benefits of e-cigarettes. US, mired in perverse incentives created by MSA payments, is headed down the wrong road.
Last week we published a blog all about #vaping and why our advice on e-cigarettes remains the same despite headlines in the US. Read it here:
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FYI, I am leaving the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. But I remain committed to #TobaccoHarmReduction and to the Foundation's mission to end smoking & toxic tobacco use. We #SaferNicotine users will eventually win this fight to save lives. I look forward to that day.#VapeFam
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OK look. Nature is one of the 2 top scientific journals on Earth. This study, published in Nature, found that people who switch from smoking to exclusive vaping are as healthy as never-smokers and never-vapers. But WAIT! There's more!!!.@alli_vapes.1/2
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Perfect analogy @NYGovCuomo: “Closing all nicotine vape shops because of deaths caused by bootleg THC is like closing down all pharmacies because of the Oxycontin epidemic.”.
Customer comment. “Closing all the vape shops because of the thc issue is like closing down all the pharmacies because of the oxy epidemic.”. #WeVapeWeVote .#VapeBan .#vaping .#vapingsavedmylife.
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Science Magazine: "New warnings about vaping issued by the @WHO have prompted strong pushback from public health experts in the UK, who charged that WHO was spreading “blatant misinformation” about the potential risks and benefits of e-cigarettes.".
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Read carefully. @CDCgov now says the "vast majority" of patients with lung illnesses "had a history of use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products that contained THC." Since e-cigarettes do not contain THC, this is a very strange formulation. Seems designed to confuse the public.
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Anti-vapers need to get this through their heads. Like popcorn lung, seizures, bad teeth and all their other ridiculous inventions, this sudden outbreak of lung injuries (after 12 years of safe ecig use) will eventually be seen for what it is. #QuitLying.
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@GovWhitmer Will you next ban flavored nicotine gum, beer and liquor? On the alcohol side note that CDC says 13.5% of US high school kids binge drink. Are you prepared for the class action lawsuit that will follow when 17% of Michigan's vapers relapse to smoking, and half of them die?
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Anti-vapers keep claiming, based on no human evidence, that e-cigarettes cause asthma. Human studies consistently show ecigs REDUCE asthma. Take that @LungAssociation. Lying to the public to push you biased blinkered views needs to stop. #QuitLying.
"Furthermore, switching from tobacco smoking to e-cigs showed a significant improvement in asthma control and quality of life, not showing, in the period studied, to affect pulmonary function tests.".
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@JeromeAdamsMD @ScherrCropper Many adult smokers start with tobacco flavor. Most transition to fruit, dessert or candy flavors that do not remind them of smoking. Forcing them back to tobacco flavor is like forcing an alcoholic, who has quit drinking, to drink only gin-flavored club soda. That's not OK. .
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Anyone who has taken Epi 101 could make this diagnosis. @CDCgov's refusal to sound public alarms over illegal unregulated THC oil vape cartridges is an appauling dereliction of duty. How can CDC ever be trusted again? How will history view this?.@CDCTobaccoFree @CDCDirector.
What the hell is going on at @CDCgov? Why do they refuse to name the products most likely to be causing these deaths? Are they hoping for 50 deaths — or maybe 500 deaths — before admitting their mistake? . Or isn’t it a mistake?.
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@HarvardHealth I demand you delete this tweet. It is truly harmful health misinformation, objectively false, and may cause some people who smoke to shun safer alternatives. Your tweet is negligent homicide.
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My neighbor smoked. Said his wife hated it, but he couldn't quit. I showed him my e-cigarette and asked "Have you tried one of these?" He has been smoke-free for 6 months now. Vaped, but no longer vapes. He just told me if I need food during #COVID19 crisis to come on over.
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When smokers switch to nicotine vapes:. Cancer risk ↓99.5%. Cardiovascular disease ↓30-40%. Lung cilia recover full function. Lung infections ↓66%. Ashtray use ↓100%.@GrimmGreen
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Important information for @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris. Smoking kills 480,000 Americans every year. 4.3 million adults have quit smoking with e-cigarettes.(CDC 2019 National Health Interview Survey). Flavors are essential for ADULT smoking cessation. Teen vaping fad just dropped 29%
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Is anyone keeping track of all of these illicit THC oil busts?. It seems obvious US health authorities know damn well what's causing vaping lung cases: They have OBVIOUSLY alerted law enforcement agencies. Yet they remain strangely silent when it comes to alerting the public.
@ChaunceyGardner @CDCgov My agency seized 5000 carts this week. I was told by our command that they were finding boxes at other busts beginning in August.
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Great new trending hashtag: #InsteadofVaping. Most recent gem from SmallTownMom: "#InsteadOfVaping my husband could go back to two packs of cigarettes per day. His COPD could return causing him to gasp for breath under the slightest exertion. Yeah, that would be fucking great!".
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THE RALLY IN DC:. The Ellipse: 1450 Pennsylvania Ave NW.November 9, 2019: 12-4pm.Forecast: Sunny but cold (dress warm!). Rally cuz #VapingSavesLives. Rally for loved ones who died from smoking. Rally to end stigma. Rally for your life!.#WeVapeWeVote.
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SURVEY FOR ADULT EX-SMOKERS WHO QUIT COMPLETELY BY SWITCHING TO VAPING. This survey covers (a) intention to quit and (b) how long it took you to quit smoking completely. QUESTION: When I tried #VapingNicotine, I quit smoking completely in the following way. .
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This is a new one. A policman tellls teens that the chemicals used in fireworks are also in e-cigarette vapor. Add THIS to the list of things-that-people-who-have-no-idea-what-they're-talking-about use as lies to scare teens. NO TEENS SHOULD VAPE. But no adults should lie.
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Hm. You mean Colorado state health officials actually understand what's causing the lung illnesses? Knock me down. They should tell @CDCgov.
COLORADO VAPING: Colorado marijuana regulators are finalizing a ban on certain additives in cannabis vape products in response to the spread of a lung disease linked to e-cigarettes and marijuana vape pens.
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THC: Lipophilic (dissolves in oil).Nicotine: Hydrophilic (dissolves in water).US lipoid pneumonia cases (oil in lungs).@CDCgov still puzzled over the cause
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ONE-PAGE POLICY BRIEF (referenced).#Smoking kills.#SaferNicotine saves lives & helps smokers quit.Teen #vaping has plummeted.Teens do far more harmful things. far more often.#SaferNicotine bans & taxes protect big tobacco's main cash cow: Cigarettes.
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Nicotine lozenges help smokers quit. Fruit, mint and menthol flavors. Literally: A candy. Nicotine gum helps smokers quit. Fruit, cinnamon, mint and menthol flavors. Literally: A candy. Why is there no tobacco flavor? Because no smoker would use them. @FDATobacco
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When I advocated for condoms, for safer sex, no one accused me of working for Big Condom. It just made good public health sense. But when I advocate for #SaferNicotine vapes, I am accused - wrongly - of working for Big Tobacco. #HarmReduction denial tactics are very very ugly.
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MONEY OFFER. 68 million adults on Earth use #SaferNicotine vapes to avoid toxic forms of tobacco. Adults have been using these gizmos for 20 years now. I will pay $100 to anyone who can provide confirmed proof of one (even one) death ever caused by inhaling nicotine vapor.
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Only big tobacco vapes have any chance of paying for all the research needed to jump through FDA hoops to get approval. @FDATobacco is now actively working to support big tobacco and kill its competitors.
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@HarvardHealth This is a myth. It has been debunked a million times by experts. It is reprehensible that you are spreading this myth. And doing so with no thought to how many smokers may see "Harvard Health" and think it's true, and continue smoking. which actuall IS harmful to health.
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Just to be clear: Everyone pushing for a flavor ban is pushing to make e-cigarettes less effective for smoking cessation.
New study indicates that people using mint/fruit flavored ecigs have better success at quitting smoking. Authors suggest that banning flavors may diminish the effectiveness of ecigs as a cessation tool. study here
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Reprehensible reporting by @jbursz. "THC" does not even appear in it. 87% of lung illnesses report using street-bought THC oils. Presumably the other 13% reluctant to admit it. Journalists have an obligation to inform, especially on health risks.
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